he who seeks not into the true causes should transfer the fault upon the Superior nature and either say there is no Providence or that our affairs are not well administred by it But such opinions as these do not only aggravate the crimes of our life past but excite the mind to all wickedness and deprive it of liberty of will in that they make it ignorant of the causes of the present evils But that you may know how we ought to think of these things hear the Verses MOREOVER WHATSOEVER EVILS MEN UNDERGO BY DIVINE FORTUNE BEAR YOUR PART MILDLY NEITHER FRET AT IT BUT YOU SHOULD CURE IT WHAT YOU CAN YET CONSIDER THIS THAT FATE DOES NOT DISTRIBUTE MUCH OF THIS TO GOOD MEN. Bear patiently what ill by Heaven is sent And add not to your Griefs by discontent Yet rid them if you can But know withall Few of these Thunder-storms on good men fall Before we begin our Explication we must premise that by EVILS here is meant whatsoever makes the way of life laborious and troublesom as Sickness Poverty loss of Friends Reproach and the like For these are grievances not easie to be born in life but not really EVIL or pernicious to the Soul unless from them we take occasion to sin which we may doe also in good things if we don't use them rightly as Health Riches and Power For we may doe ill with these and obtain Vertue with the contrary But real EVILS are voluntary offences such as are inconsistent with Vertue and these are Injustice Intemperance and whatever else is contrary to that which is excellent For none of all these can be said to be done well as thus such a man does Injustice well or Riots well as we may say of external Evils that a man labours under Sickness or Poverty well as often as he bears such things according to right reason But the word well is not used in the diseases of the Soul because they are deviations from and detriments to right reason whose dictates the soul of Man disregards though engraven and implanted naturally on it when blinded with passion That right reason is implanted in Men this is a sure sign that an unjust man gives a right judgment in those things wherein his interest is not concern'd and so an intemperate man reads lectures of Temperance to others In a word every wicked man uses right counsels in those things wherein he is not byass'd aside by his passions So that a wicked man may turn vertuous by a retracting his former wickedness Neither to this end is it necessary that wrong reason should be in us that this might be the principle of Vice as the other is of Vertue For right reason alone like the Law of the land is a sufficient standard whereby to define what is done according to it and what against it and to approve of the one and restrain the other Neither is there any need of any principle of Evil whether internal or external But there is great need of a principle of Good and of that only and that again is either separate from the rational nature which is God or lodg'd and enthron'd within us which is right reason And after this manner are EVILS distinguish'd Among which he does not say that those which are voluntary are distributed to men by the DIVINE FORTUNE but only those which are necessary and are not now in our power but which follow our heretofore voluntary and avoidable offences which are grievous as we said but capable of receiving ornament from Vertue For Poverty is adorn'd by a moderate diet and meanness of extract is raised by prudence So the loss of Children commends the good man's patience and meekness who is able to say My Son is dead is he not then render'd back again and I knew I begat a Mortal And in like manner all other things varnish'd over with the beauty of Vertue become more gracefull Now we come to enquire what are those DIVINE FORTUNES whereby men undergo outward calamities If by the divine sentence Riches were allotted to one and Poverty to another antecedently and absolutely this should be call'd the divine Will and not the DIVINE FORTUNE If again nothing presiding be signifi'd by this Phrase but it happen by chance that one man is happy and another unhappy then it should be call'd only FORTUNE without the Epithet DIVINE But if God the supreme Arbiter distribute to every one according to his deserts and is not the cause of our being such or such but for this end only is arm'd with Justice that he might make equal retributions according to its laws then the manifestations of his judgments are deservedly call'd DIVINE FORTUNES thereby intimating to us that God has no absolute antecedent purpose to punish one and honour another but only as he behaves himself so or so and that the cause of this is not to be sought for out of our selves So that the connexion of our Election and his judgment makes a DIVINE FORTUNE All therefore that is meant by DIVINE FORTUNE is nothing else but the judgment of God against Sin And so the artificial contrivance of this Phrase salves God's providence and the Soul's liberty and immortality So that the matters of our life come not to pass altogether by fate nor yet at random and fortuitously nor is our whole life to be resolv'd one way But whenever we offend in things within our power 't is to be referr'd to our own choice but whatsoever follows our sins according to the laws of Justice that is our FATE and whatever good proceeds primarily from God is to be referr'd to Providence But we should ascribe nothing of the things that are to a fortuitous and temerarious cause no nor any thing that is done unless from the event and connexion of those things which Providence Fate and humane Will work antecedently something follow the first efficient causes which may be call'd fortuitous For example 'T is the will of the Judge to punish a Murtherer and not this particular man as such and yet he punishes this man whom he would not because he has assumed to himself the place and condition of a Murtherer Now the antecedent and absolute will of the Judge is to punish a Murtherer but 't is through accident that he wills the punishment of this man because he voluntarily assumed the person of a Murtherer Again 't was the will of a wicked man to commit Murther but not to suffer punishment on that account This antecedent purpose of committing Murther was dependent upon the liberty of his will but then torments and punishment follow by accident Now of these the Law is the cause which suggests to the Judge a will of punishing evil men in general and this Murtherer in particular The same I consider in the divine Nature when the will of Man determines to doe evil and when the will of the Judge who is the defender of the Law is wholly bent to
