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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_n	letter_n	receive_v	778	5	5.2253	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28549	Summum bonum, or, An explication of the divine goodness in the words of the most renowned Boetius translated by a lover of truth and virtue.; De consolatione philosophiae. English	Boethius, d. 524.; Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707.	1674 (1674)	Wing B3434; ESTC R7385	77,686	220

Summum Bonum OR AN EXPLICATION OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS In the Words of the Most Renowned BOETIVS Translated By a Lover of Truth and Virtue OXFORD Printed by H. Hall for Ric. Davis 1674. Imprimatur Rad. Bathurst Acad. Oxon. Vice-Can March 6. 1673. 4. To the Nobility and Gentry of England SIRS I Here Present you the most Profound Meditations of one of the Bravest Spirits that was ever Cloath'd with Flesh and Bloud viz. the CONSOLATIONS of the most Honourable BOETIVS in the midst of His Greatest Sufferings With My Earnest Desires that Your Selves and Your Posterity Escaping His Misfortunes may ever Follow the High Example of His Heroick Virtues which Virtues whosoever shall Attein unto he certainly will be More than Conquerour in All the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life which both in Sacred and Prophane Writt is term'd a WARFARE That Famous Apophthegm of SOCRATES in Defyance of His Bloud Thirsty Enemies might well have been spoken in the like Case By a Greater Philosopher than SOCRATES the Renowned BOETIVS They may Kill Me but they Cannot Hurt Me. Though He does not make any Express mention of JESUS CHRIST in this Philosophical Discourse yet 't is well known how Zealously He Contended for the Truth Against those Execrable Haereticks that Deny HIM to be GOD Whom theVniversal Church According to the Scriptures Acknowledgeth to be GOD of GOD LIGHT of LIGHT Very GOD of very GOD Begotten Not Made Being of one Substance with the FATHER By VVhom All things were Made I Pray GOD we may All Hold the Mystery of the Faith in a Pure Conscience As did this Excellent Man Whose Thoughts of the Nature of True Happiness though in a Style I must confess not Answearable to His Great Wit and Eloquence I have Endeavour'd to Express in the English Tongue which has been no less Adorn'd by those Admirable Writings of Our late SOVERAIGN than the Latine Tongue by those which the Learned BOETIVS compos'd IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS HE and BOETIUS and All the Noble MARTYRS give Testimony to this Truth so Elegantly Exprest by His ROYAL Pen The Assaults of Affliction may be Terrible like Sampson's Lion but they yield much Sweetness to those that dare Encounter and Overcome them who know how to overlive the Withering of their Gourds without Discontent or Peevishness while they may yet Converse with GOD. Wishing You al the Experiences of the Unspeakable Sweetness of the onely True Honour and Virtue I Rest Your Affectionate Humble Servant To the Reader AFter I had perfected the Translation of all I intended to Translate of BOETIUS I receiv'd from a Learned Friend the Notice of a very good Translation of all His Five Bookes Consolationis Philosophiae which was Publisht 1609. The Author has given us the knowledge but of Two Letters of His Name I. T. Though I have not taken so much as one Expression from this Excellent Person yet I think it my Duty to pay this Acknowledgement to His Memory for I suppose He was in Heaven long since that His Booke affords Me an Abundance of the purest Delight and Satisfaction whilst I Double as it were Mine own Notions of the SOVERAIGN GOOD by their Complication with His. I do not Appropriate these Notions to BOETIUS and His Translators and those others who have been Addicted to the Study of this Incomparable Booke they are Common to Us with All those that LOVE the LORD JESUS in Syncerity For this LOVE Essentially implies a Deep Sense of GODS ALL-SUFFICIENCY And of the VANITY and Dissatisfaction of All things under the Sun I Requested My ever Honour'd Dear Friend Mr. H. H. to send me some of His Reflexions on BOETIUS'S Discourse of the Soveraign Good and He was pleas'd to Oblige Me with this Answear Dear Sr I receiv'd both your Letters with the Copies of the Latin Tractate you published wherin you endeavour to bring men to a right understanding of the Soveraign Good of Humane Minds a glorious employment in it selfe and never more useful than in this our Age. For your desire that I would say something by way of Praeface to your Translation of Boetius though I am sensible you may much better and with