would have been little or no use of Revelation I have what I contend for if it was so legible that by diligence and advertency they might reade their duty That this is possible is evident beyond all contradiction because many of them did doe it And that many of them did so appears from their Writings in which is contain'd the whole Moral Law and that not only in its integral parts but in its utmost intention There is not one precept of Christianity so exalted and Heroical but may be parallel'd in a Heathen No man can deny this who has ever read the Morals of Plutarch Seneca Epictetus Cicero and the rest They teach not only outward Conformity but also inward Purity Scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum Facti crimen habet says Iuvenal Compositum jus fasque animi Sanctosquerecessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Haec cedo ut admoveam templis farre litabo says Persius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hierocles And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They recommend and enjoyn the love of Enemies which of all Doctrines is thought the most peculiarly Christian and conclude that a wise and good man ought to have no Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Father of the Church could have spoken more Divinely It is exactly parallel to that of our Blessed Saviour Love your enemies c. that ye may be the Children of your Father which is in heaven c. Much of this kind is to be seen in Plutarch What high-raised notions of Vertue what Angelical Precepts what abstractions from Sense what immaterial transportations are to be found in Heathen Writers One would think that with St. Paul they had been wrapt up into the third Heaven and learnt their Divinity from the immediate intuition of God They discourse so much like Seraphims and the most ecstasied Order of Intelligences What can be more divine than that Character which Seneca gives of a good man in his Book de Vitâ Beatâ He that can look upon death and see his face with the same countenance with which he hears its story that can endure all the labours of his life with his soul supporting his body that can equally despise riches when he has them and when he has them not that is not sadder if they lie in his Neighbour's trunks nor more haughty if they shine round about his own walls he that is neither moved with good fortune coming to him nor going from him that can look upon another man's Lands evenly and pleasingly as if they were his own and yet look upon his own and use them too just as if they were another man's that neither spends his Goods prodigally and like a fool nor yet keeps them avariciously and like a wretch that weighs not benefits by weight and number but by the mind and circumstances of him who gives them that never thinks his Charity expensive if a worthy person be the receiver he that does nothing for Opinion's sake but every thing for Conscience being as curious of his thoughts as of his actings in Markets and Threatres and is as much in awe of himself as of a whole Assembly he that knows God looks on and contrives his secret affairs as in his presence that eats and drinks because he needs it not to serve a lust or load his belly he that is bountifull and chearfull to his Friends and charitable and apt to forgive his Enemies that loves his Country and obeys his Prince and desires and endeavours nothing more than that he may doe honour to God What exalted thoughts of Vertue had Aristotle when he made the very formality of Happiness consist in the exercise of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I take this to be the most noble and sublime conception of Vertue that ever was or can be framed by the mind of man 'T is true the Wise man tells us Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace that is they are attended with pleasure and peace And the Psalmist says Keep innocency and take heed to the thing that is right for that will bring a man peace at the last But that the exercise of Vertue should not only be attended with but be all one with Happiness it self is such a superlative Encomium of it that neither the love nor the contemplation of a Seraphim can suggest a greater Hierocles also soars mighty high when he says that the pleasure of a vertuous man resembles the complacency which God takes in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And when he says that Vertue is the Image of God in the rational Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this reason he calls our deviation from Vertue an Apostasie from God and the moulting of the plumes of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These few Instances which I have given not to mention any more may suffice to shew what excellent Idea's of Vertue the Heathen had and how far 't is possible for a man to arrive in the knowledge of what is good by the due improvement of this least talent the light of Nature That wherein they were generally most defective was the notion of God And yet even here the wiser Pagans were accurate enough in their conceptions and except only the inconceivable Mystery of the Trinity thought as well of God as any Christian whatsoever nay and better than a great many of them doe They acknowledg'd God in all his glorious attributes that