Religio Bibliopolae.  
In Imitation of Dr. Brown's RELIGIO MEDICI.  
WITH A SUPPLEMENT to it.  
By Benj. iBrgwater, Gent.  
LONDON, Printed for P. Smart, and are to be sold at the Raven in the Poultry. 1691.   

TO THE READER  
THE Author of this Treatise not having leisure to finish this Piece as he intended, being called aside upon unavoidable Reasons, we have been compelled to supply that Defect by another Hand, yet with all the care possibly to reach the Air, and Style of the Author, which is of that neatness and facility as must needs recommend it (were there nothing else considerable) to the taste of such an Age as this. The Method being obvious and easy, the Notions bold and intelligible, and the Whole throughout acted with such a Spirit of Life and Vigour, as certainly can never fail of acceptation with the truly Learned and Ingenious.  
Under such Prejudices do we labour, and our conceptions of Things are for the most part so irregular and monstrous, that but to attempt our Delivery, and set us free from the slavish Power of Custom and Education, wherewith we are so miserably involved, merits no small Commendation, though the Success be unanswerable to the Undertaking: But to clear our dim sight, to take the Film from our Eyes, and place us in the open Sunshine of Reason, and true Judgement; to acquaint us with the prerogative of our own Understandings, and the due liberty and freedom of using them, is an Achievement that exacts the highest Applause and Gratitude from the better and nobler part of Mankind.  
H●reby we are enabled to make a true Estimate of things, to divest them from all those foreign and spacious Accoutrements, with which Error and Mistake have clothed them. We shall then see things in their own native and naked Forms, and be able to reduce them to their true, and intrinsic Worth and Value.  
The greatest and most universal mischief Mankind suffers under, is the Delusion of a false and unrectifyed Imagination. This is, an Error, in the first Concoction, and gives a Tincture to all our Judgements, and a Bias to all the Actions of our Lives: The very Ground and Cause of all our Miscarriages. We derive false Conceptions from our Cradles, and suck it in with our Mothers Milk. Our Nurses, etc. destroy us in our very Infancy with their Tattle and Impertinence, which root themselves so deeply in our Fancies, that we can hardly, if ever, disengage ourselves from them all our Life after. Hence we contract a habit of Laziness, and become fitly disposed to take things upon Trust and Reputation, to save the Charge of a little Examination, and Study: The Spring and Rise of all our late Repentance, and Vexation.  
Now the Business of this Author, is to Instruct us how to become our own Masters, and to make use of those Faculties our Creator hath endued us with, to those Ends and Purposes for which they were intended.  
The Reader upon the first View will find this Treatise to be an imitation of that exquisite Piece of Dr. Brown, called Religio Medici, however without the least Presumption of reaching so brave an Original, though not without the hopes of very nearly Resembling him in some of his Noblest Flights and Excellencies.  
The Principal Subject of the whole is purely disputable, as being for the most part matter of Opinion, wherein it has ever been lawful to take which side we please: And though he sometimes ventures upon Mysteries of an higher nature, yet he hopes 'tis done with that Reverence and Tenderness, as may render him at least excusable in that behalf. For notwithstanding, the Expression may appear Dogmatical, the Design is wholly an Essay and Experiment, and not to be taken for an Arbitrary and Decisive Sentence of those Matters.  
I shall forestall the Readers impatience with no longer Harangue, not in the least doubting, but upon th● first reading, his consent to, and Approbation of this Treatise, will be a sufficient Justification of the Author, and his Attempt.   

RELIGIO Bibliopolae.  
THOUGH Trades (as well as Nations) have Scandals fastened upon them in the Lump, yet there are some in all Professions to whom the abusive Character is not due. Booksellers in the Gross are taken for no better than a 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 (tho' thanks to our few Kindred among the Stars, 'tis only by prejudiced men) yet among them there is a Re●ail of men who are no Strangers to Religion and Honesty. I, that am one of that Calling, ●m bold to challenge the Title of a Christian, neither am I ashamed to expose my Morals.  
I have no reason to tax my Education, or blame those who had the Care of my Juvenile Years. My Tutors were Learned and Orthodox, and made it their Business to form my Mind, and square my Soul by the best Precepts and purest Examples. Yet when I arrived at Years of maturer Judgement; I found occasion to prune myself, and lop off many Excrescencies; to wipe out the early Impressions of my Infant years, and unlearn the N●tions I sucked in with my Mothers Milk. Tho' there were no Legends in the Nursery, nor Heresies in the Schools where I was brought up: Yet my blooming Fancy was fertile in Errors, and sprouted forth in many Luxuriant Thoughts. It was the Task of my Riper Judgement to correct These, and reduce myself to the Standard of Reason and Faith.  
Having therefore got the Weather-gage of Youthful Mistakes, by diligent Scrutinies, and proper Remarks; Having put in the Balance and weighed my Native Religion with all others that are extant, I now make that the Object of my Choice, which before was only the Effect of Prepossession; and as I was listed a Soldier of Christ in my Baptism, so now I declare my sel● a Volunteer in his Service: What was then done without my Knowledge, I now ratify by my free Consent. And I resolve not to change my Banner as long as I live.  
'Tis no Solecism in Divinity to say, That the Prince of Peace is the Lord of Hosts. The Church Militant is his Army composed of many Bartalions, in different Posts, and under various Orders. So long as they all serve the great Captain of our Salvation, and practise well the Discipline of their Arms, I refuse not to give the word of Peace to any, let him be of what Company or Troop soever. The variety which we behold in the Universe is not its deformity, but its beauty. As the Eye is more ravished with a Landscape which invites it with the grateful interpositions of Hills and Valleys, Woods and champain Grounds, than if it were let out to lose itself in the Uniformity of a waste Horizon or empty Prospect. So is the truly pious Soul more surprised with the Glory of the Christian Religion when various apprehensions agree in the same substantial Holiness, (one Star differing from another in Glory,) yet all shining with a light borrowed from the same Fountain. And doubtless he is the Man who is most likely to be a Member of the Church Triumphant, who cordially embraces with the extended Arms of goodwill, who ever are dignified with the Image of Piety, tho' not distinguished with his own Superscription.  
I profess myself an impartial Lover of all good men, and do presume every man to be good till I find him otherwise. I have as little Zeal about things that are manifestly indifferent, (either pro or con) as any man in the World, for 'tis a Principle I received from my Education, that the real differences of good and intelligent People are not so wide as they seem, and that through prejudice and interest they do many times contest about words, whilst they do hearty think the same thing.  
I am not fond of the Names which distinguish one Party from another in the Church. I esteem not a man the better for being regimented in this Communion, rather than in that. And for aught I know in the Camp of God, a Reformade may be as acceptable, as in those of Men. However a Mutineer in either is odious, and to raise Factions about Religion, is to adore Mars instead of Christ, and to commence a War for the sake of Peace. I cannot approve of their bitter Zeal, who, if they cannot call down Fire from Heaven, will kindle it on the Earth against all that think not as they do. He is an ill Disputant for Christianity, who uses no other Topics than Gunpowder and Steel. The Logic of Mahomet becomes not a Disciple of Jesus; and I should make but an Hypocritical Convert, were I to be Dragooned into Religion by the Domineering Arguments of Booted Apostles.  
To persuade to Conformity by Prisons and Confiscations, is in my apprehension something like demonstrating a proposition in Euclid, or apologizing by a Beetle and Wedges, and I conceive they will equally produce their Effects; when any Mathematitian shall do the one, the Spiritual Court may perform the other. We find few edified by a Dungeon, or instructed by the spoiling of their goods. Force hath as little power on Souls as a Surgeon's Knife on the Understanding and Affections of men: Remedies must have some Analogy with the Sick and their Diseases. 'Tis sound Reason (which is of our Essence and Constitution) with some little intermixtures of Kindness and Love, that must make men Proselytes to the Church of England, or nothing.  
The use I make of this Variety in Religions is fa● different: Truth is Homogeneous, and attracts to itself all that is of its own Nature, wheresoever dispersed or separated, rejecting the rest as not pertaining to it. Thus I overlooking the Errors and Mistakes of those who differ from me, at the same time embrace their Orthodox Tenets, and shunning their Vices, I imitate their Virtues. This is to take Things by the right handle, and like the Bee to suck Honey out of every Weed. It is of the Nature of the Sun, who has commerce with many Pollutions, yet remains himself undefiled.  
I abhor that mercenary Course of joining myself with any Party of Christians that is uppermost, to abet the prevailing Faction, and assert the Opinions most in Fashion. This is to be a Weathercock in Religion, pliable to every fresh Gale of Interest. Neither on the other side do I think it good Manners or Prudence to affront the Religion of the State, and by a saucy Impertinence condemn those who worship God in the manner prescribed by the Laws of the Land. In my Travels I learned this Moderation, and he that knows not how to practise it, is not fit to stir out of his Chimney Corner. Religion does not authorise Rudeness, neither is Arrogance compatible with Devotion. It is difficult to find a Company of four or five men together, where there is not at least a Triumvirate of Religions, and he that will set up for a Dictator among them, shall have all their Forces united against himself.  
I do not value any man's Religion by his starched looks or supercilious Gravity. I hate to put on an unsociable Face, or screw myself into an ill-humoured Riddle; I do not angle for the Character of a Saint, by magisterially declaiming against the Innocent Divertisements of Humane Life, and ranking things indifferent among the greatest Crimes. Above all I cannot approve of those who are prone to fasten God's Judgements on particular Occasions, as if they alone could unlock the Secrets of the Almighty, and were the Privy-Counsellors of Heaven. No man's misfortune shall escape their Censure, but forgetting what our Saviour said of those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell, they condemn all alike, and presume to distribute the Divin● Justice by their own false Weights and Measures. I am in Love with that Saying o● Plato; There is no Envy in the Deity. Assuredly that Immense Ocean of Goodness never ceases to shower down his Favours and Blessings on all that are capable of receiving them, and he is not partial to any of hi● Creatures. Like the Sun he imparts his Influence to all the World, and if any rejoice not in his Beams, the Cloud that hind●●s them is of their own raising. Those men will hardly proselyte me, who dress the Deity in a frightful Figure, and then would persuade the World 'tis his Essential Complexion. While they exclaim against Pictures and Images, they themselves commit Idolatry: They set up an infinite Tyrant, morose, arbitrary and cruel, instead of the Original, Increated Beauty and Goodness, worshipping the Idol of their own Imagination, instead of the Indulgent Father of all things.  
I do not take Prayer to consist in babbling o'er the devoutest Collects and Orisons of the Church without a due Application of Spirit. This is the Sacrifice of Fools, without Salt or Fire; and therefore must needs be unsavoury to God. The bended Knee, submiss Looks, and even a Body prostrate to the Ground, unless accompanied with a proportionate Fervour and Humility of the Soul, are but Religious Compliments, and a Pious Banter. Such Mock-Addresses, I doubt, are not graciously received in the Court of Heaven.  
An equal dislike I have for those who offer up strange and unhallowed Flames; burning Incense, whose Composition is not warrantable; who hold not fast the Form of sound Words, but giving the Reins to their Tongue, suffer it to commit a thousand Indecencies in the Hearing of Him who made the Ear. These, as well as the Former, are guilt●●f Crimen laesae Majestatis; while they affronted Heaven with Tautologies and vain Repetitions. The one through Inadvertency, the other through Presumption. This bringing Form without Matter, That offering Matter without Form; and Both wanting the Spirit and Life of sincere Devotion. Yet I neither censure such as use an allowable Form, provided it be accompanied with attentive Devotion: and less those who address themselves to Heaven in words of their own choosing, provided it be seasoned with Discretion and a modest Sobriety of Spirit. For when a man fitly qualified, endued with Learning too, and above that, adorned with a go●d Life, breaks out into a warm and well delivered Prayer before his Sermon, it hath the appearance of a Divine Rapture, he raiseth and leadeth the Hearts of the Assembly in another manner than the most composed or best studied Form of words can ever do: And the Pray-wees who serve up all the Sermon with the same garnishing, would look like so many Statues, or Men of Straw in the Pulpit, compared with those who speak with such a powerful Zeal, that men are tempted at the moment to believe Heaven itself hath directed their words to them.  
On the other side, I think not that to be the only Authentic Prayer, which is attended with Sensual Raptures, and melting Entertainments: This is but the Smoke of Passion, and soon vanishes; a mere Vapour or Ebullition, a pleasing warmth of good Natures, and frequently the proper Result of a Sanguine Complexion.  
Prayer is the Exaltation of the Soul, the Flight of a Sublimated Spirit: It makes Man an Angel pro Tempore, while his abstracted Mind takes the Wing, and soars aloft, hover on the Borders of Paradise. He than breathes immortal Airs, burns like a Seraphim, and flames out with Holy and defaecate Fires, like the most ecstasied Orders of the Celestial Court.  
For my own part, I can Pray Kneeling, Standing, or Sitting; either at my Business, or at my Repast; with or without Words and Ceremonies. And this I take to be the only Method of complying with St. Paul's Counsel, when he bids us Pray without ceasing. A swift and Pious Ejaculation many Times does the Office of a multitude of Words (tho' the most apposite and elegant ●n Humane Language) since God understands the Dialect of the Heart as well as that of ●he Tongue, being the Architect of both.  
The Posture which Pythagoras enjoined his Disciples, when they appeared before the Gods, was not without a Mystery. He bid ●hem hold their Tongues reversed; intimating thereby that they should observe a de●out Silence in such Tremendous Company, ●nd utter no Words which were not dipped ●n the Heart. And I could wish the Advice ●f Solomon, instead of a Nosce Teipsum, were engraven on the Frontispiece of our Churches. My Son, when thou interest the House of God, let thy words be few, and be more ready to hear, than to offer the Sacrifice of Fools. In all this, I aim at a Devotion that is Masculine and Solid; Discreet and Humble, Sincere and Modest; full of Primitive Revorence, and the Fervour of the first Ages.  
In proper speaking our very silent Necessities are eloquent Prayers, and the wants which are hardest to be uttered, are such a prevailing Rhetoric with God, as oft times bring down swifter Relief from Heaven, than our loudest Litanies. Even we ourselves are more apt to dispose of our Alms to a dumb Person, who by being disabled to make his Address any other ways than by mute Signs, does by that Pathetic kind of Complaint, challenge our Charity, than to the common Beggars, who make a Trade of Haranguing People out of their Money. Indeed every Innocent Action of our Lives is a Prayer: but the more extraordinary Performances of Heroic Virtue, pierce the Clouds, storm the Regions above, and plunder Heaven it sel● (if I may so speak) of its choicest Blessings.  
As to Public Prayer, I own there is a Necessity of using some Forms and Ceremonies; and those are the best which have the greatest Efficacy to excite and regulate our Devotion. Not too Pompous and Theatrical, nor slovenly and mean, but such as become the House of God, and give it an external Beauty not a mere Pageantry of Holiness.  
That Custom of the Greek, and other Eastern Churches to separate the Men from the Women in the Public Assembly, seems to have something of Antiquity for its Plea, tho' the disuse of it in these Western Parts may make us think it a Singularity. I envy not that Sex the Liberty of Worshipping God, and being present at the Public Solemnities; yet I grudge them a Privilege which is so manifest an Impediment to our Devotion, as is their prating over the Psalms, Responses and other Portions of the Common-Prayer. I could stand beside the fairest of that Sex in the Church unmoved as Marble, their brightest Charms serving but as Foils to se● off the incomparable Eminency of that Majesty and Glory who is adored in that Place. But when I hear them break the Bounds of Female Modesty, whose greatest Ornament is Silence; when I hear their Tongues running over the Prayers as loud, if not louder than the Men, either with a careless wantonness, or affected Gravity their Eyes divided betwixt an amorous Glance and a devout Ogle. This, I must confess, gives me Offence; 'tis an Obstacle to my Devotion, and makes ●e think the Grecians are not without Reason in assigning a particular Place of the Church to the Women, where they can neither be seen or heard. And this will not seem uncourtly or austere, if we remember that St. Paul himself has said, I permit not a Woman to speak in the Church. And in another Place, Let Women have Power on their Heads [that is, be covered or veiled] because of the Angels, or as some interpret it, because of the young men.  
