Interest it serves and as Visionary as the nightly Feasts of Witches As these imagine that they eat and drink and yet still find themselves pursued by the same hunger and Misery so Voluptuousness leaves us as empty as before and raises a greater Thirst than it allays nay more it is lost by Usage and the poor deluded loaths what he hath admires what he hath not is always to seek and is never satisfied he pursues an Aery Expectation and courts a Mistress that when once enjoyed inspires him with new Wants and puts him upon fresh Quests and Dangers Thus the Slave to his own Lusts rowls the stone of Sisyphus and carried by the Gyre of his untam'd Desires moves an unconstant constant Round till Sickness or Age disables him and Death arrests him and carries him to the Infernal Prisons where only he becomes Stationary And thus I have made some Reflections upon that Men call Fruition or Sensual Enjoyment And I have been the longer because if there be any Pleasure in Sensuality it must be in this By what has been said it will appear That there is not a greater cheat impos'd upon Mortals or rather that they impose upon themselves And I will be bold to conclude That Sin begins and proceeds by Delusion and ends in Misery That Voluptuousness is a Masque acted by Furies in disguise which towards the end they throw off and appear in their proper Shape For this is the true End of all Sinful Enjoyments which I must next demonstrate § 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a Man saith the Divine Preacher but the End thereof is the ways of Death Prov. 14. 12. The End of Voluptuousness is always calamitous and that commonly in this Life Sin brings forth Shame and Sorrow and forbidden Enjoyments tend to the Destruction of that Body they are brought to gratifie Thus Intemperance weakens the Appetite and consequently the Body Thus Lust incites Ammon even to incest and then to hate even to Death till Drunkenness and the Sword of Absalom hath cut him off and so put an end to both Passions And as Sin at last brings a dismal Catastrophe upon it self so each Crime hath its particular Nemesis even in our own Conscience And I dare appeal to Experience whether when a Man's Passion is over and he is at leisure to consider calmly what he hath done he feels not Shame invade him and a natural Horrour dart through his Soul Whether he doth not run as it were from the Presence of God as Adam his Forefather did as asham'd of his Nakedness or sow some thin Fig-leaves together some poor Excuses to cover it Thus 't is at first till Conscience is seared or lull'd asleep and so becomes senseless Custom will take off the Dread of Punishment and because Vengeance seems to slumber the hardned Sinner removeth it far out of his Sight and yet for all this commonly Conscience at last awakes and laying before him the things that he hath done arraigns and condemns him the black Fumes of Atheism which hitherto have hid his Sin and Punishment will at last withdraw and the Deity just and terrible discover himself to his Soul and then learn from his own mouth the Agony of his distracted Mind when he considers that he must leave all his Pleasures Friends and Acquaintance and be carried alone into the dreadful unknown Abyss of Eternity When he begins thus to question with himself What if now at last there should be a God which I have not only provoked but denied a Heaven which I have slighted and a Hell which I have not only chosen but made it my Business and taken pains to procure What if this God shall meet me in the other World and convince me of his Being by his Justice in what a Condition shall I be then Why no worse than eternally and irrecoverably miserable And is it so I find then I have liv'd to a fair purpose I have enjoyed some few shadows of Pleasures and suffer'd many real Griefs I have been cheated all my Life time with Hopes Fears and Expectations and found all at last both Vanity and Vexation of Spirit And now I can perceive no glimpse of Joy no comfort to my Soul but a Darkness and Horrour and the Expectation of a dreadful Sentence when I shall depart hence But Oh sacred Vertue and you hospitable Graces of Integrity and Innocence who alone are able to banish these dreadful Apprehensions and bring home in Peace how have I slighted and despised you This is very probable to be the End of the Voluptuous because the nearer he approaches to his Death the clearer are the discoveries of his Misery yet I know very well that some die as well as live senseless and unapprehensive of future Danger but then their Condition is never the better because their Despair as well as Punishment are transferr'd to the other World The Rich man in the Gospel was never the happier in Hell because he perceiv'd it not before he opened his Eyes in its Flames § 13. I have led you my Dorotheus through the Folly to the Misery of Sensuality of living in Rebellion against the higher Powers of the Soul and working Wickedness with Greediness You may easily perceive upon the whole Matter That there is much Sorrow and very little Pleasure in Debauchery and that Hell stands at the end of it That those poor Pleasures that are enjoyed are little else but Cheat and Delusion and at last leave us not only disappointed but miserable Happy is the Man that can see through the Disguise and apprehend the Deformity and End of Vice Happy is he that by an early Conquest of himself and his Earthly part makes himself capable of the Pleasures of Autarchy of those that are to be found in the Paths of Virtue and the Regimen of the upper Soul And these are they which come next to be considered § 14. It was the wise Epictetus that reduc'd all Morality and his Readings thereupon to these two words mentioned in the end of the former Part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer and abstain These two infold the whole Duty of Autarchy and regulate at once our irascible and concupiscible Appetites The First of these tells us we must suffer Injuries Reproaches and Slanders patiently The Second enjoins us Abstinence from Sin I mean and from all Occasions and Appearances of it These two were the constant Doctrine of our Lord first and then of his Disciples only he went beyond Epictetus refin'd and exalted these Duties and made the first especially the hardest of the two one of the Beatitudes Matt. 5. Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you The Conquest of our selves the Exercise of Self-denial and the patient bearing of Injuries is a
Climax So great is our aversion to Death our greatest Friend that would put an End to our Troubles and lay us up in Peace Young men put it far from them and Old men do not care to hear of it though descending down towards their Grave And I have experienc'd in my self now entring into my Declination a kind of Reluctancy to be told I was so far on my Journey I conclude therefore that there is something in Nature some Relict of the Old man that is afraid of Death though she carries it within her and thus perhaps it will be with you and therefore to please the lower Soul and reconcile it to the Government of the upper I shall endeavour to shew that it is the usual Gift and natural Consequent of Autocracy § 4. To this Purpose it will suffice to propose this one Consideration viz. That There is nothing that can conduce more directly to the Health of the Body and consequently to its Preservation to Old Age than the regular Vse of Meat Drink and animal Pleasures which Self-Government enjoins This alone is able to preserve Health and to recover it when lost and if some Original Distemper or fatal Providence interpose not to convey it down to Old Age to procure the Vigour of Youth in Age and a healthful and strong Constitution and consequently a Long Life c. This Truth is self-apparent and shines by its own Light for most Diseases are confess'd to be the Effects of Intemperance Vice tends to our Ruine from its first Entertainment and the Body of Sin naturally leads us to the Body of Death Excesses bring Sickness and Surfeiting will turn to Choler By surfeiting many have perished but he that taketh heed prolongeth his Life saith the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus 37. 