of his unity or oneliness not excepted Neither does the Pagan Polytheism at all contradict this assertion if rightly understood For they did not as some take for granted universally assert Many Vnmade Self-existent independent Deities as so many partial Causes of the World But only a plurality of Inferiour Deities subordinate to one Supreme who was call'd the King and Father of All. This is clear from Aristotle's Exposition and Confutation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Hesiod's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Pagan's Creed in Maximus Tyrius and many other Instances of Antiquity which might be produced The Egyptians themselves who were the most Polytheistical of all Nations did not suppose a multitude of unmade self-existent Deities but acknowledg'd one Supreme universal and All-comprehending Numen as is Evident from that Memorable Inscription upon the Temple at Sais which Plutarch records 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am all that hath been is and shall be and my Veil no mortal hath ever yet uncover'd That also of Sophocles is very express to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to go no further than my own Authour he acknowledges but one supreme God whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like But I insist no longer on this I proceed to my last Proposition that the actions of the Heathen which were conformable to the light of Nature were not Splendida peccata but truly and
what that is which exercises Vertue and is advantaged by it For 't is the distinguishing of these things which alone prompts us to the exercise of Vertue and excites us to the pursuit of these excellent things To which these two Precepts are a most divine motive KNOW THY SELF AND REVERENCE THY SELF For the dignity of our nature makes it our duty to consider and ponder the offices of others both IN DEED AND WORD Now Justice is the way to secure the observation of offices and therefore is set before the other vertues that it may be the measure of them For he says EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD you will never then blaspheme upon the loss of riches or in the pains of a disease lest you should violate Justice in your words Neither will you invade the goods of your neighbour or contrive mischief against his person lest you commit Injustice in deed For if Justice has once the guard of our Souls we shall discharge our offices to God to our Neighbour and to our selves Now the best measure of Justice is Prudence for which reason he join'd these two Precepts together EXERCISE JUSTICE AND USE NOT YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON as if Justice could not subsist without Prudence For that is truly just which perfect Prudence defines And that is TO DOE NOTHING WITHOUT REASON but diligently to consider the mortal body and whatsoever conduces to its use and accommodation and taking all things to be inferior to Vertue to think that the greatest profit consists in the best disposition of the rational soul which gives ornament to all other things according to their Capacity And this is the Scope of the verses before us to set forth and deliver to the Auditors the four Cardinal vertues with the watchfull observation and care wherewith they are to be exercised both in deed and word For he exhorts to Prudence Fortitude and Temperance but above all he recommends Justice to our practice as a transcendent vertue which runs throughout all the rest And whereas he adds that RICHES SOMETIMES ARE POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST he signifies that after the disposition of Temperance comes that of Liberality which is a vertue conversant about giving and receiving money For then only to possess or quit possession when reason requires takes away all occasion of sordidness and prodigality But all this flows as from a fountain or principle from that one precept of reverencing ones self Nay and this very precept was anticipated too in that other know your self which must be the ground-work of all gallant actions and speculative notices of things For how do we come to know that 't is our duty to moderate our passions and to know the things that are For there is much doubt concerning these things First whether they be within the verge of humane attaintment and secondly whether they will profit those who have them Again a good man may be so low in the World that he cannot receive unjustly when he ought not or spend justly when he ought And as to his body he lies most open to all assaults since he neither affects Empire himself nor knows how servilely to flatter those who have it So that unless there were some other nature in us advantaged by Vertue we should scarce ever refuse riches or power Wherefore those who think the Soul mortal and yet dispute about the love of vertues cavil rather than offer any thing of truth For if something of us did not subsist after death whose nature is capable to be adorn'd with truth and vertue such as we affirm the rational soul to be we should never have a pure desire of excellent things For the very suspicion of the Souls mortality extinguishes all desires of vertue and turns them all to bodily enjoyments whatever they are or however obtain'd For how upon their