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When our author shall have read Mr. White's "Dialogue of the World," he will no longer be of the opinion, that the unity of the world is a conclusion of faith; for it is there demonstrated by reason.

Here the thread of the discourse inviteth me to say a great deal of the production or creation of man's soul; but it is too tedious and too knotty a piece for a letter. Now it shall suffice to note, that it is not ex traduce, and yet hath a strange kind of near dependence of the body, which is, as it were, God's instrument to create it by. This, thus said, or rather tumbled out, may seem harsh. But had your lordship leisure to peruse what I have written at full upon this point, I doubt not but it would appear plausible enough to you.

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I cannot agree with him, when he seemeth to impute inconvenience to long life, and that length of time doth rather impair than improve us for surely, if we will follow the course of nature and of reason, it is a mighty great blessing, were it but in this regard, that it giveth time leave to vent and boil away the unquietnesses and turbulencies that follow our passions, and to wean ourselves gently from carnal affections, and at the last to drop with ease and willingness, like ripe fruit from the tree; as I remember Plotinus finely discourseth in one of his Eneads. For when, before the season, it is plucked off with violent hands, or shaken down by rude and boisterous winds, it carrieth along with it an undigested raw taste of the wood, and hath an unpleasant aigerness in its juice, that maketh it unfit for use, till long time hath mellowed it. And peradventure it may be so backward, as instead of ripening it may grow rotten in the very centre. In like manner, souls that go out of their bodies with affection to those objects they leave behind them, (which usually is as long as they can relish them,) do retain still even in their separation a bias and a languishing towards them, which is the reason why such terrene souls appear oftenest in cemeteries and charnel houses, and not that moral one which our author giveth. For life,

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which is union with the body, being that which carnal souls have straitest affection to, and that they are loathest to be separated from, their unquiet spirit, which can never (naturally) lose the impressions it had wrought in it at the time of its driving out, lingereth perpetually after that dear consort of his. The impossibility cannot cure them of their impotent desires; they would fain be alive again.

" Iterumque ad tarda reverti

Corpora. Quæ lucis miseris tam dira cupido."

And to this cause, peradventure, may be reduced the strange effect, which is frequently seen in England, when, at the approach of the murderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth afresh; for certainly, the souls of them that are treacherously murdered by surprise use to leave their bodies with extreme unwillingness, and with vehement indignation against them, that force them to That soul so unprovided and abhorred a passage.

then, to wreak its evil talent against the hated murderer, and to draw a just and desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to manifest the author of the fact. To speak it cannot, for in itself it wanteth organs of voice, and those it is parted from are now grown too heavy, and are too benumbed for it to give motion unto. Yet some change it desireth to make in the body, which it hath so vehement inclinations to, and therefore is the aptest for it to work upon. It must then endeavour to cause a motion in the subtlest and most fluid parts (and consequently the most moveable ones) of it. This can be nothing but the blood, which then being violently moved must needs gush out at those places where it findeth issues.

Our author cannot believe that the world will perish upon the ruins of its own principles; but Mr. White hath demonstrated the end of it upon natural reason: and though the precise time for that general destruction be inscrutable, yet he learnedly showeth an ingenious rule, whereby to measure in some sort the dura

tion of it, without being branded (as our author threateneth) with convincible and statute-madness, or with impiety. And whereas he will have the work of this last great day (the summer-up of all past days) to imply annihilation, and thereupon interesseth God only in it, I must beg leave to contradict him, namely in this point, and to affirm, that the letting loose then of the most active element, to destroy this face of the world, will but beget a change in it, and that no annihilation can proceed from God Almighty; for his essence being, as I said before, self-existence, it is more impossible that not-being should flow from him, than that cold should flow immediately from fire, or darkness from the actual presence of light.

I must needs acknowledge, that where he balanceth life and death against one another, and considereth that the latter is to be a kind of nothing for a moment, to become a pure spirit within one instant, and what followeth of this strong thought, is extremely handsomely said, and argueth very gallant and generous resolutions in him.

