signifies their Conjunction the Phrase AS FAR AS THEY PROCEED shews their specifick difference and the Phrase WHERE THEY CONSIST their generical community For the otherwise distinct kinds of rational beings by this distinction enter into one society For in that some are first some middle and some last they are at once distinguish'd and united For neither can the first be middle or last neither can the last be middle or first but they remain eternally distinct by the limits of their Creation And so we understand HOW FAR THEY PROCEED But WHERE THEY CONSIST we shall again consider Nothing of this kind can be perfect which has not the first middle and last parts in it self as the beginning middle and end of the whole System And the first would not be first if the middle and last did not follow neither would the middle be what it is call'd if it wanted extremes on each side neither would the last be last if the first and middle did not go before They conduce therefore mutually to the perfection of the Universe And this is the meaning of CONSISTING among themselves For although they are distinct as to variety of kinds yet they fall in together as the parts of one World filling by their distance and union the whole constitution and frame of the divine Ornament which you shall know says he if you faithfully RETAIN the foremention'd good Moreover under the name of extreme kinds is contain'd also the middle which he intimated when he said the CONSTITUTION both of Immortal Gods and of mortal Men for the first are link'd to the last by the interposal of the middle and the last proceed to the first by the interposition of Illustrious Heroes Now these and the order of Intelligent Beings has been already deliver'd by us in the beginning where 't was said that the Immortal Gods had the first station in the World the Illustrious Heroes the second and the Demons of the Earth the last which are call'd mortal Men. And it has been already set forth how each of these is to be conceiv'd which we shall rightly doe if we get a certain knowledge of those things in the delivery of which we have already touch'd upon the honour due to them who adorn'd practick Vertue by speculative Truth and pass'd from the goodness of the humane Habit to the divine Vertue For so to know the things that are as they receiv'd their subsistence from God is to obtain the divine likeness But because after the eternal Ornament follows corporeal Nature which fills this visible world and is intended and accomdated for the dominion of rational beings he shews further that they shall obtain the good of Philosophical Science who proceed orderly to their knowledge MOREOVER YOU SHALL KNOW AS FAR AS IS FIT NATURE IN ALL RESPECTS LIKE HER SELF THAT SO YOU MAY NOT HOPE WHAT IS NOT TO BE HOPED AND THAT YOU MAY NOT BE IGNORANT OF ANY THING And Nature in her uniformity That so your ignorance may not suggest Vain hopes of what you cannot be possest When Nature had moulded this visible World to the divine proportion she made it every where variously CONFORMABLE to its self by Analogy and Imaged the divine beauty upon all the Mundane forms in a different manner assigning perpetuity of motion to the Heavens and to the Earth permanency so that each of these should bear a footstep of the divine Likeness She assign'd also to the Celestial body the Circumference of all but to the Terrestrial the Centre Now in an Orb the Centre is one way the beginning and another way the end of the Circumambient whence the upper part is enammel'd with Stars and fill'd with Intelligent Animals and the Earth is adorn'd with Vegetables and Animals indued only with Sense Now Man seems the middle of these two extremes partaking of each life the last of those above and the first of those below So that he is first of all compared with the Immortal Gods and recovers his proper state when he converts himself to the mind and sometimes he is herded among the mortal forms when by transgression of the law of God he falls from his own dignity For being the lowest of Intelligent beings he is not disposed to contemplate God constantly and uniformly otherwise he would not be a Man but a God neither can he contemplate him constantly though not uniformly for that would insert him into the order of Angels whereas now he is a man he is capable of being rais'd by resemblance to that which is more excellent but still by nature is inferiour to the Immortal Gods and Illustrious Heroes But as he is inferiour to them in as much as he does not always consider but is sometimes ignorant and unmindfull of his own nature and of the light which descends from God upon him so does he excell brute Animals Vegetables and his Terrestrial and mortal Nature by his essence in as much as he is capable of returning again to God of abolishing his forgetfulness by remembrance of recovering what he has lost by discipline and of curing the flight of things above by a contrary tendency It becomes therefore us Mortals to know the CONSTITUTION of the Immortal Gods and of mortal Men that is the order of Intelligent beings And to know NATURE IN ALL RESPECTS LIKE HER SELF that is the Corporeal substance in which from the beginning to the end the divine Likeness shines forth But so know all these AS FAR AS IS FIT so as they are order'd by Law so as they were produced by God and so as they are disposed by his laws whether they are Corporeal or Incorporeal For this knowing as far as is FIT is to be understood of both in common For we ought not out of a fond indulgence to our own unreasonable humour to wrest the dignity of things as we please but following the limits of truth to know all things as far as is FIT and as the law of Creation has distinguish'd them Now from this twofold knowledge of the divine Workmanship things Corporeal and Incorporeal springs a most excellent advantage that we neither HOPE FOR WHAT IS NOT TO BE HOP'D NOR BE IGNORANT OF ANY THING For 't is from our ignorance of the nature of things that we hope for what we should not and project impossibilities As if a man shou'd hope to become one of the Immortal Gods or Illustrious Heroes Such a one knows not the bounds of nature nor has learnt to distinguish the first middle and last Again If any one think his Soul dies with his mortal body out of ignorance of the immortality of the Soul he looks for that which neither should nor can be In like manner he that hopes to put on the body of a brute beast and to become an irrational creature by his wickedness or a Vegetable by inactivity of sense the same in opposition to those who transform the humane nature into that of superiour beings IGNORANTLY degrades
which as all know who are conversant in those Writings was something Mystical and Enthysiastick This I mention to prevent the Objection of some who might be apt to charge me with obscurity of Style I grant many things might have been deliver'd more openly and clearly but then I must have deserted the peculiar Genius of my Author which ought always to be Sacred and Inviolable THE Golden VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS FIrst the Immortal Gods as rank'd by Law Honour and use an Oath with holy awe Then honour Heroes which Mankind excell And Daemons of the Earth by living well Your Parents next and those of nearest blood Then other Friends regard as they are good Yield to mild words and offices of love Do not for little faults your Friend remove This is no more than what in you does lye For Power dwells hard by necessity Doe these things so but these restrain you must Your Appetite your Sleep Anger and Lust. From filthy actions at all times forbear Whether with others or alone you are And of all things your self learn to revere In Deed and Word to Justice have an eye Do not the least thing unadvisedly But know that all must to the Shades below That Riches sometimes ebb and sometimes flow Bear patiently what Ill by Heaven is sent And add not to your Griefs by discontent Yet rid them if you can but know withall Few of those Thunder-storms on good men fall Oft good and ill do in discourse unite Be not too apt t' admire nor yet to slight But if through errour any speak amiss Endure 't with mildness but be sure of this That none by word or action you entice To doe or speak to your own prejudice Think before action Folly to prevent Rash words and acts are their own punishment That doe which done after you 'll ne'r repent That which you know not do not undertake But learn what 's fit if Life you 'll pleasant make Health is a thing you ought not to despise In Diet use a mean and exercise And that 's a mean whence does no damage rise Be neat but not luxurious in your fare How you incur Mens Censure have a care Let not thy ' state in ill tim'd treats be spent Like one that knows not what 's magnificent Nor by a thrift untimely rake too clean 'T is best in every thing to use a mean Be not mischievous to your self advise Before you act and never let your eyes The sweet refreshings of soft slumber taste Till you have thrice severe reflexions past On th' actions of the day from first to last Wherein have I transgress'd what done have I What duty unperform'd have I past by And if your actions ill on search you find Let Grief if good let Joy possess your mind This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life Divine Believ 't I swear by him who did us shew The mystery of Four whence all things flow Then to your work having pray'd Heaven to send On what you undertake an happy end This Course if you observe you shall know then The constitution both of Gods and Men. The due extent of all things you shall see And Nature in her Uniformitie That so your Ignorance may not suggest Vain hopes of what you cannot be possest You 'll see how poor unfortunate Mankind To hurt themselves are studiously inclin'd To all approaching good both deaf and blind The way to cure their Ills is known to few Such a besotting fate does men pursue They 're on Cylinders