against vice when he says REVERENCE YOUR SELF ABOVE ALL THINGS For if you have once an habitual reverence of your self you will have every where a most intimate Guardian whom you will stand in awe of and from whom you can never withdraw your self For many when retired from their friends and domesticks have taken liberty to act such things which in their presence they would have blush'd to commit But had they no witness I omit God for he is thought to be far off but had they not themselves and the testimony of Conscience They had truly but they did not consider it being immers'd wholly in their passions But such men as these dishonour their reason and degrade it below a Slave Be then an intimate Guardian to your self and from the consideration of your own privity begin your abhorrence of evil For self-reverence does necessarily beget an avoidance of filthy things and whatsoever is unworthy of an Intelligent nature But now how he that thus abhors Evil should familiarize himself to Vertue he proceeds to shew THEN EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD NEITHER USE YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON BUT KNOW THAT 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE AND THAT RICHES ARE SOMETIMES POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST In deed and word to Iustice have an eye Doe not the least thing unadvisedly But know that all must to the Shades below That Riches sometimes ebb and sometimes flow He that truly reveres himself will guard himself from falling into any Vice But of Vices there are several kinds In the rational part Imprudence in the irascible Timorousness in the concupiscible Luxury and Covetousness and throughout all the faculties Injustice To the avoidance therefore of these evils four sorts of Vertues are necessary Prudence in the rational part Courage in the irascible Temperance in the concupiscible and lastly Justice which is conversant about all the faculties as being the most perfect and comprising all the other vertues in it self as parts For which reason it is first of all mention'd in the Verses And next Prudence together with the best designs and undertakings which take their Rise from it and end in compleat and perfect Justice For he that uses right reason has Courage for his fellow-souldier in hardships Temperance in things pleasant and in all things Justice So that in the sum Prudence will be found to be the beginning of all vertues Justice the end and Courage and Temperance the middle For that faculty which weighs and considers all things and seeks out that which is right in every action that all may be rationally disposed is the habit of Prudence which is the best disposition of our rational nature and derives ornament upon the other faculties So that anger commences Courage lust Temperance and Justice swerves nothing from Reason and with this our mortal Man is adorn'd but 't is through the surplusage of Vertue which is in the immortal Man For the vertues first shine out from the mind upon the rational Soul of which they are the proper form perfection and happiness But upon the brute part and mortal body there shines a reflected ray of Vertue that what is united to the rational nature may be replenish'd with beauty and measure But the chief of all divine good is Prudence which when well radicated in the Soul helps us to advise well in all matters to bear Death with courage and the loss of our Goods with mildness and decency For Prudence is able to bear all the changes of this mortal life and of fortune which is appendent to it soberly and undauntedly For she considers the nature of things and knows that what is compounded of Water and Earth must of necessity be resolv'd into them again Neither is she exasperated against necessity or surprised at what befalls us as if 't were strange and unexpected or wonders if what is mortal dye She knows 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE and that there is a certain definite time for the duration of these mortal bodies Which when come we should not fret at it but willingly submit to it as to the law of God For the office of Prudence is to follow the best counsels not to seek to escape dying but to dye well In like manner she is not ignorant of the nature of Riches that they sometimes EBB and sometimes FLOW for certain determin'd causes which to oppose were indiscretion For we are not the arbitrary possessors of what is not in our power but neither our bodies nor our riches are in our power nor in short whatsoever is without our own rational nature Neither is it in our power to get or retain when and how long we please But to acquire and part with them vertuously this is in our power and the proper work of the rational nature if we ACCUSTOM IT TO ACT ACCORDING TO REASON in all contingencies and to follow the divine limits which determine all our concerns And here lies the greatest commendation of our power that we can use well what is not in our power and not suffer the vehemency of desire to impeach the freedom of our will