Volume III Part 37 (1/2)

His Willingness to leave this World about that Age, when most men think they may best enjoy it, tho' paradoxical unto worldly Ears, was not strange unto mine, who have so often observed, that many, tho' old, oft stick fast unto the World, and seeling and Reluctancy unto the Grave The long Habit of Living makes , but what is to come To live at the rate of the old World, when so, ested Death than a ht it an Happiness to have had their Lot of Life in soes past; but the Uncertainty of future Ties to come And surely, he that hath taken the true Altitude of things, and rightly calculated the degenerate State of this Age, is not like to envy those that shall live in the next, much less three or four hundred Years hence, when no Man can coine what Face this World will carry: And therefore since every Age s, and the Scripture affords so hard a Character of the last Times; quiet Minds will be content with their Generations, and rather bless Ages past, than be ae had set no Seal upon his Face, yet a diht clearly discover Fifty in his Actions; and therefore since Wisdoe; altho' his Years caer Livers, and to have been _Solomon's_[312] Old Man And surely if we deduct all those Days of our Life which we ht wish unliv'd, and which abate the Comfort of thoselive; if we reckon up only those Days which God hath accepted of our Lives, a Life of good Years will hardly be a Span long: the Son in this Sense may out-live the Father, and none be climacterically old He that early arriveth unto the Parts and Prudence of Age, is happily old without the uncomfortable Attendants of it; and 'tis superfluous to live unto grey Hairs, when in a precocious Temper we anticipate the Virtues of the who out-liveth the old Man He that hath early arrived unto the measure of a perfect Stature in Christ, hath already fulfilled the pri: and one Day lived after the perfect Rule of Piety, is to be preferr'd before sinning Immortality

[312] _Wisdom_, cap iv

Altho' he attain'd not unto the Years of his Predecessors, yet he wanted not those preserving Virtues which confirm the Thread of weaker Constitutions Cautelous Chastity and crafty Sobriety were far froon, without Flaw, Hair, Ice, or Cloud in hiood Wishes, and few _Memento's_ unto you

Tread softly and circumspectly in this funambulous Track, and narrow Path of Goodness: pursue Virtue virtuously; be sober and temperate, not to preserve your Body in a sufficiency to wanton Ends; not to spare your Purse; not to be free froressors that way, and thereby to ballance or palliate obscure and closer Vices; nor siood Actions, and render Virtues disputable: but in one Word, that you may truly serve God; which every Sickness will tell you, you cannot well do without health The sick Man's Sacrifice is but a lame Oblation Pious Treasures laid up in healthful Days, excuse the Defect of sick Non-performances; without which we must needs look back with Anxiety upon the lost Opportunities of Health; and may have cause rather to envy than pity the Ends of penitent Malefactors, who go with clear Parts unto the last Act of their Lives; and in the Integrity of their Faculties return their Spirit unto God that gave it

Consider whereabout thou art in _Cebes_ his Table, or that old philosophical Pinax of the Life of Man; whether thou art still in the Road of Uncertainties; whether thou hast yet entred the narrow Gate, got up the Hill and asperous Way which leadeth unto the House of Sanity, or taken that purifying Potion from the Hand of sincere Erudition, which may send the clear and pure away unto a virtuous and happy Life

In this virtuous voyage let not Disappointment cause Despondency, nor Difficulty Despair: Think not that you are sailing from _Lima_[313] to _Manillia_, wherein thou may'st tye up the Rudder, and sleep before the Wind; but expect rough Seas, Flaws, and contrary Blasts; and 'tis well if by s thou arrivest at thy Port Sit not down in the popular Seats, and common Level of Virtues, but endeavour to s but Holocausts unto God To serve hily to serve our selves, were too partial a Piece of Piety, nor likely to place us in the highest Mansions of Glory

[313] Through the Pacifick Sea, with a constant Gale from the East

He that is chaste and continent, not to iion, will hardly be heroically virtuous Adjourn not that Virtue unto those Years when _Cato_ could lend out his Wife, and iainst lust: but be chaste in thy fla Days, when _Alexander_ dared not trust his Eyes upon the fair Daughters of _Darius_, and when so en's_[314]

[314] Who is said to have castrated himself

Be charitable before Wealth makes thee covetous, and lose not the Glory of the Mitre If Riches increase, let thy Mind hold Pace with theh to be liberal, but munificent Tho' a Cup of cold Water from some hand may not be without its Reward; yet stick not thou for Wine and Oyl for the Wounds of the distressed: and treat the poor as our Saviour did the Multitude, to the Relicks of some Baskets