I wish for a purer Reformation in the Church than we have hitherto seen; yet I am not for tearing up Christianity by the Roots. I could be glad to see the House of God purged and cleansed, the Building Repaired and Beautified without Removing it from the Foundations. The Office of a Bishop and a Presbyter, to me, seems no other ways differenced than thus; I look upon a Presbyter as a Parochial Bishop, and a Bishop as a Diocesan Presbyter. Their Dignity equal in Quality, tho' not in Quantity. The one has Power of administering the Sacraments as well as the other: only for the sake of Order and good Government in the Church, one is invested with a Jurisdiction and Superiority, of which the other is as capable, if duly Elected to it.  
I envy not the Bishops or Ruling Presbyters, their Temporal Honours and Riches, neither would I be a Leveller in the Church of God: Yet it were a desirable thing, if there were a more equal Distribution of Ecclesiastical Benefices, that the poorest Preaching Presbyter might have an Income that should free Him from the Temptation of envying a Journeyman Carter, and other inferior Trades, who many times can boast of a larger Stipend than some of the Ministry.  
Pluralities and non-resident were never heard of in the Primitive Ages, and it is a shame there should be so many fat Parsonages, and yet so many lean Parsons. It is the Devil's Market where Church-living are bought and sold, and such Spiritual Hucksters deserve to be whipped out of the Temple.  
I refuse not to bow at the Name of Jesus, yet can give no Reason why I should not as well bow at the Name of Joshua, they being both one and the same in the Hebrew. And that Scripture, which is made to countenance this Ceremony, seems to me to speak no more than that in the Name of Christ all addresses should be made to God the Father. For if it were to be literally taken, why do they who so receive it, bow the Head instead of the Knee? Besides, I see no Reason why I should not also bow at the Name of Messiah, Christ, Emanuel, since the Redeemer of the World is called by all these Names? Nay, why should not I pay the same Reverence to all the Names of God in all Languages? especially to that tremendous Name Jehovah, which the Jews think it unlawful to utter? 'Tis true indeed, I can comply with the Custom of the Church in a thing not directly opposite to any positive Command, but I protest at the same time, my wishes ●re, that a Custom acknowledged to be indifferent, even by those who most zealously plead for ●ts practice, were rather disused, than imposed on men of tender Consciences, since it gives so much Scandal, and has no Authority but that of Tradition to back it.  
I am naturally a Lover of Music, and believe it has an efficacy in composing or ruffling the Spirits, according to the various kinds of it. But I find its most immediate Operation is on the Fancy, and sensual Affections, not on the Superior Faculties of the Soul. And therefore I see no use of it in the Church, where we come not to pay Homage to God in the strength of an exalted Imagination, or to present him with the First-Fruits of our Passions, tho' never so refined, but to offer up ourselves a Living Sacrifice, which is our Rational Service, since God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth, and not with airy Notions, and carnal Raptures.  
Tho' the Ear is a Member consecrated to the Service of Religion since Faith comes by Hearing, yet I cannot observe that my Faith is a● any time increased by the most Harmonious Lessons on the Organ or other Instruments of Music used in Divine Service. Neither do I admire at the Country-man's Freak, who the first time he had ever been in a Cathedral hearing the Organ strike up, fell a dancing a● tho' he had been in a Music-house. To spea● freely, I know not why we may not praise Go● as acceptably in a Dance as with Music, since the Jews, from whom we borrow our Arguments for the latter, did as usually practise the former; there being but little use of th● one without the other. To me a Chapter in the Bible is the best Music in the World, and no Melody like that of a good Sermon where the Preacher like a skilful Artist reconciles the Discords of the Law and the Gospel, and between the Emblems and Types of the one, and the Substantial Truths and Mysteries of the other strikes up such a grateful Harmony, as far exceeds the best Consort in the World, tho' it were as charming as Nebuchadnezzar's, and made up of the whole Family of Music.  
So I am a great Admirer of good Painting and Sculpture, yet can never find them Helps, but Hindrances to my Devotion, since it is impossible for the greatest Master that ever professed those Arts, to draw or carve to the Life, what was never exposed to any of his Senses, or to contrive a Figure of that which has no Resemblance, the Invisible Divinity. Indeed a Man's own Fancy in such Cases is the best Painter; and if it be lawful to make use of any Pictures or Images, 'tis of such as our own Imagination frames: yet this is the way to become Anthropomorphites, and worship God under the Similitude of a Man, or to follow the Pagan Vanities and adore Him under the likeness of a Beast, or some other sensible Figure, since all the Ideas of that Mimic Faculty, are but the Transcripts of External Objects, Aristotle's Maxim being truer of this than of the Intellect, That there is nothing in it which was not first in the Sense. The only way to have a true Idea of God is to suppress the Operations of this busy Faculty, and by withdrawing into the most inward Recess of the Mind, there as in a Mirror to contemplate that Infinite Essence, who is hid behind Himself (if ● may so speak) and cannot be discovered but by his Backparts.  
It is with Pleasure that I behold Him in his Rays which shine in all his works, and he has cast his shadow throughout the Universe, but I should be oppressed with Glory, were I capable of fixing my Eyes on that Abyss of Splendours, before which the most Illustrious Spirits in Heaven cover their Faces, as if they were ashamed of their comparative Imperfections, and were not able to behold that Original and Increated Purity without a Blush.  
I have no ambition to become an Eagle in Divinity, neither do I emulate the towering Flights of such as pretend to extraordinary Revelations. I had rather walk under the Piazzas of God's Church, than on the Battlements of the Devil's Chapel, lest my Head should grow giddy with Enthusiasms, and I be blown off from those heights and Pinnacles with some wind of vain Doctrine. That Father of the Arrian Heresy was an Icarus in Religion, he had lofty Thoughts and soaring Speculations, but he flew without a Guide, he forsook the Path of his Mother the Church, his Wings melted, and he had a terrible Fall, which at once bereft him of his Life, and ('tis to be feared) of his Salvation.  
I take great Pleasure sometimes to find myself entangled in Difficulties and Dangers, out of which I have no Skill to extricate myself. I never think myself safer than in such a Labyrinth of thwarting Events, as no Clue of my own Reason or Experience can lead me out. 'Tis then I can be cheerful and triumph, knowing my Deliverance is near at hand. And herein lies the quintessence of my Comfort, that I am thus particularly, and demonstratively assured of the Divine Favour and Protection, since nothing below a Miracle of Providence could untie so knotty a juncture of Misfortunes.  
Were all the Passages of my Life published, it would be taken for more than a Romance. It is so full of Adventures which surpass the stories of Giants, Monsters, Enchanted Castles, and the whole System of Knight Errantry. Such strange and unexpected Escapes as I have made from the very Jaws of Death, exceed the Fables of Poets. And had I no other Reason but the Remembrance of my own Perils and Deliverances, it were more than enough to convince me of an unerring Eye that watches over Mankind. This makes me cheerful and easy in all humane Circumstances, and reconciles me to the Stoics. I look on all things to be governed by a fixed Law and Eternal Destiny; and therefore could quietly sit down with George Withers, and say, Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo. I con●ider myself as a Part of the Universe, and ●herefore am never troubled at any thing which happens to me, since it comes not to pass without the Knowledge and Will of him who in all his Dispensations has Regard to the Good of the Whole; from which I am not excluded as a Member, and therefore must needs participate of the Common Benefit, even when I think I suffer Damage. I am not peevish at a Calumny, nor waspish at a loss. When any one does me an Injury, I take a singular Pleasure in forgiving him. There is such a Noble Pride attends this generous Conquest of an Enemy, as far surpasses the celebrated sweetness of Revenge. I hate to gratify my Passion the common way; and because he has acted the part o● an ill Man, I must do so too or worse, by giving scope to my Rage, and executing the severest Dictates of my Fury. He is but a Tinker in Morality, who to repair one Breach, makes another▪ and perhaps wider than the first. Besides, 'tis the most profitable kind o● Revenge, when I turn a Wrong to an Advantage by cancelling it: since thereby I make a Friend of an Enemy, and if he have but the leas● Spark of Gratitude and Virtue, my Benignity makes him not only blush at his Offence, bu● puts him upon some ingenuous study how to make me amends.  
Hath any wronged thee? (says 
* See his Encheridion.  Quarls) b● bravely revenged, slight it, and the work's begun, forgive it and 'tis finished. He is below himself that is not above an Injury.  
If thy Brother hath privately offended thee, reprove him privately, and having lost himself in an Injury, thou shalt find him in thy forgiveness. He that rebukes a private fault openly sordidly, betrays it rather than reproves it. The true way to advance another's Virtue is to follow it, and the best means to cry down another's Vice is to decline it.  
Have any wounded thee with Slanders? meet them with Patience, hasty word● rankle the wound, soft Language dress●s it, forgiveness cures it, oblivion takes a●●● the Scar. It is more noble by silence to ●over an Injury, than by argument to overcome or spread it But in all cases of this nature change conditions with thy Brother, then ask thy Conscience what thou wouldst be done to, being resolve d, exchange again, and do thou the like to him, and thy Christianity shall never err.  
I esteem it one of the most substantial Exercises of Religion, to subdue our Passions: and because Anger is the most violent and precipitate, I use my most strenuous Endeavours to stifle this in its Embryo. Other Passions take a gradual Rise, and insinuate by steps, but Wrath like Gunpowder takes Fire all at once, and blows a man up before he can look about him. Therefore I have by long and assiduous Practice laboured to get the Victory of this turbulent Aflection, and I count it the Masterpiece of Humane Wit to be above all Provocation. I could long ago stop my Hand in the midst of its Career, when aimed at a faulty Servant, or scurrilous Companion, but now I can bridle the Nerves which would have stretched it forth, and curb the officious Spirits which were so ready to sally forth on such an Occasion. I scorn to suffer my Tongue to be my Hand's Deputy, and to lavish out in unseemly Expressions, as if the Height of Man's Wit and Valour lay in a biting Repartee. Nay, I will not permit so much as my Cheek to change colour, my Eye to sparkle, or any other part of my Face to receive the least impression of my Resentments, whereby it may be perceived that I am fermented Yet at the same time I am not insensible of an Affront, nor void of due Reflection on it. All that I aim at is to comply with the Apostles Advice, To be angry and not to sin.  
I have no Panic Fears of Death upon me neither am I solicitous, how or when I shal● make my Exit from the Stage of this Life. Much less do I trouble myself about the manner of my Burial, or to which of the Elements I shall commit my Carcase. I envy not the Funeral State of Great Men, neither do I covet the Embalming of the Egyptians I wonder at the Fancy of those who desire to be imprisoned in leaden Coffins till the Resurrection, and to protract the Corruption o● their Flesh, out of which they shall be generated de Novo: as if they dreamt of rising whole as they lay down, and carrying Flesh and Blood into the Kingdom of Heaven, without a Change.  
For my Part I admire the Indian Obsequies, and were it not against the long established Custom of my Country, would sooner bequeath my Body to the Fire, than be inhumed, that so I might be sooner resolved into the Elements of which I was first compounded.  
Yet instead of that nearer way to Dissolution, I can be contented to undergo the tedious Conversation of Worms and Serpents, those greedy Tenants of the Grave, who will never be satisfied till they have eat up the Ground-Landlord.  
I do not puzzle myself with projecting now my scattered Ashes shall be collected together, neither do I for that Reason take Care for an Urn to enclose them. I am satisfied, that at the last Trumpet, I shall rise with the same Individual Body. I now carry about me, tho' there may not then be one of the same Individual Atoms to make it up, which are its present Ingredients. For nei●her are they the same now as they were ●wenty years ago. Yet I may be properly ●aid to have the same Individual Body at this Hour, which my Mother brought forth into ●he World, tho' it is manifest, that there ●s so vast an Accession of other Particles since that Time, as are enough to make Ten such Bodies as I had then. Which implies such a perpetual Flux of the former, as 'twould be a Solaecism in Philosophy to think I have one of my Infant Atoms now left about me. If after all this, I may be still said to have the same Individual Body as I had then, tho' there be not one of the same Individual Atoms left in its Composition, why may w● not assert the same of the Bodies we shal● have after the Resurrection? Matter is on● and the same in all Bodies, the Individuation of it, the Meum and Tuum proceeds onel● from the infinitely different Forms which actuate it. Thus when my Soul at the Resurrection either by its own Energy, or by th● Power of God, and Assistance of Angels, sha● be reinvested with a Body, it is proper t● say it will be the same Individual Body have now, tho' made up of Atoms which never before were Ingredients of my Composition, since not the Matter but the For● gives a Title to Individuation.  
I am the more willing to believe this wi●● be the manner of our Resurrection, because I think it not Decorous to put the Ange● on the Drudgery of Scavengers, as if it shoul● at that Day be their Employment to swee● the Graves and Channel-houses, to sift th● Elements, and take in all the Receptacles o● the Dead for men's divided Dust. Not th●● I think it impossible for God even this way 〈◊〉 accomplish the Resurrection of the Dead; tho' th● Bodies of all Mankind were crumbled into Dus● and that Dust scattered before the Wind, or d●still'd into Water, or attenuated into Air, 〈◊〉 tho' those Bodies were eaten by the Beas●● of the Earth, or the Fish of the Sea, as those Beasts and Fish eaten again by Men. Tho' they should undergo all these Changes and Transmigrations, yet were they still in the great Repository of God. The whole World in this sense being but as one great Storehouse, and all the Elements as so many Cells therein, so that wheresoever we shall be laid up, whether in the Bellies of Fishes, Entrails of Beasts, or by various Altera●ions become ●he Food of Men, yet the Great Architect of all Things knows where to find our scattered Remnants. But why should we engage Him in so infinite a Task, when the Work may as well be done a nearer way? And put him to the Expense of multiplying Miracles, when fewer will serve the turn? When the Grand Alarm is given, He can soon fit our Souls with proper Matter for their future Bodies, out of the Elements, as well as out of their own Antiquated Embers. The Jewish Rabbins seem to deny the gathering together our dispersed Ashes, and assign the Trouble to a certain small Bone in every Man's Back which they say, never suffers any Putrofaction, but remaining to the last Day in its Primitive Consistency, impassable and incorruptible, is then impregnated by a Dew from Heaven, which diffusing its Virtue like a Ferment, not only animates and quickens this Seminal Bone, but also attracts all the Atoms, which formerly constituted the Body, tho' dispersed in the remotest Corners, and most hidden Recesses of the Universe, marshalling them in the same Order as they had before their Dissolution, and so in a moment recovering the Body to its Primitive State. But these are gross Conceits for Christians who believe that our bodies shall in that great and Final Change become Spiritual and Immortal, being for ever divested of all the peculiar Circumstances of Flesh, and Blood.  
Let the manner be how it will please God, I am ravished to think what a bright and serene Morning the Resurrection will prove after the long Night of Death, and the languishing slumbers of the Grave! How vigorous and active we shall rise from our Beds of Darkness, how merry and blithe from the melancholy Regions of Horror and Silence! More sprightly than Youth; stronger than Lions; and swifter than Eagles! Full of Light, full of Joy, we shall soar aloft, and like well-mounted Travellers post it away through the Balmy Air, and liquid Skies, till we arrive at the Place of admirable Mansions, and be welcomed to the House of God.  
I dare not with some of the Jewish Rabbins say that all shall not rise at the great Day; much less will I presume with others to particularise so far as to exclude all those who perished in Noah's Flood; or with a third sort to confine the Resurrection to the Children of Israel, as if we that are of the Gentiles were not capable of it as well as they! But above all I reject the Censure of the Talmudists, who say, that neither Bilha the Concubine of Jacob that lay with Reuben; nor Doeg that caused Saul to kill Abimelech and the Priests; nor Gehazi the servant of Elijah the Prophet, nor Achitophel, David's prime Minister of State, shall rise from the Dead. These are the Memoirs of Hebrew Superstition; Invidious Remarks the peculiar Heresy of that overweening Nation.  
Yet I am more scandalised at some Christians who will not allow Salvation to any man that is not within the visible Pale of their Church, as if the Eternal Sun of Justice were Eclipsed to all that are out of their narrow Horizon. Surely He enlightens every man that comes into this World, and his Rays are not confined to Countries or Parties. He shines Universally, and no man can trace him in the Zodiac of his Mercy.  
