Precepts and a strider Consideration of Things The First looks upon Things but very slightly and take up with very loose and imperfect Notions of them Now it may very truly be said that there are Three sorts of Wisdom Divine Humane and Worldly these relate and bear proportion to God to Nature in its primitive Purity and Perfection and to Nature lapsed and deprav'd Concerning each of these sorts the Three Orders of Men just now instanc'd in deliver themselves each according to their Condition and Capacity But more properly and peculiarly thus The Vulgar are most skilled and conversant in the Worldly the Philosophers about the Humane and the Divines about the Divine Wisdom as their particular Business and Study The Lowest of these is Worldly Wisdom and this varies according to the great Ends which it proposes to it self Riches Pleasure or Honour With regard to these it degenerates into Avarice Luxury or Ambition according to St. John's Division of it 1 John iii. 16. All that is in the World is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life From whence St. James hath given it those scandalous Characters of Earthly Jam. iii. 15 Sensual Devilish Now This is what both Philosophy and Divinity take upon them to reprove and endeavour to suppress and reform They pronounce it to be no better than Folly and Madness and so accounted in the sight of God And accordingly you will find no mention made of This in the following Treatise of Wisdom except it be to disallow and to condemn it The Divine and Highest of these Three sorts is treated of by Philosophy and Religion after a manner somewhat different from each other As for what the Common and Vulgar sort of People usually say or are capable of saying upon this Occasion I omit it all as too mean and low to have any place in our Consideration and rather a Profanation of the Subject than otherwise Philosophers represent it as a Matter wholly Speculative the Knowledge of First Principles and the Hidden Causes of Things and lastly the Highest and Supreme Cause GOD Himself which with other abstracted Notions is the proper Business of Metaphysicks in particular This resides entirely in the Vnderstanding and is its chief Happiness and Perfection 't is the first and most sublime of all the Intellectual Virtues and Excellencies which are capable of subsisting without Probity or Action or any Moral Virtue Divines on the contrary do not so consine it to Speculation as not to extend it to Practice too for they make it the Knowledge of things pertaining to God such as should enable us to form a Judgment of Matters to regulate our Lives and actions by And This they tell you is of Two Sorts The One acquired by Study and Industry not much unlike what I mention'd to be the Science intended by Philosophers The Other infused and coming from above This is the First of those which are sometimes termed the Seven Gifts of the Spirit with regard whereunto he is styled The Spirit of wisdom such as rests only upon the Righteous and the Pure and as the Book of Wisdom truly observes Wisd 1. iv will not enter into a malicious Soul nor dwell in the Body that is subject unto Sin This is what the present Treatise is not intended for neither but is the Subject of my First Truth and those other Works of mine which are properly Treatises of Divinity and Religious Discourses From hence my Reader easily perceives that Humane Wisdom is the real Title and Subject of the following Book of which it is fit some short Description should here be premised which may stand for the Argument or summary Account of the whole Work Now the Common Accounts of this Matter as they are various and very distant from one another so are they all narrow and imperfect The vulgar and most general Notion of it amounts to no more than Circumspection Address and Prudent Behaviour in Business and Conversation This indeed is like the Vulgar and a Thought worthy of Them who place all Excellence in Action and Shew and outward Advantages and consider no good Quality any farther than as it is observ'd and admir'd They are entirely devoted to Eyes and Ears the Internal Motions of the Mind are of little or no Consequence with this sort of Men and therefore in their Acceptation of the Matter Wisdom may subsist without either Piety or Pobity for All they require from it is a good Outside and Appearance and such Easiness of Conduct and Agreeable Management as shall approve a Man's Discretion and his Parts Others again mistake it for a Roughness and Singularity of Temper and Behaviour a particular Stiffness of Fashion Obstinacy in Opinions Affected Expressions and a Way of Living out of the Common Road. And therefore those that value themselves upon these Qualities they call Philosophers when in truth to return a little of their own Jargon back again upon them They are nothing better than conceited Humourists Fantastical and Capricious Coxcombs This now according to the Scheme and Measures pursued in this Book is in plain English Extravagance and Folly The Nature then of this Wisdom must be learn'd from some other Hand that is from Philosophers and Divines who have both explain'd and treated of this Matter in their Moral Tracts The Former handle it as their proper Business For they consider Men as they are by Nature and with regard to practice But the Latter rise higher and aspire to infused and supernatural Graces such as are Speculative and more than Humane that is Divine Wisdome and with Regard to Faith Hence it comes to pass that the Former is more extensive and large as undertaking not only to direct private but publick Duties Societies as well as single Persons are instructed by it Whatever can be necessary or advantagious to Families Communities Common Wealths and Kingdoms all falls within its Compass and Jurisdiction Divinity on the Other Hand is more silent and sparing upon these Accounts and Aims chiefly at the Eternal Happiness and Salvation of particular Persons Besides The Manner and Air of their Treatises is very different That of Philosophy more free and easie and entertaining that of Divinity more plain and authoritative and with less Pains to recommend it self to Mens Fancies and Palats Philosophy therefore which is the Elder of the Two as Nature must have been antecedent to our Supernatural Assistances tries to insinuate it self and win Men's Favours * Simul Jucunda idonea dicere vitae Lectorem delectando pariterque monendo Horat. So as to join Instruction with Delight Profit with Pleasure Lord Roscommon And therefore she dresses and adorns her self with Discourses Arguments Turns of Wit and Flights of Fancy Apt Examples and moving Similitudes Ingenious Expressions useful Apothegms and all the Graces of Art and Eloquence Divinity comes in a commanding strain and thinks it a Diminution of her Majesty to descend
to such popular and mean Methods And accordingly there wants a great deal of that Freedom and Gaiety and if I may so say Cheerfulness and good Humour in this which you are to expect in Philosophy which yet must be so tempered as not to degenerate into Triste and Meanness but still continue to be truly Generous and Brave It must be allow'd that Philosophers have acquitted themselves admirably well in this particular not only in the Instructive but the Moving and Persuasive Part setting off all their Vntues to the best Advantage and taking Care that all the Heroick Excellence of them shall appear in its just Dignity and Proportions Vnder which Title of Philosophers I comprehend not only such as the World have thought sit to Dignify with the Fame of Wisdom as Thales Solon and those that were of the same Strain about the time of Cyrus Croesin and Pisistratus Nor them only of the next in Succession who taught and profest Wisdom publickly as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Aristotle Aristippus Zeno Antisthenes who are all of them Heads and Masters in their Art nor their Disciples and Followers who afterwards divided into particular Sects but I include likewise all those great Men who rendred themselves exemplary for Virtue and Wisdom as Phocion Aristides Pericles Alexander whom I 〈◊〉 dignifies with the Character of Philosopher as well as King Epaminondas and the rest of the brave Greeks The Fabricii Fabrii Camilli the Cato's the Torquati Reguli Lelii and Scipio's among the Romans most of them Military Men and Commanders of Armies Vpon this Account though I do not refuse or disregard the Authorities of Divines yet I have more frequent recourse to those of Humanists and Philosophers in the following Treatise Had I design'd to prepare Men for a Cloister or a Life of such Perfection as aspires above the Precepts and aims at the Perfection of Evangelical Counsels then indeed my Subject would have obliged me to keep close to those Authors But since I am training a Man up for the World and forming him for Business and mixt Conversation Humane and not Divine Wisdom is the proper Accomplishment for me to recommend and the Method of answering my Purpose Speaking therefore in general Terms and according to the Nature of the Thing We must in Agreement with Philosophers and Divines acknowledge that this Humane Wisdom consists in a Rectitude of the Man when every part within and without his Thoughts and Words and Actions and every Motion is Graceful and Noble and what is for the Honour of his Nature For this is the Excellence of a Man considered as a Man so that as we call That Piece of Workmanship Perfect which hath all its Parts entire and is finisht according to the niâ—est Rules of Art He is in like manner said to be a wise Man who understands upon all Occasions how to shew himself a Man by acting in perfect Conformity to the Fundamental and First Rules of Humane Nature Or to speak more Particularly He that is well acquainted with himself in particular and Mankind in general that preserves himself from all the Vices the Errors the Passions the Defects incident to him as well from the inward Causes of his own Mind as the outward proceeding from Custom and Common Opinion that asserts the Native Freedom of his Mind and hath a large universal Soul that considers and judges every thing without enslaving himself to any that directs all his Aims and Actions so as that they shall agree with Nature that is Pure uncorrupted Reason the Primitive Law and Light inspired by God and which shines still in every Breast The Model by which the wise Man squares his own private Judgment That in his outward Behaviour complies with the Laws and Customs and Ceremonies of the Country where he dwells that demeans himself toward others with Discretion and Prudence is always firm and consistent with himself pleased and contented without any discomposure of Mind expecting and entertaining any Accident whatsoever and especially Death the last and most terrible of them all All these Strokes or Lines which go to the making up this Idea may be reduced to Four that are the principal and most commanding of all the rest The Knowledge of a Man's self Free and Generous Largeness of Mind The acting in Conformity with Nature which is of an Extent so large as when rightly understood to be singly and by it self a Rule sufficient and true Content and evenness of Temper For these are Qualifications which never meet except only in the wise Man He that is defective in any one of them does not come up to the Character He that either mistakes his own Condition or whose Mind is in any sort of Bondage either to his own Passions or to the Common Vogue that is partial and ty'd up to any particular Notions cramps up his Thoughts and cuts himself out from his Native Right of examining and judging every Thing He that lives in Contradiction to Nature that is Right Reason upon what Pretence soever he forsake it whether he be seduced by Passion or Opinion He that trips and staggers through Trouble or Terror or Discontent and lives in dread of Death This Man is not cannot be Wise Thus you have in little the Piece which this following Treatise designs to draw in its full Proportions Particularly the Second Book which consists of the General Rules and a Description of Wisdom in the gross and this indeed is more properly mine than either of the others so peculiarly such and so full to my purpose that I once had Thoughts of sending it into the World alone And what I have here described in Words the Graver hath done with his Style in the Frontis-Piece of this Book which the Reader will find an Explanation of immediately after this Preface Now there are two Things which principally conduce to this Wisdom and help Men forwards in the Attainment of it The First of These is a Good Constitution or Temperament of the Brain which makes us capable of such Improvements as our own Care and Industry shall be able to acquire Of how very great Consequence this is and how far it falls under the Power of Men to contribute to it you will find at large in the XIII Chap. of the First and the XIV Chap. of the Third Book The Second is the Study of Philosophy not all the Branches of it equally but the Moral Part chiefly yet so as that the Natural be not wholly neglected 〈…〉 this is our Candle to enlighten our 〈◊〉 to arreâ—t our Rule to chalk out the Way for us It explains and gives us true Idea's of the Law of Nature and by this means furnishes a Man for every part of his Duty as a Man whether it concern him in Publick or in Private in Company or Alone as a Member of a Family or of a State it sweetens and takes off all the Beast in us makes us tame and gentle and good-natured fashions
they vend it without more to do Allegations indeed have their Uses and proper Seasons they are absolutely necessary in controverted Points where the Cause is to be decided by Authorities But then they ought to be used with Moderation and in Measure and good Care taken that they be home to the purpose that Prudence be used in the Choice of them for generally the Fewer and the Weightier to be sure the Better they are For it was his Opinion that of all the Three Manners of Expressing our Thoughts This was the least valuable As for the Third That indeed was infinitely the best and the Persons who make it their Method are by much the greatest and most significant Men. Antiquity and Authority were thus far of his side The Ancient Homilists being so many Examples of it in whose Writings and Orations you very seldom or never find a Quotation and in truth the old Authors of all Sorts and Professions seem to make sound Reason and good Sense their Business This being the proper the generous Food for entertaining Men desirous of Knowledge and of distinguishing Minds This relishes and shews more of Judgment and Understanding which are Nobler and more Exalted Parts of the Mind than Memory Lastly This is infinitely the most Free and Noble in it self and more Delightful and Improving to Hearers Readers and the Person who makes Use of it too than any other Method whatsoever For by this Men are rather made Wise than Learned and more accustomed to examine and make a Judgment of things Consequently the Will is directed and the Conscience informed this way whereas the rest are good for nothing but to stuff his Memory and Imagination with other Peoples Notions or little trifling Niceties This Account I thought not improper to trouble the Reader with because from hence he will guess what he is to expect in this Treatise and see withal what kind of Tast our Author had in Matters of this Nature As for what relates to his Temper Manners Conversation and Actions whether in Publick or Private I shall need to say only thus much That he made it his Constant Business to render them conformable to those Rules and Maxims contained at large in this Second Book of the following Treatise and was very successful and very accurate in the Undertaking What Persuasion and Church he was of his Three Verities abundantly declare as do likewise his Christian Discourses which were printed since his Death and make a convenient Volume by themselves How strict and conscientious he was may appear from this single Instance That though he were possest of several Theologal Canonries one after another yet he would never be prevailed with to resign any of them in Favour of any Person nor to name his Successor for fear of giving Occasion to the Censure of having upon private Respects put in an unqualify'd Man and One who was not worthy to fill such a Post But he constantly gave them up freely and clearly into the Hands of those Bishops who had collated him The last thing I shall mention upon this Occasion is his Last Will which was made and written all with his own Hand in January 1602. and after his Decease registred in the Office at Condom In This he first returns most humble Thanks to God for all the Mercies and Benefits which by His Bounty he had enjoyed in his Life-time begs him most earnestly for his infinite and incomprehensible Mercies Sake in the Name of his Well-beloved Son and our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ and for His Merits shed and multiplied upon all his Members the Elect Saints to grant him Favour and full Pardon for all his Offences to receive him for his own Child to assist and conduct him with his Holy Spirit during his Continuance in this World that he might ever remain in a sound Mind and the true Love and Service of Him his God and that at the Hour of Death he would receive his Soul to himself admit him into the Society and sweet Repose of his Well-beloved ones and inspire all his Holy and Elect Saints with a Pious and Charitable Disposition to pray and make intercession for him Then proceeding to the Legacies he bequeaths among other things To the Church of Condom provided his Corps be Interr'd there Two Hundred Livres Tournois upon Condition that every Year upon the Day of his Death High Mass shall be once said in his Behalf and Absolution once pronounc'd over his Grave He gives moreover to the Maintenance of poor Scholars and young Girls Two Thousand Four Hundred Crowns the yearly Income hereof to be distributed for ever the one Moiety to Three or Four Scholars the other to Three Four or Five young Maidens at the Discretion of his Executors of which he constituted Five The Master of St. Andrew's School and Rector of the Jesuites at Bourdeaux for the time being his Heir and Two of his Friends the Three Last to name some other Persons to succeed in this Trust after their Decease with This Qualification that they nominate such only as are well known and reputed for their Abilities Honesty and Charity And that any Three of these in the Absence of the rest might manage and dispose things as they should see convenient Likewise he gives and bequeaths to Mrs. Leonora Montagne Wife to the Sieur de Camin Kings Counsel in the Parliament at Bourdeaux half Sister to the late Sieur de Montagne the Summ of Five Hundred Crowns And her Husband Monsieur Camin he constitutes his sole Heir He paying the Charges and Legacies contained in his Will amounting in the whole to about Fifteen Thousand Livres Tournois in the Gross Summ. What hath been thus lightly touched upon is a sufficient Evidence how Religious and Conscientious a Person Monsieur Charron was that he feared God led a pious and good Life was Charitably disposed a Person of Wisdom and Conduct Serious and Considerate a great Philosopher an eloquent Orator a famous and powerful Preacher richly furnished and adorned with the most excellent Virtues and Graces both Moral and Divine Such as made him very remarkable and singular and deservedly gave him the Character of a Good Man and a good Christian such as preserve a great Honour and Esteem for his Memory among Persons of Worth and Virtue and will continue to do so as long as the World shall last OF WISDOM THE FIRST BOOK Which consists of the Knowledge of a Man 's own self and the Condition of Humane Nature in general An Exhortation to the Study and Knowledge of ones self The Introduction to this whole First Book THERE is not in the World any Advice more excellent and divine in its own Nature more useful and beneficial to us nor any at the same time less attended to and worse practis'd than that of studying and attaining to the Knowledge of our selves This is in Truth the Foundation upon which all Wisdom is built the direct and high Road to all Happiness And