30. Instances will best illustrate this Truth for their Conviction For thus the Glutton lives to eat not eats to live but to die when by contrarieties of Meats and Drinks he hath vitiated his Appetite and collected a Mass of Crudities in his Stomach the morbifick Matter which at last sends him out of the World Thus the Drunkard drowns himself in a Dropsie or by a Collection of Adventitious Heats inflames his Blood into a Fever when he shall call for Drink without Satisfaction and use it without Offence And I wish it were seriously considered how peculiar an Enemy this Sin is to our Lives and of how many sad Accidents it is the cause some times fatal to Body and Soul of which we have too many Examples So false is that flattering Proverb A Drunkard never takes hurt And indeed Drunkenness is a kind of Daemoniacism and taking away the use of the Members of the Body and Operations of the Soul the evil Spirit casts him sometimes into the Fire and sometimes into the Water Nor is it a wonder that when the internal Principle of Direction the Understanding is destroyed the Guardian Angel driven away and kept at a distance the Devil should take the advantage to do a Man a Mischief In a word Intemperance is such an universal Purveyor for the Grave that it is become long since a Proverb Plures gulâ quam gladio c. The Throat is the greatest Enemy as well as Preserver to it self and destroys more than the Sword Thus the impure Slave that with an Adulterous Eye pursues every Woman besides his Fears and Dangers wears out his Body and twists up his own Scourge A Disease I mean that destroys his Form and Beauty torments him with Pains when he should take his rest makes him water his Couch with his Tears and his Bed to be the Place of his Punishment because it was the Place of his Folly and at last consigns him over to Rottenness and to become his own Sepulchre And if Whoredoms and Adulteries do not always produce such Tragedies 't is because they are in some Measure restrain'd and so it is the Effect of Autarchy Nay those immaterial Diseases those of the Mind I mean that are not so conversant with gross Matter even these become prejudicial if not fatal to our Lives and Health Covetousness pines and withers the Body Envy dries it up and makes it pale and Pride begets Quarrels Contentions and Wars that send thousands to the Grave together I need not instance in more for 't is the Confession and Complaint of emasculated Debauchees that their Vices have been their Enemies and contributed to their Destruction So that there is a natural Reason as well as Providence in the Sentence of the wise Solomon Evil shall pursue the Sinner and he shall not prolong his days Prov. 10. 27. 13. 21. Eccles 8. 13. 'T is Autarchy alone that prescribes Moderation that distinguisheth betwixt the Abuse and Use betwixt the Poison and Nutriment of Meat and Drink that maintains a due Temperament and satisfies that Nature that she preserves § 5. And here I cannot conceive what Sensuality hath to say for it self and in its own defence unless it is by way of Recrimination Unless she leads you to the Cells of Asceticks and the Oratories of Recluses and shews you the pale and lean Effects of Fasting and Mortification the Skeletons of some few Saints who chose to anticipate Death and die whilst they lived See there will she say the Effects of Bigottism and Religious Frenzie what she would reduce the World to if she could procure once a perfect Empire there And what can Luxury it self do more Besides thou mayst observe that Wise men die as soon and as well as Fools and the Righteous fall promiscuously with the Wicked Alas Death makes no difference nor can Integrity Wisdom Valour or Parts oppose him The End of Man is determin'd and then why should the Means be blam'd he was to die at that time and therefore why should his Vices be accus'd for bringing him thither Thus Sin is ready to excuse it self though she lays the Fault at God's door and on his everlasting Decrees To all which I answer briefly First Waving the Question about the determination of our Lives of which I shall find occasion to give you mine opinion towards the end of this Discourse I say as to the Hardships Fastings and Mortifications of restraining Vertue I cannot find as I noted before that Autarchy absolutely and universally prescribes them but only where our particular necessities require them God hath given his Creatures richly though moderately to be enjoy'd and having given us his Son with him hath given us all things But when the Beast within the Sensual part begins to wax fat and kicks against its Master and Maker both there is then but too apparent Symptoms of a Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil Habit of Mind and then Fasting and other Ghostly Exercises become our Duty For it is Physick to the Body as well as Soul and serves mutually their Necessities Besides I do not find any Command even in that Case to make our selves sick or to impair our
Creator in ordering it to be so and they are still retain'd for the same reason And the vulgar Reader may if he please pass them over to that which is more useful for him The particular Duty explained and pressed he calls Autarchy or Self-Government which is the restraining part of Vertue or the Power it has to curb our Appetites and Passions A Lesson which he commends with so much Zeal because no Vertue can be long practised without it The Way that he hath taken is instructive in the First Part and persuasive in the Two other for it seems a natural Method first to explain and then persuade And all Three are laid before every Man that will give himself but leave to consider Wherefore he is sent into this World and Whither he must go when he leaves it And the Author can only add his Prayers that they may have their Effect in discovering the Fallacies of Sensuality and in turning the Sinner from the Errour of his Way THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART CONTAINING The Nature of Autarchy or Self-Government and the Rules of its Exercise THE miserable Apostacy of Christians in general from the Practice of their Holy Religion § 1 2. The Reason of this is the Predominancy of our Lusts and Appetites and the want of their Regulation § 3. The Advantages of their Regulation and the Possibility of it § 4 5. The Design of the Author in order hereunto § 6 Of the Two Natures in Man the Spiritual and the Carnal § 7. Their Conjunction and the Reasons of it § 8 9 10. Why God did not limit our Appetites to Good only § 11. Their Contrariety ibid. The Heathens account of the Two Nature◠§ 12. What the Superiour Faculties require of us and our Duty thereupon § 13 14. What Autarchy is and wherein it consists § 15. St. Paul's account of it § 16. The Excellency of Autarchy It is a sure Sign of a Child of God The Foundation and Perfection of all true Religion § 17 18. Six Rules of Autarchy adapted to those that are not yet enslav'd to the Tyranny of their Appetites § 19 20 21 22 23 24. Some Considerations offered to the Habituated Sensualists who have liv'd long under the Slavery of their Appetites in order to their Freedom § 25. A short Commendation of Autarchy § 26. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART CONTAINING A Vindication of the Pleasures of Autarchy c. THE Preface § 1. Religion founded upon Spiritual and Inward Advantages and the Promises of the Life to come and is not so concern'd in Weakness of the Arguments for its Outward Pleasures which yet make it more acceptable § 2. The Complaints of the Sensualist against Religious Severities § 3 An Examination of the pretended Pleasures of Sensualists § 4 Of the Expectation of Sensual Pleasures § 5. Of their Fruition and St. John ' s Analysis of Sensuality 1 Joh. 2. 