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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51282	An account of virtue, or, Dr. Henry More's abridgment of morals put into English.; Enchiridion ethicum. English	More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Southwell, Edward, 1671-1730.	1690 (1690)	Wing M2637; ESTC R9573	136,263	290

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

had any Man been Eminent or attain'd to Glory That as it is stout both to bear and even scorn at Reproach for Virtue 's sake so it is mean and cowardly to humour those who either craftily tempt or haughtily expect that you make up part of their Train in their unlawful ways There want not in the World Companions and Associates of a better stamp tho not so numerous or so easily met with in the Streets but they are worth the searching for And as to the other sort of Men who are so Impudent as to become mere Advocates for things that are Vile Remember in short the better advice of Pythagoras Summè reverere Teipsum IV. LENITY or a Calmness of Mind is even in this Regard extremely valuable that it is a sort of Buckler against the Scoffs and Injuries of all Men. This was noted by Marcus Antoninus in that Famous Saying Lib. 1. §. 18. That Lenity was an Invincible Thing provided it were Genuin and not Counterfeit as some grave Scorners make it No Shield is so availing to the Mind's Tranquillity as is this Calmness and true Lenity Nor does any thing require it or support it more than to reflect that few Men ever offend us either in word or deed but it arises from their Ignorance Wherefore the Stoicks and followers of Socrates were wont of such men to say Sic ille opinatur such is his Opinion And omnis improbus ignorat A wicked man knows not what he does V. CONSTANCY we must have for else we shall seem to act at hazard and to have neither Reason nor Virtue for our Guide Semper qui bonus est bonus est He who is truly Good is always Good But he that is now Good and then Bad is not govern'd by steady Principles but the last Impression governs him VI. LASTLY Diligence is a certain chearful Servant or Sollicitor that attends upon all the other Virtues and must therefore be caress'd We may call it even the Master and Moderator of all our External Actions Inasmuch as it knows how to excite our Bodies and all the parts thereof to such Activity as the duty and business of our Life requires VII THE Residue of those Virtues which refer to Fortitude have so close an Affinity with these which we here explain that it were needless to set them off with any new Testimonial For they are as the very Off-spring of Diligence Constancy or Magnanimity CHAP. VIII Of Acquiring those Virtues which refer to Temperance And about exciting the Divine Love I. THERE are Referable unto Temperance Frugality Humility Austerity Modesty Andronicus also adds Slender and uncompounded Diet Umblameable Gesture and A Contented Mind Of which that about Slender-Diet and Contentment are as it were the Sorts and Methods of Frugality even as that of Gesture is of Modesty II. FRUGALITY has this Commendation that 't is the Parent or at least the Companion of Sobriety As also a Cure against Diseases and Poverty 'T is attended by Consideration and Prudence lest that spending profusely and living beyond our Stocks we be disabled not onely from entertaining our Friends in a frugal way but driven to live wholly upon them which of all Conditions were the most miserable So that in Contemplation hereof we may affirm that true Frugality has an Eye unto Generosity it self and that there is an Honest Greatness of the Soul concern'd in the true Conduct of this Virtue III. THE same Reflection is fortifi'd by what Andronicus says of those bordering Virtues that refer to this For he who can content himself with easie Food and has no desires of Sauce or Cookery is much out of Fortune's reach and does not easily fall within the Injuries of Men. This Virtue sets him as in a Tower above others and he is seldom captivated by any For as it is God alone that needeth nothing so he that is contented with fewest things approaches nearest unto him IV. IN the next place Austerity or Gravity together with Modesty and the Virtues ally'd thereto are to be had in much Regard For they do not onely adorn our Life and External Behaviour but really preserve the Mind both chast and unblemish'd The first glimmerings of Vice and that very shadow that begins to play in the Imagination is by those Virtues not onely reprehended but immediately smother'd and suppress'd V. YET is there no sort of Virtue more to be pursu'd than Humility Since there are no two Plagues so destructive in Human Affairs as are those of Ambition and Avarice Hence arise Treachery to Friends and Country the Massacre of Princes Desertion of Truth and Religion Frauds not to be nam'd both against God and Virtue In short All that can spawn from Injustice hath its Original from this Source Wherefore it may well be doubted Whether the fear of torment on a Rack or of Death it self have so much power to drive Men into Impiety as that inordinate Thirst which some discover in the pursuit of Riches Honour and Domination Consequently whether even Fortitude it self be so strong a Bulwark as Humility proves By which we retreat as into a Harbor where the noise and storms of the World fly over us and where we are neither tempted nor distracted with the dazling vanities thereof VI. THE word Humility sounds low and may seem despicable among the Virtues Yet is it so conspicuous a branch of true and substantial Wisdom that even Lucretius who did not much trouble himself in such matters was not barely acquainted with it but has very Elegantly painted it out in the Verses following De rerum naturâ lib. 2. Sed nil dulcius est bene quàm munita tenere Edita doctrinâ sapientûm templa serena Despicere unde queas alios passimque videre Errare atque viam palantes quaerere vitae Certare ingenio contendere nobilitate Noctes atque dies niti praestante labore Ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri O miseras hominum mentes O pectora caeca Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis Degitur hoc aevi quodcunque est c. Which are thus Translated by Mr. Creech But above all 't is pleasantest to get The Top of high Philosophy and sit On the Calm-peaceful-flourishing Head of it below Whence we may view Deep wondrous Deep How poor-mistaken Mortals wandring go Seeking the Path to Happiness Some aim At Learning Wit Nobility or Fame Others with Cares and Dangers vex each Hour To reach the top of Wealth and Sovereign Pow'r Blind wretched Man in what dark paths of strife We walk this little Journey of our Life c. But I am not ignorant how Men of this Perswasion and whose Minds are thus elevated are not only slighted but even laugh'd at by most others They are counted a sort of Virtuoso's that live upon Air and do not comprehend Substantial things VII YET under the Correction of these Grandees I would fain know What is it that the High and Mighty do