which as all know who are conversant in those Writings was something Mystical and Enthysiastick This I mention to prevent the Objection of some who might be apt to charge me with obscurity of Style I grant many things might have been deliver'd more openly and clearly but then I must have deserted the peculiar Genius of my Author which ought always to be Sacred and Inviolable THE Golden VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS FIrst the Immortal Gods as rank'd by Law Honour and use an Oath with holy awe Then honour Heroes which Mankind excell And Daemons of the Earth by living well Your Parents next and those of nearest blood Then other Friends regard as they are good Yield to mild words and offices of love Do not for little faults your Friend remove This is no more than what in you does lye For Power dwells hard by necessity Doe these things so but these restrain you must Your Appetite your Sleep Anger and Lust. From filthy actions at all times forbear Whether with others or alone you are And of all things your self learn to revere In Deed and Word to Justice have an eye Do not the least thing unadvisedly But know that all must to the Shades below That Riches sometimes ebb and sometimes flow Bear patiently what Ill by Heaven is sent And add not to your Griefs by discontent Yet rid them if you can but know withall Few of those Thunder-storms on good men fall Oft good and ill do in discourse unite Be not too apt t' admire nor yet to slight But if through errour any speak amiss Endure 't with mildness but be sure of this That none by word or action you entice To doe or speak to your own prejudice Think before action Folly to prevent Rash words and acts are their own punishment That doe which done after you 'll ne'r repent That which you know not do not undertake But learn what 's fit if Life you 'll pleasant make 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 Be neat but not luxurious in your fare How you incur Mens Censure have a care Let not thy ' state in ill tim'd treats be spent Like one that knows not what 's magnificent Nor by a thrift untimely rake too clean 'T is best in every thing to use a mean Be not mischievous to your self advise Before you act and never let your eyes The sweet refreshings of soft slumber taste Till you have thrice severe reflexions past On th' actions of the day from first to last Wherein have I transgress'd what done have I What duty unperform'd have I past by And if your actions ill on search you find Let Grief if good let Joy possess your mind This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life Divine Believ 't I swear by him who did us shew The mystery of Four whence all things flow Then to your work having pray'd Heaven to send On what you undertake an happy end This Course if you observe you shall know then The constitution both of Gods and Men. The due extent of all things you shall see And Nature in her Uniformitie That so your Ignorance may not suggest Vain hopes of what you cannot be possest You 'll see how poor unfortunate Mankind To hurt themselves are studiously inclin'd To all approaching good both deaf and blind The way to cure their Ills is known to few Such a besotting fate does men pursue They 're on Cylinders still roll'd up and down And with full tides of Evil overflown A cursed inbred Strife does lurk within The cause of all this Misery and Sin Which must not be provok'd to open field The way to Conquer here 's to fly and yield And now from Ill great Father set us free Or teach us all to know our Selves and Thee Courage my Soul Great Iove is their Allie Their duty who by Nature's light descry These Rules if to that Number you retain You 'll keep and purge your Soul from every stain Abstain from Meats which you forbidden find In our Traditions wherein are defin'd The Purgings and Solution of the Mind Consider this then in the highest Sphere Enthrone your Reason the best Charioteer So when unbody'd you shall freely rove In the unbounded Regions above You an Immortal God shall then Commence Advanc'd beyond Mortality and Sense The INTRODUCTION PHilosophy is both the Purification and Perfection of humane Life The Purification as it frees it from the material and brute tendencies of the mortal Body The Perfection as it restores it to its own primitive excellency and the participation of the divine Image Both these are best effected by Vertue and Truth The former calms all disorders of the Passions the latter if it meet with a well disposed mind introduces the divine form 'T is necessary therefore in order to that Science which must both Purifie and Perfect us that we have some short sententious Rules or artificial Aphorisms by whose direction we may in an orderly and easie progress arrive to the end of an happy life Now amongst all those rules which have a general aspect upon all Philosophy I think the Pythagorick Verses deservedly call'd Golden may justly claim the precedency For they contain the principal Maxims of all Philosophy whether Speculative or Practical Whereby a man may possess himself of Truth and Vertue enjoy himself in Purity live happy in the likeness of God and as Plato's Timaeus says a Critical Professor of the Pythagorical Institutions being made sound and intire may attain to the form of the primitive habit As for his Method he begins with the precepts of Practical Vertue For we must first subdue the brute within us and shake off all sluggishness from our minds and then addict our selves to the knowledge of more divine things For as a blear Eye cannot behold a very bright object till it be purged so a Soul not yet clarifi'd and refined by Vertue is not qualifi'd to gaze on the beauty of Truth There 's too much disproportion between pure and impure than that one should reach the other And whereas Practical Philosophy is the parent of Vertue and Speculative of Truth thence we find in his Verses where he had ended his Instructions about Civil Vertue he calls the former Humane but the latter he honours with the title of Divine in these words This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life Divine The first step therefore to the Divine Nature is to rise up to the dignity of the Humane Now that which makes a man good is Civil Vertue but that which deifies him are those Sciences which advance him to the Divine And since the order of Ascent requires that small things be pass'd over before greater therefore in the Pythagorick precepts Moral institutions have the first place that so from what is of greatest
at first kindled with passion with a showr of tears Such is the whole life of an INCONSIDERATE man who by reason of contrary passions is liable to various changes He is odious in prosperity pitifull in adversity headlong in hope and dejected in fear In a word he that is void of good Counsel changes his mind with every blast of fortune Lest therefore our life should prove such a sad Tragedy by acting and speaking inconsiderately let us use right reason as our guide in all things imitating that of Socrates I can hearken to none of mine but my reason Now all that may come under the notion of ours though not of our selves which serves to the use of reason viz. Anger Desire Sense and the Body it self which is given as an instrument to these faculties none of which as he says should be follow'd but right reason that is the rational part of us when disposed according to nature For this is able to discern what is to be SAID and DONE Now to act according to the dictates of right reason is the same as to obey God For the rational nature being once rais'd to the possession of its native brightness wills and acts according to the determinations of the divine law and pleasure and the holy Soul that thus participates of the Deity becomes in every thing conformable to the mind of God and frames the whole system and comprehension of its actions by the conduct and guidance of that eternal Splendor But 't is not so with the Soul contrariwise disposed which knows not God walks in the dark and as it were at a venture being destitute of the only rule of good God and Reason So many and so great are the advantages of good Counsel Add to the other advantages of Preconsultation that it cuts off the causes of uncertain opinions recovers us to knowledge and procures us the most pleasant and best life as appears from what