still roll'd up and down And with full tides of Evil overflown A cursed inbred Strife does lurk within The cause of all this Misery and Sin Which must not be provok'd to open field The way to Conquer here 's to fly and yield And now from Ill great Father set us free Or teach us all to know our Selves and Thee Courage my Soul Great Iove is their Allie Their duty who by Nature's light descry These Rules if to that Number you retain You 'll keep and purge your Soul from every stain Abstain from Meats which you forbidden find In our Traditions wherein are defin'd The Purgings and Solution of the Mind Consider this then in the highest Sphere Enthrone your Reason the best Charioteer So when unbody'd you shall freely rove In the unbounded Regions above You an Immortal God shall then Commence Advanc'd beyond Mortality and Sense The INTRODUCTION PHilosophy is both the Purification and Perfection of humane Life The Purification as it frees it from the material and brute tendencies of the mortal Body The Perfection as it restores it to its own primitive excellency and the participation of the divine Image Both these are best effected by Vertue and Truth The former calms all disorders of the Passions the latter if it meet with a well disposed mind introduces the divine form 'T is necessary therefore in order to that Science which must both Purifie and Perfect us that we have some short sententious Rules or artificial Aphorisms by whose direction we may in an orderly and easie progress arrive to the end of an happy life Now amongst all those rules which have a general aspect upon all Philosophy I think the Pythagorick Verses deservedly call'd Golden may justly claim the precedency For they contain the principal Maxims of all Philosophy whether Speculative or Practical Whereby a man may possess himself of Truth and Vertue enjoy himself in Purity live happy in the likeness of God and as Plato's Timaeus says a Critical Professor of the Pythagorical Institutions being made sound and intire may attain to the form of the primitive habit As for his Method he begins with the precepts of Practical Vertue For we must first subdue the brute within us and shake off all sluggishness from our minds and then addict our selves to the knowledge of more divine things For as a blear Eye cannot behold a very bright object till it be purged so a Soul not yet clarifi'd and refined by Vertue is not qualifi'd to gaze on the beauty of Truth There 's too much disproportion between pure and impure than that one should reach the other And whereas Practical Philosophy is the parent of Vertue and Speculative of Truth thence we find in his Verses where he had ended his Instructions about Civil Vertue he calls the former Humane but the latter he honours with the title of Divine in these words This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life Divine The first step therefore to the Divine Nature is to rise up to the dignity of the Humane Now that which makes a man good is Civil Vertue but that which deifies him are those Sciences which advance him to the Divine And since the order of Ascent requires that small things be pass'd over before greater therefore in the Pythagorick precepts Moral institutions have the first place that so from what is of greatest
use in common life we may learn to ascend to the likeness of God And this is the scope and order of the Verses to stamp the Auditors with the character of a Philosopher before they proceed to any other exhortations They are call'd Golden because they are the best of all Verses and altogether Divine So among the ages of the World we call that Golden which was the best differencing the manners of men according to the Analogy of Metals Besides Gold is a thing that is free from dross and without mixture of earth at least not so much allai'd with it as those other Metals which are nearer of kin to it and consequently of meaner extract viz. Silver Brass and Iron Among which on this account also Gold has by Nature the preheminence because it never contracts rust Whereas every one of the other is so far liable to it as it partakes of earth There being therefore a resemblance between rust which partakes of the earth and Vice which arises from material Concretions the age which is holy and pure and manners void of all wickedness are properly styled Golden And in like manner these Verses being good and excellent all throughout are intitled Golden and Divine For there is not in them as in some other things a mixture of good and not good But they all in like manner set forth Purity of life lead us on to the participation of the Divine Likeness and inform us of the most perfect end of the Pythagorean Philosophy As will appear from the particular exposition of them which follows HIEROCLES Upon the Golden VERSES Of the PYTHAGOREANS First HONOUR THE IMMORTAL GODS AS THEY ARE DISPOSED BY THE LAW First The Immortal Gods as rank'd by Law Honour SInce Piety is the great leading vertue as having the most immediate relation to God it is deservedly made the matter of the first exhortation in these Verses that we may know how we ought to HONOUR the GODS which are in the world according to that intimate order which the LAW of Creation has interwoven with their Essences having assign'd the first Sphere to some the second to others and so on till all the Celestial circles be fill'd up For to acknowledge and HONOUR them sutably to the several stations wherein their Maker and Parent has set them is to obey the divine LAW and to give them true HONOUR Not to extoll their dignity above measure nor to entertain diminishing thoughts concerning them but to think them to be what indeed they are and that they retain their allotted station and to refer this HONOUR to the only maker of them whom you may properly call the God of gods the Supreme and best God But the only way to find out the true dignity of that God who was the most artificial framer of the Universe is to assert him the Author of those Intelligent beings which are immutable For to those the Verses give the title of IMMORTAL GODS who always and in equall manner Contemplate the great God their Maker and are constantly intent upon his goodness so that they are secure from either Change or Separation being as it were the images of the All-productive Cause neither disturb'd with Passion nor tainted with Evil. For 't is fit God should produce some such images of himself and not that all should be mutable and obnoxious to Passions which would incline them to evil Of the latter sort are the Souls of men the meanest of Intelligent beings Of the former those IMMORTAL GODS which are the highest Neither is the title of IMMORTAL GODS intended to distinguish them from humane Souls but only to shew that they incessantly enjoy the divine felicity and never forget either their own Nature or their Father's goodness Whereas the souls of men are subject to passions whence it comes to pass that they sometimes attend to God and their own excellency and sometimes are diverted from both Upon this account the Souls of men may with parity be call'd Mortal gods because they dye sometimes when they quit the happiness and sanctity of the divine life by aversion from God and sometimes revive by returning to him So that they are said to live when they enjoy the divine life and also to die as far as an immortal nature may be capable of death not because they cease to be but because they degenerate from the excellency of life For the death of an Intelligent being is to be without God and reason which privation is attended with a disorder and mutiny of the passions For when better things are unknown there is a necessity of being enslaved to worse From which there is no other way to be redeem'd than by recollection to return to ones self and God Moreover 't is necessary that between those which we call IMMORTAL and those we call Mortal gods there intercede another sort of greater excellency than Man and yet short of a God which as a middle link may so couple the two extremes that the whole Intelligent nature may be in a right union with it self Wherefore this middle Nature is not at any time wholly ignorant of God nor yet has an altogether unchangeable and equall knowledge of him but always actually considers him yet more or less at divers seasons Now in regard it has always an actual knowledge of God it excells the humane Nature but yet as it is mutable and unequall it falls short of the Divine And this middle Station it holds by the law of its Constitution neither for its proficiency advanced above and humane nor for its negligence degraded below the divine Nature For all the Intelligent part of the Creation bears the image of their Maker God But those of the first rank are the pure image those of the middle the middle image those of the third the last image of the divinity And of these three sorts of beings the first takes in those which the Verse calls IMMORTAL GODS the middle the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES and the last the DEMONS of the EARTH as we shall see by and by But now let us return to the first thing in hand Namely to consider what is meant by the LAW and the ORDER of it and also what is that HONOUR which is given according to that order By LAW here is to be understood the All-producing mind and the divine Will to which every thing continually owes its production and conservation The ORDER of this LAW is that whereby the Parent of all things has disposed the IMMORTAL GODS in several degrees For although with respect to the whole Intelligent kind of the Creation they have all supremacy of Station yet if compared to one another they differ according as they partake more or less of the divine image The difference of these natures is attested to by the very order of the Celestial Orbs which are so disposed according to their Essence and Vigour that the LAW is to be seen in their Essence and the ORDER is coeval with
