use in common life we may learn to ascend to the likeness of God And this is the scope and order of the Verses to stamp the Auditors with the character of a Philosopher before they proceed to any other exhortations They are call'd Golden because they are the best of all Verses and altogether Divine So among the ages of the World we call that Golden which was the best differencing the manners of men according to the Analogy of Metals Besides Gold is a thing that is free from dross and without mixture of earth at least not so much allai'd with it as those other Metals which are nearer of kin to it and consequently of meaner extract viz. Silver Brass and Iron Among which on this account also Gold has by Nature the preheminence because it never contracts rust Whereas every one of the other is so far liable to it as it partakes of earth There being therefore a resemblance between rust which partakes of the earth and Vice which arises from material Concretions the age which is holy and pure and manners void of all wickedness are properly styled Golden And in like manner these Verses being good and excellent all throughout are intitled Golden and Divine For there is not in them as in some other things a mixture of good and not good But they all in like manner set forth Purity of life lead us on to the participation of the Divine Likeness and inform us of the most perfect end of the Pythagorean Philosophy As will appear from the particular exposition of them which follows HIEROCLES Upon the Golden VERSES Of the PYTHAGOREANS First HONOUR THE IMMORTAL GODS AS THEY ARE DISPOSED BY THE LAW First The Immortal Gods as rank'd by Law Honour SInce Piety is the great leading vertue as having the most immediate relation to God it is deservedly made the matter of the first exhortation in these Verses that we may know how we ought to HONOUR the GODS which are in the world according to that intimate order which the LAW of Creation has interwoven with their Essences having assign'd the first Sphere to some the second to others and so on till all the Celestial circles be fill'd up For to acknowledge and HONOUR them sutably to the several stations wherein their Maker and Parent has set them is to obey the divine LAW and to give them true HONOUR Not to extoll their dignity above measure nor to entertain diminishing thoughts concerning them but to think them to be what indeed they are and that they retain their allotted station and to refer this HONOUR to the only maker of them whom you may properly call the God of gods the Supreme and best God But the only way to find out the true dignity of that God who was the most artificial framer of the Universe is to assert him the Author of those Intelligent beings which are immutable For to those the Verses give the title of IMMORTAL GODS who always and in equall manner Contemplate the great God their Maker and are constantly intent upon his goodness so that they are secure from either Change or Separation being as it were the images of the All-productive Cause neither disturb'd with Passion nor tainted with Evil. For 't is fit God should produce some such images of himself and not that all should be mutable and obnoxious to Passions which would incline them to evil Of the latter sort are the Souls of men the meanest of Intelligent beings Of the former those IMMORTAL GODS which are the highest Neither is the title of IMMORTAL GODS intended to distinguish them from humane Souls but only to shew that they incessantly enjoy the divine felicity and never forget either their own Nature or their Father's goodness Whereas the souls of men are subject to passions whence it comes to pass that they sometimes attend to God and their own excellency and sometimes are diverted from both Upon this account the Souls of men may with parity be call'd Mortal gods because they dye sometimes when they quit the happiness and sanctity of the divine life by aversion from God and sometimes revive by returning to him So that they are said to live when they enjoy the divine life and also to die as far as an immortal nature may be capable of death not because they cease to be but because they degenerate from the excellency of life For the death of an Intelligent being is to be without God and reason which privation is attended with a disorder and mutiny of the passions For when better things are unknown there is a necessity of being enslaved to worse From which there is no other way to be redeem'd than by recollection to return to ones self and God Moreover 't is necessary that between those which we call IMMORTAL and those we call Mortal gods there intercede another sort of greater excellency than Man and yet short of a God which as a middle link may so couple the two extremes that the whole Intelligent nature may be in a right union with it self Wherefore this middle Nature is not at any time wholly ignorant of God nor yet has an altogether unchangeable and equall knowledge of him but always actually considers him yet more or less at divers seasons Now in regard it has always an actual knowledge of God it excells the humane Nature but yet as it is mutable and unequall it falls short of the Divine And this middle Station it holds by the law of its Constitution neither for its proficiency advanced above and humane nor for its negligence degraded below the divine Nature For all the Intelligent part of the Creation bears the image of their Maker God But those of the first rank are the pure image those of the middle the middle image those of the third the last image of the divinity And of these three sorts of beings the first takes in those which the Verse calls IMMORTAL GODS the middle the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES and the last the DEMONS of the EARTH as we shall see by and by But now let us return to the first thing in hand Namely to consider what is meant by the LAW and the ORDER of it and also what is that HONOUR which is given according to that order By LAW here is to be understood the All-producing mind and the divine Will to which every thing continually owes its production and conservation The ORDER of this LAW is that whereby the Parent of all things has disposed the IMMORTAL GODS in several degrees For although with respect to the whole Intelligent kind of the Creation they have all supremacy of Station yet if compared to one another they differ according as they partake more or less of the divine image The difference of these natures is attested to by the very order of the Celestial Orbs which are so disposed according to their Essence and Vigour that the LAW is to be seen in their Essence and the ORDER is coeval with
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
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