I Adventure Danger, when about the Ides of January, I will Endymion-like go gaze the Moon, or in her Silence hear the Language of the Stars; for I am fixt as if Medusa'd to a Statue; my Soul do's lascivire inter stellas, and forgets it is espoused to Flesh and Bloud; Injurable by Frost-biting, chusing (it seems) rather to be Un­bodied, than Unheavened; it leans so far without my Win­dow, that an other Blast will puff it out, and freeze up the Casements; I stand here as if Nero had befriended me, and sent me my Choice of Death, and I wou'd need's die in this Vein; Oh! the Nectar of Contemplation, the Return of it is superlatively gainful, and wins a man to make a Voyage in the greatest Difficulties: Tho' a Fryer, yet it's Truth when he tells you, that in Contemplatione Mens illuminatur, Cor Amore inflammatur, Mundus contemnitur, &c. and, from the Coryphaeus of Philosophers in his Ethics, look's upon Contemplation as the Queen Regent of all sublunary Bliss, and Inthrones her in a triumphant Chariot. Doubtless the Thoughts that are whistled this way are very well flown; they are as so many Bees that come home Crura Thymo plena, laden with Meditati­on. When I view the whirling Heavens, and revolve their Motions, when I observe those called Errantes Stellae not fail to accomplish a certain Course, to keep such Exactness in their Irregularities, that a Prognosticator will give you a Prediction of the most shadowed Eclipses, in the clearest Sun-shine; when [Page 18] I see the nimble Spheres dancing their unerring Rounds, I rea­dily assent to their Harmony, so much disputed. While mine Eye is terminated with the Firmament, I admire without a Limit; when I see Born Azure Fretted, or cold Arctophylax, Volant Pegasus a Croissant, and the other, Asteris [...], and the POLES, as a Bend-sinister, and when deflecting mine Eye I behold a Field Vert, charged with such Variety of Blossoms, so many Rampant and Couchant, and my self a poor Creature Passant, and yet in Chief to the Rest, ere now I have won­dered to Extasie, and conclude my Tongue was made for no­thing more, than to dwell on the Praises of that Glory and Excellency that owns this Coat-Armour. When I behold the Radiant Sun, and find him roll in the Zodiac as in a Wheel, when I note how he forms his Course in the Ecliptic, how well he knows his regress having toucht either Tropic, I assure [...]e there is a Hand which is STRENGTH' in Abstracto, that wields this useful Instrument, and also as much that trims this Lamp unto the World. When I consider too the Circuit of the Earth, more than twenty three thousand Miles, yet of no Moment in Respect of the Heavens, this constrains me to ac­knowledge the Great Immensity of the Aetherial Orbs; if I shou'd doubtfully query their Vastness, I shou'd cloud the Sun again, and inscribe my Understanding with a Beam; for when without Mathematical Assistance, I can see it much bigger than the Earth, nay, when I have more than probable Conjectures from its Parallax, and the Earth's Pyramidal Shadow, that it exceeds it in Magnitude many hundreds of times, that Sol A­pogens is distant from us, or rather that the Planet Earth in its Aphelion is distant from the Sun, more than twenty two thou­sand Semi-diameters of the Terrestrial Globe, yet no higher, nay scarce so high as the Midst of the Planets, and when I see what small Proportion even this Great Orbit bear's to the ex­panded Skies, I am lost in the Wideness of the Eighth Sphere; and will say, certainly if a [...] [...]eature wou'd fill our capacious Spirit I had found it. Were I meerly Ethnic, surely this cu­rious [Page 19] Piece would drive me to a Metaphysical Search; the Pow­er▪ and Glory evident in that, would lead me to this, and for ever and ever might well serve me to proclaim an Atheist the most admired Fool in Rerum Natura, to be one that denies the Light, who upon first Assent to his Irrational Thoughts, ipso facto, runs himself into a Premunire, forfeits all his Senses, and deserves to suffer a Confiscation of all enjoyed Good, without a two Months Liberty to Recant.—I'll esteem him a Furioso, that do's not lucidis gaudero Intervallis; his Heart is the only empty Cask in Nature, for take what you will besides, and say with the Poet, Jovis omnia plena. Sometimes I conceive the World a Building, the Earth a Floor, palliated with a green Carpet-Covering, the Heavens a Roof, bespangled with exqui­site Ornaments, and revere the Wisdom of a Mighty Architect. When I see such Magnificence in Vestibulo, in the Vault, in communi Atri [...], surely the Sanctum Sanctorum is beyond Descrip­tion. We live here in the very Bottom of Nature, and think full little Who and What are on the Top of the Context. Oh! methinks I have something of it in Intellectu, by fleeting Glan­ces, that never was in Sensu. Sometimes I call the World a Table spread, and observe Satisfaction for every Sense, dished out in proper Objects; What Orient Colours are brought in to please the Eye, to delight the Ear, what Melody is enclosed in the Breasts of Birds, so well instructed in Song, that every Grove becomes a Quire? What silken Softness have we for the Touch, what Cates and Tastful Viands for the daintiest Palate; what Odoriferous Scents, what perfumed Airs do we meet with to feast our other Sense? What Abundance of Sweetness is bound up in the small Volume of a Flower? I read no less than a Deity in the few Folio's of a Damask Rose; and hence I conclude that Nature hath not left my Soul Objectless, but that there is somewhere a Truth for my Understanding, and Goodness for my Will. Again, my Heart is elated above the ordinary Level of Admiration, when I perceive this Sublunary World, top full of Things, as contrary as Fire and Water, [Page 20] Earth and Air, yet to subsist by one another, nay, which is more, when I see them made In-mates in one Mansion, and how peaceably they co-habit in the same Subject, in Gradu re­misso, I cannot but attribute their Accord to a Soverain Arm and Guidance. When on a Promontory I fix my Foot on firm Earth, while mine Eyes launch out into the Main, and see the Billows come wallowing one in on the Neck of another, as if they mutually encourag'd themselves to an Universal Deluge; yet when they some and make a Noise as unkennelled, I may soon observe them at the End of their Chain. While the O­cean swells it self into Alps of Water, and the Brow of it is so furrow'd with Rage, that every Wave threatens to write me among the Dead, suddenly all is cut off with a Dash. When I behold this diffusive Element stand upon an Heap, sure there is some hitherto and no further that it hears in its loudest Roar­ings, and that is Gates and Bars to it. When I look on the Reciprocation of the Waters, I feel a Spring of Thoughts at the highest Flow within me, and go beyond the Moon to find a Cause. Sometimes I look upon the Use of a Sea, and con­ceive great Mercy and Wisdom in placing of it; those heaven­ly Buckets that pour out refreshing Showers on the parched Soil are dipt in this Cistern, and it is as the Liver to the Bo­dy, fills the Earth with irriguous Veins. Again, when I see the Earth once every Day muffle it self in its own Shadow, and that the Dark may not be irksome to us, our busie Eyes are as often closed by a Law of Rest, which upon pain of Death, we may not long infringe with a watchful Disobedience, for, quod caret alterna Requie durabile non est. Now while we sleep the Night steed's us for a Curtain, the half of the Term of our Life runs out in a sleepy Vacation of Senses, and is most plea­surable, tho' least lightsom; in this I adore a Supreme Wisdom. The withering Grass likewise is no less beholden to the Night, than our heavie Heads, for now the heavenly Limbecs do di­still their rared Influence; and that there may be a Growth in Vegetables, a nightly Moisture mingles it self with the Heats [Page 21] by Day. But while I stand admiring thus, here is one within tells me I need not go fish for Wonders in the Deep, or climb the Height of Heaven for Heaven, for my self am one.