a mortal extract but originated from their uniform cause as light which is concomitant with the substance of a lucid body I mean the pure serene Ethereal light after which we consider that which participates of shades and obscurity The third and humane kind bears proportion with this in as much as 't is liable to evil and oblivion for by these Man apostatises from a perpetual contemplation of God and in that respect comes short of those beings which always contemplate him and is again restored to the knowledge of God when disengaging it self from material corruption and shaking off the mortal passions it joins with the divine quire Then therefore Man deserves to be honour'd by us when he is thought worthy to partake of the Divinity that what is defective in nature might be made up by the participation of something more noble For it becomes him that loves God to honour whatever any way resembles him whether the likeness be from Eternity or acquired in time And such are those men which excell others in vertue concerning whom is the next precept HONOUR ALSO THE DEMONS OF THE EARTH DOING RIGHT THINGS And Demons of the earth by living well By DEMONS here which signifies Knowing and Learned he means the souls of Men adorn'd with truth and vertue And to distinguish them from the DEMONS by nature such whereof the middle rank consists he calls them EARTHLY as apt to dwell and converse upon the Earth and inform earthy bodies So that the word DEMON distinguishes them from wicked and unknowing men and the Epithet EARTHLY from those which constantly contemplate God and are unapt to converse on earth or inform mortal bodies For the appellation of EARTHLY DEMON is applicable to none but to one that is a Man by nature and a DEMON by habit The Men therefore whom in the Verse we are commanded to honour are they which are rank'd among the divine beings such as resemble Demons Angels and Illustrious Heroes For we may not suppose that any thing of a vile and ignoble nature is proposed to us as an object of our honour as the Word may seem to imply For to give honour to any thing inferior to humane Nature does by no means become him who either loves God or is conscious of his own excellence Nay we are not to honour Man himself next to the more excellent beings unless he resemble their perfections and so make himself one of the divine Quire But what is the HONOUR due to such TO DO RIGHT THINGS he says that is to obey the Precepts which they have left us to esteem their Sentences as authentick as Laws and to follow the same course of life the participation of which they were so far from envying us that they carefully made it their endeavour to preserve the elements of Vertue and rules of Truth in lasting Monuments as an immortal and fatherly Legacy for the common good of Posterity To obey these Precepts and live comformably to them is a more true way of HONOURING them than to make them sumptuous Oblations and celebrate their obsequies with Magnificence And thus are we to HONOUR excellent beings beginning with God the Author of all leaving the middle place for the Celestial and Ethereal beings and ending with Man And since much respect is due to some relations of life such as that of Parents and Kindred who although they be not always good yet have a right to receive honour from us because beneficial to us therefore he adds HONOUR ALSO YOUR PARENTS AND THOSE WHO ARE NEXT OF KIN TO YOU Your Parents next and those of nearest blood He had in the foregoing Precept commanded us to honour good men as happy and divine beings and here he commands us to HONOUR our PARENTS and those that are NEXT OF KIN to us whatever they are upon the same necessity of Relation For our PARENTS and NEXT OF KIN are the same to us in respect of this mortal life as the Celestial-beings our eternal and spiritual Parents and the Heroes our honourable Kindred But how are we to HONOUR them Shall we so order our Conversation to their mind as neither to doe nor design any thing but what will please them But that 's the way to become industriously evil if it be our fortune to have ill PARENTS Or shall we shew them disrespect in all things as a condemnation of their wickedness But how then do we satisfie the present command Or how shall we avoid being impious against God and the Heroes if we deny honour to our PARENTS and RELATIVES who by our own confession resemble them So that by this means the denial of HONOUR to our Parents wherein we think we doe vertuously would lead us into a greater evil than what we study to decline that of Impiety On the other side if we conform to our PARENTS in all things how shall we secure our Piety and other vertues if they for want of it themselves do not direct us to what is good For if that were altogether true and good which to our PARENTS seems so then the HONOUR which we give them would be agreeable to that which we give the more excellent beings But if at any time the will of our PARENTS thwart the divine Laws what shall those doe who are under this unhappy contradiction of Law but what is our duty to observe in many offices whose circumstances engage us upon contradictory Commands For this is a practical Maxim that when two honest things offer themselves to our choice we ought to prefer the greater before the less if we can't embrace both For instance 't is a good thing to obey God and 't is also a good thing to obey our PARENTS Now if it happen that both these agree in their commands it is without doubt a most happy thing But if the divine Law enjoyns one thing and your PARENTS another in this dissention of wills you must embrace what is best and in those things only disobey your PARENTS wherein they disobey the Law of God For 't is impossible to resolve obedience to the laws of Vertue and yet to comply with them who transgress them But as to all other things we ought to shew our PARENTS all imaginable HONOUR by submissive and reverent carriage of body and by ministring to their necessities with all readiness and liberality For 't is but reason they should use the service of them to whom they gave both being and education But that which no way had any dependance from them is exempted from their dominion by the Law to which every one that would truly be a Father should with all care and industry be conformable And then 't will be possible to observe both divine and humane laws together And then we need not neglect obedience to our PARENTS upon a pretence of vertue nor by a foolish compliance make our selves guilty of the greatest of evils Impiety For if they threaten to kill or disinherit us for
it to the inferiour not considering that the essential form of humane nature is unchangeable For the same man by the alternate possession of Vertue and Vice is said to become a God or a beast Not that he is either by nature but by habitual similitude And indeed he that knows not the dignity of the things that are but either exceeds it or comes short of it makes his ignorance an occasion either of a vain opinion or false hope But he that judges of all according to the measures of the Creation that knows the things that are in the same manner as they were made and that lastly measures God from the knowledge of himself he best observes the precept of following God knows the best measure and is above all Fraud and Imposture AND YOU SHALL KNOW MEN EMBRACING EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD MISERABLE AND WHO NEITHER SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD AND THAT THERE ARE FEW WHO KNOW HOW TO DISINTANGLE THEMSELVES FROM EVIL SUCH A FATE HURTS THE MINDS OF MORTALS WHO ARE ROLLED HERE AND THERE UPON CYLINDERS BEARING INFINITE MISERIES FOR A PERNICIOUS CONTENTION IS THEIR INBRED COMPANION WHICH TREACHEROUSLY HURTS THEM WHICH WE SHOULD BY NO MEANS PROVOKE BUT YIELDING AVOID You 'll see how poor unfortunate Mankind To hurt themselves are studiously inclin'd To all approching good both deaf and blind The way to cure their ills is known to few Such a besotting fate does men persue They 're on Cylinders still rol'd up and down And with full tides of Evil overflown A cursed inbred Strife does lurk within The cause of all this Misery and Sin Which must not be provok'd to open field The way to conquer here 's to fly and yield The order of the Incorporeal and Corporeal Natures being well understood it remains that we exactly know the nature of Man both what it is and what passions it is liable to How it stands in the middle confines between those beings which never fall into Vice and those which are not capable of Vertue Hence 't is that he acts both parts in his manners sometimes embracing the felicity of the Intellectual life and sometimes the affections of Sense So that 't was well said by Heraclitus that we live their death and dye their life For Man descends and falls from the happy Region as Empedocles the Pythagorean says Man yields unto the rage of Appetite Heaven's Exile straying from the Orb of light But he returns and resumes his first habit if as he says He fly the confines of this dismal Cell Where Murthers Anger and all mischiefs dwell In which whosoever fall They wander in dark regions of Death But the desire of him that flies these regions of Death will speedily conduct him to the regions of Truth which if he once leaves by the force of the moulting of the Wings he comes down into an earthy body Losing the life of bliss Agreeable to this is that which Plato says of the descent When the impotent Soul can no longer enjoy the vision of God and having suffer'd a deflux of her wings falls down to the earth then she ought by the Law to inhabit a mortal body And concerning the Ascent he says this when a Man has overcome by his reason that tumultuous brute Commotion which accrues to him from Earth Water Air and Fire he shall return to the form of the first and best habit and being made sound and whole shall recover his proportionate Orb. Sound because free from the diseases of Passion which