ensues DOE NOTHING WHICH YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND BUT LEARN WHAT IS DECENT AND SO YOU WILL LIVE THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE That which you know not do not undertake But learn what 's fit if Life you 'll pleasant make Not to attempt any thing which we are ignorant of is the only way to keep us from sinning But to learn the things which conduce to the best life does not only secure us from sin but serves to rectifie our actions For Intelligence removes all precipitancy of opinion and the possession of Science gives expediteness of action Now both these are excellent things not to be ignorant that we are ignorant and to know what we do not which is attended with the BEST and MOST PLEASANT LIFE Such is that which is freed from Opinion and replenish'd with Science when we are not puff'd up with a conceit of what we do not know but are willing to learn what is worth learning And those things alone are so which lead us to the likeness of God which make us deliberate before action that folly be not committed which will not suffer us to be seduced by any either by word or deed which qualifie us to distinguish occasional discourses which perswade us to bear mildly and to heal the divine fortune which instruct us how to undergo Death and Poverty to exercise Justice Temperance and Continence which declare to us the laws of Friendship and the honour due to Parents lastly which inform us in the true way of honouring the Superior beings These and such like are the things which the present discourse recommends to us as FIT to be learnt which are attended with the MOST PLEASANT LIFE For the vertuous man has also his pleasures but they are such as are not to be repented of and which imitate the solidity and permanency of Vertue For all pleasure is the Companion of action For it has to subsistence of its self but accompanies us in our doing such and such things Hence 't is that the worser actions are accompany'd with the worser pleasures and vertuous actions with good pleasures So that the good man does not only excel the wicked man in what is good but has also the advantage of him even in pleasure for whose sake alone he is wicked For as much as one disposition is more excellent than another so much is one pleasure more eligible than another Since then a life order'd according to the rules of Vertue and adhering to the divine likeness is truly divine but that which is spent in wickedness is brutish and without God it is plain that the pleasure of a good man imitates that divine Complacency which waits on God and heavenly minds but the pleasure of a wicked man to give them a common name for once amounts to no more than the gratification of a Sottish Appetite the entertainment of a Beast Pleasures and Sorrows are put in our reach from whose fountains whosoever draws both whence when and as much as he ought is an happy man but he that knows not the measures of these is emphatically miserable Thus therefore the life which is freed from Opinion is only void of sin but that which is well fraught with Science is happy and perfect the MOST PLEASANT AND BEST LIFE Let us never therefore doe what we KNOW NOT nor what we know when we ought not For Ignorance leads into wickedness but Knowledge seeks out a convenient season For there are many good things which by change of time become evil Let us therefore mind the order of the Precept which by restraining us from action keeps us sinless and by exhorting us to learn not all things promiscuously but only what 's FIT leads us to the most excellent actions For goodness of action does not consist barely in not sinning but in KNOWING WHAT' 's FIT the former is effected by the purgation of Opinion the latter by the presence of Knowledge But if not sinning be accounted well doing see what will accrue to you SO SHALL YOU LIVE THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE But what 's that which derives its pleasure from Vertue In which both honesty and pleasure concur If therefore what 's good and what 's pleasant be singly desirable what will they be when united He tells you THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE For he that chuses pleasure with filthiness although for a while he be sweetly entertain'd yet at last through the filthiness annex'd to his enjoyment he is brought to a painfull repentance But he that prefers Vertue with all her labours and difficulties though at first for want of use it sits heavy upon him yet by the conjunction of good he alleviates the labour and at last enjoys pure and unallai'd pleasure with his vertue For if any filthy thing be done with pleasure the pleasure is gone but the stain remains So that of necessity that life is most unhappy which is most wicked and that most pleasant which is most vertuous And so much may suffice for this But since the discipline and good usage of the Body
it to the inferiour not considering that the essential form of humane nature is unchangeable For the same man by the alternate possession of Vertue and Vice is said to become a God or a beast Not that he is either by nature but by habitual similitude And indeed he that knows not the dignity of the things that are but either exceeds it or comes short of it makes his ignorance an occasion either of a vain opinion or false hope But he that judges of all according to the measures of the Creation that knows the things that are in the same manner as they were made and that lastly measures God from the knowledge of himself he best observes the precept of following God knows the best measure and is above all Fraud and Imposture AND YOU SHALL KNOW MEN EMBRACING EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD MISERABLE AND WHO NEITHER SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD AND THAT THERE ARE FEW WHO KNOW HOW TO DISINTANGLE THEMSELVES FROM EVIL SUCH A FATE HURTS THE MINDS OF MORTALS WHO ARE ROLLED HERE AND THERE UPON CYLINDERS BEARING INFINITE MISERIES FOR A PERNICIOUS CONTENTION IS THEIR INBRED COMPANION WHICH TREACHEROUSLY HURTS THEM WHICH WE SHOULD BY NO MEANS PROVOKE BUT YIELDING AVOID You 'll see how poor unfortunate Mankind To hurt themselves are studiously inclin'd To all approching good both deaf and blind The way to cure their ills is known to few Such a besotting fate does men persue They 're on Cylinders still rol'd up and down And with full tides of Evil overflown A cursed inbred Strife does lurk within The cause of all this Misery and Sin Which must not be provok'd to open field The way to conquer here 's to fly and yield The order of the Incorporeal and Corporeal Natures being well understood it remains that we exactly know the nature of Man both what it is and what passions it is liable to How it stands in the middle confines between those beings which never fall into Vice and those which are not capable of Vertue Hence 't is that he acts both parts in his manners sometimes embracing the felicity of the Intellectual life and sometimes the affections of Sense So that 't was well said by Heraclitus that we live their death and dye their life For Man descends and falls from the happy Region as Empedocles the Pythagorean says Man yields unto the rage of Appetite Heaven's Exile straying from the Orb of light But he returns and resumes his first habit if as he says He fly the confines of this dismal Cell Where Murthers Anger and all mischiefs dwell In which whosoever fall They wander in dark regions of Death