—In­deed when I reflect on the Structure of my Body, I see it is not ordinary; my Stature is Erect when other Creatures gro­vle. I have a Privilege of looking up, when other Creatures stand Mottoed with a pro-naque com spectant. Is there a more exact Work than our Head, here all the Senses keep their Ren­dezvous, lie Ledger to give Intelligence: If an Object that carries any Colour with it comes, the Eye note's it immedi­ately, if it make a Noise the Ear catcheth it, and so of the Rest. But when I remember (that) whereby I work all this and more, I am arrived at an Height of Admiration; If you demand me of it, I will say it is some strange Divine Thing, but what I know not; 'tis called a Soul, a most active Being I'm sure it is: It is ever grinding, if you rake it up in the Ash­es of a Sleep, it will glow in a Dream. It is fixt in a Micro­cosm, but yet not to be contained by the immense Macrocosm; it is plac'd in the Orb of a minute Body, but raises it self fur­ther than the Sun, will pierce the most solid Substance, rest not in a few Objects, tho' a single one may sometimes like a Glass collect its Beams into a Flame—Oh! the Soul that can drag the past and future Time to the Bar of present Consideration, that will in my most retiredness discourse to me of various Matters; this Cosmographical Spirit, that can shew me the Heavens and the Earth as in Land-skip in the darkest Room, oh! the Swiftness of its Motion, 'twill beat against East and West like a Bean in a Bladder, with less Noise and more Nim­bleness; Lightning to it is Leaden-heeled, and the Wink of an Eye the Consumer of too much Time to stand in Compare. Sometimes I look on my Sway in the World, and observe all the visible Creation bow down to me, the Sun, Moon & Stars wait upon me, but, what shall all this fill my Life with Pride as my Mind with Marvail? No. If I see nothing greater than my self to arrogate my Service, yet I cannot deem me abso­lute, [Page 22] or that I am mine own Man, for my Hands and Shoul­ders, and other Parts are a Lecture to me for the Labour of my Body; my Station here mind's me I must be busied in Contemplation; for I look on the Earth as a green Bank, re­covered from the Waters for me to stand unmovedly, while I behold the tossing Seas, and turning Spheres, and all Things else in Agitation; now to be thus tasked, denotes my Conditi­on to be that of a Servant. I further know my Subjection by mine Ignorance,—that Being I have, when I received it, I was meerly patient, how I was brought hither, I have it not in mine own Knowledge; if those about me had conspi­red, it had been more easy to have made me believe the E­ternity of my self, a parte ante, than the Atheist a parte post. That I had a Beginning is delivered me by Tradition, confirm­ed by the Motions of Accretion and Diminution in my self and others; for I was lighted I know not how, or when. Again, in the Administration of Things, their Order is not from any Law of mine,—and I might well be called Aesop's foolish Fly, should I think my self able, to make the very Dust that made me. Now while I ruminate these and a thousand more, as I pass by in the World, I look for some­thing greater than it: It seems to me unreasonable, that a Work so absolute and uniform should want [...]n Efficient, that I should with the Peripatetics suppose it to be Eternal, seeing it is an ENS ex Participatione, or with Empedocles sit shuffling in a dusty Cell 'till I have a World out of Atoms. No, but I'll resolutely say, such Wise Position, and Administration of Things was never casual. But I search and wonder, and trem­ble, for I find my self not far from an Immense Being, that I thus grope after, and say if a Light were brought into the Room, I should find my self in the Everlasting Arms of a Fa­ther or an Enemy. These Things I read by the Hieroglyphica of the Creatures, in the A, B, C of Nature, without the Help of the WORD: for as to the Book of WORKS, I will call it, compar'd with that of the WORD, of later Edition, of more [Page 23] Perfection; This is the unmasking of the Other's Frontispiece, this lead's me, and refers them to an Almighty God, here manifest­ed in his several Subsistances, and Attributes. I have it here in plain Words, what was but pointed at in the other: But I will not undertake to unfold its Excellencies in words of Praise, for I should extend my self further than the Length of an Essay, and should certainly as one hath it Magna Modis atteruare parvis. He that question's its Worth, instead of an Answer, shall be deservedly blamed as neglectful of reading Holy Scrip­ture, and vehemently suspected for a prophane Absenter from Divine Assemblies, where this Subject is often inculcated by Oratory of the Church. When I have weighed the Premises, I am troubled, that I have so truanted formerly, and cannot now but resolve to quit my self with more Diligence in this Spiritual Literature; here a Man may be Librorum Helluo, without Offence. I trust now, when I have mentioned Cha­racters of Sun, Moon, Heaven and Earth, and the other Crea­tures, I shall be able to put them together, and make them spell Infinite Wisdom, and Power, &c. From the Earth I learn to contemplate, from the Heav'ns I learn to add Motion and Practice to my Speculat [...]. When I see how the dead Earth water's and serves the vegetable, they the Sensitive, and they the Rational Creatures and when I see how this Subordi­nation keeps every Thing entire, let me hence also learn Du­ty; let me remember though I am exalted quite above all these, yet there is a Higher than the Highest, to whom I am in all Humbleness to stoop, as they to me.—If I would have Things go well, and if my Ox knows his Owner, and my Ass his Master 's Crib, let them teach me to know him from whom I have received all, and to whom I owe all. When I see the Largeness and Capacity of my Soul, I will learn be­times to decline the small and narrow Creature, and search an Object able to better it, able to fill it. And that I may be more skilled in God's Sacred Oracles, I shall desire to medi­tate in it Day and Night, to use it on all Occasions as a [Page 24] Medicine for every Disease: If I am in doubt, I'll make it my Councellour; if in Affliction. I'll make this sure and stayed Word my Support; if I am in Darkness and see no Light, here I will stay my self; when I see mine Ignorance, I'll esteem this able to give Understanding to the Simple; When I would launce my Soul, I will make Use of this two edged Sword; when it is fit to be healed again, why this is Balm from Gilead. If I am poor, I will take pains for this Treasure, more Worth than much fine Gold; Pearls and Rubies are not to be compared to it: By this I may learn Godliness, which is great Gain—.If I am rich, this Book will teach me that a Man 's Health doth not consist in the Abundance he possesseth, and that Riches have Wings—.If Sorrow take hold of me, the sweet Consolati­ons here, are as Health to the Navel, and as Marrow to the Bones—.If the Trouble be General, I have here Di­rection where to rest at Noon. In a Word, If I would lean off from that I feel slipping away and perishing, and repose my self upon what is firm and lasting, let me relin­quish each Worldly Confidence, and rest upon this WORD, which shall be the Superstes of all Changes, and stand unsha­ken upon the Ruins of Heaven and Earth.

