Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A25809
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The worlds idol, Plutus a comedy / written in Greek by Aristophanes ; translated by H.H.B. ; together with his notes, and a short discourse upon it.; Plutus. English
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Aristophanes.; H. H. B. (H. H. Burnell), fl. 1659.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing A3686; ESTC R6773
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47,751
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52
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is it with us when we admire our selves for our Arts and Inventions which at the best are but supports to our infirmities dispising innocent life whereever we hear of it with the title of Barbarism insomuch that I have often thought with my self that had we now a vision of the garden of Eden and Adam feared in it again with all his felicity we should for the poor wretch his good desire to teach him some of our good manners and good husbandry But to cure our selves of this pride of spirit I know no better an example then the History of the Reabites Jer. chap. 35. who were Sons or as some interpret Followers of Jonadab and his Philosophy these people as is there expressed lived in Tents and by their particular laws were both forbidden the use of Wine and Tillage and denyed so much as to come into society with the Jews when the Prophet pressed them to it and yet so great a reward God Almighty thought fit to give to their obedience to their Fathers and the temperance of their lives that he promiseth them in the end of the Chapter Jonadab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever Neither is this all the evill consequence that hath followed for the altering and dejecting the mind and soul of man from its first estate for if we take Tillage in its larger sense for what ever is an unnatural and forced use of the earth we may then involve almost all the nutriment to which now the body of man is habituated and not onely its nutriment but its luxuries And having changed the fruits of the earth I cannot doubt but we have therein also changed our own bodies and consequently making a new digestion we have now no longer our first natural thoughts and speculations I think it therefore no wonder that in stead of a natural way of arguing and concluding men should take the rule of their lives from Phanatique thoughts I wonder not at all how I have got the notion of a Spirit a thing that is nothing that hath place and no dimentions that is obvious to my sense and yet is insensible I wonder not that my Faith is my greatest certainty and that the price upon which my Soul depends is as the Apostle sayes the evidence of things unseen though all this be against sense for all this I will allow the habits of my new education may have now made to be my nature and constitution nor do I for this pay a less reverence and respect to the truths of what I now am bound to believe that I come thus to think of them for the truth it self of these things did but begin with the change of Humane nature in Paradise for the truth of our immortality after death could not commence before we knew we should die and therefore not unaptly in my opinion have some of the best Philosophers thought it demonstration enough for supernatural things that we are able to think of them it is evidence enough that the soul is immortal that the Soul it self thinks so its self and the knowledge of it self were created together I know it will be urged here Is every thing so because I think it so my conception then can give reality to any thing that hath no being I answer to that with another question Do I believe what I think I believe if I do I doubt not of the truth of it for I question not to be able to remove mountaines when I have faith enough to beleive I can but the difference in matter of Faith as I suppose lies in that it is one thing to believe a thing and another onely to beleive that we believe it and a third onely to say we believe it for private cause or interest best known to our selves and for the nature of Humane Faith we have no one more pregnant example then of the Father in the Gospel who saw a miracle done by our Saviour upon his own Son and moreover received a promise that all other things that concerned his good should as easily be effected as that if his faith were perfect and yet he confessed in tears that he had belief and unbelief upon him at one time Lord I believe help my unbelief And the truth is the state of Faith even amongst the most Holy since the fall of man hath been much after this manner and so untill the finisher of our Faith shall come it is likely to continue for we see St. John even in the midst of his sufferings for Christ in prison sent yet two of his Disciples with this message Art thou he that should come or do we look for another so that it is hard to say whether men themselves know what they believe But now to return from this little digression with an explanation of my self in these arguments that went before and sought to prove that from natural causes or changes of food and education man may have fallen from his first estate and happiness I would not from hence be thought to disappoint God of his eternal degree by which he hath ordained through several estates and trials to bring us to himself but on the contrary I do conceive those ordinary means to have been the instruments of that decree nor do I doubt but when his will and pleasure is he may again by ordinary means restoring us to our first habits of life and the Earth to her first Airs and nutrition bring the same Mankind back to innocense and make the same garden of Eden again Paradise and an Apple from the same tree cure the desease that the first Apple brought into the world The most learned Physicians of these late times are many of them of opinion that the venereal disease that came not many hundred years since by contagion into the blood and hath since been propagated with our posterity not being a thing inherent to the fabrick and constitution of man shall in time wear out and the humour being spent vanish at length quite away with as much wonder as it came at the first and since the time that I have lived in the world which is but a short measure of a slow revolution I have observed a sensible decay of it both in regard that I have heard many say It is not so suddenly gotten as it was and also in that when it is taken the Malignity of it is now grown so weak that every remedy that before used to fail is now a certain cure Now I know no reason nor contradiction to Holy Writ that if a disease that is a piece of dissolution shall have this natural course and termination why sin and mortality it self should not have the like nor can I when I see the wonderful and various effects of nutrition in our bodies but believe the same nutrition as powerful in our souls when I put a piece of bread in my mouth how many several commissions hath divine providence given unto it there is