To exemplify the immortality of the soul, he needeth not have recourse to the philosopher's-stone; his own store furnisheth him with a most pregnant one of reviving a plant (the same numerical plant) out of his own ashes. But under his favour I believe his experiment will fail, if, under the notion of the same, he comprehendeth all the accidents that first accompanied that plant; for since in the ashes there remaineth only the fixed salt, I am very confident that all the colour and much of the odour and taste of it is flown away with the volatile salt.

What should I say of his making so particular a narration of personal things, and private thoughts of his own, the knowledge whereof cannot much conduce to any man's betterment? (which I make account is the chief end of his writing this discourse.) As where he speaketh of the soundness of his body, of the course of his diet, of the coolness of his blood at the summer

solstice of his age, of his neglect of an epitaph; how long he hath lived, or may live; what popes, emperors, kings, grand seigniors he hath been contemporary unto, and the like. Would it not be thought that he hath a special good opinion of himself, (and indeed he hath reason,) when he maketh such great princes the landmarks in the chronology of himself? Surely, if he were to write by retail the particulars of his own story and life, it would be a notable romance, since he telleth us in one total sum it is a continued miracle of thirty years. Though he creepeth gently upon us at the first, yet he groweth a giant, an Atlas (to use his own expression) at the last. But I will not censure him, as he that made notes upon Balsac's letters, and was angry with him for vexing his readers with stories of his cholics and voiding of gravel. I leave this kind of expressions without looking further into them.

In the next place, my lord, I shall take occasion, from our author's setting so main a difference between moral honesty and virtue, or being virtuous (to use his own phrase) out of an inbred loyalty to virtue; and on the other side, being virtuous for a reward's sake, to discourse a little concerning virtue in this life, and the effects of it afterwards. Truly, my lord, however he seemeth to prefer this latter, I cannot but value the other much before it, if we regard the nobleness and heroicness of the nature and mind from whence they both proceed. And if we consider the journey's end, to which each of them carrieth us, I am confident the first yieldeth nothing to the second, but indeed both meet in the period of beatitude. To clear this point, (which is very well worth the wisest man's serious thought) we must consider what it is that bringeth us to this excellent state, to be happy in the other world of eternity and immutability. It is agreed on all hands to be God's grace and favour to us: but all do not agree by what steps his grace produceth this effect. Herein I shall not trouble your lordship with a long discourse, how that grace worketh in us, (which

yet I will in a word touch anon, that you may conceive what I understand grace to be,) but will suppose it to have wrought its effect in us in this life, and from thence examine what hinges they are that turn us over to beatitude and glory in the next. Some consider God as a judge, that rewardeth or punisheth men, according as they co-operated with, or repugned to, the grace he gave. That according as their actions please or displease him, he is well affected towards them, or angry with them; and accordingly maketh them to the purpose and very home, feel the effects of his kindness or indignation. Others that fly a higher pitch, and are so happy,

"Ut rerum poterint cognoscere causas,"

do conceive that beatitude and misery in the other life are effects that necessarily and orderly flow out of the nature of those causes that begot them in this life, without engaging God Almighty to give a sentence, and act the part of a judge, according to the state of our cause, as it shall appear upon the accusations and pleadings at his great bar; much of which manner of expression is metaphorical, and rather adapted to contain vulgar minds in their duties, that are awed with the thought of a severe judge, sifting every minute action of theirs, than such as we must conceive every circumstance to pass so in reality, as the literal sound of the words seems to infer in ordinary construction: and yet all that is too true, in its genuine sense. But, my lord, these more penetrating men, and that, I conceive, are virtuous upon higher and stronger motives, (for they truly and solidly know why they are so,) do consider, that what impressions are once made in the spiritual substance of a soul, and what affections it hath once contracted, do ever remain in it till a contrary and diametrically contradicting judgment and affection do obliterate it, and expel it thence. This is the reason why contrition, sorrow, and hatred for sins past is encharged us. If then the soul do go out of the

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