What then is the dictate of a prudent judgment To make good use of our bodies and estates when we have them as the instruments of vertue and when they are taken from us to know what becomes us and add patience to our other vertues So will our piety towards God and the measures of Justice be kept inviolable if the rational faculty learn to use things necessary well and to oppose the bounds of Prudence to events seemingly fortuitous and without order Otherwise there can be no observation of Vertue if there be not a right judging faculty in the rational nature For neither will it follow after better things as such but will act as under compulsion Neither will it treat the body honourably or manage the estate rightly Those who are over-carefull to avoid death and desirous to keep their riches doe necessarily much injustice and often blaspheme by wicked execrations against God and denying his providence as often as they fall into that which they imprudently declined By sticking to doe no injury to others and by endeavouring to scrape together all they can to their own profit And so the damage of a wrong perswasion is evident in them whence spring the greatest evils Injustice against equalls and Impiety against superiors from which he will be altogether free who being perswaded by the foregoing Verses bears death generously and with a good judgment and thinks the loss of riches not intolerable From this he draws an argument of embracing Justice when he considers how becoming 't is to abstain from what is another's to hurt no body nor to raise his fortunes upon another's losses None of all these can he observe who thinks his Soul is mortal and who never considers what part that is of us which dies what that is which stands in need of riches and
their admirable distinction For they were not produced fortuitously and then ranged into Order afterwards but receiv'd their Order and Being together as if Heaven were an Animal and these the several members which so retain their Connexion in their specifical distinction and conjunction that 't is impossible to imagine they should alter their Situation without the dissolution of the Universe Which can never happen since the first cause of them is altogether immutable both as to his Essence and as to his Power and since his goodness is not adventitious but essential to him whereby he promotes the welfare of all things For there can be no other reasonable cause alledg'd of the worlds Production besides the essential goodness of God For God is naturally good and consequently cannot possibly conceive any envy or hatred against the condition of any Creature Besides whatever other causes are assign'd for the production of things besides the divine goodness would rather become the necessities of men than the majesty of God Now God being thus naturally good first produced those beings which most resemble himself next those of a middle likeness and last of all those which are at the greatest remove from the divine likeness of all them that bear his image Such equall pace did the order of things keep with their Essences that what was more excellent took place of what was less and that not only in the whole kinds but in the Individuals of each species For the ORDER of things was not owing to Chance nor to an after-resolution but 't was the LAW of the Creation which variously order'd things according to the dignity of their natures Hence 't is that the Precept of honouring according to the LAW does not only refer to the IMMORTAL GODS but is to be understood in Common both of the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES and the SOULS of Men. For there is a multitude of Species under every Genus rank'd according to greater or less dignity And this is the nature and ORDER of Intelligent Beings But you 'll ask what 's the LAW and the HONOUR appendant to it We answer again that by LAW is meant the unalterable and productive power of God which gave being to the divine Off-spring and set them in an eternal and unchangeable order By HONOUR agreeable to the LAW is meant the knowledge of their essences which are honour'd and an imitation of all their practicable excellencies For whom we love we endeavour what we can to resemble and the only way we have of giving HONOUR to one that 's above all want is to receive that good which he reaches out to us For you must not think you HONOUR God by giving him any thing but by qualifying your self to receive from him For as the Pythagoreans say the best way of Honouring God is by conforming your mind to him Whosoever HONOURS God as if he needed it does by consequence make himself greater than God Besides God is not at all Honour'd by the most costly oblations unless they proceed from a divinely disposed mind The gifts and sacrifices of Fools are only fewel for the flames and the Offerings which they hang up in the Temple serve only to enrich the Sacrilegious But a divine disposition of mind lays a sure foundation since it unites a Man to God For 't is necessary that every thing have a tendency to