is done by Civil Vertue And whole by the recovery of Knowledge as of his proper parts which is to be done by Speculative Truth He shews moreover that by Aversion from the things below we should retrieve those excellencies which we lost by Apostasie Since he defines Philosophy to be the flight of Evil. For he declares that men only are obnoxious to Passions that evil cannot be utterly lost nor exist in the gods but is necessarily conversant about this place and humane nature For it is consequent to the nature of things generable and corruptible to be sometimes preternaturally affected which is the beginning of evil But by what means we should avoid these he subjoins when he says we must fly from hence thither that this flight is as much a resemblance of God as Man is capable of but the Similitude it self is to become Just Holy and Prudent For he that would fly from Evil must first be averse from humane nature since they who are immers'd in that cannot but be fill'd with the concomitant evils As therefore our departure from God and the moulting of our plumes whereby we soar'd aloft caused our descent into the region of Mortality and Wretchedness So 't is the rejection of our bodily Passions and the growth and springing of Vertue as of new wings which will carry us to the pure habitations of holiness and divine felicity For the nature of Man being in the middle between those beings which always contemplate the face of God and those whose nature is never capable of such contemplation it ascends to them and descends to these by the possession and rejection of the mind and alternately puts on the divine and brutish Similitude by reason of its natural propension to both He therefore that knows these things of the humane nature knows also how men are said TO EMBRACE EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD and how they become unhappy and MISERABLE by their own election For when they could have remain'd longer in that station they are drawn down to be born by the rashness of desire and when they could with more speed have loos'd from hence they intangle themselves in the security of their passions And this is that he means when he says that they neither SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD so that by good he understands Vertue and Truth And by their not seeing neighbouring good is meant that they are not moved of themselves to the search of excellent things and by their not hearing is meant their unattentiveness to the Instructions of others For there is a twofold way of recovering knowledge either by discipline as by hearing or by invention as by sight They therefore are said to embrace evils of their own accord who neither willing to learn of others nor to find out of themselves remain destitute of the sense of all good and consequently altogether unprofitable For he that neither considers himself nor gives attention to the Instructions of others is an unprofitable man But they who employ their endeavours in the learning and finding out things excellent these are they who know how to DISINTANGLE themselves from evil and who by the flight of all worldly labours are translated into the free Aether But of these there are but few For the major part of Mankind are evil and in subjection to their passions nay and of unsound minds by reason of their propension to earthly things And this evil they have brought upon themselves because they would
blind and ignorant as some make them and their most Heroical Vertues but splendid Sins certainly the best of their Morality would not be worth reading much less translating I shall therefore consider the Morality of the Heathen both in the Theory and in the Practick Concerning the Theory I shall endeavour to make good this Proposition That 't is possible by due Advertency to the light of Nature or the dictates of natural Reason sufficiently to discern between Good and Evil. Concerning the Practick this That the actions of the Heathen which were conformable to this light of Nature were not Splendida peccata but truly and properly Vertues I begin with the first of these That there is such a thing as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or law of Nature is here supposed in the Proposition The thing affirm'd is the possibility of sufficiently discerning between Good and Evil by it This I will make Evident three ways 1. By the Authority of express Scripture 2. By one demonstrative Reason 3. By an Appeal to the writings of the Heathen First I urge that known place in the 2d of the Romans For when the Gentiles which have not the Law doe by Nature the things contain'd in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another This Scripture proves my second Proposition as well as my first For if they perform the things contain'd in the Law they doe good works and avoid sin For herein consists the whole Law The next place is in the 14th of the Acts. Where Saint Paul speaking to the men of Lystra concerning the ignorance of the Heathen World yet says Nevertheless he left not himself without witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that he did good from Heaven c. which words can bear no other tolerable sense but this That the ordinary works of Nature give sufficient testimony of the divine Omnipotence Goodness and Wisedom Which though few did consider and improve as they ought and might yet nevertheless they who have this Testimony have means in themselves absolutely sufficient whereby they may know believe in and worship God I shall alledge but one place more which is in the 1st of the Romans where St. Paul speaking of the abominations practis'd among the Heathen says that they hold the truth in unrighteousness And in the following Verse he gives this reason for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because that which may be known and ought to be known of God For the word signifies both is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal power and Godhead So that they are without excuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Phrase is not meant as some blasphemously and absurdly assert the end which God aim'd at in manifesting himself to the Gentiles but only the Event of that manifestation as Curcellaeus well distinguishes in his excellent Dissertation De necessitate Cognitionis Christi I insist chiefly on the last words of the Text. From which I form this Argument which I take to be as clear a Demonstration as any in Euclid That manifestation of God which is sufficient to leave any void of excuse is also sufficient to direct them in their duty But the manifestation which the Heathen had of God was sufficient to leave them void of excuse Therefore the manifestation which the Heathen had of God was sufficient to direct them in their duty The Assumption is in the Text. The Proposition is almost Self-evident For if that manifestation of God which is sufficient to leave any void of excuse be not sufficient to direct them in their duty which is the contradictory Proposition then they have Insufficiency to plead which is the greatest excuse And so the Proposition will contradict it self A Man is then only said to be left without excuse when he is sufficiently capacitated both to know and perform his duty and when the only reason why he does neither is his own avoidable negligence There can be no greater excuse than unavoidable Impotence or Ignorance Thus it appears from express Scripture that 't is possible by due advertency to the light of Nature sufficiently to discern between Good and Evil. I proceed now to demonstrate the same by reason And here among a multitude of Arguments which offer themselves to my Consideration I shall content my self with one because I will not be over-tedious It is taken from the nature of God's gifts which as they are always design'd for the good of Men so are they always adapted and proportionated to the good for which they are design'd The first cannot be deny'd without manifest injury to the divine Goodness nor the second without disparagement to his Wisedom Since therefore the light of Nature is one of God's gifts whosoever denies the possibility of discerning sufficiently between Good and Evil by due advertency to it must necessarily gravel himself upon one of these Absurdities Either he must say that God did not design this light for Man's direction and then why did he give it him it having not the least aptness to any other end Or if he did yet that it is not sufficient and then why did God design it for such an end I need not apply my self to the first part of the Dilemma for that the light of Nature was design'd by God for Man's direction is plain even by the light of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Heirocles The latter part I perceive lies open to this Exception That what God designs for the attainment of any end is then only of necessity sufficient when taken adequately and intirely But now the whole which God design'd for Man's direction is not the light of Nature alone but the light of Nature in Conjunction with that of Revelation Were these two lights always inseparably united I confess there would be some colour in the Evasion But to this I oppose God's Dispensation with our fore-fathers from the beginning of the World till the promulgation of the Law by Moses which was about 2450 years It is plain that the whole which God design'd for their direction was only the law of Nature and consequently by the very supposition of the Objection it was sufficient I come now to appeal to the writings of the Heathen wherein they give undeniable Evidence of what I have been hitherto proving for them viz. That 't is possible by due advertency to the light of Nature sufficiently to discern between Good and Evil. I say possible For I did not undertake to prove neither is it my opinion that the law of Nature was engraven upon the hearts of Men in as fair Characters as upon the two tables of Stone For then there