Of the Goods of Fortune.

TO he a Husband, a Father, a Master, to be deckt with many pendulous and gaudy Additions; to soar with the Wings of Honour, to abound in Coin and Cattle, to possess sumptuous Buildings, and large Territories I will not be ambitious; for I see what Inconveniencies attend the Flow of Temporals. This Abundance, and these Ti­tles, I cannot call them (as some) Privileges from, but ra­ther Sluces and immediate Inlets to, Trouble and Danger. [Page 25] To have Wife and many Children, is but to extend a Man's Body to larger Dimensions, and to expose it to more Inevita­ble Aim. The greatest Master is (no question) the veriest Servant to Employment, and the richest Man finds the most Care and Work, to keep and dispense that that gives him that Denomination. Hath a Man a Plurality of pleasing Accom­modations, they are but as so many Places made bare, where he is sensible of the least Lash of Fortune; he is an Instru­ment of many Strings, one or other always fails or is out of Time, which spoil's his Symphony; these are all to him as su­perfluous Members, which are a Burthen, have Sense and so fit to suffer in, but want Motion to stand a man in Stead; the Use and Imployment of them is nothing else but a vain Expence of vital Spirits, when a Condition of Want preserve's them per Antiperistasin, and commonly number's more Years: The high­est Places are most obnozious to Variation, the Sun never so near a Declension as in the vertical Meridian. May I not say many, nay most that have sceptered in the World, have been rapt out of it violently, as if they perished by Fascination, from the many malevolent Eyes that dart upon them—. Julius Caesar that he may be wofully miserable, his Chair of State shall be his Death-Bed, where he feels no sewer than twenty three Wounds, and sees Brutus, even Brutus' self among the Conspira­tors; Crassus for all his Bags shall be slain, and so shall valiant Pompey, sirnamed the Great, who though he got an old Shirt for a Winding-Sheet, yet he cou'd not be supplied with Fune­ral Fire enough to consume his Body: Lamentable was the End of Mark Anthony, and many other Emperours and no­ble Personages among the Romans. In the Carlovignian Race of France, when Charlemain their first western Emperour was once gone, we may behold many tragical Catastrophe's after glorious Scenes; Lewis the Gentle afflicted with three Rebel Sons grieves to death, Charles the Gross without Love and Honour, yea House and Bread at his End. If you peruse Turky a lit­tle, you shall find the mighty Amurath the Inlarger of the Em­pire, [Page 26] thrown down from the Top of Victory; you may see the renowned Bajazeth, who had hovered aloft like a royal Eagle, and preyed upon much rich Booty, mewed up in an Iron Cage, and Way to go out of the World being so blockt up, that he was forced to knock out his Brains against the Grate to invent a Death. I abound too much in Examples of this Kind, and yet I must not pass by the great Monarchs of the World without their due Observance. Their Estate I warrant is higher than Olympus, above the middle Region, and freed from all Storms of Disquiet? Surely no, even they may join in the Chorus, and say with the Rest,

Darius and Alexander Heads of the second and third Mo­narchies, see how they knock one against another, both snatch­ed away unnaturally, and how many of the Caesars in the fourth Kingdom were early cropt? I might in Infinitum multiply In­stances in this Kind, for each Page of History is stufft with such; the Life of a Great-One is a Song of an imperfect Mood, in triple Tune, where the Hand stay's up but little; & though a Man must be beholden to the Figure Antonomasia, if he meant to flatter him, and run fine Divisions upon his Glory, yet his very Name, and the Individeum Demonstrativum that point's him out is ( miserable) such as they are; and as [Page 27] they are higher by Head and Shoulders than others, so the massy Weight of governing an untoward World presses them down, when a Dwarf shall feel no Burthen: like proud Atlas that shall bear the Heavens, when the little Hills nothing but Fruit and Flowers and what delighteth. And Ʋrsa Minor shall always keep above the Horizon, when the great Orion is once a-day lower than the Antipodes. A mean Condition is farthest distant from the Zodiac of Danger, therefore well sung the Poet,

The French Proverb is very little different.