principles can it seem the part of a prudent or moderate man not to indulge and gratifie the Body altogether for whose sake the Soul is preserv'd in its subsistence since according to them it has no self-existence but is the result of a certain conformation of the body How again shall he be content to put off the body for the sake of Vertue if at the same time he shall destroy his soul too so that Vertue it self will have no where to exist for whose sake he underwent death But as to this divine Men have abundantly demonstrated that the Soul is immortal and naturally apt to be adorn'd with Vertue But now putting an end to the present disputation we will proceed to what follows adding this only to what has been said That as from the ignorance of our nature all manner of wickedness flows in upon us so if we know our selves and disdain whatever does not become our rational nature we shall truly and constantly perform all our offices And this is the measure of every particular vertue For if we attend to our nature as to a rule we shall find that which is decent in all things living according to right reason and agreeably to nature For whatsoever makes the soul better that is truely Vertue and the law of Philosophy But those things which tend only to humane decency and shew are servile fallacies and mere umbrages of vertue which hunt after popular applause and whose utmost care is to appear vertuous to the World And so much of this Moreover from this right consideration of things it follows necessarily that we DEMEAN OUR SELVES NOT WITHOUT REASON in those concerns of life which seem to come to pass without order but that upon examination of their causes we bear them generously never finding fault with those who have the charge of us who distributing to every one according to merit did not reward all alike whose proficiency was unequal For how since the World is ruled by Providence and the Soul is by nature incorruptible but by the will is carried forth to vertue and vice can those whose office is to defend the Law and consider Merit distribute equally to those who are unequal and not rather distribute to every one his convenient lot which a man is said to draw when he comes into the World If therefore the being of Providence distributing to every one what is fit and the immortality of the Soul be no Fable 't is plain that the cause of our grievances ought to be transfer'd from our Governour upon our selves from which consideration the Verse will shew us a way to remedy our disasters For when we find that the cause of all this inequality is in our selves we first alleviate the grievousness of Events by right reasoning and then exciting our Souls by holy methods and right perswasions to what is more excellent we shall wholly free our selves from trouble But when the afflicted man neither perceives the cause nor conjectures at a like event he will ACCUSTOM HIMSELF TO ACT WITHOUT REASON which is the thing here forbidden For 't is necessary that
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
against vice when he says REVERENCE YOUR SELF ABOVE ALL THINGS For if you have once an habitual reverence of your self you will have every where a most intimate Guardian whom you will stand in awe of and from whom you can never withdraw your self For many when retired from their friends and domesticks have taken liberty to act such things which in their presence they would have blush'd to commit But had they no witness I omit God for he is thought to be far off but had they not themselves and the testimony of Conscience They had truly but they did not consider it being immers'd wholly in their passions But such men as these dishonour their reason and degrade it below a Slave Be then an intimate Guardian to your self and from the consideration of your own privity begin your abhorrence of evil For self-reverence does necessarily beget an avoidance of filthy things and whatsoever is unworthy of an Intelligent nature But now how he that thus abhors Evil should familiarize himself to Vertue he proceeds to shew THEN EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD NEITHER USE YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON BUT KNOW THAT 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE AND THAT RICHES ARE SOMETIMES POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST In deed and word to Iustice have an eye Doe not the least thing unadvisedly But know that all must to the Shades below That Riches sometimes ebb and sometimes flow He that truly reveres himself will guard himself from falling into any Vice But of Vices there are several kinds In the rational part Imprudence in the irascible Timorousness in the concupiscible Luxury and Covetousness and throughout all the faculties Injustice To the avoidance therefore of these evils four sorts of Vertues are necessary Prudence in the rational part Courage in the irascible Temperance in the concupiscible and lastly Justice which is conversant about all the faculties as being the most perfect and comprising all the other vertues in it self as parts For which reason it is first of all mention'd in the Verses And next Prudence together with the best designs and undertakings which take their Rise from it and end in compleat and perfect Justice