16. § 6. Of the Lusts of the Flesh Of Gluttony Drunkenness and unlawful Lust The Vanity of them § 7 8. Of Covetousness § 9. Of Ambition § 10. The Shortness Vncertainty and Dissatisfaction of Sensual Fruition § 11. The End of Sensual Enjoyments calamitous c. § 12 13. The Pleasures of Autarchy positively demonstrated § 14. It s outward Pleasures and the Enjoyments of Regulated Sense § 15. The Objection from Poverty c. considered § 16. The inward Pleasures of Autarchy and how it has Influence upon the Soul § 17. The inward Peace of the Soul obtain'd by Autarchy § 18 19. The pretended difficulties of Autarchy considered § 20 21. Of the super-additional Miseries pretended to be laid upon all Pious Men. § 22. to the End THE CONTENTS OF THE THIRD PART CONTAINING The Outward Advantages of Autarchy THE Preface § 1. Of the threefold Advantage of Autarchy viz. A Healthful and Long Life Competency of Estate and Respect and Honour § 2. Of Health and Long Life and the natural Desire we have of it § 3. That it is the Gift of Autarchy and that Sensuality destroys the Body § 4. The Objection concerning Mortification Abnegation of the World and the early Death of Good men answered § 5. Of the Second outward Advantage of Autarchy viz. Competency of Estate and Sufficiency of Riches How Autarchy conduces to outward Riches § 6. The Objection concerning the Poverty of some Good men and the Wealth of the Wicked considered § 7. Two strange Effects of Autarchy about Wordly Estates that abundantly make Compensation ibid. Of the Third outward Advantage of Autarchy viz. A Good Name Respect and Honour § 8. Vice most dishonourable prov'd in several Instances § 9. Vertue and Wisdom exalts Men. § 10. An Objection prevented § 11. Some other Benefits of Autarchy § 12. A Peroration and Review of all the Three Parts Together with the Application to the Reader in several Particulars § 13. Autarchy not to be deferr'd or delay'd upon Five Considerations § 14. A Serious Exhortation to Autarchy § 15 16. AVTARCHY OR THE ART of Self-Government The First PART WHEREIN The Nature of Autarchy is Explain'd and the Rules of its Exercise laid down § 1. THO' the Religion that the Holy Jesus brought down from Heaven seem'd contriv'd by Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and adapted to render us innocent here and happy hereafter yet if you look into the World into which you are most dear Dorotheus now ere long to enter and in which you must live you will find that most of those that havereceived and do still zealously own this holy Profession do yet live in the greatest opposition to it Religion possesseth the Head and not the Heart and Men are mightily concerned about its Doctrines but not at all about its Duties It s power over Men as to the conformity of their Lives is much weakned and decay'd and the Spiritual Life ready to expire Some Duties 't is true are observ'd out of Design and its Out-side for some political Reasons maintain'd but if you draw the Curtain and look into the in-side of Men's Practice there is little but what is counterfeit and Representations Scenes and Shows All the Noise that it makes is from Men's loud Disputes and its being bandied backward and forward betwixt opposite Parties but for any real Use that there is made of it there is little but that it is made to be a stalking-horse for Ambition to sanctifie a bad Cause and a cloak for its Deformity It s holy Doctrines are silenced and laid to sleep only now and then one taken up and awaken'd to serve a Party and then laid down again when no longer useful Nor is the Law of Christ only the Perfection of all Laws but that of Nature and common Equity also violated amongst us Property and Selfishness hath ingrossed all Hearts so that whatsoever can be got either by Fraud or Violence and possessed without danger of the Law is counted our own and what we account to be out own we think we may use as we please
Indeed there is a rude notion of Justice among the Vulgar but it is only pleaded when they think they are injur'd and exerted when they are like to be Gainers by it But as for Truth a piece of Justice we owe to all Men there is little or no regard to it especially in dealings but Men swear lye and dissemble and will maintain that there is a necessity so to do Hence it is that Oaths which were of old Sacred are now of no Validity yea and the common use of Speech in bargains is to no purpose Lying is become so clamorous that it hath took away our Senses and we had as good be deaf and dumb as hear and talk among Men And then for Charity that God-like Vertue the highest notion of it is quite lost amongst us and we never give but when natural compassion wrings it out of our hands Mean while Ambition is restless and rages so in the World that it overturns whole Kingdoms and buries thousands in their Ruines and Pride that reigns among all Sects and in all shapes will not suffer us to know our selves or be quiet with others And besides these there is such a deluge of inhumane Vices for so I call those that are unworthy of Man and below the Beast broken in upon us from Hell that no Pen is able to describe no Vertue oppose for Man is become the greatest Enemy to himself and cruelly wounds his own Being so that the Love of our selves can serve no longer as a rule to measure our Love to others by and the Apostle's assertion No man ever yet hated his own Flesh seems not to hold in our times In a word we are sunk below Heathenism while Turks and Infidels upbraid us Impiety hath over-run the World and our blessed Lord's Prophecy is too much verified Matt. 24. 10 11 c. 'T is time then that those days should be shortned that any Flesh should be saved and that he should hasten his coming for he shall hardly find his Faith upon the Earth § 2. And yet after all it must be confess'd that this general Apostasie of the greatest part of Mankind cannot be laid to the charge of God or to any defect in revealed Religion He hath fenced and cultivated his Vineyard though it brings forth wild Grapes and hath us'd all means possible to save us but one and that is such an irresistible Grace upon all Men which some have fansied to be bestowed upon those that are effectually called such I mean as would carry us to Heaven by force and save us whether we will or no. His Precepts are holy and just and require of us nothing but what is reasonable to be exacted and feasible to be done besides his Commands are certainly our Interest as well as Duty they are such as would settle Peace and Prosperity amongst Men restore the golden Age and make every Man happy with his Neighbour and happy in himself they enjoin nothing but Love Peace Meekness Long-suffering and Courtesie amongst all men and would necessarily banish Hatred Malice and revenge and all the inimical Vices from humane Society And to render him happier yet by Sobriety and Temperance they would settle Health in his Body and Peace and Contentment in his Soul All this the Christian Religion doth upon great and precious Promises both of this Life and of that which is to come and upon Threats proportionable to its Promises by which Means and by the powerful Ministery of those appointed to this Service God hath secured to himself in all Ages some Witnesses of the inherent Power and Energy of Piety which like so many stars adorn and enlighten our dark Times § 3. It may now be justly enquir'd into why so amiable and reasonable a Religion so profitable to every Man and suited to his true Interest should not have the same Influence upon all and captivate every understanding Why the same cause should not have the same effect and the same Means prove successful to every one that uses it especially seeing there is no fatal sentence to the contrary nor do any labour under eternal Fetters which binds their Hands from receiving what is offer'd to them One would think that the same advantageous Pardon should be embrac'd by every rational Creature and the same Word prove alike not the savour of Life to some and of of Death to others And certainly the fault must be in our selves only and in the indisposition of the Patient which may produce contrary Effects For thus the same Heat melts down Wax and hardens Clay Nor is this Indisposition generally in our Reason and Understanding but in our Affections We all know the Will of God and our own Interests well enough and accordingly we should resolve upon a new Life and perform our Resolutions but alas Man is not usually Master of himself and of his own Intentions The Government that God hath settled in us is sore shatter'd if not quite dissolv'd His Vice-Roy Reason is under confinement and the Senses seduced from their duty the Appetites like dissolute Janisaries in an Interregnum domineer and carry all before them and the Passions like the Mobb pretend to settle the State and make such a Noise that the soft Messages of Peace though from God cannot be heard for First Man is usually brought under bondage to the Earthly part and the higher Faculties captivated by the lower he is carnal and sold under Sin and so cannot do what he would The Fall of Adam has weakned his spiritual Powers and brought them down so that they stand upon even ground with the lower Appetites and Custom and a slavish yielding up our native Freedom have made us absolute Slaves to our sensual Part. And hence it is that though we are convinc'd of the Necessity and Benefit of Vertue before and of Repentance after we have offended and promise and perhaps sincerely intend to act accordingly yet after all we fail in our Performances and break our Resolutions The next Temptation bears all our Vows and Faith away with it we have disabled our selves and being under a kind of Confinement can promise much but perform nothing And then Secondly Sensuality being got into the Throne fortifies it self there with specious declarations of the lawfulness of its Title and possesses the poor deluded with the mighty hopes of its Profits Pleasures and Advantages It represents the Comforts of Eat Drink and be Merry to the utmost advantage It crys up the Felicity of sinful Freedom and is always inculcating the Severities and Chains of Vertue It represents Religion sowre and austere and draws her picture like Magdalene always weeping By these her false Representations and the Echo's of the Appetite poor Reason cannot be heard Hence it is that we first entertain and by conversation begin to love and then doat on and at last espouse our Vices not to be separated as long as the Body and Soul hold together Thus we are fallen since we came