The low Estate is PLINY's Lauri Frutex, that is privileged from Thunder-bolts, from terrible Blows, when Pinnacles, when Heights of Dignities cannot escape them: and as Honour and high Places, so Riches (which they call Goods) have a Train of many Evils. A Naboth for his Vineyard shall be accused of Blasphemy and Treason, the rich Brutian in Plutarch shall be made an Out-law for his Wealth, when a poor Man though a Delinquent shall be reckoned amongst the innocent Subjects. It was not for Nothing therefore that the wise Phocion, the learned Seneca, and the just Aristides made choice of Poverty as the best Estate; such have commonly Safety and Content­ment, when a CAIUS MARIUS a seven-times Consul and [Page 28] Coacervatior of golden Mountains, through Ambition of more Wealth and Honour fret's to death. Some instead of using, they serve their Gold; the Great-One in the Tragedian was no other.

Besides, all this Greatness and Plenty do's not only more certainly and speedily procure Calamities, but renders a Man less able to bear them when they come. Prosperity is such a Hypocaustum, such a hot Bath, and doth so open the Pores, that every the least Breath of Air enters and turn's to a Disease. Every Cross hath its Operation on a Minion of Fortune (for the most part) like a Fever on a full Body; touch him either in his Chair or in his Chest, and you have prickt his Venam Arterialem, and whatever issue's forth is from his Heart; he is a Vessel of pure Glass, the least Dash will violate him, when a Clod of Earth will endure a second Assault. A Man that beyls in Pleasure, he like the Water so spends himself in Eva­poration, that thereby being made thinner and hotter, he is the more unable to resist a violent Congelation. Admit the same Affliction befal the unregarded Underling and the admired Hero, I am certain the other had this Benefit, that it warned him before it came, afforded him a Preparation-time to fit him self for a Victory, either by Doing or Suffering, when this [Page 29] is as one taken by an Ambushment, a Man Iulled asleep that gives his Enemy leave to shoot first, which is commonly mor­tal; it is no ordinary Disadvantage to be wallowing in De­lights, and so in strong Expectation of Good, and then to be overtaken with an Evil, nil liberata Morte ferocius. While I remember these Things, let me go away contented proprie forte, and say it is sufficient I have Food and Raiment, Quod sufficit me frui paratis; non Cithara carentem, (as in the Ode) that I enjoy, and find a Tast in what I meet with, possess a Viol, and if Heaven should hereafter distil a golden Shower into my Lap, let it not swell me, but let me rather tremble to receive such Extatics, not knowing what their Effects may be, and may I so practice their moderate Use, that when I am called to ac­count I may not be afraid to show my Bill of Expences; or if I meet now and then with hard Occurrences, let me remember that it is the Lot of more noble Conditions than mine own, therefore let it not much move me, for it's a heavy Weight that lie's on all Mortality, while we play the Pilgrims here be­low; The Italians have it well, n [...] caldo, ne gielo, vasta maj. in cielo, not to be too hot, or too cold, too full or too empty, not to be pincht with some Exigency or other is reserv'd for Heaven only: Instead of being dejected let me learn by rote, that levius fit Patientia quicquid corrigere est Nofas, and superanda est omnis Fortuna ferendo. And may I persist in this Tenet even to Stubbornness, that to have the shortest Train, to be most compact, to live upon the fewest Relations, is an Estate least open to the Inrodes of Vexation and Mutability.

Of Ignorance and Mistake.