But the desire of him that flies these regions of Death will speedily conduct him to the regions of Truth which if he once leaves by the force of the moulting of the Wings he comes down into an earthy body Losing the life of bliss Agreeable to this is that which Plato says of the descent When the impotent Soul can no longer enjoy the vision of God and having suffer'd a deflux of her wings falls down to the earth then she ought by the Law to inhabit a mortal body And concerning the Ascent he says this when a Man has overcome by his reason that tumultuous brute Commotion which accrues to him from Earth Water Air and Fire he shall return to the form of the first and best habit and being made sound and whole shall recover his proportionate Orb. Sound because free from the diseases of Passion which is done by Civil Vertue And whole by the recovery of Knowledge as of his proper parts which is to be done by Speculative Truth He shews moreover that by Aversion from the things below we should retrieve those excellencies which we lost by Apostasie Since he defines Philosophy to be the flight of Evil. For he declares that men only are obnoxious to Passions that evil cannot be utterly lost nor exist in the gods but is necessarily conversant about this place and humane nature For it is consequent to the nature of things generable and corruptible to be sometimes preternaturally affected which is the beginning of evil But by what means we should avoid these he subjoins when he says we must fly from hence thither that this flight is as much a resemblance of God as Man is capable of but the Similitude it self is to become Just Holy and Prudent For he that would fly from Evil must first be averse from humane nature since they who are immers'd in that cannot but be fill'd with the concomitant evils As therefore our departure from God and the moulting of our plumes whereby we soar'd aloft caused our descent into the region of Mortality and Wretchedness So 't is the rejection of our bodily Passions and the growth and springing of Vertue as of new wings which will carry us to the pure habitations of holiness and divine felicity For the nature of Man being in the middle between those beings which always contemplate the face of God and those whose nature is never capable of such contemplation it ascends to them and descends to these by the possession and rejection of the mind and alternately puts on the divine and brutish Similitude by reason of its natural propension to both He therefore that knows these things of the humane nature knows also how men are said TO EMBRACE EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD and how they become unhappy and MISERABLE by their own election For when they could have remain'd longer in that station they are drawn down to be born by the rashness of desire and when they could with more speed have loos'd from hence they intangle themselves in the security of their passions And this is that he means when he says that they neither SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD so that by good he understands Vertue and Truth And by their not seeing neighbouring good is meant that they are not moved of themselves to the search of excellent things and by their not hearing is meant their unattentiveness to the Instructions of others For there is a twofold way of recovering knowledge either by discipline as by hearing or by invention as by sight They therefore are said to embrace evils of their own accord who neither willing to learn of others nor to find out of themselves remain destitute of the sense of all good and consequently altogether unprofitable For he that neither considers himself nor gives attention to the Instructions of others is an unprofitable man But they who employ their endeavours in the learning and finding out things excellent these are they who know how to DISINTANGLE themselves from evil and who by the flight of all worldly labours are translated into the free Aether But of these there are but few For the major part of Mankind are evil and in subjection to their passions nay and of unsound minds by reason of their propension to earthly things And this evil they have brought upon themselves because they would
depart from God and excommunicate themselves from all converse with him which they once happily enjoy'd living in pure light For their propension to the Earth argues their departure from God by which their minds are disturb'd It being equally impossible either that he should not be mad who is without God or that he should not be without God who is mad Both these finding no relish in the love of excellent things suffer infinite evils ROLED up and down by their ponderous wickedness as on so many CYLINDERS They never have an intire command of themselves demeaning themselves ungovernably in all fortunes Sometimes insolent in abundance sometimes doing ill in poverty Sometimes abusing their strength of body to the commission of robberies sometimes through weakness and disease prompted to blasphemy Sometimes pining for the want of Children sometimes making their number a pretence of Contention and filthy Avarice To speak once for all there is not one thing in all life which will not turn to the damage of imprudent men who are at all hands press'd in the straits of voluntary wickedness who will neither look up to the divine light nor give ear to the things that are good but so rush into mortal affections that they are toss'd in life as in a storm Now the only freedom from this is a return to God which they only find out who stir up the eye and the ear of the Soul to the recovery of good healing the evil which accompanies our nature by that vertue which leads to the things above Now there is an evil born with us and an evil acquired by us which is the preternatural motion of the will by which we endeavour to contend with and run counter to the divine laws not at all considering how much we hurt our selves while we think to oppose God blindly seeing this only that we were able to throw off the rains of his laws And herein the will plays the Libertine and abuses her freedom in that she dares to depart from God and to side with the PERNICIOUS CONTENTION against him by which we in a manner proclaim open hostility against God For when he says thou shalt not doe this we doe that to chuse Again when he says doe this that we doe not So that they lade themselves with misery on both sides who transgress the divine Law by not doing what is commanded and by doing what is forbidden What therefore shall we find out against this pernicious inbred Companion call'd CONTENTION which arises from some preternatural disposition within us and therefore is the more apt to hurt us covertly as a bosom evil What shall we oppose against it what remedy shall we apply to the mad CONTENTION what counterpoise shall we oppose to this downweighing propension but the meditation and love of those things which will put us into the track of the divine Vertue For these are those remedies of evil KNOWN TO FEW this is the INSTITUTION and HEARING of NEIGHBOURING good this is the freedom from SPONTANEOUS evils this is the Excision of infinite Passions the avoidance of the impious CONTENTION the health of the Soul the purgation of the raging Strife and the revocation of our Exile from God For the only way we have to cure our propension to things below is by the vertue which raises us upwards if we do not suffer it to run out any further nor add evil