I dare not 'tis true, (with Justin Martyr) canonize the Philosophers, and place Socrates and Heraclitus in Heaven; neither am I sure that Aristotle, by his learned Treatises of Heaven has obtained an Inheritance there himself. 'Tis too officious a Regard, and too bold a Charity, thus happily to dispose of Particular Men. On the other side I dread to pass the Sentence of Damnation on all the ancient Pagans, and to aver that none were saved that died before the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Tho' the mere Light of Natural Reason, was not sufficient to conduct them, nor al● their Morality, enough to entitle them, to Supreme Felicity; Yet I cannot be persuaded ●hat the infinite Goodness would doom the virtuous Gentiles to the Abyss of Misery. Neither can any man demonstrate, That Christ was not the Light of the Gentiles before his Incarnation, as well as after; And since Abraham saw his Day and was glad, how do we know that Plato, Solon, Lycurgus, Pythagoras, Cyrus, and other wise Lawgivers, Philosophers and Kings, men renowned for their Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Chastity, Liberality, and the like Virtues might not also be favoured with a glimpse of the Messiah, the desire of all Nations, before he appeared in the Flesh. Tho' we have no Records in Scripture of Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Phocilides, Homer, Theognes', Epictetus, Theseus and Hercules, yet we cannot be assured, but that they had Faith, and expected the Redeemer to come, as well as Job, who was not of the Holy Line, but a Branch of the Gentiles.  
When I consider what Pains some of the wiser Heathens have taken to find out the Truth; when I contemplate a Pythagoras travelling through Asia, and particularly conversant in Palestine; an Empedocles Journeying into afric, to learn the Wisdom of the Egyptians; an Alexander the Great falling at the Feet of the Hebrew Highpriest, I cannot think the Heathen World to be so ignorant of the true Religion, as is commonly imagined. They had a Balaam to instruct them, the Sibyls to guide them to the Knowledge of a future Messiah, and for aught I know, some of them might have the Scriptures of the Old Testament too, or at least a good part of them, even before that celebrated Translation of the Septuagint was extant; since it was easy for those Gentiles who had Commerce with the Jews to procure Copies of their Law, especially when they were made Captives in Media, Assyria, Egypt and Babylon.  
An Esther lying in the Bosom of Ahasuerus, a Daniel sitting at the Right Hands of Nabuchadnezzar, Belshazzer, and Darius, had fair Opportunities of instructing those Heathen Monarches in the Mysteries of the Mosaic Law, and surely such Holy Persons would never neglect so noble a Work as proselyting the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles to God.  
In the Days of Solomon the Fame of the Jewish Nation had reached the utmost Parts of the Earth, Kings came from far, and Queens from the remotest Borders of the Continent, to be the Disciples of that Royal Philosopher, and Spectators of the Hebrew Grandeur. How could then the Divine Oracles be hid from the Gentiles, or the Sacred Tradition of Shiloh to come, not be delivered to the inquisitive Nations of the Earth! Without doubt the East saw the dawning of the Star of Jacob, and the South could calculate his Meridian, even before he risen. Neither were the North and the West without some glimmerings of his Appearance.  
The Wise Men that came to adore him at Bethlehem, performed but the Wishes of their Fathers, and the Eunuch of Queen Candaces made no Scruple to become a Christian, when Philip had convinced him that He of whom the Prophets had so long foretold, was now come in the Flesh. Surely he was the desired of Nations, the Hope of the Gentiles, as well as the Glory of his People Israel. Therefore I cannot number it among the Commendations of Christianity, that a great Part of those who profess that Name are so presumptuously uncharitable, as to damn all that were not of the Seed of Abraham before Christ came in the Flesh, as if Salvation were entailed to one Family, and no man could go to Heaven that was not circumcised.  
Much rather had I believe, That in the very Instant of Death, God revealed the Mystery of Redemption to many innocent and virtuous Persons among the Gentiles, and infused a saving Faith in Christ into their Souls, at the very moment that their Senses were forsaking their Bodies. Supplying their want of Scripture or Tradition, with the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, when they were taking the last gasp, and breathing out their own.  
Or if this be not thought sufficient, I will believe, That when Christ descended into Hell, he preached the Gospel to the Spirits which were there in Prison, not only those who were disobedient in the days of Noah, but all such of the Race of Noah, as by completing the Measure of their Sins, had sunk themselves into that fatal Place, whether they were Jews or Heathens. And I cannot understand those Texts of Scripture which mention his spoiling of Hell, and leading Captivity Captive, if they may not be applied to his Triumphant Deliverance of some of those Souls which were shut up in the Infernal Caverns. Neither do I perceive any Heresy in believing, there might be some Virtuous Heathens in the Retinue he carried with Him from thence to Heaven, as well as some of the Sons of Israel. However, leaving the manner of their Salvation to God, I will conclude, That it is unreasonable, uncharitable, and has too much of the Jew in it, to pass the Sentence of Damnation on all the Gentiles, since the Holy Ghost has assured us, That God is no Respecter of Persons, but he that in every Nation fears Him, and works Righteousness, is accepted of Him.  
Besides, methinks if matters were brought to the severest Balance, it would not appear Heterodox to say, That as all men sinned in Adam, without their own Personal Knowledge or Consent, so some might be saved in Christ, even without a Particular and Personal Belief in Him, of whom perhaps they never so much as heard.  
Some Grains of Allowance may be given to the involuntary Frailties of Humane Nature, some Indulgence granted to the invincible Ignorance of a great Part of Adam's Posterity, who if they knew not the Highway to Heaven which was revealed to their Brethren the Jews and Christians, might yet be conducted thither by some By-Path, since it is too narrow a Conceit of God's Mercy to think, that because he had chief manifested it in the Royal Road of the Law and the Gospel, therefore he could never go out of the beaten Track. This were to retrench the Divine Prerogative, and to tie Him up to limited Conditions, whose Ways are in the Great Deep, and whose Footsteps not Created Being can Trace.  
The Satisfaction I have of the Soul's Immortality, if it amounts not to a Demonstration, may yet be numbered among those Proleptick Ideas that need none, as being self-evident. It is a Parallel with first Principles, and has equal Force on my Understanding; for I am not more convinced, That one and two make three, than That the Soul of man is Immortal. So that I make it not so much an Article of my Faith, as a Proposition of my Reason, and a Conclusion of Science. Yet I do not always go so far round about, as by a long Train of Logical Deductions and Inferences, to dispute myself into the Remembrance of my Immortality. This indeed were necessary to persuade another, but I have a nearer Method to comfort myself with the Demonstration of this Noble Truth, while it becomes an Object of my very Sense, and I can feel that Immortality in myself, which my Reason tells me another is possessed of as well as I. This is easier to be experienced, than uttered in words, 'tis an Art not to be acquired without assiduous Reflection and strict Animadversion on our own Thoughts. But the Fatigue is more than recompensed with the inessable Pleasure that attends it, for when by a long and often repeated Practice, a man has found the way to keep close Pace with his own Intellect in all its Flights and abstracted Starts from the Body, when he can stand on the Brink of the Immaterial World and perceive what is before Him, perceiving also that he perceives it, then 'tis he enjoys Heaven by Anticipation, and forestalls his Future Beatitude by tasting Immortality at present. He is risen from the Dead, before he dies; and lives an Eternity of Ages in a Moment. Neither is this a sleeping Chimaera, or a waking ●ream, but a real Truth, which as I have said, is easier practised than expressed.  
It was but a drowsy Conceit in those Fathers, who phancy'd the Soul should sleep in the Grave till the Resurrection of the ●ody. Had they well traced the Nature of a Spirit from its first Principles, they would 〈◊〉 have provided a Dormitory for That Being which would cease to be, should it cease to act, since its very Essence implies a Contradiction to Rest. I could as easily and with equal Reason believe it will be annihilated at its separation from the Body, or at least that it shall be metamorphosed into something else, since if it continue the same it was before the Dissolution of the Body, it must continue to think, it being indeed nothing else but a pure Thought; and how a Thought can take a Nap, is beyond the Verge of my Philosophy to apprehend, neither do I know of any thing in Divinity that seems to countenance so dull a Theorem. As for those Texts of Scripture, which seem to adumbrate the Supreme Felicity of the Saints by the Notion of Rest, I do not think they mean a Cessation of the Souls natural Energy, for how could it then be capable of that Seraphic Love, and Joy in the Beatific Vision, which is the chief Entertainment of the Blessed in Heaven? It seems rather to intimate the Soul's Escape and Deliverance from the Troubles and Inquietudes of this Mortal Life, which may very well be called a Rest, and yet be consistent with an Activity far surpassing that which it was endued with in the Flesh. The Scripture clothes many abstruse Mysteries in familiar Dresses, the better to accommodate Them to the Conceptions of vulgar and ignorant People, who make up far the greatest Part of Mankind, and we must not expect the rigid Definitions of Aristotle from the Sacred Penmen. But when we come Scientifically, and according to the Method of the Schools to treat of the Natures of Things, we ought to fit them with proper and Intelligible Terms, and pursue their Essences by a continued Progress, not by wild Fits and Starts.  
I have but small acquaintance with the future State, but this I'm sure there will be no change that will be so surprising to me as that By Death. It is a thing of which I know but little, and none of the millions of Souls that have passed into the invisible World, have come again to tell me how it is.  

I.  
It must be done (my Soul) but 'tis a strange,  
A Dismal and Mysterious change, 
Norris.   
When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay,  
And to an unknown somewhere wing away;  
When Time shall be Eternity, and thou  
Shalt be thou knowst not what, and live thou knowst not how.   

II.  
Amazing State! no wonder that we dread  
To think of Death, or view the Dead,  
thou'rt all wrapped up in Clouds, as if to thee  
Our very knowledge had Antipathy.  
Death could not a more sad retinue find,  
Sickness and pain before, and darkness all behind.   

III.  
●ome courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy,  
What 'tis you are, and we must be.  
●ou warn us of approaching Death, and why  
May we not know from you what 'tis to die?  
But you having shot the Gulf, delight to see  
succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty.   

iv  
When Life 's close knot by writ from Destiny,  
Disease shall cut, or age untie;  
When after some delays, some dying strife,  
The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life;  
With what a dreadful Curiosity  
Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity.   

V  
So when the spacious Globe was deluged o'er,  
And lower holds could save no more,  
On th' utmost Bough th' astonished Sinners stood,  
And viewed th' Advances of th' encroaching Flood  
O're-topped at length by th' Elements increase,  
With horror they resigned to the untried Abyss.   
It is very desirable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body, and what is the Nature of that abode into which we must go, but which we never saw into; and through what Regions we must then take our flight, and after what manner this will be done. 'Tis certain my Soul will then preserve the faculties that ar● natural to it, viz. to understand, to will, to remember, as 'tis represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus: But alas! we little know how the People of the disembodied Societies act, and will, and understand, and communicate their thoughts to one another, and therefore I long to know it. What conception can I have of a separated Soul (says a late Writer) but that 'Tis all Thought.  
I firmly think when a man's body is taken from him by Death, he is turned into all Thought and Spirit. How great will be its Thought when it is without any hindrance from these material Organs that now obstruct its Operations. In that Eternity (as one expresses it) the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way. In Eternity the Soul is united in its Motions, which way one faculty goes all go, and the Thoughts are all concentred as in one whole Thought 
* Beverley's great Soul of Man. pag. 292.  of Joy or Torment.  
These things have occasioned great variety of Thoughts in me, and my Soul when it looks towards the other World and thinks itself near, it can no more cease to be inquisitive about it, than it can cease to be a Soul.  
I am not at all edified in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity, by the sight of a Triangle, neither can the whole System of the Mathematics improve my Knowledge in this Point of Divinity. The three distinct Faculties of a Humane Soul are far from illustrating to me the Three Persons in One Essence, since there is a Subordination in the Former, whereas there is an Equality in the Latter. Such Similitudes and Comparisons seem not to me a Stenography or short Characters, but a false Spelling in Divinity. And tho' to wiser Reasons, and more Active Beliefs, they may serve as Luminaries in the Abyss of knowledge, yet my Heavy Judgement will never be able to mount on such weak and brittle Scales and Roundels to the lofty Pinnacles of true Theology. All the force of Rhetorical Wit has not Edge enough to dissect so tough a Subject, wherein the little obscure Glimmerings we gain of that Inaccessible Light, come not to us in direct Beams, but by the faint Reflections of a Negative Knowledge. And we can better apprehend what it is not, than what it is. In the Disquisition of his Works, I own, that those do highly magnify Him, whose Judicious Enquiry into his Acts, and deliberate Research into his Creatures return the Homage of a Devout and Learned Paraphrase. But in the Contemplation of that Eternal Essence to which not created Thought can be adequate, I will humbly sit down and silently admire, that which neither the Heart can conceive, nor the Tongue or Pen of Men or Angels can declare as they ought, and as it is.  
I do not affect Rhodomontadoes in Religion, nor to boast of the Strength of my Faith: I do not covet Temptations, nor court Dangers: Yet I can exercise my Belief in the difficultest Point when called to it; and walk steadfast and upright in Faith, without the Crutch of a visible Miracle. I can firmly believe in Christ, without going in Pilgrimage to his Sepulchre, neither need I the Confirmation that was vouchsafed to St. Thomas that Proverb of Unbelief. However I do not bless myself, nor esteem my Faith the better, because I lived not in the Days of Miracles, nor ever saw Christ or any of his Disciples. Or because I was not one of his Patients on whom he wrought his Wonders. Both their Faith and mine were infused by the Ministration of the Senses. And as they believe't because they saw, so I believe, because I hear (undeniable Witnesses give Testimony of) the same Matter of Fact. Nor do I esteem their Faith the more Extraordinary who lived before his Coming, since they raised not a Belief of the future Messiah, but on clear Prophecies, and most significant Types, being assured by the constant stream of Tradition from Father to Son, that what God had predetermined and foretold to Adam in Paradise, to Abraham, to Jacob, and the Prophets, should infallibly be accomplished in the fullness of Time. And I cannot see wherein their Faith had the Advantage of ours, that it should deserve to be esteemed more Bold and Noble, since they had an Isaiah to preach the Gospel to Them, who for the Eloquence of his Style, his most accurate and particular Enarration of the Birth of Christ, has acquired the Title of the fifth Evangelist. 'Tis certain both their Faith and ●ours rests on the Divine Revelation, whether it consist in Prophecy of Things to come, or History of Things past. The ultimate Object of our Belief is one and the same, that is, the Authority of God. They had their Sacraments also to strengthen their Faith as well as we. They were Baptised in the Cloud and in the Sea, they had Manna from Heaven, and Water out of a Rock in the Earth. They all eat the same Spiritual Meat, and drank the same Spiritual Drink as we, fo● they drank of the Spiritual Rock of Ages that followed Them, and that Rock was Christ  
I do not conclude from hence, That ther● is, no difference between the Sacraments o● the Law, and those of the Gospel. Doubtless there is an Excellency in the Latter to which the Former could not pretend The Elements in Both are Natural, as Wate● Manna, Bread, Wine, etc. so that in the Exterior, neither of Them has the Advantage of the other. They were both also Conduits of the same inward Grace and Spirit. Only herein lies the difference, that the Jews had it but by Measure, whereas th● Christians receive it in Abundance. The● touched but the Hem of Christ's Garment but we feed on his Body and Blood. The● did but wade in the low Ebb of Grace whereas we swim in the High-Tide an● over-flowing of the Holy Spirit. Before th● Everlasting Sluices were drawn up; whil● the Heavens were kept shut, the Water which are above the Heavens did but disti●gently on Mankind, The Divine Influenc● came Drop by Drop, here a little and ther● a little. But when Christ had once ascended up on High, and opened the Eternal Gate above, than he showered down his Gifts upo● Men, and let lose the Flood of Light and Grace, that so it might water the whole Earth, and make glad the City of God, which is the Christian Church.  