the Humane to the Divine Nature as some interpret that Passage From hence perhaps it was that Apollo who among the Heathens was esteemed the God of Knowledge and of Light had this Inscription KNOW THY SELF engraven in Characters of Gold upon the Front of his Temple as a necessary Greeting and Advertisement from the God to all that should approach him intimating that this was the first Motion from Ignorance and Darkness the most necessary Qualification for gaining Access to such a Deity That upon these Terms only they could be admitted to his Temple and fit for his Worship and that all who were not acquainted with themselves must be excluded from that Place and Privilege Cant. 1.8 * 〈…〉 O pulcherrima egredete abi post hoedos tuos If thou know not who thou art O thou fairest among Women go thy way forth and follow thy Kids Would a Man make it his Business as every Man sure ought to do to lead the most regular It disposes Men to be wise composed and pleasant Life that can be we need go no further to fetch Instructions for it than our own selves Had we but the Diligence and Application as we have the Capacity and the Opportunity to learn every Man would be able to teach himself more and better than all the Books in the World and all his poring there can ever teach him He that shall remember and critically observe the extravagant Sallies of his Anger to what Furies and Frenzies this raging Fever of the Mind hath formerly transported him will more distinctly see the Monstrous Deformity of this Passion and conceive a juster Abhorrence and more irreconcilable Hatred against it than all the fine things that Aristatle and Plato have said upon the Point can ever work him up to And the same in Proportion may be expected from a Reflection in all other Cases where there is a vicious Excess or violent Concussion of the Soul He that shall recollect the many false Conclusions which an erroneous Judgment hath led him into and the Slips and Miscarriages which an unfaithful Memory hath been guilty of will learn to be more Cautious how he trusts either of these for the future And especially when a Man calls to mind how many Cases he is able to quote to himself wherein he thought all Difficulties sufficiently considered that he was a perfect Master of his Point how assured and peremptory he hath been how forward to answer to himself and to all he conversed with nay to stake his Reputation for the Truth of an Opinion and yet Time and After-Thought have demonstrated the direct Contrary This bold confiding Man I say will be taught from hence to distrust such hasty Arrogance and abandon all that unreasonable and peevish Positiveness and Presumption which of all Qualities in the World is the most opposite most mortal Enemy to better Information and Discovery of the Truth The Man that shall reflect upon the many Hazards and Sufferings in which he hath been actually involved and the many more that have threatened him how slight and trifling Accidents have yet given great Turns to his Fortunes and changed the whole Face of his Affairs how often he hath been forc'd to take new Measures and found Cause to dislike what once appeared well design'd and wisely manag'd This Man will expect and make Provision for Changes hereafter will be sensible how slippery Ground he stands upon will consider the Uncertainties of Humane Life will behave himself with Modesty and Moderation will mind his own Business and not concern himself with other People to the giving them any Offence or creating any Disturbance and will undertake or aim at nothing too big for him And were Men all thus disposed what a Heaven upon Earth should we have Perfect Peace and Order and Justice every where In short the truest Glass we can consult the most improving Book we can read is Our own selves provided we would but hold our Eyes open and keep our Minds fixed with all due Attention upon it so bringing to a close and distinct View and watching every Feature every Line every Act and Motion of our Souls so narrowly that none may escape us But alas this is the least of our Care and the farthest thing in our Thoughts Against those who know not themselves * Nemo in sese rentat descendere Into himself none labours to descend And hence it is that we fall so low and so often To this must be imputed our perpetual Relapses into the same Fault without being ever touched with a Sense of our Errour or troubling our selves at all about the matter We play the fool egregiously at our own vast Expence For Difficulties in any case are never rightly understood except by such as have measur'd their own Abilities And indeed as a Man must thrust at a Door before he can be sure that it is shut against him so there is some degree of Application and good Sense necessary in order to the perceiving the Defects of ones own Mind And we cannot have a more infallible Demonstration of the universal Ignorance of Mankind than this that every body appears so gay so forward so undertaking so highly satisfy'd and that none can be found who at all question the Sufficiency of their own Understanding For were we throughly acquainted with our selves we should manage our selves and our Affairs after quite another manner We should be ashamed of our selves and our Condition and become a new kind of Creatures He that is ignorant of his Failings is in no pain to correct them and he that knows not his Wants takes no manner of care for Supplies and he that feels not his Disease and his Misery never thinks of repairing the Breaches of his Constitution or is solicitous for Physick †Deprehendas te oportet priusquam emendas sanitatis initium sentire sibi opus esse remedio You must know your self before you can mend your self the first Step to Health and Recovery is the being sensible that you need a Cure And this very thing is our Unhappiness that we think all is safe and well We are highly contented with our selves and thus all our Miseries are doubled Socrates was pronounc'd the wisest Man not for any Excellencies of natural or acquir'd Parts which render'd him superiour to all the World But because he understood himself better behaved himself with Modesty and Decency and acted like a Man Thus Socrates was a Prince among Men as we commonly say He that hath one Eye is a King among them that have none Such as are doubly blind and have no Sense at all left For so are the Generality of the World Nature makes them weak and wretched at first but they make themselves doubly so afterwards by their Pride and lofty Conceits of their own Sufficiency and an absolute Insensibility of their Wants and their Miseries The former of these Misfortunes Socrates shared as well as
his Opinion incline to that Account or not would at least think himself well entertain'd upon this Subject by the perusal of our Learned and Ingeious Dr. Willis in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of his Book De Animâ Brutorum Two things are fit to be added upon this Occasion with regard to what Monsieur Charron hath deliver'd concerning Instinct The first is That in regard we observe these Animals constantly going on in the same beaten Track and keeping ever close to one Method and even in those Instances which have the greatest Appearance of Comparison and Choice of Ten Thousand that make the same Experiment or go about the same thing not one varying from the common and received Way This seems to be some Governing Principle in Nature which gives a necessary Determination to them and very different from that Liberty and Consideration which hath scarce any more convincing and demonstrative Proof of the Will being absolutely unconstrain'd in Mankind than that Multiplicity of Opinions and strange Variety of Proceedings observable upon Occasions and Junctures in themselves extremely alike The Other Remark Proper upon this Occasion is that what our Author suggests here is no Consequence at all as if too much Honour were done to these Creatures and such a Happy and Unalterable Determination to what is Profitable and Proper for them were a Privilege more than Humane a nearer Approach to that unerring Wisdom and unchangeable Goodness of the Divine Nature than We our selves can boast of For there is so very wide a Difference between Liberty and Necessity of acting the One is so Glorious so truly Noble the Other so Mean so Slavish a Principle that no Comparison can be made between them The most Glorious most Beautiful most Useful Parts of the Material Creation are in this Respect infinitely beneath the meanest of the Sons of Men and all their other Advantages put together cannot deserve to be laid into the Balance against this Single Dignity of Free and Spontaneous Action And though the Excellency of the Divine Nature be indefectible and unalterable Goodness yet would not even This be an Excellence if it were not the Effect of perfect Liberty It is indeed Our Misfortune that our Understandings are imposed upon our Affections perverted and so the Choice we have the use of often determines us to the wrong Side and entangles us in Errour and Vice But These Defects and Temptations are so many Clogs and Bars upon our Freedom and therefore God who is above any Possibility of such false Determinations is still so much the more Free For Freedom does not consist in a Power of choosing Evil as well as Good which is a Power indeed that never was or can be strictly speaking but in being Self-moved and Self-acted so as to be the Disposer of one 's own Will without any Compulsion or necessary Determination from a foreign or external Principle and only acting as one is acted upon If then this Instinct in Brutes be a Matter of Force and Necessary Determination they are in no Degree the Better or more Commendable for it but under a fatal Constraint which is so far from resembling the Divine Perfection that it admits of no Virtue nor ought to be esteemed any Excellence but the direct Contrary Fourthly Let us observe what mighty Difference there is between the Perceptions of Brutes and those of Men so great that in them we find no Footsteps of any but such as are Material and Single Objects and what this Author advances as Collections and Inferences from thence are not improbably assign'd by Others to the Force of Imagination or the Strength of Memory or to those Natural Impressions which commonly go by the Name of Instinct To the latter of These we find very Learned Men attributing that uniform Process of Birds and Bees and Ants in their Nutrition Generation Production and the like To the Former that which Charron terms deducing an Universal from a Singular and knowing by the having seen one Man how to Distinguish the Humane Form in any or all Individuals of the same Species But supposing we should allow that this proceeds from a distinguishing Faculty and not meerly from the refreshing and awaking an Image that lay dormant in the Memory 'till revived by this fresh Object yet what Proportion can even thus much bear to all those Abstracted Idea's by which Men distinguish the Natures and Properties of Things If a Brute from the Sight of a Man could collect so much as should serve to discriminate all other Men from Creatures of a Different Species yet what is This in Comparison of that Penetration which examines into the Abstruse Causes and essential Differences of Things and informs it self distinctly wherein that very Character of our Nature which we call Humanity consists And what account can there be given of any universal or abstracted Idea's in Beasts of any of those which we properly call Reasonable Actions For as to these seeming Demurrs and little Comparisons which we find instanced in here and in other Places it is usual to observe as much in Children so little and Naturals so wretchedly Stupid as that there are but very Faint if any Glimpses at all of Understanding in them I know indeed S. 1. Monsieur Charron hath provided a Reply to this Argument by saying That we cannot have any competent Knowledge of Their Internal Operations But though we do not see all the hidden Movements of their Souls nor can distinctly say whether they are feeble Reasoners or Stupendous Machines yet we may be very confident they cannot dive into the Causes and abstracted Idea's of Things because there do not appear the least Foot-steps or any of those Noble Effects of such Knowledge which Mankind have in all Ages been conspicuous for For to these abstracted Notions it is that all the amazing Inventions and Improvements of Arts and Sciences but especially the Wonders of Mechanism and Motion by Numbers and Proportions Duly adjusted owe their Birth and daily Growth And since in the Distinction and Perception of Concrete Bodies where Sensation is chiefly concern'd the Brutes are acknowledged to equal if not exceed Us in Accuracy it is not to be conceived that They who excel in a Faculty which is commensurate to a Sensitive Soul should be able to give No Marks at all of their being endued with a Capacity of entertaining and feeding upon those Ideas which are the Peculiar Prerogatives and Glories of a Rational one Much more might be added upon this Occasion with Regard both to the Objects themselves and the particular Manner of Conception and the infinite Disparities of the Humane Intellect and that Faculty which is affected in Brutes But it is Prejudice sufficient against them that so many very Wise and Inquisitive Persons have found Cause to do even something more than doubt whether Brutes be better than a sort of Divine Clock-Work and have any manner of Sense or Perception at all This at
Pleasure Call its Fruitions slat and insipid if you please but yet they are solid and substantial agreeable and universal They must needs be so indeed because they are Lawful and Innocent free from the Censure of Others and the Reproaches of one's Own Mind What the World calls Love aims at nothing but Delight it hath perhaps somewhat of Sprightliness and is of a quicker and more poignant Relish but this cannot hold long and we plainly see it cannot by so few Matches succeeding well where Beauty and Amorous Desires were at the bottom of them There must be something more solid to make us happy A Building that is to stand for our whole Lives ought to be set upon sirmer Foundations and these Engagements are serious Matters such as deserve and it is Pity but they should have our utmost Discretion employed upon them That Hot Love bubbles and boils in our Breasts for a While but it is worth Nothing and cannot continue and therefore it very often happens that these Affairs are very fortunately manag'd by a Third Hand This Description is only Summary and in general Terms Another more particular one But that the Case may be more perfectly and particularly understood it is sit we take Notice that there are Two Things Essential and absolutely Necessary to this State of Life which however contrary and inconsistent they may at First Sight appear are yet in reality no such Matter These are Equality and Inequality the Former concerns them as Friends and Companions and upon the Level the Other as a Superiour and an Inferiour The Equality consists in that Entire Freedom and unreserved Communication whereby they ought to have all Things in Common their Souls Inclinations Wills Bodies Goods are mutually from thenceforward made over and neither of them hath any longer a peculiar and distinct Propriety exclusive of the other This in some Places is carried a great deal farther and extends to Life and Death too insomuch that assoon as the Husband is dead the Wife is obliged to follow him without delay There are some Countries where the Publick and National Laws require them to do so and they are oftentimes so Zealous in their Obedience that where Polygamy is indulged if a Man leave several Wives behind him they Try for it Publickly and enter up their Claims which of them shall obtain the Honour and Privilege of sleeping with their Spouse that is the Expression they soften it by and upon this Occasion each urges in her own behalf that she was the best belov'd Wife or had the last Kiss of him or brought him Children or the like so to gain the Preference to themselves Th' Ambitious Rivals eagerly pursue Death as their Crown to Love and Virtue due Prefer their Claims and glory in Success Their Lords first Nuptials are courted less Approach his Pile with Pomp in Triumph burn And mingle Ashes in one Common Urn. In other Places where no Laws enjoyned any such Thing it hath been resolved and practised by mutual Stipulation and voluntary Agreement made privately between the Parties Themselves which was the Case of Mark Antony and Cleopatra But omitting This which in truth is a Wicked Barbarous and Unreasonable Custom The Equality which is and ought to be between Man and Wife extends it self to the Administration of Affairs and Inspection over the Family in common from whence the Wife hath very justly the Title of Lady or Mistress of the House and Servants as well as the Husband that of Master and Lord over them And this joint Authority of Theirs over their own private Family is a Picture in Little of that Form of Publick Government which is termed an Aristocracy That Distinction of Superiour and Inferiour which makes the Inequality consists in This. Inequality That the Husband hath a Power and Authority over his Wife and the Wife is plac'd in Subjection to her Husband The Laws and Governments of all Nations throughout the World agree in this Preeminence Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent Victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis Ora perusta viris but the Nature and the Degrees of it are not every where the same For These differ in Proportion as the Laws and Customs of the Place differ Thus far the Consent is Universal That the Woman how Noble soever her Birth and Family how great soever her Fortunes or any other personal Advantages is not upon any Consideration exempted from Subjection to her Husband This Superiority and Inferiority may well be general and be the Opinion of All when it is so plainly the Condition of All. For in truth it is the Work of Nature and founded upon that Strength and Sufficiency and Majesty of the One Sex and the Weakness and Softness and Incapacities of the Other which prove it not equally qualified nor ever designed for Government But there are many other Arguments besides which Divines fetch from Scripture upon this Occasion and prove the Point indeed substantially by Them For Revelation here hath backed and enforced the Dictates of Reason by telling us expresly that Man was made first that he was made by God alone and entirely by Him without any Creature of a like Form contributing any thing towards his Being That he was Created on purpose for the Pleasure and Glory of God his Head That he was made after the Divine Image and Likeness a Copy of the Great Original above and Perfect in his Kind For Nature always begins with something in its just Perfection Whereas Woman was created in the Second Place and not so properly Created as Formed made after Man taken out of his Substance * See 1 Corinth xi 7.8 The Man is the Image and Similitude of God but the Woman is the Similitude of the Man So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similis sum not Glory as we read it which is foreign to the rest of the Words and the whole Scope of that Argument Fashioned according to that Pattern and so His Image and only the Copy of a Copy made Occasionally and for particular Uses to be a Help and a Second to the Man who is himself the Principal and Head and therefore She is upon all these Accounts Imperfect Thus we may argue from the Order of Nature But the thing is confirmed yet more by the Relation given us of the Corruption and Fall of Man For the Woman was first in the Transgression and sinned of her own Head Man came in afterwards and by her Instigation The Woman therefore who was last in Good in order of Nature and Occasional only but foremost in Evil and the occasion of That to Man is most justly put in Subjection to Him who was before Her in the Good and after Her in the Evil. This Conjugal Superiority and Power hath been very differently restrained or enlarged
die Like foolish Chapmen who put off their Bargains till the Shops are shut and then complain of an ill Market What say they shall I never get an Opportunity of retreating from the World and living to some Purpose Alas * Quam serum est incipere vivere cum desinendum est quam stulta mortalitatis oblivio Dum differtur vita transcurrit How unseasonable is it to begin to live when we can live no longer What strange Infatuation makes us thus forget that we are Mortal While we put off to a farther Day and intend to take up hereafter that very Life which should have been employ'd is lost and gone So good reason had all the Wise Men of Old to call upon us so often and so loudly to make the best of our Time and lose no Opportunities so just is That Warning That of all the Necessaries of Life Time is the greatest the most indispensable what they who want and are prodigal of undo themselves to all Intents and Purposes The shortness of Life and the length of Art is not more properly apply'd to the Study of Physick and the Art of Healing than it is to the Art of Living For this is an Art too and such as cannot be master'd without long Study and great Application of Mind This is the true the only Wisdom and therefore this present Direction is the first and most concerning those that follow are but so many Deductions from and Helps to it 2. The Next is That we would learn to dwell alone to be easie when by our selves and if Occasion so require well content to be deprived of the Company and Comfort of all the World It is an extraordinary Attainment to know how to enjoy one's self and a Virtue as well as Advantage to take Satisfaction and perfect Content in that Enjoyment Let us therefore set about it in good Earnest and never rest 'till we have gain'd this Point upon our selves The conquering all our Fondnesses and uneasie Hankerings after the Conversation of others and the taking Delight in conversing with our own Souls That so our Contentment may depend upon our selves alone and not upon other People nor upon any thing without us But though we should not seek Conversation as our Happiness and what we cannot want yet must not this Self-satisfaction degenerate into a cynical Moroseness or a proud affected Solicitude It is a Fault to refuse or to disdain the Company of our Friends This is what we ought not only to accept but to be glad of and good Humoured in allowing and practising all those Diversions which pleasant Discourse and innocent Mirth are able to give us My Meaning is only to keep Men from being Slaves to those Diversions and unable to relish any Pleasure without them and such are a great part of the World almost quite lost and sadly to seek what to do with themselves when they are alone Now every Man ought to be sufficiently provided at Home for his own Entertainment and he is very poorly supplied who cannot subsist upon his private Stock for one Day at least But the Man who hath brought himself to do so every Day and needs be beholding to no body for his Sustenance and Satisfaction of this kind is sure to be always Happy always pleas'd 'T is true In the midst of all this he ought to be Civil and Complaisant to put on an Air of Gaiety or Business comply with the Company and do as they do submit to the Necessity of Affairs and follow when that calls in a Word it will be his Prudence to accommodate his Temper and Behaviour to any Thing that may happen but howsoever those Considerations may alter his outward Appearance and oblige him to make different Figures in the Eye of the World to put on all Humours and shift his Manner as oft as the Scene changes yet still at Home and within himself he must be always the same This is the Effect of Meditation and serious Thought which is indeed the Food the Life the Essence of the Soul And it is a remarkable Instance how kind Nature hath been to us that what we thus live upon is the most frequent the most lasting the most easie and natural Employment of our Souls for Thought is always with us and most truly our own But though all Men's Minds are employed yet is not the Employment easie to all alike nor the Matter they are employed upon the same In some this Entertainment of themselves is mere Impotence and Childishness the Dosings of Idleness and Sloth the want of Business and merely the Effect of having nothing else to do But Great Souls make it their Choice they court and covet the Opportunities for it look upon it as their main Business and most improving Study And therefore they ply it close with their utmost Application and Intenseness of Thought their Faculties are all at Work and as was said of Scipio they are never less alone than when they are by themselves never more full of Business than when retreated from the World and sequestred from all that Men commonly call such This so far as Humane Nature can aspire to the Resemblance of so bright an Excellence is to imitate Almighty God for He lives and feeds upon the Eternal Reflections of his own Mind And Aristotle guessed right when he laid down this constant Employment as the Foundation of the Happiness both of the Divine and Humane Nature For Self-sufficiency and Self-satisfaction are but other Words for Happiness and These are never to be had never to be tasted but by learning to employ and to entertain our selves well with our own Thoughts 3. But then in order hereunto great regard must be had to the Choice of sit Subjects for the Mind to dwell upon For some People make so very ill Use of this solitary Retreat into themselves that they are their own worst Tempters and Company is their best Preservation To the Intent therefore that this Meditation may be an Employment indeed and this Entertainment delightful like His whose Image our Souls are we must take Care not to trifle away our Time in vain Thoughts and much more still not to mispend it in Vice The First is sure to do us no manner of Good the Second a great deal of Harm Some grave severe Study some useful profound Knowledge some Contrivance how to improve and exalt our Minds and make our selves better Men should be our great Employment and Concern God hath given us Reason and Comprehension and a large Possession a Rich Soil it is but the manuring and cultivating and making it fruitful is our Duty the principal Task incumbent upon every Man what the Laws of Nature and Religion have covenanted for and what each of us must expect to give an Account of It highly concerns us therefore to be serious and vigilant to look narrowly into our selves and see how Matters stand with us to call in our Cares and Endeavours