hunt after that Game to which illuminated Nature directs them and to be call'd off or hastened when a Superiour Power shall think fit For when under subjection they may become subservient even to Religion it self and like the Gibeonites they may be Hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House and Altar of God This ought to satisfie every modest Enquirer who though he cannot comprehend the exact reasons of his own Origination alas how should he must confess that he is not only fearfully and wonderfully but graciously made and a Monument of God's Bounty and Mercy That his Creator is good to him in particular as well as to all things in general and that his tender Mercy is over all his Works I have taken the more pains to remove this Stumbling-block from the Entrance of this Discourse which yet St. Paul doth in fewer words with this short unanswerable Question for the Christian Romans in those times were not so full of Cavils as we are Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it why hast thou made me thus § 11. If it be further questioned Why God did not limit our Passions and Appetites when he first bestowed them upon us so as to make it not possible for them to hurry us into any Sin or Danger The Answer will be short and easie We are made Men and not Angels and placed in a mutable condition capable of Bliss and Misery and if God had so bounded our Appetites that they were incapable of Excess we should have been in an Immutable condition like those confirm'd blessed Spirits above a Privilege that they themselves were not thought worthy of till they had been tried and had resisted the Temptations and Threats of Lucifer and his Apostate Angels There is no free Nature but must have a time of probation before it be rewarded or punished Our Life here is like the Children of Israel's we are led through the Wilderness of this World attended by our Folly and our Fears on our left hand and our right to prove us and to know what is in our Heart whether we will keep the Commandment or not And when this time of exercise and probation is over we are called off the Stage and are either free'd or condemned Besides were there no possibility of Sin there could be no Vertue and so no Reward as well as Punishment For if there were no Tempter or Enemy there could be no Trial no Fight no Victory and so no Reward nor could even a St. Paul have challenged his Crown of Glory but upon the account of his having fought a good Fight finished his Course and kept the Faith No wonder then that Man should have Enemies within him as well as without these serve to awaken his Care make him stand upon his Guard and fight the good fight of Faith Thus the Children of Israel had the Canaanites to be their near Neighbours and the same Land like Humane Nature maintain'd two contrary Inhabitants And as there was no League made to be betwixt these Nations but a continual War so there is between the two Natures in us the Spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit which St. Paul elegantly describes in his own Name under the Person of one unregenerate and in the state of Nature in the seventh Chapter of the Romans Indeed Advantages may and must be taken the Canaanite must be subdued and brought under Subjection And though to carry the Parallel a little higher all Commerce with the seven Nations were forbidden and a total Abolition of their Name from under Heaven was enjoined at the first time yet when the Israelites had once declin'd to favour their Idolatry the Angel of God brings this sorrowful Message to Bochim That now they must not be totally driven out but remain as Thorns in their sides and their Altars as snares unto them and this to prove them and try their Integrity So since the fall of Adam and the degeneracy of his Posterity no lasting and final Victory can be obtained nor can corrupt Nature be absolutely rooted out till Mortality be swallowed up of Life and Death delivers us from the body of this Death The Seeds of Vices must remain even in the Regenerate and the Fire of Concupiscence though allay'd of its Heat and covered up in its Ashes For all that Piety can do in this life is to keep it down and make it a useful Servant to regulate it and render it beneficial to us And as in every Kingdom Plots and Cabals will be and some Dissatisfactions Commotions and Tendencies to Rebellion so must the Man of God stand upon his Watch and be prepar'd to suppress every Emotion if he can break the strength of the Foe and scatter his troops whensoever they make head 't is as much as God whose Deputy he is requires of him and this during his whole Life till Death calling him off his Watch relieves him § 12. Of this continual War in Man not only the Philosophers of old under the state of Nature have taught much and excellently but even the Heathen Poets the most ingenious but boldest and worst of Men that durst represent the Deity more vicious and brutish perhaps than themselves have taken notice of it And therefore according to their witty way of Allegory they call'd the Higher Faculties Prometheus and the Lower Epimetheus and of them they tell us this pleasant but instructive Fable * Hesiod op dies That once upon a time this Prometheus stole Fire from Heaven viz. Wisdom and Knowledge to enliven the Man of Clay that he had made upon which Jupiter was very wroth though I cannot understand why unless he were envious at Man's good a Character good enough for a Poet's Jupiter and sent Pandora viz. Pleasures a beautiful but deceitful Female to Epimetheus his younger Brother with a fine Box or Vessel as a Present Prometheus foresees the fraudulent malice of Jupiter and advises him to send back his Present with the false Bearer of it the one being as deceitful as the other but Epimetheus greedy of the Beauty and Jewels both that he might at once sacrifice both to his Lust and Avarice receives the Woman and accepts her Present which when he had opened out flew all the Evils both of Body and Mind which have ever since afflicted poor Mankind I have mentioned this Fable in a Serious Discourse because the true History of it seems to be the Fall of our First Parents and the Moral of it the State of every sensual sinful Man of him I mean whose Epimetheus governs and contrary to the Monitions of the Superiour Faculties entertains the Woman opens her Box and le ts loose those Plagues that must worry him But without a Fable though in one Ovid brings in his Medaea thus complaining of the Torture she endured in this Conflict Trahit invitam nova vis aliudque cupido Mens aliud suadet video melier a