IF He alone is the Wise-Man, qui sicut Res sunt illas sapit, I am excluded, for I mistake every Thing; I feel a Mountain of Ignorance upon mine Understanding, which I struggle under, but cannot remove: I dwell in the Out-side of Things do what I can, and Circumstances do always so uneven the Scales, that I [Page 30] cannot ballance Things aright. When I weigh the Conditi­ons of Men, if I come near them I am within the Circle, and am straightway conjured from giving a true Verdict; These Things are best seen at a Distance. When I have sometimes given a right Sentence, a new Relation, or some other Event hath stept in and violently blind-folded me again: When I have beheld a Worldling as full of Earth as a Worm, one that load's himself with thick Clay, that walk's in the Sun-shine daily, and never enquires who hath lighted him that glorious Candle, that goes rooting as if he were a Mole in humane Shape, and Canibal-like devours poor Men's Flesh; when I had clearly seen and confidently affirmed his Gold to be Dross, and himself beautified with all his Pomp to be but a Jade in Trap­pings, when I had made use of him as an Occasion of admi­ring divine Providence, for sparing such a monstrous Hog, yea! when I had out-lawed him as one altogether unworthy of Protection; yet, how hath the Tender of some few Cour­tesies, or other Things been ready to make me reverse it, hath not only stopped my Mouth, but muddied my sounder Judg­ment of him, and have been almost disposed to an Entertain­ment of his (before detested) Principles, and a Prosecution of Prosperity; and the Notion of a Possibility of arriving at his Height, hath been such a Powder-Mine, that I have been well nigh blown up; my Affections have been like a Navy in a Storm at Sea, hardly kept together: I say therefore as before, that the best Perspective to see the World in its genuin and proper State is a great Distance from it. A man must play the cunning Astronomer, who when he would gaze a Star, gets not on the Top of a Pyramid, but descende some deep Pit, for so the visual Spirits are kept together. Earthly Things are a very Mist, before a Man comes at it he may see the Di­mensions of the Fog, may perhaps look over it, but when once invelopt and clouded within it, his sight is limited to a small Extent; surely Temporals bear about them those Pastilli of Pliny confected of the Chameteon's left Foot, which make those [Page 31] that carry them not discernible. When I have sometimes made the German Evil the Object of my Consideration, think­ing of it abstractedly; my Heart hath suddenly swell'd at it with indignation, I could no Doubt have put down twenty Periprases of it, containing so many Arguments against it; and have admired his strange Madness, who (when Man naturally doth with impatient Eagerness search after an Increase of Knowledge, for the Repair of his Soul, and aim's at the Pre­servation of Health, as a main Good of the Body) [...] ex Industri [...] cast Lime in his own Eyes, and seek to quench the only Lamp that illuminates him: Oh! strange Philosophy, that to judge physically of a Beast, a Man should lay aside the soverain Life of Reason to descend to that of Sense only! And when I had pronounced (as well I may) that such a One is not the Physician but the Fool, that will avoid the best Me­dicin (or rather the Preventive of Medicin) Temperance I mean, to imbrace and fofter Drunkenness, the Spawn of many noisom Maladies. In these Thoughts I say, and when I have been confirming in me (as I shall for ever) a Detestation of that beastly Vice, it hath approached me in him whose Parts I have admired, or whose Person I have loved, and hath suffici­ently evidenced it self by a gross Traulismus, (for when in his Fit he hath been a plain Titubo, and his Tongue hath pronoun­ced Titititubo) but ah! then I have had enough to do to see the Fault through my Friend; my very judging Faculty hath been somewhat bribed to spare the Sin, lest I fall too foul on the Subject of it; and how have I found out a weak Brain, or strong Temptation, something or other to extenuate the Of­fence. —When I would look upon mine own Condition as I am a Man, and would seriously weigh the End I came hither for, and my Departure from hence, and would in Contemplati­on draw near unto him in whom all my Happiness depends, and to help my Thoughts I look upon the round World and my self, and turn over History and record Examples; and yet alas! I may as well see mine own Eyes, or a visible Object with­out [Page 32] a Medium of Light as discern what I desire. Sometimes I would fain sit aloft and look on the Earth as a Theatre, and us Men acting a Tragi-Comedy, while the Almighty, blessed for ever, (who hath appointed to each Man his Part) and the glorious Angels are Spectators; and I consider how every one enters, and then hath his Exit; how grosly some are mistaken, that when they are charged to act as Men, they play the Beast and are hissed off the Stage; and others tho' they come on with Fear and Trembling, yet they depart with Applause. Sometimes again I wou'd consider my self and all others as Workers in a Vineyard; a Sort labouring with some Diligence expecting Pay at Night, others sitting idle, guzling out their Wages, laying hold on the present only; and then I look up to Heaven for a Master: Thus, tho' we know Things but dis­cursive, I have sometimes talked with my self; but alas when all is done, I can but glance at Things, consider them under im­perfect Notions, nor can I at all keep on foot a Meditation of any Worth, but intervenent Matters soon take me off and blind me, put my Head under Water again; Relations of Parents and Friends, Vicissitude of Things, Day and Night, Winter and Summer, Peace and War, Sickness and Health, &c. Affecti­ons, Desires, Fears and Duties of my Place as I am of such a Calling, as I am a Subject, a Son, a Husband, &c. Oh these pull me down again into the middle Region, wherein Light is infest­ed with Vapours, and I am eclipsed with I know not what In­terpositions. Nay, when I do more than thus discourse with my self alone, when I set my self where I may be spoken to from Heaven, and hear perfect Directions for the right esteem of Things, where I may partake of such blessed Ordinances as would clear my Understanding to conceive aright; order my Affections, and form my whole Soul; here alas I find my self a narrow mouthed Bottle, unfit to receive what's instilled, the precious Liquor runs beside, and I am so taken up and termina­ted in the Ceremony, Objects of these corporeal Eyes, or in the Opero operato, that I cannot without much Difficulty in the least [Page 33] arrive at that Worship which is in Spirit and Truth; and I am so much troubled with a vagrant Soul that will be traver­sing the World in the Tract perhaps of one of Purchas his in grims almost Infidels, when my Body is inclosed in a Christi­an Congregation, that I would as much wonder at my self if I could hoc agere in a Spiritual Exercise, as ever I did at Caesar and others, that could Aliud & Aliud agere together. But if this be my Case, I determine what to do; I'll not take Things on Trust as formerly, if the Persons of Men have such an In­fluence, and are so powerful on my Judgment that my Cen­sure do's often savour of Partiality, I'll pray with the Italian and say, ‘Tragli Amici, &c.’

I'll be so cunning an Alchymist that I'll learn to extract Men's Failings from their Persons, that their Presence and Respect may not amaze and interrupt my Censure; and be­cause we use to say Amare simul et sapere ipsi Jovi non datur, when I am to deal with a loving Friend, I'll artificially for­get that I am his Relative, I'll handle his Cause, and let himself alone for the present: When my Opinion of ought is demanded, I'll do with my self as the Athenians with their Picture of Justice, who used to draw a Veil over her Face, not that she should not see to strike, but that she might not see to spare a Friend when he came within her Reach. And because proximus egomet mihi, and no Cousening like self-deceit for Amor sui caecus) I'll call in Question some Actions of my own that hitherto I have not doubted of, I'll be suspecting of every Desire, every Pleasure, every Re­ward that I am so willing to embrace, I'll measure all now by the Standard, I'll not suppose any Work of mine to be good, nor call it Gold 'till I have brought it to the Touch-stone, [Page 34] (the Word I mean, one Jot or Tittle whereof shall never fail, but remain fair and firm when Heaven and Earth are wrapped up as an Escroll) to that Word that is no Lestian Rule, but like the Authour of it ever the same, and no Respectour of Persons.