The Sacraments of Christianity are the Principal Channels through which Eternal Life is conveyed to our Souls. By Baptism we are transplanted from the Old Stock of the First Adam, and inoculated into Him who is the True Vine, in whom we grow up as Branches, receiving Nourishment and Increase by the Eucharist, which conveys to us the vital Principles of Immortality and Salvation. I cannot speak of this tremendous Mystery, without a Circumlocution, nor think of it without a Rapture! It is such a Complex of Riddles, as it hath posed the stoutest Samsons of the Church to solve: He alone was able to think and speak aright of it in few words, who when he first instituted it, said, This is my Body, This is my Blood. That there is a real Change made in the outward Elements after the words of Consecration are pronounced, is an Article of my Faith; but the Manner how this Change is effected is no Query of my Philosophy. I had rather humbly believe what I cannot comprehend in this Venerable Sacrament; than suffer any vain Disquisitions to stagger my Faith. I see Bread and Wine both retaining the same Taste, Colour, and other natural Qualities of those Creatures. Therefore I conclude there is no Alteration made in that which is the Object of my Senses. The Change must be in the Spiritual Part, which only falls under the Intellect. And yet I believe this Change to be Real, tho' I cannot sensibly perceive wherein, or how 'tis produced. Far be it from me to enter into the Secret of those who make a mere empty Figure of the Blessed Sacrament; as if we were made Partakers only of mere Natural Bread and Wine in the Holy Communion. This is to follow the impious Steps of Manicheus and Martion, who taught that our Saviour had only a Fantastic Figure of a Body, not a Real one; as if they thought the Blessed Virgin Mary brought forth nothing but a Shadow, because she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. This is to outstrip Judas, and begin where his Treason left off: and as he sold his Master's Life, so we should rob the Church of his Body and Blood, which he bequeathed to her in his last Supper. Doubtless his Body is in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, but not Bodily, or after a corporeal manner, not invested with all the gross Circumstances of Flesh and Blood, but after a Spiritual Manner, in a Mystery too profound for Humane Sense or Reason to comprehend. I am extremely pleased with the Answer which Queen Elizabeth gave to the Bishop of Winchester, when he demanded her Opinion of the Real Presence, said she, 
'Twas God the Word that spoke it,  
He took the Bread and broke it;  
And what the Word did make it,  
That I believe and take it.   
It was an ill-mannered, as well as an envious Retort of him that stood by and said, Your Highness' Reply is like the Delphic Oracle, full of Ambiguous Subtlety: He had discovered more Breeding and Charity, had he told her, That her Answer savoured of his Wisdom, who, when tempted by the Pharisees with a Question concerning the Lawfulness of paying Tribure to Caesar, took a piece of Money and asked whose Image and Superscription was that stamped on it, they said Caesar's, He replied, Give therefore to Caesar, the Things that are Caesar's, and to God the Things that are Gods. It is certainly a necessary piece of Prudence sometimes to obviate the Trains of an Enemy, with a witty Evasion; which may be done without denying the Truth, or violating one's Conscience. Those who would trepan a man with Queries, and make him a Transgressor for a word, deserve to be paid in the same Coin, and by an Ingenious adapting of words and placing of Periods, be baffled in their Design, and sent away like Fools as they came, without any better Satisfaction than they could reap from a Riddle. In my Opinion it is but a Pious Scepticism to suspend our Thoughts from determining the particular Mode of Christ's being present in the Sacrament, since it is impossible ever to demonstrate so recondite a Secret, into which even the Angels themselves, those perfect Intelligences perhaps look with Admiration, without improving their Knowledge. It is sufficient to my humble Faith, that my Redeemer is there, and that when I worthily receive this Blessed Sacrament, I shall receive the Author of it into my Tabernacle, and be united to the Heavenly Spouse. This is the true Hidden Manna which nourishes both Angels and Men; This is the Bread of Life, which strengtheneth Man's Heart; This is the Wine which rejoiceth God and Man. This is that Heavenly Morsel which God has given us as an Antidote against the Dregs of that Venom we all derive from Adam's eating the forbidden Fruit.  
And he is a kind Physician, who, when nothing else in the Divine Pharmacopaea could be sound available for so great a Cure, applies his own Body, to heal the Distempers of our Souls, and his Blood to restore the Spoils of Humane Nature. None but the Favourites of the King of Heaven are admitted to this Immortal Banquet. None but such as have the Wedding Garment on, can have Access to this Table of Delicacies, this Repast of Royal Dainties. Many indeed (and too many, 'tis to be feared) are licenced to come into the King's Anti-Chambers, and to sit down in the Church and taste the outward Elements, but it is the Privilege of his Saints only to enter his Cabinet, and be Regaled with the costly Entertainment of his Secret Table, and to partake in the New Wine of the Kingdom of Heaven.  
A Serious Christian once told me, that if ever he was like Paul taken up into the Third Heaven, it was when he first sat down at the Lords Table.  
The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is the nearest and visiblest Communion that can be had with God and Christ upon Earth. Here are the greatest revivings and the sweetest refresh that a Pious Soul is capable of on this side Heaven itself. Other Duties seem to be our work, this our meat and wages, other duties are but preparative to this, Baptism, Praying, Preaching, Hearing, Meditating, Conferring, are all ordained but to sit us for this High and Mysterious Ordinance. Here you have all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace folded up in one Rite. Here is the whole contrivance of Salvation represented in a little Bread and Wine, whereby God invisibly seals up an assurance of his Everlasting Love upon our Hearts.  
It is grown even to a Proverb, saith Acosta, among the poor Indians that have entertained the Faith that Qui Eucharistiam semel susceperit, etc. He must never more be unholy that hath once received the Holy Communion.  
As to the Posture of Receiving, I am not scrupulous, being willing to conform to the Custom of those with whom I communicate: I can receive on my Knees without Danger of Idolatry; or Sitting, without the Gild of Contempt. This latter I esteem of greater Antiquity, it being the Posture wherein Christ Communicated to his Disciples at the last Supper, unless it be said they lay along according to the Mode of the Eastern People in those Days. However I do not think the Position of the Body, but the Preparation of the Soul is required to render one a Worthy Commun icant in these Holy Mysteries.  
I censure not the Primitive Christians, not those more Modern ones, who Communicate frequently, yet I should be timorous to approach these Holy Mysteries too often, lest I should incur the Judgement which St. Paul has pronounced on those who eat and drink unworthily. I have Charity for others who Celebrate this Sacrament Monthly, Weekly, or Daily, but I should have little for myself, should I receive this tremendous Mystery of Life, with less Preparation than were requisite to fit me for Death. It being in the Number of those Medicines which either Kill or Cure, according to the Constitution to which they are applied.  
If we examine the Books of Physicians, those Registers of Humane Frailty and Mortality, we shall find no less than Six Thousand Diseases on the Score, to which Man's Body is liable. And 'tis to be feared the Distempers of the Soul come not short of the Account. What is Pride but a Tympany? Lust but a Fever? Drunkenness but a Dropsy? Envy and Malice but the Consumption of the Soul? To obviate these and innumerable more Spiritual Maladies, God has (as a Token of his Infinite Bounty) given His Minister's Commission to dispense to the Sons of Men the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, as a Divine Catholicon, or Cure for [all] the Diseases which are incident to our Souls, but with this Condition, That he who partakes of these Holy Mysteries unworthily, instead of being healed, does but increase his Malady, work it up to a dangerous Crisis, if not to a desperate Paroxysm, which affords no Hopes, but a fearful Expectation of Judgement to come. Cyprian tells us two remarkable Stories, that one coming to the Sacrament, after the Minister had given him the Bread, and he going to eat it, it stuck in his Throat Gladium sibi sumens non cibum, saith he, he received his Bane instead of Bread, the other came and took the Bread into his Hand, and when he went to eat it, there was nothing but Ashes in his Hand. This Apprehension, I ingenuously declare, has had such Influence on me, as to restrain me long from approaching the Holy Table. I tremble at the Thought of Eating and Drinking my own Damnation, and of trampling underfoot the Blood of the Eternal Testament.  
I love not to humour my Spleen or gratify my Hypocondria, by inveighing against the Luxury of the present Age, as if it were worse than those of old, and that our Forefathers did not Eat and Drink to Excess as well as we: The present Intemperance of Mankind is but the Transmigration of the Former: And our Posterity shall but act o'er the Patterns we set them. Drunkenness is as old as Noah 's Flood, and Epicurism begun with Adam. The one had no sooner escaped the Universal Inundation of Water, but he had like to have been drowned in a Deluge of Wine; And the Other not content with the large Indulgence and Commission God had given Him to eat of the Fruits of Paradise, must needs leap the Fence which guarded the Forbidden Tree, and whe● he might have Banqueted without Satiety or End on the Varieties which would have given him Life and Immortality, he plays the Glutton, and Surfeits Himself with the Plant of Death and Damnation. His Children soon learned to tread in their Father's Steps, and Gluttony was equally propagated with Mankind. And tho' that Repairer of Adam's almost Shipwrackt Progeny could he abstemious, when he might have furnished his Table with all the Beasts of the Earth and Fowls of the Air at one Meal, yet he could not refrain from the tempting Fruit of the Vine. His Ebriety was also catching, and the Incestuous Offspring of Lot owed their Original to the Blood of the Grape. Before the Flood Men were busied in Banqueting and Riot, so they have been ever since, and so they will be, to the End of the World. Men are great Followers of Antiquity in the Practice of these Vices.  
For my Part I envy not the Board of Vitellius that at one Meal was covered with two Thousand Fish, and double that Number of Fowls. Neither do I covet the more Expensive Feasts of Heliogabulus. The refined Luxury of Cleopatra seems to me less Sordid, tho' more Prodigal, who at one Draught swallowed down a King's Ransom. It was not her Palate she gratified in that Rich Potion, but she humoured the Gust of her Ambition; which is a Sublimer sort of Vice, and may not unfitly be called the Gluttony of the Soul, while it Revels on the Breath of Fame, and Epicurizes with a Chamelion-like Appetite on the Air of Honour.  
Intemperance is the Blind side of Mortals; it is our soft Place, where we suffer ourselves to be stroked and tickled to Death by the flattering Serpent. This made Isaac mis-place his Blessing for a Piece of Venison, and his Son to sell his Birthright for a Mess of Pottage. The Italian Proverb hits the Glutton Home when it says, He digs his Grave with his Teeth, and cuts his Throat with the Knife that carves his Meat.  
Rioting and Drunkenness were formerly esteemed the National Sin of Germany only, but I believe other Nations may put in for a share in the Charter. It is the Epidemic Vice of the whole World. Men fall passionately in Love with it as if they were of Mucaus the Poet's Opinion, who held, That perpetual Drunkenness was the only Reward of Merit and Virtue. The very Mahometans themselves, who are expressly forbidden by their Law to taste of Wine, being told by Mahomet that there is lodged a Devil in every Grape, are sworn Votaries to Bacchus, and the greatest Drunkards on Earth.  
For my own Part, I could be content with the Diet of Johannes de Temporibus, who when he had lived three Hundred years, being asked by the King of France, What method he took to preserve his Life to so great an Age; Replied, Intus Melle, extra Oleo. I say, I could be content with his Diet, not so much for the sake of Spinning out my Life to Centuries of years, (which yet I believe were not altogether impracticable in one of my Constitution) as that by a constant and habitual Desuetude of merely Animal Enjoyments, 〈◊〉 might the more closely and vigorously atten● the Operations of my Soul, and be always awake to the Superior Faculties of my Mind and Intellect, Anima Sicca, est Anima Sapiens, was a true Maxim of the Philosopher. And the Sons of Minerva experience it.  
I abhor the Superstitious Cant, and Discriminating Shibboleth of Enthusiasts, who must needs take upon them to alter the Form of sound Words; as if the Dialect of the Primitive Church were grown obsolete, or that the Apostles understood not the Orthography of Christian Faith. I like not those Spiritual Bouteseus, who take a great Deal of Pains to breed a Quarrel between Religion and Nature, and set those two Twins together by the Ears; as if we could not be good Christians, unless we deny our Sense and Reason. Certainly it is not the Business of Religion to Supplant and Extirpate Nature, but to prune and rectify it. Religion is that which polishes and smooths the Roughness of lapsed Humanity, pares away the Vicious Knobs which grow up with us from our tainted Embryo, and by various Instruments of Grace forms and squares us into sit Materials for God's Holy Temple. The Work of Regeneration seems in some manner to copy that of Creation. The Holy Ghost at his first Visit, finds us in our corrupt state, but a mere Chaos, a confused Heap of Passions and Sensual Appetites; our Reason, that Light of our Souls lies Dormant, smothered as it were by our Animal Faculties; Darkness covers the Face of this Microcosm, till he give the Word, Fiat Lux, and by a forcible Energy strike some Divine Sparks out of our Flinty Hearts: Thus separating the Celestial Parts from the Terrestrial, and Sublimating us into the Similitude of his own glorious Essence, Enduing ●s with Faith, without destroying our Reason, ●nd inspiring us with Charity, without exterminating our Passions. Thus I can believe the most transcendent Mysteries of our Religion, ●nd yet not be guilty of an implicit Credulity ●nd blind Devotion: And I can practise Christian Moderation, tho' I could never learn the stoical Apathy.  
I highly value the Sacred Scripture as the Oracle of Divinity, and Rule of Faith: Yet I esteem them not a System of Philosophy, or 〈◊〉 Pandect of natural Science. They are able ●o make us Wise unto Salvation, and perfect 〈◊〉 the Knowledge of God, through Faith in Christ Jesus, but they instruct us not in Mundane Curiosities, nor acquaint us with the Theory of all his Works. That frightful Cau●●on of the Apostle [Beware of vain Philosophy] no  to my Studies, nor can it startle my harmless Inquiries into the Secrets of the Elements. I will not be afraid of prying into the Circumstances of the Earth, since J●●●● has told us, it is hanged upon Nothing; nor ●● casting my Eyes up to the Heavens, and examining the Motions, Influences and Oper●tions, of the Sun, Moon and Stars, since t●e same Holy Patriarch was posed with this astrological Question by God himself, Ca● Thou restrain the sweet Influence of the Pleiades or lose the Bands of Orion? There are ma●● Natural Observations in the Bible which m●● serve as Hints or Spurs to more accurate Disquisitions: But in no Place that I know o● does it set a Non Ultra to those Sober Enqu●rers, who by making a Modest and Judicious Search into the Works of the Creation, are c●●pable of returning a more exact and consummate Praise to the Eternal Architect Indeed most (if not all) the Manual Trades in th● World, are but the several Species of Practical Philosophy: While the Mechanic pu● in Execution the Theory of the Student, a● what the One dictates from the School of ●●ture, the other Experiments in the Shop ●● Art. Neither would Men know how to ke●● themselves in Action or maintain Commerce were it not for the Sake of Philosophy. T● this are owing all the Advances and Progres●ons that Ingenious Men have made in the Callings and Occupations. And every Smit● Carpenter, Mason, etc. that makes an Improvement in his Craft or Mystery deserve the Tit●e of Virtuoso, and to be numbered among t●e Philosophers  
Among all the Sciences, there is none to which (had I leisure) I could be more devoted than to Astronomy, and for this Reason I could raise a Pyramid to the Inventors of the Telescope, That Happy Midwife to new Discoveries in the Heavens; and think myself no less obliged to Him that first found out the Motion of the Earth. Both have Enfranchised me from the Slavery of Prepossession, and taught me to unthink the Sentiments of my greener Years. Methinks I own no Allegiance to Ptolemy, and am perfectly weaned from the Magisterial Dictates of the Stagyrite. I cannot so readily believe that the Sun moves above two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Miles every Minute of Time, as that the Earth moves Eighteen Miles in that space. And that the Planet Saturn moves ten, and the fixed Stars a Hundred Times faster and farther than the Sun in the same space, which must be the Consequence of the Earth's standing still, and the Sun's Motion. It seems no good Divinity to me, to expect that from God's Infinite Power, which is repugnant to his equal Wisdom and the Laws of Motion which he has Established in the Universe. This were to make one of his Attributes Clash with another, and to calumniate his Holiness, which consists in the Harmony of them all. I adore his Omnipotency, and tremble at the Thought of calling in Question the Power that made All things of Nothing. Yet I think it my Duty to be wise as well as Devout, and to speak rightly as well as reverently of his Divine Perfections. As his word is the Rule of my Faith, so his Providence is the Polestar of my Reason. And in the Scrutiny of his Works do not so much inquire what he is able to d● as what he uses to do. Being assured tha● as nothing is to him Impossible, so he has stated the Being, Actions, Passions, Qualities and Circumstances of all Things, ordering them i● exact Number, Weight and Measure. So that à posse Dei ad esse Rei non valet Consequentia. He has fixed the Laws of Loco-motion in Corporeal Substances, and tied up the Primum Mobile itself to a certain Proportion of Time and Distance, which it can no more exceed, than the smallest Wheel of a Watch.  
Such prodigious Whirligigs, as the Heavenly Bodies must needs be, in the Ptolomaick Hypothesis, makes me giddy to think on't, and I believe they were troubled with a Vertigo, that first reeled upon the Notion: Or they laboured under the Deception of those at Sea, who sailing within Sight of the Shore, and not being able to perceive the Motion of the Vessel that carries them, are apt to fancy the Neighbouring Cliffs, Towns and Trees were under Sail, and steering a contrary Course, since they so appear to do. For not less silently do I believe the Earth moves constantly round on her Axis, thus making the Natural Day and Night, without putting the whole Frame of the Universe into an unconceivable Hurry.  