and has no Liberty to walk abroad only she may look out of the Windows of her Gaol till Death comes and unlocks the Doors unlooses those Bonds that fasten her to the Body and sets her at Liberty yet during this Life she contracts a kind of acquaintance with her Prison-house and a Love to her Fetters She is courted and sometimes seduc'd by external Objects she pertakes of Anger 's Fury and loves Fondness and forgetting her native Country and her Heavenly Nature doats oftentimes upon low and base Objects in this strange Land In this present Condition Temperance opens and clears the outward Windows and Knowledge regulates her Perceptive Faculties and both these strengthen and preserve the superiour Faculties which shews her her Errour and helps her to avoid it Hence the Charms of Voluptuousness are dissolv'd her Inchantments ended and the Soul recovers her primitive Light and Purity Thus the Understanding becomes enlightned and the Candle of the Lord burns without the Interposition of the Clouds of Ignorance Thus the Memory is purg'd of polluted Images and made a Treasury of such useful Idea's as Nature first design'd it And thus the Will becomes regular the Desires limited to that which is good the Heart pure and the Spirit rectified from whence proceeds Innocency and Peace which is the special Gift of Autocracy and deserves our further Consideration § 18. What the Ancient Pythagoras said of Piety in general may be affirmed of Autarchy in particular when he says it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Peace in the whole Soul with Cheerfulness For Sensuality fills us full of Fears and Jealousies Expectations and Disappointments and is like the Lower World the Seat of Storms and Tempests whilst Piety would render our Minds as the pure Aethereal Regions above all Winds Meteors and Alterations quiet and at rest The Mind of a pious Man is a Heaven upon Earth and presages to what place he must ascend His meek and innocent Conversation produces outward Peace amongst all for who would disturb him that wrongs no Man nor gives any Offence by word or deed And as he is guilty of no Crime so he fears no Danger but is at peace with himself No Heavy and Dismal Clouds of Despair obscure the Serenity of his Soul His Mind is always temperate free from torrid Desires and frozen Despondings He knows not the Terrors of a guilty Mind and is ignorant of Fears because he is ignorant of Sin His Conscience is void of offence towards God and Man and therefore under no dread from either He is contented with his present Condition and therefore feels not Fear 's Ague nor Envy's Consumption Briefly he is in a continual Calm though in a stormy World and whilst others fret themselves under their Load and struggle in their own Toils he is contented with his Lot and at rest § 19. Thus for the Concupiscible and then for the Angry Passions he governs them also Hence it is that Abuses and Railery move him not and he distinguishes betwixt the effects of Madness for such he takes Rage to be and the friendly Rebukes of a Wise Man He hears the Taunts of the Scornful unconcern'd as he doth the Barking of a Dog and only takes care that he be not bitten He looks upon a dissolute Tongue with pity and is more troubled at the Commendations of some Men than at their Abuses And certainly there is nothing so undecent and ill becoming as well as troublesome nothing that makes us more ridiculous or that gives an Enemy greater advantage than unbridled Fury nor can any Plague torment the Soul and Body and prey upon both more than secret Malice Whereas 't is a God-like thing to forgive It elevates us above humane Nature may I not say above the Angelical Besides 't is the truest pleasure to be able to pardon To deserve well and yet suffer patiently without Reward is a part of Greatness unknown to any but the Autarchist To suffer wrong silently and being injur'd to seek a Reconciliation 'T is more generous sure not to seek Reward but to receive it and save our selves the trouble of pursuing that which will be forc'd upon us for rewarded here or hereafter we must and shall be as long as our Lord's Promise stands good Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And as there is a future so there must be a present Reward which is Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost An internal Comfort an ineffable Pleasure which arises out of a clear Conscience which is a continual Feast This is a Treasure far surpassing all the Riches of Nature and the Pleasures of Sin though drest up to the utmost advantage for they are but for a Season but this shall not be taken away from us Joh. 16. 22. Deny me O Lord Riches Health Prosperity Liberty or whatsoever else is most dear to the Animal Life only deny me not this Exercise me in what Trials and with what Afflictions thou pleasest only allow me this Cordial and I shall be sufficiently happy This will be a sufficient Compensation for all Sufferings and Support in them all It will be a Light to guide us in this dark Sphere and a Defence against all Dangers It is an internal Armour which will render us unconquerable till we have past all the Perils of this World and are arriv'd at Heaven where confirm'd and never-ending Joys attend us For the proof of all which I appeal to the Experience of every Man that hath been acquainted with Vertue and Piety and observ'd their Effects I appeal to the Noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors who suffer'd in their Quarrel and became by this more than Conquerours See then the different ends of Vice and Vertue The First presents you with some Shadows of Pleasures which prove both Vanity and Vexation This Second bestows upon you True Pleasures both outward and inward solid and durable which neither Pain nor Sickness nor Death it self arm'd with all its Terrors can deprive you of and which will never forsake you till they have brought you to that place where there is fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore § 20. I have at large discours'd of the true Nature of the Pleasures of Sensuality that cheat so many into their Ruine and after an impartial Discovery of their Inside I hope I have sufficiently expos'd their Falshood Vanity and Insufficiency I have added to this an imperfect Account of the Pleasures of a well-govern'd and vertuous Life Imperfect I say for they are to be felt not express'd I have nothing to add to this Letter but some few Reflections upon these Two Heads I. The Difficulties and II. The Miseries that in the beginning of this Discourse were objected to attend this Duty And then conclude the trouble of this Letter c. § 21. As to the pretended Difficulties of Autarchy I have this Answer 1. That Autarchy in it self is neither hard nor ungrateful but easie and natural
when you arrive at the End Be content therefore to be a Jewel though sometimes you lie neglected in the Dust and to shine though none takes notice of you 'T is a greater thing to deserve to be a Prince than to be one actually and he is indeed a King that reigns over himself and his own Appetites though he hath none other Subjects Remember that Vertue is its own Reward here though it had neither Riches nor Honours attending besides it must be rewarded hereafter Those internal Blessings of Peace and Joy are its own and when it hath no other Reward in this World which is very seldom God takes notice of it and his Reward is with him and the greater because deferr'd And therefore upon the whole matter I must conclude That Autarchy is the only way to true Glory here and Immortality hereafter § 12. By this time you must confess that Godliness and Autarchy is nothing else but the Power it exerts over the furious and raging Passions hath usually the promise of this Life as well as that which is to come That her outward Advantages are great as well as her inward Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace Length of days are in her Right hand and in her Left Riches and Honours These are the Privileges that Solomon annexes to a Heavenly Wisdom of which Self-Government is the greatest and hardest part I might here further add to its Advantages that of outward Peace with Men for Peace of Mind was proved to be her gift in the last Discourse the quiet I mean Good Will and Neighbourhood she would settle in the World and the Dissentions she would banish out of it It would restore the terrestrial Paradise again together with its pristine Innocence and make that a Tempel of God which is now become a den of Thieves It would cast out the Devil of Hatred and Malice of Self-Love and Covetousness of Pride and Revenge those Fiends that will not suffer us to live in Peace and restore Love Meekness and Humility to bring the Frame of Nature in order again Thus it would make us all happy if we would accept of Happiness and we should while we live here have some Fore-tastes of the Felicity we are to receive hereafter These are some of the Advantages of Autarchy I might add many other and make many ingenious and surprizing Observations thereupon But it is time to retire and try to practise mine own advices Besides I have in some measure discharg'd