it fairly comes in your way Whereas if Patience do but fortifie and corroborate your Mind it will embolden you to stand in defiance against those mighty Bugbears You may in scorn of them declare that the Soul of Man is not to be scorch'd by Fire nor choak'd by Water nor can the Butchers chop it into parcels That Virtue cannot even by Violence be torn from it or God himself be separated from Virtue and the Soul XV. BESIDES this also may be reflected on that our Life is but as a Thing deposited with us by God Now if God shall call for his own Pledge How can we with Sense or Honesty refuse so just and potent a Benefactor or be unwilling to restore back what he lent But this Pledge is always called for as often as any Conditions for Life are made us which cannot consist with that Observance which we owe to God and to Virtue XVI LASTLY Let us take Comfort in this That God is not usually wanting to his Children in their Extremities that if the Mind shall retain its Integrity and persevere to the last 't is scarce in the power of Torment to interrupt our Happiness L. 2. c. 10. §. 18. L. 3. c. 10. §. 8. L. 2. c. 10 §. 19. L. 3. c. 3. §. 10. For the Soul is then as it were absorp'd with God and in full prospect of a blessed Immortality She knows the Flames and Scourges of this World cannot disfigure her For when their worst is done 't is She finally shall Conquer That she as a long Exile is now solemnly recall'd to her Native Country that She is remounting to the Region of blessed Souls and even sees them as gazing upon her with joy and as shouting with Acclamations at her approach XVII O the Joys O the Triumphs O what Embraces from that Illustrious Assembly What Words and Welcome and Elogies will they bestow for what she so direfully suffer'd and so bravely overcame in the defence of Virtue and of Truth How will the Mansions above Eccho and Rebound with Hallelujah's of that Heavenly Quire Or how rather will this victorious Soul enter with Triumph into those Mansions where Felicity is never to end 'T is in this Happy Station where Love and Friendship are always Young still Unblemish'd and evermore Sincere Here Holy Angels and all those Resplendent Beings which are above do not onely behold the Beauties of each other but Communicate and even Discourse by some unspeakable Way But this is sure that Truth shines out in its utmost Purity and Virtue is bright and manifest in all they say Besides here are no Vicissitudes all is Peace all Security and all things are Stationary and fix'd In short here is a Consummation of the Soul 's bless'd Estate And it were impossible to find it elsewhere XVIII AND how could this otherwise be since the Mind of Man is as the Image of God drawn and descending from him And being drawn from God it covets Heaven as desirous to return from whence it came All Inclinations towards the Earth savour of the Body But as to the Soul her Habitation is above and her true Country is Heaven For as Cicero Discourses wisely of this Matter There can no Origination of the Soul be found upon Earth De Consolatione XIX WHEREFORE let us admire that Quickning Life which when freed from our Earthly Tabernable will touch and penetrate our Souls with Joy O that happy State of victorious Virtue attended and surrounded with Triumphs and Content And ever Happy be that Death and Torment which shall conduct the firm and unshaken Soul to Pleasures that are Ineffable XX. HERE we confess are great things spoken and so perhaps through this whole Work Yet we suppose they are not greater than what belongs to the true and genuine Description of Moral Philosophy They are not beyond the Compass and Meaning of Right Reason nor exceed the Professions and Memorials of the most Excellent of the Heathens XXI HOWEVER That Religion may not be defrauded of her due Honour I do here also profess testifie and declare that I think nothing is found in the Writings of the Philosophers or commemorated as the Deeds and Sayings of Renowned Heathens But all their Flights and Raptures whether about God or the Soul or Virtue are owing either to the very Doctrine or to the Ancient Cabala or Tradition of the most Primitive Church of God Or else to the Eternal Son that Logos or WORD of God Who has in all Ages past endow'd every Man with some Sense of Honesty Tho some Men have always been more Burning and more Shining Lights than the rest For this WORD is that True Light which Enlightneth all Men that come into this World even as the Scripture has it Now that Pythagoras drew his Knowledg from the Hebrew Fountains is what all Writers Sacred and Prophane do testifie and aver That Plato took from him the principal part of that Knowledg touching God the Soul's Immortality and the Conduct of Life and Good Manners has been doubted by no Man And that it went from him into the Schools of Aristotle and so deriv'd and diffus'd almost into the whole World is in like manner attested by all XXII WHEREFORE as the Virtue and Wisdom and Excellency of so many of the Old Heathens does not a little Illustrate the Power and Benignity of the Divine Providence and the extent of its Gifts So can these Men in no degree either obscure or derogate from the Glory of the Church For they as we said did but borrow their precious Things either from the Church of God or from the Divine Logos or WORD That Word which the old Church I mean that of the Jews did worship when it shined from the Tabernacle and which the New Church I mean that of the Christians still adores in the Human Nature of the Messias as in the glorious Temple of its Residence And may it be Worshipped and Adored for ever and ever Amen FINIS