to evil but being become obedient to right reason avoid the PERNICIOUS CONTENTION and embrace that which is good not striving to disobey God but to obey him which we should not call Strife but a divinely affected Obedience a conversion to the law of God and a voluntary subjection which cuts off the occasions of unreasonable disobedience For this I take to be the sum of what is contain'd in the Verses now before us First he points at the wickedness of our free will when he says YOU SHALL KNOW MEN EMBRACING EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD whom we ought to call miserable and unfortunate because the Authors of their own evil Then he declares their utter obstinacy against all good things when he says that THEY NEITHER SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD Then he implies the impossibility of disintangling our selves from voluntary evils when he says that FEW KNOW HOW TO DOE IT which is therefore inserted that when he had shewn 't was in our own power to free our selves it might appear that we were voluntary slaves Then he subjoins the cause of the blindness and deafness of those Souls which fall into Vice SUCH A FATE HURTS THE MINDS OF MORTALS For our Apostacy from the more excellent things leads us into madness and rash election which he means by the pernicious FATE which by inclining us to the corruptible and mortal life excludes us from the divine Quire Then he shews the consequences of Temerity and how our offences are at once voluntary and involuntary while he compares the life of imprudent men to a CYLINDER roled on a Plain which sometimes has a direct and circular motion at once Circular of it self and Direct by falling downwards For as a CYLINDER does not retain its circular motion about the Axis when it deviates from rectitude so neither does the Soul obtain the things that are truly good when it falls off from right reason and its station with God but hovers about apparent good deviates from what is right and is roled up and down by sensual passions which was intimated in these words WHO ARE ROLED HERE AND THERE ON CYLINDERS BEARING INFINITE EVILS But because the free motion of the will preternaturally affected was the cause of the FATE WHICH HURTS OUR MINDS and of our separation from God in the two following Verses he shews us how we ought to compose it and turn it towards God Partly by discovering the voluntary hurt in these words A PERNICIOUS CONTENTION IS THEIR INBRED COMPANION WHICH TREACHEROUSLY HURTS THEM Partly by implying the liberty of healing in these words WHICH WE SHOULD BY NO MEANS PROVOKE BUT YIELDING AVOID But perceiving withall that we want in the first place the assistance of God to enable us to depart from evil and embrace good he addresses himself to Iupiter in a Prayer for help O FATHER JUPITER EITHER FREE US ALL FROM SO GREAT EVILS OR DISCOVER TO ALL WHAT DEMON THEY USE BUT BE THOU OF GOOD CHEAR BECAUSE THOSE MORTALS ARE KIN TO GOD TO WHOM SACRED NATURE DISCOVERS EVERY THING AMONG WHICH IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED YOU WILL OBSERVE WHAT I COMMAND YOU AND HAVING HEAL'D YOUR SOUL YOU WILL PRESERVE IT FROM THESE EVILS And now from ill great Father set us free Or teach us all to know our selves and thee Courage my Soul great Iove is their Allie Their duty who by Nature's light descry These rules if to that number you retain You 'll keep and purge your Soul from every stain 'T was the manner of the Pythagoreans to adore the Maker and Parent of the Universe
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
greatest wickedness will be to think the world destitute of or ill administer'd by Providence For this comes all to one to think there is no God or if there be that he exercises no Providence or if he does yet that 't is such a one as removes from him all goodness and justice Which is an opinion full of all manner of Impiety and which drives into all wickedness those who suffer themselves to be led by such doctrines For as Piety is the mother of all Vertue so a defection from that is the highway to all Wickedness He only therefore will find out a cure for his Calamities who has learnt to BEAR THEM PATIENTLY And this is to be done only by Philosophy which exactly knows the natures of things and their consequent operations whose series and order is the administration of all things from which necessarily arises the DIVINE FORTUNE or FATE Which as we have said is nothing else but the retribution given to every one according to his deserts which depends upon God's providence the good order of the World and the will of Man For if there were no divine Providence there would not be that order in the World which one may call FATE and if none of the other there would be no mulct or judgment against the wicked no nor any reward or commendation for the good But upon the supposition of Providence and Order it was fit that all men should be born to the same good provided they had done nothing to discriminate themselves But 't is plain they are not equally dealt withall it is therefore as plain that the inequality of our will which is subjected to the judgment of Providence was the cause of the unequal distribution since 't is necessary that the lot fall according to desert But let us not be troubled that we see the same inequality in Brutes Plants and inanimate things as in Men for it does not follow that no Providence presides over our concerns because things happen fortuitously with them or if in them also there is punishment and judgment and the consideration of Vertue and Vice since there is so much exactness in our concerns For first inanimate things are as common matter to Plants Animals and Men and then some Animals are common food for others and for Men. So that they doe the same to one another not with any regard to the merit of them that suffer but either to satisfie their own hunger or to cure a disease in a word to relieve their necessities which way soever they can So that the infelicity of Brutes is occasion'd by the supply of our needs and their seeming happiness depends upon our favour If it be therefore urged by any that there may be some beings more excellent than our selves which may abuse us to supply their wants as we seem to use Brutes to supply ours it must be confess'd that they are mortal and made appear that the bodies of Men are spent upon their use But if nothing superiour to Man be mortal since he himself is the lowest of all Intelligent-beings and for this reason came of necessity into a mortal body though immortal and taking an organ of affinity with Brutes converses here upon earth there can be no being which may abuse our miseries to its own luxury nay nothing which may use us to gratifie an inordinate humour Justice therefore and Order prescribe rules of administration to that God which presides over us So that he can doe nothing concerning us but what tends to the lessening of our wickedness and the bringing us back to himself For he is concern'd for us as often as we fall as for those which are near of Kin to him So that 't is rightly said that men only are apt to be reclaim'd by modesty punishment and disgrace For a rational Creature only has a sense of Justice We therefore who are at so great a remove from the nature of brutes should have a far distant way of administration For the law of Providence agreeable to the nature of the Universe and in the same order as every thing had its subsistence from God so it partakes of his