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
this World for the next For if thou canst do but this one thing there will be nothing wanting but thou shalt become perfect and my Disciple indeed c. And if Autarchy be such as I have represented it no wonder that it seems hard Difficulty puts a price upon Vertue and even Heaven would not be so were it of easie Ascent and the acquest of every idle Drone Autarchy is too great a Duty to be the work of every common Pretender to Christianity and yet it is not hard but easie easie to him that is resolute and faithful to his best Thoughts easie to him that is exercised therein of which more it may be hereafter In the mean time let this be your Comfort That it is not so hard but it is easily practicable and that it makes all other Duties easie And now to apply all this to your self and all others for whose sakes I have thus at large traced the Hostilities originally founded in our Nature and our Duty thereupon 'T is certainly every Man's Interest as soon as he comes to the stature of a Man and to years of Understanding to consider what he is and why sent hither that so he may lay the Foundation of a wise and honest Life and give a good account thereof to his Creator And that you may do this the better I will in the Close of this Paper commend unto you and all other Readers these Rules and Cautions § 19. First You are therefore in the first place to maintain religiously the Rights of the supreme Judicature and submit to it And this by a firm and fixt resolution worthy of the Courage of a Man acting according to the Dictates of his Understanding and not Sense for such a Man will die rather than desert his Reason but of this before c. Consent not therefore to any thing that your Reason condemns either as unlawful or inconvenient though ever so delightful or advantageous let the Importunities of Sense be ever so great that of Friends ever so earnest or Example ever so general Some Men are of a Nature stiff morose and resolute not without a seeming Mixture of Pride and Contempt these are hardly to be advised or perswaded and they would in this respect be happy if they could always take up the best Resolutions because they are best able to keep them Others are of a soft easie and bashful Nature apt to be perswaded and to comply with Customs and Counsels though to the prejudice sometimes of their Reason they are loath to deny and afraid to disoblige being too good Natur'd to strive as well in Vertue as other things The first are like hard Wax not to be dissolv'd but by Force of fire the second like that which is soft are apt to be work'd into any shape by warmth and kindness Though the first be deservedly abhorr'd as an Enemy to common Courtesie and humane Nature yet considering the Policy of the Devil and his Instruments it were to be wished that our Nature be not so sweet and pliable as to ruine us but had at sometime especially something of Sowreness and Morosity If therefore you find your self too apt to yield and melt into a Compliance you ought to borrow a little Boldness Self-Opinion and Contempt of others to fortifie your self against their Seductions The Question is only whether you will be govern'd by your own Reason or others Folly and there is no question to which of these you ought to adhere even Shame and Modesty have their Evils and Extreams and something of Confidence is requisite to Constancy do not therefore disparage your own Prudence so much as to steer after every pretended Mariner's direction but pursue the Methods of your own Reason let others do as they please do you act according to the dictates of your own Judgment and take heed of being self-condemn'd For if you act conscientiously and according to your best Light without any sinister ends I will not say you cannot err but this I am confident of That God will not condemn you if you do tho it be much I don't know but I may extend this Rule to Opinions and Controversies in Religion but at present I intend it of moral Actions in Opposition to the Seducements of Sense 'T is hard you 'll say to take up and harder to keep a Resolution in opposition to the Sollicitations of Pleasure and Profit yea and of a Man's Native Inclinations 'T is so I confess and yet sure this would not prove so hard a Work if you take care in the second place to § 20. Secondly Begin betimes to subdue your Appetites and use them to the Yoke from your Youth you well remember the Example of bending a twig whilst it is such and the Lesson that is inculcated from thence of early Exercise The Sensual part when reduc'd into subjection young doth become tractable and obedient and will grow so whereas when it hath gotten strength it becomes restiff and stubborn You have not wanted either Education or Example and if you had you are young enough to begin this Glorious Work It is in my Judgment an excellent Method to make now and then an Experiment upon your self in things that are lawful deny your self the Enjoyment of some Pleasures for a short time which may be lawfully used at any time especially then when you perceive Sense to become most importunate By this Means you will make a tryal of your Strength if you are foil'd it will be no Sin if you conquer you may know your own Strength and keep that in subjection which may at last prove your Enemy And if there were no other use of the Fasts of the Church I suppose this only were sufficient to commend them to practice § 21. Thirdly Endeavour to support your superiour Faculties and assert their Authority by Arguments drawn from the Nature and End of that Action to which you are invited examine whether it be convenient if not sinful or whether some Evil may not be the consequent of it Some Actions are apparently good so that we need not dispute of them others are evidently evil but there are Actions of a third sort which are indifferent and though they partake in their own Natures of neither good nor evil yet as they are used they may tend to either these are they that are to be weighed in the Scales and Resolutions taken accordingly Besides there are some Evils in disguise and plead Innocency and those would be brought under Examination and Discovery § 22. Fourthly Avoid carefully all those things that abate the Strength and undermine the Government of your superiour Faculties Such as these are prophane Discourses evil Examples debauch'd Companions lascivious Songs and evil Communications which corrupt good manners There is surely a kind of Infection in these and they are catching especially in some Constitutions they infect the Soul through the Ear pollute the Mind and propagate Vice like a spiritual Pestilence they serve
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