the same time to the Exercise of its Vegetative and Sensitive Powers as we see plainly by Instances of Persons who have been raised from the Dead to live here below But this would not infer a Necessity of the same things for living in another State For those Faculties whose Exercise supports this Life we now lead are not thereby proved of such Consequence that no other kind of Life could be supported or enjoyed without them It is in this Case with the Soul as with the Sun for the same Instance will be of Use to illustrate our Argument in this Branch also which continues the same in himself every whit as entire and unblemished not in any Degree enfeebled though his Lustre and Vital Influences be sometimes intercepted and obstructed When his Face is cover'd with a Total Eclipse we lose the cheerful Light and cherishing Heat but though no sensible Effects of him appear yet he is in his own Nature the same Powerful Principle and Glorious Creature still Having thus as I hope sufficiently evidenced the Unity of the Soul It s Origine in each Individual animated by it let us in the next Place proceed to observe from whence it is deriv'd and how it makes its Entry into the Body Concerning the Former of these Particulars great Disputes have been maintained by Philosophers and Divines of all Ages Concerning the Origine of the Humane and Intellectual Soul I mean for as to the Vegetative and Sensitive attributed to Plants and Beasts those by general Consent have been esteemed to consist intirely of Matter to be transferred with the Seminal Principles and accordingly subject to Corruption and Death So that the whole Controversy turns upon the single Point of the Humane Soul and concerning this the Four most Celebrated Opinions have been these which follow I omit the Mention of any more which are almost lost in the Crowd because These have obtained so much more generally and gained greater Credit than the Rest The First of these is that Notion of the Stoicks embraced by Philo the Jew and after Him by the Manichees Priscillianists and others This maintains Reasonable Souls to be so many Extracts and genuine Productions of the Divine Spirit Partakers of the very same Nature and Substance with Almighty God himself who being said expresly to have breathed it into the Body these Persons have taken the Advantage of Moses's Words and fixed the sublimest Sense imaginable upon them He Breathed into him the Breath of Life by which they are not content to understand that the Soul of Man is a distinct Thing and of a different and more exalted Original than the Body a Spirit of greater Excellence than that which quickens any other Animal but they stretch it to a Communication of God's own Essence The Second was deriv'd from Aristotle receiv'd by Tertullian Apollinaris the Sect of the Luciferians and some other Christians and This asserts the Soul to be derived from our Parents as the Body is and in the same Manner and from the same Principles with that whence the Soul of Brutes and all that are confin'd to Sense and Vegetation only are generally believ'd to spring The Third is that of the Pythagoreans and Platonists entertained by most of the Rabbinical Philosophers and Jewish Doctors and after them by Origen and some other Christian Doctors too Which pretends that all Souls were created by God at the beginning of the World that they were then by Him commanded and made out of Nothing that they are reserv'd and deposited in some of the Heavenly Regions and afterwards as his Infinite Wisdom sees Occasion sent down hither into Bodies ready fitted for and disposed to entertain them Upon this Opinion was built another of Souls being well or ill dealt with here below and lodged in sound and healthful or else in feeble and sickly Bodies according to their Good or Ill Behaviour in a State and Region above antecedent to their being thus Incorporated with these Mortal and Fleshly Tabernacles How generally this Notion prevail'd we have a notable Hint from that great Master of Wisdom who gives this Account of his large improvements Wisd VIII 19 20. above the common Rate of Men I was a Witty Child and had a good Spirit yea rather being Good I came into a Body undefiled Thus intimating a Priority of Time as well as of Order and Dignity in the Soul and that its good Dispositions qualified it for a Body so disposed too The Fourth which hath met with the most general Approbation among Christians Especially holds that the Soul is created by God infus'd into a Body prepared duly for its Reception That it hath no Pre-existence in any separate State or former Vehicle but that its Creation and Infusion are both of the same Date These Four Opinions are all of them Affirmative There is yet a Fifth more modest and reserv'd than any of the former This undertakes not to determine Positively one way or other but is content Ingenuously to confess its own Ignorance and Uncertainty declares this a Matter of very abstruse Speculation a dark and deep Mystery which God hath not thought fit particularly to reveal and which Man by the Strength and Penetration of his own Reason can know but very little or nothing of Of this Opinion we find St. Augustine St. Gregory of Nice and some others But though they presume not so far as to give any definitive Sentence on any Side yet they plainly incline to think that of the Four Opinions here mention'd the Two latter carry a greater Appearance of Truth than the Two former But how The Entrance into the Body and when this Humane Soul for of the Brutal there is little or no Dispute nor is the present Enquiry concerned in it Whether This I say make its Entrance all at once or whether the Approaches are gradual and slow Whether it attain its just Essential Perfections in an Instant or whether it grow up to them by Time and Succession is another very great Question The More general Opinion which seems to have come from Aristotle is That the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul whose Essence is no other than Matter and Body is in the Principles of Generation that it descends lineally and is derived to us from the Substance of our Parents that This is finished and Perfected in Time and by Degrees and Nature acts in this Case a little like Art when That undertakes to form the Image of a Man where first the Out-Lines and rude Sketches are drawn then the Features specified yet These not of his whole Body at once but first the Painter finishes the Head then the Neck after that the Breast the Legs and so on till he have drawn the whole Length Thus the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul they tell you forms the Body in the Womb and when That is finished and made fit for the Reception of its new Inhabitant the Intellectual Soul comes from abroad and takes Possession
Opinion or to urge what is really Argument and Good Sense as to shew their Talent in opposing what any Body else shall say From hence it comes to pass that the Mind obstructs it self in its Business like Silkworms that are intangled in Webs of their own spinning For while it reaches forward and expects to attain some distant Truth and is led on in this Hope by I know not what imaginary Probabilities in the midst of his Course up start some fresh Difficulties and these multiply and cross the way upon the Man and so by putting him upon a new Scent carry him off from his first Design till he is quite intoxicated and bewildred in the Maze of his own Thoughts The End of all this anxious Pursuit is two-fold That which is more general Truth its End but not attainable and more natural indeed is Truth For of all the Desires that we feel our selves moved with there is not any of them more closely interwoven with our Nature than the Desire of Truth It is with great Eagerness and Diligence that we try all the Means capable of leading us to the Knowledge of it but alas our utmost Attempts are short and insufficient for Absolute Certainty is not a Prize allotted to us nor does it condescend to be taken and possessed by any the most assiduous Humane Soul Truth lodges in the Bosom of God there is its Retreat and proper Apartment Men understand not any thing in its utmost Perfection We know in part and here we see through a Glass darkly says the Fountain of all Truth We turn and tumble Objects about and grope like Men in the Dark for probable Reasons but these are to be found every where and Falshood as well as Truth hath somewhat to be alledg'd in its behalf We are born indeed to search and seek for Truth but the Enjoyment of it seems to be a Blessing reserv'd for some greater and more exalted Powers than any that Mortals are endu'd with That is the Happiness of Beings above us at present and is reserv'd for Mankind in a future State till he be purify'd from the Dross of Matter and Flesh and Infirmity and the Clouds that now hang before us and dim our Sight be scatter'd by Clear and Everlasting Day At present the Difference between one Man and another is not who reaches the Goal and gains the Prize and who not but who is distanced and who not who runs best and makes the nearest Approaches to that which none of us All can come up to If at any time it happens that a Man in the study of Nature fixes upon Truth This is more by a lucky Hit than otherwise and his good Fortune is to be extoll'd as much as his Industry and when he hath it 't is odds if he can keep it for many times a Man suffers it to be wrested out of his Hands again by Sophisms and Delusions and contrary Appearances for want of being Master of his Point and able to distinguish Truth from Falshood and Reality from the Counterfeit Errours are entertain'd by the same way that Truth is the Passage by which both enter our Souls is one and the same The Methods made use of for discovering it are Reason and Experience And both These are extremely weak and defective floating and uncertain hard to fix and changeable upon every slight occasion when we think they are sixed The great Argument of Truth is That of Universal Consent But what will all this amount to when a Man hath consider'd what a vast Majority of Fools there are and how very few Wise Men in the World And again To any one that observes how Opinions spread and become general Men take them from one another as they do Diseases by Infection And Applause is that Breath that corrupts the Air and bears about the Venom This Applause again is given commonly blindly and inconsiderately by them who never examine into the true Merits of the Cause and by them too who if they do pretend to examine are not capable of judging in the Case And thus when some few have begun the Dance the rest have nothing to do but to fall in with the Tune and follow them that lead it up of Course The other End aim'd at by the Mind is Invention Invention which if it have less of Nature yet hath more of Ambition and bold Pretension in it This is aspir'd to as its highest Point of Honour that which makes most Shew to the World and contributes most to its Reputation That which it looks big with and thinks the liveliest Image of the Divine Nature It is this particular Accomplishment to which all those noble Works have owed their Original which have fill'd the World with Transport and Wonder And those that have been of Publick Use among them have even Deify'd their Authors and immortaliz'd their Names What Renown have some gain'd that were mere Curiosities only for being eminent in their Kind though no Benesit at all accrued to Mankind by their means Such as Zeuxis's Vine Apelles's Venus Memnon's Statue the Colosse at Rhodes Archytas's Wooden Pigeon the Sphere of Sapores King of Persia and infinite others Now the Excellence of Art and Invention seems to consist not only in a good Imitation of Nature but in outdoing it This often happens in particular Instances for no Man nor Beast seems ever to have been so exquisitely formed in all its Parts nor the Proportions of any one and the same Body to have met together of Nature's Composition so exact as these Artists have delineated and represented them in Their Pieces There are likewise several Improvements and Exaltations of Nature in producing and compounding those things by Art which Nature alone never produces This is plain from the Mixtures of Simples and Ingredients which is the proper Business for Art to exercise it self in the Extraction of Spirits and Oyls and Distillation of Waters and compounding of Medicines more refin'd more powerful and efficacious than any Nature furnishes us with And yet after all These things are not so wonderful nor do they commend Humane Wisdom and Industry so highly as the generality of the World are apt to imagine For if we will pass that Judgment in this Matter which is agreeable to Truth and Duty and pay a just Deference and Acknowledgment to the First Author These are but Imitations and not properly Inventions They are Improvements but they only promote and perfect what God hath first revealed And what we commonly value and extol as our own Original Contrivance is nothing more than observing the Works of Nature arguing and concluding from what we find there and then reducing those Observations into Practice Thus Painting and Optiques were first rude and imperfect Hints taken from Shades and the Perfection they are now in consists only in a due and proper and beautiful Mixture of Colours which makes those Shades The Art of Dyalling comes from the Shadows cast by
liable to very just Exception for it is much to be fear'd when the Issue is his own Concern the Verdict will not be honest And accordingly we see how partial and unfair he is in all he says of Himself for he knows no Mean he proceeds with no Moderation but is eternally in Extremes Sometimes he is big and pleas'd with Himself looks down upon the lower World with Disdain and calls himself the Lord of all the Creatures divides their Morsels among them and cuts out for each Species such a Proportion of Faculties and natural Power as His Lordship vouchsafes to allow them At Other times instead of all this Gayety and Pride you find him full of black Discontent and then he debases himself as much murmurs and frets grumbles and complains gives Providence hard Words and calls Nature a cruel Step-mother that hath made him the Refuse of the World the most wretched of all her Productions and dealt to Him the least and lowest Portion of all her Children Now in truth both the One and the Other of these Opinions are equally false unreasonable and extravagant But what can we expect better from him or how is it to be thought he shou'd carry himself evenly and fairly and act justly with other Creatures when he is as we shall shortly see so infinitely out of all measure in his Notions towards God his Superiour and Man who is his Equal But besides this Byass upon his Judgment there is another Difficulty upon his Understanding For which way shall he get a competent Knowledge of the inward Powers and unseen Motions of other Animals So that if he were inclin'd to be Just and to hear the Evidence impartially yet he must needs be an improper Judge to whom the most material part upon which the Sentence ought to be grounded cannot be given in Evidence And such are those inward Operations of Brutes which we can have no certain or competent perception of However we will try at present to state this Comparison as evenly and calmly as we can possibly Now first we are to consider that the Order and Constitution of the Universe is not vastly unequal There are no great Irregularities nor large void Spaces in it nor such Unlikeness and wide Disproportion between the several Parts that go into this Composition as some People may imagine The Excellencies of the several Species rise and fall gradually And those whom Nature hath placed near or close to one another have all of them a mutual Resemblance tho' some have more and some have less of it And thus we may observe a near Neighbourhood and close Affinity between Mankind and other Animals They are a-kin in many things and several Properties are alike and common to both Several things indeed there are wherein they differ but these are not so vastly disproportionate and distant but that they still are next adjoyning Links twisted within one another in the great Chain of the Universe So that Man is neither in all respects superiour nor inferiour in all For that which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them both says the Wisdom of God himself Eccles iii. 19. We will begin with those things which are common to both and very near the Matter of being alike in both such as Generation Nutrition Motion Action Life and Death For says the same Divine Wisdom As the one dieth so doth the other so that a Man in this respect hath no Pre-eminence above a Beast And This is a Confutation of those foolish repining People and all their melancholy Complaints that represent Man as the only Creature whom Nature hath discountenanc'd and disgrac'd abandon'd and forsaken turn'd naked into the wide World and cast upon the bare Ground without any Covering without any Natural Weapons to shelter or defend him bound up and swaddelâ—d and utterly ignorant and unfurnish'd of what is fit for him Whereas to all Others she hath been much more bountiful Clothed them with Shells or Hair or Wool or Shag or Feathers or Scales Armed them with Tusks or Horns with Bills or Claws or Talons to act offensively or defensively as occasion requires qualify'd them without any help of Art or Industry for Swimming Running Flying Singing Looking out for Food and Sustaining themselves But Man poor neglected Man they tell you is Taught to Go Taught to Speak nay requires Help and Teaching for the very Feeding and Supporting himself and attains to nothing without Time and Trouble and serving an Apprenticeship In short He is perfect in no other Instance of Nature's teaching except that of Crying This is all we bring into the World along with us and a very fit Emblem it is of our Fortune and Condition Now all these melancholy Complaints which make disadvantageous Reflections upon the Original Composition of Mankind and that which is truly the State of Nature are altogether unjust and false For first Our Skin is sufficiently fortify'd against all the Injuries of Weather 1. Nakedness Chap. XIV and so Nakedness is no Argument of our being less Nature's Care than any other Creature Several Nations as I have observ'd heretofore never yet so much as knew what Clothes are and even We that do can go bare in any Parts even the tenderest and most sensible when Inclination or Custom or some particular Fashion dispose us to it For where of all our Body is the Sense quicker than in the Face the Hands the Stomach And yet what Lady even the nicest and tenderest of her Sex scruples to expose her Neck and Breasts when the Mode requires that Dress even in the Extremity of Winter 2. Swalling Clothes Swathes and Rollers may be convenient but t is plain they are not necessary in Children for the Lucedaemonians heretofore made no use of them nor do the Swisses and Germans that dwell in cold Countries nor Biscans nor those Vagabonds and Common Cheats that go by the Name of Gypsies use them at this Day 3. Weeping Weeping is by no means peculiar to Mankind Beasts have likewise their Share in it Some of them shed Tears and much the greatest part of them Cry and Complain and Bemoan themselves continually for some time after their coming into the World 4. Weapons As for Weapons Nature hath not been wanting in her Provision for Us too and she hath given us besides greater Opportunities of using them For the Muscles and Motions of our Limbs are more in Number and of a more useful Variety and These too we are capable of receiving greater Service from without any Instruction at all than any other Animal whatsoever Or if some few are better provided in this respect we have the Advantage of many others Nor do we need any Teaching in point of Eating 5. Eating We and They are equally fitted equally dextrous and ready at it by Nature Who makes any Question but a Child wou'd look out sharp for Meat assoon as he is strong enough to feed himself