The Planet Jupiter is discovered by the Telescope to make the same Circulation in 10 Hours, Mars in 23, and the Sun himself in 28 Days. These are no Chimaeras or Dreams of Poets, no Metaphysical Speculations of Nutshell Brains, but Real Truths, demonstrable by Art and Ocular Experience. And methinks it is a more uniform Idea, if we suppose the Earth to be a Planet like the Rest, and to take its Turn in the Septenary Dance round the Sun, who is placed in the Centre of this Vortex, and is the true Apollo, to whose Music the whole Planetary System keeps Time. I fear not the Lash of Maurolycus, nor the Scourge of his  Brethren. If Copernicus was by ●hem thought Scuticâ & Flagello dignus, for innovating on the Doctrines of Ptolemy; What was Ptolemy himself worthy of, who entrenched on ● greater Antiquity, and undermined the Philosophy of Aristarchus Samius, who taught the Motion of the Earth above four hundred years ●efore Ptolemy was an Infant? For my Part I ●hink it no Treason against the Commonwealth ●f Learning to say, I prefer Galileo's Tube to ●tolomy's Spectacles, and the Discoveries of our English Royal Society, to the blind Conjectures ●f the Peripatetics, and the wild Speculations ●f Athen●.  
When I was first informed that there were discovered four new Stars moving about Jupiter, and three about Saturn, I was as well pleased, as they who received the earliest News of Columbus' landing in America. I am so far from being of Alexander's Humour, that instead of weeping, I should hearty rejoice could I be credibly satisfied, That there are ten Thousand more Worlds, than are already discovered.  
I am naturally Melancholy, and the weigh● of this leaden Complexion does so depress my Spirits, That all the Race of Mankind or Earth seems too small to afford Variety enough for a Relief. This makes me the more willing to believe what my Reason suggests to be true That the Planets are Inhabited. It is a lively as well as a Rational Notion; and since the are Dark, Opake Bodies, like the Earth w● tread on, having no other Light but what the● borrow from the Sun, and seem in all other Circumstances to be adapted for Habitations, see no Solaecism in Philosophy, nor Heres●● against the Faith to believe they are really Inhabited as is this Globe. That they have Succession of Day and Night, and their Satellites ●● Moons to give them Light by Night, even a● we, is demonstrable to the Eye by the help o● the Telescope. But there would, in my Opinion, be little need of all this, were there irrational Inhabitants in those Celestial Globes. ●● is a fastidious Pride in Man to fancy all th● Glittering Furniture above was only made fo● Ornament, or for Shepherds to gaze on in th● Night, or for some other Inferior uses of th● Sons of Adam. And 'tis a narrow Conceit to imagine, that tho' this Globe be plentifully Inhabited by all sorts of Animals, not a Turf of Land, nor a Puddle of Water being without its Tenants, yet all those ample and glorious Bodies above should lie empty and vacant, tho' some of them be far bigger than our Earth, and for aught we know, may be ten times more commodious for Habitation. Those Passages in St. Paul's Epistles to the Philippians 2.11. Ephes. 1.9, 10. Colos. 1.16. seem to be calculated for the Inhabitants of those Heavenly Bodies. And his Emphatical words in Ephes. 3.9. seem to be but a Transcript of the Revelations he received, and of the Things he saw when he was Rapt into the Third Heaven, viz. That there are some in those Heavenly Places, even Principalities and Powers, to whom the manifold Wisdom of God in Christ was made known, and that they were not only Created by Him, but for Him, and that they and we are all of one Family or Descent. These may be some of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which that Holy Apostle speaks of in 2 Cor. 12.4. Words and Mysteries which could not be uttered. And for aught I know, those Being's which he calls Principalities, Powers, Might's, Thrones and Dominions may be no other than the several glorious Colonies of the Celestial Family dwelling in the Stars, who all believe in the same Eternal Jesus, even as we do, and through his Mediation make their Approaches to God the Father. This may be the farther Fellowship of the Mystery of God, hid from the Beginning. This the untraceable Riches of Christ, which put St. Paul to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. O the Depth of his Wisdom! O the Superlative Greatness of his Power! But whether the Planets be Inhabited or no, this I am assured of, and can produce an Hundre● Authentic Witnesses, that they are Dark Body's, like the Earth we tread on, and tha● they have no Light but what they receive from the Sun, which also they do but partially enjoy like us, by Successive Hemispheres, having their Day and Night measured out to them proportionate to the Time they take up in moving round their Centres.  
When I have tired myself with following these visible Motions of Nature, I retire Home again, thinking to take Sanctuary in myself, and find a Rest in the Contemplation of my own Soul: But there I do but commence a new Fatigue, and am hurried about in a perpetual Circle by an invisible Energy within me. I think, speak, and act with infinite Variety, yet know not how I perform these different Operations. I know myself to be an Incorporeal Substance, and can easily feel out my own Independency on the Body. I look on this House of Clay I carry about with me, to be only my Prison. But how I am confined to this Prison, I that am but a poor Scintillation or Spark of the Eternal Sun, is a Riddle which I cannot solve. I can better imagine how a Beam of our Visible Sun may be united to a Marble Statue, than that a pure Thought should be fastened to a Clod of Earth, from which it cannot free itself but by Death, though it can pervade all the Universe beside. What Cement is it that thus closely ties together two such incompatible Essences, as Heaven and Earth, Light and Darkness, Spirit and Body? This is a Knot must be left for Elias to untie, and is indeed one chief Argument of the Shipwreck of Humane, Reason, since not only all other Things are obscure to us, but we are so to ourselves, the nearest Objects, even our own Domestic Operations are as incomprehensible to us, as those that are farthest off. The Things that touch us, nay the very Faculties by which we touch, see, understand, etc. are as distant from us as the Ninth Sphere, & we are as much strangers to ourselves, as to the Inhabitants of Terra Incognita. There would be nothing more welcome to me than a History of my Original, for I do not compute my Age or Family, by the short Chronology of the Parish-Register; nor do I think myself much the older by my Mother's Additional Record of Nine Months, I lived in her Womb. I esteem her Reckoning from my Conception, but the Tragic Memories of my Death, and those which by most are accounted the Chambers of Life, and Shops of Generation, are no better in my Judgement than the Receptacles of the Dead, Seminaries of Corruption, the Graves of Souls defunct to the Higher World. For I believe I was then Born when the Morning Stars Sang together, and when all the Sons of God shouted for Joy. I time my Infancy with that of the Universe, and esteem no Man older or younger than myself, no not the Angels themselves, believing that all Spiritual Substances were Created together, in the Beginning. I will not with some accuse Moses of scantiness in his History of the Creation, because according to the Letter he seems to take but little notice of Immaterial Being's. The Hebrew Cabbala, with the Commentaries of their Learned Rabbins, and some of the Primitive Fathers of the Christian Church do sufficiently evince, That there are greater Mysteries contained in the Three first Chapters of Genesis, than the bare Letter, or Vulgar Translations seem to exhibit. There is a Sacrament in that Holy Language, which whosoever partakes of, can be no stranger to the Natural and Divine Truths couched under it. To such an One the History of the Terrestrial Adam's Happy State in Paradise, and his Banishment from thence, will be an Hieroglyphic of the Original Beatitude of the Immaterial World, and the Degeneracy of humane Souls, their Descent from the Aetherial Mansions, and Consinement to Houses of Clay, as well as of the Fall of Angels. I seem to myself, not without Reason to embrace the Doctrine of the Praeexistence of Souls, since it was among the Credenda of many Ancient Sages, a peculiar Tradition of the Jews, and the general Opinion of all the East. That Question which was put to our Saviour concerning the Man that was born Blind, whether it was for his own sins, or those of his Parents, seems clearly to imply, That he was in a Condition or Capacity of sinning before his Birth, which how it could be without supposing the Praeexistence of his Soul, is past my Divinity or Philosophy to unriddle. The various Conjectures also which the Jews made of Christ, according to the Report of his Disciples, when some said he was Elias, others that he was one of the Prophets, a third sort, that he was John the Baptist risen from the Dead, are evident Arguments, That the Doctrine of Praeexistence, and a Metempsychosis was established as part of the Creed of that Nation. Of which also that passage in the Wisdom of Solomon is no obscure hint, where the Author says, Or rather being a good Spirit, I came into a Body pure and undefiled. Neither am I startled because I find not Christ, or any of his Apostles asserting, or so much as mentioning any such Doctrine. St. John's Hyperbole in the last verse of his Gospel, satisfies me, that I must not expect to find all that our Saviour did and said, registered by the Evangelists: And St. Paul's frequent Exhortation to hold fast the Traditions that he had imparted to them, whether by Word or Epistle, convince me, That it is not unreasonable to conclude, That he delivered many Doctrines in his Sermons, which he had no occasion to mention in his Letters to the Churches: Among which this might be one. However, it is a sufficient Warrant to my Belief, That I no where in all the Scriptures can find this Doctrine reprehended. Which, had it been an Error, could not have escaped the censure of Christ and his Apostles; it being the Universal Tenet of all sorts of Jews, except the Sadduces. When I consider also that Origen and Ammonius taught it in the Schools of Alexandria. (Plotinus himself learning it from the latter) and that all the Primitive Fathers who were Platonists, asserted it not only as a Philosophical, but also as a Divine Truth; I look upon it as an Effect of Gothick Barbarity and Ignorance, which afterwards overspread all Christendom, That neither this, nor hardly any other Point of Platonism were countenanced in the Christian Schools, but only the Dictates of Aristotle and his Ghost Averro. In fine, that elegant Flourish of St. Augustine, Infundendo creature, creando infunditur, is no Rule of my Faith in this Point, since it fastens so many irreverend Consequences on God Almighty; neither can I believe the Soul to be ex Traduce, because it carries in its Front so many Inconsistencies in Philosophy, besides the Indignity that is done to the Soul thereby, which amounts to a true Scandalum Magnatum, since 'tis levelled at the whole Order of immaterial Being's. I must therefore believe, That I had a Being long before I came into this Body, and yet not resolve the Manner of my Existence into a mere Potentiality, or an unactive slumber in the Bosom of my Causes, as if I were then but a Seminal Idea in the Blood of my Fathers, or a Metaphysical Dream of my present self. I believe I was in a State of greater Activity before I was conceived by my Mother than since she bore me; and for aught I know, have ●●rang'd all the Boundless Tracts of the Universe, been Naturalised in the several Regions of the Sky and Air, till being tired with so vast a Ramble, and willing to try all States of Life, I was by the Force of a strong Inclination, and the irresistible Charm of rightly adapted Matter, alured into this Terrestrial Body, here to do Penance for the Faults of my Superior Life, and in this Horizon between the upper and the lower World to make my Choice of Good or Evil, Light or Darkness, Life or Death. This unlocks all the Aenigmas of Providence; and reconciles the harsher Difficulties with which the Immediate Creation or Traduction of Souls is involved. It is the noblest Instrument of Virtue, the sharpest Spur to a Divine Life, whilst it doubles the Hope; we have of being Immortal à Parte post, by assuring us we were so à Parte ante. And that it is not from any Arbitrary Decree of God, inconsistent with the Rest of his Divine Perfections, that we shall live for ever, but from our own Nature and Essence, being Created to subsist an interminable Duration of Ages.  
I believe those Books of the Holy Scripture which are lost, could they possibly be recovered again, would serve as a Lamp to enlighten us in many Obscurities of Religion, History, and Nature: And if the Writings of Jasher, Idd● the Prophet, etc. could inform us nothing of the Praeexistence of Souls, 'tis very probabl● the more early Oracles of Enoch would, sinc● he was but the Seventh Soul that was drench'● in Terrestrial Matter, and led so pure and incorrupt a Life, as would tempt one to believe, That he was awakened to the Memory of his former State, which for aught we know, might have no small influence on his succeeding Change.  
I have often wondered where St. Judas had so particular an Account of Michael the Arch-Angels dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses, that he was able to relate the very words that passed between them. Surely the Jews had some Books, or at least Traditions, which were believed to be Orthodox, tho' they were not so much as mentioned in the Sacred Canon; for we cannot without great Impiety imagine that the Holy Saint would impose upon our Belief any thing that was Foreign or Apocryphal. I am apt to conclude from hence, That there were many Traditional Doctrines entertained among the Hebrews, which are by us esteemed no better than Fables.  
However, tho' I am thus convinced of the Truth of our Praeexistence, and that this present Life is but a Shadow or Dream in comparison of what we enjoyed before our Immersion in the Flesh; yet I would not have this Dream interrupted by any untimely or harsher stroke of Destiny. I should think it no inconvenience to live long! but rather a Blessing, That so a multitude of years might scum off the Froth and Sullage of our Appetites and Passions, that so being gradually weaned from those low Affections which brought us down to the Earth, we may without any Disquiet or Turbulence remount to our Aetherial Homes. For I am apt to think that those ●ouls who go out of their Bodies, with any remaining Relish upon them of the Body, like Fruit that is either plucked off, or shaken down by violent Winds, still retain in their separation, a raw and eager smack of the Flesh, with a languishing Bias toward it. Whereas he that has tarried his full Period, in the Body, parts from it with Ease and Willingness, as Ripe Fruit drops from the Tree. And therefore I do not wonder that the most general Scene of Apparitions, Ghosts, etc. is the Churchyard, or at least that Place where the Body of the Spectrum was buried. And the removed Earth which covered the Cobbler of Silesia 's Body is a shrewd intimation, That there are some Departed Souls, which if they seek not a Reunion with their Bodies, yet endeavour to hold a kind of Correspondence with them even in the Grave. And tho' the Impossibility of being married again to these their dear Consorts, after that final Divorce, were enough, one would think, to cure their Impotent Desires, yet they burn with a new Lust, and commit a Spiritual Adultery in the unlawful Bed of the Grave. These I look on as the Effects of a too early and violent Separation and therefore esteem Methuselah and the Res● of the Fathers before the Flood, happy; who prolonged their years to the utmost standard of Humane Life, and seemed not so much t● die, (for that imports Violence) as voluntarily to forsake their old Rotten Habitation shake Hands with their Bodies, and so retu●● to the Aetherial Palaces, from whence they ha● so long straggled.  
Yet notwithstanding the great Esteem ● have of long Life, as a Means rather to Improve than Impair us; I cannot promise myself to outlive a Jubilee, tho' I have already seen one Revolution of Saturn. Neither do I affect to make Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Grand Seigniours, the Landmarks in the Chronology of myself; That were to insult over the Royal Ashes of Princes, besides the Ambition in Ranking myself in their Number. Methinks I grow old even at those Years when the World counts me Young, and possess the Heritage of David's last Ten Years of Fourscore, in the Prime of my Age.  
Indeed the whole Earth, and all this Planetary World seems to droop and decay. Every Species of Being's grow weak and languid, and seem to draw near their Dissolution. Yet 'tis needless to engage God in the Act, since tho' Creation was above the Force of Nature, yet Mutation is not, and no Annihilation can proceed from that Paternal Essence of Essences. It seems easy to me to believe, That the World will perish upon the Ruins of its own Principles. And tho' the precise Period of its Destruction be not known to the Angels themselves, yet there are not wanting some Philosophical Rules, whereby one might venture to Calculate its Duration, and by observing the various Attempts, Eruptions and Devastations made by Fire already, one may conjecture ●bout what Time that most active Element ●hall be let lose, to destroy this Face of the World, and transform this Superannuated Hea●en and Earth into New Ones, as the Holy Prophet has foretold. For as to Annihilation, look on it as a Chimaera, or Non Entity, which cannot be said to slow from Him who ●s All-being, and the Fountain of Existence. ●t were easier to conceive that Cold should ●e the immediate Effect of Fire, and Darkness the Natural Result of the actual Pre●ence of Light, than to think that Annihilation or not Being can proceed from Him ●ho is the Original Source of Being, from ●hose Divine Power, Wisdom and Good●ess all Things flow by a Necessary Emanation, and continue in their several Perfecti●ns by as unalterable a Law as that which ●ave them; so that there can be no Vanity supposed in their Eternal Subsistence, ●o Leaps or Starts from Something to No●●ing. It is far more agreeable to the Principles of Philosophy to conceive, That only ●●e Gross and Corruptible Part of the Universe shall be subject to the Action of Fire, such as the Earth we tread on with the other Planetary Bodies; but that the purest Aether shall remain for ever untouched, unchanged the Sanctuary of the Blessed, the Habitation of the Spirits of Just men made perfect. I a● also confirmed in this Belief by something more Sacred and Authentic than natural Philosophy. For when the Royal Psalmist in th● Divine Rhapsody calls upon the Heaven's 〈◊〉 Heavens, and the Waters which are above t●● Heavens to praise God, he gives this for ● Reason, (viz.) Because he spoke and the were made, he commanded and they wer● created. He established them to Eternity and for Everlasting Ages: He fixed a Decree which he will not disannul. Then he calls upo● the Earth and all Creatures therein to join i● the same Act of Praise, but not for the sam● Reason; not because the Earth shall endu●● for ever, but because the Name of God alon● is exalted, and his Honour above Heaven an● Earth. Which Distinction seems to me a● evident Argument of the unalterable Stability of the Celestial and Aetherial World, what●●ever Mutations and Changes the Terrestrial may be subject to.  