When I would gather whether I am increased or wained, I examin how near I am to a Conjunction with It per Synodon, when I would know my Stature I reckon my Longitude, and begin from this Book, from these Azores, for here the Com­pass has no North-eastling or Westling no Variation at all, no swerving to the right Hand or to the left; this shall be my Sea-chart while I am imbarked in the troubled Ocean of this World, where I meet with more than thirty two Winds, and Rocks and Shelves wherever I walk. Seeing I am so apt to err, may this Word ever be a Light to my Feet, and a Lan­thorn unto my Paths; let me embrace this as the only Cure of my Ignorance, that will give good Understanding to all those that follow it, that will teach me That Fear that is the Begin­ning of Wisdom, that will shew me Misteries and deep Things. In my want of Wisdom here I am directed of whom to ask it, even of Him who giveth liberally to all and upbraideth none; who is able to anoint me with such Eye-salve, that is far more soverain ad Oculorum Aciem excitandum than all the Oteum▪ Bal­saminum or Sysybubrium Sylvestre in the World. Let this Word therefore ever dwell in me plenteously in all Wisdom; let me follow its Prescriptions, and tho' for Remedy of my Stupidity it bids me be a Fool that I may become Wise, yet let me know that That's the very Salve; and that there's no Receipt it commends to our Use, but as many as have tried it, have put down their probatum est upon it. This Word I prefer to all Axioms and Rules in Physics, Ethics, &c. And after all my rolling to and fro, and fluttering abroad in the empty World, here I fix my Foot, make this my Wisdom's Pillar, and inscribe it with a Nil ultra.

Of Ʋndermining Policy.

THere is a sort of cunning Men whom the World stile's Politicians, tho' somewhat improperly, for they labour of the Disease called the Feaver of Policy, or the Distemper of Prudence; and tho' they make fair as if indued with this no­ble Virtue, (if I may call it a Virtue, and not rather aliarum Virtutum Retrix) yet I rather term it in them Calliditas, Astutia, Dolus, or some one of those which indeed doth somewhat re­semble and emblemish Prudence; and tho' the same Hands at­tend this Vice which wait upon the other Virtue, as Memory, Understanding, Providence, Circumspection and Caution, yet as old Ennius says of the Ape,

So I'll say of this, that it is a Counterfeit of Virtue, do's not at all add to it, but makes it more odious, for the Truth is so glorious, and we stand so much upon the Esteem of our Un­derstanding and Judgment, that we hate Legerdemain, and rec­kon it the greatest Disparagement to have been gulled.

But to difference it from the Virtue mentioned, that Sha­dow may not cousen us, the Philosopher tells us of another Retinue of Prudence which are no Followers of that Vice, Prudentia (saith he) ubicunc (que) vere est ibi sunt omnes Virtutes, et ibi est omnis Probitas, and here we have out-stripped the crafty Politician; & besides, we know that Prudentia est agendi Habitus, and that if a Man would act prudently, it is not only necessary that the Matter and the Manner of the Action should be Good, but the End also suitable; but our Politician fails in [Page 36] some of these, and tho' his Way and Proceed in a Design seem never so candid and without Exception, yet in the Close of it he sometimes appears in his Colours, and you may then per­ceive his Aim was to catch, to circumvent, to go beyond ano­ther, and his Principium movendi is discovered to be some base Desire of Pleasure or Profit. If he be Master of his Trade, his Understanding only travels into the World, and his Affect­ions are terminated in himself, he fear's his own Mischief, love's not for worth of the Object, but as it makes to his own Advantage; his Passions are bound in Chains, he can over-pow­er his Anger at pleasure, and can cover Envy with a Smile: Fronti nulla fides was never better applied than to him, there 's no grosser Hypocrite than he, he 's not guilty of any Virtue but that of Temperance, whereby he curb 's every irregular Motion; and he befools the Ghost of a Man that turned Non nobis nati sumus into a Proverb, for his Rules are out of the Tragedi­an Scelere velandum est Scelus, & per Scelera semper Sceleribus tutum est Iter. Two sorts of Men tend this Way, the first of these are they that do not only conceal their wicked Plot while in Fieri, but so palliate the Matter having obtained their End, that the Issue shall be attributed to Virtue, or at least to Chance: These are indeed the very First-born of Machiavel, and as dangerous as dishonest. The other are they whom the World counts Men of Policy, and call 's shrewd Men; but this Esteem they have, ariseth from their Weakness more than any thing else; these are they that would fain be reputed Men of Brains, and you may easily know them, for their Discourse runs gene­rally upon the Censure of another's Head-piece; you shall hear them bless themselves in their Arrival at some happy At­chievement, and you cannot want Information, how they had surely perisht in the Charybdis or Scylla of many Interruptions, had not their Prudence as a Pilot unerringly steered them: but these Men if they gain the Credit they hunt after, they lose the Opportunity of perfecting a second Project, and are a­voided as a perilous Quick-fand, and 'tis their usual Lot that [Page 37] when they verily suppose themselves to walk in Nubibus, they in truth dance in a Net to every Eye that is not blind. When a Man discovers his drawn Weapon he is not like to do much Mischief; a wise Man would out of Choice deal with one of these, rather than a dull Fellow that hath no Spring, for he'll know how far his Byas will lead him, and easily serve himself of him. But shall I say what I think? Why, truly my Judg­ment is wrapped up in that old (but golden) Saying, Plain Dealing is a Jewel. If we'll but read the Creatures, we shall see the most noble are the freest from Wiles, as the royal and mag­nanimous Lion▪ the iron-sinewed Elephant, of whose Wisdom and Sagacity we may hear to Wonderment, and for his Valour it is set forth in History sufficiently in his pugna cum Draconi­bus et Rhinocerote; and what more common than to read de E­lephantorum Clementia, Pudore, Amore, &c. (Qualities too pre­cious to be found in the base, unworthy Spirit of a subtil Politi­cian. It's the vermin Fox and paltry Ape that excel in Craft. Read the best Book I am sure Ʋprightness and Sincerity of Heart, Pureness and Simplicity of Spirit bear the Bell away; and the Is­raelite in whom there is no Guile, he, he is the plurimarum Pal­marum Homo. If we are admitted to be wise as Serpents, we are likewise commanded to be innocent as Doves; and is this serpentine Wisdom seasonable at any other Time than when we are as Sheep in the midst of Wolves. Mat. 10.16. Prudentes sicut Serpentes (as one says) ad intelligendas et cavendas Fraudes et Insidias, et simplices sicut Columbae ad sustinendas et ignoscendas Laesiones et Injurias, make this Prudence here only defensive. I shall never conceive that mysterious Way of Fowling for Men, no, nor wisl I ever be reconciled to such a Devil-like Trade, tho' the World call 's it but taking a Wood-cock in a Glade. Let those rejoyce that have by a Train led others to their Lime-bush and deplumed them, or by their Syren-Songs cast them upon irrecoverable Rocks, to the Shipwreck of E­state or Name, &c. Let them Nera-like be Spectatours without Sorrow while Rome's consumed, while I cry swell O Heart a­gainst [Page 38] such Practices! My Head was never given me for a Shop to anvil out such cursed Projects in. No, I had rather die a Fool in the World's Esteem than sin for Reputation of Wis­dom, rather feed on Roots and go clad in a mean Outside, than waft my self to a great Estate by a Gale of wicked Devi­ces. I reckon my Affections given me to trade with in the World; and my Words to be a Comment to the Thoughts of my Heart; when I profess to love 'tis so indeed, some as Men, others as Christian Men. But to kiss and stab with Joab, to fawn when Treason is in the Heart, I detest it for ever.

