ONE that did not know the Medicinal Vertues of Violets, and were not acquainted with the Charitable Intentions of the skilful person, that is making a Syrup of them, would think him a very great Friend to Epicurism: For his Imployment seems wholly design’d to gratifie the senses. The things he deals with are Flowers and Sugar, and of them he is solicitous to make a Composition that may delight more than one or two Senses; For in One Syrup he endeavours to please the Eye, by the loveliness of the Colour; the Nose, by the perfume of the Scent; the Taste, by as much sweetness as Sugar can impart. But he that knowing that Violets, though they please the Palate, can purge the Body, and notwithstanding their good smell, can expel bad humours, knows also that the Preparer of these fragrant Plants, in making their Juice into a Syrup, is careful to make it acceptable, that its pleasantness might recommend it, and invite ev’n those to prove its Vertues, who had rather continue sick, than make Trial of a disgusting Remedy; will not blame his Curiosity, but commend his prudent Charity; since he doubly obliges a Patient, that not onely presents him Remedies, but presents him Allurements to make use of them.
If I see a person that is Learned and Eloquent, as well as Pious, busied about giving his Sermons, or other devout Composures, the Ornaments and Advantages which Learning or Wit do naturally confer upon those productions of the Tongue, or Pen, wherein they are plentifully and judiciously emploi’d; I will not be forward to condemn him of a mis-expence of his Time or Talents; whether they be laid out upon Speculative Notions in Theology, or upon Critical Inquiries into Obsolete Rites, or Disputable Etymologies; or upon Philosophical Disquisitions or Experiments; or upon the florid Embellishments of Language; or (in short) upon some such other thing as seems extrinsecal to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness, and seems not to have any direct tendency to the promoting of Piety and the kindling of Devotion. For I consider, that as God hath made man subject to several wants, and hath both given him several allowable appetites, and endowed him with various faculties and abilities to gratifie them; so a man’s Pen may be very warrantably and usefully emploi’d, though it be not directly so, to teach a Theological Truth, or incite the Reader’s Zeal.
And, besides what I have been alledging, there is a further and more principal Consideration which belongs to this matter. For ev’n wise men may prosecute the same design, without doing it all of them the same way; and the several Means and Methods they imploy, notwithstanding a great Difference in other particulars, may agree in this, That the Respective Chusers of them had each of them a good Aim, and proceeded in a rational way. Though therefore I see a man of good parts, studious of learning, or of practising, the Precepts of Eloquence, and spend much time in reading florid Composures, or in making such; I dare not be forward to censure him, for an effeminate or useless Writer. For there are so many things pious or laudable, and so many ways whereby some or other of them may either be directly promoted, or indirectly serv’d, by removing Objections, or other Impediments, that ‘tis not easie to be sure that a Rational Man cannot have as well a Rational as a well-meant design to instruct, if not reform, in those very Composures that seem fitted onely to delight. There being a Nicer sort of Readers which need Instruction (and to whom ‘tis therefore a Charity to give it) who are so far from being likely to be prevailed on by Discourses not tricked up with Flowers of Rhetorick, that they would scarce be drawn so much as to cast their eyes on them.
A while before Esther made that generous Attempt, wherein, to rescue the people of God, she hazarded a Throne, to which above an hundred other Peoples paid homage, and ventur’d at once the greatest Crown and the fairest Head in the world; One that had seen onely what she was doing, without knowing why she did it, would perchance have thought her emploi’d, more like a Disciple of Epicurus, than of Moses, whose People and her own was then in a forlorn and gasping condition. For the Scripture telling us, (Est. 5. 1) that she put on her Royal apparel, and the Tenour of the story intimating with what aim she did it, we may well suppose that she was not sparing in Jewels, and other of the richest Ornaments, on an Occasion where her Quality exacted that she should appear with a Magnificence befitting the greatest Princess in the world; and that she was very curious in a Dress that was to heighten her Beauty, when by That, with the Giver’s assistance, she was upon her knees to dazle the world’s greatest Monarch on his Throne, and make Him pay Homage to her Charms, to whom above an hundred Nations had presented their fairest Productions, (the brightest Nymphs of the East.) And those that have read any thing of the Asiatick Luxury, will easily believe our pious Queen to have been also very sollicitous about the choice and ordering of her Sweet-meats, when she was to treat an Asian Monarch, who had treated the whole People of the chief City of the world for many days together, and as many Princes as made up the Noblest part of Mankind for above twenty times as long: and yet this Magnificent Queen, thia seem’d busi’d about none but sensual Imploiments, had so commendable a Design both in her Ornaments and in her Banquets, that so meritorious an Imploiment of her Greatness shew’d her to be worthy of it; and as it appear’d in the Event, that her Banquets did co-operate with her Fasts, and her Royal Robes with Mordecay’s Sack-cloth and Ashes, to that happy rescue of her Nation, for which, after so many Ages, it doth to this day yearly celebrate her Memory. So whilst she seem’d busied to gratifie others sensuality and her own pride, her Disposition of Mind was so worthy the Success that crown’d her Attempt, that at the same time she was providing all that Pomp and those Delicacies, she was also providing to give them up, and sacrifize them, for the Interest of God’s Church, and her People; generously venturing for the service of Heaven a Height of prosperity, for whose loss nothing but Heaven it self could make her amends.
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