For he that uses right reason has Courage for his fellow-souldier in hardships Temperance in things pleasant and in all things Justice So that in the sum Prudence will be found to be the beginning of all vertues Justice the end and Courage and Temperance the middle For that faculty which weighs and considers all things and seeks out that which is right in every action that all may be rationally disposed is the habit of Prudence which is the best disposition of our rational nature and derives ornament upon the other faculties So that anger commences Courage lust Temperance and Justice swerves nothing from Reason and with this our mortal Man is adorn'd but 't is through the surplusage of Vertue which is in the immortal Man For the vertues first shine out from the mind upon the rational Soul of which they are the proper form perfection and happiness But upon the brute part and mortal body there shines a reflected ray of Vertue that what is united to the rational nature may be replenish'd with beauty and measure But the chief of all divine good is Prudence which when well radicated in the Soul helps us to advise well in all matters to bear Death with courage and the loss of our Goods with mildness and decency For Prudence is able to bear all the changes of this mortal life and of fortune which is appendent to it soberly and undauntedly For she considers the nature of things and knows that what is compounded of Water and Earth must of necessity be resolv'd into them again Neither is she exasperated against necessity or surprised at what befalls us as if 't were strange and unexpected or wonders if what is mortal dye She knows 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE and that there is a certain definite time for the duration of these mortal bodies Which when come we should not fret at it but willingly submit to it as to the law of God For the office of Prudence is to follow the best counsels not to seek to escape dying but to dye well In like manner she is not ignorant of the nature of Riches that they sometimes EBB and sometimes FLOW for certain determin'd causes which to oppose were indiscretion For we are not the arbitrary possessors of what is not in our power but neither our bodies nor our riches are in our power nor in short whatsoever is without our own rational nature Neither is it in our power to get or retain when and how long we please But to acquire and part with them vertuously this is in our power and the proper work of the rational nature if we ACCUSTOM IT TO ACT ACCORDING TO REASON in all contingencies and to follow the divine limits which determine all our concerns And here lies the greatest commendation of our power that we can use well what is not in our power and not suffer the vehemency of desire to impeach the freedom of our will What then is the dictate of a prudent judgment To make good use of our bodies and estates when we have them as the instruments of vertue and when they are taken from us to know what becomes us and add patience to our other vertues So will our piety towards God and the measures of Justice be kept inviolable if the rational faculty learn to use things necessary well and to oppose the bounds of Prudence to events seemingly fortuitous and without order Otherwise there can be no observation of Vertue if there be not a right judging faculty in the rational nature For neither will it follow after better things as such but will act as under compulsion Neither will it treat the body honourably or manage the estate rightly Those who are over-carefull to avoid death and desirous to keep their riches doe necessarily much injustice and often blaspheme by wicked execrations against God and denying his providence as often as they fall into that which they imprudently declined By sticking to doe no injury to others and by endeavouring to scrape together all they can to their own profit And so the damage of a wrong perswasion is evident in them whence spring the greatest evils Injustice against equalls and Impiety against superiors from which he will be altogether free who being perswaded by the foregoing Verses bears death generously and with a good judgment and thinks the loss of riches not intolerable From this he draws an argument of embracing Justice when he considers how becoming 't is to abstain from what is another's to hurt no body nor to raise his fortunes upon another's losses None of all these can he observe who thinks his Soul is mortal and who never considers what part that is of us which dies what that is which stands in need of riches and