thence inculcates a similitude of Man with God V. AGAIN in his second Book where he describes this natural Law Lib. 2. c. 4. § 3. he calls it Reason which resulteth from the nature of things and which did not as he says then begin to be a Law when first it was written but wheâ—… it first had being and that such Being it had from Eternity in the Divine Will So that Law which is eminent and truly such fit to command and fit to restrain is the Right Reason of Jupiter himself Cap. 3. § 3. Cap. 1. § 7 8 9. This Sentence corresponds with what was cited before from Zeno and from Antoninus VI. The truth is all Men do agree that the supreme Law is Right Reason and this Reason being also a Divine Thing is therefore immutable always constant and like unto it self But as it is placed in so mutable a Subject as is human Nature we see sometimes how this Reason is not so much altered as even destroy'd and extinguish'd But in God and among the number of Blessed Spirits which are by Antoninus called immortal Gods the same Reason flourishes everlastingly This seems also to be the very mind of Andronicus that best Interpreter of Aristotle L. 5. c. 10 For altho says he among Men all Laws were mutable yet 't is of necessity that with the Gods they should be immutable and that Right should therefore be some natural Thing Nay even among Men who are of sound mind and under any constitution there is that immutable Law which is called Natural For it does not much import that Men of depraved minds do not comprehend what is just since Honey is still sweet tho to the sick who have lost their relish it may appear otherwise There is therefore a Law which is eternal and immutable and in some sort common both to God and Men namely Right Reason which altho it enters not into the minds of Men wholly vitiated and profligate yet still is present Cap. 2. § 1 6 7. and always manifest to the sound and prudent which we have sufficiently expos'd before VII Now 't is from this immutable and supreme Law that all other Laws and Ordinances are drawn even those which are term'd mutable and which would have no validity in them unless by virtue of that high and eternal Law And of this kind the keeping of Faith in Contracts is a principal part So Virgil Virgil. Aeneid l. 8. At t is dictis Albane maneres Wherefore inasmuch as every man is bound to stand to his Promise or Compact he is tied to those Ordinances which are not such by Nature but by Law Nay Law it self is but a Compact and as such must bind where nothing is enacted by it against the supreme and immutable Law But against this there is no Compact or Authority big enough to make any thing binding For what is unjust in 〈◊〉 own Nature cannot by any external Confideration be made just On which occasion Cicarâ— says remarkably thus If Laws were only to be constituted by the Command of the People De Legibus lib. 1. by the Decrees of the Prince or by the Sentenâ—… of the Judges it might be lawful to rob to commit Adulteries and to forge Wills by procuring the Votes and Suffrage of the Multitude thereunto And if such and so great a Power could reside it the Voices of unruly Men so as to alter the very Nature of things 't is strange to me how they forbear enacting that the most pernicious things be not presently made both laudable and just This is the Raillery wherewith that great Man treated so weak and so fantastick a Paradox VIII THUS it appears That as from the Supreme Law which is termed Right Reason all perfect Knowledge of Right takes its original so from the Observation of Right proceeds all Exercise of Justice CHAP. V. Of Piety I. JUSTICE comprehends the two parts of Piety and Probity For Piety it self is a sort of Justice by which we render to God the thing which is God's that is to say the thing which of Right appertaineth to him And this Right of God's is very commonly term'd Worship Which principally consists in this that we press vehemently to know him truly as the infallible Means to love and honor him entirely For as we are sprung from him and wholly depend upon his Will so ought we to consecrate all the Faculties of Soul and Body to his good Pleasure and to have our affiance in his Providence And as to his holy Commands whether those that are writ in Books or inscribed inwardly in our Hearts we must so fervently hearken and adhere thereto as rather to bear all Infamy Poverty Oppression and even Death it self than quit our Integrity or violate a good Conscience These are God's Rights and he that dares to derogate from them or to infringe them does as much as in him lies defraud and injure God himself II. 