your

ment behind; that is, the confideration of eternal interest. 'Tis highly necessary to leave the world before you be torn from it, and to acquaint your felves more familiarly with another world, before you pafs into it to make your abode in it for ever. Certainly it requires fome time to prepare the foul for death and judgment; and that man will be very unfit for either, who is carry'd from the compter to the grave, and from the intanglements of fecular cares to the tribunal of God. But befides the benefits which you will find in retirement, the profpect and propofal of it has many in it; the hopes of a fabbatick year in life, will cafe the weight and tavail of thofe that precede it; and a defign of retreating from trade and business, will be apt to induce men to pass their firft years with more moderation and abftinence, that they may the fooner provide the means of an eafie or honourable retirement.

Thefe rules well obferv'd, would free the negotiating life from all the great evils and inconveniences it is fubject to, Business, as it was in the time of innocence, would be, not the curfe, but the bleffing of mankind; and trade would be as eafie and innocent, if not as pleafant, as Adam's husbandry in his garden: for thus industry would be without drudgery, and care without anxiety; commerce would be carry'd on without any mean or ill artifice, without impatient and tormenting defigns, or tirefome and vexatious difappointments. What need would there be of fhifts and equivocations, of fraud and circumvention, if a

man

man had faith enough to believe, that God's bleffing upon his industry were the only way to grow, truly rich; I mean, to get, if not fo much as he would, yet as much as would be good for him? what temptation would men lie under to bondage and drudgery, or to perplexity and anxiety, if he could contain his defires within those narrow bounds which nature and his station have prescribed him? what fears could difquiet the mind, which were form'd into an intire refignation to, and dependence upon God? or, how could the world infiare that foul, which allots a proper time for publick religion, and private meditation? in a word, these rules being follow'd, men would not only avoid the common rocks on which the happinefs and fortune of the trader generally dafhes, but also attain the end of this fort of active life; they would get eftates in their younger years, and enjoy them in their riper: nay, no portion of life would want its proper and seasonable enjoyments; they would in the midst of business preferve their innocence, and when they did retire from it, they would perfect that religion which they could before but begin; and enrich, and adorn, and entertain the foul, which they could but guard and defend before, and scarcely maintain in life; I mean, spiritual life.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

Of a contemplative life:

For whom this chapter is defign'd; what kind of life is to be understood by a contemplative one. Sect. 1. The ends or reasons warranting the choice of fuch a life: First, Enjoyment: Secondly, Self-prefervation from the affaults of temptation: Thirdly, The better ferving the world: Fourthly, A more intire dedication of one's felf to God. Sect. 2. The conditions, or qualifications neceffary to a contemplative life: First, A plentiful fortune: Secondly, A peaceable and humble difpofition: Thirdly, A good underftanding. Sect. 3. The regulation of a contemplative life; with respect, First, To time: Secondly, To place: Thirdly, To the exercise or employment of a retir'd life: The conclufion, containing the pleasure and happiness of a contemplative life.

TH

HE first thing that offer'd it felf to my thoughts, taking a view of this fubject, was the collegiative life of scholars in the universities: but befides, that here they do not fo much defign to retire from the world, as to prepare themselves for it, I had reason to think, whatever service I could propofe to do the publick, by any advice I could here offer, my zeal could never be able to atone for my prefumption; fince these feminaries of learning are under the

conduct

conduct and direction of the ableft, not of this age only, but of thofe paft: I do not therefore calculate this difcourfe for thefe, but for persons of another education, and under no direction but their own; for fuch who make their retreat from the world, tir'd and fated with it; for fuch, whofe inclination or fortune cafts them upon a quiet, private, and unactive life. To thefe, I offer my felf a companion: I would enter with them into their privacies, and assist them to pass their hours with true pleasure and innocence. I would infpire them, if I could, with wife and excellent thoughts; I would engage them in the most neceflary and most delightful bufinefs of human life, and guard them against thofe evils and follies, which are apt to infinuate themselves into the most folitary life.

I must here, in the next place, repeat an obfervation, which, I think, I have fomewhere before made, that the life of man must neither be wholly contemplative, nor wholly active: for as action and business, without any meditation, is apt to alienate the mind from God and virtue, to corrupt all that is great and generous, and truly wife in it, and wed it wholly to the world; fo I doubt, a life spent wholly in contemplation, without any mixture of action, will prove fruitless and unprofitable; and men condemn'd to utter folitude, like the trees and shrubs of the wildernefs, would grow wild and favage, luxuriant in leaves, but their fruit, if they brought forth any, four and fmall. They forget the nature and

the

the duty of man; and talk not feraphically, but fantaftically, whoever perfwade him to give up himself entirely to contemplation. Man is yet a mixt and compound being; when he becomes all spirit, let him be all thought: he is yet a citizen of this world, tho' he be deftined for another let him not forget, that there are virtues becoming him as fuch: let him live by intuition, when he comes into the perfect light, and enters into the beatifick prefence: let him live by raptures, when he is come into a world where wants and frailties, pains and evils, cannot enter. In the mean time, let man content himfelf with human virtue, and in this low probationary ftate, not dream of the flights which only angels take. Having thus taken care, firft to raise no expectation in my reader, which might afterwards be fruftrated; and next, prevented his being betray'd into any extravagance, by projecting a more abftracted life than the nature of man and the world will admit, I will now proceed to dif course of these three things:

First, The reafons and ends of a contem-
plative Life.
Secondly, The neceffary qualifications for it.
And, Thirdly, the due regulations of it.

Firft, Of the reasons, &c. Some propose to themselves ease and enjoyment, as the great end and defign of their retirement: now, tho' this be a mean and low project, little becoming the excellence of our Chriftian profeffion,

yet