cannot be neglected whatever old marks he bears of the divine displeasure For the very acquist of vertue carries with it an abatement of affliction but by the care of Providence an utter riddance and delivery from it For 't was our own wickedness and the divine judgment consequent upon it which brought upon us our Calamities which again in like manner are remov'd by our amendment and the law of Providence which frees them from evil who give themselves up to what is good Such weighty Precepts do these Verses afford us which conduce to ground us in the first rudiments of Vertue For they seem to contain the most true measures of Providence Fate and liberty of Will whereby this discourse has rectifi'd the trouble arising from the seeming inequality of things and has demonstrated throughout that God is no way the cause of Evil. Which if you join with what went before the result of the whole discourse will be one entire confirmation of the Eternity of the Soul For his exhorting to the exercise of Justice to courage in Death and to a liberal use of Riches serves to shew that the Soul does not dye with the Body But it seems also requisite to our enduring the DIVINE FORTUNE and our being able to cure our selves that the Soul be not generated with the Body as to that 't is apparent from both that the Soul is above generation and corruption of a distinct nature from the body and in its own nature Eternal For 't is as impossible that should last for ever whose production was dated from some time as that that should be capable of Corruption which subsisted from Eternity If therefore after the dissolution of the body the surviving Soul of man is obnoxious to punishment and judgment and receives just retributions according to the things done in the body and if lastly that cannot always remain which began in some time it is evident that the Soul did exist before all time And thus the Soul of man is found among the eternal Works of God and in this respect also partakes of the divine likeness But because we have insisted sufficiently on this 't is high time to consider what follows MANY GOOD AND BAD DISCOURSES PROCEED FROM MEN WHICH NEITHER ADMIRE OVERMUCH NOR YET UTTERLY DISDAIN BUT IF ANY SPEAK UNTRUTH GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS Oft good and ill do in discourse unite Be not too apt t' admire nor yet to slight But if through error any speak amiss Endure 't with mildness The will of man not being always set either upon good or evil begets discourse savouring of both in conformity to its contrary affections whence it comes to pass that some discourses are true some good some bad and some false Which variety requires descretion of judgment that we may chuse the good and refuse the bad so that we be neither prejudic'd against all discourse by condemning the bad nor swallow down any thing without distinction out of greediness after what is good For by prejudice we often deprive our selves of the benefit of good and by too great eagerness of hearing we suck in the hidden poyson of evil discourses We must therefore use our appetite of hearing with the best discretion that so our desire may bring us to hear all but our discretion may refuse what is not good So shall we keep the Pythagorick Precept neither too vehemently moved at bad discourses nor taking in all without distinction because discourses Nor on the same account abstaining from good ones For we do not embrace the good because discourses but because true nor condemn the bad for any other reason than because false Nay I may confidently affirm that none are to be reckon'd among discourses but what are true For they only retain the dignity of the rational nature being the off-spring of a mind disposed to what is best and in possession of its proper ornament But false discourses are indeed no discourses at all For since they lead into Vice and Error they not only degenerate from the ingenuousness of discourse but are the voice of a Soul divested of Reason and immerc'd in Passion You 're advised therefore not to take in all lest you swallow that which is false nor to reject all lest you reject the good too For 't is absurd both ways to hate the good with the evil and to embrace falshood for the sake of truth But we ought to commend the good and upon admission to reduce it into practice and to examin where and how far it is consonant to truth But against the false to contend with force of argument which is supplied from the rules deliver'd in Logick for the discerning of truth and when we can overthrow what is false not to doe it with violence and rudeness but to follow the truth with mildness with decent reprehensions to confute falshood and in the words of the Verse to GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS by which we are not commanded to yield the Cause as they say but to hear without Passion For when he bids us GIVE WAY TO FALSHOOD WITH MILDNESS he does not mean that we should embrace it but only give it a patient hearing and not to count it such a strange thing if men fall off sometimes from truth For humane nature lies open to a multitude of erroneous opinions when it does not closely adhere to its common Notices 'T is no wonder therefore says the Verse if a man never imbued with the principles of truth nor of any experience assert opinions contrary to truth Nay on the contrary 't wou'd be a wonder if a man who is both untaught and unpractis'd in dispute should stumble on truth by chance we should therefore hear those that err with allowance and learn by their defects what evils we our selves are free from who being by the community of nature subject to the same passions are yet privileg'd from them by the Preservative of knowledge Besides the very courage and confidingness of knowledge conduces much to mildness For the mind which comes sufficiently provided to engage in the defence of truth can calmly stand the shock of false opinions having preconceiv'd in the consideration of truth whatever might be alledg'd against it What can disturb such a man as unanswerable His very confidence will suggest thoughts to him for the confutation of error The knowing man therefore will learn quietness and sedateness not only from his morality but from his very confidence And so much for that Prudence which is to be used in distinguishing Discourses Next comes the habit of declining Deceit necessary to a wise man to be treated of BUT OBSERVE WHAT I TELL YOU IN EVERY THING LET NO MAN INTICE YOU EITHER BY WORDS OR DEEDS TO DOE OR SAY ANY THING WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU But be sure of this That none by word or action you intice To doe or speak to your own prejudice This Precept is of general extent and is equivalent with another