properly Vertues And why not since by Vertue we neither do nor can mean any thing else but what is done agreeably to right reason But to address my self a little closer to the business if the actions of the Heathen conformable to the light of Nature were not truly and properly Vertues the defect must be either in the matter of them or in the manner of performance Not in the matter for then they would not be conformable to the law of Nature which is contrary to the Supposition For the law of Nature is the self-same with that deliver'd upon Mount Sinai nay the written Law was but a Transcript of the natural as the natural was but a Transcript of God's essential holiness This I cannot better express than in the words of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To act according to the dictates of right reason is the same as to obey God For the rational Nature being once rais'd to the possession of its native brightness wills and acts according to the determinations of the Divine Law and Pleasure And the holy Soul that thus participates of the Deity becomes in every thing conformable to the mind of God and frames the whole system and comprehension of its actions by the conduct and guidance of that Eternal Splendor Since then the law of Nature is all one with the law of God that action which is conformable to the one is so to the other and consequently there is no defect in the matter Neither in the manner of performance For the requisites to the manner of performing a vertuous action are that it be done knowingly freely and for Vertue 's sake All which may easily be supposed to concur in a Heathen Some I know will have a 4th Requisite added an intention of doing what is good out of love to God and to his glory In answer to this I suppose two things as certain and unquestionable 1. That the law of Nature contains a special precept of loving God who is the Author of Nature 2. That every action whereby any other natural precept is fulfill'd does of its own nature tend to the glory of God in as much as the Divine Will is fulfill'd by it though this be not formally intended by the Agent This premised I say first that 't is agreeable highly agreeable to the law of Nature and right reason that a man shou'd refer all that he does to God as to the last end because this relation is included in the love of God above all 2. Yet right reason does not precisely require that this intention should be conjoyn'd either formally or virtually with every Moral action but it suffices if there be no contrary intention So that if a man does what is agreeable to right reason because it is agreeable he does well though he does not think of God at that present neither before so that the past love of God should influence his action The reasons are 1. because 't is hardly possible to have such a constant intention 2. because to constitute the nature of Sin which is contrary 't is not required that there be an intention of transgressing the dictates of natural reason much less an intention of offending God Whence I gather that those Heathens who squared their actions to the law of natural reason and yet had not that intention of referring all to God although they did not act according to the highest perfection yet did not sin but doe well and in a great measure please God Though I confess I see no reason why a Heathen may not have this intention as well as a Christian. And if he has as he will equal him in that respect so certainly the disadvantages which are on his side will give a peculiar lustre to his Vertues which the other will want who has clearer discoveries to direct him and greater hopes to incourage him in the ways of Vertue I have detain'd the Reader too long in the outer Court but I have only two things more to premise and then I shall let him into the Sanctum Sanctorum One is concerning the Book translated and the other concerning the Translation I design not any formal Panegyrick on the first of these both because such Harangues look as suspicious and are commonly as little credited as the set Encomiums of a Funeral Sermon and because the greatest commendation which I can give it is to think that it does not stand in need of any I shall therefore only give a short Account of the scope and order of the whole which is this In the first place he treats of the offices due to God our Parents Friends and Neighbours and next of the manners and institution of our private life Whereof he makes two degrees Action and Contemplation Proportionably to these two degrees of life he distinguishes Vertue into Civil and Divine or which is all one Purgative and Perfective The one consists in mortifying and subduing our sensitive Passions c. the other in unions and adherences to God Hence I suppose Divines took occasion of distinguishing the degrees of Religion into the Purgative Illuminative and Unitive way This last is better conceiv'd than express'd the Idea of it being so fine and Spiritual that no Tongue nor Pen can ever pourtray a lively representation of it That which comes nearest to it is that admirable description which that Angelical Writer Dr. Taylor gives of it in these words It is a Prayer of quietness and silence and a Meditation extraordinary a Discourse without variety a Vision and Intuition of Divine excellencies an immediate entry into an Orb of light and a resolution of all our faculties into sweetnesses affections and starings upon the Divine beauty and is carried on to Ecstasies raptures suspensions elevations abstractions and apprehensions beatifical I know those who are unacquainted with the inexpressible exaltations of Contemplation and Seraphick love will think this downright raving Non-sense but without question there is such a thing as is here described though I confess withall 't is a kind of Divine madness Hence Plato in his Phaed. makes this a Species of madness where he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meaning that persons eminently Religious are Divina Patientes suffer a ravishment of sense and turn Pathicks in Devotion Now concerning my Translation I have this to say 1. That I have drawn this Piece immediately from the Prototype and not at second hand And indeed I found a necessity of doing so For Curterius the Latin Interpreter is often mistaken in the true sense of the Author and would have prov'd an Ignis fatuus to me if I had follow'd him For instance in the 164 page you have this expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he renders quod effugium nullum sit which interpretation neither the Context nor the Greek will bear Many more such mistakes there are which I leave to the Critical Reader 2. That I have follow'd the Platonick Air and Mode of speaking
their admirable distinction For they were not produced fortuitously and then ranged into Order afterwards but receiv'd their Order and Being together as if Heaven were an Animal and these the several members which so retain their Connexion in their specifical distinction and conjunction that 't is impossible to imagine they should alter their Situation without the dissolution of the Universe Which can never happen since the first cause of them is altogether immutable both as to his Essence and as to his Power and since his goodness is not adventitious but essential to him whereby he promotes the welfare of all things For there can be no other reasonable cause alledg'd of the worlds Production besides the essential goodness of God For God is naturally good and consequently cannot possibly conceive any envy or hatred against the condition of any Creature Besides whatever other causes are assign'd for the production of things besides the divine goodness would rather become the necessities of men than the majesty of God Now God being thus naturally good first produced those beings which most resemble himself next those of a middle likeness and last of all those which are at the greatest remove from the divine likeness of all them that bear his image Such equall pace did the order of things keep with their Essences that what was more excellent took place of what was less and that not only in the whole kinds but in the Individuals of each species For the ORDER of things was not owing to Chance nor to an after-resolution but 't was the LAW of the Creation which variously order'd things according to the dignity of their natures Hence 't is that the Precept of honouring according to the LAW does not only refer to the IMMORTAL GODS but is to be understood in Common both of the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES and the SOULS of Men. For there is a multitude of Species under every Genus rank'd according to greater or less dignity And this is the nature and ORDER of Intelligent Beings But you 'll ask what 's the LAW and the HONOUR appendant to it We answer again that by LAW is meant the unalterable and productive power of God which gave being to the divine Off-spring and set them in an eternal and unchangeable order By HONOUR agreeable to the LAW is meant the knowledge of their essences which are honour'd and an imitation of all their practicable excellencies For whom we love we endeavour what we can to resemble and the only way we have of giving HONOUR to one that 's above all want is to receive that good which he reaches out to us For you must not think you HONOUR God by giving him any thing but by qualifying your self to receive from him For as the Pythagoreans say the best way of Honouring God is by conforming your mind to him Whosoever HONOURS God as if he needed it does by consequence make himself greater than God Besides God is not at all Honour'd by the most costly oblations unless they proceed from a divinely disposed mind The gifts and sacrifices of Fools are only fewel for the flames and the Offerings which they hang up in the Temple serve only to enrich the Sacrilegious But a divine disposition of mind lays a sure foundation since it unites a Man to God For 't is necessary