greater Advantages recommend it to the World than I yet to assure you of that Great affection and service I have for your Person I have sent you my present thoughts When Mankind was at first Created they lived and acted under the Divine life and Nature freely injoying and participating of the Communications of the First and Vniversal Good but being lapsed into a State of Sin Indigency and Penury they quickly lost sight of those Glorious formes and the Influences of Heaven were sealed up But yet though their Case was sufficiently deplorable the Deluge of Iniquity and Vice had not so far defac'd the Beauteous Structure of Virtue but that the remaining Ruines shew'd the Glory of the Ancient Fabrick and men still knew God and searched after the Author of their Beings and the Reason of their Natures led them to a Pursuit of Happiness Hence it came to pass that the wise men of the World were divided in their Opinions concerning the Vniversal Good and Happiness of Humane Nature some placing it in the bare and naked Pleasure resulting from the exercise of Virtue others in a perfect Apathy Insensibility and deadness to all Passions whatever and others again in a full Gratification of all the Corporeal Faculties But we who through the Gracious Bounty of God live under a more Radiant and Refulgent light than that of Nature have a perfect sight of that which they through the clammy mists of Ignorance and Darkness did but feele after and we know that the Happiness of Humane Nature consists in it's Vnion and Conjunction with the Eternal Good Which being the Highest and Vtmost Perfection of our Soules ought certainly to awaken our drowsy and stumbring minds to a vigorous Prosecution of so transcendent a state of life a life so full of solid and substantiall Joy and Pleasure that if we did not take false measures and estimations of things we could not but think it infinitely beyond the fairest and best of all Sublunary Felicities And indeed the Mind of man is then in a wrong state of Position when it's Appetites and Desires are fixed and terminated upon Terrestrial Good such as is so far from any Harmony or Agreeableness with our Intellectual Frame that it vilifies and Degrades it and sets it at a vast Disproportion to it's true and Proper Object And this is that false and Adulterate Beauty that so often cheats us into a liking and Approbation of it A meer Shadow of Happiness which we possess only in our Fancies and Imaginations For if there were really any Substantial Felicity or Good in Riches Honors Worldly Glory and Corporeal Pleasures the mind of man would then be full and at Rest it would then have no more Passionate Thirsts and Aspirations when once it were possest of it's

If he did Rejoyce in what he hath Receiv'd from Without this any other man even he who confer'd it on him might deprive him of But sith it is confer'd on him by that Goodness which is Within himselfe he will never want his Reward as long as he continues to be Good Lastly sith every Reward is therefore Desir'd because it is believ'd to be Good who will ever judge that he who Possesseth the True Good can miss his Reward But what is this Reward certainly the Fairest and Greatest of All Rewards Remember the Corollary which I gave thee but a little before and gather in the full Proofe of what I have said thus Sith the Soveraign Good is True Happines 't is manifest that All Good men even in this that they are Good do become Truly Happy But it has been concluded that those who are Truly Happy are Gods Such therefore is the Reward of Good men which shall not be worn out by the longest Time nor diminisht by any mans Power nor defil'd by any mans Iniquity viz. To become Gods And sith these things are so what Wise man can ever doubt of the Pains and Anxieties that are implyed in the nature of All Wicked Actions For sith Good and Evill Punishment and Reward are Opposite it must needs be that whatsoever we see in the Reward of Good that which is directly Contrary therunto may be seen in the Punishment of Evill As Virtue therefore is the Reward of the Virtuous so Vice and Impurity is the Torment of the Wicked But now whosoever suffers Punishment doubts not but that he is opprest with Evill If therefore they would rightly Judge of themselves could it seem to them that they are free from Trouble and Vexation whom Wickedness the greatest of all Evils doth not only oppress but Pierce through seizing and Perverting all their Faculties But Observe what Pains and Anxieties attend the Wicked in opposition to what we have said of the True Pleasure and Satisfaction of those that are sincerely and firmly Possest of True Goodness and