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A31460 The tablet of Cebes the Theban philosopher, or, A true emblem of human life with an additional treatise concerning tranquillity of mind / written by Hipparchus and translated by Robert Warren.; Tabula. English. 1699 Cebes, of Thebes.; Hipparchus, the Pythagorean. Excellent treatise concerning peace of conscience. 1699 (1699) Wing C1653A; ESTC R35480 26,828 143

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time so requireth It is written That there is a time to laugh and a time to mourn a time for joy and a time for sadness And therefore a Christian Man may learn to use both the one and the other well and all to the glory of God Most certain it is that God hath permitted us honest Pleasures and delight which he hath not forbidden or are to his dishonour or any occasion of evil All honest and vertuous Exercise are permitted unto us in rendring thanks to God forthem and acknowledging his benifits by them provided also that we keep our selves alwaies within the rules of Sobriety Modesty and Honesty Thus we see one manner of Life and that which most conveniently beseemeth man The other is more brutish than humane the sence and description whereof taketh it self thus First for the large and common beaten way whereby men entred into the Garden and concerning the unbridled multitude that made use thereof I must understand his Meaning thus that every Man affecteth ease idleness and voluptuous Pleasures Some knew how to give a Mean to their desires and took not so much Meat and Wine as should trouble their understandings but could well return to their ordinary businesses and use Reason in all things Now there were others that knew not any Mean or Measure neither had regard to Time or Place but would needs venture further and fell into such extremity of folly as they lost their senses understanding and memory So that thereby they became brute beasts and could no way retire from this disorderly battel till diseases poverty and necessity admonished them of their duty For they are the last Companions of Drunkenness and Wayes of all Carowsers that do her the greatest Honour By Handmaids or Waiting-Women to Drunkenness I understand those several vices as their apt Names do signify and they are the meetest for her Company And by the Drinks which she gave to her Quaffers he meaneth the venom and poyson of voluptuous excess which maketh such a Transport of mens Understandings that they grow like unto brute beast according as they take less or more and according to the complections they are of representing even those very beasts whose Nature and Manners they cone nearest unto and refusing all friendly counsell and advice do delight more in such barbarous and uncivil courses than any other manners that should shew them to be Men. The CONCLUSION An Admonition concerning the Shortness of Life MAny men complain that Nature is very unkind to them in allotting them so little time to live and often cry out that no sooner are they born but they must die before they can take their full Draught of the Pleasures of this Life Neither is this the complaint of the Illiterate and Vulgar sort of People only but even of the most Valiant and Learned Men. We not often meet with any that are desirous to relinquish the enjoyments of this Life and to enter upon another state But too many that cry out with Aristotele Life is short but Art is long We find many bemoaning their condition with sighs and tears and such dismal expressions as these Nature is more bountiful to the very beasts and savages then to Man They can live for five or ten Ages but as for Man who is born to greater and nobler ends is not allowed half their time though he entreats and strives never so vehemently But to these Persons we may find Seneca does give a severe Reprimand How comes it to pass that we loose and squander away so much of our time if we complain we have not Enough When we can spend whole Days and Months and Years in doing Evil or else in doing nothing or in doing things besides our real business Infinite are the hours which we bestow upon Ceremony and servile Attendances in Hopes and Fears Love and Revenge Balls and Entertainment Ambition Coust flatteries Rambling voyages Impertinent Studies and Unaccountable Amours Life is long enough and the time allotted us if it were well employ'd were abundantly enough to answer all the Ends and Purposes of Mankind But we never remember our End nor seek the means and so it comes to pass that when Death makes a visit to us we are damped and dejected in our Spirits and are extremly loth to depart In a word we live as if we were never to die without any Reflection upon our Lives which may be taken from us in a Moments time For would we live as if we were always in expectation of Death and set our Accompts right every day that passes over our Heads Would we I say seriously consider and put in practice Pythagoras his excellent Advice to his Disciples Namely daily to call our selves to a strict Account what we have omitted or what we have committed we should never set our Affections upon this Life nor be the least a fraid of Death which would free us from this troublesom habitation and invert us with a Blessed Eternity The CONTEMPT OF DEATH THat all Men must die is most certain and that Death which we so much dread and decline is not a Determination but the Intermission of a Life which will return again is as certain What is it then I wonder that makes men afraid Oh! 't is an hard thing to die will some say Who can without very great reluctancy enter into an ruknewn state and quit the gaudy pleasures of this varnish'd Earth Thus do they fear and tremble and can't endure to think of an after separation For they represent Death to their thoughts as a strange and hideous Monster and with Aristotle are willing to conclude it the most Terrible of all Terribles But alas would they consider that to die 't is but a moments work and that no sooner is the pure Soul stript of its gross Body but our Pain and all the Miseries of this wicked life are at an end Again let them remember that the World it self stands condemn'd to a Dissolution that every man must submit to the Prince of Death He that will not voluntarily follow in the great and beaten Road must be drawn by force for our fate is fix'd and the Decree is immutable And besides what Reason have men to murmur or be afraid of Death when that which we call Death is the Gate and Door of Eternal Life and who is not willing to exchange a Life of Mourning and Sorrow for an Eternity of Happiness Death in a word is a Debt to Providence and Nature and this Life was never design'd but for a Journey to another Place O! therefore let us comply with that cheerfully which Providence hath made necessary The END