'T IS very obvious that in these sorts of things the true Worship of God does consist seeing all Men do by Worship understand the Honor which is paid to God Now 't is plain that those of all others do pay most Honoâ— to God who knowing the excellency of the Divine Nature and also what Affinity the Mind of Man holds therewith do most ardently contend to have that part of the Soul which is so ally'd preserve its similitude to the great Original and do renounce all things even life it self rather than to damnifie that holy Resemblance III. THERE can be no proof so convincing as this of the Love Honor and Esteem we pay to God For while we reverence that poor Extract we bear of him to the degree of spurning not only the Pleasures of Life but even Life it self in comparison of those Consolations which in true Virtue and Right Reason can only be found We do therein openly avow that as God is infinitely more excellent than his poor Image so is he by infinite Degrees both honor'd and valu'd by us above our selves And to do otherwise or to be negligent and languishing in his holy Worship were either to be ignorant of a God or else not to know that Reverence which the Divine Nature both deserves and demands from us IV. NOW that Virtue is a thing Divine and God's true Image is therein manifest that 't is defin'd to be not what is most grateful to the Animal Life but that which is absolutely and simply the best It was in this high sense the ancient Philosophers understood it where Plato teaching that Miseries would then have an end when we fled from this mortal state unto the Gods he says That such Flight was our Translation into the similitude of God and that such similitude so far as it was possible did consist in our being holy just and prudent V. HE adds in another place that the Divine Nature was the Law and Boundary to all temperate Men For says he to the
BUT the Highest Gift of all Moral Philosophy must ever be allow'd to be that Prudence which has been so accurately describ'd already and which has certainly a marvellous influence as well upon all Intellectual Habits as for the acquiring of True Wisdom And her inseparable Consort is that Philosophical Temperance we have spoken of before Let no Man hope without these two Virtues ever to attain the knowledg of Things Divine which is the onely Sapience or True Wisdom For as Plato has it in his Phaedo What Pretence can the Impure Man have to the things that are Pure And whereas the Philosopher was there contending as if no Man could obtain pure and sincere Virtue that had not first laid by his Body What shall we say of those who think much to shake off but the very Filth and Vices of their Bodies Men that think a little Industry and obstinate perseverance of the Mind will find out Truth without any necessity of parting with their darling Crimes But whether this be not the voice of a Fool or of a mad Man is not hard to determine VII WHOEVER can be Faulty in this kind appears to me as a Bleer-Ey'd Man whom nothing will content but to be gazing at things distant and to see them both clearly and distinctly He refuses all Remedy for his Eyes but resolves by obstinate and peremptory staring to find out the Mark. Thus he goes on till instead of seeing better he every Day grows more blind Whereas if he consulted the Rules of Prudence and of Temperance he would know both the Necessity and the way of first curing his Sight VIII Is there any Man living has Self-sufficiency enough to Contemplate God the Soul's Immortality and Divine Providence Or to consider of these things solidly and sedately without some sort of Separation or Abstraction of the Soul from the Body That is to say in Plato's Style Without such a Meditation of Death as seems to divorce us from Corporeal Affections Or can any Man without some such Translation be as it were rapt up into that State of Divine Love which can onely fit him for Truth and expound the Oracles and Mysteries of things which are otherwise Inscrutable For by how much all Sensual and Corporeal Impressions are extinguish'd in us by the application of that Prudence and of that Philosophical Temperance we have mention'd by so much do we grow Citizens of that Intellectual World and ascend into the Regions of Heavenly Light Wherefore Sapience or the knowledg of Divine Mysteries is the true Off-spring of that Virtue which is entire absolute and consummated IX As to those Blessings which refer to the Body such as Strength Agility Health and Comliness 'T is true that Strength is not so much the Gift of Virtue as of Nature tho 't is as true that the preservation of it is owing to Virtue Nay 't is not improbable but that a Body in declination of Health may by hardships exercise and some Fatigue become more vigorous and robust For Agility This may not onely be as the Pupil but even the Child of Virtue Since Temperance and Diligence do commonly wear