we our selves will if we do not out of an inordinate passion for the body and things without enslave our liberty selling the good of our souls for a Momentary life and riches These are the things which the Precept under consideration commands us always to observe by which the stability and constancy of Vertue is seal'd up and confirm'd Let us now proceed to other Precepts of the same import ADVISE BEFORE ACTION THAT NO FOLLY INSUE HE IS A MISERABLE MAN THAT DOES OR SPEAKS WHAT IS INCONSIDERATE THAT DOE WHICH WILL NOT TROUBLE YOU AFTERWARDS Think before action Folly to prevent Rash words and acts are their own punishment That doe which done after you 'll repent Prudence of Counsel brings forth Vertues perfects them and preserves them being at once their Parent Nurse and Guardian For when we calmly deliberate after what manner we should live then we chuse the beauty of Vertue And when upon deliberation we resolve generously to encounter all Agonies on the account of Vertue and accustom our selves to the possession of it wee keep our minds uncorrupt in all the storms of Calamity not at all startled or dismay'd by tumults from without so as to change our purpose or think any course of life happy besides that which we once concluded best for its self So that there are three offices of good counsel 1. The election of the best life 2. The exercise of that which we have chosen 3. A constant observation of what is once well resolv'd The first of these is that reason which goes before action and is the principle of acting The middle is the reason with the action which accommodates every thing that is done to the preceding principles The third is the reason in the action which examines all that is done and judges of its right performance But the excellency of good Counsel shines throughout partly by bringing forth vertues partly by nourishing and partly by preserving and guarding them So that in this consists the beginning middle and end of our Vertues by this alone our ills are remov'd and our vertues perfected For our nature being rational and consequently capable of deliberation when by its own will it is led either to good or bad Counsels then the life which is according to nature preserves its essence but an election of Evil corrupts it as far as 't is possible The corruption of an immortal being is Vice the Parent of which is want of Counsel which the Verse exhorts you to avoid THAT so FOLLY MAY NOT INSUE Now FOLLY is all one with Misery and Vice For HE IS A MISERABLE MAN THAT SPEAKS OR DOES INCONSIDERATELY But if you deliberate before you act you will never be guilty of any foolish word or action which they must needs be involv'd in who are guilty of unadvisedness For Repentance argues the weakness of Election when Experience only convinces of the damage as good Counsel produces a firm election shewing the profitableness of the action The profitableness I say not in relation to the Body or any thing without but to our selves to whom it is commanded to ADVISE BEFORE ACTION and to doe such things as will occasion us that is our Souls no after trouble For what advantage will it be by Perjuries Murthers or any other evil actions to encrease our store of outward things and in the mean time to be poor within to want the good of the Soul and then either to be insensible of this and so to aggravate the evil or if our Conscience be awaken'd to a sense of what we have done to be tortur'd in our spirit to dread the punishment of Hell and to find no other remedy to cure our misery but by taking Sanctuary at Annihilation So apt is he to cure one Evil by another who solaces himself in his wickedness with the utter destruction of his Soul and thinks himself worthy that nothing of him should remain after death that he may escape Judgment For if a wicked man might have his will his Soul would not be immortal to avoid punishment He therefore endeavours to prevent the Judge of Hell by adjudging himself to death as if a wicked Soul were not fit so much as to be And this sentence which he gives on himself becomes his inconsiderateness well enough whereby he was at first betray'd into sin But the Judge of Hell who does Justice according to the rule of Truth will not sentence his Soul not to be but not to be wicked and will endeavour to abate his wickedness by applying Castigations for the cure of Nature as Physicians heal Malign Ulcers by Scarifyings and Searings Then he will take vengeance of the faults endeavouring to blot out the wickedness of the Soul by Repentance Not