that though they may be said In effect to have (c) (c) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are not one no more than wanting and begging two very unlike for Thrasybulus stood for the democracy in Athens and Dionysius was a Tyrant in Sycily this alludes to the doctrine of the Cynick Philosophy and that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.6 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} having nothing and yet possessing all things nothing yet they want nothing Chor. O what a happy life is this you tell us of poverty If after all our time spent in labour to get and To keep there scarce remain enough to bury us Pov. You spend your time in cavilling and jests and Not seriously weigh the matter nor do you seriously cons•••• That I give men better wits and persons too then Plutus Can for what does he give but gouty legs fat bellies But with me men are active and slender-bodied and of Warlike shape Chor. And all this they get by being farnished with Hunger Pov. Moreover for what concernes the modesty a•• Vertue of living I can say more that they onely belongs To me and that from Plutus comes nothing but riots a•• Injuring of others Chor. What is your modesty to steal and break (d) (d) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Metaphor taken from birds pening their wings when they do not fly house Blap. Nay the modesty lies in hiding himself when I Hath done Pov. Do but observe the Orators and Rethoricians when They are poor how equally and justly they carry them selves between the People and the Citizens but then Are no sooner rich but they lay Plots presently to be•••• The lower Sort and cause Wars among them Cram. Though I do not love thee I cannot but confess this to be true of thee but yet you shall not scape us Going about to prove Poverty better then Wealth Pov. Yet you disprove it not methinks but wrangle Jest and talk Idly Cram. Why tell us then if thou beest so excellent Does every body fly from thee so Pov. Why because I would make them better Honester as Children do that avoid their Parents because They give them good Counsell and Correction 'tis a hard Thing for any body to distinguish good from bad Cram. Do you think then that Jove doth not distinguish You see he is rich and gives it to us too as a blessing Pov. O ye dull Saturnine wits why Jove himself is A begger and that I'le prove to you For if he were rich when he institutes his Olimpick Games in Greece sure he would never reward the Conquerors with an Olive branch and a large oration But he would give them Gold Cram. This shews rather how Jupiter loves Gold by his Parting with it so sparingly he gives away things of less Value and keeps that for himself Pov. If it be so you lay a worse fault to him then Poverty Gives any body having so much wealth notwithstanding To be still so greedy Cram. I think Jove will have cause to crown you with That Olive brance you spoke off for this victory ouer us Pov. Well these jests contradict nothing of what I say Namely that all good comes of Poverty Cram. Ask (a) (a) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} three names for the Moon Sacrificium Insriviis see Mulogy Hecate then if it be not best to be rich For the rich make her a feast but the poor do nothing but come in and eat it therefore let's talk no more for I am resolved never to yield though thou shouldest overcome me Pov. Then Argos (b) (b) Argos esteemed the poorest Town in Greece do thou hear and take compassion of me Cram. Nay rather call upon Pausonus thy (d) (d) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} spoke of before sufficiently companion Pov. Miserable creature what will become of me Chor. Get thee from me and I care not Pov. Whether shall I go into what Country Cram. Into the Stocks or to the Gallows come away (c) (c) Proverbial {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} poorer then Pausonus Pov. The time will come you'l wish for me Cram. Come not before that day Till I am weary of being rich Blap. Well when I am once rich I'le keep jovial company feast and bath and sit in plenty and fart at Poverty Enter again Cramulus and Blapsidamus Cram. At length we are got quit of this old Woman and now Blapsidamus let it be our business as soon as we 〈…〉 to carry Plutus unto Esculapius his Temple Blap. We had need dispatch lest some body come in and interrupt us Cram. Within there's Carion make every thing Ready and bring Plutus to the Temple with the usual Ceremonies Ex. om. ACTUS TERTIUS Enter Carion and Chorus Car. Come all you happy in your old age Who in the dayes of Thesius (a) (a) Thesius the first Collector of the Athenians into a City from small villages lived in Poverty and Scarcity of bread this is the day that I pronounce all Honest men happy Chor. O the blessed news that thou art the messenger to thy poor companions Car. The business is brought now about by my Master For Plutus that you all know hath been so long Blind now sees with perfect eyes and all by the help Of the most famous Esculapius Chor. Marry this is pleasant news Car. 'Twill make you rejoyce whether you will or no Chor. Praised be the (b) (b) Son of Apollo high-born powerful Esculapius Thou great glory to Mankind Ex. om. Enter Cramulus his Wife and Carion Wife What a noise and knocking is hear to day I pray God it be a messenger of some good I have been all day at home expecting Carion And now he is come Car. Come Mistris fetch some wine quickly for I know First 'tis that you love and then next because I bring you such a heap of good newes I deserve some Wife Where is it Car. I am about to tell it you Wife Dispatch in few words Car. Hearken well I will tell you all from head to foot Wife So it do not trouble my head I care not Car. As soon as we came to the God Esculapius Carrying with us then the most unhappy and now most happy Plutus if any one were ever so first of all threw him into the sea (c) (c) Hejests here with the custome in use then for any pollution or disease to wash in the Sea Plato reports of Eutipides his companion in his journey to Egypt cured so of the Falling-sickness and washed him well Wife Would that make an old man as he is happy To put him into cold water Car. Afterwards when he came before Esculapius And had laid our Sacrifices on the Altar with several Musicks playing we made Plutus lie down every one assisting in the Ceremony Wife Were there any more that sought help from Esculapius Car. There was