Healths for the sake of Religion Secondly As for the Oratories of Recluses and the Cells of Anchorites I know not where we shall find them in Europe unless we travel to Mount Athos in Greece in quest of them And as for those Multitudes in the Roman Church that pretend to leave the World and undertake the Vow of Coelebacy and Poverty most of them I will not say all for some Orders perhaps still retain their original Strictness and Abnegation of the World most of them I say have miserably degenerated from the pretended Sanctity of their Founders 'T is true there was such a sort of People of yore and all Christians were in ancient times extremely careful to keep themselves unspotted from the World and some perhaps even to a kind of Superstition But this was then when Religion possess'd the Hearts as well as the Heads of its Professors and when the Breath of the Holy Jesus was yet warm upon the Heads of his Disciples and the Primitive Christians But in these wretched times of Sin and Death 't is more than we can do to persuade Men to a Recession from the World in prohibited degrees and a sinful Converse and therefore this Instance is especially with us utterly impertinent Thirdly As for those good Men that die Young It proceeds not from any defect in Autarchy but from other causes Perhaps from some Native Distemper which they receive by Traduction twisted up in their very Essence From the original Weakness of the Contexture of their Bodies made at first and intended by Nature for a Tent not a continual Habitation for the Soul Or if the Pillars of the Body were ever so strongly built up yet some accidental Emergency some hidden Train may suddainly blow up the Fort and God by his providential order of Second Causes may concur to its dissolution Perhaps out of Judgment as in the Instance of the disobedient Prophet that was sent to declare against the Altar at Bethel and in his return was delivered up to the Lion that slew him 1 King 13. Perhaps out of Mercy when living well and longer are inconsistent and when the righteous are taken away from the Evil to come These and such like may be the Causes of the early Deaths of some sober and regular Sons of Vertue which yet their Temperate Life naturally tended to prevent So that notwithstanding some particular Instances we may safely conclude That Sensuality is destructive to Humane Nature which Autarchy by its Rules and Directions would long preserve or in the Words of the divine Preacher My Son forget not my Law but let thine Heart keep my Commandments For Length of Days and Long Life and Peace shall they add to thee Prov. 3. 1 2. § 6. The Second outward Advantage of Autocracy is A competency of Estate or Sufficiency of the bona Fortunae as we commonly call Riches And when I have said this I mean not that it will infallibly and suddainly instate you with Abundance or that there is no other way to become Rich but that it is the only lawful way to a worldly Estate and a probable way as well as lawful It will defend you from Poverty and feed you with Food convenient if not with Superfluities It is the proper and natural Means to obtain and increase an outward Fortune and where Providence interposes not it will attain that end This must be confess'd by him that considers that it enjoins 1. Parsimony and Temperance whereby we become the best Husbands of what we have and avoid all needless Expences the Effects of Pride and Prodigality and the Consumers of mighty Estates 2. Justice and upright Dealing which will procure us credit with all Men and preserve what we have gotten For let Men take what Measures they please yet they will not deny but that Honesty is the best Policy For Justice doth attract the Love and Favour even of the Unjust and upright Dealing will find a present as well as future Reward With the same Measure you mete withal it shall be measured to you again 3. Care and Industry which engage us by all lawful Ways Means and Measures both to get an Estate and increase it For if we search into the Causes of Want and Poverty we shall commonly find Idleness or Debauchery at the Bottom of it and most Men must accuse their own want of Providence not the Providence of God for their Wants and Indigency 4. Liberality Charity and Mercy which are so far from being Enemies to Estates that they augment them for the liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered Prov. 11. 25. Besides they call down the divine Benediction upon our selves and our Endeavours To him that seeks the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness all things shall be added Matt. 6. And he that castes his Bread upon the waters shall find it again with increase We may reasonably expect to reap what we sow and receive by the same Measure that we mete to others Luc. 6. 38. 