CHA P. XXIV. Confolations against Banishment, and Bodily Pain. Iby the Help of virtue to improve it for tuves, and T is a Mafter piece to draw good out of Evil; and Bleffings. 'Tis a fad Condition, you'll fay, for a Man to be barred the Freedom of his own Country. And is not this the Cafe of thousands that we meet every Day in the Streets? Some, for Ambition; others, to negotiate, or for Curiofity, Delight, Friendship, Study, Experience, Luxury, Vanity, Difcontent: Some to exercise their Virtues, others, their Vices; and not a few to prostitute either their Bodies or their Eloquence? To pafs now from pleafant Countries into the worst of Islands; let them be never fo barren, or rocky, the People never fo barbarous, or the Climate never fo intemperate; he that is ba nifhed thither, fhall find many Strangers to live there for their Pleasure. The Mind of Man is naturally curious, and restlefs; which is no Wonder, confidering their di vine Original: For heavenly things are always in Motion; witness the Stars, and the Orbs, which are perpetually moving, rolling, and changing of Place, and ac-cording to the Law and Appointment of Nature. here are no Woods, you'll fay, no Rivers; no Gold, nor Pearl; nor Commodity for Traffic or Commerce; nay, hardly Provifion enough to keep the Inhabitants from ftarving. It is very right; here are no Palaces, nor artificial Grottos, or Materials for Luxury, and Excefs; but ave lie under the protection of Heaven; and a poor Cottage for a Retreat, is more worthy than the most magnificent Temple, when that Cottage is confecrated by an honeft Man under the Guard of his Virtue. Shall any Man think Banishment grievous, when he may take fuch Company along with him? Nor is there any Banifhment but yields enough for our Neceflities, and no Kingdom is fufficient for Superfluities. It is the Mind that makes us S But rich in a Defart; and if the Body be but kept alive; the Soul enjoys all fpiritual Felicities in abundance. What fignifies the being banished from one Spot of Ground to another, to a Man that has his Thoughts above, and can look forward, and backward, and wherever he pleases; and that wherever he is, has the fame Matter to work upon? The Body is but the Prifen, or the Clog of the Mind; fubjected to Punishments, Robberies, Difeafes; but the Mind is facred, and fpiritual, and liable to po Violence. Is it that a Man fhall want Garments, or Cover. ing in Banishment! The Body is as eafily cloathed as fed; and Nature has made nothing hard that is necef fary. But if nothing will ferve us, but rich Embroide ries, and Scarlet, 'tis none of Fortune's Fault that we are poor, but our own. Nay, fuppofe a Man fhould have all restored him back again that he has loft, it will come to nothing; for he will want more after that, to fatisfy his Defires, than he did before to fupply his Ne ceffities. Infatiable Appetites are not fo much a Thirst, as a Disease. + Banishment is but Change of Place, in which Senfe all People and nations have been banished. To come lower now; where's † that People or Nation, that have not chan ged their Place of Abode? fome by the Fate of War; others have been caft by Tempelts, Shipwrecks, or Want of Provifions upon unknown Coafts. Some have been forced abroad by Pefilence, Sedition, Earthquakes, Surcharge of People at home. Some travel to fee the World; others for Commerce; but, in fine, it is clear, that upon fome Reafon or other, the whole Race of Mankind have fhifted their Quarters; changed their very Names, as well as their Habitations; infomuch that we have loft the very Memorials of what they were. All thefe Tranfpor tations of People what are they but public Banifhments? The very Founder of the Roman Empire was an Exile: Bricfly, the whole World has been tranfplanted, and one Mutation treads upon the Heel of another. which one Man defires, turns another Man's Stomach; and he that profcribes me to-day, fhall himself be caft out to-morrow. We have however this Comfort in our Milfortune; we have the fame Nature, the fame Providence, That be tter and we carry our Virtues along with us. And this Bleffing we owe to the Almighty Power, call it what you will; either a God or an Incorporeal Reason, a Divine Spirit, or Fate, and the Unchangeable Course of Causes and Effects: It is however fo ordered, that nothing can be taken from us, but what we can well spare; and that which is most magnificent, and valuable, continues with Wherever we go, we have the Heavens over our' Heads. and no farther from us than they were before; and fo long as we can entertain our Eyes and Thoughts with thofe Glories, what Matter is it what Ground we tread upon ? LIS. * Pain only affects the Body, not the Mind. In the Cafe of Pain, or Sickness, 'tis *only the Body that is affected: It may take off the Speed of a Footman, or biad the Hands of a Cobler,but the Mind is ftill at liberty to hear, learn, teach, advife, and to do other good Offices. It is an Example of public Benefit, a Man that is in Pain and patient. Virtue may fhew itself, as well in the Bed as in the Field; and he that chearfully encounters the Terrors of Death, and corporal Anguish is as great a Man as he that molt generously hazards himfelf in a Battle, A Difeafe, 'tis true, bars us of fome Pleasures, but procures others. Drink is never fo grateful to us, as in a burning Fever; nor Meat, as when we have fafted ourselves fharp, and hungry. The Patient be forbidden fome fenfual Satisfaction, but no Phymay fician will forbid us the Delight of the Mind. Shall we call any fick Man miferable, because he must give over his Intemperance of Wine and Gluttony, and betake himfelf to a Diet of more Sobriety, and lefs Expence; and abandon his Luxury, which is the Diftemper of the Mind as well of the Body? It is troublesome, I know, at firft, to abstain from the Pleasures we have been used to, and to endure Hunger and Thirst; but in a little time we lofe the very Appetite, and 'tis no trouble then, to be without that which we do not defire. In Difeafes, there are great Pains; but if they be long, they remit, and give us fome Intervals of Eafe; if short and violent, either they difpatch us, or confume themselves; So that either their Refpites make them tolerable, or the Extremity makes them short. So merciful is Almighty God to us, that our Torments cannot be very fharp, and lasting. The acutest Pains are those that effect the Nerves, but there's this Comfort in them too, that they will quickly make us ftupid, and infenfible. In cafes of Extremity, let us call to mind the most eminent Inftances of Patience and Courage, and turn our Thoughts from our Afflictions to the Contemplation of Virtue. Suppofe it be the Stone, the Gout, nay, the Rack itself: how many have endured it without fo much as a Groan, or Word fpeaking; without fo much as afking for Relief, or giving an Answer to a Question? Nay, they have laughed at the Tormenters upon the very Torture, and provoked them to new Experiments of their Cruelty, which they have had still in Derifion. The Afthma I look upon, as of all Diseases, the most importune; the Physicians call it The Meditation of Death, as being rather an Agony than a Sickness: The Fit holds not above an Hour, as no body is long in expiring. There are three things grievous in Sicknefs, the Fear of Death, bodily Pain, and the Intermiffion of our Pleafures: The first is to be imputed to Nature, not to the Disease; for we do not die becaufe we are fick, but because we live. Nay, Sicknefs itself has preferved many a Man from dying, CHAP. XXV. Poverty to a wife Man, is rather a Blessing than a Misfortune. TO Man fhall ever be poor, that goes to himself for what he wants; and that's the readiest way to Riches; Nature indeed will have her Due; but yet whatfoever is beyond Neceffity, is precarious, and not necesfary. It is not her Business to gratify the Palate, but to fatisfy a craving Stomach: Bread, when a Man is hungry does his Work, let it be never fo coarse; and. Water when he is a dry; let his Thirst be quenched, and Nature is fatisfied; no matter whence it comes, or whether he drinks in Gold, Silver, or in the Hollow of his E Hand. To promife a Man Riches, and to teach him Po |