its like Hence the Priest only is counted the Wise man the Friend of God and one peculiarly qualifi'd to make addresses to Heaven For he only knows how to HONOUR who does not confound the excellencies of them to whom HONOUR is due who in the first place makes an Oblation of himself works his Soul into a sacred Statue and prepares his mind as a Temple for the reception of the divine light What such acceptable Present can you make from the things which are without such as may become an Image ingrafted as it were into the Divinity or a gift that may be made one with God All which is necessarily verified in an intelligent and purifi'd nature For as the same Pythagoreans use to say God has not on earth a place more properly his own than a pure Soul Agreeable hereto are the words of the Oracle In pious hearts I love as well As in my heaven it self to dwell Now the Pious man is he who having right conceptions of God offers his own perfections as the best HONOUR to the Author of all good and with a design to beautifie and inrich his Soul applies himself to him whose nature is to communicate So that by being qualifi'd to receive good he HONOURS the giver of it Whoever thinks to HONOUR God any other way than by himself makes honour consist in the profusion of his riches since he does not make an Oblation of his own vertue but of things without But alas what 's this A Sacrifice without a Heart such a gift as a good man would not accept of Hear the words of the Oracle again to him who with an ill disposition of mind sacrificed an whole Hecatomb and then ask'd how acceptable his oblation was But I in noble Hermion's Cakes delight So that the little frugal Offering was prefer'd before the other's magnificent one only because 't was adorn'd with Piety of mind With this all things find acceptance with God without it nothing And so much for Piety and Sanctity But whereas the LAW is preserv'd by the constant observation of the ORDER of the Universe and since the Keeper of this observation was usually call'd among the Ancients by the mystical Name OATH he deservedly subjoins the precept concerning Swearing as consequent to what went before AND HONOUR AN OATH And use an Oath with holy awe We have shewn in the preceding discourse that by LAW is understood the power of God as it always acts uniformly and produces all things in an eternal and unchangeable manner Next to this LAW we come to discourse of an OATH which is the cause that keeps all things in the same state and so establishes them that the things which are confirmed by the faith of this OATH and which preserve the order of the LAW do exist as the sure effect of the All-producing Law not in the least transgressing the ORDER of the Creation For that all things remain in the same LAW whereby they were disposed must be primarily ascribed to this divine OATH which among those natures which always contemplate God is wholly and continually observ'd But among those which sometimes retain and sometimes lose the divine knowledge the OATH in like manner is transgress'd by those which apostatize from and observ'd again by those which return to God For the observation of the divine Laws is call'd here an OATH which unites and knits all those things to God the Author of their beings which were made to know him Some of which by constant adherence to him do always honour this OATH others by Apostacy sometimes profane it transgressing the order not only of
conduces to the perfection of the Soul observe what he subjoins NEITHER OUGHT HEALTH OF BODY TO BE NEGLECTED BUT A MEASURE IS TO BE OBSERV'D IN DRINK MEAT AND EXERCISE AND I CALL THAT A MEASURE WHICH DOES YOU NO PREJUDICE Health is a thing you ought not to despise In Diet use a Mean and Exercise And that 's a mean whence does no damage rise Since our mortal Body is given to us as an instrument whereby to lead a life here upon earth we should neither pamper it with immoderate delicacy nor yet pinch it by substraction of necessaries For both are equal impediments and alike take away its usefulness So that we are exhorted by the Verse to treat our bodies moderately and not to neglect them when either they grow insolent and rebellious or when discomposed with sickness that being kept in a good natural temper they may yield obedience to our Souls which preside over them without impediment That which uses is the Soul and the thing used is the Body The Artist therefore should take care of the Instrument For 't is not enough that we will to use it but we must take care that it be in a capacity of being serviceable to us And since its nature is under continual generation and corruption and is nourish'd by repletion and evacuation sometimes aliment supplying what is wasted and sometimes exercise retrenching superfluities there must be a MEASURE applied to repletion and evacuation Now this MEASURE is that proportion which adapts the habit of the body to the thinking operations of the Soul and consequently has regard to that degreed of HEALTH which becomes a Philosopher He will therefore chuse such