Of Desire.

I mean not here an exact Philosophical Discourse of the Ap­petite, nor shall I need branch it otherwise than into Na­tural, Vegetable, Sensitive and Rational; these are known Distinc­tions and imbraced with Approbation: I shall confine my self only to the two last.

THE first of these when widowed from the latter proves an Arch-boutefeu, and the veriest Incendiary in Nature. De­sire I know of it self deserves no bad Epithet, but may very justly be stiled the Principium movendi of all our Actions; it's the main Spring and Plummet of the Soul, the Wheel and Oil to that we turn upon. He's becalmed in every Action that want's a still Gale of Desires to waft him: And they are so our own, so natural, that we expire them not before our Breath. Is it not Scripture when Desires fail, Man goeth to his long Home? They run Parallel with the Line of Life, reach to the West of our Days. And alas, how inordinate and incorrigi­ble, for the most part are our Head-strong Desires! But when Reason Alexander-like, back's this Bucephalus, then 'tis render'd serviceable, when the Understanding is Pilot, then 'tis stirred without Danger, but when some sudden Blast shall unstern this [Page 39] Palinure and Opinion and Fancy start up in his Room, then take the Lyric's Advice, Tu, nisi ventis debes Ludibrium, cave. Then appears the Phrensie in Concupiscibili et Irascibili; the Heat is now no more Natural, but a Focus Febrilis, and the Party is affected with an intermitting Synocha, that will afford him no respiring Time.

Inordinate Desire is a Fire blown off from the Hearth, or an Elementum extra Locum, the Fidiculae Fidicularum where Men suffer exquisite Torments. It's every Evil or their Cause; for what is Ambition but nimia Honoris Cupiditas, what Iracundiae but fervens Vindicta Appetitus, what Covetousness but Auri Fames; whence Homicides, Rapine, Luxury, Treacheries, Ty­rannies, Factions but from this?— Seneca hath something to it;

I could call it the Powder-plot, the Underminer of all Good; it hath made more Batteries upon the Minds, Bodies, Names and Estates of Men, than ever Bartholdus the Francis­can Fryer occasion'd by his Invention. The Mystery of it is wall set forth in a French Quatrain.

Unbounded Appetite is a Centiceps Hydra; it is this Ingre­dient that poisons the Tranquillity of the Soul, and the Con­tent of every Condition.

The poor Man it is not so much his Poverty, as the immo­derate Thirst of more Wealth that racks him; The Ergastu­lum would be no Goal did not vehement Desire of Liberty de­rive it self into the Prisoner; what is Captivity, were but a Man Master of his own Thoughts? Look upon King Dionysi­us Syracusius at Corinth, he stoops not under the Burden, qualifi­ed only with a little Philosophy: Why did Cicero's little more than Year's Banishment seem long, what wrought him so sad amidst such Entertainments and Fame of Greece? Doubtless 'twas the Lust to return to Haly, (which was then the Para­dise of the World) and not any Sufferings attending his Pro­scription; which pronounced him more Oratour than Philoso­pher, tho' he desired that Denomination too: Privative Mer­cies Humour! I have seen an Estate (a Man would think) without Wrinkle, which has been the Eye-sore, and Matter of Maceration to every Adversary, that might have ingrossed as much Joy in it himself, as it moved Emulation in others; you would have deemed the Owner Sanctuari'd from every Gust, and yet this Man seemed as if Thunder-stricken; if you en­quire the Reason in promptu ▪ you will have it in a vagrant De­sire of his lately arrested by some unworthy Object. I can example it to you in overflowing Wealth and Greatness, Charles the Great nothing would satisfie but the Injoyment of his Be­loved, a very Dowdy, in Birth and Parts more than mean, for her he mourns, exposes himself to Censure, carries about with him her dead embalmed Body, as possessing no Treasure but that. We see that the whole Empire would not keep alive Cocceius Nerva, but the Desire of Revenge destroyed him: Marius his Ambition imbittered all his Wealth and Honours: This was the Fly in Haman 's Ointment that caused him to [Page 41] live discontentedly, and die ignominiously. Some are so infested with two contrary Appetites, Desire of Profit and Desire of Pleasure, Desire of a pitchy, polluted Vice, and a radiant and undefiled Name, that their Soul becomes a very Gladiatory, & they remain in that Danger the Harlot supposed her Child after Solomon 's Sentence: Virgil depaints the Turbulency of their Spirit in letting loose his Winds,