annihilating its substance but rather by purging away the passions whereby it was corrupted reducing it to its primitive state For the Soul of Man is in danger of losing its being when diverted to that which is contrary to its nature But when recall'd to that which is according to its nature it renews as it were the lease of its very nature and re-assumes that purity of being which was corrupted by the mixture and dross of the Passions It should therefore be our greatest endeavour not to sin at all but if we fall into sin suddenly to betake our selves to Justice as to a soveraign Medicine rectifying our ill Counsel by the help of better For when we fall from our integrity we are re-instated into it by a just Repentance when we admit the divine Correction Now Repentance is the very beginning of Philosophy the avoidance of all FOOLISH WORDS AND ACTIONS and the first preparation to a life not to be repented of For he that advises well before he enters upon action does not fall into surprising troubles neither is he ignorant that many of his enterprises may have an unwelcom issue but yet he still consents to his present lot and examines fortuitous events So that he does not overlook real good out of a greedy expectation of that which is so call'd or commit any evil through fear of the contrary but having his mind always intent upon the Law of God squares his life accordingly But that you may know he is a miserable man that speaks and acts inconsiderately see how Medea in the Tragedy laments her self who when through excess of love she had unadvisedly betray'd her Country surrender'd up her self to a Stranger but afterwards slighted by him she thought her burthen insupportable and breaks out into this Imprecation Thunder and Lightning on this head descend Then she unravels all the wicked actions of her life then she INCONSIDERATELY wishes what is done were undone and at last madly endeavours to cure one evil with another And if you have a mind to see Homer's Agamemnon you have him crying out under the penance of his inordinate anger I am disturb'd my Heart is from me torn And then he quench'd the fire of his eyes which was
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
Lucid body should be refined and spiritualized that it may endure the society of the Aethereal ones For likeness reconciles all things whereas by unlikeness things that are never so near in respect of place are yet separate from one another This is the measure of the most perfect Philosophy deliver'd by the Pythagoreans which is peculiarly adapted to the perfection of the whole man For he that takes care only for his Soul and neglects his body does not purge the whole Man Again he that thinks it his duty to care for the body without the Soul and that the care of the body will any thing advantage the Soul though it be not purged in particular does ill in that But he that follows both these courses does excellently well and so joyns Philosophy with the Sacred art whose business is to purge the Lucid body which if you separate from the Philosophical mind you will find it has no longer the same vertue For of those things which consummate our perfection some are first invented by the Philosophical mind some are added by the mystical operation which follows the Philosophical mind Now by the Mystical Operation I understand the faculty of purging the Lucid body So that the Contemplative part presides over all Philosophy as a mind and the Practick follows as a faculty Now of the Practick we lay down two kinds Civil and Mystical The former purges us from the brute Nature by the help of Vertue the latter by holy Methods cuts off material Imaginations Moreover the publick Laws are a sufficient manifestation of Civil Philosophy but of the Mystical the sacred Rites of Cities Besides the top of all Philosophy is the Contemplative mind in the middle place is the Civil in the last is the Mystical The first if compared with the other two holds the proportion of an Eye the other two compared with the first of an Hand and a Foot All which have such connexion with and dependence on one another that any one of them would be defective yea almost useless if destitute of the others concurrence Wherefore these must unite together in one constellation that knowledge which finds out Truth that faculty which brings forth Vertue and that which works Purity that civil action may be made perfectly conformable to the presiding mind and that good may shine forth answerable to both And this is the end of the Pythagorick discipline that we may be all over Wing for the perception of divine good that so when the time of death is at hand leaving our mortal body behind us on the earth and putting off its very Nature we who were stout Champions in the warfare of Philosophy may be ready and expedite for our flight towards heaven For then we shall be restored to our primitive station and become Gods as far as humane nature is capable as 't is assured us in the next Verses BUT IF HAVING LEFT YOUR BODY YOU COME INTO THE FREE AETHER YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD INCORRUPTIBLE NEVER MORE LYABLE TO DEATH 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 This is the most excellent end of all our labours This says Plato is the great Prize the great