that every thing have a tendency to its like Hence the Priest only is counted the Wise man the Friend of God and one peculiarly qualifi'd to make addresses to Heaven For he only knows how to HONOUR who does not confound the excellencies of them to whom HONOUR is due who in the first place makes an Oblation of himself works his Soul into a sacred Statue and prepares his mind as a Temple for the reception of the divine light What such acceptable Present can you make from the things which are without such as may become an Image ingrafted as it were into the Divinity or a gift that may be made one with God All which is necessarily verified in an intelligent and purifi'd nature For as the same Pythagoreans use to say God has not on earth a place more properly his own than a pure Soul Agreeable hereto are the words of the Oracle In pious hearts I love as well As in my heaven it self to dwell Now the Pious man is he who having right conceptions of God offers his own perfections as the best HONOUR to the Author of all good and with a design to beautifie and inrich his Soul applies himself to him whose nature is to communicate So that by being qualifi'd to receive good he HONOURS the giver of it Whoever thinks to HONOUR God any other way than by himself makes honour consist in the profusion of his riches since he does not make an Oblation of his own vertue but of things without But alas what 's this A Sacrifice without a Heart such a gift as a good man would not accept of Hear the words of the Oracle again to him who with an ill disposition of mind sacrificed an whole Hecatomb and then ask'd how acceptable his oblation was But I in noble Hermion's Cakes delight So that the little frugal Offering was prefer'd before the other's magnificent one only because 't was adorn'd with Piety of mind With this all things find acceptance with God without it nothing And so much for Piety and Sanctity But whereas the LAW is preserv'd by the constant observation of the ORDER of the Universe and since the Keeper of this observation was usually call'd among the Ancients by the mystical Name OATH he deservedly subjoins the precept concerning Swearing as consequent to what went before AND HONOUR AN OATH And use an Oath with holy awe We have shewn in the preceding discourse that by LAW is understood the power of God as it always acts uniformly and produces all things in an eternal and unchangeable manner Next to this LAW we come to discourse of an OATH which is the cause that keeps all things in the same state and so establishes them that the things which are confirmed by the faith of this OATH and which preserve the order of the LAW do exist as the sure effect of the All-producing Law not in the least transgressing the ORDER of the Creation For that all things remain in the same LAW whereby they were disposed must be primarily ascribed to this divine OATH which among those natures which always contemplate God is wholly and continually observ'd But among those which sometimes retain and sometimes lose the divine knowledge the OATH in like manner is transgress'd by those which apostatize from and observ'd again by those which return to God For the observation of the divine Laws is call'd here an OATH which unites and knits all those things to God the Author of their beings which were made to know him Some of which by constant adherence to him do always honour this OATH others by Apostacy sometimes profane it transgressing the order not only of
the divine LAW but of the divine OATH Such therefore is this OATH which is interwoven with the natures of Intelligent beings that they constantly adhere to their Parent and Maker and never transgress in the least the laws which he has prescribed As for that OATH which is used in the occurrences of common life it is but the transcript of this and serves to direct all those to truth who use it as they shou'd doe For it reduces the uncertainty of humane counsels to a fixt standard and determinate measure whether in words or actions Partly by clearing matters of fact and partly by securing us in things future For which cause that OATH which is first in nature is chiefly to be honour'd as the firmest guard of perpetuity and that which is of use in the affairs of life as the image of the other and that which next to the former secures constancy and truth and which imbues them with the best manners who have learnt to HONOUR it Now the honour of an OATH consists only in a free observation what in us lies of the things sworn whereby those which honour an OATH by a voluntary necessity are made conformable to the fixt and unalterable standard of the divine habit And this first and mystical Sanctity of an OATH is to be repair'd by returning to God and the breach of it is to be heal'd by purifying vertues But the sanctity of an humane OATH is upheld by civil vertues For none but those who are endow'd with them can swear as they ought in matters of common life since Wickedness the mother of Perjury affords no foundation for an OATH through the levity and instability of its manners For how can the Covetous man either in giving or receiving preserve the sanctity of an OATH How can an incontinent or timerous man persevere in his resolutions Will not each of these rather to advantage themselves throw off the reverence of an OATH and exchange divine goods for mortal and frail But those who are throughly confirm'd in the habit of vertue can easily preserve the honour of an OATH Now the best way to doe this is not to use OATHS frequently nor inconsiderately nor upon any ordinary accident nor as an accomplishment of speech nor to confirm the truth of a story but only in things necessary and of good credit and at such a time too when there appears no other remedy We shall find credit with those that hear us if we use an OATH in such a decent manner as to put it out of question that nothing is of greater value to us than truth whether we swear or not Neither does this precept of honouring an OATH forbid us Perjury only but also frequency of Swearing for if we would be free from Perjury we must be ware how we abuse OATHS Since 't is an easie matter from a common to become a false swearer On the contrary the less we use swearing the more punctual shall we be in the observation of an OATH For either we shall not swear at all or when we do we shall swear well So that neither our tongue will run before our wit through custom nor our mind be trepan'd through intemperance of passion The latter will be govern'd by vertue and the former by an habitual abstinence from swearing Moreover this reverence of an OATH is highly sutable to the honour of the Gods before treated of being the constant attendant and concomitant of Piety For the OATH was the preserver of the divine Law in the composure of the Universe Honour therefore the Law by obeying its commands and honour an OATH by declining the frequent use of it The way to learn to swear with due reverence is to bring your self to a habit of not swearing Which is of the greater importance because to swear as we ought is no small part of Piety And so much of the first kind of Excellencies and the divine Law which is the Author of Order together with the OATH consequent to this Law The next Nature which claims our honour is the Angelical of which he says THEN THE ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES Then honour Heroes which Mankind excel These are the middle sort of Intelligent beings which are seated next to the Immortal Gods and above the humane nature and so as a common term couple the first and last together These as they are next in station so ought they to be honour'd in the second place And of these also is the precept of honouring as rank'd by Law to be understood For the whole nature of honour consists in a right conception of the person honour'd whereby we may find out what is most sutable to be said or done For how can a man rightly address himself to a person whom he knows not And how can he offer them a sutable present of whose worth he is ignorant The first therefore and true honour of the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES consists in the knowledge of their essence order action and perfection We are to honour no nature which is inferiour to our own but only those beings which have a natural preheminence and are adorn'd with a constant sublimity of vertue Now the first and best of all those which naturally excell is God the great Creator who is to be honour'd incomparably beyond all Those of the first rank in the world are they which have a steady and invariable knowledge of him and represent the divine goodness without the least soil or blemish of passion These in the Verse are call'd Immortal Gods because they never dye and never put off the divine likeness Those are of the middle degree both in nature and honour which are call'd here ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES having a constant knowledge of their Maker and shining with him in a happy life but not uniformly and unchangeably Whence they are deservedly call'd ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES ILLUSTRIOUS because they are always good and full of light and never obnoxious to evil or oblivion And HEROES from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loves or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 listing up because they are Seraphic lovers of God and because they sublimate and raise up our minds from the animal to the divine life Sometimes they are call'd good Demons because of their great knowledge and expertness in the laws of God Sometimes Angels because they declare and make known to us the rules of a good and happy life Sometimes we make a threefold division of this middle kind calling those which constantly inhabit the heavens Angels those of the earth Heroes and those which are at equal distance from both Demons a division frequently used by Plato And some again distinguish this whole middle sort by one of these three names Angels Demons or Heroes for the reasons above mention'd Here this middle sort is distinguish'd by the Name ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES having the same respect to the first as the light has to the fire and as the child has to the parent Hence HEROES are stiled the Sons of the Gods not of
