ry Sun hath its Macule, as well as Moon its Spots; though fo Bright otherwife and Tranfcendent a Luminary. And what faith the Orator ? Nec quicquam difficilius est quàm reperire in Omni fuo genere Perfectum. Nor is there any thing harder than to find a Man that is in all kinds Perfect. Nor are any therefore to be judg'd of by us from, all Particulars whatever; but from the Main Subftance, or more general Character, of their Genius and Writings. We are to remember; That the Doctor, as all Others here, was in the Body: And that this IlluftriOus Treasure he had given him, was in an Earthen Veffel; though one as much refin'd by Virtue and Regeneration, as ever perhaps any that was mere Man, and dwelt in a Human Body, had. A Summary of AND now to fumm up his Character in fhort; I do verily believe, that never any the Doctor's Man, that was not more than Human, had Character. truer and more exalted Apprehenfions of the Divine Nature than He had deeper and more Sincere Paffions of Love and of Honour towards it; or, what is Confequent upon this, a more triumphant Foy and Satisfaction in it: That never any one had a greater and more admiring Senfe of the Whole boundless and most aftonishing Creation, than He had; more Enjoyment of Mind again in it, Charity and Benignity towards it: That never any arriv'd to Higher degrees of Wisdom, Righteousness, and Virtue, take it altogether, than Τ The Conclu Lion. than He did; liv'd a Life of greater or of truer Happiness upon this Earth; or had more lively Apprehenfions of the Nature and Glories of the Life to come: That ferv'd the Church of God with greater Faithfulness and Zeal in what he did for it; or wished better to either that, or Universal Mankind, in all respects whatfoever, than He did; or hath left, in fine, greater Marks of it, or better Testimonies behind him of all this, in his Publick Writings: And when I have inftanced in the fe, with his entire Faith in, and all the High Senfe he had of Honour and Veneration for the Perfon and Oeconomy of our Lord Jefus Christ; I know not what I should add more, to complete the Virtues and Perfections of a Man. TO bring the whole unto a Conclufion. He warn'd indeed one against the speaking highly or magnificently of him; and faid, it Would Conflare Invidiam, blow up Envy and Prejudice. But though this might be a Caution more neceffary while living; yet, I hope, now dead, the Obfervation of it is not fo Obligatory, or expected. And yet Plato's Works we fay not, as Tully did of Plato, Deus ille by Marfil. Fi- nofter Plato; That God of ours Plato: And. Typo- again; Audiamus quafi Deum quendam Philograph, Lectori. fophorum; Let us hear a fort of God, as it were, amongst the Philofophers: One that Speaks fo as Jove himself would speak, if he were to do it in the fame Language: (With other the very highest Rants and most extravagant Elogi ums ums concerning him) That Princeps Ingenii, Prince of Learning and Ingenuity, Plato: Libri mirabiliter Scripti, His Books are wonderfully written: A Master, not of Language only; but even of the very Mind, and of Virtue it felf. And yet, if we may allude to thofe Sacred Words, we need not, I think, ftick to fay; That a greater than Plato is here. I confefs, I should have efteem'd it a great Happiness, to have feen fome of thofe Noble Lights of the Heathen World we have read, or heard, fo much of; Such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Plotinus, and Others: But I must own, I efteem it a greater to have feen Him I here write of. And I cannot but approve it as a Good and Wife Saying; Sit mea Anima cum Philofophis, May my Sout be amongst the Philofophers: Yet of All these, may Mine be Cum MORO; or in the Exalted State and Difpofition of the Doctor. I would not willingly be Injurious to the World in what I fpeak: But it may, I believe, be fafely faid; that fome of the greateft Spirits have not always met with that Reception,while living, which they deferv'd; and have also afterwards obtain'd. And poflibly this is, and will be the Cafe of Him I write of. The Doctor hath obferv'd, that Mr. MEDE himself was not taken Notice of fuitably to his Merits in his A pocalyptick Elucubrations: Which yet are certainly, as he fomewhere fpeaks, his Master-Piece, and the Peculiar Excellenty (amongít Epift. 57. (amongst many other things) of that Writer. What faith a Learned Perfon to him in one of his Letters? I pity, I profefs, your Neighbours in Cambridge, that make fo little Ufe of your Labours in fearching those Precious Myfteries, &c. But the Times, it may be, for the trueft Judgment both of Men and Things are not yet come. Let the Matter be confider'd but well, and what can be imagin'd of greater Excellence than the Drift of the Doctor's both Philofophy and Religion? Which if it might prevail, would foon make the World an Univerfal Paradife; and to the Higheft degree Poffible here in this Life bring down, as it were, Heaven upon Earth; or rather Elevate, if you please, the State of Earth to that of Heaven; to the making as much Difference between the Generations of Men as they are now, and what they would be then, as between the Fowls we fee to fly aloft in the Air, and thofe that keep generally on the Earth. Which is but fuitable to what he writes of the two Lands of Aptery and Pteroeffa, with their respective Inhabitants, in his 3d Canto of the Life of the Soul: Denoting by the former, all fuch Souls as, in the Platonick Phrafe, are without Wings; by the Latter, fuch as, on the contrary, have Wings; whereby they bear up themselves above the Sediment of this low World, and are carried high out, in their Afpirings after Wisdom, and the Felicities of a Better. . |