That those immense Tracts of quiet and impassable Aether shall be the Seat of the Bless is very consistent with Philosophy, and 〈◊〉 ways repugnant to Divinity. However, le● the Place be where it pleases God, we ar● assured that the Entertainment and Joys ●● far surpass all humane Comprehension. Ye● tho' we cannot have adequate Conceptions of Supreme Felicity, there are some Landmarks by which we may take imperfect Measures of that Region of Promise. The Dim-Light of Natural Reason may afford us a Glimpse, or faint Prospect of those Superlative Joys, and the Optics of Faith will improve the View. We shall have the same Nature and Faculties there as here, but free from the least Alloy of Frailty and Imperfection. Our Souls shall display the radiant Brightness of their Immortal Essence with stronger Vibrations than the Sun, having no internal Scum of Concupiscence boiling out from the Centre of a depraved Will or erroneous Understanding, to blemish and slain those unspotted Orbs of Light; nor a terrene gross Body to Eclipse and shut up their Splendours. But being ever Bright and Serene, they shall shine through their Glorified and Spiritual Bodies, as the Sun does through the pervious Air, or at least as he does on a Bright Cloud, which drinks in his Beams to reflect them abroad with a more sensible Glory. We shall then see, not by receiving the Visible Species into the narrow Glass of an Organised Eye, we shall then hear without the distinct and curious Contexture of the Ear. The Body shall then be all Eye, all Ear. All Sense in the whole, and every Sense in every Part. In a word, it shall be all over a common Sensorium, and being made of the purest Aether, without the Mixture of any lower or grosser Element, the Soul shall by one undivided Act, at once perceive all that Variety of Objects which now cannot without several distinct Organs, and successive Actions or Passions, reach our Sense. From this Superlative Tenuity and Claritude of our Bodies, will aris● that ineffable Delicacy in the Sensation of the Soul, which will transport it with Delight infinitely transcending the Height of Mort●● Voluptuousness, nay and even those more exalted Pleasures which the Virtuous sometimes enjoy here on Earth as foretastes of their future Beatitude in Heaven. What here excites bu● an Ordinary Emotion of Joy in the Soul, wi●● there produce all Raptures and Ecstasies. We shall be always in Paroxisms of Love, such are the transcendent Beauties of that admirable Place! and such the divinely amorous Bend of the Soul. We shall be always languishing, yet ever enjoying what we languish for: Neither suffering the least Pain through the Want of Fruition, nor through any Satiety that shall attend it: But through the Vigour of an Immortal Activity, we shall have ever freshly kindle● Desires and new Enjoyments, being dissolved in a Circle of Beatitude without Measure or End.  
Here on Earth Men generally strive to Monopolise Pleasure to themselves, there being few of so generous a Temper as to be sensibly touched with Delight, that another should partake with them in that which they esteem Felicity: This is the peculiar Advantage of the Blessed in Heaven, that even in the Height of the Affairs of Immortal Love and Empire, where they possess Eternal Crowns and unfading Beauties, there is no such Thing to be found as a Rival or Competitor, but every one's Joy is enhanced by the Enjoyments of another. Every one loves all, and all love every one. Neither would their Felicity be Perfect, could any Member of that Happy Society be supposed not to have his full proportion and share of Beatitude. So communicative is the Love and Joy of those Holy Souls, that they must cease to love and enjoy themselves, should they desist from loving and rejoicing in the Happiness of their Fellow-Citizens. And if we may take our Measures of their Joys from our Common Experiences here on Earth, it will be no small Augmentation of their Complacency, to find those very Friendships which they had contracted here below, translated to the Mansions above, when they shall both see and know those whom they once loved on Earth, how to be made Denizens with them in Heaven, with what Ardours will they caress one another! With what Transports of Divine Affection will they mutually embrace, and vent those Innocent Flames, which had so long lain smothering in the Grave! How passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will their Expressions be, when their Sentiments which Death had Frozen up, when he congealed their Blood, shall now be Thawed again in the warm Airs of Paradise! Like Men that have escaped a common Shipwreck, and swim safe to the Shore, they will congratulate each other's Happiness with Joy and Wonder. Their first Addresse● will be a Dialect of Interjections and short Periods the most Pathetic Language of Surprise and high wrought Joy! And all their after converse eve● to Eternity, will be couched in the highest Strains and Flowers of Heavenly Oratory, wi●● Allelujahs intermixed.  
It much sweeteneth the thoughts of Heave● to me to remember that there are a multitude of my Friends gone thither; to think such ● Friend that died at such a time, and such a 〈◊〉 at another time (O! what a number of th●● could I name) and that all these I shall meet ●gain. 'Tis true, it's a question with some wheth●● we shall know each other in Heaven or no? b●● 'tis none with me; for surely there shall ●● Knowledge cease which now we have, b●● only that which implieth our Imperfection and what Imperfection can this imply? Inde●● we shall not know each other after the flesh, n●● by Stature, Voice, Colour, or outward Shap● nor by Terms of Affinity and Consanguinity nor by Youth or Age, nor I think by Sex, bu● by the Image of Christ and Spiritual Relation beyond doubt we shall know and be know● nor is it only my old Friends (such as Esse● Russel, Sidney, etc.) that I shall know in Heaven, but all the Saints of all Ages, who Faces in the Flesh I never saw. Luther in 〈◊〉 last sickness being asked his Judgement wheth●● we shall know one another in Heaven, answered thus, Quid accidit Adamo? nunquam i● viderat Evam, etc. i. e. How was it with Adam? he had never seen Eve, yet he asketh not who she was, or whence she came, but saith, She is Flesh of my Flesh, and Bone of my Bone. And how knew he that? Why, being endued with the true knowledge of God, he so pronounced; after the same sort shall we be renewed by Christ in another Life. And we shall know our Parents, Wives, Children, etc. much more perfectly than Adam did then know Eve. In Heaven we shall not only see our Elder Brother Christ, but all our Kindred and Friends that living here in his fear died in his favour, for since our Saviour tells us that the Children of the Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to, 
Luke ●0. 36. Luke 16.  or like the Angels who yet in the Visions of Daniel and St. John appear to be acquainted with each other, since in the Parable of the miserable Epicure and the happy Beggar the Father of the Faithful is represented, as knowing not only the Person and present condition, but the past story of Lazarus: Since the Instructor of the Gentiles confidently expects his converted and pious Thessalonians to be his Crown at that great day: Since these Arguments, besides divers others are afforded us by the Scripture, we may safely conclude that we shall know each other in a place where, since nothing requisite to happiness can be wanting, we may well suppose that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves, our Friends.  
Thus far we may venture to speak of the lower Degrees of Celestial Beatitude, the mutual Love and Entertainment of the Blessed. But who has ever mounted to the Highest Scale of Heavenly Bliss? Let him come down and tell us the Mysteries wrapped up i● Clouds, the Secrets hid within the Veil of Inaccessible Light! Let him describe the Wonders of the Beatific Vision, and say how dee● the Rivers of Pleasure are which run by God● Right Hand for evermore! For my Part, I must confess, I'm lost in that Abyss of Wonders, and therefore modestly withdraw my Pen to Subjects more Domestic and within ou● Reach, and yet even here I shall but pass from one Abyss to another, since every Thing has a Depth in it not to be fathomed by our weightiest Sense or most solid Reason.  
I have often tried to dive into the Profundities of Death, but still I find my Intellect too light a Plummet, and the whole Thread of Life, though spun out in finest Speculations would still prove far too short to reach that endless Bottom.  
'Tis true there have been men that have tried even in Death itself to relish and taste it, and who have bend their utmost Faculties of Mind to discover what this passage is; but they are none of them come back to tell us the News.  
— No one was ever known to wake,  
Who once in Death's cold Arms a Nap did take.  Lucret. Lib. 3. 
Canius Julius being condemned by that Beast Caligula, as he was going to receive the stroke of the Executioner, was asked by a Philosopher, Well Canius, said he, whereabout is your Soul now? What is she doing? What are you thinking of? I was thinking, replied Canius, to keep myself ready, and the Faculties of my Mind settled and fixed, to try if in this short and quick instant of Death I could perceive the motion of the Soul when she parts from the Body, and whether she has any resentment at the Separation, that I may after come again to acquaint my Friends with it.  
So that I fancy there is a certain way by which some Men make Trial what Death is, but for my own part I could ne'er yet find it out.  
I have sometimes thought what would I give for the least glimpse of that invisible World which the first step I take out of this Body will present me with, and that there was nothing in the whole discourse of Death that I durst not mee● the boldest way, and have therefore often attempted to look him full in the Face, that I might learn to die generously, but still when it came to the pinch Conscience that makes Cowards of us all, made one of me, and I was forced to shrink back with shame.  
Yet surely the Terror is not so much in Death itself, as in the Tragic Pomp that goes before and after it. The tedious Discipline of Sickness, the formal Visits of Relations and Friends, their melancholy Chat, the frightful Harangue of the Physician, and our own dismal Apprehensions compose that horrid Scene which renders Death uncomfortable. When the poor Patient that perhaps may yet outlive his Fears of Death, and see Millions drop into the Grave before him, yet dies a Thousand Deaths in his Hag-ridden Fancy, and makes his Bed his Grave by strength of an abused Imagination.  
'Tis only Fancy gives Death those hideous Shapes we think him in, for indeed Death is no more than a soft and easy Nothing, or rather Natures playday. I firmly think it is no more to die than to be born, we felt no pain coming into the World; nor shall we in the act of leaving it, though in the first one would believe there were more of Trouble than in the latter, for we cry coming into the World, but quietly and calmly leave it. What is Death but a ceasing to be what we were, before we were, we are kindled and put out; to cease to be and not to begin to be is the same thing. Methinks it is but th' other day I came into the World, and anon I am leaving it; for though I am but in my thirtieth year, and at present in perfect health and strength, yet I look upon myself as a man that has one foot in the Grave already, for David says seventy is the Age of man, and I have lived near thirty years of that time already. The longest of my design's now is not above a years extent, I think of nothing now but ending, take my last leave of every place I depart from; alas! there is no fooling with Life when it is once turned beyond thirty. Silence was a full answer of him that being asked what he thought of Humane Life, said nothing, turned him round and vanished. Oh how Time runs away! and we are dead  we have time to think ourselves alive, one doth but Breakfast here, another Dine, he that liveth longest doth but Sup, we must all go to Bed in another World, therefore good night to you here, and good morrow hereafter.  
Indeed our whole Life is but one often repeated Stop to Death, and we are as near it at the first Minute of our setting out as at a hundred years' end. For Death either keeps an even Collateral Pace with us from our very Birth, or at least he marches but one Step behind us all the way of our Life; so that when the appointed Time is come for him to execute his Commission, he soon can reach forth his Hand, arrest us, and stop our further Journey. Man in the Vigour and Prime of his years, Fancies himself in the midst of a vast Plain; he looks behind him, and numbers all the weary Steps of Life he has already taken, persuades himself that Death must also measure the same space of years in his Pursuit, before he can o'ertake Him; then turning his Eyes before, he sees a boundless Tract, an indeterminate set of years; being thus deluded by the Enchanted Prospect, he rushes on, and bids defiance to pale languid death, imagining he sees him lagging afar off, at the first entrance of all the wide-stretched Waste, whereas the nimble Skeleton is as far advanced as he, only keeps out of sight, and will never be seen till the very moment he gives the fatal stroke. To whatsoever Light Man's turn his Face, death like his Shadow, whips behind Him still, and is at his Back, but ne'er will Face him, till the latest Gasp. And he that can stoutly bear his Looks for that one Moment, shall never see him more to all Eternity. 'Tis but the Fear of this one Moment's Pain, that makes our Lives so uneasy all along. And I am really ashamed of this incorrigible Folly of Mortals, who spend so many years in painful Disquisitions how to protract the Pain of one poor moment, and undergo ten times more Labour to escape it, than they can possibly feel in undergoing it. I admire the Resolution of the Indian Wives, who in contempt of Death, scorn to survive their Husband's Funeral Pile, but with chaste Zeal, and an undaunted Courage, throw themselves into the Flames, as if they were then going to the Nuptial Bed. Certainly they calculate aright, who reckon the Day of our Death, the Day of our Nativity, since we are then Born to the Possession of Immortal Life. For this Reason I honour the Memory of Ludovicus Cartesius the Paduan Lawyer, who in his Last Will and Testament ordered, that no sad Funeral Rites should be observed for Him, but that His Corpse should be attended with Music and Joy to the Grave, and as if it were the Day of his Espousals, he commanded that Twelve Suits of Gay Apparel should be provided instead of Mourning for an equal number of Virgins, who should usher his Body to the Church.  
It will not, I hope, be an unpardonable Transition, if I start back from the melancholy Horrors of Death, to the innocent Comforts of Humane Life, and from the Immortal Nuptials of this Italian, pass to the Mortal Emblem, the Rites of Matrimony, the Happiness of Female Society, and our Obligations to Women. 'Tis an uncourtly Virtue, which admits of no Proselytes but Men devoted to Coelibacy, and he is a Reproach to his Parents, who shuns the Entertainments of Hymen, the blissful Amours of the Fair Sex, without which he himself had not gained so much as the Post of a cipher, in the Numeration of Mankind, though he now makes a Figure too much in Nature's Arithmetic, since he would put a stop to the Rule of Multiplication. He is worse than Numa Pompilius, who appointed but a set number of Virgins, and those were free to Marry, after they had guarded the Sacred Fires, the Term of four years: Whereas if his morose Example were followed, all Women should turn Vestals against their wills, and be consecrated to a peevish Virginity during their Lives. I wonder at the unnatural Fancy of such as could wish we might procreate like Trees, as if they were ashamed of the Act, without which they had never been capable of such an extravagant Thought, or like Alphonsus' King of Spain, would correct the Institutions of Heaven, and say, Had they been present with God, when he commanded Adam and Eve to increase and multiply, they would have proposed a bette● method for Generation. Certainly he that Created us, and has riveted the Love of Women in the very Centre of our Natures, never gave us those passionate Desires to be our incurable Torment, but only as Spurs to our Wit and Virtue, that by the Dexterity of the One and the Integrity of the Other, we might Merit and Gain the Darling Object which should consummate our Earthly Happiness.  
I do not patronise the Smoke of those Dunghill-Passions, who only court the Possessions of an Heiress, and fall in Love with her Money. This is to make a Market of Women, and prostitute the Noblest Affection of our Souls to the sordid Ends of Avarice. Neither do I commend the softer Aims of those, who are wedded only to the Charming Lineaments of a Beautiful Face, a clear Sk●n, or a well shaped Body. 'Tis only the Virtue, Discretion, and good Humour of a Woman could ever captivate me, and I am blessed in a Mate who has her share both of these and the other exterior Ornaments.  
I hate the Cynical Flout of those who can afford Women no better Title than Necessary Evils, and the lewd Poetical Licence of Him who made this Anagram, Vxor & Orcus— idem. That Orator whispered the Doctrine of Devils, who said, Were it not for the Company of Women, Angels would come down and dwell among us. I rather think, were it not for such ill natured Fellows as he, womans themselves would prove Angels  
'Tis an ungrateful Return, thus to abuse that Gentle Sex, who are the Moulds in which all the Race of Adam are cast: As if they deserved no better Treatment at our Hands, than we usually give to Saffron Bags and Verde Bottles, which are thrown into a Corner, when the Wine and Spice are taken out of them. The Pagan Poet was little better than a Murderer, who allowed but two good Hours to a Woman.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Vnam in Thalamo, alteram in Tumulo.  