providence Now all the Souls of men seem to be produced by God himself particularly whereas of Brutes he produced only the kinds committing them over to the Plastick vertue of Nature according to Plato and Timoeus the Pythagorean who will have nothing mortal to be the immediate production of God and that the souls of Men are made of the same temperament with the Mundane gods Demons and Illustrious Heroes and therefore that Providence is conspicuous in every man after what manner he is distant from them there after what manner he aspires to them after what manner he lives here and after what manner he departs hence thither None of all which is to be done concerning an irrational nature For neither can that come to God which is not to be wrought on by moral perswasions neither can that converse upon earth which is naturally an heavenly plant neither is it apt to be translated into its proper Orb. And so much by way of Apology to Male-contents who endeavour to undermine the being of Providence to whom this is fit to be said over and above that the greatest argument of a rational and considering frame of mind is to ENDURE AFFLICTIONS PATIENTLY which not only alleviates the present misery but prevents future trouble But what doe you by Impatience but add Impiety the greatest of evils to your other labours and render your grief more pungent by thinking that you suffer undeservedly Will not he that is sick be much more so if he vexes and pines at his sickness We should not therefore fret at the recompense of our deserts lest by our ill deportment under the present Calamity we contract a habit of a worse And this also is worth considering that if any one who is fallen into Poverty BEAR IT MEEKLY besides the abatement of his grief by it he shall find some other solace and relief Partly because his own discretion being not disturb'd with grief will be the more able and expedite to procure him convenient maintenance and partly because his neighbours admiring his prudence and courage will supply him as far as they can with things necessary to life whereas the impatient and womanly peevish man in the first place contributes to his own misery and then being bound up and as it were benum'd with grief for his poverty he becomes altogether unapt either to help himself or to be reliev'd by the contributions of his neighbours and if any throw him something by way of alms that aggravates his discontent as an exprobration of his poverty From what has been said it appears that 't is our interest as well as duty to BEAR all ill events PATIENTLY ascribing the cause of them to the perversness and obliquity of our own minds and considering withall that since there is a Providence he that is now good
before mention'd in these words From filthy actions at all times forbear Whether with others or alone you are And of all things your self learn to revere For he who has learnt to stand in awe of himself and dares not commit any filthy action either in solitude or in company nay and affords not the least entertainment to any such thing even in his very imagination out of reverence to the guardian reason which is within this man is he who is able to hear this LET NONE DECEIVE YOU EITHER BY WORD OR ACTION For he only is above all Imposture and Fallacy who knowing that he has the dignity of a man suffers himself neither to be wheedled with flattery nor dejected with threats whether he has to deal with friends or enemies Now the ways of DECEPTION are either by words or actions The former consists in Flatteries and Threatnings the latter in setting before us Bribes and Punishments Against all these we should have our minds fortifi'd with right reason that we be neither charm'd nor inslaved either by Pleasure or Pain which on all sides assault our Constancy For when right reason which is within has set on both sides those two invincible keepers Temperance and Fortitude to guard the Soul it will secure us from being DECEIV'D either by the smooth insinuations of things pleasing or the dread of things terrible which even temper of mind is accompany'd with that exact justice which we were above exhorted to exercise in Deed and Word By this means none will be ever able to perswade us to let fall a word or commit an action that is not consonant to right reason For 't is manifest that if we stand most in awe of our selves none will appear to us more venerable or more dreadfull than our selves that we should be induced to speak or doe any thing besides our duty For both are prejudicial to the mind and what is hurtfull to that can never be for our advantage since our minds are properly we our selves This therefore is to be diligently heeded WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU Where the first word is to be refer'd to what you properly are If then this be the thing enjoyn'd that none deceive you by Word or Deed to doe or speak what will not be for your Profit and if by YOU is understood the reasonable Soul you will not let any one if you 're wise injure your rational nature which is your self For 't is your Soul which is YOU this which you see is but your body Thus distinguishing you will prevent confusion of natures and find out wherein humane nature truly consists if you take neither your body nor the things without for your own and if you never contend on their account as for your self lest you be drawn to the love of your body or of riches For when we know not what we our selves are we shall be also ignorant of that which we care for and shall be apt to be concern'd for any thing rather than our selves whom we should make our chiefest care For if that which uses the body is the Soul and the body serves only as an instrument for that and if other things are invented to help the frail nature of this instrument it is apparent that what is first and principal should be first and principally cared for and the second only in subordination to the first For this reason a wise man will not be negligent of his health not out of a principal regard to his body but that he may accommodate it to the use of his mind and render it apt to obey its operations with all readiness and expediteness And in the last place he will take care of the last ordering the things that are without to the welfare of the instrument 'T is the Soul therefore which is his chief and perhaps only care since the care of things subordinate to it tends to its advantage Now every thing which is contrary to vertue comes under the notion of WHAT IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU For to whom Vertue is profitable to him what is contrary to Vertue will be unprofitable He counsels you therefore to summon together all the aids of Vertue when he enjoyns you not to give ear to him that endeavours to seduce you from your integrity by whatever methods he tries to doe it For example not if a Tyrant allure you with promises or confirm them in reality not if he terrifies you with threats or offers violence by tortures not if he hide his fraud under the mask of Courtesie let him seduce your Soul from WHAT IS PROFITABLE Now the only things that are profitable to it are Truth and Vertue You shall therefore be out of the reach of all FRAUD if knowing your own essence both what it is and what it naturally resembles you have always a special care of the image which it bears and if you look upon whatsoever perverts you from this likeness as the greatest damage you are capable of For this is the very thing WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU which seduces you from the likeness of God And since that is most for our interest whatsoever promotes this likeness I would fain know what any one can offer to us of such moment or value that we should quit our desire of being like God for its sake Is it the giving of riches or is it the taking them away But alas these we have learnt to desire or refuse as right reason shall dictate to us Neither are we ignorant of the uncertainty of their possession What if they escape the hands of the Thief how many other ways are there of losing them To which we will add one more which is to exchange riches for a voluntary poverty joyn'd with honesty quitting them for a good cause and redeeming our Vertue at as great a rate as he would doe us harm who endeavours to spoil us of it But he will set before us torments and death This is easily answer'd 'T is not we which shall suffer these things if we preserve what is our own but 't is the Body only which suffers all the injury The Body which by dying suffers nothing contrary to its nature For it is by nature subject to death section and infinite other injuries which every disease can inflict more than a Tyrant Why therefore do we so much bestir our selves to fly those things which we cannot avoid why rather don 't we preserve that which is in our power to keep inviolable what by nature is mortal can by no art be exempted from appointed death but what we have immortal which is our Soul our selves we can adorn with Vertue if we faint not at the threats of death which when we undergo on a just account we may make a Vertue of the necessity of Nature by a right election These are the great things which one man can inflict upon another But the inner recesses of the Soul are subject to none but free if
does it beget any within 10 as 2 does 4 as 3 does 9 and as 5 does 10. The QUATERNARY therefore being seated in the middle between unbegotten 1 and motherless 7 it partakes of the virtue of the begotten and the begetting being the only number within 10 which is begotten of and begets some number For 2 if doubled begets 4 and 4 doubled begets 8. Add to this that the first solid figure is in a QUATERNARY For a Point answers to an Vnite a Line to a Binary in that it proceeds from something to something and a Superficies to a Ternary For the most simple of all figures that consist of right lines is a Triangle But solidity is proper to the QUATERNARY For in that is the first Cone whose trianangular Basis is made by a Ternary but the top by an Vnite Besides the faculties of judging are 4 Mind Science Opinion and Sense All things that are judg'd fall under one of these in a word all things are comprised in the QUATERNARY Elements Numbers seasons of the Year and ages of Life Neither can you name any thing which does not depend upon the QUATERNARY as its root and foundation For as we said before the QUATERNARY is the Producer and Cause of the Universe the intelligible God the Author of the heavenly and sensible Gods Now the knowledge of these things was handed down to the Pythagoreans from Pythagoras himself whom the Author of these Verses closely following gives us to know that the perfection of Vertue will bring us to the splendor of Truth So that for this reason it may be said that as the Precept of honouring the Oath is peculiarly observ'd among the gods who always exist after the same manner so does he peculiarly swear in this place by the Master that deliver'd to us the QUATERNARY Who 't is confess'd was not of the number of the Immortal Gods nor of the Heroes by nature but a man adorn'd with the likeness of God and one that preserv'd the divine Image intire in his followers So that he swears by him in such great matters as these tacitly insinuating in what reverence Pythagoras was with his followers and what dignity he procured himself by the Precepts which he deliver'd The greatest of which was the knowledge of the All-productive QUATERNARY But since the first part is briefly explain'd and the second relies on a firm promise since the sacred Interpreter of the QUATERNARY is made known and also what this QUATERNARY is as far as is conducing to the present purpose come on let us proceed to what the Verse leads us shewing in the first place with what endeavour and preparation and with what assistance of the more excellent beings we may aspire to them THEN PROCEED TO YOUR WORK HAVING PRAY'D TO THE GODS THAT YOU MAY FINISH IT Then to your work having pray'd Heaven to send On what you undertake an happy end These Verses briefly comprize all that conduces to the attainment of good viz. the voluntary motion of the Soul and the assistance of God For although the election of good be in our own power yet since we have even this our power from God we stand in need of his cooperation and perfective influence For our own endeavour is like a hand held forth to receive good but the perfective influence which comes from God is the fountain which supplies us with it Our part is to seek out after that which is good and God's part to shew it to him that seeks aright Now PRAYER is the middle term between our seeking and God's giving whereby we adhere to our Maker who as he first gave us our being so can alone perfect our being Besides how can any one receive good unless God bestow it Again how can God though of his own nature never so liberally disposed give to him who has liberty of asking and yet does not That we might not therefore pray only in words but confirm our Prayers by action nor confide in our own single strength but implore the assistance of God joyning Prayer to action as Form to matter and all this that we should pray for what we endeavour and endeavour for what we pray he joyns these together SET TO YOUR WORK HAVING PRAY'D TO THE GODS THAT YOU MAY FINISH IT For we must not so undertake what is excellent as if we could go through with it on our own single strength without the assistance of God nor on the other side so satisfie our selves with bare praying as not to joyn any endeavour of our own toward the attainment of what we pray for For so either our vertue will be without God if it be possible to suppose such a thing or our Prayers will be without action The first of which takes away the nature of Vertue the latter the efficacy of Prayer For how can that be good which is not done according to the divine Law And how can that which is so done not stand in need of the assistance of God whereby it may subsist For Vertue is nothing else but the image of God upon the rational Soul Now every image wants the Prototype to support its subsistence and in vain do you endeavour to possess your self of Vertue if you refer it not to him for the sake of whose likeness you endeavour to acquire it They therefore that aspire to active vertue should use Prayer and they that pray for its attainment should also doe their endeavour This is that which makes men look up to what is divine and excellent to apply themselves to the study of Wisedom and the first cause of all good For that Quaternary the fountain of eternal Nature is the constant cause not of the being only but of the well-being of all things diffusing its innate good throughout the Universe as a pure and intelligible light which when the Soul adheres to and wipes her eyes as it were to clear her sight by the ardent desire of good she is stir'd up to Prayer and then again by the grant of her Prayer she heightens her desire joyning actions to words and confirming her good actions by divine intercourses And when she has found out the one and is illuminated by the other she does what she prays for and prays for what she does And this is the union of diligent ENDEAVOUR and PRAYER What are the effects of both we come now to consider THIS IF YOU OBSERVE YOU SHALL KNOW THE CONSTITUTION OF THE IMMORTAL GODS AND OF MORTAL MEN HOW FAR EVERY THING PROCEEDS AND WHERE IT CONSISTS This Course if you observe you shall know then The Constitution both of Gods and Men The due extent of all things you shall see In the first place he promises that those who so demean themselves shall obtain the knowledge of God and of all things which subsist by the sacred Quaternary together with the distinction of them according to their kinds and their union in making up one World For the word CONSTITUTION here