down the bulk and excrescence of the Body and rather furnish a Stock of Spirits than of Flesh In which case Agility must succeed of course X. BUT the most high and conspicuous gift of Virtue is that of Bodily Health which as it may be owing in part to every Virtue so more especially to Temperance and Piety I think it was the Chaldean Oracle did thus pronounce Ad Pietatis Opus vegetum si extenderis Ignem Mentis hos fluxos sanabis corporis Artus Would you the best Physician find For a craz'd Body or afflicted Mind Try what the power of Piety can do It heals the Mind and cures the Body too For a purifi'd Mind goes a great way to the purging and purifying of the Body it darts upon it some Rays which have great effect and which corroborate the powers thereof Whereas if the Soul be taken up by consuming Cares and Cupidities If Hatred and Malice make all things ghastly and sour within How can it be but that the Body must also droop the Health wither and the Force decline If therefore such Dilapidations can arise from the remote impressions of the Mind What will not those more immediate strokes accomplish I mean Eating long and Drinking deep and daily and the insolence of an ungovernable Lust XI THE Diseases of the Body are for the most part from the Vices of the Mind and even the Off-spring of sinful Parents do often inherit their Infirmities as well as their Acres But there is no Remedy so powerful for such an Incumbrance as a severe application to Virtue and Piety For as Justice had a Being before all the Vices of the Mind so was Health more ancient than all the Sicknesses of the Body Thus is one brought in by Maximus Tyrius to pray O Health the most Ancient of all the other Goddesses What wou'd I give to enjoy thee but the little remainder of my days Certainly no Man can better pretend to such a Wish than he who is sincerely Vertuous and Devout XII AND as bodily Health is thus gotten and sustained by Virtue so does Virtue confer Comliness and Decorum to all the Parts For Beauty is but as the Fruit or flower of Health nay 't is very Health it self just as Virtue is the very health and beauty of the Soul For where this presides the inward motion of the Spirits throws joy into the Countenance and such sparkling through the Eyes that the Beholders are drawn into love and admiration by it Even the whole Body when actuated by a beautiful Soul is pleasing in all its Gestures Lib. 10. Sect. 15. Antoninus said That a good Man could not conceal himself if he did but open his Eyes For his Benignity and Probity broke out and reveal'd him to all Beholders XIII ON the contrary we may easily observe the Crisis when a Man is falling from his native Innocence or acquir'd Virtue and is warping towards Vice and Immorality He carries a sort of Traytor in his Countenance who reveals all he is about For tho the shape and colour of his Face may look the same to vulgar Eyes yet a sharper sight will find a fading and declination in all the Finer Parts that which once was fresh and florid is now withering that which sparkled is hardly bright the Air it self of the countenance made up of quick and congruous motions resulting from every part and as it were darting Life is now stupid and irregular Alas those inward Spirits that supported all are sick and their activity is but counterfeit So that as now the whole contrivance of the Meen and Gesture is grown Artificial it will in a short time become also Impudent But this is not the Face of Virtue or the Image of that Moral Beauty we have hitherto set forth XIV FOR we also affirm that those
Foe to Friendship and as producing rather Hatred and Ill-will But to me it has ever been a sort of Riddle in Human Affairs and deserving laughter to see how the generality of Men hate the voice of that very Judge unto whom however they perpetually seem willing to appeal Certainly no firm and durable Friendship can subsist any more without Truth than without Faith and Simplicity which are the Pillars of all true Friendship Cicero says Neither the Double-minded nor the Changeable Intriguer must be rely'd on for Fidelity And let us add to these the Men of Darkness and great Reserve He that does even molest his Friend with Truth has less to answer for than a flattering Parasite who is obsequious to every Vice and can indulge or abet his Friend to his utter destruction To Men of sincere Virtue this Truth never comes amiss for every prudent Admonition that is not attended with Scoffs or Contumely is a Sermon they hearken to with Wonder and Delight For as they grow better by it so they have testimony of what is very Rare namely perfect Virtue and perfect Friendship together XXIV IT were easie for me I confess to be more copious and dwell longer upon such Particulars But these Hints will be enough to inculcate How much Virtue imports to the Acquisition of all External Goods And that against the Changes and Chances of this Human Life there is no other true Sanctuary but Virtue CHAP. X. Of that Good which is External Supreme and Eternal according to the Mind of