'T is our Lord's rule that cannot will not fail us if we do not prevaricate with our selves Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed dowm and shaken together and running over shall men give into your Bosoms Nor can this Promise become ineffectual but by our own Fault our Covetousness Hypocrisie and Infidelity And now I dare appeal to the Judgment of any Man whether there can be a more probable way to an Earthly Estate than to be industrious in our selves to have credit with others and the Blessing of God to crown our Endeavours And whether it be not as evident on the other side that Sensuality makes Men Prodigal Debauch'd Spend-thrifts Unjust Fraudulent Creditless Unmerciful and Cruel and so to inherit nothing but the Curses of Men and the Vengeance of God § 7. But here I must walk cautiously lest the Sensualist take the Advantage and prevent the usual Objections which he will make to what has been said upon this Head It is confest therefore that sometimes all these means fail That Vertuous Men continue poor whilst Violence Oppression and Cheatery thrive and grow rich For God hath his secret Ends and Purposes and may make what Exceptions he pleases from this general Rule viz. The hand of the Diligent maketh rich Prov. 10. 4. There is a secret Providence that orders every Man his quota And thence is that which Solomon observ'd long ago There is saith he that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty Prov. 11. 24. And yet this is no impeachment of the general Rule viz. That Autarchy naturally tends to Riches or at least to Sufficiency But if this be further pressed though I know no reason for it I must not omit two mighty and almost miraculous Effects of Autarchy which will sufficiently supply that Defect and make a Compensation 1. The First is that of making the Poor Man
Its Regimen was settled by our Creator in the beginning and first origination of Mankind and therefore not difficult to him who institutes his Life according to the Order of Nature For indeed all manner of Intemperance is a violence and rape upon our Nature and we find that till she is conquer'd by long and customary Force she both abhors and resists it Thus for instance Gluttony presses her down and Drunkenness strives to stifle and drown her whilst she poor Wretch struggles with all her force throws up the unconcocted load the same way it was imposed upon her and in resentment of this Violence pines her self sometimes several Days afterwards This I say is the true state of virgin and undebauch'd Nature And therefore Self-Government is her Guardian nor can it be difficult originally but natural and consequently easie But then 2. As it cannot be denyed but that this among many other things is now grown difficult to us so it must be confess'd That this Difficulty is the Effect of long and customary Habits of Licentiousness nor can it be wonder'd that a Man habituated to a sinful Course of Life and used to be carried about by his unruly Passions should find some uneasiness in the first entrance of a regular and staid Conversation no more than that an untam'd Horse should at first time regret the Bridle or the young Bullock the Yoke that is laid upon his unaccustom'd Neck All Changes from one extream to another prove troublesome and in every Alteration of Life we may observe the like The beginnings of things must be difficult especially to a prejudic'd Nature and he that is accustomed to Extravagance must resent a Restraint The Neophite cannot but expect some trouble in the Government of his Passions and perverse Nature and the young Practitioner will be weary of his New Work but he that has us'd himself to it finds the Sweet of it and he that is exercised therein shall find its Delights 3. And then for those affrightful Names of Mortification c. they were at first given with respect to the Removal of inveterate Habits and the trouble it puts an old Sinner to As for the things themselves they are not simply necessary to the Duties I commend nor indeed to Christian Religion no more than Physick is to our Mortal Bodies Not simply necessary but only by way of Consequence and by reason of those Diseases of the Mind which we have contracted When Piety begins to decay through the Weakness of the Powers of the Soul and the Prevalency of the Appetite then the Spiritual Pill becomes necessary and if it be unpleasant to the Taste or makes us sick in its Operation we may thank our Diseased Minds for it Corrupt humours cannot be evacuated without Pain nor can the dumb and deaf Spirit much less that which is raging mad be cast out without sore Convulsions of Mind and a renting of the Heart even to a seeming Death But all this is but accidental to Religion which in it self is an easie Yoke and a light Burthen a sweet and delightsome Imploy and requires none of these Severities For to a Man that hath been train'd up in Subjection to the Heavenly part and hath liv'd so till he hath become capable of sensing the Pleasures of the Divine Life there is no need of Mortifying of Lusts and Appetites these have been regulated long ago ab initio bred up in Obedience and taught Submission from his Birth I shall only add two things more upon this Head and could wish that they might be as seriously consider'd as they must be confess'd The First is That the strictest Precepts of Christianity such as Self-denial and taking up the Cross the severest Doctrine of the severest Religion hath its peculiar Pleasures and comforts and that in proportion to its Hardships Secondly That Vice is the greatest Slavery and brings greater Mortifications and Hardships upon the Body yea and upon the Appetites themselves than the most restraining Vertue and consequently that Men usually take more pains and suffer more to go to Hell than is required in order to Heaven and a Blessed Eternity § 22. As for the Miseries that the