Trust not to the Omnipotency of Gold, or say unto it, Thou art my Confidence: kiss not thy Hand when thou beholdest that terrestrial Sun, nor bore thy Ear unto its Servitude A Slave unto Mammon makes no Servant unto God: Covetousness cracks the Sinews of Faith, nu above Sense, and only affected with the Certainty of Things present, s to come; lives but unto one World, nor hopes but fears another; makes our own Death sweet unto others, bitter unto our selves; gives a dry Funeral, Scenical Mourning, and no wet Eyes at the Grave

If Avarice be thy Vice, yet make it not thy Punishment: Miserable Men commiserate not themselves, bowelless unto themselves, and s bless the Possession of the rich: for since thy good Works, not thy Goods, will follow thee; since Riches are an Appurtenance of Life, and no dead Man is rich, to famish in Plenty, and live poorly to die rich, were aImprovehtly dip'd, not grain'd in generous Honesty, are but pale in Goodness, and faint hued in Sincerity: but be thou what thou virtuously art, and let not the Ocean wash away thy Tincture: stand netically upon that Axis where prudent Simplicity hath fix'd thee, and let no Temptation invert the Poles of thy Honesty: and that Vice ood Acts, and long confirm'd Habits make Vertue natural, or a second Nature in thee And since few or none prove eeous Foundations in their Temper, and natural Inclinations; study thy self betimes, and early find what Nature bids thee to be, or tells thee what thou may'st be They who thus tiood Seeds which Nature hath set in the their prevalent Inclinations to Perfection, become not Shrubs, but Cedars in their Generation; and to be in the form of the best of the Bad, or the worst of the Good, will be no Satisfaction unto them

Let not the Law of thy Country be the _non ultra_ of thy Honesty, nor think that always good enough which the Laill ood Narrow not the Law of Charity, Equity, Mercy; joyn Gospel Righteousness with Legal Right; be not a meer _Gamaliel_ in the Faith; but let the Serum_ unto the Law of _Sinai_

Make not the Consequences of Vertue the Ends thereof: be not beneficent for a Name or Cymbal of Applause, nor exact and punctual in Coes of Trust and Credit which attend the Reputation of just and true Dealing; for such Rewards, tho' unsought for, plain Vertue will bring with her, whom all Men honour, tho' they pursue not To have other bye Ends in good Actions, sowers laudable Perforations, to give them the Stamp of Vertues

Tho' human Infirmity ancy, yet let not thine own Depravity, or the Torrent of vicious Times, carry thee into desperate Enormities in Opinions, Manners, or Actions: if thou hast dip'd thy Foot in the River, yet venture not over _Rubicon_; run not into Extreression, nor be ever so closely shut up within the Holds of Vice and Iniquity, as not to find some Escape by a Postern of Resipiscency

Owe not thy Humility unto Humiliation by Adversity, but look humbly down in that State when others look upward upon thee: be patient in the Age of Pride and Days of Will and Impatiency, when Men live but by Intervals of Reason, under the Sovereignty of Humor and Passion, when 'tis in the Power of every one to transform thee out of thy self, and put thee into the short Madness If you cannot imitate _Job_, yet coans, who tir'd the Tongues of their Enemies while they perceiv'd they spet their Malice at brazen Walls and Statues

[315] _Ira furor brevis est_

Let Age, not Envy, draw Wrinkles on thy Cheeks: be content to be envied, but envy not Enation allowable; but admit no Treaty with that Passion which no Circuood A Displacency at the Good of others, because they enjoy it, altho' we do not want it, is an absurd Depravity, sticking fast unto human Nature from its primitive Corruption; which he that can well subdue, were a Christian of the first Magnitude, and for ought I know, may have one Foot already in Heaven

While thou so hotly disclaiuilty of Diabolism; fall not into one Name with that unclean Spirit, nor act his Nature whom thou so much abhorrest; that is, to accuse, calumniate, backbite, whisper, detract, or sinistrously interpret others; degenerous Depravities and narrow-minded Vices, not only below S _Paul's_ noble Christian, but _Aristotle's_[316] true Gentleman Trust not with some, that the Epistle of S _Ja Truth, that in coion is in vain _Moses_ broke the Tables without breaking of the Law; but where Charity is broke the Law it self is shatter'd, which cannot be whole without Love, that is the fulfilling of it Look humbly upon thy Vertues, and tho' thou art rich in so Grace, which thinketh no Evil, which envieth not, which beareth, believeth, hopeth, endureth all things With these sure Graces, while busie Tongues are crying out for a Drop of cold Water, Mutes ium_[317] in Heaven

[316] See _Arist Ethicks_ Chapt of Magnanimity

[317] Holy, Holy, Holy