For my Part, I should esteem the World but a Desert, were it not for the Society of the Fair Sex; and the most Polished Part of Mankind would appear but like Hermits in Masquerade, or a kind of Civilised Satyrs, so imperfect and unaccomplished is our Virility, without the Reunion of our lost Rib, that Substantial and Integral Part of ourselves. Those who are thus disjointed from Women, seem to inherit Adam's Dreams, out of which nothing can awake them, but the Embraces of their own living Image, the Fair Traduct of the first Metamorphosis in the World, the Bone converted into Flesh. They are always in Slumbers and Trances, ever separated from themselves, in a wild Pursuit of an intolerab●● Loss, nor can any thing fix their Volatile Desires, but the powerful Magnetism of some Charming Daughter of Eve. These are the Centres of all our Desires and Wishes, the true Pandora's that alone can satisfy our longing Appetites, and fill us with Gifts and Blessings, in them we live before we breathe, and when we have tasted the Vital Air, 'tis but to die an amorous Death, that we may live more pleasantly in them again. They are the Guardians of our Infancy, the Life and Soul of our Youth, the Companions of our Riper Years, and the Cherishers of our Old Age. From the Cradle to the Tomb, we are wrapped in a Circle of Obligations to them for their Love and good Offices. And he is a Monster in Nature who returns them not the Caresses of an Innocent Affection, the Spotless Sallies of Virtue and Gratitude. Love is the Soul of the World, the Vital Prop of the Elements, 'tis the Cement of Humane Society, the strongest Fence of Nature. Earth would be a Hell without it, neither can there be any Heaven where this is absent.  
Yet I am no Advocate for those general Lovers, who not content to let this active Passion run within the lawful Channel of chaste Marriage, swell it up with irregular Tides, and wanton Floods of Lust, till it wash away the Banks of Reason and Morality, find out new Passages and Rivulets, encroaching on other men's Possessions, or at least dilating on the general waste of the weaker Sex, who ought to be as Gardens enclosed, or holy Ground not to be profaned by the Access of every bold Intruder.  
I approve not the Incestuous Mixtures of the Chinese where the Brother Marries the Sister, or next akin; nor the Sensual Latitude of the Mahometans, who allow every Man four Wives, and as many Concubines as he can maintain. But above all I detest the wild and Brutal Liberty of that Philosopher, who in his Idea of Humane Happiness, conceived a promiscuous Copulation ad Libitum to be a necessary Ingredient of our Bliss.  
On the Other side, My Regards to that Sex are not circumscribed within such narrow Limits, as to exclude any from our Conversation and Friendship, that by any warrantable Title can lay a Just Claim to it; I would have our Commerce with Females as General as is their Number that deserve it, whose Knowledge and Virtue will be a sufficient security from criminal Familiarities, and from the Scandals of the World. There are among that Sex as among Men, Good and Bad, Virtuous and Vicious, and a Prudent Man will so levelly his Cho●ce, as not to slain his Reputation, or hazard his Integrity. 'Tis no small Point of Discretion, I own, to regulate our Friendships with Women, and to walk evenly on the Borders and very Ridge of a Passion, whose next Step i● a Precipice of Flames not kindled from th● Altar of Virtue. However, 'tis not impossible to conserve Innocency, on the Frontiers of Vic● There is no Difference of Sex among Souls, and Masculine Spirit may inhabit a Woman's Bod● It is disingenuous to rob Virtue of the Advantages it receives from Beauty, which make 〈◊〉 appear like Diamonds enchased in Gold, a●● gives it a greater Lustre. Reason itself will ●●pear more Eloquent in the Mouth of a fair Ma● than in that of the most Florid Orator: An● there are no Figures in all the System of Rhetoric so moving and forcible as the peculiar Graces of that Sex. I am of Opinion that Me● can boast of no Endowments of the Mind which Women possess not in as great, if not a greater Eminency. There have been Mus●● as well as Amazons, and no Age or Nation bu● has produced some Females Renowned for their Wisdom or Virtue. Which makes me conclude that the Conversation of Women is no less useful than pleasant, and that the Dangers which attend their Friendships and Commerce, are recompensed by vast Advantages.  
But whatever may be adduced against the Friendships we contract with Women, there is not in all the Magazine of Detraction any Weapon of Proof against the mutual Intimacies of our own Sex, the generous Endearments of Souls truly Masculine and Virtuous, united by Sympathies and Magnets whose Root is in Heaven. No Panegyrics can reach the Worth of these Divine Engagements, since they admit not of any Mediocrity, but derive their Value only from their Excess. I have been always slow and cautious in contracting Amity's, lest I should run the Risque of his Mistake, who while he thought he had an Angel by the Hand, held the Devil by the Foot: But where I have once pitched my Affection, I love without Reserve or Rule. I never entertain without suspicion the warm Professions of Love, which some Men are apt to make at first sight. Such Mushroom-Friendships have no deep Root, and therefore most commonly whither as soon as they are formed. Yet I deny not, but that there are some secret Marks and Signatures which Souls ordained for Love and Friendship can read in each other at a Glance, by which that Noble Passion is excited, that afterwards displays itself in more apparent Characters. This is the silent Language of Platonic Love, wherein the Eye supplies the Office of the Tongue; 'tis the Rhetoric of Amorous Spirits wherein they make their Court without a Word. There are some lasting Friendships which own their Birth to such an Interview, but their Growth and Fastness proceeds from other Circumstances, being cherished by frequent Conversation, repeated good Offices, and an inviolate Fidelity, which are the only proper and substantial Aliment of Love. 'Tis impossible to fix a durable Friendship, wherever we place a Transient Inclination, because of the insuperable Necessities which divide particular Men from each Others Commerce or Knowledge after they have begun to Love. In the Orb of this Life Men are like the Planets, which now and then cast friendly Aspects on each other en Passant: But following the Motion of the Greater Sphere of Providence, the● are again separated, their Influences dissolved and new Amours commenced. But I would have my Friendship, resemble the Fixed Sta●● and Constellations, who in the Eternal Revolution never part Company or Interests.  
I have ever looked on those Men to be bu● one step differenced from Beasts, whose Love is confined only to their own Families or Kindred. Such a narrow Affection deserves not to be ranked in the Predicament of Humanity. My Love is communicative it makes a large Progress, and extends itself to Strangers, it takes in Men of different Humours and Complexions, Customs and Languages, it refuses none that have the Face of Men, but with wide-opened Arms embraces all that bear the stamp of Humane Nature. And I have this peculiar in my Temper, that I find not the least Reluctancy in loving and doing Good to my Enemies. That which costs others so much Labour and Toil to persuade themselves to, is to me as familiar and easy, as to laugh at a ridiculous Object, and I esteem it not so properly a Virtue in myself, as a Gift of Nature, the Effect of my Constitution.  
Yet I cannot pretend to such an universalized Spirit, as to be without my Antipathies. I esteem Hatred to be as necessary and allowable a Passion as Love, provided it be exercised on its proper Objects, since as the One fastens us to those Things which procure our Happiness, so the Other snatches us from what would be the Cause of our Misery. I observe, that these contrary Faculties are inherent in all Creatures, neither could the Creation subsist, were it not for the Discords as well as the Agreements of the Elements. The whole Universe subsists by the Opposition of its Parts, and the Epitome of it, our Microcosm is preserved by its intestine Divisions. So that I cannot apprehend a more immediate Way for the Supreme Architect to overthrow his Works, than by diffusing that Nepenthe through the Elements, which should compose their Quarrels, for they would not sooner cease to hate their Contraries, but they would also desist from loving themselves, and having thus lost the Cement which fastens them together in this exquisite Order, they must necessarily return to their Primitive Chaos out of which they were extracted.  
However I will not from these innocent Feuds of inanimate Creatures draw Arguments to countenance in myself a Hatred which is Criminal, being assured that among those various Aversions which molest the Quiet of Men, there is hardly one which is not against Reason or Morality. Every Creature bears in its Essence the stamp of Infinite Goodness; and 'twere gross Impiety to calumniate any of those Works, on which God Himself has bestowed an universal Panegyric, when he pronounced them all to be Good. They are all lovely in their Order, and those which our Squeamish Fancies esteem the most odious, have Qualities which claim our Love and Admiration. Those venomous Creatures which we eat as the inveterate Enemies of our Race, deserve ou● Caresses instead of our Spite, since the Service they afford us, equals the Hurt we receive from them, and the most Efficacious Medicines are sometimes compounded of the fiercest Poisons. In strict speaking, the Devils themselves are not the Object of my Hatred, according to their Essence, though they are so by the Malice of their Will. They still retain their Natural Perfections, and the Goodness of their Essence remains the same as it was before their Fall. Their Vigour, Beauty, and Intellectual Accomplishments, have suffered no Detriment from the Depravedness of their Affections, but remain untouched, as when they shone among the Hierarchies above. And though God detests and punishes them for their Crimes, yet he Himself loves and conserveses their Essence. There is Nothing therefore in Heaven, Earth or Hell but Sin that deserves our Hatred; with all things else we may be enamoured; and we ought to hate this Monster so much the more, in that by disordering our Natures, it has planted in us those Antipathies and Aversions which make us peevish at the Works of God, and hate those Things which we ought to love.  
But among all the Species of Hatred, I tremble at that which is exercised against our own Race, because I find none so violent, none so inexorable as one Man against another. They are not content with the most furious Sallies of this Passion during their Lives, but to consummate the Height of their Malice, they willingly involve themselves in Death. With Atreus they take Delight in their own Ruin, provided Thyestes may be crushed in it too. Nay this Passion is Immortal, and descends into the very Grave. The Antipathies of Eteocles and Polenius were translated to the other World, their Hatred surviv d their Breath, it lived in their Ashes, and would not suffer their divided Flames to mix in the same Funeral Pile. Above all I abhor the Italians inslexible Cruelty, who bequeath their Hatred as an Inheritance to their Children, adjuring them to Eternal Enmity, with Curses on such of their Offspring as shall ever make Peace with their Foes.  
I quarrel not with that Logic, by which we call a Toad venomous. 'Twou'd prove but a thin Sophistry that should impose on us the Safety of the Experiment; and I doubt our best Metaphysics would make but a weak Antidote against the Force of its Poison. I am not fond of quibbling myself into so dangerous an Absurdity under the Protection of a refined Theory, whose Practice would convince me of a foolish Madness, and that I were neither good Philosopher nor Divine. Yet I cannot say I hate even this Creature which is become the Proverb of Humane Hatred: For as much as it carries with it, in its Life and Motion, the Character and Impression of a Divine Artificer especially for this reason, that we have no ca●● to believe it ever sinned, and consequently thereupon maintains and performs the end and design of its Creation, which tho' it be in a lower Sphere, has this Prerogative beyond Mankind; that it never yet transgressed the Rules, nor violated the Laws of its Maker. Nor can I imagine whence our Reflections upon such Creatures should arise, but from a mistaken Knowledge of ourselves, and a perfect Ignorance of the Nature of all things beside. 'Tis under the Prejudice of Education, and the prevailing Influence of Custom that we labour, and to which we own the greatest and most detected Errors of our Life. Have not some People lived upon that, and deliciously too, that is another Man's Poison? Did not Mithridates take Poison till the strongest Confection of that kind would not do his business when he wanted it? 'Tis to that we are to ascribe the Mischiefs of Humane Life. For if we could once forsake the false Guide we have been used to, and consult our own Reason there's nothing would seem strange to us, nothing uneasy, nothing dreadful. Therefore after I have a little Descanted upon this Subject, in order to Rectify our Judgements and Reform our Practices, I shall cross the Cudgels, and end this Discourse.  
It is impossible fully to set forth the large Dominion and  Power of Custom and common Usage, together with the vast and long Series of Difficulties and Mistakes we lie liable and exposed unto upon that account. 'Tis the Master of the Mint, and Coins Words and Names for things according to its own pleasure, sometimes not at all expressive of the Nature of the thing intended; which have no further signification than what they obtain by repeated use and frequency. We know very well that nothing in its own Nature is accidental, and in respect of the Supreme Author all things are Regular and Designed; but in Reference to us whose purblind Reason can reach no deeper than the Outside, whose Sight is not sharp enough to Dive and Penetrate into the Causes of things, many things prove fortuitous. When Events strange and unexpected fall out, such as we had not the least apprehension or suspicion of beforehand, we call it Chance and Accident. But the Misery is we Terminate there, and never look to the hand that Ordered it. We attribute that to Fortune which is the Effect of a Wise and Skilful Agent. When our Expectations are balked, and our Aims frustrated, we cry 'twas done by chance and think that's all. Whereas we ought to consider that God oftentimes delights to make our Wisdom Foolishness, and thereby gives us caution not to trust our own Foresight; since the Events of all things are in his Power and at his Disposal. He will be Eyed in his Providence, and make Men know that the Success of all their Undertake is at his Discretion. That he is the Sole Governor of the World: That he will be sought unto for his Blessing, and that we must wait his Pleasure and ascribe the Glory of all to Him But this ought not to Encourage us in a Supine and Slothful Negligence; That because God does all things according to the Good Pleasure of his Will, we have nothing to do, but expect he should bring things about for Advantage and Satisfaction. For tho' Grace loves to magnify itself in the Weak, and exerts its Efficacy in mean and contemptible Subjects, yet that's no Ground for us to stand Idle, or sit whining and bewailing our Misfortunes, and think God should bear our burden himself. No, these Remarkable Efforts of the Divine Power are to Encourage our Steadfastness, and confirm us in the belief of its undoubted Presence, when our Designs and Endeavours are conformable. It is Impertinent and Ridiculous to expect Relief from others, when we are wholly unactive to procure it ourselves. We ought to make use of the best Means he affords us, and then Resigning ourselves up to him attend the Success. If it be according to our Desires we must gratefully acknowledge, and thank him for it: If contrary, we must in all Humility submit, confessing his Wisdom infinitely to exceed ours, and that he knows what is better for us than we ourselves This is what Divinity teaches us, and could we be instructed by it, might greatly advance our Peace and Tranquillity in this World.  
This is a strain of Prudence, I know, Mankind can hardly be Skrew'd up to. The Infirmity of Humane Nature is such, that every Shock of unexpected Adversity makes it stagger. We are ready to turn Recreants, and yield the day to every puny Evil, that unlooked for attacks us. 'Tis well if we can support our Spirits and preserve our Courage against a fore-seen Danger; but to be surprised by a Misfortune is to be Overcome. I am of Opinion the Combat would not be Difficult, nor the Victory Uncertain, were we but better acquainted with ourselves; and knew our own strength, and how to apply ourselves to the Work. Some torment themselves with Distracting Apprehensions aforehand, and doubly possess their Misery in Reality and Fancy. Others immediately sink under the Weight as soon as they feel it on their Shoulders. Others fly out into Despair, as if the World were at an End, and they were never to see a good Day again. For my part, as I cannot altogether boast of Insensibility, under my afflictions at present; so neither can I complain of being too Apprehensive of them at distance. I can see the Cloud gathering without much Consternation, and comfort myself with this, that perhaps some Wind or other may blow it away, or I am not Infallibly sure it shall break on my Head. I shall have enough of it whenever it comes and do not so much provide to avoid it, as consider of what Importance it may be whether I escape it or no. Perhaps 'tis my Fault, but I am willing to indulge it. I have no other Means. I can consider it without too much concern. I approach it without Horror. I bring it home to myself, and treat with it as Present, when perhaps it may never come to pass I Inure myself to it, and harden myself in it, by which means it becomes familiar to me, That when it overtakes me I claim acquaintance with it. This dulls the Edge, and blunts the Sting of an Affliction; which otherwise it may be I should never be able to sustain.  