of seeing may be made up a manifestation This being so let us suppose that all would be freed from evil if their Maker did SHEW to all the knowledge of his own nature and WHAT DEMON THEY themselves USE But we find that all are not at once deliver'd from evil it follows therefore that he does not make this discovery to all but to those only who of their own accord endeavour to free themselves from evil and voluntarily fix their eye upon what is SHEWN by the intention of Contemplation God therefore is not the cause why he is not SHEWN unto all but they themselves who neither see nor hear Neighbouring good whence they are said to embrace evil of their own accord The will therefore of him that chuses is in the fault but God is no way the Author of evil who does what is required on his part that all men may see what is good but he does not actually SHEW it to all because at the time when he holds it forth the eye of Contemplation in most men is shut or fix'd downward upon worser objects This exposition of the Verses before us is both agreeable to the truth and the context For if it be the part of God to drag men to the truth whether they will or no why do we blame them as suffering voluntary evils Why again do we advise them not to provoke the Pernicious contention but yielding to avoid Why also do we exhort them to bear events patiently and to endeavour to heal them For the way to Vertue by moral discipline is quite block't up to them if liberty of Will be once taken away For my part I would neither doe think nor love any of those things that are excellent if I thought 't was God's part to keep us from Sin and replenish us with Vertue without any concurrence of our own which if true then all our sins also must be father'd upon God But if God as it has been said be no way the Author of sin we may thank our selves if we depart from good since when 't was near to us nay by the common notices of the Soul lodg'd within us yet we neither see nor hear it But the cause of this blindness and deafness is this pernicious Contention and voluntary Evil which we must not provoke any farther but by yielding fly from it so shall we know how to free our selves from evil and find out the way of returning to God And thus every illumination of God by the concurrence of our vision becomes a DISCOVERY Now the fruits of this discovery are calmness of mind freedom from earthly labours a tast of divine good and a participation of the fatherly conversation Having premised these things of Vertue and Truth and having closed up the precepts of Vertue in the nightly account and carried on the hopes of Truth as far as the quiet and safety of the Soul he proceeds now to those things which belong to the splendor of winged Purity in joyning a third kind of Philosophy to what has been already said ABSTAIN MOREOVER WITH JUDGMENT FROM THOSE MEATS WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL AND CONSIDER ALL THINGS SETTING REASON THE BEST CHARIOTEER IN THE UPPERMOST PLACE Abstain from Meats which you forbidden find In our Traditions wherein are defin'd The Purgings and Solution of the mind Consider this then in the highest sphere Enthrone your reason the best Charioteer The rational Nature was produced by the great Creator with a body adhering to it and so though incorporeal it self yet its whole species is consummated in the body Just as it is in the Stars that which is Superior in them is an Incorporeal substance that which is Inferior a Corporeal And so the Sun is all a Compound of somewhat Incorporeal and somewhat Corporeal which were never once separate and then coupled together for so they would be separate again but produced both at once in such order that one should rule and preside and the other obey And so 't is in all the Intelligent-beings Heroes and Men. For every Hero is an Intelligent Soul joyn'd to a lucid Body and a Man in like manner is a rational Soul with an immortal body congenial to it And this was the doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards publish'd to the World when he compared every divine and humane Soul to the congenial force of a winged Chariot and Charioteer We have need therefore in order to the perfection of the Soul of Truth and Vertue but to the purgation of our lucid body 't is required that we be scour'd from material pollutions and use sacred purgations and receive strength from God whereby we may fly hence upwards And this is taught in the Verses before us when they prescribe us the way of removing the luxuriant pollutions of matter in these words ABSTAIN WITH JUDGMENT FROM THE MEATS WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And when they recommend to us the sacred purgation and the concurring aid of God in these words IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL and when they give us a description of humane Nature in its integrity and perfection in these words SETTING REASON THE BEST CHARIOTEER IN THE UPPERMOST PLACE For here is an entire draught of humane Nature with an orderly distinction of the parts Whereof one is to Judge which resembles the CHARIOTEER the other to obey which holds proportion with the Chariot He therefore that believes the Symbols of Pythagoras may now from these Verses that he ought by the exercise of Vertue and by the recovery of Truth and Purity to take care of those things which concern our lucid body which by the Oracles is call'd the subtil Vehicle of the Soul Now this PURGATION reaches as far as our Meat and Drink and the whole management and usage of our mortal body in which our lucid one is lodg'd which inspires life into the inanimate body and preserves its harmony For life is a body void of matter which generates that life which is inherent in matter by which our mortal body is perfected which is compounded of irrational life and matter being the image of that man who is constituted of a rational substance and an immaterial body Since therefore we are Men and since this is the constitution of humane Nature there is a necessity that all of us should be purged and perfected But we must observe the peculiar manner of each nature For different natures require different purgations For example the purgation of the rational Soul as to its rational faculty is Scientifical Truth But as to its Opinionative part the vertue of Deliberation For since we are of such a make by nature that we should contemplate the things above and rule the things below for the first work we shall want Truth for the second Civil Vertue that so we may be wholly taken up in the contemplation of things Eternal and in the action of things becoming But in