the Promise made in the First of these Essays and therefore after a brief review of the whole I will descend to the Conclusion § 13. You have heard therefore my studious Dorotheus in the First Paper the Doctrine of Autarchy explain'd together with the several Rules of Practice In the Second I have I hope satisfied you that its Pleasures are true substantial and durable whilst those of Sensuality are delusive uncertain and unsatisfactory That its regimen is not so grievous or difficult as the World would persuade you but that it is attended with the best inward and outward Pleasures In this Last I have endeavoured to shew its outward Advantages as Health Long Life Riches and Honours in this World as well as Eternal Life in the World to come if it fails in any outward Blessing 't is but in order to a greater it naturally leads to 'em and if it sometimes miss let not that be your discouragement Food may by accident cause Diseases and that which is the means of Life cause Death However it cannot fail of Life with the Ancient of days and the Riches and Honours of a Heavenly Kingdom This is the Argument of what I have writ upon this Subject and my Design and great End in all this is to excite you to the Practice of those Vertues included under the Notion of Autarchy and such are Patience Meekness Humility Temperance Continency Charity and such like And to this End I will commend to you these Considerations I. It is a Duty not only according to original and incorrupt Nature in which the lower part is design'd to obey the upper and join'd to it for its service but also worthy of it It is the peculiar Character of a good and wise man of him that lives the Life of Angels here and is design'd to live with them hereafter It is the only way to restore the defac'd Image of God recover our lost Integrity and the Aethereal Seats from whence we are fallen which is our business in this World for we are sent hither to be exercised in Vertue that we may be fitted for Light and Glory And he that doth not answer this end of his Creation in this Life shall sink down in the next he shall have cause to lament that he had any Being here and shall be so much the more miserable by how much he might have been happy II. It is an Exercise that hath the reality of all the true Pleasures that God usually bestows upon the Sons of Men in this Vale of Tears whilst the Pleasures of Sin are false counterfeit and momentary Besides it is a Preparative for future and greater Joys when God shall lift up our poor dejected Souls out of their terrestrial Prisons to the Aethereal Seats and Offices nearer to himself To which add That it hath as you have heard prov'd all the outward Advantages we can expect in this state of Darkness and Death For it hath been evidenced That nothing can tend more to Health and Long Life Riches Credit Respect yea an immortal Name if any such thing can be obtain'd here or is worth the pursuit than this Great Duty Thus 't is an Aggregate of all the poor present Joys of these lower Regions and an earnest of those of a higher and if any thing can make us happy here 't is only this III. It is an Exercise that the World as well as Religion will in some sense exact of us For though Christianity requires stricter Rules of Discipline for the Body by how much its Principles are higher nobler and more remov'd from Corporeity yet Autarchy is daily and in some respects must be used in every condition of Life Every prudent Man must use it and so hath done from the beginning and that Man doth not live who denies himself nothing If mortal Desires were all to be satisfied they would be soon too clamorous to be endured and would in a short time destroy themselves as well as us We daily deny our selves some thing and look upon it to be no burthen but are content so to do Subjects deny themselves the Pleasures of Regality and Princes willingly relinquish the Liberty and Recesses of Subjects The poor are contented â—o fare hard and be without the Varieties of the Rich Man's Table and the Rich Man is forc'd to want the Appetite and Freedom of the Poor We look upon it to be our Fate to be without many things upon prudential and
secular Accounts The World will enjoin Self-Government without the censure of Tyranny and why may not Religion Be but then as wife for your Soul as you are for your Body or Estate and you need no more The other World may sure engage you as far as this IV. And Lastly that I may come nearer your self and your present Circumstances It is an Exercise that can only suit with your Education under the best Discipline and the most learned place under Heaven It is the true End of all your Studies at School and in the University It is the Aim of those excellent Men that have the educating of Youth the cultivating of Natures and the dressing of Souls in every Seminary of Learning It is the End of your Friends Cares and Fears for you of the Sciences that you have studied and the Degrees you have taken and particularly of the highest and most useful Science called Moral Philosophy As to Physicks there be many things in Nature inexplicable and so are like to remain till this Dream of Life is over And other things are explicated several ways by several Men endlesly confuting each other so that some have concluded to sit down with a Resolution to profess to know nothing but Morality or the Doctrine of conforming our Manners to the Rules of Vertue is plain easie and certain And while other Sciences may be perverted to vain and sinful Ends and Purposes the Morality of the Schools is the Hand-maid to that of Divinity and leads to that we learn of Christ It has an inherent holiness in it and is not subject to Perversions and the Moralist shall he still accounted as he was once by the Oracle the wisest and the best Man For this Learning especially that part that teaches you to govern your self è coelo descendit descended from above and directs us thither § 14. Nor are you to deferr the Duty of Autarchy or the governing your self till Old Age or a fiter Season in your Judgment but set your self to the present Practice of it And against the delaying of this or any other Duty I must lay before you these Five Considerations 1. Our Life is uncertain neither have we here a continuing City but must we know not how soon be turn'd out into the vast Abyss of Eternity to seek one In all the Periods of our Time Death attends us as well as in Old Age and our last Day is both certain and uncertain to us For God when he sent us hither allotted us our times long or short according to his Will and our Necessities and in proportion to our Wants and his Goodness And he hath wisely hid the Bounds and Limits of these our times in Darkness and unknown Futurity so that we cannot find them out till we have passed them And this the rather that no Man might presume upon his remaining Sand deferr Repentance or depend upon any but God for Life That we might always expect what for ought we know may befal us at any time and make every Day our last because it may prove so 2. Though we cannot find out the Dimensions of our Lives which are hid with God and beyond which we cannot pass as Job tells us Job 14. 5. Yet I suppose it lies in our own power to shorten them and so curtail that Blessing that Heaven design'd for us For I conceive that those Terms and Limits are assign'd Conditionally and upon supposition of our using the best Means and right Management of our selves And consequently in these licentious Times few Men reach those Bounds set by God and Nature And though it may be we cannot enlarge those Terms set for us which I am apt to believe in compliance with Job's Words afore-mentioned yet it doth not follow but we may shorten them Thus Excesses carry us off betimes and Debauchery dispatches us in a few Years the Sword hath slain its thousands but Sensuality its ten thousands It is beyond the power of Physick to restore what we consume and destroy and we are most of us at all times and all of us at some time or other God forgive us a kind of felo de se's or Self-Murtherers Autarchy must therefore be begun betimes because it can then only bring us to our Journey 's end and save us from the imputation of contributing to our own Death 3. 