Beginning of this Discourse seems to entail upon Piety whether they are ab extrà or ab intrà I answer briefly 1. That God is not severe or cruel to any Man much less to his Servants He is good unto every Man and his tender Mercies are over all his Works He is slow to Anger of great kindess and repenteth him of the evil 2. That he punishes them or suffers them to be afflicted arises out of other Causes as First To prevent Sin and the Doating upon this World by letting them see their own Frailty and the World's Deceitfulness To take down Temptations and abate the Lusts of the Flesh c. Secondly To punish Sin in this World that their Souls may be sav'd in the World to come Thirdly To bring them to Repentance and recover their Spiritual Health As a careful Physician a severe School-Master and a loving Father who chasteneth every Son whom he loveth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And thus Afflictions are real Blessings and the End changeth the Means into tokens of Love and Mercy Fourthly To make them Instances of the Divine Goodness Thus Job stands a Monument not so much of Humane Integrity as of God's Justice and Mercy his Justice in punishing his Creature which for all his Integrity had some time or other deserv'd as much as this and God may justly withdraw the Blessings of Health and Riches from Job which he had given him and his Mercy in returning them double to him Besides he is an ancient Example of the Power of Divine Grace as also of Humane Imbecillity And the same or the like Account may be given of the Apostles and the First Christians who remain Evidences of the great Love of God to Mankind who spared neither his Son to procure us a better Covenant or his Servants Blood to seal to the Truth of it And therefore 3. As to those * Vid. Matt. 10. 17. 24. 9. Luk. 21. 12. Joh. 15. 20. 1 Thess 3. 3 4. 2 Tim. 1. 8. 3. 12. Texts where our Lord warn'd his Disciples of Sufferings or those of his Disciples to the Primitive Christians of the Afflictions and Persecutions which they must expect They are not universarily applicatory for their Case was extraordinary and they were fitted with Divine Gifts accordingly And those Texts do more particularly point out those calamitous Times and cannot be applied to those times in which the Church had peace and rest from her Labours Their work was in the heat of the Day and God that call'd them to such a mighty Work first enabled them and then crown'd them for it but as for us we labour in the cool nor can we expect any Opposition but that of our carnal Lusts and Appetites Piety is commanded and Vertue is encouraged
and rewarded and Religion is not now to be espoused in Chains but upon the Throne So that notwithstanding the extraordinary examples of some of God's dear Servants in the Old Testament and of many more in the New I am bold to conclude That Autarchy tends naturally and of it self to present as well as to future Pleasures whether it be of the Mind or a Regulated Body and to make us happy here and hereafter And thus having made what Observations and Reflections I thought suitable upon the Vanity of the pretended Pleasures of Sensuality having pleaded the Cause of Self-Government and vindicated it from the Acccusations of Tyranny or Cruelty over the Body or her attendant Passions I will reserve her Outward Advantages to be the Subject of the Third Letter ἈΥΤΑΡΧΊΑ· OR THE DUTY of Self-Government The Third PART Of the Outward Advantages of Autarchy and an Exhortation thereunto § 1. I had not long finished the Second Part of this Moral Essay in which I hope I have somewhat contributed to the allaying the Heats of your Sensual Desires and rebated your Prejudices to the Oeconomy of Self-Government but I be thought my self of my Promise made in the Conclusion of it to treat of the Outward Advantages of Autarchy 'T is true my Dorotheus the inward Pleasures mentioned in my last of Joy Peace and the Testimony of a good Conscience are the greatest Blessings we are capable of on this side Heaven but then the other outward Blessings are not to be despised As long as we are here we all naturally desire those Delights that caress Humane Nature and he must be more than an ordinary Philosopher that can over-look all corporeal Pleasures He is happy that can gratifie his Soul but yet he is thought more happy that can gratifie his Soul and Body both and yet preserve his Innocency If then Autarchy be a Friend to both these its Government sure cannot be refused What it is in respect of Pleasures hath been the Subject of the former Paper and what it is in respect of all Outward Advantages shall be the Subject of this After which I shall draw up all the Premisses into one conclusion and tying a Knot upon it leave it with you to the judgment of after Experience § 2. The Outward Advantages of Autarchy which I have not discours'd of in my former may be reduc'd to these Three Heads 1. A Healthful and Long Life 2. A Competent Estate or Sufficiency 3. Honour and Respect from all Men. These are the Three Principal Favourites of the Body and are courted as our greatest Happiness while we are here A sickly long Life is therefore thought so much the more miserable because it is long and a Healthful Short Life miserable by reason of its Shortness And both Health and Length of Life cannot make us happy according