what that is which exercises Vertue and is advantaged by it For 't is the distinguishing of these things which alone prompts us to the exercise of Vertue and excites us to the pursuit of these excellent things To which these two Precepts are a most divine motive KNOW THY SELF AND REVERENCE THY SELF For the dignity of our nature makes it our duty to consider and ponder the offices of others both IN DEED AND WORD Now Justice is the way to secure the observation of offices and therefore is set before the other vertues that it may be the measure of them For he says EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD you will never then blaspheme upon the loss of riches or in the pains of a disease lest you should violate Justice in your words Neither will you invade the goods of your neighbour or contrive mischief against his person lest you commit Injustice in deed For if Justice has once the guard of our Souls we shall discharge our offices to God to our Neighbour and to our selves Now the best measure of Justice is Prudence for which reason he join'd these two Precepts together EXERCISE JUSTICE AND USE NOT YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON as if Justice could not subsist without Prudence For that is truly just which perfect Prudence defines And that is TO DOE NOTHING WITHOUT REASON but diligently to consider the mortal body and whatsoever conduces to its use and accommodation and taking all things to be inferior to Vertue to think that the greatest profit consists in the best disposition of the rational soul which gives ornament to all other things according to their Capacity And this is the Scope of the verses before us to set forth and deliver to the Auditors the four Cardinal vertues with the watchfull observation and care wherewith they are to be exercised both in deed and word For he exhorts to Prudence Fortitude and Temperance but above all he recommends Justice to our practice as a transcendent vertue which runs throughout all the rest And whereas he adds that RICHES SOMETIMES ARE POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST he signifies that after the disposition of Temperance comes that of Liberality which is a vertue conversant about giving and receiving money For then only to possess or quit possession when reason requires takes away all occasion of sordidness and prodigality But all this flows as from a fountain or principle from that one precept of reverencing ones self Nay and this very precept was anticipated too in that other know your self which must be the ground-work of all gallant actions and speculative notices of things For how do we come to know that 't is our duty to moderate our passions and to know the things that are For there is much doubt concerning these things First whether they be within the verge of humane attaintment and secondly whether they will profit those who have them Again a good man may be so low in the World that he cannot receive unjustly when he ought not or spend justly when he ought And as to his body he lies most open to all assaults since he neither affects Empire himself nor knows how servilely to flatter those who have it So that unless there were some other nature in us advantaged by Vertue we should scarce ever refuse riches or power Wherefore those who think the Soul mortal and yet dispute about the love of vertues cavil rather than offer any thing of truth For if something of us did not subsist after death whose nature is capable to be adorn'd with truth and vertue such as we affirm the rational soul to be we should never have a pure desire of excellent things For the very suspicion of the Souls mortality extinguishes all desires of vertue and turns them all to bodily enjoyments whatever they are or however obtain'd For how upon their principles can it seem the part of a prudent or moderate man not to indulge and gratifie the Body altogether for whose sake the Soul is preserv'd in its subsistence since according to them it has no self-existence but is the result of a certain conformation of the body How again shall he be content to put off the body for the sake of Vertue if at the same time he shall destroy his soul too so that Vertue it self will have no where to exist for whose sake he underwent death But as to this divine Men have abundantly demonstrated that the Soul is immortal and naturally apt to be adorn'd with Vertue But now putting an end to the present disputation we will proceed to what follows adding this only to what has been said That as from the ignorance of our nature all manner of wickedness flows in upon us so if we know our selves and disdain whatever does not become our rational nature we shall truly and constantly perform all our offices And this is the measure of every particular vertue For if we attend to our nature as to a rule we shall find that which is decent in all things living according to right reason and agreeably to nature For whatsoever makes the soul better that is truely Vertue and the law of Philosophy But those things which tend only to humane decency and shew are servile fallacies and mere umbrages of vertue which hunt after popular applause and whose utmost care is to appear vertuous to the World And so much of this Moreover from this right consideration of things it follows necessarily that we DEMEAN OUR SELVES NOT WITHOUT REASON in those concerns of life which seem to come to pass without order but that upon examination of their causes we bear them generously never finding fault with those who have the charge of us who distributing to every one according to merit did not reward all alike whose proficiency was unequal For how since the World is ruled by Providence and the Soul is by nature incorruptible but by the will is carried forth to vertue and vice can those whose office is to defend the Law and consider Merit distribute equally to those who are unequal and not rather distribute to every one his convenient lot which a man is said to draw when he comes into the World If therefore the being of Providence distributing to every one what is fit and the immortality of the Soul be no Fable 't is plain that the cause of our grievances ought to be transfer'd from our Governour upon our selves from which consideration the Verse will shew us a way to remedy our disasters For when we find that the cause of all this inequality is in our selves we first alleviate the grievousness of Events by right reasoning and then exciting our Souls by holy methods and right perswasions to what is more excellent we shall wholly free our selves from trouble But when the afflicted man neither perceives the cause nor conjectures at a like event he will ACCUSTOM HIMSELF TO ACT WITHOUT REASON which is the thing here forbidden For 't is necessary that
he who seeks not into the true causes should transfer the fault upon the Superior nature and either say there is no Providence or that our affairs are not well administred by it But such opinions as these do not only aggravate the crimes of our life past but excite the mind to all wickedness and deprive it of liberty of will in that they make it ignorant of the causes of the present evils But that you may know how we ought to think of these things hear the Verses MOREOVER WHATSOEVER EVILS MEN UNDERGO BY DIVINE FORTUNE BEAR YOUR PART MILDLY NEITHER FRET AT IT BUT YOU SHOULD CURE IT WHAT YOU CAN YET CONSIDER THIS THAT FATE DOES NOT DISTRIBUTE MUCH OF THIS TO GOOD MEN. Bear patiently what ill by Heaven is sent And add not to your Griefs by discontent Yet rid them if you can But know withall Few of these Thunder-storms on good men fall Before we begin our Explication we must premise that by EVILS here is meant whatsoever makes the way of life laborious and troublesom as Sickness Poverty loss of Friends Reproach and the like For these are grievances not easie to be born in life but not really EVIL or pernicious to the Soul unless from them we take occasion to sin which we may doe also in good things if we don't use them rightly as Health Riches and Power For we may doe ill with these and obtain Vertue with the contrary But real EVILS are voluntary offences such as are inconsistent with Vertue and these are Injustice Intemperance and whatever else is contrary to that which is excellent For none of all these can be said to be done well as thus such a man does Injustice well or Riots well as we may say of external Evils that a man labours under Sickness or Poverty well as often as he bears such things according to right reason But the word well is not used in the diseases of the Soul because they are deviations from and detriments to right reason whose dictates the soul of Man disregards though engraven and implanted naturally on it when blinded with passion That right reason is implanted in Men this is a sure sign that an unjust man gives a right judgment in those things wherein his interest is not concern'd and so an intemperate man reads lectures of Temperance to others In a word every wicked man uses right counsels in those things wherein he is not byass'd aside by his passions So that a wicked man may turn vertuous by a retracting his former wickedness Neither to this end is it necessary that wrong reason should be in us that this might be the principle of Vice as the other is of Vertue For right reason alone like the Law of the land is a sufficient standard whereby to define what is done according to it and what against it and to approve of the one and restrain the other Neither is there any need of any principle of Evil whether internal or external But there is great