Affectation of a Coquette or some other Imposture which he sees and confesses to be an Imposture and all the while runs mad and owns no other Charm but what he perfectly sees through the Fallacy of But to shew you what Footing Vanity hath got and how close it sticks to Humane Nature Visits and Matters of Civility we will now pass from private Deportment and Dispositions to publick Conversation by which This will plainly appear to be no particular and personal Defect but the Vice of the whole Species in common And here what Vanity what loss of Time may we observe in the Impertinencies of Visits Howd'you's Forms of Address mutual Entertainments In the Offices of Civility set Speeches and Ceremonious Behaviour in Prossers of Service in Promises and Praises How many fulsome Strains of Complement what Infinite Hypocrisy Falshood and Deceit How open and barefac'd so that the Person that utters it and he to whom it is directed and every one that stands by sees and knows and is satisfied it is False Thus Conversation is now become little else than a Tryal of Skill for Dissimulation and looks like a common Confederacy where Men have combin'd together to lye and bubble and abuse and make a Jest of one another Nay good Manners require that at the same time a Man tells you an impudent Lye you should return him your Thanks for what you know he intends not a word of and He again who is satisfied you believe not a Syllable of what he says receives those Acknowledgments of yours with a set Face and an Air of Confidence and thus you stand cringing and fawning and dodging for the last Word each striving to begin and fearing to leave off and shrugging when both are heartily weary and would fain be well quit of one another What Inconveniences are we content to endure for these Formalities We expose our Selves to the Air to Heat to Cold disturb the Peace of our Lives and are in perpetual Pain for these courtly Follies We neglect our Business of Weight and Consequence and attend upon Wind and Smoke We are vain at the Expence of our Ease nay of our Health of our very Life And what can prove Mankind more enslav'd to Vanity than This That Levity and Accident tramples Substance under Foot and Air carries away solid Body whither it will especially when a Man that behaves himself otherwise must be look'd upon as a Sot and a Fool one that knows nothing of the World nor what becomes him to do in it Thus to play this Farce dextrously is the greatest Mark of Wit and the most affected Harlequin in it is the finest Gentleman but not to be Vain is contemptible Stupidity and he that declines playing the Fool betrays his own want of Sense and good Breeding Nay when there is no need of all this Form and Complaisance Vanity hangs about us still Witness the freer Discourses of the most familiar Acquaintance and intimate Friends How many trifling Impertinences Falshoods Banters I omit the wicked and mischievous Part because that falls not under this Head How many arrogant and vain Boastings go to the making up this sort of Conversation too Men are so industrious to take to seek to make occasions of Talking of themselves or of somewhat that belongs to them They do it with so sensible and yet so nauseous a Pleasure if they think they have said or done a good thing or that somewhat they are possest of is better than ordinary They are so uneasie till they have publish'd and enlarg'd upon it as if all their Wit and Worth were lost unless other People were made sensible of it too They catch at the very first Convenience cry it up to the greatest Degree imaginable nay they perfectly bring it in by Head and Shoulders and interrupt all other Discourse to start This And when any body else is Talking we presently thrust our selves in and take an Advantage of shewing our Parts so eager are we that People shou'd understand what we are and have a regard for us and not for Us only but for every thing that we have a regard for As a yet greater Demonstration how absolute a Sovereignty Vanity hath obtain'd over Humane Nature Publick Commotions we need but recollect the most considerable Revolutions that ever happen'd in the World and the Occasions of them For thus it will soon appear that the most general and most formidable Convulsions of Cities and Kingdoms and whole Empires the Seditions and Revolts and Fates of Armies the bloodiest Battels the barbarousest Murders the sharpest Disputes and most implacable Quarrels have proceeded from very trifling ridiculous and insignificant Causes Witness the long War between Troy and Greece the Piques of Sylla and Marius and all the Confusions that follow'd from thence in the Civil Wars of Caesar and Pompey and Augustus and Anthony The Poets have represented this well enough by pretending an Apple to have been the Boutefeu the Original of all that Blood and Devastation in Asia and Greece And indeed the first Springs upon which these vast Events move are commonly Things of no consideration but That which begins very small swells to a vast Bulk afterwards and the blowing it up thus is an irrefragable Proof of the Vanity and Folly of Mankind Nay many times an occasional thing goes further with us than the principal Cause and some paltry little Circumstances make more sensible Impressions and gall us more than the main Matter to which they retain as Caesar's Robe put Rome into greater Passion and Concern than his Death it self and the Two and twenty Stabs in his Body had done before The Last and indeed the most exquisite Vanity is our seeking with so much Industry and Passion Notions of Happiness and Content and pleasing our selves so highly nay placing our very Happiness in Advantages which have neither real Worth nor Necessity to recommend Them But as they are trifling and frivolous in themselves so they are such as we may be very happy and live very comfortably and conveniently without Whereas on the other hand those that are necessary and essential to our true Happiness find little or no part of the Regard due to them and every Body is indifferent whether he hath Them or not Thus the Condition of Man is all Air and Speculation His whole Happiness imaginary Opinion and Dream is all he pursues and in this he stands Alone and cannot match himself in the whole Word God hath all Good in Essence and Reality and Evil in Notion and Understanding only Man on the contrary hath only fantastical Good but his Evils are weighty and substantial Beasts are not satisfy'd with Opinion nor do They feed upon Fancy but require somewhat that is present and sensible and real to content them Vanity is reserv'd to Man for his Portion the Inheritance and peculiar Right of his Nature He runs he bustles he fights he dies he flies he persues he grasps
were liable neither wou'd there have been any Place or possible Occasion for Bloody Offerings Expiations or Propitiatory Sacrifices This is a farther Evidence Secondly of our Weakness if we look at the Meanness of the Intention upon which that Usage grew and was encourag'd and That cou'd be no other than the Hope of Appeasing and Gratifying Almighty God by such Bloody Oblations I speak not now of the Reasons why God instituted Sacrifices but of that Notion which plainly appears to have been predominant in the Minds of Men who did not see into the Mysterious End of them which the Generality of the Jews themselves never did and much less cou'd it be expected that the Pagan World shou'd penetrate into it It is true indeed Almighty God in great Grace and Compassion to those more early and ignorant Ages of the World which knew no better did very favourably accept Good Men when they approached him with this sort of Devotion and the Apostle takes particular Notice of his having Respect to Abel and his Offering Heb. xi as the History of the Old Testament does of his testifying that Acceptance by visible Signs in the Case of Noah Abraham and Others There being this Motive to his Mercy that what was done of that kind proceeded from an Intention to serve and honour him and that the Understandings of Men were gross and heavy they were in their Minority and under a Schoolmaster as St. Paul expresses it of the Jewish People but at the same time honest and well-meaning And it is not improbable that this Opinion so universal at That time might represent Sacrifices to them as a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the only proper Method of Divine Worship There was it is confessed another Consideration which rendred Sacrifices very valuable and well-pleasing to God whereby they were made use of as Figures and Representations of that One truly meritorious Sacrifice to be offer'd upon the Altar of the Cross afterwards But this is a Mystery peculiar to the Jewish and Christian Religion And as it is a Common so is it an Excellent and Adorable Instance of the Divine Wisdom to convert what is of Human Institution Natural Usage or of a Corporeal Nature to High and Holy Purposes and make such things as the Ceremonial Law consisted of turn to a Spiritual Account But still This does not by any means infer that God took pleasure in these things as of any real Intrinsick Worth and Good in themselves For even before Grace and Truth set this Matter in its clearest Light by the Gospel the Prophets were not sparing to declare the Contrary and Those among the Jews of more enlightened Understandings saw this perfectly well and acknowledged it even while the Practice of offering them continu'd Psal li. Thus David Thou desirest no Sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in Burnt-Offerings Psal xl Burnt-Offering and Sacrifice for Sin hast thou not requir'd And again speaking in the Person of God himself Psal l. I will take no Bullock out of thy House nor He-Goat out of thy Folds They call'd upon Men for Oblations of another kind more Noble and Spiritual more becoming Them to bring and more worthy and fit for a Holy Deity to receive The Sacrifice of God is a Contrite Spirit and the Offering of a pure Heart Mine Ears hast thou opened that I should do thy Will yea thy Law is within my Heart Offer unto God the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And many other Passages to the same Purpose And at last to clear this Matter and put it beyond a Doubt the Son of God himself who was Truth and the Teacher of it and who condescended to come into the World that he might disabuse Mankind and rescue them from their Ignorance and Errours hath utterly abolish'd this way of serving God Which he wou'd never have done had there been any Essential Goodness in it which cou'd have recommended it for its own sake to God his Father But when He was come to be the End of the Law and the Universal Propitiation the use of Sacrifices was at an End too John iv 23 24. and then it is They that worship God must worship him in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him And without Question next to the Extirpating Idolatry This of abolishing Sacrifices is One of the most Glorious Publick Effects One of the best Reformations which Christianity hath wrought in the World And hence it was that Julian the Emperour its most professed most inveterate Enemy in Despight to it offered more Sacrifices than perhaps any other Man ever did and endeavoured to introduce This Way of Worship and Idolatry again as being both directly in Contradiction to the Christian Religion But of This we have spoken sufficiently and therefore let us now take a short View of some of the other considerable Branches of Religion The Blessed Sacraments when Adminished to us in Elements so common and of such mean Esteem as Bread and Wine and Water and not only so but in the very Act of Administration bearing Resemblance to the most Vulgar and Despicable Actions of Life as Wishing Eating and Drinking are plain Memento's of our continual Weaknesses and Wants our Miseries and Pollutions And as the marvellous Efficacy magnifies the Almighty Power and Goodness of God so the Need we have of them should humble us with mortifying Reflections upon our own feeble Condition Thus again Repentance is prescribed as the Necessary the only Remedy for our Spiritual Diseases and 't is plain This Considered in it self is an Act full of Shame and Reproach it upbraids us with our Faults and Follies afflicts our Souls with Grief and sad Remorse and shews us to our Selves in the Worst and most Deformed Figures that can be But however Evil and Uncomely this may seem in it self yet it is Necessary for reconciling us to God and That is enough to reconcile Us to it Another Instance may be taken from Oaths which are indeed Religious Acts when lawfully practised by Reason of the Name of God solemnly invoked in them But yet it is evident that the Common Use and Administration of these is a Scurvy Symptome a most shameful Argument how little Mankind are to be trusted What Monsters of Falshood and Treachery of Errour and Ignorance we are How vilely suspicious and distrustful the Person requiring them is and how liable to Jealousie the Person from whom they are demanded and what a mean Opinion those Law-givers who ordered them had of Mens Honesty and Truth when one's bare Word will not give Satisfaction nd as our Saviour says whatsoever is more than this Matt. V. 37. cometb of Evil. Thus you see not only how Weak and Sickly our Condition is but likewise what sort of Remedies Religion hath found it Necessary to apply for our Cure Since it may be said in some
of the Speculative part but know nothing of the Application and Practice So that all the fruit of their study is but to make them the more acquired more egregious Fools more full of Themselves and more noisie and insupportable in all Companies They swell their Memory but sink their Wit and adulterate their Understandings And in such Persons as These That Misery is most conspicuous 〈◊〉 Parag. 9. 〈…〉 which we lately placed the last of that sort with which the Intellectual Faculty of the Mind seems principally affected CHAP. XL. V. Presumption WE are now come to the last and most hideous Line of the whole Picture which makes up the other Branch of Pliny's Description For this is indeed the Deformity of our Nature the Bane of our Minds the Source of the worst and most erroneous Opinions both Publick and Private and yet as bad as it is 't is a Vice natural to and born with every Man Now we shall do well to consider this Presumption in its several Respects above below upon the level within and without us As the Object is God and the Celestial Bodies Terrestrial Bodies and Beasts Man our Equal and our own Selves And the whole Matter will turn at last upon these Two Points The setting too high an Estimate upon our Own and too low upon Other Things Every Man in this Sense deserving the Character given by our Blessed Saviour of the Pharisees They trusted in Themselves and despised Others A Word or two now upon each of the fore-mentioned Particulars And First with regard to Almighty God it is a horrible and melancholy Truth Presumption in respect of God but true it is that all Superstition and false Worship the affected Excesses and the Wilful Defects in our Religious Services are entirely owing to the want of a sufficient Esteem and Reverence for God the not being sensible what sort of Being He is and entertaining such Opinions and Idea's of the Divine Nature as are not sufficiently lofty and pure and refined Now by saying sufficiently so I would not be understood that our Apprehensions should bear any proportion to the Essential Greatness of his Majesty for God is Infinite and admits of no proportion at all Consequently there is no possibility in Nature that our Conceptions should ever soar up to such a height and sufficiency as This And therefore I mean that sufficiency only to be wanting which Nature hath made us capable of and Duty requires from us We do not raise nor direct our Minds nor dart our Thoughts strong or high enough when we form Notions of the Divinity Alas why do I say not high and strong enough when it is but too evident and our Actions speak it out that we entertain very feeble and mean and low Apprehensions of him And we serve him indeed accordingly we offer him Things most unworthy of him and deal with him more basely and disrespectfully than we pretend or dare to do with several of his Creatures We discourse not of his Works only which yet command some Regard because they are His but we talk of his Essence and Majesty determine his Will interpret his Judgments pass Sentence upon the Dispensations of his Providence and all this more peremptorily more sawcily than any Man of good Manners would take upon him to do with the Counsels and Proceedings of his Prince And yet every one thinks he may make bold with his God in Cases where to use the same Freedoms with any Person of Honour would be condemned for insufferable Rudeness and Contempt A great many Men would reject such Service and Homage and think themselves highly injured and affronted if we should talk so manly of them and make use of their Name upon such trifling Occasions and in so contemptuous a manner as we do that of God We undertake to manage him go about to flatter and caress to bend and bring him over to bribe and to compound with him nay I might tremble to say it some think even to brave and dare him to snarle and grumble to take things ill and be exceeding angry at him Caesar had his Pilot hoist Sails boldly and fear nothing tho' Winds and Seas and Stars and Fate were against him but buoy himself up with this Confidence in opposition to all Difficulties That He who had Caesar aboard could not miscarry Augustus after having been Tempest-beaten at Sea took upon him to set Neptune at Definance and by way of Revenge ordered his Image to be taken away from among the rest of the Gods and excluded the solemn Procession at the Ludi Circenses Xerxes scourged the Seas and sent a Challenge to Mount Athos The Thracians when it Thunders and Lightens shoot Arrows up against Heaven with all their Might that by this means they may bring the Gods to Reason And there goes a Story of a certain Christian King in a neighbouring Country whom when God had severely chastized he swore he would be revenged on him and to make his Words good commanded That for Ten Years next ensuing no Person within his Dominions should dare to put up any Prayers to God or make mention of his Name any other way * Audax Iapeti genus mdash Nil mortalibus arduum Coelum ipsum petimus stultitià neque Per nostrum patimur seelus Iracunda Jovem ponere sulmina HOrat Lib. 1. Od. 3. Nought is too hard for Man Grown Gians in Impiety Our Impious Folly dares the Sky We dare assault Jove's glorious Throne Nor still averse to his Command Will we permit his lifted Hand To lay his Thunder down Creech But not to insist longer upon such prodigious Extravagances Does not the general Temper and Practice of Mankind justifie that Character given by Pliny That no Creature is more miserable and yet none more proud than Man For on the one hand he forms to himself vast Conceits of the particular Love and Regard and tender Care God hath for him thinks himself the chief the only Favourite of Heaven and yet this Darling serves him after a most unbecoming manner and worse than the poorest and most despicable of all his Creatures How then shall we reconcile these Extremes How can a Life so wretched a Homage so poor and base meet and dwell together in same Person with such glorious Notions of Himself and a Preference so vastly great above all the Creation besides Is not This to be an Angel and a Swine at once And indeed Men who entertain these Opinions and dishonour God by living in a Disagreement with them as the generality of Mankind do must be content to bear the Reproach of a great Philosopher to some Vicious and Hypocritical Christians That they were the bravest Fellows in the World at talking but the pitifullest and most contemptible Wretches in their Lives and Actions We are apt to think our Selves of Moment and great Consequence to God Nature to the World and to Nature in general That all These are in great
Bias which is to set out and undertake things coolly and considerately but when we are well satisfied of the Justice and Reasonableness of our Enterprize then to prosecute it warmly and vigorously It is in this manner that those foolish Men expose themselves who out of a vicious Easiness and Complaisance are ashamed to deny any request made to them but after this mighty Liberality in promising are every whit as apt and easy to break their word again and prostitute that Honour vilely which was engaged with so much Levity And therefore in all our Affairs in all our dealings and Conversation with men nothing is more requisite than to look before us to make true steps at first and be well advised before we begin The Fourth and infinitely the Best Remedy of all is a stanch and Vigorous Virtue Virtue a Resolution and Firmness of Mind by which a man is qualified to look any Accidents in the Face to meet and come up close to them without Starting or Disorder or Confusion to enter into the Lists and encounter them gallantly This is a brave a noble a glorious Impassibility indeed which sets the Mind above Trouble directly contrary to the first of these Remedies which consisted in an impenetrable Temper a heavy sottish sensless Stupidity And there is nothing will Contribute more to the working us up into this generous Gallantry of Spirit than the furnishing and forming our Judgments with good Instructions digesting them thoroughly and applying them Seasonably but especially the fortifying our selves with Thought and Deliberation that so we never fall under the Terrors of Surprize but be prepared to defend our Post whenever they attack us For Reasoning and Discourse masters the Passions and Premeditation is the thing which hardens the Soul and renders it proof against all the Evils that would soften and subdue it And one great help towards the preserving us impregnable will be a serious Reflection upon what hath already been delivered in the foregoing parts of this Book For the proper method of calming and sweetning the Passions is to get well acquainted with the nature of them to examine them nicely and know exactly what Influence they have upon Us and what Command we have over them But especially we should guard our selves against too easy a Credulity and not suffer any rash Surmise or Opinion to foment or inflame our Passions for Falshood and Folly and Uncertainty transport Fools only a Wise Man will weigh things calmly and coolly and suffer himself to be carried no farther than mature Judgment and measured Truth lead him For Reason is his only Guide and every Impression is brought to this Standard and strictly examined by it But of This besides the light given us already we shall be more fully and particularly qualified to make a Judgment both from what follows in this Second Book and from the Instructions to be added in the Third when we come to enlarge there upon the Virtues of Fortitude and Temperance But above all other Passions That of Self-Love and Presumption and inordinate Fondness of our own Imaginations Opinions and Actions requires a strict and watchful Eye and the strongest guard we can possibly set over it For this is the very Pest of Mankind the most mortal and irreconcilable Enemy to Wisdom the very Corruption and Gangrene of the Soul by which it mortifies and grows absolutely incurable This swells us with vain Conceits and false Satisfactions and Confidences we make undue estimates of our selves and are marvellously pleased with our own supposed Sufficiency nay we perfectly Idolize fall down and worship our Selves and neither believe nor hear any body but our Selves Now indeed we can never be in worse hands than our own and that Prayer of the Spaniards is a very significant and sensible one O God preserve me from my self Such Presumption and foolish Self-Love proceeds from mistake and Ignorance is not so truly the Mother of any Devotion as of this Were men but duly sensible how weak and wretched how impotent and little how full of Infirmities and Errors Human Nature is in general and were each Man duly so of his own personal Defects and Frailties in particular Rom. 12.16 that Divine Counsel of not being wise in our own Conceits would be much better obeyed And obeyed it is necessary it should be for till we are free of this Vanity we can never arrive at true and sound Wisdom It stops our Ears against all Advice and Instruction and suffers us not to see our own Wants nor the Abilities of others to direct and improve us Honesty and Integrity Modesty and Diligence a meek and teachable Temper a serious and hearty and humble acknowledgment of our Deficiency These are not only the first and surest Steps to Virtue but the greatest Evidence of a solid Judgment a clear Understanding a rightly-disposed Will and unbiassed Affections and consequently a most hopeful and promising as well as it is an indispensably Requisite Preparation to the Study and Attainment of Wisdom and Goodness CHAP. II. An entire Liberty of the Mind The Second Predisposition requisite in order to Wisdom THE other Disposition to Wisdom which is in truth a natural Consequence and Improvement of the former is after we have delivered our selves from the Bondage and Captivity of Popular Opinions from without and our own Passions from within to attain to a full entire and generous Liberty of Mind and this is of two sorts according to the two great Faculties concerned in the Pursuit of Wisdom implying First a Liberty of Judgment and then a Liberty of the Will The Former of these which regards the Judgment consists in considering judging and examining all things yet not Tying ones self up to any but remaining still free and at ones own disposal of a large universal Spirit open and ready to hear any thing that shall be offered This is the highest pitch of Soul the most peculiar and distinguishing Priviledge of a truly Great and Wise Man but such a one I confess it is as all People are not capable of understanding and much less still of attaining to it Upon which account I think my self obliged to establish this Point against the Objections of those Vulgar Souls which are not of Capacity large enough for true Wisdom And first of all to prevent all Mistakes and unreasonable Cavils upon Words I will explain the Terms made use of here and give the true meaning of them Now this Description consists of Three things which mutually Produce and Support one another And these are Judging every thing being Wedded or tied up to Nothing and preserving a Largeness of Soul and being ready to hearken to any thing that shall be offered By Judging in the first of these Particulars it is plain I cannot mean Resolving Determining or Positively Affirming because this would imply a direct Contradiction to the Second Branch of the Description And therefore no more can possibly be understood by it