Virtue For thou hast been taught a little before that whatsoever Is or hath any Proper Being is One and that ONE is GOOD The Consequence of which is this whatsoever hath any Proper Being that also is Good And thus whatsoever failes to be Good ceaseth to Be whence it is manifest that Evill men cease to Be what they Were But that they were Men is shown by the Shape of an Humane Body which still remains Wherefore the Temper of their Minds being Chang'd into such Evill Dispositions they have lost the True Nature of Man But sith Goodness and Piety only can Advance any one beyond the Condition of Men it must needs be that those whom Wickedness hath Degraded from their Humanity should fall beneath the Merit or Dignity of a Rational Creature Therefore whomsoever thou seest Transform'd by Vice thou mayst not any longer Esteem him as a Man Dost thou see any one to commit Rapine being Enflam'd with the Love of Riches thou mayst say that he is a Wolfe Is any one Fierce and Unquiet exercising his Tongue perpetually in Brauls and Contentious speeches thou mayst compare him to a Dog If he delight in subtle Cheats and Wiles thou mayst compare him to a Fox Is he unable to suppress his Anger breaking forth into the greatest Fury upon the least provocation let him be Judg'd to have the Soule of a Lion Is he exceeding Timorous and ready to Flye where there is not the least cause of any Fear let him be liken'd to the Hart. Is he Dull and Slothful he leads the Life of an Ass Is he light and Inconstant allwayes changing his Resolutions he is like the Foules of the Aire Does he Wallow in the Mire of Filthy Lusts he is taken with the Pleasure ef a Dirty Sow Thus it comes to pass that whosoever having deserted all True Goodness and Piety ceaseth to be a Man sith he cannot Attein to the Divine Condition he is turned into a Beast The THIRD VERSE That vices are of greater force than enchantments ULysses with his Friends Arrives Vnto the Isle where Circe Dwelt With Cups Enchanted she receives Her Guests whose Power they quickly felt This Man is chang'd into a Bore A Lions Shape another takes A third when he would fain Deplore These Changes his own Shape forsakes And now he doth not Weep but Howle One's Chang'd into a Tygress mild Such as the Indians do Controule As though 't were not by nature Wild. But Mercury commiserates Ulysses and him saves from harme Though for him also Circe waits To plague him with her direful Charme Yet those that Sailed with Him sup The Dregs of Her Enchanted Cup. The New-Made Swine their Akorns Eat Estranged now from Their own Kind In Voice in Body and in Meat In all things else except the Mind Which for this Monstrous Change doth Grieve O feeble Charme which though it can Make Humane Shape the Shape receive Of Beast it cannot Change the Man The Life and Vigor of Mankind Is Inward in the Heav'n-born Mind This Poison Vice is stronger far Man of Himselfe It quite deprives Although the Outward Man It spare Men lose by It Their proper Lives The FOURTH PROSE Of the misery of wicked men BUT the Vulgar regards not these things What then shall we be like them whom we have demonstrated to be no other than a sort of Irrational Creatures What if any one having wholly lost his Sight should forget that he had ever seen any thing and conceit that there was nothing wanting to him of Humane Perfection should we therefore judge those that retein their Sight to be Blind likewise For the Vulgar refuse their Assent to this also which depends upon as firm and solid grounds as any thing we have formerly demonstrated viz. That those Persons are more Miserable that Do an Injury than those that Suffer it I would fain hear said I what grounds thou canst shew for this Dost thou deny quoth she that every Wicked man is worthy of Punishment No surely But it appears by many Reasons that they are Miserable who are Wicked 'T is true said I. Whosoever then are worthy of Punishment thou doubtest not but they are Miserable It cannot be deny'd quoth I. If therefore thou didst sit as a Judge on whom wouldst thou conceive that Punishment should be inflicted on him who has Done or on him who has Suffer'd an Injury I doubt not said I but that I should satisfie the Person Injur'd by the Griefe of him that hath done the Injury The Injurious therefore would seem to be more Miserable than he who hath receiv'd the Injury It followes indeed said I. By this Reason therefore and others of the like Importance viz. that Vice and Impurity does by it's own Nature make men Miserable it is most evident that he who offers an Injury not he who receives it doth thereby become Miserable But now quoth she our Advocates Act quite