The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 37

His Willingness to leave this World about that Age, when most men think they may best enjoy it, tho' paradoxical unto worldly Ears, was not strange unto mine, who have so often observed, that many, tho' old, oft stick fast unto the World, and seem to be drawn like _Cacus's_ Oxen, backward, with great Struggling and Reluctancy unto the Grave. The long Habit of Living makes meer men more hardly to part with Life, and All to be Nothing, but what is to come. To live at the rate of the old World, when some could scarce remember themselves young, may afford no better digested Death than a more moderate Period. Many would have thought it an Happiness to have had their Lot of Life in some notable Conjunctures of Ages past; but the Uncertainty of future Times hath tempted few to make a Part in Ages to come. And surely, he that hath taken the true Alt.i.tude of things, and rightly calculated the degenerate State of this Age, is not like to envy those that shall live in the next, much less three or four hundred Years hence, when no Man can comfortably imagine what Face this World will carry: And therefore since every Age makes a Step unto the End of all things, and the Scripture affords so hard a Character of the last Times; quiet Minds will be content with their Generations, and rather bless Ages past, than be ambitious of those to come.

Tho' Age had set no Seal upon his Face, yet a dim Eye might clearly discover Fifty in his Actions; and therefore since Wisdom is the grey Hair, and an unspotted Life old Age; altho' his Years came short he might have been said to have held up with longer Livers, and to have been _Solomon's_[312] Old Man. And surely if we deduct all those Days of our Life which we might wish unliv'd, and which abate the Comfort of those we now live; if we reckon up only those Days which G.o.d hath accepted of our Lives, a Life of good Years will hardly be a Span long: the Son in this Sense may out-live the Father, and none be climacterically old. He that early arriveth unto the Parts and Prudence of Age, is happily old without the uncomfortable Attendants of it; and 'tis superfluous to live unto grey Hairs, when in a precocious Temper we antic.i.p.ate the Virtues of them. In brief, he cannot be accounted young who out-liveth the old Man. He that hath early arrived unto the measure of a perfect Stature in Christ, hath already fulfilled the prime and longest Intention of his Being: and one Day lived after the perfect Rule of Piety, is to be preferr'd before sinning Immortality.

[312] _Wisdom_, cap. iv.

Altho' he attain'd not unto the Years of his Predecessors, yet he wanted not those preserving Virtues which confirm the Thread of weaker Const.i.tutions. Cautelous Chast.i.ty and crafty Sobriety were far from him; those Jewels were Paragon, without Flaw, Hair, Ice, or Cloud in him: which affords me an Hint to proceed in these good Wishes, and few _Memento's_ unto you.

Tread softly and circ.u.mspectly in this funambulous Track, and narrow Path of Goodness: pursue Virtue virtuously; be sober and temperate, not to preserve your Body in a sufficiency to wanton Ends; not to spare your Purse; not to be free from the Infamy of common Transgressors that way, and thereby to ballance or palliate obscure and closer Vices; nor simply to enjoy Health: By all which you may leaven good Actions, and render Virtues disputable: but in one Word, that you may truly serve G.o.d; which every Sickness will tell you, you cannot well do without health. The sick Man's Sacrifice is but a lame Oblation. Pious Treasures laid up in healthful Days, excuse the Defect of sick Non-performances; without which we must needs look back with Anxiety upon the lost Opportunities of Health; and may have cause rather to envy than pity the Ends of penitent Malefactors, who go with clear Parts unto the last Act of their Lives; and in the Integrity of their Faculties return their Spirit unto G.o.d that gave it.

Consider whereabout thou art in _Cebes_ his Table, or that old philosophical Pinax of the Life of Man; whether thou art still in the Road of Uncertainties; whether thou hast yet entred the narrow Gate, got up the Hill and asperous Way which leadeth unto the House of Sanity, or taken that purifying Potion from the Hand of sincere Erudition, which may send the clear and pure away unto a virtuous and happy Life.

In this virtuous voyage let not Disappointment cause Despondency, nor Difficulty Despair: Think not that you are sailing from _Lima_[313] to _Manillia_, wherein thou may'st tye up the Rudder, and sleep before the Wind; but expect rough Seas, Flaws, and contrary Blasts; and 'tis well if by many cross Tacks and Veerings thou arrivest at thy Port. Sit not down in the popular Seats, and common Level of Virtues, but endeavour to make them Heroical. Offer not only Peace-Offerings but Holocausts unto G.o.d. To serve him singly to serve our selves, were too partial a Piece of Piety, nor likely to place us in the highest Mansions of Glory.