But let us Examine Reason, and see what Arms she can furnish us with for our Defence, against these Violent Assaults. She would in a great measure do our Business for us, could we take her advice, and were there not private Enemies within, that compel us to Surrender before we try our Strength. If our Passions were Disarmed and Subdued, and brought into Obedience to Reason, we might maintain our Ground with less Difficulty, and bid Defiance to Fortune. This aught to be the Subject of our Courage. In this we shall appear more than Conquerors. Let us stop these beginnings and our Business is soon done. Nothing in Nature can be more Tumultuous and Irregular than our own Passions. And with what Face can any Man pretend to withstand the sudden and violent attempts of Fortune, that has no Guard against the inward and unruly motions of his own Soul? Whither do we see some People hurried, by the precipituous Streams of Anger, Love, Hatred, etc. even upon a bare Apprehension and Jealousy, without the least Discovery of Cause or Motive? I have seen the Accidental breaking of a Glass, the loss of a Groat, transport some to such a Degree, that they could hardly Compose and Recover themselves for six hours after. They fall foul upon all without Distinction, all Company must be Disturbed wherever they come, 'tis impossible to give a calm uninterrupted answer to any thing that is asked them. They Stamp, Stare, Burn, Rave, Fret, Roar, as if the Day of Judgement was at hand, and they were a going Quick to Pluto. Wherefore do you wring your Hands? Why are those Tears? Why look you so Discontented? You have lost your best Friend. A dear Relation. You are afraid you shall be Poor. The Wheel is come upon you. You cannot see how your Estate will hold out, and know not how to Live when that is gone. Poor Wretch! The plain truth is you have lost your Reason. What is become of your Religion, your Faith, your Confidence? Is this the upshot of all your talk of relying on Providence, of trusting God? Do you not Belie yourselves? Is he not Able? Is he not Willing? Why are you not Calm? Why are you not Quiet? They may talk as long as they please, but it must be somewhat more than a few fine Words, and patherical Expressions, that must convince me of the sincerity of their Profession, who Distrust Providence upon every slender occasion. Are not these brave men, think you? Grace delights to Accompany a Vigorous and Active Soul, and carries it out to perform Achievements beyond its own strength and above its hopes, but unless our Endeavours comport with our Words, Providence disdains us as unworthy of his Care. What does that Soldier deserve that brags of singly Conquering whole Armies, and turns his Back at the first Charge; nay, runs away perhaps before the Enemy is in view, through a slavish despair of his own ability to resist? Our whole Life is a Warfare. We have many Adversaries to Encounter. Some face us in the open Field, and give us leisure to prepare, and require a sixth and determinate resolution to oppose them. Some surprise us between the Hedge and the Ditch, as they say, and expect we should be perpetually armed and upon our Watch. These are Trials sent on purpose to evidence our Constancy, and if we bear up manfully, our Courage shall be seconded and fortified with an Almighty assistance. Yet it is a common Observation, that none are more apt to repine, than such whose Tongues can run nimbly in matters of this nature.  
To what purpose then should we torment ourselves and others? And seeing we are unable to govern ourselves or our Affairs, why do we not deliver up ourselves to the Conduct of him who Governs the World? Why do we macerate our Souls and Bodies when our vain Imaginations become successless and ineffectual? Since there is a Wise and Intelligent Moderator, who will bring things about according to the Methods of his own superlative Wisdom, in defiance of Humane Craft and Policy. We may lay the Scheme of our Affairs as rationally as we can devise, and back it with our utmost power and diligence, and then we have satisfied our Office and done our Duty for in spite of all, the Issue and Result of all must finally and arbitrarily depend upon the absolute Will and Pleasure of another.  
I am persuaded Custom and Example, lead us into more Errors and Mistakes than any thing else beside. I find we submit to them with great ease and little reluctance. Nay, and think ourselves very excusable in all the slips we make when we follow that Guide. Our very Dispositions, methinks, and natural Inclinations are subdued by them. And in many things drawn to a compliance, even against their own Bias. They Habituate us to Actions, however Ungrateful and Disrelishing at their first appearance, and assist us to perform them with Smoothness and Facility. I find the Path rugged when I am out of my usual way, and we are contented to jog on, quietly in a wrong Road, rather than put ourselves to the Trouble of finding out the right. 'Tis Brutish and Unmanly not to examine what we do, and to be able to give no better account of our Actions, than that it is the Custom of the Place. To what purpose serve our rational and discerning Faculties, if we suspend their Exercise, and not suffer them to have their Play in their natural and proper Velitations? Why should we debase our own Judgements by a slavish submission to common usage. I then frustrate the end of my Being, for one of the main businesses I have here is to acquire the knowledge of myself. And 'tis for my own Actions I shall be immediately accountable, and not those of other men. Example, I confess, may be of great use, but than it must be managed according to discretion. It may serve as a Caution but never as a Rule: It may be admitted into Council, but not entrusted with the Government. It may prove an Excellent Monitor, but a very wretched Dictator. Nor when thus qualified and circumscribed can it be of any advantage to us, without a previous knowledge and understanding of ourselves. 'Tis the Wise man only, that knows his own strength, that shall use it with success. And as such an ●●●e has less need of it; so he shall be further removed from it; Insinuating and Usurping Dominion.  
I would therefore begin first with myself, ransack my own Soul, and exactly know its frame and constitution. I would muster my own forces first, and dive into the truth of things, and put my Understanding upon the Exercise of its Function, and give my Judgement its full swing. Truth shall be the Subject of my Disquisition, and the End of my Enquiry.  
If we look into the behaviour and practice of most men, we shall find Fancy to have the Ascendant over them. The Dread of not succeeding shakes their Resolutions. They are Timorous and Inconstant because they neither know Themselves, nor what they would be at. Every unsuspected Danger scares them out of their Wits. They create Monsters in their own Brains, and supposing them above their strength to resist, they slavishly resign the little Reason they would seem to be Masters of to every uncommon Evil, not knowing how to withstand or avoid it. It behoves me then to Examine the tendency of my own Desires, and see whether any thing Substantial hath affected my mind. Hath any man met with any thing that gives him a full and complete satisfaction? Or does he not find his Passions and Appetite to increase upon him, and require somewhat more even 〈◊〉 the very Possession and Enjoyments of their Objects? We penetrate no deeper than the Surface, and acquiesce in a Superficial Glance. We ought therefore to come out of the Dark, that we may see to walk in the Light. We must Unlearn, what we think we know, to be taught what we ought to know. The first advance towards Wisdom is to renounce our Folly. Our Minds can never be filled with sound and wholesome Knowledge, till they are first Dispossessed of their Prejudices.  
I hate to hear People cry out, Why cannot I do thus and thus? Why cannot I manage an Affair like this or that man? I'll tell you, because you are a Fool, and do not know yourself: Because you cannot be contented as you are. Uneasiness and Dissatisfaction under a Man's present condition, is an assured and manifest proof he would carry himself as unhandsomely in another. Nature and Providence hath designed every man his Task, and that which is most suitable to him. He that cannot Govern a Scholar would make an improper Commander of a Man of War. It would, I profess. make a Man laugh till he expires, to come into a Coffee-house, and behold a Pack of Cits prating of Politics and State Matters, as if they were all Matchiavels and Mazarins. Had I been the King, says one, that has not Wit enough to commend him for a Rat-catcher, I would have done Thus. Had I been in Council cries another, I would never have advised That. Ye doting Coxcombs! Why don't ye Regulate your Families Why do you suffer your Wives to wear the Breeches Why do your Daughters run away with the Bullies And your Prentices get to Bed to their Mistresses Amend yourselves first, Correct your Domestic Exorbitancies, Exemplify your Prudence in Rectifying your private Affairs. Deal faithfully in your Trades, and become honest Men, and then you shall have leave to prate. I have often considered with myself, what should be the reason Men are so often disappointed of their Ends, and balked in their Hopes? They undertake more than they can answer for, and by a ridiculous presumption, enter upon Business they can never accomplish. It is Ignorance that is the ground of all our Miscarriages, and Pride puts us upon Attempts too weighty for our Shoulders. They are Twin-Sisters, and the latter is a Natural Companion of the former. We have every one of us within our own proper Sphere, more work cut out than we know well how to affect: Which one Consideration, could it but duly take place, would be of force enough to discourage us from loading our Shoulders with unnecessary Burdens.  
I am confident nothing more betrays the Weakness and Infirmity of Humane Nature, than Impatience under our present Circumstances, and a busy Curiosity of prying into the Affairs of other●. 'Tis the Employment of a weak understanding, and a Soul wholly unacquainted with itself, to be impetuously hurried with a desire after things altogether beyond our proper Province. Surely Nature hath better provided for us, than we can for ourselves; and did we but Regularly follow her Dictates, we should not be so often compelled to our shifts. But the mischief is, we are too much prone to Admire every thing we do not possess. A Vanity intolerable! Which did it not shroud itself unde● the Covert of Custom, would soon be abhorred and banished out of the World. B●● Common Practice is become its Advocate, and resistibly pleads its defence in a vulgar Judicature Should we not think a Neighbour cracked on o●● side of his Head, who would entertain us a● hour or two together, with an exact and accurate Description of some Foreign Countre● when all the while he does not know the wa● to his own Parish Church? Preposterous madness! to pretend to know every thing, an● yet be totally Ignorant of ourselves.  
It is enough already, that I have lived fo● others. Let me at last return home, and d● somewhat for myself. Time flies away, Nature decays, and I shall soon find my se●● most unfit for the Work, when I shall stan● most in need of strength to do it. To wha● purpose is it, we are so busily concerned i● Exotic Affairs, things neither consiste●● with our present Peace, nor conducive to o●● future Happiness?  
When I take a review, and give my min● leave (as she would often do, did I not impertinently divert her) to Recollect her ow● Thoughts, and make a serious Reflection 〈◊〉 the Employments and Enjoyments too of h●● past life. Good God how full of Vanit● and Inquietude, and dissatisfaction do they appear? As enforces from me a Subscription t● this Fatal Truth; that it is I myself tha● have prevented my own happiness, and by a senseless Extravagance, and stupid Self-Ignorance, undermined the Tranquillity of a Life that might have been more Peaceable, and consequently more pleasant, than the present ●ospect of any Circumstances now warrant me ●o expect. I could now almost Hate, and Curse myself, as to my Folly, and Self-Love ●t self, would justify my Indignation. But ●hat is not the Way, and Prudence suggests ●nother Course. Let me therefore at least preserve what I enjoy, if I cannot Recover what I have lost. Let the consideration of what is past, awaken my diligence for the Future. We have been Fools, and who has ●ot? Let Wisdom make amends and Can●el the Shame. I have learned at least, this by the Bargain, to know my Distemper, which makes the Cure less difficult. There is somewhat of Good to be extracted from every thing: And Prescriptions in appearance contrary, have Eventually proved themselves Friendly to Nature.  
To do our own proper business, and to know ourselves, is the only important Employment we have in this World. And he that can do the latier, will never be at a loss in the former. He will avoid all superfluous Undertake. He can tell how to Reform the Extravagance of his Passions, and correct the Impetuosity of an hot Nature. He will never be obliged to Prosecute the Concerns of Another, while any thing of his own lies on his Hands. Every thing he Engages in shall be brought to perfection; because he attempts no more than he understands, and is able to Accomplish. This Consideration would fix our Thoughts, restrain and bridle our D●sires, and limit our Fancies within their o●● Bounds.  
It has been my Observation ever since I ha● been acquainted in the World, That most M●● are strays, they are guilty of a perpetual Trespass, and a Clausum fregit may be charged upo● us all. We see how foolish and impertinent soever Men ordinarily are, yet they observe 〈◊〉 Decorum, and put a constraint upon their Word● and Actions, when they are in the Company o● Persons reputed Wise, and Good: And an Affront put upon them before such, will be more highly Resented, than if they were all of their own Stamp and Rank. So should we learn to be acquainted, and reverence our selves, and dare to think and speak nothing in our own Presence, we should be ashamed of before a Solomon or a Cato. Let us then for once become our own Masters: Let us consult our selves, and take advice of our Reason: 'Tis she alone will instruct us, not only what we have to do, but also govern us in the management of our Actions, with much less solicitude, and much more facility. The Sovereignty is her Due, our Passions are her Slaves, and she ought to have the Principal, if not the only Concurrence in all our Attempts. Leave the Business wholly to her, and you shall find she will render the Event at least excusable, let it be what it will.  
How vain is it thus to shun ourselves, and follow the multitude! That Man must certainly deserve Bedlam, who employs all his time in examining the Estates of others, and values himself for knowing the particular Concerns of the Noblest Families of the Nation, when yet he is a Stranger to what passes under his own Roof, and can never find leisure to adjust his own private Accounts. For my part, I am ashamed of myself, That little knowledge I have acquired of my own Temper, if so much as to let me know the necessity I have of knowing more. It is difficult for us to arrive at any tolerable Information of another's Humour, and to give a just and regular Estimate of him; we must follow him close, pursue all his Wind, and Turn, trace him through all his Variations, Forms, and Appearances. Thus we must do with ourselves, nor is the Labour quite so perplexed. Mankind is all Labyrinth, and Disguise, and never shows the same Face two hours together. I know myself better than all the Men in the World know me, and can be more just and faithful, according to Truth, in my Judgement and Censure. They set up a Rule, and try all Complexions and Temperaments by That, wildly, unreasonably, and uncertainly. I daily find them miserably out in their Conjectures of me, even those who think they best know me. They may frame a general Air of my Humour, by a frequent Conversation, but are wonderfully mistaken in their Application, as to the Ends, Inducements, and Motives of most of my Actions.  
The most stupid Soul that is, will sometimes work upon herself, review her own Thoughts and Inclinations, and would delight to be more Conversant in this Exercise, if we did not interrupt her Meditation by the Proposal of external Objects, which do not at all concern her. It is the best Acquaintance we can have, and would deal more faithfully and wisely in her Advisements than the best Friend we know upon Earth. It is, I am confident, the want of this Intelligence that occasions all the Irregularities and Disorders we are guilty of. Remember to make Reason and Conscience of your Party, and you will soon perceive your Anxiety, and Torment abated. Then should we not only be Wise, but in a great measure Happy to boot: And for aught I know in as high a Degree as humane Nature is capable of attaining. For the greatest part of our Felicity, as I take it, in this Life, is placed in a due management of our Afflictions, or the entire Dominion and Monarchy of Reason over our Passions. It is a prejudicated Opinion, begot by Example, fomented by Education, and inveterate by Custom, which has infected our Minds and debauched our Palates, that we can relish nothing according to it's true, and natural Taste. For the Objects we converse with, have for the most part an indifferent inclination to Good, or Evil, and operate upon us only after the Judgement we make of them. We are Masters of every thing before us, and a wise Man hath an admirable Dexterity of drawing Sweetness from what others call a Calamity: And makes ●ll the Injuries of Fortune, serve his Designs, and further his Advancement. They are generally Men of weak Spirits, who are dejected wi●h Adversity, or exalted with Prosperity. And who is either way affected with these ●hings, gives a strong Argument of his Imbecility, that he knows not how to live agreeable ●o either Nature, or Reason. Will any Man Glory in another Man's Excellencies, and value himself, because his Neighbour has a House better furnished than his own? The Case is the same. Whatsoever is in the Power of Fortune, belongs not to us. We ought no more to be concerned at her Contempts, than elevated with her Favours. She is a capricious Goddess, and the Frailty of Mankind is the subject of her Humour. She swells a Bubble with Pride, and breaks it with Scorn. Whoever trusts her, does but Treasure up to himself an abundant, and inexplicable Matter of Discontent and Perturbation.  
I could (in some fits of contemplative Melancholy,) fall asleep as soon in a Churchyard as on my Bed; and am often so weary of dull Life, that my greatest delight is in such Objects as speak most to its advantage.  
I know that I carry a Ghost always about me, and that I myself am a Walking Spirit. This thought allays in me those vulgar Fears of the haunts and visits of Spectres. And as I am not at all afraid of myself, so I am very little apprehensive of Apparitions: Nay more, I could wish the Communications more frequent betwixt us and the Inhabitants of the Upper World: I would harden our Christian Courage, familiari●● to us the Thoughts of Separation; and creat● in us a more passionate love of the Heaven's Country.  
I pretend not by the Title of this small Treatise to any extraordinary Scheme or new draug●● of Religion for Men of my own Profession much less would I be thought slighly to suggest any neglect or deficiency of theirs in the Practice of the Old: I am very well assured, that Religio Bibliopolae seems a direct Tautology But surely it can be no Offence to say, that I could wish we were all more in earnest for Heaven, and that we had all the Wisdom and Virtue that ever appeared in the guise of true Reason in the World, summed up and amassed in a Christian Bookseller; especially in a daily, sincere contempt of this World.  
No eager pursuit, or restless intemperate desire of Wealth or Honour, must be harboured by us, who are to fix our whole hopes on another Country; and we should confess ourselves Strangers and Pilgrims on this Earth, by the Precepts and Examples of all the Holy Prophets and Apostles throughout the whole Book of God. To set any extraordinary value on the World, is to unravel the peculiar Principle of Christianity, and run retrograde to the steps of the Holy Jesus.  
FINIS.