'T is a foolish and dangerous thing to put off that which we must not only begin but perfectly exercise at one time or other or else be miserable It is contrary to all the Methods of Wisdom and Prudence in the world to deferr a thing of that infinite concern to us as Salvation or the Means requisite thereunto Procrastination may possibly make us miserable in a moment but it can never do us the least good 4. God with whom are the Measures of Life and the fatal Bounds which we may not pass may justly resent our delay and offer us his Grace no more He that slights his great Concerns in this World when he hath Opportunity may justly have that Opportuity taken away from him and who knows but God may enlarge or abbreviate our Lives according as we use or abuse his Tenders of Grace However the Door may be shut and the day of Salvation may end before that of Nature The Scripture tells us To him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have 5. And Lastly Procrastinators seldom begin much less finish any Religious Work And there is this reason to be given for it The same Cause which makes you deferr a thing to day will to morrow and so forward And if Difficulty Idleness or Want of Inclination be that cause to day it will be more to morrow and so forward The longer the work of Self-Conquest is deferr'd the harder it will grow till it becomes insuperable and the more will be your Aversion to it The Flesh which at first is tractable and tender will if left to its own Management become stubborn and hard to be bowed And therefore it hath been observed That Procrastination is not only a Sign but a Cause of final Impenitency Remember therefore the Sentence with which a late pious Author concludes his Book out of the Mouth of the wise Siracides Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put it not off from day to day Ecclus 5. 7. § 15. The Conclusion of all shall be hortative and that it may have the more Effect in the words of the divine Psalmist quoted and approv'd of by St. Peter and so declaring the Sense of the Old and New Law about the Duty of Autarchy and its present Reward Psal 34. 12 c. and 1 Pet. 3. 10 c. What Man is he that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy Tongue from evil and thy Lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good seek peace
and ensue it For the Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his Ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth In which words the great Duty is Autarchy which consists 1. in the Government of the Tongue from Raillery and Falshood 2. of the Actions in declining every evil Act and doing that which is good 3. of the Mind that it be free from the unruly Passions peaceable in it self and peaceable with all men Thus for the Duty then for the Reward It incloses the Duty on all sides that one may not be seen without the other It promises 1. Temporal Blessings as most agreeable and taking with flesh and blood viz. Long Life Many Days and Enjoyment of Good in them And then adds 2. Spiritual Blessings and these follow the Duty God's Eyes i. e. his gracious Aspect or Providence watches over the righteous and his Ears are open to their Prayers whereas on the other side he sets himself in opposition to them that do evil his Face or Countenance is against the Sensualist not only to cut him off from the earth but the very Memory of him his place and name so that they shall no where be found You see then Dorotheus both your Duty and Reward And what now can be expected from you upon the whole matter but that you should act like your self as a Man of Reason and Understanding and having the Candle of the Lord for your Guide that you follow its Light in all things Do nothing therefore unworthy of your Knowledge and Learning and entertain no Thought that may be a shame to either Bring every intended Action to the Test and examine it before the upper Court of Judicature Avoid Self-condemnation as the greatest evil and scorn to do that in private which you dare not own in publick Eschew not only every sinful but every unworthy Action and abstain not only from Evil but from the very appearance of it Desire nothing but what is necessary and proper for you and suspect every Licentious Act though there appears no present Sin in it Use your Body to some Discipline and accustom it to Disappointments now and then that it may the easier bear the non-enjoyment of things prohibited Keep it and its Appetites at a distance and under the rod and if it rebels exercise it with Fasting and Abstinence In a word Be absolute in your self and tolerate no Resistance there § 16. Thus taught Socrates that living Image of Wisdom and Plato the God-like and the rest of the wise and obedient Sons of Nature enlightened only by the glimmering Candle-light of its Laws Nay thus taught and liv'd the Holy Jesus and spent his time here in Fasting Prayer and other spiritual Exercises not out of any necessity in respect of himself but that he might give us an Example He willingly chose Sufferings and Poverty rather than Empire and preferr'd Sorrow to Mirth as more proper for a Vale of Tears Thus liv'd and taught his holy Apostles and first Followers denying themselves chastising their Bodies and keeping them under and that not only for Cure but for Prevention And thus liv'd and taught the Primitive Saints for some hundreds of Years till Iniquity began to abound and the divine Love to wax cold Many of whom that they might be more than Conquerours shew the Power they had over themselves and avoid Temptations chose to prevent Death and die whilst they lived leave the World I mean and all its Vanities and Follies abandon Delights renounce all humane Conversation deny themselves even innocent Entertainments and shut themselves up from the power of Vain-glory and all Society And this was the Original of a Monastick Life I know very well that there is no Necessity of going thus far and that even this sort of Desertion of the World hath degenerated into Hypocrisie That the blackest Crimes have been acted in the dark and the greatest Licentiousness under the Monk's Cowl and Hood I know likewise that no Man is necessitated to take upon him the Vow of Coelibacy or to forsake the World in that Sense Our Lot is easier than theirs who were forced to fly to the Mountains and spend their times in Solitudes Religion is God be thanked both commanded and rewarded and Autarchy admir'd by all though us'd by few But this is that I have and must maintain That we must keep our selves unspotted from the World and the sinful Lusts of the Flesh And in order thereunto That we must learn the Art of Self-Conquest by the most convenient and suitable Methods and that we ought to be prepar'd to suffer though we have no present Enemy or outward War That Christianity is a spiritual Warfare and that we have the Devil and our own Lusts to combate and conquer And finally That those good and wise Men which like so many Stars illuminate these dark Regions of Sin and Ignorance ought to be Autarchists Shine then my Dorotheus amongst these few for thus only shall you ensure inward Quiet and Peace amongst the Uncertainties of an unconstant World you will experiment true external Pleasures besides the Comforts of a pure Conscience which nothing can take from you you will find inward Pleasure and Peace if not that which outward and probably Long Life Health Credit Respect and many good days The strait Gate will grow wider and the narrow Path broader and Autarchy will at last prove your Reward as well as Duty You will begin here to live the Spiritual Life the Life of Angels and beatified Souls which as you grow older will become more and more delightful till at last you meet Death disarm'd of all its Terrours lovely and charming because it will conduct your willing Soul to the Regions of Bliss and to the Company of Angels Which is the daily Prayer of your Friend and the Design of these Papers FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printted for Dorman Newman THE Way to Health Long-Life and Happiness or A Discourse of Temperance and the particular nature of all things requisite for the Life of Man as all sorts of Meats Drinks Age Exercise c. with special Directions how to use each of them to the best advantage of the Body and Mind Shewing from the true ground of Nature whence most Diseases proceed and how to prevent them To which is added a Treatise of the most sort of English Herbs with several other remarkable and most useful Observations Very necessary for all Families The whole Treatise displaying the most hidden Secrets of Philosophy and made easie and familiar to the meanest Capacities by various