[313] Through the Pacifick Sea, with a constant Gale from the East.

He that is chaste and continent, not to impair his Strength, or terrified by Contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that Virtue unto those Years when _Cato_ could lend out his Wife, and impotent _Satyrs_ write Satyrs against l.u.s.t: but be chaste in thy flaming Days, when _Alexander_ dared not trust his Eyes upon the fair Daughters of _Darius_, and when so many Men think there is no other Way but _Origen's_.[314]

[314] Who is said to have castrated himself.

Be charitable before Wealth makes thee covetous, and lose not the Glory of the Mitre. If Riches increase, let thy Mind hold Pace with them; and think it not enough to be liberal, but munificent. Tho' a Cup of cold Water from some hand may not be without its Reward; yet stick not thou for Wine and Oyl for the Wounds of the distressed: and treat the poor as our Saviour did the Mult.i.tude, to the Relicks of some Baskets.

Trust not to the Omnipotency of Gold, or say unto it, Thou art my Confidence: kiss not thy Hand when thou beholdest that terrestrial Sun, nor bore thy Ear unto its Servitude. A Slave unto Mammon makes no Servant unto G.o.d: Covetousness cracks the Sinews of Faith, numbs the Apprehension of any thing above Sense, and only affected with the Certainty of Things present, makes a Peradventure of things to come; lives but unto one World, nor hopes but fears another; makes our own Death sweet unto others, bitter unto our selves; gives a dry Funeral, Scenical Mourning, and no wet Eyes at the Grave.

If Avarice be thy Vice, yet make it not thy Punishment: Miserable Men commiserate not themselves, bowelless unto themselves, and merciless unto their own Bowels. Let the Fruition of things bless the Possession of them, and take no Satisfaction in dying but living rich: for since thy good Works, not thy Goods, will follow thee; since Riches are an Appurtenance of Life, and no dead Man is rich, to famish in Plenty, and live poorly to die rich, were a multiplying Improvement in Madness, and Use upon Use in Folly.

Persons lightly dip'd, not grain'd in generous Honesty, are but pale in Goodness, and faint hued in Sincerity: but be thou what thou virtuously art, and let not the Ocean wash away thy Tincture: stand magnetically upon that Axis where prudent Simplicity hath fix'd thee, and let no Temptation invert the Poles of thy Honesty: and that Vice may be uneasie, and even monstrous unto thee, let iterated good Acts, and long confirm'd Habits make Vertue natural, or a second Nature in thee. And since few or none prove eminently vertuous but from some advantageous Foundations in their Temper, and natural Inclinations; study thy self betimes, and early find what Nature bids thee to be, or tells thee what thou may'st be. They who thus timely descend into themselves, cultivating the good Seeds which Nature hath set in them, and improving their prevalent Inclinations to Perfection, become not Shrubs, but Cedars in their Generation; and to be in the form of the best of the Bad, or the worst of the Good, will be no Satisfaction unto them.

Let not the Law of thy Country be the _non ultra_ of thy Honesty, nor think that always good enough which the Law will make good. Narrow not the Law of Charity, Equity, Mercy; joyn Gospel Righteousness with Legal Right; be not a meer _Gamaliel_ in the Faith; but let the Sermon in the Mount be thy _Targum_ unto the Law of _Sinai_.

Make not the Consequences of Vertue the Ends thereof: be not beneficent for a Name or Cymbal of Applause, nor exact and punctual in Commerce, for the Advantages of Trust and Credit which attend the Reputation of just and true Dealing; for such Rewards, tho' unsought for, plain Vertue will bring with her, whom all Men honour, tho' they pursue not. To have other bye Ends in good Actions, sowers laudable Performances, which must have deeper Roots, Motions, and Instigations, to give them the Stamp of Vertues.

Tho' human Infirmity may betray thy heedless Days into the popular Ways of Extravagancy, yet let not thine own Depravity, or the Torrent of vicious Times, carry thee into desperate Enormities in Opinions, Manners, or Actions: if thou hast dip'd thy Foot in the River, yet venture not over _Rubicon_; run not into Extremities from whence there is no Regression, nor be ever so closely shut up within the Holds of Vice and Iniquity, as not to find some Escape by a Postern of Resipiscency.