among Unbelievers or Preserving a due Reverence of it where it is already received Divinity and especially that part of it which is Mysterious and Revealed tells us plainly that the Mind must be cleansed and purified in order to receive those Heavenly Truths and the Impressions of the Holy Spirit That God will not inhabit our Souls till all Corrupt Opinions as well as Affections are cast out for with regard to both we shall do well to understand those Commands of Purging away the old Leaven and putting off the Old Man From whence we may collect that the most compendious and successful method of planting the Christian Religion among Infidels would be first to establish them in the Belief of these following Propositions That all the Knowledge of this World hath a large embasement of Vanity and Falshood attending it That the Generality of Mankind are deluded with fantastical Notions the Forgeries of their own Brain That God created Man to the End he might acquaint himself with the Divine Nature and Dispensations and employ his Soul and sind his Happiness in these noble Contemplations But that in this decayed and declining State Man is not capable of discovering Truth by his own Strength That there is consequently a Necessity of God who is Truth manifesting it to him That God hath in much Mercy vouchsafed to do this by particular Revelations That it is He who inspires Men with a Desire of Truth as well as he provides for the Gratifying that Desire That in order to dispose and qualify our selves for being instructed in the Divine Revelations we must abandon all worldly and carnal Opinions and as it were bring our Minds a pure blank for God to write his Will in When these Points are gained and Men are in such preparation to resign themselves to Truth then it will be time to lay the foundations and instil some of the first and plainest Principles of Christianity To shew them That these Doctrines came down from Heaven That the Person who vouchsafed to bring them was a faithful Ambassador and entire Confident of God One who knew his whole Will exactly That his Authority was abundantly confirmed by infinite Testimonies such as were miraculous supernatural and so authentick proofs because capable of coming from no other Hand but God's only Thus this Innocent and candid Suspense and Unresolvedness of Mind would prove a happy Instrument toward the creating and first begetting a Knowledge and Belief of the Truth where it is not Nor would the Essicacy of it be less in preserving it where it is planted and hath taken root already For such a Modest Caution and Deference would undoubtedly prevent all manner of Singularity and Daring Extravagance in Opinions but to be sure it would absolutely put a Stop to Heresies and Publick Divisions You will answer me perhaps that the Temper I am describing As it is too full of Indifference to make any Hereticks So is it too to make any good Catholicks and that the Danger of it is At last degenerating into Scepticism and want of Zeal for all Religions Were the Condition of Religion the same in all points with That of other Notions and Philosophy in general I allow there would be force in this Objection But as it is this is not to argue from my Rules but to pervert them I have already said That Religion stands upon a firm undoubted bottom of its own That God in this differs from all his Creatures that whatever He says is exempted from the Common Rules of Enquiry and there can but one Question lye before us which is Whether he hath said it or no When once this appears to us there is no room for suspending our Judgments any longer no pretence for Neutrality or Liberty of Thought nor a questioning How these things can be God cannot lye and we cannot err in believing Him but for all things else the more cautious and curious and the more loose and disengaged we keep our Mind with regard to Them the Safer and Easier we shall be I have made a sort of Digression here in Honour of the Rule I am recommending that those who profess themselves Enemies to it may find their great Objection obviated In which if I have trespassed upon my Reader 's Patience I ask his pardon And now to our Business again After these two Qualities of Judging all things and fixing our Minds obstinately upon Nothing follows the Third Qualification which is a Largeness or Universality of Soul By Virtue of This the Wise Man casts his Eyes expands and stretches out his Thoughts over all this vast Universe with Socrates becomes a Citizen of the World and takes in all Mankind for his Neighbours and Countrey-men Looks down like the Sun with an equal steady and indifferent Eye upon the Changes and Vicissitudes here below as things that cannot reach nor have the power to change Him This is the Security the Privilege of a Wise Man That which resembles him to the Powers above and renders him a sort of God upon Earth * Magna generosa res animus humanus nullos Tibi poni nisi communes cum Deo terminos patitur Non idem sapientem qui caeteros terminus includit omnia ilâ—i saecula ut Deo serviunt Nulium Saeculum magnis ingeniis Clâ—usum nullum non cogitationi pervium tempus Quam natutale in immensum mentem suam extendere hoc à Naturâ formatus homo ut paria Diis velit ac se in spatium suum extendâ—t The Mind of Man says Seneca is a great and generous Being and is bounded no otherwise than the Divinity it self The Wise Man is not confined to the same narrow compass with the rest of the World No Age no Time no Place limit his thoughts but he penetrates and passes beyond them all How agreeable is it to Nature for a Man to stretch his Mind infinitely For Nature hath formed him to this very purpose that he should emulate the Gods and like Them fill his own Infinite Space This I confess is a sort of Stoical Rant But thus much is strictly true That the Bravest and most capacious Souls are always most of this Universal Temper as on the Contrary the meanest and most incapable are most cramped have the narrowest Notions and are always particular in their Judgments of Men and Things aptest to be positive themselves and to condemn all that dissent from them It is in Truth great Folly and Weakness to imagine that all Nations are bound to think and act just as we do and that none live as they ought who do not comply and agree in every point with what obtains in our own little Village or our Native Countrey to think that the Accidents which happen to Us are general and in common and must needs affect and extend to the whole World equally This Sensless Wretch when you tell him of Opinions and Customs and Laws directly opposite to those he hath been
bred up in without more ado condemns and expresses the greatest Detestation of them imaginable and rails at the people as Rude and Uncivilized or else he gives no credit to these accounts but looks upon them as the Romantick Tales of Travellers who take liberties of representing Foreigners very oddly to those that cannot disprove them so absolutely enslaved are his Judgment and Assections to his own Municipal Constitutions so impossible is it as he thinks that any but These should be true or agreeable to Nature and therefore he is verily persuaded they must needs or at least should be Universal too It is exceeding common to traduce every thing with the Reproachful name of Barbarism that we do not fancy or see frequently practised at home and to depend upon the Example and the Ideas of the Persons with whom we converse the Notions and the Usage of our own Countrey for the Test to distinguish Truth and Reason by Now This is a mean and brutish debasement of the Soul which we ought to get above and to enlarge it by looking no longer upon this Picture of Nature in Little but take a view of her as she is drawn at length and in all her full proportions The just Idea of Nature is to consider her as the Common Mother of us all an Universal Queen whose Authority and Dominion hath the same limits with the World nay extends to more Worlds if as some eminent persons have thought more Worlds there be This would inspire us with becoming and Great Apprehensions of her Majesty and Beauty There we should behold as in an exquisite painting a constant and endless variety of Things and the longer we gazed the more our Entertainment and our wonder would be Infinite Difference in Humours disagreeing Judgments Opinions Customs and Laws Innumerable Disorders Commotions and Alterations in States and Kingdoms surprizing turns of Fortune in the Affairs of private Men a World of Victories and Triumphs buried and lost in the Rubbish of Time many Noble Entries and Processions Pomps and Grandeurs utterly vanished and as if the Courts and Princes celebrated by them had never been at all And by taking such a prospect as this and observing how such different Things and Events like Colours well mingled conspire to make up a general Portraicture of the World we shall learn our own littleness and be surprized at nothing nor esteem things at all new or incredible nor be over-tenacious and positive in vindicating our own and condemning the Practice of others since it is not necessary or at all Essential to Beauty that all who pretend to it should be of Our Complexion And that the Darkness and Difference of other Nations like the Shades in drawing make a more grateful Variety and are all agreeable and useful for setting forth the Skill of the Great the Divine Artificer whose Workmanship the Orginal and the Life is This large brave open and universal Disposition of Mind is indeed scarce to be found and hard to be compassed and it is not every common Man that can aspire to it Nature hath not cut out all her Children for such an Excellence no more than she hath qualified them all for that Wisdom and Perfection it leads to But yet there are several Considerations that may be serviceable in helping us toward it Such is First what you find already insisted upon in the foregoing part of this Treatise concerning the wonderful Variety B. 1. Ch. 37 38. and vast difference observable in men according to those qualities of Body and Mind which Nature hath distributed so very unequally among them Secondly Those Differences Men have made among themselves by the disagreeing Laws and Customs which obtain in several Nations and Constitutions To both which may be added the Strange Variety of Opinions which we find the Ancients received and delivered down to Posterity concerning the Age the Condition and the Changes of the World which yet to Us seem to be very Romantick and Extravagant * Concerning those Egyptian and Assyrian Calculations see Bishop Pearson en the Creed Art 1. Page 58 59. where he plainly refutes the Account according to the common computation of years from their own Authers The Egyptian Priests told Herodotus that since the Reign of their first King from which they reckoned down above Eleven thousand years and shewed the Statues of Him and all his Successors in the draughts taken from the Life the Sun had changed his course four several times The Chaldaeans in Diodorus his time as He and Cicero both say kept a Register and Annals comprehending the Space of Four hundred thousand years Plato tells us that the Citizens of Sais had Memorials in Manuscript of Eight thousand years standing and yet they owned that the City of Athens was built a thousand years before that of Sais Aristotle and Pliny and others pretend that Zoroaster lived Six thousand years before Plato was born Some have advanced a Notion of the World 's Existing from all Eternity that it hath been destroyed and revived again several times and hath and will for ever hereafter go through many such Vicissitudes Others and Those some of the most renowned Philosophers have held the World to be a God but yet of so inferior a Quality as to derive its Form and present Being from another and much greater God or else as Plato and some others have been induced by the Motions of it to affirm with some degree of Confidence that it is certainly an Animal consisting of Body and Spirit That the Soul or Spirit is lodged in the Centre of the Universe but though its chief Residence be there yet it expands it self all over to the very utmost parts of the Circumference and that its Influences are conveyed and communicated in Musical Numbers That the several parts of it too thus animated and directed as the Heaven and the Stars for instance are made up of a Body and Soul and these though Mortal in respect of their compounded Nature are yet Immortal by the determination of their Almighty Creator Plato says That the World puts on quite another face that the whole Scene is shifted that the Heaven and Stars vary so much in their motions as quite to change sides so that Before shall be Behind and the Point which is East at one time comes to be the West at another There hath also been an Opinion of great Authority much countenanced and promoted by the most eminent Philosophers suitable to the Power and Majesty of God and grounded upon fair and probable Reasons that there is a Plurality of Worlds for we see no other thing single or solitary but This if This be so All Species are multiplied in numbers and therefore it is not unlikely that God hath not left this part of his Workmanship quite desolate and alone nor exhausted his whole power and skill in the forming of an Individual Nay even Divinity assures us that God can make as many Worlds as he
the Sincerity of the Heart is the Virtue we are treating of There it is lodged by That we must judge for External Actions and those especially that are of a publick Capacity and Importance are of a Nature and Consideration very different from this as I shall have occasion to shew hereafter when my Method brings me to treat of them distinctly Of this I shall give my Reader some description when I have first desired him to recollect what was said in the Preface and that in agreement to the design of this Treatise I speak of Probity and Wisdom at present as Virtues purely Human such as entitle a Man to the Character of an Honest or a prudent Man with regard to Civil Affairs and common Conversation without any respect at all to the Christian and more exalted sense of the thing Of which nevertheless though Foreign to the general Intent of my Book I shall take occasion to say some little matter before I leave this Subject The true Spring and Source of this Probity is Nature which obliges a man to be such as he ought to be that is to conform and govern himself according to her Dictates and Directions For Nature maintains a twofold Character and is at once a Mistress to Command and a Law to teach and set us out our Duty With regard to the former of these Capacities there is an Internal Universal that is a natural Obligation incumbent upon every Man to be an honest sincere Man and so to answer the End of his Creation And This is an Obligation so strong an Inducement so weighty that no one need look for any greater any additional Motives nor indeed is it possible to find any that deserve greater Deference and Regard any antecedent to it since its Validity is of the same date with our Selves and both It and We came into the World together Every Man ought to make it his business and care to be a good Man upon this very account because he is a Man for he who is regardless of this point is a Monster renounces himself reproaches his Nature and in effect ceases to be what he appears and usurps a Form which of Right belongs not to him This Probity must also be of its own growth without Cultivating or Constraint that is It must proceed from an Internal Principle which God hath wrought into our Nature and Constitution and not be the effect of Accident or any foreign Inducement No Man whose Will is uncorrupt would chuse a thing in its declension as debased and fallen from its natural Perfection It is a Contradiction to pretend a Man desires a thing and that he is indifferent at the same time whether it be what it ought and have all the Commendable Qualities of right belonging to it A Man is solicitous to have all his parts in their true Perfection his Head his Eyes his Judgment his Memory his whole Body nay the very Conveniences and Accoutrements belonging to that Body and shall his Will and his Conscience be the only neglected things about him Shall it be no part of his Care whether These have their due Integrity or not I would have a Man resolute in Goodness though it were but purely upon his own account and in regard to his Character as he is a Man sensible that to Act otherwise is as much as in him lies to abandon and destroy himself and thus Probity will be an Internal Principle as essential to and of a piece with him as He is with himself No external Cause is capable of being a sufficient Foundation for it because all such are foreign and accidental and as such are liable to Changes and Decays and whenever the Foundation sinks the Superstructure must of necessity tumble with it If a Man be virtuous and just for the sake of his Reputation or any other Advantage What Obligation will this be to his Retirements to his Solitary Actions Take off the Hopes of his Virtue being known and you either take off the whole thing or cool and check his vigour in the practice of it If fear of Laws and Punishments restrain him put him but in a way to elude the Laws and escape publick Discovery and what shall secure his Honesty then So poor so precarious so uncertain a thing is this Occasional Virtue And yet This is the Virtue in vogue and what very few rise beyond As the World goes 't is very well if all these Considerations will prevail upon Men to do what becomes them nay if their Actions be commendable or blameless whatever their secret Dispositions are Now I expect in the person whom this Treatise undertakes to form a Probity that will stand upon its own bottom so firmly rooted that you can no more separate it from the Man than you can his very human Nature it self I expect he should never yield to do an Ill thing though he could be assured it will never be known For is it possible to conceal it from himself And if his own Conscience be privy to it what need any farther Witnesses This One is more than all the World besides By the same reason he must be as obstinately good notwithstanding any Recompence which would bribe him to be otherwise for it is impossible he should receive a valuable Consideration in this Case and nothing can be so near to him as his own Essence which Wickedness impairs and corrupts To yield upon such Temptations is like the being content with a very ill Horse provided a Man have an embroider'd Saddle I must therefore insist upon it that being a Man and taking care to live as becomes one that is taking care to be a sincere good Man should always go together and be above the power of all the World to separate them This particular I think is sufficiently urged let us now proceed to the next Now the Model and Pattern the Spring and Source of this Integrity is the Law of Nature by which I mean Universal Equity and Reason that Candle of our Maker lighted up in every breast to guide and shine in us perpetually For This is the Dictate and Direction of God himself He is the King and This the Fundamental Law of the Universe a Ray and Beam of the Divine Nature that flows from and hath a necessary Connection and Dependence upon that Eternal and Immutable Law which the Almighty prescribes to his own Actions A Man that proceeds upon this Principle is his own Rule for he acts in agreement with the noblest and most valuable part of his Nature This Man's Honesty is Essential to and Inseparable from him not precarious and uncertain and owing merely to Chance and Occasion For this Light and Law is born with and bred in us a piece of our Frame and Original Constitution and from thence obtains the Name of Nature and the Law of Nature Such a Man by consequence will be a good Man constantly and at all times his Virtue will be uniform and even
