Volume III Part 47 (1/2)
[367] _Colendo fideh the World be Histrionical, and ly art, and personate only thy self Swim smoothly in the streale Hearts doubling is discruciating: such tempers must sweat to dissemble, and prove but hypocritical Hypocrites SimulationLife, or dissemble unto Death He who counterfeiteth, acts a part; and is as it were out of hilad to pull of their Vizards, and resu able to naturalize such unnaturals, or make a Man rest content not to be himself And therefore since Sincerity is thy Temper, let veracity be thy Virtue in Words, Manners, and Actions To offer at iniquities, which have so little foundations in thee, were to be vitious up hill, and strain for thy condemnation Persons vitiously inclined, want no Wheels toof their own Natures to facilitate their Iniquities And therefore so many, who are sinistrous unto Good Actions, are Ambi-dexterous unto bad; and _Vulcans_ in virtuous paths, _Achilleses_ in vitious h strain'd Paradoxes of old Philosophy supported by naked Reason, and the reward of mortal Felicity, but labour in the Ethicks of Faith, built upon Heavenly assistance, and the happiness of both beings Understand the Rules, but swear not unto the doctrines of _Zeno_ or _Epicurus_ Look beyond _Antoninus_, and terminate not thy morals in _Seneca_ or _Epictetus_ Let not the twelve, but the two Tables be thy Law: Let _Pythagoras_ be thy Remembrancer, not thy textuary and final Instructer; and learn the Vanity of the World rather froma's of the _Peripatus_, Academy, or _Porticus_ Be a moralist of the Mount, an _Epictetus_ in the _Faith_, and christianize thy Notions
[Sidenote: SECT 22]
In seventy or eighty years a Man may have a deep Gust of the World, Knohat it is, what it can afford, and what 'tis to have been a Man Such a latitude of years eneral Map of Time; and a Man may have a curt Epitome of the whole course thereof in the days of his own life, may clearly see he hath but acted over his Fore-fathers; what it was to live in Ages past, and what living will be in all ages to coe of Time who hath lived to see about the sixtieth part thereof Persons of short times may Knohat 'tis to live, but not the life of Man, who, having little behind theularities enough to raise Axioms of this World: but such a cos, Parallelish the whole course of Ti be monstrous unto him; who may in that time understand not only the varieties of Men, but the variation of himself, and how many Men he hath been in that extent of time
He otten, while he hath lived to find none who could remember his Father, or scarce the friends of his youth, andtieny o out of the World less related than he ca the frequent mortality in Friends and Relations, in such a Term of Time, he may pass away divers years in sorrow and black habits, and leave none to mourn for himself; Orbity may be his inheritance, and Riches his Repentance
In such a thred of Tinoe the interiors by the outside, and raise conjectures at first sight; and knohat Men have been, what they are, what Children probably will be, ood part, and the temper of the next; and since so many live by the Rules of Constitution, and so few overcome their temperamental Inclinations, make no improbable predictions
Such a portion of Tie prospect backward, and Authentick Reflections how far he hath perfor, in the Honour of his Maker; whether he hath ood the Principles of his Nature, and what he was made to be; what Characteristick and special Mark he hath left, to be observable in his Generation; whether he hath Lived to purpose or in vain, and what he hath added, acted, or perforht considerably speak hihtful and Pleasures grow stale unto him; Antiquated Theorems will revive, and _Solomon's_ Maxims be Demonstrations unto hirow up of any satisfaction below And having been long tossed in the Ocean of this World, he will by that tiht of another, unto which this seeh value He will experi of what is past; and wisely grounding upon true Christian Expectations, finding sofor Perpetuity, and live as though he made haste to be happy The last may prove the prime part of his Life, and those his best days which he lived nearest Heaven
[Sidenote: SECT 23]
Live happy in the _Elizium_ of a virtuously cohts wherein mere Pleasurists place their Paradise Bear not too slack reins upon Pleasure, nor let coion betray thee unto the exorbitancy of Delight
Make Pleasure thy Recreation or intermissive Relaxation, not thy _Diana_, Life and Profession Voluptuousness is as insatiable as Covetousness Tranquillity is better than Jollity, and to appease pain than to invent pleasure Our hard entrance into the world, ourout of it, our sicknesses, disturbances, and sad Rencounters in it, do clamorously tell us we coht, but to perform the sober Acts and serious purposes of Man; which to oe of humanity, to play away an uniterable Life, and to have lived in vain Forget not the capital end, and frustrate not the opportunity of once Living Dream not of any kind of _Metempsychosis_ or transani ti to thy first and funda course of the next, and upon a narrow Scene here an endless expansion hereafter In vain sos with their Lives Things cannot get out of their natures, or be or not be in despite of their constitutions Rational existences in Heaven perish not at all, and but partially on Earth: That which is thus once will in so human Soul is still alive, and all _Adam_ hath found no Period
[Sidenote: SECT 24]
Since the Stars of Heaven do differ in Glory; since it hath pleased the Alhts above the South; since there are soht that they can hardly be looked on, some so dim that they can scarce be seen, and vast numbers not to be seen at all even by Artificial Eyes; Read thou the Earth in Heaven, and things below from above Look contentedly upon the scattered difference of things, and expect not equality in lustre, dignity, or perfection, in Regions or Persons belohere numerous numbers must be content to stand like _Lacteous_ or _Nebulous_ Stars, little taken notice of, or dienerations All which may be contentedly allowable in the affairs and ends of this World, and in suspension unto ill be in the order of things hereafter, and the new Systeme of Mankind which will be in the World to come; when the last may be the first and the first the last; when _Lazarus_ may sit above _Caesar_, and the just obscure on Earth shall shi+ne like the Sun in Heaven; when personations shall cease, and Histrionism of happiness be over; when Reality shall rule, and all shall be as they shall be for ever
[Sidenote: SECT 25]
When the _Stoick_ said that life would not be accepted if it were offered unto such as knew it,[368] he spoke toowhich placeth us in the form of Men It more depreciates the value of this life, that Men would not live it over again; for although they would still live on, yet few or none can endure to think of being twice the same Men upon Earth, and some had rather never have lived than to tread over their days once more _Cicero_ in a prosperous state had not the patience to think of beginning in a cradle again _Job_ would not only curse the day of his Nativity, but also of his Renascency, if he were to act over his Disasters, and theof this Life is to undervalue that, unto which this is but Exordial or a Passage leading unto it The great advantage of this mean life is thereby to stand in a capacity of a better; for the Colonies of Heaven must be drawn from Earth, and the Sons of the first _Adam_ are only heirs unto the second Thus _Adam_ came into this World with the power also of another, nor only to replenish the Earth, but the everlasting Mansions of Heaven Where hen the foundations of the earth were lay'd, when the ether,[369] and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy, He must ansho asked it; who understands Entities of preordination, and beings yet unbeing; who hath in his Intellect the Ideal Existences of things, and Entities before their Extances Though it looks but like an iinary kind of existency to be before we are; yet since we are under the decree or prescience of a sure and Omnipotent Power, it may be somewhat more than a non-entity to be in that s are present
[368] _Vitam nemo acciperet si daretur scientibus_--Seneca
[369] Job 38