the Philosophers I. THERE now only remains one External Good which also is Eternal To Heaven it is that we all Aspire and to the Society of Blessed Spirits And there is no other Path or Stratagem can lead hereto but Virtue This is set forth in that of the Oracle touching the Ghost of Plotinus and its passing to the Happy State Ad Coetum jam venis almum Heroum blandis spirantem leniter auris Heîc ubi amicitia est ubi molli fronte cupido Laetitiâ replens liquidâ pariterque repletus Semper ab Ambrosiis foecundo è numine rivis Unde serena quies castorum dulcis amorum Illecebra ac placidi suavissima flamina venti Which may be Englished thus And now you 're come to th' Happy Quire Of Heroes where their blessed Souls retire Where softest Winds do as soft Joys inspire Here dwells chast Friendship with so pure a flame That Love knows no satiety or shame But gives and takes new Joys and yet is still the same Th' Ambrosian Fountains with fresh Pleasures spring And gentle Zephyrus does new Odours bring These gifts for Inoffensive Ease are lent And both conspire to make Love Innocent II. THAT holy Vow and Profession which was made by Cato in Tully's Book de Senectute has resemblance with this very Description Cicero de Senectute For he says I repent me not of having Liv'd because I have lived so as never to have thought I was born in vain and I depart this Life not as from my House but as from an Inn. For Nature has not here afforded us an Habitation but barely a resting Place O glorious Day when I shall hasten to the great Assembly of blessed Souls and be delivered from this Croud and from that Dungeon wherein I live III. De Consolatione THIS Opinion Cicero in his Treatise de Consolatione repeats as his own saying I am none of those who believe the Soul can die with the Body and that so great a Light kindled by Divine Nature in the Mind can be extinguish'd but rather that after some certain space of time it will return to Immortality Now this by him is so express'd as if our present life were a sort of a death to the Soul And the same in his Somnio Scipionis is elegantly affirm'd by Africanus De somnio Scipionis when Cornelius ask'd him If his dead Friends should live Yes says he they truly live who are extricated from the Chains of the Body as from a Prison For your Life as you so call it is Death Many are the passages of this Force up and down in Cicero Not to speak of what might be found in Plotinus and Plato IV. NOW inasmuch as the hope of Immortality was so plain and conspicuous of old even to mere Pagans How could we possibly exclude it from Moral Philosophy For by this it appears that whatever external vexations innocent Virtue shall in this Life suffer whether by hidden Fate or by the Violence Envy or Improbity of wicked Men there will be a just and most infallible compensation for it Wherefore the Good and the Magnanimous being exalted by this Hope look on the World with contempt They trample upon inferiour things and cannot regard any human Accidents as culpable since nothing has regard to them but what is of Virtue and Immortality 'T is to this very Sense that Cicero does elsewhere magnifie the power of Virtue V. SOCRATES is memorable for this same Confidence and Hope since in the strength thereof he was enabled to undervalue both his Enemies and his Death He whom the Oracle of Apollo pronounced the wisest Man would memorably in this deserve that Character For while he doubted of all other things as to the Soul's Immortality he was ever fix'd So Laelius testifies of him in Tully That he was now of one Sentiment and then of another in most other things Yet as to the Point of Immortality he always affirm'd That the Minds of Men were Divine and that as soon as they departed the Body there was a most expeditious return of every just and vertuous Soul into Heaven VI. ON this Contemplation let every Man therefore resolve that altho Virtue may in some Cases appear to be against our Interest in reference to worldly things yet are we to stand by it with an unshaken Mind especially since after this span of Life is past there will redound a vast reward and gratification to the Just Nay let us rather count that what we suffer in Externals as suppose in Fortune or in Health is rather to our Advantage Since if we make a wise use of our misfortunes and understand them for kind Admonitions as indeed they are by how much we are disappointed or despoil'd in outward Things by so much and more also will the Mind be sanctifi'd and enrich'd 'T is worth observing that all Good which is External must fade and corrupt even as the Body it self while yet the Internal Things are as lasting as the Soul So that to think what we suffer in Body or Goods to be a detriment or Curse when we are likely to gain by it a more ample and perpetual Recompence is a strange Error in Accounts VII NAY farther yet If a Man had bought a thing at ten times less than the Value Would it not sound odd to hear him complain that the bargain had undone him Even so is it with the loss of outward Things Men