Owe not thy Humility unto Humiliation by Adversity, but look humbly down in that State when others look upward upon thee: be patient in the Age of Pride and Days of Will and Impatiency, when Men live but by Intervals of Reason, under the Sovereignty of Humor and Pa.s.sion, when 'tis in the Power of every one to transform thee out of thy self, and put thee into the short Madness. If you cannot imitate _Job_, yet come not short of _Socrates_,[315] and those patient Pagans, who tir'd the Tongues of their Enemies while they perceiv'd they spet their Malice at brazen Walls and Statues.

[315] _Ira furor brevis est._

Let Age, not Envy, draw Wrinkles on thy Cheeks: be content to be envied, but envy not. Emulation may be plausible, and Indignation allowable; but admit no Treaty with that Pa.s.sion which no Circ.u.mstance can make good. A Displacency at the Good of others, because they enjoy it, altho' we do not want it, is an absurd Depravity, sticking fast unto human Nature from its primitive Corruption; which he that can well subdue, were a Christian of the first Magnitude, and for ought I know, may have one Foot already in Heaven.

While thou so hotly disclaim'st the Devil, be not guilty of Diabolism; fall not into one Name with that unclean Spirit, nor act his Nature whom thou so much abhorrest; that is, to accuse, calumniate, backbite, whisper, detract, or sinistrously interpret others; degenerous Depravities and narrow-minded Vices, not only below S. _Paul's_ n.o.ble Christian, but _Aristotle's_[316] true Gentleman. Trust not with some, that the Epistle of S. _James_ is Apocryphal, and so read with less Fear that Stabbing Truth, that in company with this Vice thy Religion is in vain. _Moses_ broke the Tables without breaking of the Law; but where Charity is broke the Law it self is shatter'd, which cannot be whole without Love, that is the fulfilling of it. Look humbly upon thy Vertues, and tho' thou art rich in some, yet think thy self poor and naked, without that crowning Grace, which thinketh no Evil, which envieth not, which beareth, believeth, hopeth, endureth all things. With these sure Graces, while busie Tongues are crying out for a Drop of cold Water, Mutes may be in Happiness, and sing the _Trisagium_[317] in Heaven.

[316] See _Arist. Ethicks_ Chapt. of Magnanimity.

[317] Holy, Holy, Holy.

Let not the Sun in _Capricorn_ go down upon thy Wrath, but Write thy Wrongs in Water: draw the Curtain of Night upon Injuries; shut them up in the Tower of Oblivion,[318] and let them be as tho' they had not been. Forgive thine Enemies totally, and without any Reserve of Hope, that however, G.o.d will revenge thee.

[318] Even when the Days are shortest; alluding to the Tower of _Oblivion_ mentioned by _Procopius_, which was the Name of a Tower of Imprisonment among the _Persians_: whosoever was put therein he was as it were buried alive, and it was Death for any but to name it.

Be substantially great in thy self, and more than thou appearest unto others; and let the World be deceived in thee, as they are in the Lights of Heaven. Hang early Plummets upon the Heels of Pride, and let Ambition have but an Epicyche or narrow Circuit in thee. Measure not thy self by thy Morning Shadow, but by the Extent of thy Grave; and reckon thy self above the Earth by the Line thou must be contented with under it. Spread not into boundless Expansions either to Designs or Desires. Think not that Mankind liveth but for a few, and that the rest are born but to serve the Ambition of those, who make but Flies of Men, and Wildernesses of whole Nations. Swell not into Actions which embroil and confound the Earth; but be one of those violent ones which _force the Kingdom of Heaven_.[319] If thou must needs reign, be _Zeno_, King, and enjoy that Empire which every Man gives himself. Certainly, the iterated Injunctions of Christ unto Humility, Meekness, Patience, and that despised Train of Vertues, cannot but make pathetical Impressions upon those who have well consider'd the Affairs of all Ages, wherein Pride, Ambition, and Vain glory, have led up the worst of Actions, and whereunto Confusion, Tragedies, and Acts denying all Religion, do owe their Originals.

[319] _Matthew_ xi.

Rest not in an Ovation,[320] but a Triumph over thy Pa.s.sions; chain up the unruly Legion of thy Breast; behold thy Trophies within thee, not without thee: Lead thine own Captivity captive, and be _Caesar_ unto thy self.

[320] _Ovation_, a petty and minor kind of Triumph.

