ONe that knew how well I love the scent of Roses, and were ignorant of the Uses of this way of Distillation, would, questionless, think me very ill advis’d, thus hastily to deprive my self of the Flowers I most love, and employ Art to make them wither sooner than Nature would condemn then to do; but those that know, both the fading condition of Flowers, (which, unimprov’d by Art, delight but whilst they are, what they cannot long be, fresh) and the exalting Efficacy of this kind of Distillation, will think this Artificial way, that Chymists take, of spoiling them, is an effect as well of their Providence as their Skil: For that pleasing and sprightly scent, that makes the Rose so welcome to us, is as short-liv’d and perishing, as the Flower, that harbours it, is fading; and though my Limbick should not, yet a few days inevitably would, make all these Roses wither. But by this way of ordering my Roses, though I cannot preserve them, I can preserve that Spirituous and Ethereal part of them, for whose sake it is, that I so much prize and cherish this sort of Flowers; which, by this means, I preserve, not indeed in the fading Body, but in the nobler and abstracted Quintessence; which purer and lastinger Portion of them, will be more highly fragrant than ordinary Roses are wont to be, ev’n whilst they are fresh, in that Season, when those Flowers, that have not been thus early and purposely destroy’d, will, according to the course of Nature, whereto they are left, wither and putrifie.
Thus he that sees a charitable Person, liberally part with that Money, which others are so fond of, if he be a stranger to the Operations of Faith, and the Promises of the Gospel, he will be apt to mistake the Christian’s Liberality for Folly, or Profusion, and to think that he is fallen out with his Money: But he that remembers how clear a Prospect, and how absolute a Disposal of the future, the Scripture of Truth (to use an Angel’s expression) ascribes to him, that bid his Disciples make themselves Friends with the uncertain (or unfaithfull) Mammon, (for so the use I sometimes meet with of the Greek word, together with the Context, invites me to render it) That when we fail, they may receive us into everlasting Habitations; and he that shall likewise consider, not only the transitory Nature of VVorldly Possessions, (from which their Perishing, or ours, will be sure e’r long to Divorce us) but the inestimable Advantage, with which we shall receive in Heaven whatever we employ in pious Uses here on Earth, will conclude this way of parting with our VVealth, the surest and gainfullest way of preserving it; since the Christian, by parting but with what (however) he could not long keep, shall, through God’s munificent Goodness, obtain a much more valuable Treasure, that he shall never lose: So that thus to sacrifise Wealth to Charity, is not an early loss of it, but the right way of securing it; for by this gainfull way, when we shall, in another VVorld, be past the possibility of possessing our Riches in Kind, such an Employment of them may help us to enjoy them, though not in the capacity of Riches, yet in that noble capacity of Goods, under which Notion alone they are desirable; and thus laid up, they may there procure us, what they could never here afford us, Happiness.
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