Strang. Surely so it seems Expos How then can Riches be good when they have no Power to better those that enjoy them Strang. They cannot be indeed Expos Well then it is highly expedient that some should not be rich at all because they know not how to make a good use of Riches Strang. In that we agree Expos How then can that be any way conducive to goodness which oftentimes must be kept from the use of divers Persons So that he that can use wealth as wealth should be us'd may live well and he that cannot very ill Strang. All you say is exceeding true Sir Expos In fine it is the esteem for those as goods or the contempt of them as evils that molest and disturb the thoughts of Man when they that are vile Earth and MORTALITY prize them as things of such excellent worth and think that their whole happiness merely depends on them This maketh them to undergo all actions even of how black a dy soever And these things happen unto all such as admire outward appearances and can in no wise attain to the true knowledge of good they are so blinded and overwhelm'd with IGNORANCE neither have they learnt that it is impossible for good to be brought out of evil and you may see very many who have heap'd up Riches by evil means and filthy deeds such as Treachery Spoils Manslaughters Calumnies Rapines and other sad and outragious Vices Strang. There is nothing to be objected against what you say Worthy Sir Exp. Well observe but this and I shall dismiss you presently If so be no good can proceed from that which is evil as not unlikely and Riches may be gotten by vicious courses it follows consequently that Riches cannot be accounted good Strang. It is evidently manifest from what you say Expos Again Wisdom and Piety can never have their rise from evil actions neither on the contrary can Vice or Folly proceed from good actions for these are in their very nature contraries and so can never be consistent one with the other But now Riches and Honour and Victory and such like may possibly be gotten by evil means and nothing hinder Wherefore let us determine them neither good nor bad of themselves for of a certain Wisdom is the only good and Folly the only evil Strang. Now Sir we return you our hearty thanks for all your favours and we will trouble you no longer for what you have already acquainted us with gives us great satisfaction The End of CEBES his TABLET An Excellent TREATISE Concerning PEACE OF CONSCIENCE Written by HIPPARCHUS A Pythagorean Philosopher And Translated into English By ROBERT WARREN Student of CHRIST'S College in CAMBRIDGE Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro Facto spemque metumque suo Ovid. Lib. Fastorum 111. A TREATISE OF Peace of Conscience WHereas the Life of Man is very short if compar'd with Eternity Men would do very wisely to pass it as if in a pleasant Journey or Pilgrimage remembring that by doing so they would make their lives both easy and happy and the best and only means to attain to this Perfection would be truly to know themselves and to consider that they are but vile dust and ashes that they are created with a Body obnoxious both to sorrow danger and at last to death and are exposed to the worst of calamities even to their last gasp of Breath Now let us make a few Remarks of those Evils which are the general attendants of this Body As first the Pleurisy Consumption the Phrenzy the Gout the Stone the Bloody Flux the Lethargy the Falling-Sickness Putrifying Ulcers and an infinite number of other Diseases These are all contingent to the Body But the Mind is infested with much worse Maladies than any of these For whatsoever Folly Vice Sin or Impurity Men are actually guilty of takes its Rise from some Indisposition of the Mind many thro' immoderate and unnatural Lusts have broken out into notorious actions and have even satisfy'd their brutish Appetites upon their Mothers or Daughters How many Parents are there that have cut their Childrens throats Not to omit some Evils of a strange and different sort as Deluges Extremity of Drought Heat and Cold so that sometimes from the unseasonableness of the Air the Plague Famine and many dangerous Evils happen and whole Cities are lay'd Desolate Since then we are in continual dangers and such a many Evils hang over our heads let us not trust to the goods of the Body which are presently destroy'd by one fit of sickness neither let us be pufft up with outward Prosperity since that it sooner goes away than comes for we are made sensible from the infinite variety of strange changes and alterations which are daily wrought in the World that there is no sure constant certain or permanent Possession in this transitory Life Wherefore let us alwaies revolve in our thoughts that those things which we now are possess'd of will endure but for a moment and remember that if we bear all things patiently and couragiously we shall most assuredly acquire that Rich and Noble Blessing Serenity and PEACE of CONSCIENCE But now very many who enjoy both the Gifts of Nature and Fortune when they have suppos'd them very good and have esteem'd them better than indeed they are however they seem to be being quickly depriv'd of them are extreamly cast down at their dismal and almost insupportable losses And by this means it comes to pass that their whole Life is perfect Labour and Sorrow to them Now the general cause and occasion of this dejection is either loss of Riches or death of Children and Relations or parting with our dearest Possessions then they fall a howling and crying and curse the day of their Birth and foolishly declare that they only are the most unfortunate Wretches in the whole World When alas poor hearts they do not consider what storms of affliction Men in former times have waded through neither have they the patience to make a few serious Reflections upon other Mens Lives and to recollect what an infinite of losses others have had and which is much worse may now live in sorrow and torment Now would we but consider and believe what History gives us an exact Account of how many have sav'd their Carcasses for the bare loss of their fading Riches when it might have been their Fortune to have light upon Tyrants or Highway-men and how many again who were formerly ador'd and sought after by many fawning Courtiers when once their Riches were gone all the pretended Friendship dropt off and prov'd downright hatred and contempt at the bottom And how many have been murder'd by their Children and Relations and all these Evils and a great deal more purely occasion'd by flitting and frothy Treasures Now would we I say but compare our Lives with other Men's who have far'd much worse than our selves and be willing to hold all