Common practice too Neglect of increasing their Families and Indifference in point of Posterity the Murthering of their own Parents of their own Children nay of their own Selves Marrying with the nearest Relations Pilfering and Stealing Commerce and publick Societies of Robbers publick Bartering away one's Liberty selling and letting out their Bodies and that in Persons of both Sexes These are things in the opinion of most People very monstrous and detestable and yet there are several Nations which do not only connive at and allow but use them so as to make them the Custom of the Country What course then can we take or which way shall we turn our selves to find out Nature and its Original Institutions 'T is plain our own Species have little signs of it left and if there be any Impressions of this kind still unworn out we must expect to meet with them only in Brutes who want the Mercury we have and so have not debauched and corrupted their primitive Constitution by a troublesome and restless Spirit by the pretended Improvements of Art nor the Real Fopperies of Ceremony All which we have indulged to so extravagant a degree that there is some reason to suspect whether even Beasts are altogether so sound as they should be in this point and if the keeping so ill Company as Mankind have not in some degree drawn upon Them the Infection of our Follies The rest of the Creation however follow Nature entirely they are content to stick and abide by that First and Universal Order and Rule which the Great Author and Governor of all thought sit to establish and appoint Man is the only factious and discontented Creature he breaks in upon the Condition and good Government of the World and while he professes to mend and polish what Nature hath prescribed he confounds all with his Freedom of Will and Gallantry of Spirit ceases to be regular upon pretence of being more resined and destroys Nature while he goes about to exalt and add to it In a word then True Honesty and Integrity That which is the very Foundation and Support of Wisdom consists in following Nature that is to say acting in agreement with right Reason The Happiness the Aim the End That wherein all the Ease the Liberty the Contentment of the Mind is comprised and to be short the utmost perfection we are capable of in this World is to govern our Lives and Actions by the Rule which Nature hath set us and keeping the Order of our Creation And that Order consists in this That the meaner and more gross Appetites should be kept in due Subjection and that which is the most excellent part of our Nature should controul and bear sway That is When Reason governs Sense and Truth is preferred before false and empty Appearances And as the Needle when touch'd with the Load-stone rests at no Point but the North And by sixing there becomes a Guide to Sailors in their Course So Man is never in his due Position when his Eyes are not sixed upon this Primitive this Divine this Universal Law of Human Nature For That is the proper Compass to direct his Inclinations and Opinions by and all the other helps he enjoys are but so many fresh Lamps kindled at this Original Light Now although This be a Power from which no Man is excluded yet I cannot but acknowledge that the putting it in practice and bringing the Endeavours of this kind to good effect is not in every Man's power equally Some do it with much greater Ease and Success than others There are a sort of Persons who seem to be made for Virtue their Complexion and whole Constitution disposes and sits them for it Their Tempers are so well mixed so naturally sweet and gentle that they feel in themselves a strong Inclination and an Original Propensity to Goodness and Integrity without any pains to bend their Assections by Art or to subdue and correct them by Discipline and Study This happy Frame of Mind is what I conceive to be principally owing to the first Formation of the Parts the Proportions and Composition of the Spirits and Humours and afterwards to the proper and kindly Nourishment of a good Milk and the Care and Management of their Infancy and first Beginnings of Education And those who are thus inclined to follow and comply with Nature and Reason who bear a secret Reverence to its Dictates and find little or no difficulty in submitting are the Persons properly meant when we speak of the Happiness of good-tempered Men and such as we say Nature hath been kind or partial to This natural and spontaneous Honesty now which comes as it were into the World with us is properly called Good Disposition the Quality of a Soul and Body well put together and of Humours duly moderated It is a Sweetness Easiness and Gentleness of Temper By which I would not be so mistaken as to be thought to make no difference between this and a Softness which is indeed an effeminate sottish unconcerned and vitious Easiness of Mind which is managed and led by the Nose hath no Courage no Choice of it's own strives to carry fair and become agreeable to every body and above all things declines giving offence to any that will not do an Act of Virtue and Justice if it be likely to displease nor dares refuse the wickedest and most unbecoming Compliances when the Favour and Opinion of Men lye at stake These Persons have no regard in the Earth for Equity or Reason the Merits of the Cause or the Service of the Publick but all their Considerations are fixed upon the Consequences as to their own private Interest and they look no farther than who is like to be obliged or disobliged by what they do It is of such wretched poor-spirited Complaisant Persons that you hear People frequently give that false and most unjust Commendation Oh he is a wonderful good Man for he is kind even to the worst and wickedest Men whereas indeed This Charge is much more deserved and true of them that such a Man cannot be a Good Man because he is not severe to ill Men but encourages their Villany by his Mildness and false shew of Good nature Such a Goodness as this is should rather be called Harmlessness for it is just like that Quality of little Children and Sheep and such other Beasts as we commonly call poor innocent simple Creatures But the true Sincerity and Honesty I am speaking of hath a very different Character it is a masculine brave vigorous and active Goodness of Mind a strong constant Affection an easy ready Inclination by which the Soul embraces and stands always bent to that which is consonant to Reason and Nature and Nature in this sense is but another word for Goodness and Equity and Justice Again There are many Instances on the other hand of Persons so cross and ill contrived that one would be tempted to think them Monsters in Human Form They have
a Disposition singular and by themselves so very rough and unmanageable as if some evil Genius had shuffled them up together in perfect Contradiction and despight of Nature In such Circumstances there is great difficulty This vitious Disposition must be cured and corrected the Harshness of it sweetned its wild and bruitish Roughness tamed and made gentle its crooked and stiff and irregular Humours bended and bowed down and made flexible and complying with the streight Rule and Plan of Universal Nature which is the true Level and Standard Men should bring themselves to And the properest Remedy for effecting this Cure is for such People to betake themselves to the Study of Philosophy as Socrates did and to the serious and resolute practice of severe Virtue which is a constant Combat with Perverseness of Temper a painful and vigorous conflict with all manner of Vice a laborious Study and Exercise of the Mind that requires a great deal of Time and Toil indefatigable Diligence and strict Discipline Virtue is attended with Hardship and employed upon a subject that can never be easy Labour and Sweat watâ—h perpetually at the Gate of Virtue and no Entrance is to be attained but by their means say some of the Antients to this purpose And again The Gods have set a high price upon Virtue and sold it dear to Mankind at the expence of great labour and trouble Now the End of all this Severity and Pains which I propose to Men of this unkindly Composition is not to graft in a fresh Fruit upon the Crab-stock not to introduce I mean a new foreign or artificial Honesty and consequently such a one as according to the account already given of this matter would at the best be but occasional and accidental only and so far short of that substantial and perfect Integrity I am aiming at But the Design and effect of this Study must be to clear the Rust and Rubbish to take away Obstructions not to create but to awaken the Powers of Nature to snuff and trim this Lamp within which is foul and burns dim and to quicken all those original Seeds of Goodness that have been long kept down and almost quite choaked and killed either by any vitious Habit in particular or by some personal Indisposition and natural Defect For the Eyes of the Mind are like those of the Body the visive Faculty is formed with them and inherent from the Beginning and therefore the way of helping the Sight is not to add any thing new but to remove the Films that grow over the Pupil as a Man wipes away the Dust from a Looking-Glass to make the Reflexion clear and strong From this Representation of the Case we may perceive Three Degrees of Perfection that True Integrity may be distinguished into two sorts The One Natural easy gentle and even which is properly called a Good Temper The Other is acquired full of difficulty attained by labour and much pain and This is termed Virtue to both which we may add a Third which is a kind of Compound of the Two former and so there will be Three Degrees of Perfection in the Case before us The First and Lowest is an Easiness of Temper a Mind so well disposed as to have naturally and of its own accord a disrelish and aversion to all manner of Extravagance and Vice and this we may call Goodness or Innocence The Second and next Stage which we call Virtue consists in the Art and Labour of Prevention setting it self with all its Force and Vigour to guard the Avenues to hinder the Advances of Vice and check the very first Motions of the Passions when they grow mutinous and if the Insurrection be actually begun to muster and arm all a Man's Forces to stop and quell and reduce them The Third and Highest degree of all is a Mixture of Noble Resolution and a Happy Temper so that the Man from both these met together is so excellently well disposed as not only to continue impregnable but to be free even from Attacks Not so much as a Temptation rises to give him Trouble the very Seeds of Vice are quite rooted out Virtue is the only the Natural Growth of this prosperous Soil and becomes not the Habit so much as the Complexion and Constitution of the Man This Last may justly be styled Perfection This and the First kind do thus far resemble one another and are both very differing from the Second That they are silent and still without difficulty and without struggle the natural Air and constant Course of the Man a cheap and easy Virtue that costs him little or nothing whereas the Second is a perpetual Conflict and dwells in the midst of Hurry and Alarms and Battels The last and most perfect of these Degrees is acquired by a long and painful Study a serious and constant Exercise of the Rules of Philosophy added to a Good and Generous and Noble Nature largely and liberally furnished and a Mind enriched with all manner of good Dispositions For in this Case Both must concur Nature and Industry must each do their part and it cannot be entirely the work of one of these not all infused nor all acquired This is the End which all the old Philosophers proposed to their Studies but above all the rest the Stoick and Epicurean Sect I make no scruple of saying the latter did it as well as the former though this I confess might seem strange had we not the Testimony of Seneca and several other Ancient Writers in confirmation of it These gallant Men look'd upon Disgrace and Contempt Want and Sickness Pains and Tortures nay even Death it self to be Toys and Trifles fit for none but Fools and Children to be anxious or concerned about They did not only despise them and endure them with Patience and Constancy and gain an absolute Conquest over all the Troubles and Difficulties of them whenever they made the Assault but they went out into the Field they sought and provoked them Rejoiced in as well as Triumphed over them They look'd upon these Encounters as necessary Breathings for their Virtue to keep it in Exercise and Vigour and by the frequency of such Engagements did not only secure and establish that Virtue and render it Firm and Steady and Severe as Cato and some other renowned Stoicks for instance did but even Cheerful and Gay and if that be not an improper expression wanton and full of play by the perfect Mastery they had got over all external Accidents and Things Upon the stating of the whole Case and comparing these Three together some who have but imperfect apprehensions of the noble Height and true Excellence of the Third Degree have been inclined to think that the Second was the most Honourable and to be valued above either of the Rest by reason of the Difficulties and Dangers it contends with and the many painful and laborious Struggleâ— the Attainment of it costs And as Metellus said that the Doing Evil
was a despicable thing because it was the Effect of Cowardice and Laziness so the Doing Well where it is without the expence of Trouble and Hazard is look'd upon by these persons as too vulgar and cheap a thing but the attempting and going through with it in despight of Hazards and Troublesome Oppositions and where these attack us in great number and labour hard to obstruct and deter us from our Duty This is the Commendation of a Good and a Virtuous Person indeed * Difficilia quae pulchra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Whatever is excellent is Difficult was we know the usual Saying of the Noblest Philosopher But to deal plainly and speak the Truth of the matter the Difficulty of obtaining any thing does by no means alter the nature or add to the real and intrinsick value of the thing it self nor is it as I have taken occasion formerly to observe any just and warrantable Cause for raising it in our Esteem Nay it is beyond all Controversy certain on the other side that Natural Excellencies are much more desirable and better than those that are studied and acquired That it is much more Brave and Great and Divine to act by the motions and spontaneous Perfections of Nature than with the most exquisite Dexterity and nicest Improvements of Art in an easy free equal and uniform manner than with laborious Efforts uncertainly and with Doubt and Danger and Perplexity of Thought It is in the former of these two Senses that we term Almighty God Good His Excellencies are his Nature Essential to him and if They could cease he must cease to Be. And therefore to call not Him only but even the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Virtuous is a Diminution and Disparagement to them Theirs is properly Goodness too but Virtue is a Title too low for the Happiness of unsinning Perfection a State of Indefectibility and above the reach of all Temptation 'T is true indeed in the Condition we now live where Dangers surround and threaten and Frailties betray us perpetually Virtue makes somewhat of noise and clutter and is forced to act with some Vehemence and this gives it the Preference before Smooth and Still Goodness For the generality of people always measure the Excellence of a Thing by the Shew and the Difficulty and admire that most which costs dearest but this is a false method of judging and we are not much to wonder if They are wrong here who indeed are generally so in all their Estimations of Men and Things For these great Swelling Performances that look so big and seem to be all zeal and fire are not subsantial nor to the purpose They are no part of true Honesty nor the Products of that fix'd Principle we are speaking of but rather intemperate Heats and Feverish Fits very different from that Wisdom we are now in quest of which is healthful and moderate gentle and calm equal and uniform Thus much may suffice to be said of Honesty or Sincerity in general For as to the several parts of it and the particular Duties resulting from thence they will come under our Consideration in the Third Book and particularly when we shall treat of the Virtue of Justice And here I find my self under an Obligation of discharging my Promise Of Grace in the necessary Addition of what follows in this Paragraph To silence if it be possible the unjust Malice and disadvantagious Character cast upon me by some who find fault with my as they think them Extravagant Commendations of Nature as if This were able to do every thing and no other Assistances were required To these persons it might suffice to reply that by Nature I understand as was observed before the God of Nature and the Dictates of Eternal Reason written and engraved in every Heart by His Almighty Hand I might also alledge that the Subject of this Book is only Natural and Human and that the Author is not obliged by his Design to concern himself with any Virtues properly Divine or the Advantages above the power of Nature to confer But waving all this I readily acknowledge that to render the Virtue and Integrity I have been describing compleat and give it all the Perfections it is capable of one thing more is necessary The Grace of God I mean which must animate and invigorate this Goodness and Probity shew it in all its lustre give the finishing stroke refine and exalt it from a mere Moral to a Christian Virtue This renders it accepted at the Throne of Heaven approved of God capable of an Eternal Recompence and so crowns it both with Perfection here and a Reward hereafter It is not easy to find Apposite Resemblances for Things which cannot present themselves to us by any sensible Ideas But if you will pardon the meanness of the Comparison I should almost venture to compare the Probity here insisted on to a Skilful Master who touches the Keys of an Organ with absolute Accuracy and Art but all to no purpose the Instrument is dumb till the Wind express the Excellence of his Hand by giving Sound to the Instrument and making that Melody which all his Mastery in playing was not able to do without it Thus Moral Virtue is but a sort of Speculative Perfection till the Grace of God inspire and enable us to put it in Practice and produce the Fruits of it Now This is a Blessing which does not consist in refined Thought nice Notions and long or learned Discourses it is not to be acquired by Rule or the methods of Human Industry and Art nor can we attain to it by our own Labour and Toil the utmost we can do is to prepare and endeavour to qualify our selves duly for the receiving it for after All Receive it we must It is a Gift that comes down from on high and the very Name of Grace is designed to represent to us the Good Will of the Donor and that the Gift is entirely free Our part is to ask to seek to implore it with all imaginable Humility and the most fervent Desires we are capable of To prostrate our selves before the Throne of Grace and with the utmost Contention of Heart and Voice to say Vouchsafe O my God in thy Infinite Goodness to look down with an Eye of Mercy and Pity upon thy poor Servant Accept and grant my Desires assist my weak Endeavours and crown those good Inclinations which are originally derived from Thee The Law by which I stand obliged the Light by which I am instructed in my Duty are of thy Ordering thou hast stamped our Nature with these Impressions of Good and Evil and shined in our hearts by thy Precepts O give Success to thy own Institution and finish the work thou hast begun that so the Glory and the Fruit may redound to the Planters use and thou may'st be first and last in all my Actions and Designs my Thoughts and my Desires Water me abundantly
Service and Homage is paid to the Divine Majesty by so doing To give these a better Countenance and greater Authority in the World some of them really produce and others pretend Revelations Visions Prophesies Miracles Prodigies Holy Mysteries and eminent Examples of Saints Persons exemplary for their Piety or Sufferings or Doctrine and these Allegations whether true or false speak the General and Natural Sense of Mankind to agree in the expectations of Revelation from Heaven and that Miracles are proper Attestations of them Each hath a particular Scheme of its own which distinguishes the Receivers of it from Those of different Perswasions and imposes certain Articles of Faith and Forms of Discipline Some as Terms of Communion and Marks of Distinction and Others as necessary to be believ'd in order to Salvation All of them have at first been weak and low and little regarded but from those slender Beginnings have by degrees gained ground upon the People been insinuated received applauded and at last entirely submitted to by vast Multitudes spread far and wide and established themselves as if Opinions ran like contagious Diseases and all that came within the Air of them were sure to catch the Infection And yet some of these owe all their Authority to Fictions and Tricks insomuch that even the absurdest and most sensless of all Errors have been embraced with as great Reverence and Devotion and maintained with as much Stiffness and as Positive a Confidence as the very Truth it self All of them do likewise agree in their Notions of Appeasing God and teach unanimously that Prayers and Offerings Promises and Vows Days of Extraordinary Humiliation and Thanksgiving are proper methods to incline his Ear and obtain his Favour and good Acceptance for our Persons and our Requests All believe that the Principal and most pleasing Service we can pay to God the most powerful means o averting his Indignation reconciling our selves and becoming agreeable to him is by giving one's self some torment and trouble by laying heavy Burdens upon our selves and cutting out a great deal of work the more difficult and contrary to our inclination the better and more meritorious For what other account but this can we give of those infinite Profess'd Austerities enjoin'd to particular Orders the abundance of Fraternities and Societies of Men which in all Religions throughout the World the Mahometan as well as Christian are devoted to sundry peculiar Exercises full of Severity and Discipline of Poverty and Pain and Corporal Sufferings even so far in some of them as to scourge and wound and mangle their own Persons These are observed to be more numerous and differently instituted in False Religions than the True And All this from a strong persuasion that they merit by this Discipline and voluntary Cruelty and are in proportion so much better Men than Others as they afflict and torment themselves more than They. An Imagination which still prevails and such as human Nature is never like to get quit of for we see every day fresh Instances and new Inventions of this kind and what industry Men use to be more ingenious and exquisite in contriving new sorts of mortification and punishment See the Notes Now all this I say can be accounted for no other way than by assigning it to an Opinion that God takes delight and is wonderfully pleased with the Sufferings and Calamities of his Creatures An Imagination which to those who think Sacrifices to have been of human Invention seems to have been the Ground of all that way of Worship which before the Christian Religion made its Appearance in the world was universally practised Thus harmless Beasts were butchered every where and their Blood spilt and poured out upon Altars as a valuable Present to the Divinity and thus too in some places so prodigious was the Infatuation of Mankind poor little innocent Children were barbarously tortured and murdered and Grown Persons sometimes Malefactors and sometimes Men of eminent Virtue and clear Reputation were offered in Sacrifice and this was the usual Worship of almost all Nations and looked upon as one of the most solemn and most acceptable Acts of Devotion Thus the Old Getae in Scythia are said among other instances of Adoration and Honour paid to their God Zamolxis to dispatch a Man to him once in five years to consult and supplicate him in all things necessary for them And because the Ceremony requires that this Advocate of theirs should dye in an instant and the manner of exposing him to death which is the being pierced through with three Javelins is somewhat doubtful in the Execution therefore it often happens that several are thus dispatched before any one wounds himself in a part so mortal as to expire immediately and only He that does so is esteemed a Favourite of their God and proper for that purpose but all the rest who dye slowly are to be rejected as unfit for this Sacrifice Thus did the Persians worship their Gods as that single fact of Amestris the Mother of Xerxes testifies who in agreement to the Principles of Religion then prevailing in that Country did as an Offering of Thanks for her own long and prosperous Life bury fourteen young Persons of Quality alive Branches of the Noblest Families in the whole Kingdom So likewise did the ancient Gauls and Carthaginians among whom young Children were Sacrificed to Saturn and that with so remorsless a Zeal that even the Fathers and Mothers used to be present and assisting at the Ceremony Thus the Lacedemonians sought to ingratiate themselves with their Goddess Diana by scourging their young Men in Complaisance to her nay doing it with such Rigor that they expired under it for the Sacrifice of Iphigenia shews that she was worshipped with human Blood The Instance of the two Decij proves that the Remans were possest with the same Imagination too which gave occasion for this Reflection in one of their Writers * Quae fuit tanta iniquitas Deorum ut placati Pop. Rom. non possint nisi tales viri occidissent What strange Provocation could make the Gods so extremely hard and severe that there was no way of reconciling them to the People of Rome unless the Atonement were made by the blood of such gallant Men Thus the Mahometans who slash and cut their Faces their Breasts and other amembers to recommend themselves to their Prophet and the people in our new Discoveries of the East and West-Indies and at Themistitan where they cement the Images of their Gods with Children's Blood Now what Madness what Stupidity is this to suppose that Inhuman Actions can ever gain upon the Divine Nature that the Goodness of God is requited or decently acknowledged by our own Sufferings or that Barbarity can be a proper Method of satisfying his angry Justice As if Justice could thirst after human Blood or feast it self upon the Innocent lives that are spilt with infinite torture and the most exquisite pain †Ut sic