to the vulgar Opinion if we are condemn'd to Poverty and to eat the Bread of Carefulness And there be many that will not be satisfied without a third accessional I mean Honour and Respect And there is no Man but the highest Christian that can wholly lay them all aside and say with St. Paul That he counts all things but dung and loss so that he may win Christ I cannot expect you should arrive at this Spiritual Life this Perfection of Wisdom these many years It will be sufficient if you attain it at last with all the Aids of Morality and Religion In the mean time it will be sufficient to alliciate a young and unexperienc'd Nature by that which seems most inviting in this World though it be but as Children with Toys and such are most of us in a spiritual Sense I mean with Earthly Blessings such as Life Estate and Honour My Business therefore shall be to demonstrate to you not that Autarchy will infallibly make you live long Healthful Rich and Honourable or instate you presently in the Possession of these Three Blessings for there may be many Circumstances which may hinder the Effect and God may not prosper the Means for the Ends designed nor do I intend to affirm that this Duty will enfeoff you with the intense degrees of each i. e. that it will make you live to threescore years and ten or fourscore and all that while in abundance of outward Prosperity Riches and Grandeur for this is not entail'd upon any Duty but That it is the readiest Way and the most probable Means to obtain a convenient portion of each and enough to ascertain an outward Happiness That it naturally tends to long Life and Health Sufficiency of Estate and Respect and where it is not hinder'd of its effect will ensure them Thus as the Reasons of the former Paper will make you a Votary to the Spiritual Government as a Christian and a Philosopher so those of this may work upon you as a Man I begin with the first of its Temporal Advantages A Healthful and Long Life § 3. Of all the outward Blessings that God usually crowns Man with in this World Health and Long Life ought to be first named because most desired The First begets the Second and they mutually caress each other and would do so eternally When things are as they should be Nature abhorrs an Alteration for fear of a Dissolution The sullen Rocks cling together and oppose Separation and the soft Waters which are dasht into a thousand pieces against them reunite their Parts which will not separate till Gravity and the indispensible Laws of the Universe compel them The Vegetables though they die at Winter do yet retain the Seeds of Life against their Resurrection in the Spring and accordingly appear again in their various Figures and Colours The Birds and Beasts labour night and day to preserve a belov'd though to themselves an unprofitable Life and when they can no longer escape the Snares of the cunning Fowler or cruel Hunter they mournfully utter out their resentments of Man's Tyranny in their inarticulate Rhetorick Man the Lord of the visible Creation preserves his own Life by destroying others and pays Nature in himself what he has robb'd her of in other Creatures We are apt to admire the Happiness of Methusalah and if we thought it to any purpose would desire to live as long as he We complain of Nature's unequal bounty to the Antediluvian World whilst she confines us to Threescore or Fourscore Years To live long and see many happy or rather than die unhappy days to live though old lame decrepit and despis'd much more when young healthful and strong is the universal desire of deluded Mortals inamour'd of their Sorrows and besotted of their Chains Nor can Reason Counsel or Experience without a Diviner Ray darted from Heaven into their Souls undeceive them And after all it is something unaccountable to find that though most Men make Long Life the chiefest Petition in all their Addresses to Heaven yet there are few that will confess they have received it though they have pass'd their great
Climax So great is our aversion to Death our greatest Friend that would put an End to our Troubles and lay us up in Peace Young men put it far from them and Old men do not care to hear of it though descending down towards their Grave And I have experienc'd in my self now entring into my Declination a kind of Reluctancy to be told I was so far on my Journey I conclude therefore that there is something in Nature some Relict of the Old man that is afraid of Death though she carries it within her and thus perhaps it will be with you and therefore to please the lower Soul and reconcile it to the Government of the upper I shall endeavour to shew that it is the usual Gift and natural Consequent of Autocracy § 4. To this Purpose it will suffice to propose this one Consideration viz. That There is nothing that can conduce more directly to the Health of the Body and consequently to its Preservation to Old Age than the regular Vse of Meat Drink and animal Pleasures which Self-Government enjoins This alone is able to preserve Health and to recover it when lost and if some Original Distemper or fatal Providence interpose not to convey it down to Old Age to procure the Vigour of Youth in Age and a healthful and strong Constitution and consequently a Long Life c. This Truth is self-apparent and shines by its own Light for most Diseases are confess'd to be the Effects of Intemperance Vice tends to our Ruine from its first Entertainment and the Body of Sin naturally leads us to the Body of Death Excesses bring Sickness and Surfeiting will turn to Choler By surfeiting many have perished but he that taketh heed prolongeth his Life saith the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus 37. 