Hope This is the most perfect fruit and reward of Philosophy This is the greatest work of the Amorous and Mystical art viz. to familiarize us and lead us up to the things that are truly excellent to rescue us from the labours we drudge under here below as from the deep dungeon of this gross material life to mount us up to the AETHEREAL Splendors and to place us in the Mansions of the blessed if we have walk'd according to the foregoing rules For such only have a title to the Crown of divine Immortality Since no man is capable of being adopted into the number of the Gods but he that has possess'd his Soul of Truth and Vertue and its spiritual Vehicle of Purity For so being sound and intire he is restored to the form of the primitive habit having return'd home to himself by the collection of right reasonings having consider'd the frame of the divine Ornament and so found out the Maker of the Universe And when he is become that as far as 't is possible after Purgation which those beings are always who are not in a capacity to be born he is carry'd up to a God by his knowledge but withall having a body Congenial to him he wants place wherein he may seat himself as a Star Now for such a body that place is most proper which is immediately under the Moon as being above the Corruptible and yet inferior to the Celestial bodies which the Pythagoreans call the FREE AETHER Aether because immaterial and Eternal Free because void of all material passions and terrestrial hurries What therefore shall he be when he arrives thither but that which he says YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD that is like the Immortal Gods spoken of in the beginning of the Verses not really so For how is it possible that he who is Deifi'd for a gradual proficiency in Vertue begun at some certain time should ever be really the same with them who were so from Eternity And this appears from the sequel For to these words YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD he adds INCORRUPTIBLE AND NEVER MORE LIABLE TO DEATH Intimating that our Deifying consists in the removal of what is Mortal and that we are not Gods by nature or essence but by proficiency and improvement So that this makes another sort of Gods Immortal by ascent but by descent Mortal and such as are necessarily subordinate to the Illustrious Heroes since these always behold the face of God whereas the other sometimes do not attend to his perfections For it will not be properly a third kind when perfected nor will it be third in respect of the middle but it will be made like to the first kind yet subordinate to the middle For that habitual resemblance of the Celestial which is seen in men does preexist in the Heroical kind after a more perfect and native manner And thus the common and only perfection of all rational beings consists in their resemblance of God that made them Now this resemblance is constant and uniform in the Celestial beings constant only and not uniform in those Aethereal ones which persevere but neither constant nor uniform in those Aethereal beings which fall down and are apt to converse here upon earth This first and best resemblance of God may be well enough call'd the Pattern of the second and third or else the second of the third For 't is not intended only that we should propose God immediately to our imitation but resemble him also by the best rule or middle likeness But if we cannot attain so far yet at least we reap this most excellent fruit of Vertue that we know the measure of our own nature and that we are not dissatisfi'd at it And this is the highest Vertue to contain ones self within the limits of the Creation whereby all things are specifically distinguish'd and to comply with the laws of Providence whereby all things according to their several capacities are directed to that good which is agreeable and convenient for them And thus have we finish'd our Exposition of the GOLDEN Verses wherein we have given you an indifferent Summary of the Pythagorick Institutions For 't was fit that we should neither confine our Paraphrase to the shortness of the Verses For so the reason of many excellent Precepts would have lain hid nor yet launch out into the Ocean of his whole Philosophy for that were to exceed the limits of our present undertaking but proportion our Comment to the sense of the Text and deliver only those things which serve to a general Explication of the doctrines contain'd in the Verses Which are nothing else but the most perfect transcript of Philosophy a Compendium of its most principal doctrines and an Elementary Institution left to Posterity by those who following the law of God were receiv'd up into Heaven You may truly call these Verses the best discovery of humane generosity and with reason suppose that they were not the memorable Sayings of any one Pythagorean but the common Resolve of the whole Sacred Assembly Whence 't was a law among them that these Verses like so many Pythagorick Oracles should be repeated in the hearing of all every Morning and also at Evening just before Bed-time that so by a continual Meditation of these sentences their Doctrines might shine forth in their lives Which 't were well if we did doe too that we might see what profit we might at length reap from them FINIS