occasion Now there is nothing that pretends more to a graceful Air nor takes more true pains to appear like true Piety and Religion than Superstition does and yet at the same time nothing is more distant from or a greater Enemy to it Just as the Wolf which carries some tolerable Resemblance to a Dog but is of a quite different Disposition and comes to devour that Flock which it is the other's business to defend as Counterfeit Money is more nicely wrought than true Coin or as a Flatterer who makes shew of extraordinary Zeal and Affection but is in reality nothing less than that true Friend he desires to be thought It is no injudicious Character given by Tacitus when he describes a sort of Men * Gens Superstitioni obnoxia Religionibus adversa extremely liable to Superstition and at the same time violently averse to Religion Superstition is likewise envious and jealous to the last degree affectedly officious and troublesome like a fond Courtezan who by her amorous jilting tricks puts on more Tenderness and pretends to infinitely more concern and love for the Husband than his true Wife whom she endeavours to lessen in his esteem Now some of the most remarkable Circumstances wherein these two differ are That Religion sincerely loves and honours God settles the Mind in perfect ease and tranquillity and dwells in a noble and generous a free and gallant Spirit whereas Superstition fears and dreads God gives Men unworthy and injurious apprehensions of his Majesty perplexes and scares the Man and is indeed the Disease of a weak and mean a timorous and narrow Soul * Superstitio Error insanus Amandos timet quos colit violat Morbus pusilli animi Qui Superstitione imbutus est quietus esse nusquam potest Varro ait Deum à Religioso vereri à Superstitioso timeri It is according to St. Augustin's account of it all over Error and Phrensy it lives in terror of those whom it ought to love dishonours and affronts those whom it pretends to respect and adore it is the Sickness of a little and feeble Mind He that is once tainted with Superstition can never more enjoy peace and rest Varro 's observation is That Religious Men serve God out of Reverence but the Superstitious out of Horror and perpetual Dread of him But we will be a little more particular upon each of these Qualities The Superstitious Person is one who neither lets himself Superstition described nor any thing else be quiet but is eternally teazing and troublesome both to God and Man The Ideas he entertains of God represent him as an Ill-natur'd and Morose an Envious and a Spiteful Being Unreasonable Rigorous and hard to be pleased quickly provoked but long before he is reconciled again One that takes notice of our Actions after the same manner that we commonly observe those of one another with a sort of malicious Curiosity watchful to find faults and glad to take the advantage of any Failings All this it is true he does not own nor speak it out but the manner of his serving God sufficiently declares and speaks it for him for That is agreeable and exactly of a piece with these Notions He trembles and quakes for fear hath no enjoyment of himself nor any degree of Comfort or inward Security full of Fears and Melancholy Distrusts always fancying that he hath done too little and left somewhat undone for want of which all the Rest will signify nothing He very much questions whether God be satisfied with his best Endeavours and in this disquiet he applies himself to methods of Courtship and Flattery Tries to Appease and gain upon him by the length and importunity of his Prayers to Bribe him with Vows and Offerings Fancies Miracles to himself easily believes and takes upon trust the Counterfeit Pretensions of this kind from others Applies every Event to his own Case and interprets those that are most ordinary and natural as expresly meant and directed to Him by the particular and immediate hand of God he catches greedily at every Novelty and runs after every new Pretender to Light and Revelation * Duo Superstitiosis propria nimius Timor nimius Cultus Two inseparable Qualities of Superstitious People says one are Excess of Fear and Excess of Devotion Now what in truth is all this but to Torment one's self most immoderately and at the expence of infinite trouble and disquiet to injure and affront God to deal with him after a most base sordid and unworthy manner to use him as if he were a mercenary Being and to treat the Majesty of Heaven and Earth as we durst not presume to use a Man of Quality or Honour And indeed generally speaking not only Superstition but most other Errors and Defects in Religion are owing chiefly to want of right and becoming apprehensions of God We debase and bring him down to Us compare and judge of him by our Selves cloth him with our own Infirmities and unaccountable Humours and then proportion and suit our Worship and Services accordingly What horrid Prophanation and Blasphemy is This And yet as detestable a Vice as dangerous a Disease as This is It is natural it is in some measure Natural and all Mankind have more or less Inclination to it Plutarch laments the Weakness of Human Nature in that it never keeps a due Medium nor stands firm upon its feet but is eternally leaning and tottering to one or other Extreme For in truth either it declines and degenerates into Superstition and Vanity and mistaken Religion or else it hardens it self in a Neglect of God and a Contempt of all Religion We are all of us like a Silly Jilted Husband that is Put upon by some gross Cheat of an Infamous Woman and takes more delight in her little studied Arts to cajole and bubble him than he finds satisfaction with his own Virtuous Wife who serves and honours him with all the genuine Modesty and unaffected Tenderness becoming her Character Just thus are we abused by the large Pretences of Superstition and prefer it before the less showy and pompous Charms of true Religion It is also exceeding frequent and common we cannot wonder the Vulgar should be infected with it Common after what hath been said of its proceeding from Weakness of Mind from Ignorance or very mistaken Notions of the Divine Nature Upon all which accounts we may well suppose it is that Women and Children Old Men and Sick Persons or People stunn'd with any violent Misfortune or under the Surprize and Oppression of some uncommon Accident are observed to labour most under this Evil. The same hath been likewise observed by Plutarch of rude and unciviliz'd Countries * Inclinant naturâ ad Superstitionem Barbari Plutarch in Sertorio The Barbarians says he are naturally disposed to be Superstitious Of Superstition then it is and not of Religion and true Piety that what we commonly repeat after Plato must be understood where
he says that the Weakness and Cowardice of Mankind first brought Religion into Practice and Esteem and that upon this account Children and Women and Old People were most apt to receive Religious Impressions more Nice and Scrupulous and more addicted to Devotion than others This I say is true of Superstition and mistaken Devotion but we must not entertain any such dishonourable Thoughts of true and perfect Religion This is of a nobler Descent its Original is truly Divine it is the Glory and Excellence not the Imperfection of Reason and Nature and we cannot be guilty of greater Injustice to it than by assigning such wretched Causes for its beginning and increase and drawing so scandalous a Pedigree for its Extract Now besides those first Seeds and general Tendencies to Superstition which are derived from Nature Cherished by Reason and Policy and Common to Mankind there are large Improvements and Additions of this Vice owing to Industry and Cunning. For many people support and cherish it in themselves they give it countenance and nurse it up in others for the sake of some Convenience and Advantage to be reaped from it It is thus that Great Persons and Governors though they know very well the Folly and baseness of it yet never concern themselves with putting a stop or giving any disturbance to it because they are satisfied This is a proper State-Tool to subdue Mens Minds and lead them tamely by the Nose For this reason it is that they do not only take good care to nourish and blow up that Spark which Nature hath already kindled but when they find occasion and upon some pressing Emergencies they set their Brains on work to forge and invent new and unheard of Follies of this kind This we are told was a Stratagem made use of by Scipio Sertorius Sylla and some other eminent Politicians * Qui faciunt animos humiles formidine Divûm Depressosque premunt ad terram Who by false Terrors Freeborn Souls debase And paint Religion with so grim a Face That it becomes the Scourge and Plague of human race †Nulla res multidudinem efficaciùs regit quam Superstitio Nothing keeps the Multitude under so effectually as Superstition But enough of this wretched People and that base Superstition An Introduction to the description of true Religion which like a common Nusance ought to be detested by that Scholar of mine whom I am now instructing and attempting to accomplish in the Study of Wisdom Let us leave them grovelling in their filth and betake our selves now to the Search of true Religion and Piety of which I will here endeavour to give some strokes and rude lines which like so many little Rays of Light may be of some use at least and help to guide us in the pursuit of it Now from the former Considerations it does I hope sufficiently appear that of the great Variety of Persuasions at present or any possible to be Instituted Those seem to Challenge the Pre-eminence and best deserve the Character of Truth and Religion indeed which without imposing any very laborious or much external Service upon the Body make it their business to contract and call the Soul home that employ and exalt it by pure and heavenly Contemplations in admiring and adoring the Excellent Greatness and Majesty incomprehensible of Him who is the First Cause of All Things the Necessary the Best the Original Being And All this without any nice or presumptuous declaration what this Being is or undertaking positively to determine and define any thing concerning that Nature which we cannot understand or prescribing too peremptorily how he ought to be Worshipped But contenting our selves with such large and indefinite acknowledgments as These That God is Goodness and Perfection it self infinite in all Respects and altogether incomprehensible too vast for human knowledge to understand or conceive distinctly And thus much the Pythagoreans and other most celebrated Sects of Philosophers taught long ago This is the Religion of Angels and that best sort of Worshippers in Spirit and Truth whom God seeks and loves But among all those less spiritualized Pagans who could not satisfy themselves with so refined a Principle as Inward Belief and the Exercise of the Soul only but would needs gratify their Senses and Imagination with a visible Object of Worship which was an Error all the World almost was tinctured with The Israelites chose a Calf but None seem to have made so good a Choice as those who pitched upon the Sun for their God This indeed excelling all other Creatures so vastly with regard to its Magnitude and Motion its Beauty and Lustre its wonderful Use and Activity and the many unknown Virtues and Efficacies of its Influences that it does certainly deserve nay command the admiration of all the World we cannot think too highly of it while we remember it is still but a Creature for look round this whole Fabrick and Man excepted your Eye shall discover nothing so glorious nothing equal nay nothing near or comparable to it The Christian Religion preserves a due Temper between these Extremes and by devoting both Body and Soul to God and accommodating it self to all Conditions and Capacities of Men hath mixed the Insensible and Internal Worship with that which is Sensible and External Yet so that the most perfect and Spiritual Persons employ themselves chiefly in the former and the weak and less exalted are taken up with that which is invisible and popular Religion consists in the Knowledge of God and of our Selves Some descriptione of Religion For This is a Relative Duty and these are the two Terms of that Relation It s business is to magnify God and set Him as high and to humble Man and lay Him as low as possibly we can To subdue and beat him down as a lost worthless Wretch and when this is once done then to furnish him with helps and means of raising himself up again to make him duly sensible of his own Impotence and Misery how Little how mere a Nothing he is that so he may cast away all Confidence in himself and place and seek his Hope his Comfort his Happiness his All in God alone That which Religion is chiefly concerned in is the binding us fast to the Author and Source of all Good the grafting us afresh and consolidating Man to his first Cause like Branches or Suckers into their proper Root For so long as Man continues firm and fixt in this Union so long he preserves the Perfection of his Nature but on the contrary when once he falls off and is separated from it all his Vigor and Powers are dried up and gone and he immediately withers and dies away The End and Effect of Religion is faithfully and truly to render their Dues both to God and Man that is to say All the Honour and Glory to God and all the Gain and Advantage to Man For these two comprehend under them all manner
of Good whatsoever The Profit or Gain which is a real Amendment and bettering of our Persons and Conditions is an essential and internal Benefit and This belongs to Man who is of himself and without this a Creature Impotent and Empty Indigent and Necessitous and miserable in all respects The Glory is not so much an Advantage as an Ornament an Additional and External Grace and This belongs to God only for he is the Fulness and Perfection of all Good so absolute and compleat that nothing can be added to his Essential Happiness and therefore Benefit is a thing he cannot receive And thus if you please you may understand that Angelick Hymn Glory to God in the Highest Luke II. 14. and on Earth Peace and Favour towards Men. Thus much being premised in general the particular Steps or Directions in this matter Piety explained must be these that follow First It is necessary that we apply our selves to study and in such a measure as we are capable to know God To know God For our Knowledge of Things is the Foundation and the Standard of the Honour we have for them The first thing then that we ought to be convinced and fully persuaded of upon this occasion is His Existence then That he created the World and that all other Beings whatsoever are the Products of his Power and Goodness and Wisdom That by these same Attributes he governs this Universe of his own making That his careful Providence watches over all things and even the least and most inconsiderable Events do not escape his observation That whatsoever his Dispensations to Us are they are all for our Good and that all our Evil comes from our selves alone For if we should account those Accidents which God appoints for us to be Evils this were to be guilty of great Prophanation and to blaspheme against his Government this were to tear up the very Foundations of all Piety and Religion because Nature teaches us to Honour and love our Benefactors but begets hatred and aversion to them that deal unkindly by us and do us mischief Our Duty therefore is to get a right Notion of God's dealings toward us to resolve that we will obey him at any rate to receive all that comes from his hand with Meekness and Contentation to commit our selves to his Protection and Care and to submit all we are and all we have to his direction and wise disposal The next Duty which follows upon our Knowing God To Honour him and which indeed results most naturally from it is the Honouring him And the best the most becoming and most Religious Honour we can pay him consists First of all In raising our Souls far above any Carnal Earthly or Corruptible Imagination and then exercising our selves in the Contemplation of the Divine Nature by all the purest the noblest the holiest and most reverent Conceptions that can be When we have adorned and represented this most excellent Being to our selves in all the most magnificent Ideas when we have given him the most glorious Names and sung forth his Praises in the most excellent manner that our Mind can possibly devise or strain it self up to we are still with all Humility to acknowledge that in all this we have not done or offered to his Majesty any thing suitable to his own Excellency or in it self worthy his Acceptance and to possess our selves with yet more awful and respectful Ideas of him by the profoundest Sense of our own Imperfections That it is not in the power of Human Nature to conceive any thing better though we plainly see that our most exalted Thoughts serve not so much to shew us his Glory as to reproach us with our own Weakness and Defects For God is the last and highest Flight which our Imagination is able to make when it would soar up towards absolute Perfection and in aspiring to this Idea every Man le ts loose his Mind and enlarges his Notions according to his own Capacity or rather indeed God is infinitely greater and higher than all the boldest and bravest Flights of poor feeble Man a Perfection more exquisite more bright than the Dim Eye of Mortals can receive the Lustre of or the most tow'ring Imagination make any approach to We must also serve this God Sincerely in Spirit and from the Heart for this is a sort of Service To serve him with our Spirit Joh. iv 24. which is most agreeable to his Nature God himself is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth says he who best knew both what he was and what he expects from Us. This Argument the very Heathens could enforce for Inward Purity and a Sanctified Mind * Si Deus est animus sit purâ mente colendus This he will not only accept but it is what he seems desirous of and hath declared will be exceeding welcome and delightful The Father seeketh such to worship him V. 23. The Offering of a sweet-smelling Savour and what he values indeed is That of a clean free and humble Spirit The Mind is a Sacrifice to God says Seneca an unspotted Soul and an Innocent Life And thus others †Optimus Animus pulcherrimus Dei Cultus Religiosissimus Cultus imitari Unicus Dei Cultus non esse malum Lactant. Merc. Trism He that brings the best heart worships God best The most Religions Adoration is to imitate the Perfections of Him we adore The only way of serving God is not to be an ill Man The truly Wise Man is a True Priest of the most High God His Mind is God's Temple and the House where his Honour dwelleth His Soul is God's Image a Ray or Reflection of that Brightness and Glory above His Affections and Appetites like so many Oblations are all consecrated and entirely devoted to his use and service And his great his daily his most solemn Sacrifice is to imitate and serve and obey him You see how different this is from that absurd Notion of those People who make Religion consist in Giving to God Alas what can We give to Him All is his own already and the most we can possibly do is but to restore and pay back what his Bounty hath bestowed upon us But we are wretchedly mistaken if we imagine it possible for God to receive any Addition or be enriched from Men No he is above all That Our business must be to ask of Him to implore his Favour and Assistance for our Wants and Weaknesses It is the Character of the Great to give and of the Poor and Mean to ask And therefore we may easily discern which of these two parts belongs to an Infinite Almighty God and which to wretched indigent Mortals Acts xx 35. It is more blessed to give than to receive And however he may graciously condescend to interpret those Works of Mercy done for his sake yet in the way of Sacrifice and Worship of himself it is a