exercise and nourishment as shall neither pamper the body nor too much divert it from the motions of the mind For he does not care for his body simply and absolutely but for his body serving his mind Wherefore he refuses an Athletick fare which consults the body without the soul and declines all that luxury which is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as opposite to the rational light of the soul. But as far as a good habit of body will serve to discharge the labours of study and brave undertakings he will endeavour to get it to himself whoever intends to live prudently For to him these words are directed I CALL THAT A MEAN WHICH DOES THEE NO HARM as if he had said let not the MEASURE of bodily care hurt THEE who art all rational Soul It becomes THEE who art an observer of the former precepts to use such Meat Drink and Exercise which will render the body docil and manageable to the works of Vertue and which will not provoke the irrational part to throw off the rains of presiding reason Now we must state the measure of caring for the body with the greater attention because it contains the cause of all the motions which arise from it For if the Horse stumbles 't is through the ill management of the Rider Now in assigning the MEASURE concerning the body he puts DRINK before MEAT because 't is hardest to be temperate in that and because it more disorders the good habit of the body And in the third place he puts EXERCISE as that which corrects the fulness of diet and makes way for wholsome Nourishment For these run in a Circle Nourishment and Exercise Exercise and Nourishment For good nourishment makes us able for exercise and exercise moderately used conduces to nourishment which begets a firm Constitution of body But the MEASURE of these varies in several persons according to the peculiar design which they propose to themselves in caring for the body For every one endeavours to make his body a serviceable instrument for what he engages in The Wrestler for the motions of the Ring the Husbandman for the labours of the Plough One employs his body to one service another to another But what does the Philosopher what does he aim at in the discipline of his body For what will he make it instrumental rather than for Philosophy and the labours of the Brain He will therefore so nourish and discipline his body that it may become the instrument of Prudence caring for his Soul in the first place and for his Body only in subordination to that For neither will he prefer it before that which uses it nor altogether neglect it for the users sake But will take care of it in its proper place as of an instrument referring the HEALTH of the Body to the perfection of the Soul which uses it wherefore he will not nourish it with any thing indifferently but only with things fitting For there are some things which we ought not to feed on because they dull the Senses and weigh down the Spirit which is kin to the Soul to material and gross affections Of which he speaks afterwards when he bids us abstain with judgment from those meats which were mention'd in the book concerning the Lustrations and Expiations of the Soul Such as these he will altogether refuse And of those things which he may eat he will consider the quantity and the season and as Hippocrates advises will diligently attend to the season of the year the Country Age and such like Neither will he inconsiderately fill himself with lawfull meats neither will he indiscreetly prescribe the same course of diet to Young and Old Healthy and Sick to a Novice in Philosophy and a great Proficient in it All these are contain'd in the Pythagorick MEASURE when he adds LET IT NOT HURT THEE For all things that tend to the happy life of a wise man he referr'd in that short saying to the care of the Body and to what he had said before concerning the health of the Soul he adds that THE HEALTH OF THE BODY IS BY NO MEANS TO BE NEGLECTED So that there he recommends the perfection of the User here the preservation of the Instrument joyn therefore this with the other and you shall find whoever you are to whom the Precept is given that to be the MEASURE of caring for the Body WHICH DOES NOT HURT YOU which does not hinder your Philosophical purpose but help and further the progress of the Soul in the ways of Vertue He calls it the MEASURE of drinking and eating because he forbids all excess and defect and recommends what is middle and temperate Whence 't is easie to restrain our Appetite Sleep Lust and Anger For that which is here call'd MEASURE corrects all inordinateness in them and removes whatever grieves and presses down the Soul aspiring to God who is all mind For it becomes the Soul in her addresses to the Eternal Mind to be all calm and serene and not to be disturb'd with passionate Motions but to have all well composed below that she may attend quietly upon the Contemplation of things above This is that MEASURE WHICH DOES YOU NO HURT this is that which at once curbs the Appetite and yet consults the good of the Instrument this is