Examples and Demonstrations By T. Tryon The Second Edition with Amendments Also the other Works of the Authour A Brief Exposition of the Church-Catechism with Proofs from Scripture By Dr. Williams The Third Edition The Penitent Lady or Reflections on the Mercy of God Written by the Fam'd Madam La Valliere since her retirement from the French Court to a Nunnery Translated from the French by L. A. M. A. The Second Edition Contemplations on the state of Man in this Life and in that which is to come By Bp. Taylor A Golden Chain to link the Penitent Sinner unto God Whereunto is added a Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul A Moral Discourse of the Power of Interest By David Abercromby M. D. and Fellow of the College of Physicians at Amsterdam The Second Edition Letters of advice from two Reverend Divines to a young Gentleman about A weighty Case of Conscience And by him recommended to the serious Perusal of all those that may fall into the same Condition Fly youthful Lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. Dr. Willet's Synopsis Papismi or a general View of Popery Wherein the whole Mystery of Iniquity maintained by the Church of Rome is Confuted by Scripture Fathers Councils Imperial Constitutions Pontifical Decrees Their own Writers Our Martyrs and The Consent of all Christian Churches in the World Divided into Five Books or Centuries containing so many Hundreds of Popish Heresies and Errours Together with the Life and Death of the Learned Authour This Book hath been Five times Printed and contains near 400 sheets in large Folio there being a small number left they are proposed to be sold at 7s 6d in Sheets or 10s bound Shelton's Art of Short-Writing both sorts Tachygraphia and Zeiglographia
and rewarded and Religion is not now to be espoused in Chains but upon the Throne So that notwithstanding the extraordinary examples of some of God's dear Servants in the Old Testament and of many more in the New I am bold to conclude That Autarchy tends naturally and of it self to present as well as to future Pleasures whether it be of the Mind or a Regulated Body and to make us happy here and hereafter And thus having made what Observations and Reflections I thought suitable upon the Vanity of the pretended Pleasures of Sensuality having pleaded the Cause of Self-Government and vindicated it from the Acccusations of Tyranny or Cruelty over the Body or her attendant Passions I will reserve her Outward Advantages to be the Subject of the Third Letter ἈΥΤΑΡΧΊΑ· OR THE DUTY of Self-Government The Third PART Of the Outward Advantages of Autarchy and an Exhortation thereunto § 1. I had not long finished the Second Part of this Moral Essay in which I hope I have somewhat contributed to the allaying the Heats of your Sensual Desires and rebated your Prejudices to the Oeconomy of Self-Government but I be thought my self of my Promise made in the Conclusion of it to treat of the Outward Advantages of Autarchy 'T is true my Dorotheus the inward Pleasures mentioned in my last of Joy Peace and the Testimony of a good Conscience are the greatest Blessings we are capable of on this side Heaven but then the other outward Blessings are not to be despised As long as we are here we all naturally desire those Delights that caress Humane Nature and he must be more than an ordinary Philosopher that can over-look all corporeal Pleasures He is happy that can gratifie his Soul but yet he is thought more happy that can gratifie his Soul and Body both and yet preserve his Innocency If then Autarchy be a Friend to both these its Government sure cannot be refused What it is in respect of Pleasures hath been the Subject of the former Paper and what it is in respect of all Outward Advantages shall be the Subject of this After which I shall draw up all the Premisses into one conclusion and tying a Knot upon it leave it with you to the judgment of after Experience § 2. The Outward Advantages of Autarchy which I have not discours'd of in my former may be reduc'd to these Three Heads 1. A Healthful and Long Life 2. A Competent Estate or Sufficiency 3. Honour and Respect from all Men. These are the Three Principal Favourites of the Body and are courted as our greatest Happiness while we are here A sickly long Life is therefore thought so much the more miserable because it is long and a Healthful Short Life miserable by reason of its Shortness And both Health and Length of Life cannot make us happy according to the vulgar Opinion if we are condemn'd to Poverty and to eat the Bread of Carefulness And there be many that will not be satisfied without a third accessional I mean Honour and Respect And there is no Man but the highest Christian that can wholly lay them all aside and say with St. Paul That he counts all things but dung and loss so that he may win Christ I cannot expect you should arrive at this Spiritual Life this Perfection of Wisdom these many years It will be sufficient if you attain it at last with all the Aids of Morality and Religion In the mean time it will be sufficient to alliciate a young and unexperienc'd Nature by that which seems most inviting in this World though it be but as Children with Toys and such are most of us in a spiritual Sense I mean with Earthly Blessings such as Life Estate and Honour My Business therefore shall be to demonstrate to you not that Autarchy will infallibly make you live long Healthful Rich and Honourable or instate you presently in the Possession of these Three Blessings for there may be many Circumstances which may hinder the Effect and God may not prosper the Means for the Ends designed nor do I intend to affirm that this Duty will enfeoff you with the intense degrees of each i. e. that it will make you live to threescore years and ten or fourscore and all that while in abundance of outward Prosperity Riches and Grandeur for this is not entail'd upon any Duty but That it is the readiest Way and the most probable Means to obtain a convenient portion of each and enough to ascertain an outward Happiness That it naturally tends to long Life and Health Sufficiency of Estate and Respect and where it is not hinder'd of its effect will ensure them Thus as the Reasons of the former Paper will make you a Votary to the Spiritual Government as a Christian and a Philosopher so those of this may work upon you as a Man I begin with the first of its Temporal Advantages A Healthful and Long Life § 3. Of all the outward Blessings that God usually crowns Man with in this World Health and Long Life ought to be first named because most desired The First begets the Second and they mutually caress each other and would do so eternally When things are as they should be Nature abhorrs an Alteration for fear of a Dissolution The sullen Rocks cling together and oppose Separation and the soft Waters which are dasht into a thousand pieces against them reunite their Parts which will not separate till Gravity and the indispensible Laws of the Universe compel them The Vegetables though they die at Winter do yet retain the Seeds of Life against their Resurrection in the Spring and accordingly appear again in their various Figures and Colours The Birds and Beasts labour night and day to preserve a belov'd though to themselves an unprofitable Life and when they can no longer escape the Snares of the cunning Fowler or cruel Hunter they mournfully utter out their resentments of Man's Tyranny in their inarticulate Rhetorick Man the Lord of the visible Creation preserves his own Life by destroying others and pays Nature in himself what he has robb'd her of in other Creatures We are apt to admire the Happiness of Methusalah and if we thought it to any purpose would desire to live as long as he We complain of Nature's unequal bounty to the Antediluvian World whilst she confines us to Threescore or Fourscore Years To live long and see many happy or rather than die unhappy days to live though old lame decrepit and despis'd much more when young healthful and strong is the universal desire of deluded Mortals inamour'd of their Sorrows and besotted of their Chains Nor can Reason Counsel or Experience without a Diviner Ray darted from Heaven into their Souls undeceive them And after all it is something unaccountable to find that though most Men make Long Life the chiefest Petition in all their Addresses to Heaven yet there are few that will confess they have received it though they have pass'd their great