ESSAY I.

IN all Accounts of Wise Men, we find every thing esteem'd more or less, ac∣cording as it most Imports to their Inter∣est or Happiness; and so far Humane Life, considering it simply, Quatenus Humane Life, only, is either good or ill in propor∣tion to the advances it makes towards a State of Wretchedness or Felicity. To take a proper Estimate therefore of Hu∣mane Life, it will be necessary to exam∣ine whether there be not in the general, more Loss than Gain, more Pain then Pleasure, and more Evil than Good, at∣tending upon it; which I suppose will be easy to Demonstrate, according to the common Rules of proving any thing of that kind. Look but into the Original of Nature, and you'll find her very Being and Constitution Engrafted with so ma∣ny Solid and Substantial Ills, and has so Page  143 many Seeds of Mortality scattered all over her, that at the very first sight, if you don't look with false Opticks, you must needs perceive her condition to be far too wretched to be reliev'd, by the most Powerful Advantages of this Life.

I know this will seem a very odd Par∣adox to those, that perhaps have neither sence nor Grace to reflect in earnest upon the Circumstances of Human Life, but for all that, they'll find it at last a sad truth, and be forc'd to conclude with Va∣lerius Maximus, that the Thracians were a very Wise People, in establishing a Cust∣om to celebrate the Birth of Men with Mourning, and their Death with Joy; which they did without any manner of Instructions or advice, but as it were from the very Motions and dictates of Nature, or from the common obser∣vations of the troubles and Calamities of it.

The Original depravation of Nature is an Invincible Argument against the felicity of Humane Life; from thence spring up such an Infinit multitude of pains, sorrows, Disappointments, deseases &c. That from wofull experiences make it too plain that Life with all the additi∣ons Page  144 that this World can offer, is at the very best but a Wretched disconso∣late comfortless thing: for let us consider how many there are that are opprest with Slavery, or pine'd with want, worn out with sickness, and consum'd with Vexati∣on, wrack'd and alarmed with fears and dismal apprehensions, and stung with the Guilt and remorses of Conscience, I make no doubt but we shall find the Latter much out-ballance the former; that the Evils of Humane Life, do in the main Surmount the Goods, and then 'tis a plain case that if we take it in the sence, I am now discoursing of it in, that Death is much perferable to it.

Alas! what have we here that can en∣gage us to be fond of Life with any reasonable pretence; our pleasure, our profit, our health and our Liberty, are all Dependent and precarious; we are at best but Tenants at Will to 'em, and by any rough turn of fate, or at least upon the first disobliging of our Landlord, may be forc'd out of third Possession in a Moment.

Happyness and contentment we all pretend to search after, we toyle and tug for 'em, and pursue 'em through abundance of Dangerous Wilds and Page  145 Labyrinths, but after all, but few, I'm affraid, none of us overtake 'em in ear∣nest.

'Tis true, 'tis in our own power to make our selves happy, but then our Natures are so Stubborn and restive, so deprav'd, aukward and defective, that they never cease Jilting us into some sort of Vice or Vanity: Man's born to Trouble, to Pain, Danger, Diseases and Folly too; all, or some of which constantly twist themselves about his Life, like the Trea∣cherous Ivy round the Oak, till they have suck'd up, and exhausted all his Felicity, and then, after a great many Pangs and struggles, forc't him to wither away and die.

He comes into the World screching and strugling, and goes out of it again Groaning, and Gnashing his Teeth; his Youth is nothing else but a mixture of Danger and folly, and his Age a Compo∣sition of pains, diseases, troubles, sorrows, disappointments, and altogether; and his Manhood too stands between 'em like a Parenthesis of Woe, and can by no means be Instated in any tolerable condi∣tion of Indolence or ease.

He's born to sin and Vanitie, and in∣deed expos'd to so many Hazards be∣tween Page  146 his Cradle and his Crutches, that his preservation amidst 'em, to a reasonable Man, seems almost as miraculous as his Creation. Homer calls him a Leaf, and Pindar the Dream of a shadow; and another that spoke with a better Spirit then 'em both, say's his Life is but a va∣pour; he's a Creature so unfixt and pe∣rishing, that in all the Memoirs of God's Creation, we hardly find any thing more exaltedly wretched and deplo∣rable; Alas Vain Men, we know not what we are, or upon what account it is we put such a value upon our selves; a few days more will put an end to all our foolish dependancies; the Grave and the Winding-sheet will do it effectually, and 'tis those and nothing else can secure us from the Calamities of Human Life, and defend us from the Cares and Troubles, the sorrows and perplexities of the World.

To have done: the general experience we have of the Calamities of Humane Life, sufficiently supercede the even nece∣ssity of future enlargements, 'tis at best but a dismal Vale full of briers and thorns; and there`s none of us must expect to make our passage through it without being torn and scratch't and Tormented by 'em.

Page  147This, or something like it, is most cer∣tainly the Condition of Humane Life; but let it be so, 'tis still Insolent in us to Mur∣mure, and without doubt our best way will be to take up the Poets resolution.