30. Instances will best illustrate this Truth for their Conviction For thus the Glutton lives to eat not eats to live but to die when by contrarieties of Meats and Drinks he hath vitiated his Appetite and collected a Mass of Crudities in his Stomach the morbifick Matter which at last sends him out of the World Thus the Drunkard drowns himself in a Dropsie or by a Collection of Adventitious Heats inflames his Blood into a Fever when he shall call for Drink without Satisfaction and use it without Offence And I wish it were seriously considered how peculiar an Enemy this Sin is to our Lives and of how many sad Accidents it is the cause some times fatal to Body and Soul of which we have too many Examples So false is that flattering Proverb A Drunkard never takes hurt And indeed Drunkenness is a kind of Daemoniacism and taking away the use of the Members of the Body and Operations of the Soul the evil Spirit casts him sometimes into the Fire and sometimes into the Water Nor is it a wonder that when the internal Principle of Direction the Understanding is destroyed the Guardian Angel driven away and kept at a distance the Devil should take the advantage to do a Man a Mischief In a word Intemperance is such an universal Purveyor for the Grave that it is become long since a Proverb Plures gulâ quam gladio c. The Throat is the greatest Enemy as well as Preserver to it self and destroys more than the Sword Thus the impure Slave that with an Adulterous Eye pursues every Woman besides his Fears and Dangers wears out his Body and twists up his own Scourge A Disease I mean that destroys his Form and Beauty torments him with Pains when he should take his rest makes him water his Couch with his Tears and his Bed to be the Place of his Punishment because it was the Place of his Folly and at last consigns him over to Rottenness and to become his own Sepulchre And if Whoredoms and Adulteries do not always produce such Tragedies 't is because they are in some Measure restrain'd and so it is the Effect of Autarchy Nay those immaterial Diseases those of the Mind I mean that are not so conversant with gross Matter even these become prejudicial if not fatal to our Lives and Health Covetousness pines and withers the Body Envy dries it up and makes it pale and Pride begets Quarrels Contentions and Wars that send thousands to the Grave together I need not instance in more for 't is the Confession and Complaint of emasculated Debauchees that their Vices have been their Enemies and contributed to their Destruction So that there is a natural Reason as well as Providence in the Sentence of the wise Solomon Evil shall pursue the Sinner and he shall not prolong his days Prov. 10. 27. 13. 21. Eccles 8. 13. 'T is Autarchy alone that prescribes Moderation that distinguisheth betwixt the Abuse and Use betwixt the Poison and Nutriment of Meat and Drink that maintains a due Temperament and satisfies that Nature that she preserves § 5. And here I cannot conceive what Sensuality hath to say for it self and in its own defence unless it is by way of Recrimination Unless she leads you to the Cells of Asceticks and the Oratories of Recluses and shews you the pale and lean Effects of Fasting and Mortification the Skeletons of some few Saints who chose to anticipate Death and die whilst they lived See there will she say the Effects of Bigottism and Religious Frenzie what she would reduce the World to if she could procure once a perfect Empire there And what can Luxury it self do more Besides thou mayst observe that Wise men die as soon and as well as Fools and the Righteous fall promiscuously with the Wicked Alas Death makes no difference nor can Integrity Wisdom Valour or Parts oppose him The End of Man is determin'd and then why should the Means be blam'd he was to die at that time and therefore why should his Vices be accus'd for bringing him thither Thus Sin is ready to excuse it self though she lays the Fault at God's door and on his everlasting Decrees To all which I answer briefly First Waving the Question about the determination of our Lives of which I shall find occasion to give you mine opinion towards the end of this Discourse I say as to the Hardships Fastings and Mortifications of restraining Vertue I cannot find as I noted before that Autarchy absolutely and universally prescribes them but only where our particular necessities require them God hath given his Creatures richly though moderately to be enjoy'd and having given us his Son with him hath given us all things But when the Beast within the Sensual part begins to wax fat and kicks against its Master and Maker both there is then but too apparent Symptoms of a Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil Habit of Mind and then Fasting and other Ghostly Exercises become our Duty For it is Physick to the Body as well as Soul and serves mutually their Necessities Besides I do not find any Command even in that Case to make our selves sick or to impair our