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A69655 Autarchy, or, The art of self-government in a moral essay : in three parts : first written to a gentleman in the university, and since fitted for publick use. G. B. (George Burghope) 1691 (1691) Wing B5730; ESTC R4200 63,862 179

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secular Accounts The World will enjoin Self-Government without the censure of Tyranny and why may not Religion Be but then as wife for your Soul as you are for your Body or Estate and you need no more The other World may sure engage you as far as this IV. And Lastly that I may come nearer your self and your present Circumstances It is an Exercise that can only suit with your Education under the best Discipline and the most learned place under Heaven It is the true End of all your Studies at School and in the University It is the Aim of those excellent Men that have the educating of Youth the cultivating of Natures and the dressing of Souls in every Seminary of Learning It is the End of your Friends Cares and Fears for you of the Sciences that you have studied and the Degrees you have taken and particularly of the highest and most useful Science called Moral Philosophy As to Physicks there be many things in Nature inexplicable and so are like to remain till this Dream of Life is over And other things are explicated several ways by several Men endlesly confuting each other so that some have concluded to sit down with a Resolution to profess to know nothing but Morality or the Doctrine of conforming our Manners to the Rules of Vertue is plain easie and certain And while other Sciences may be perverted to vain and sinful Ends and Purposes the Morality of the Schools is the Hand-maid to that of Divinity and leads to that we learn of Christ It has an inherent holiness in it and is not subject to Perversions and the Moralist shall he still accounted as he was once by the Oracle the wisest and the best Man For this Learning especially that part that teaches you to govern your self è coelo descendit descended from above and directs us thither § 14. Nor are you to deferr the Duty of Autarchy or the governing your self till Old Age or a fiter Season in your Judgment but set your self to the present Practice of it And against the delaying of this or any other Duty I must lay before you these Five Considerations 1. Our Life is uncertain neither have we here a continuing City but must we know not how soon be turn'd out into the vast Abyss of Eternity to seek one In all the Periods of our Time Death attends us as well as in Old Age and our last Day is both certain and uncertain to us For God when he sent us hither allotted us our times long or short according to his Will and our Necessities and in proportion to our Wants and his Goodness And he hath wisely hid the Bounds and Limits of these our times in Darkness and unknown Futurity so that we cannot find them out till we have passed them And this the rather that no Man might presume upon his remaining Sand deferr Repentance or depend upon any but God for Life That we might always expect what for ought we know may befal us at any time and make every Day our last because it may prove so 2. Though we cannot find out the Dimensions of our Lives which are hid with God and beyond which we cannot pass as Job tells us Job 14. 5. Yet I suppose it lies in our own power to shorten them and so curtail that Blessing that Heaven design'd for us For I conceive that those Terms and Limits are assign'd Conditionally and upon supposition of our using the best Means and right Management of our selves And consequently in these licentious Times few Men reach those Bounds set by God and Nature And though it may be we cannot enlarge those Terms set for us which I am apt to believe in compliance with Job's Words afore-mentioned yet it doth not follow but we may shorten them Thus Excesses carry us off betimes and Debauchery dispatches us in a few Years the Sword hath slain its thousands but Sensuality its ten thousands It is beyond the power of Physick to restore what we consume and destroy and we are most of us at all times and all of us at some time or other God forgive us a kind of felo de se's or Self-Murtherers Autarchy must therefore be begun betimes because it can then only bring us to our Journey 's end and save us from the imputation of contributing to our own Death 3. 'T is a foolish and dangerous thing to put off that which we must not only begin but perfectly exercise at one time or other or else be miserable It is contrary to all the Methods of Wisdom and Prudence in the world to deferr a thing of that infinite concern to us as Salvation or the Means requisite thereunto Procrastination may possibly make us miserable in a moment but it can never do us the least good 4. God with whom are the Measures of Life and the fatal Bounds which we may not pass may justly resent our delay and offer us his Grace no more He that slights his great Concerns in this World when he hath Opportunity may justly have that Opportuity taken away from him and who knows but God may enlarge or abbreviate our Lives according as we use or abuse his Tenders of Grace However the Door may be shut and the day of Salvation may end before that of Nature The Scripture tells us To him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have 5. And Lastly Procrastinators seldom begin much less finish any Religious Work And there is this reason to be given for it The same Cause which makes you deferr a thing to day will to morrow and so forward And if Difficulty Idleness or Want of Inclination be that cause to day it will be more to morrow and so forward The longer the work of Self-Conquest is deferr'd the harder it will grow till it becomes insuperable and the more will be your Aversion to it The Flesh which at first is tractable and tender will if left to its own Management become stubborn and hard to be bowed And therefore it hath been observed That Procrastination is not only a Sign but a Cause of final Impenitency Remember therefore the Sentence with which a late pious Author concludes his Book out of the Mouth of the wise Siracides Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put it not off from day to day Ecclus 5. 7. § 15. The Conclusion of all shall be hortative and that it may have the more Effect in the words of the divine Psalmist quoted and approv'd of by St. Peter and so declaring the Sense of the Old and New Law about the Duty of Autarchy and its present Reward Psal 34. 12 c. and 1 Pet. 3. 10 c. What Man is he that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy Tongue from evil and thy Lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good seek peace