SOME there are, who if Darius his three Questions should be proposed, whether the King, or Wine, or Women were strongest, their Ambition would pronounce a Panegyric for Pre-eminence and Authority in the Morning; by Noon they would be fit to expatiate in the Praise of the Grapes of Caecubum, & discourse to you de Agro Falerno as the best piece of Husbandry; and be overcome by the third at Night; so that were Bacchus a Planet as well as Jupiter and Venus, I should have blamed the Heavens with this their Inconstancy; but I find the Cause within their own Sphere of Force sufficient, without celestial Influence, even various Desires that act by Turn to make a Tra­gedy: For a Proof I bring Nero to the Stage, (that lov'd it so well) Biberius Caligula, &c. It's not certain whether Pride or Avarice, or base Lust, or Thirst of Bloud swayed most in them.—You shall sometimes have a Fantastic who thro' De­sire of Laurel, has screwed his slender, mimical Wit to so high a Key, that you'll confidently say 'tis more than crackt, 'tis clear from his limping Iambics, which tho' they sweat over, yet a chymical Brain can extract no Mercury from them:—And even the Bodies of some Sort of Men are so little beholden to a vicious Appetite and Constitution as to their Decrease [Page 42] and Diminution, that it may be attributed wholly to their Rhyming; you shall have one so impaired by it, that when his Soul 's gone, his Body 's but a meer Skeleton in a Case, and for a funeral Elegy the Worms may complain with the Poet, Nil ultra Nervos at (que) cutem morti concesserat atra, for alas he had most prodigally and prophanely spent the Rest before. I have known a Name as glorious as the Sun-shine that has, by the Interposition of a base Desire and the Fruit of it, been eclipsed with an almost irreparable Deliquium. The Bounty and Justice of Domitian, when first enthroned, dwelled upon his Name sweeter than Mirrh, but drinking the Blood, and devouring the Revenues of his Subjects, soon made it unsa­voury. Whence come Decays, Cachexies on Estates, but from hence? You may see one bolting into a Gaming-house, or Brothel (but why put I this into the Catalogue) laden with Coin like a Cashier, but the Word is varied into the Preter­fect Tense at his Exit; he returns every way too light but in Heart, you may judge him Thunder-stricken, but sure it was Ictus Falminis terebrantis, for the Destruction was upon his Gold, and he's escaped Salvus tantum Loculis. How many have been wounded and exhausted by a Lust they were not sensible of, and how have they feasted, 'till at length Poverty comes upon them unawares like an Armed-Man. Untamed Desire is like­wise as Wild-fire in the Societies of Men; at a Feast you may soon meet with one who is inamored on the highest Room; if you place him in his Rank (which perhaps is many De­grees lower) he finds no Relish in the daintiest Viands, tho' perhaps a near Neighbour to the seasoning Salt: Or if in the Battle of Words (a Vanity now too common in Banquets) he hath failed in some Expression, or if he encounters one that is more able to handle his Word-weapon, or that in his Conceit most deserved the Palm, away he reels homeward e­ven drunk with Discontent. Oh! the Exorbitancies of De­sire! This Oceanus-Appetitus that swallow's all, and yet remain's an Appetite still; this Asphaltites that will drink up Jordan with­out [Page 43] Satiety: The Eye is not satisfied with Seeing, nor the Ear with Hearing; nunquam expletur Cupiditatis Sitis. Our Hearts are like the restless, raging Sea; this sends forth Mire and Dirt, and that hateful and violent Lusts continually. There are none who are wholly exempt from them. I may salute and advise every one that first enters into the World, as it is in the Ode,

Now as Seneca says of Fears, qui pavet vanos Metus veros fa­tetur, so I'll say of Desires, for from them I can gather that Man has not Happiness at Home; it must be had somewhere out of himself, and because Desire is natural as to see and hear, and the Axiom is Deus et Natura nil frustra, I am sure there is an adequate Object, there is SOMETHING able to satisfie; and seeing all the finite Creatures cannot do it, it must be the infinite God, blessed for ever, who alone is alsufficient, who is able to fill every Dimension of the Soul.

Until we arrive at this Heaven, we are tossed and find no Rest, we are hurried by our Passions, as by so many Waves and Cross-winds; one promising the Felicity we look for in that, and another in this; and thus are most led aside by those Syron-songs, 'till at length they are rockt asleep, dashed upon a miserable Shipwreck, and do post omnia perdere Nautam.

'Till we are in the Way to this Summum Bonum, to this consummate Good, we wander after Ignes fatuos, many foolish and noisom Lusts which drown Men in Perdition: 'Till we re­turn to this Ark, we find no Stay for the Sole of our Foot. [Page 44] May my Resolutions and Endeavours always be to turn my Desires into a right Channel, seeing they will perpetually boil up; and may I always dam up the sensitive and make them rational and humane.

I must labour to be like one of those Inferiores Belgae curious in Surveying the Banks, make daily use of my Commission of Sewers, and of my Reason, I must take care to prevent an In­undation of those that these may run more unitedly; and where Appetite is a Disease, I must take care that I do not venienti occurrere Morbo; but where 'tis placed aright, when I can with Integrity say non est Mortale quod opto, then I must hasten my Paoe, here it is Sin to be slack: I am commanded to give all Diligence to make Election sure; the Kingdom of Hea­ven suffers Violence; I am bid to love God with all my Heart, Soul and Strength; do I not run in a Race; do I not work in a Vineyard; do I not try Masteries, and fight for a Crown? Away then with Supiness here and idle Curiosity, I have Sea-room enough, and I must put on all my Sails: And if Augustine speak Truth, when he says there is Dul­cedo Pietatis et Pulchritudo Virtutis, let me tast, let me fall in love with them; if in the gracious Presence of God there is Plenitude of Joy, and eternal Pleasures, I must shew that I believe it, by my Desire to remain always un­der the Shadow of the Almighty.