Give no quarter unto those Vices which are of thine inward Family; and having a Root in thy Temper, plead a Right and Property in thee. Examine well thy complexional Inclinations. Raise early Batteries against those strong Holds built upon the Rock of Nature, and make this a great Part of the Militia of thy Life. The politick Nature of Vice must be oppos'd by Policy, and therefore wiser Honesties project and plot against Sin; wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in Generals, or the trite Stratagems of Art: that may succeed with one Temper which may prove successless with another. There is no Community or Common-wealth of Virtue; every Man must study his own Oeconomy, and erect these Rules unto the Figure of himself.

Lastly, If Length of Days be thy Portion, make it not thy Expectation: Reckon not upon long Life, but live always beyond thy Account. He that so often surviveth his Expectation, lives many Lives, and will hardly complain of the Shortness of his Days. Time past is gone like a Shadow; make Times to come present; conceive that near which may be far off; approximate thy last Times by present Apprehensions of them: Live like a Neighbour unto Death, and think there is but little to come. And since there is something in us that must still live on, join both Lives together; unite them in thy Thoughts and Actions, and live in one but for the other. He who thus ordereth the Purposes of this Life, will never be far from the next, and is in some manner already in it, by an happy Conformity, and close Apprehension of it.

_FINIS_

POSTHUMOUS WORKS

1712

REPERTORIUM:

Or, some Account of the Tombs and Monuments in the Cathedral Church of Norwich, in 1680.

In the Time of the late Civil Wars, there were about an hundred Bra.s.s Inscriptions stol'n and taken away from Grave-Stones, and Tombs, in the Cathedral Church of _Norwich_; as I was inform'd by _John Wright_, one of the Clerks, above Eighty Years old, and Mr. _John Sandlin_, one of the Choir, who lived Eighty nine Years; and, as I remember, told me that he was a Chorister in the Reign of Queen _Elizabeth_.

Hereby the distinct Places of the Burials of many n.o.ble and considerable Persons become unknown; and, lest they should be quite buried in Oblivion, I shall, of so many, set down only these following that are most noted to Pa.s.sengers, with some that have been erected since those unhappy Times.

First, in the Body of the Church, between the Pillars of the South Isle, stands a Tomb, cover'd with a kind of Touch-stone; which is the Monument of MILES SPENCER, LL.D. and Chancellor of _Norwich_, who lived unto Ninety Years. The Top Stone was entire, but now quite broken, split, and depress'd by Blows: There was more special Notice taken of this Stone, because Men used to try their Money upon it; and that the Chapter demanded certain Rents to be paid on it. He was Lord of the Mannor of _Bowthorp_ and _Colney_, which came unto the _Yaxley's_ from him; also Owner of _Chappel_, in the Field.

The next Monument is that of Bishop RICHARD NICKS, _alias_ Nix, or the Blind Bishop, being quite dark many Years before he died. He sat in this _See_ Thirty Six Years, in the Reigns of King _Henry_ VII. and _Henry_ VIII. The Arches are beautified above and beside it, where are to be seen the Arms of the _See_ of _Norwich_, _impaling_ his own, _viz._ a _Chevron_ between three _Leopards_ Heads. The same Coat of Arms is on the Roof of the _North_ and _South Cross Isle_; which Roofs he either rebuilt, or repair'd. The Tomb is low, and broad, and 'tis said there was an Altar at the bottom of the Eastern Pillar: The Iron-work, whereon the Bell hung, is yet visible on the Side of the Western Pillar.

Then the Tomb of Bishop JOHN PARKHURST, with a legible Inscription on the Pillar, set up by Dean _Gardiner_, running thus.

Johannes Parkhurst, _Theol. Professor_, Guilfordiae _natus_, Oxoniae _educatus, temporibus_ Mariae _Reginae pro Nitida conscientia tuenda_ Tigurinae _vixit exul Voluntarius: Postea presul factus, sanctissime Hanc rexit Ecclesiam per 16 an. Obiit secundo die_ Febr. 1574.

A Person he was of great Esteem and Veneration in the Reign of Queen _Elizabeth_. His Coat of Arms is on the Pillars, visible, at the going out of the Bishop's Hall.

Between the two uppermost Pillars, on the same Side, stood a handsom Monument of Bishop EDMUND SCAMLER, thus.

_Natus apud_ Gressingham, _in Com._ Lanc. SS. _Theol. Prof.

apud_ Cantabrigienses. _Obiit aetat._ 85. _an._ 1594 _nonis_ Maii.