applicable to these Persons above any others For they have a notion that the best Use Life can possibly be put to is to let it slide over without observation to deceive the Time and steal from the World as if Living were a most miserable Hardship full of unavoidable Mischiefs and a Penance so burdensome and tedious that He only is happy who can make his escape from it Thus these great Sages dodge and run away from the World they do not only bring the common methods of Living into Suspicion and cast an Odium upon the Recreations and Entertainments and innocent Liberties in common use but they even proclaim War upon the Necessities of Nature and profess an Aversion to those very things which God in his Wisdom hath seasoned with Pleasure on purpose to recommend the Use of them to us They never come in the way of these but with Reluctance and are rather dragged than move willingly they keep their mind still in exercise and employment upon somewhat else and are absent in thought all the while In short If you will believe the mighty boasts they make and all the mortified account they give of themselves Their whole Life is a Toil and a Burthen Death is the only Ease and Solace they propose to themselves And that unnatural Sentence is ever in their mouths * Vitam habere in Patientiâ mortem in Desiderio That they do indeed bear and can be content to Live but if they might follow their own Inclinations the thing they wish and would much rather chuse is to Die But it will be no hard matter to take off all the seeming Virtue of this Opinion This Opininion disapproved and to blast the Glories and Commendations it pretends to For when we come to a close and impartial Consideration of the matter The Unreasonableness the great Wickedness indeed of such a Contempt discovers it self in several Instances For First of all if we consult Nature and attend to the Condition and Design of our Creation Reason will teach us that nothing is more Graceful no Duty more Obligatory than the considering and maintaining the Character assigned to us that is in plain English the Learning to live here in all respects as becomes Men. It is in truth a very difficult Study but withal a most divine Accomplishment to know how to Enjoy and Use the Being God hath given us as he intended we should do To observe the Common Model of Nature and then the particular Circumstances and Qualifications of our own State and Case And so to adjust and proportion our behaviour to the first of these as at the same time to be guilty of nothing foreign to our private Condition or any way disagreeable to the part we are to play upon this Common Theatre We are to follow and to act what is given us but not to invent and make a new part of our own head But now these Extravagant Singularities These Studied and Artificial Essays and Overtures These ways of living beside the common road are all of them Sallies of Men's own Folly and Passion and impertinent Additions of such as because they do not understand their part mistake and overdo it They are the Diseases and Phrensies of the Soul that put Men quite beside their Senses They Spiritualize themselves only to be more refined Fools and while they affect the perfection of Angels degenerate into the stupidity of Brutes It was wisely said by him in the Comedy Homo sum ' humani à me nihil alienum puto which with respect to our present Subject is I my self am a Man and therefore must think nothing that is Human unworthy my concern For this is the very State of our Case Man is a compounded Being a Creature consisting of Soul and Body both and it is by no means commendable to maim Nature and take the Building to Pieces by cutting off this Fleshly Tabernacle God hath United and as it were Married these Two together by all the Ties of Nature and the most tender intimate Affection and how impious an Undertaking is it for Us to create Jealousies and Dislikes to drive things to Separation and Divorce and thus to put asunder those whom God hath joined together Quite contrary we should rather tye this Knot faster by all the good Offices and mutual Assistances they are capable of to one another For indeed they are well contrived for such reciprocal Services The Body of its self is heavy and stupid and therefore the Soul should animate and awaken and render it Vigorous and Active The Spirit of its self is light and airy and oftentimes very troublesomely brisk and therefore the Body is of use to check and six it In a word The Mind should govern and cherish and be helpful to the Body as a Husband should assist and direct his Wife and by no means hate or cast it off or despise the Infirmities and Necessities of this weaker Vessel It is an unbecoming Niceness and Pride to refuse the partaking in its innocent Pleasures such as Nature ordains and the Laws of God and Man allow for our Recreation and Entertainment For the thing required upon this Occasion is not total Abstinence but prudent Moderation Man is really bound to make this Life a considerable part of his Care to taste the Pleasures of it nay to chew the Cud and reflect upon them with Satisfaction for all this is necessary to give a right Relish and Value of them and to make him duly thankful and sensible of the Goodness of that Providence which hath made so liberal a Provision for our Entertainment here below Do not mistake There is no part of that which God hath in bounty bestowed upon us unworthy our regard Were it below Us to accept it would have been much more below Him to give We shall do well therefore to remember not only that we may receive it but that we are accountable for every the least mite of it And therefore the Use of Life is no jesting matter but a Commission and a Talent which requires our most serious Care that the living in agreement to Nature and governing our selves by such Rules as result from a due Consideration of it is an express Duty imposed upon us in very good earnest and with an intent to be severely reckoned for And Thus much may serve to convince us how unnatural See B. III. Ch. 38. and how foolish a Delicacy that is which teaches Men to condemn Actions as Vicious because they are Natural or to nauseate and disdain them as mean and below their Character because they are necessary Whereas in reality Necessity and Pleasure are the happiest Marriage that ever God made in all the Course of Nature It is a most convincing Demonstration of his Infinite Wisdom that in those Actions which are of greatest Use and indispensable Necessity to human Life the matter should be so order'd that some agreeable Satisfaction should always attend them and that our
may appear in the Eyes of these Persons a horrible Cruelty and Abomination to see their Aged Parents lie Languishing before their Eyes in the midst of Sickness and Pain and Faint Strugglings for the wretched Remnants of Life without any kind Hand to do the good Office of setting them at Rest And when Declining Nature hath finished its own Course it is no hard matter to imagine that These People should with Reluctancy and Horror Interr these Spoils of Those who gave them Being that they might think it a Neglect and a Reproach to cast those Remains they so dearly Love into a Hole to Rot in the Earth to Corrupt and become Food for Worms that This is the greatest Disregard they can possibly be guilty of and a very ill Expression of Tenderness and Duty And that this Supposition is not so very much out of the way we have plain matter of Fact to prove For Darius made the Experiment and found it to be exactly as I have put the Case He first demanded of some Grecians upon what Terms they would be content to take the Indian Custom of Eating the Bodies of their Deceased Parents and their Answer was What! do so Barbarous a thing as Eat our own Fathers We could not do it at any rate Then again he attempted to persuade the Indians That they would Burn the Bodies of their Parents after the manner of the Grecians and he found These a great deal more averse to his Proposal and more difficult to be persuaded than the Other Give me leave here only to add one Instance more of Men's different ways of Reasoning in a Trifling Matter and such as only concerns Decency and Civility A Man that used to wipe his Nose upon his Fingers being reproved for so unmannerly a Trick desired in his own vindication to know what Privilege that silthy Excrement had above all the rest that we must pay it the respect of a fine Handkerchief and then as if it were some valuable Treasure wrap it up close and carry it in one's Pocket That in all reason this should rather turn one's Stomach and give offence than throwing it carelesly away Thus you see how few things there are for which some probable Reason may not be alledged and This should be a warning to us not to condemn Things hastily and rashly but to consider both sides of the Question But after all the Power of Custom is incredible no Man can conceive easily The force of Custom how absolute and uncontrouled an Authority it exercises over Mankind He that called it a Second Nature came far short of the Truth for it is equal it is superior to Nature it even contends with it triumphs over Nature Whence I pray comes it to pass that Fathers never fall in Love with their own Daughters though never so charming and desirable Creatures Or why are Sisters seldom or never smitten with their own Brothers though infinitely handsomer better accomplish'd and more engaging than Strangers This Reservation and Coldness does not properly proceed from Nature She makes no such Distinctions These are the Effect of general Customs and Positive Laws who forbid such Mixtures pronounce them Scandalous and Horrid Incestuous and Wicked but again I say these Characters are fix'd by Divine or Human Institutions for Nature knows no such thing as Incest nor condemns any Alliances let the Line or Relation be what it will This is sufficiently plain from Scripture not only if we consider the Children and 〈…〉 dents of Adam whose Case made the 〈…〉 â—â—oidable But observe the Marriages and Relation of Abraham and Nahor and the Descendents from Them Gen. ii xx xxix xxxviii Exod. vi Levit. xviii Deut. xxii 30. 2 Sam. xiii 13. 1 Kings ii the Matches of Isaac and Jacob the Fact of Judah one of the Twelve Patriarchs Amram the Father of Moses and other Holy and Eminent Persons It was indeed the Law of Moses which Prohibited these Mixtures within the nearest Degrees And yet this very Law Dispensed with that Rule in certain Cases not only in the Collateral Line that of taking the Brother's Wife for instance which was an express Command and not barely an Indulgence but between Brother and Sister of the Half Blood nay even in a Right Line of Alliance as betwixt the Son and his Father's Wife for as to a Right Line in Blood This indeed seems a Crime against Nature and the Example of Lot can give no Countenance to it whatever Excuses some great Men have found for his Daughters See Cajet in Loc. who seem to have done this for the sake of preserving Mankind which in the Consternation they were then in upon the Destruction of Sodom they thought All extirpated but Themselves But the Law of Nature is an Original Law and Eternal one too such as none but God can dispense with and such as we never find any Example of his having ever dispensed with But then as for such Incests as are Accidental and Ignorant and Involuntary 't is very likely Tertullian's Complaint may be too true That the World is full of them Farther yet Custom commits a Violence upon the Rules of Nature and overbears them witness that daily practice of Physicians who frequently forsake the Theory and set aside what Art and Reason do both concur in so far as the Rules and Grounds of their Profession can discover or direct and take a different course with their Patients in Deference to Experience and common Success Witness again those People who have wrought a perfect Change in their Constitutions even so as to Eat nay to live upon Poison Spiders and Ants Lizards and Toads as several whole Nations are said to do in the Indies Custom does likewise stupify our Senses and alter the Temper of the Organ and the quality of the Impression and the Report made from it To this purpose are the accounts we read of those People who dwell near the Cataracts of the River Nile and indeed a Mill-pool or a Steeple or a Brazier's Shop will in proportion have the same Effect and if you give credit to some Old Philosophers All the World are deaf to the Musick of the Spheres which is nothing else but the different Motions of the several Orbs turning round upon their own Axis and variously justling and interfering with one another In one word The great and Master-workmanship of Custom is That it subdues and conquers Nature vanquishes every Difficulty makes those things easy by degrees which seemed unattainable and impossible and the Bitterness of pain and Suffering it wears out and softens till at last our Complaints cease and we are reconciled even to our Miseries themselves Nay it does not only produce Content and lay asleep the sensitive Soul but it manages and domineers over the Rational one too and exercises a most unjust and arbitrary Power over our Imaginations and Judgments It makes and unmakes at pleasure Gives and takes away Reputation and Esteem without
Satisfaction and breaking Prison So far therefore as this Desire is consistent with Patience and Resignation to the Divine Will so far it is truly Magnanimous and Commendable and no farther To that Question What Law does this offend against it is easy to answer Against the Laws of God and of Nature against the Condition of Mankind against our Duty to the Publick against the Sixth Commandment in particular which no more argues us Guiltless when we Kill our Selves because chiefly designed to restrain us from Killing Others than it can be proved from the Seventh that we do not Sin against our own Bodies when we Invade another's Bed The Love of our selves is proposed as the standard of our Love to others and the Rule must be supposed as perfect at least as the thing to be regulated by it If there be no Prohibition against this in express words it was because none was thought needful and sure it is no excuse to say That no Law is violated in Terms When the Case was such as needed no Law As to the other part of the Argument That Men may dispose of themselves as they please and a willing Person can receive no Injury it supposes an Absolute Right to dispose of our selves such as no Creature hath with respect to God and Providence and no Man can have with regard to the several Relations and Dependencies in which he is engaged And if so little can be said for this Horrid Fact when the most favourable Cases are put How detestable and impious must it needs be when Disgrace or Poverty Disappointments and Crosses Raging Passions and Repining at Providence prevail with Men to commit it For these are such Motives as no body ever undertook to justify and the Stoicks themselves who went the farthest in this matter yet stopp'd short of these and to speak the Truth even wavered in all the rest A more full account whereof I refer my Reader for to Lipsii Manuduc ad Stoic Philosoph Lib. III. Cap. XXIII XXIV and for a larger discussion of this whole matter to Spanhem Disput Theolog. De Lib. Apocryph Authoritate Disp XIII XIV and Bishop Taylor 1. De Civ Cap XXVI Ductor Dubitant Book III. Chap. 2. Rule 3. From all which compared St. Augustin's determination I doubt not will seem most reasonable His exceptis quos vel Lex justa vel ipse Fons Justitiae Deus jubet occidi quisquis Hominem vel seipsum vel quemlibet occiderit Homicidij crimine innectitur Those only excepted whom either a just Law or God himself who is the Fountain of all Justice shall command to put to Death whosoever shall kill any Person be it himself or any other Man he becomes thereby guilty of Murther and is Answerable for his Blood Of WISDOM The Third BOOK In which Particular Rules are laid down and Directions for the several Parts and Offices of Wisdom branched out under Four General Heads as they have relation and are reducible to the Four Cardinal Virtues The PREFACE OVR Design in this Last Part of the present Treatise being to give the Reader the most particular Instructions we can possibly and so to follow and compleat the General Rules of Wisdom touched upon in the Book foregoing the most Convenient and Methodical way of proceeding seemed to me to range all I have to say under the Four great Moral Virtues of Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance Since these are of a comprehension so large that it is almost impossible to instance in any Duty of Morality or Practical Religion which is not directly contained or may very fairly be reduced within the compass of them Prudence supplies the place of a Director and Governor it instructs Vs in other Virtues and is the Guide of our Life and all the Actions of it though indeed it be more peculiarly concerned in matters of Dealing and good Conduct and its strict proper Notion is Dexterity in the Management of Business Now as This regards Actions so Justice which is the next is chiefly concerned about Persons for the Province of Justice is to render to every Man his due Fortitude and Temperance have respect to the Events of Human Life the Prosperous and Adverse such as move our Passions and are matter of Joy or Grief of Pleasure or Pain to us Now it is plain that these Three Persons and Actions and Contingencies extend to all the parts of Human Life and our Condition and Dealings in the World cannot possibly oblige us to be conversant with or employ'd about any thing whatsoever which is not comprehended under One or Other of these Considerations CHAP. I. Of Prudence in general THere is great Reason It s Excellence why Prudence should have the first and most honourable place alotted to it because it is really the Queen of Virtues the general Superintendent that presides over and gives directions to all the Rest Where this is wanting there can be no such thing as Goodness or Beauty Propriety or Decency It is the very Salt of Life the Lustre and Ornament of all our Actions That which recommends them to the Eye and gives them that Seasoning and Relish which is necessary 'T is the Square and Rule by which all our Affairs ought to be measured and adjusted and in one Word This is the Art of Acting and Living as the Science of Physick is the Art of Health Prudence consists in the Knowledge and the Choice of those things Definition which it concerns us to desire or to decline It is a just and true Valuation first and then a picking and culling out the best It is the Eye that sees every thing and conducts our Motions and Steps accordingly The Parts or Offices of it are Three and these all naturally consequent and in order after one another The First is Consulting and Deliberating well the Second Judging and Resolving well the Third Managing and Executing those Resolutions well It is very deservedly esteemed an Universal Virtue 'T is Universal because of a Comprehension so general so vast that all manner of Actions and Accidents belonging to Humane Life are within its Extent and Jurisdiction and This not only considering them in the gross but each of them singly and in particular So that This is as infinite as all those Individuals put together You cannot wonder if the next Property I assign to it be that of Difficult Difficult the infinite Compass I have already mentioned must needs make it so For Particulars as they cannot be positively numbred so they cannot be fully understood It is a standing Rule * Si quae siniri non possâ—nt extra sapiâ—ntiam sunt That whatever is infinite exceeds the Bounds of Wisdom But that which adds yet more to the Hardship is the great Uncertainty and Inconstancy of Human Affairs which is still rendred more intricate and unaccountable by the inexpressible Variety of Accidents Circumstances Appurtenances Dependencies and Consequences the Difference of Times and
Excellencies of Vlysses puts this of Skill in retreating into his Characler The Lacedaemonians who pretended to the most obstinate Courage of any Nation in the World yet in that renowned action of Platea gave ground on purpose to break the Persian Troops and disorder them in the pursuit This was an advantage which they had no other way of compassing and the Success answered the wisdom of the Design for they won the Day by this Feint of losing it In a word the most warlike Countrys in the World have given it authority and never thought themselves dishonoured by the Practice Nay even the Stoicks after all their impracticable and romantick Stretches of humane nature are content to allow their wise Man so far as looking Pale and shivering at new and surprising Accidents provided this be only a bodily Affection and that it do not enter so deep or last so long as to give the Soul any part of the Disorder And thus much may suffice to possess us with a true Idea of Fortitude or Courage in general Of the particular Objects and Exercise of Fortitude NOW that we may cut our Work out and lay it in due order it is necessary in the first place that I put my Reader in remembrance that this Virtue undertakes to deal with all that whatever it be which is called Evil according to the most popular and extensive signification of the Word Now this Evil is of two sorts either External or Internal The former is that which assaults us from without and goes by great variety of Names such as Adversity Afflictions Injuries Misfortunes Casualties or unwelcome Accidents The other arises from within and hath its residence in the Soul but it is excited and agitated by the Evil from without Such particularly are those Passions which disturb and discontent us as Fear Grief Anger and the rest of that black disorderly Crew It will be proper for us to speak to each part of this Division fully and distinctly to explain their Operations to provide Men with proper Remedies and sufficient means for the subduing and softening and regulating these Grievances And such are the Arguments and Directions for the Virtue of Fortitude now under our Consideration Consequently then what you are to expect upon this Subject will consist of two parts the one respecting the Calamities and Disastrous Accidents of our Lives the other concerning the Passions which these Accidents provoke and stimulate in our Minds And here my Reader must recollect that the general Directions thought necessary for the bearing good or ill Fortune decently he hath been supplyed with already So that referring him back to the second Book Rock II. Chap. 7. for what regards Prosperity and Adversity in the gross he is only to expect now that we should descend to the particular sorts of Misfortunes and what is â—it to be prescribed for each of them respectively CHAP. XX. Of External Evils WE may consider these External Evils in three several respects First with regard to the causes or occasions of them which shall make the Subject of this Chapter next in their Effects and lastly with regard to what they are in themselves where I shall treat of the several Species of them distinctly And under each of these Heads I will make it my endeavour to lay down such Rules and Directions as may sustain us under and fortifie us against them The Causes or Occasions of these afflicting Accidents which are capable of happening to every one of us may be publick or general when they affect a great many at the same time when whole Kingdoms or Neighbourhoods at least are involved at once such as Pestilence Famine War Tyranny and Oppression And these for the most part are Rods of the divine Vengeance Scourges sent by him to chastise the exorbitant Wickedness of obstinate Men who resuse to be won over by gentler methods of Reformation At least we know not what immediate cause to ascribe them to or else they are private Calamities and such as we are able to trace up to their first Author and Original that is they are inflicted and brought upon us by some other Person And thus both the private and publick Misfortunes are of two forts Now the publick Calamities those I mean which proceed from a general Cause though they do really come home to each single Person yet are they in different respects more or less grievous important and dangerous than the private ones of which we are able to give a distinct and particular account They are more so because they assault us with united force fall on in Troops and with greater violence make a louder noise rage more horribly have a longer and blacker train of ill Consequences attending them are more perplexing and amazing and create greater Disorders and a more general Confusion But then they are less so too in regard of their being thus general and for the numbers which are involved in them together For when a Disaster is common every Man is apt to think his own share of it the less It is some kind of comfort to think that we are not singled out for Examples and for this reason the efficacy of such Corrections is usually the less for every Man takes Sanctuary in the commonness of the Calamity and imputes it to some universal disorder in Nature or to some unusual concurrence of natural Causes and so shelters himself in the Crowd by vain pretences which personal afflictions leave no room for And besides daily experience shews that the Evils brought upon us by other Men gall us more sensibly and go nearer to the Quick and have a greater influence upon our Minds than any of the former sort are wont to do Now all these both of the one and the other sort have several proper Remedies and Considerations to qualifie and render them very supportable to us as particularly these that follow When we have any publick Calamities to encounter it will become us very seriously to reflect whence they come and by whom they are sent That the Cause and Author of them is God an Omnipotent and All-wise Providence whose Pleasure we are subject to and have an absolute and entire dependence upon that he governs and disposes all things and holds those vain Men in derision who hope to burst his Bands asimder and to cast away his Cords from them that we and all the whole Creation are tied by Laws of an invincible necessity and that the strongest Combinations nay the universal joynt strength of the whole World is much too weak to reverse or resist his Will Most certain it is that Providence and Necessity or Destiny when we speak strictly and properly are but one and the same thing There is no essential disserence between them or the Laws upon which they proceed and all they vary in is only as to those different respects which we are used to consider and reason upon them in Now to murmur and repine and torment our selves