need of a principle of Good and of that only and that again is either separate from the rational nature which is God or lodg'd and enthron'd within us which is right reason And after this manner are EVILS distinguish'd Among which he does not say that those which are voluntary are distributed to men by the DIVINE FORTUNE but only those which are necessary and are not now in our power but which follow our heretofore voluntary and avoidable offences which are grievous as we said but capable of receiving ornament from Vertue For Poverty is adorn'd by a moderate diet and meanness of extract is raised by prudence So the loss of Children commends the good man's patience and meekness who is able to say My Son is dead is he not then render'd back again and I knew I begat a Mortal And in like manner all other things varnish'd over with the beauty of Vertue become more gracefull Now we come to enquire what are those DIVINE FORTUNES whereby men undergo outward calamities If by the divine sentence Riches were allotted to one and Poverty to another antecedently and absolutely this should be call'd the divine Will and not the DIVINE FORTUNE If again nothing presiding be signifi'd by this Phrase but it happen by chance that one man is happy and another unhappy then it should be call'd only FORTUNE without the Epithet DIVINE But if God the supreme Arbiter distribute to every one according to his deserts and is not the cause of our being such or such but for this end only is arm'd with Justice that he might make equal retributions according to its laws then the manifestations of his judgments are deservedly call'd DIVINE FORTUNES thereby intimating to us that God has no absolute antecedent purpose to punish one and honour another but only as he behaves himself so or so and that the cause of this is not to be sought for out of our selves So that the connexion of our Election and his judgment makes a DIVINE FORTUNE All therefore that is meant by DIVINE FORTUNE is nothing else but the judgment of God against Sin And so the artificial contrivance of this Phrase salves God's providence and the Soul's liberty and immortality So that the matters of our life come not to pass altogether by fate nor yet at random and fortuitously nor is our whole life to be resolv'd one way But whenever we offend in things within our power 't is to be referr'd to our own choice but whatsoever follows our sins according to the laws of Justice that is our FATE and whatever good proceeds primarily from God is to be referr'd to Providence But we should ascribe nothing of the things that are to a fortuitous and temerarious cause no nor any thing that is done unless from the event and connexion of those things which Providence Fate and humane Will work antecedently something follow the first efficient causes which may be call'd fortuitous For example 'T is the will of the Judge to punish a Murtherer and not this particular man as such and yet he punishes this man whom he would not because he has assumed to himself the place and condition of a Murtherer Now the antecedent and absolute will of the Judge is to punish a Murtherer but 't is through accident that he wills the punishment of this man because he voluntarily assumed the person of a Murtherer Again 't was the will of a wicked man to commit Murther but not to suffer punishment on that account This antecedent purpose of committing Murther was dependent upon the liberty of his will but then torments and punishment follow by accident Now of these the Law is the cause which suggests to the Judge a will of punishing evil men in general and this Murtherer in particular The same I consider in the divine Nature when the will of Man determines to doe evil and when the will of the Judge who is the defender of the Law is wholly bent to
greatest wickedness will be to think the world destitute of or ill administer'd by Providence For this comes all to one to think there is no God or if there be that he exercises no Providence or if he does yet that 't is such a one as removes from him all goodness and justice Which is an opinion full of all manner of Impiety and which drives into all wickedness those who suffer themselves to be led by such doctrines For as Piety is the mother of all Vertue so a defection from that is the highway to all Wickedness He only therefore will find out a cure for his Calamities who has learnt to BEAR THEM PATIENTLY And this is to be done only by Philosophy which exactly knows the natures of things and their consequent operations whose series and order is the administration of all things from which necessarily arises the DIVINE FORTUNE or FATE Which as we have said is nothing else but the retribution given to every one according to his deserts which depends upon God's providence the good order of the World and the will of Man For if there were no divine Providence there would not be that order in the World which one may call FATE and if none of the other there would be no mulct or judgment against the wicked no nor any reward or commendation for the good But upon the supposition of Providence and Order it was fit that all men should be born to the same good provided they had done nothing to discriminate themselves But 't is plain they are not equally dealt withall it is therefore as plain that the inequality of our will which is subjected to the judgment of Providence was the cause of the unequal distribution since 't is necessary that the lot fall according to desert But let us not be troubled that we see the same inequality in Brutes Plants and inanimate things as in Men for it does not follow that no Providence presides over our concerns because things happen fortuitously with them or if in them also there is punishment and judgment and the consideration of Vertue and Vice since there is so much exactness in our concerns For first inanimate things are as common matter to Plants Animals and Men and then some Animals are common food for others and for Men. So that they doe the same to one another not with any regard to the merit of them that suffer but either to satisfie their own hunger or to cure a disease in a word to relieve their necessities which way soever they can So that the infelicity of Brutes is occasion'd by the supply of our needs and their seeming happiness depends upon our favour If it be therefore urged by any that there may be some beings more excellent than our selves which may abuse us to supply their wants as we seem to use Brutes to supply ours it must be confess'd that they are mortal and made appear that the bodies of Men are spent upon their use But if nothing superiour to Man be mortal since he himself is the lowest of all Intelligent-beings and for this reason came of necessity into a mortal body though immortal and taking an organ of affinity with Brutes converses here upon earth there can be no being which may abuse our miseries to its own luxury nay nothing which may use us to gratifie an inordinate humour Justice therefore and Order prescribe rules of administration to that God which presides over us So that he can doe nothing concerning us but what tends to the lessening of our wickedness and the bringing us back to himself For he is concern'd for us as often as we fall as for those which are near of Kin to him So that 't is rightly said that men only are apt to be reclaim'd by modesty punishment and disgrace For a rational Creature only has a sense of Justice We therefore who are at so great a remove from the nature of brutes should have a far distant way of administration For the law of Providence agreeable to the nature of the Universe and in the same order as every thing had its subsistence from God so it partakes of his providence Now all the Souls of men seem to be produced by God himself particularly whereas of Brutes he produced only the kinds committing them over to the Plastick vertue of Nature according to Plato and Timoeus the Pythagorean who will have nothing mortal to be the immediate production of God and that the souls of Men are made of the same temperament with the Mundane gods Demons and Illustrious Heroes and therefore that Providence is conspicuous in every man after what manner he is distant from them there after what manner he aspires to them after what manner he lives here and after what manner he departs hence thither None of all which is to be done concerning an irrational nature For neither can that come to God which is not to be wrought on by moral perswasions neither can that converse upon earth which is naturally an heavenly plant neither is it apt to be translated into its proper Orb. And so much by way of Apology to Male-contents who endeavour to undermine the being of Providence to whom this is fit to be said over and above that the greatest argument of a rational and considering frame of mind is to ENDURE AFFLICTIONS PATIENTLY which not only alleviates the present misery but prevents future trouble But what doe you by Impatience but add Impiety the greatest of evils to your other labours and render your grief more pungent by thinking that you suffer undeservedly Will not he that is sick be much more so if he vexes and pines at his sickness We should not therefore fret at the recompense of our deserts lest by our ill deportment under the present Calamity we contract a habit of a worse And this also is worth considering that if any one who is fallen into Poverty BEAR IT MEEKLY besides the abatement of his grief by it he shall find some other solace and relief Partly because his own discretion being not disturb'd with grief will be the more able and expedite to procure him convenient maintenance and partly because his neighbours admiring his prudence and courage will supply him as far as they can with things necessary to life whereas the impatient and womanly peevish man in the first place contributes to his own misery and then being bound up and as it were benum'd with grief for his poverty he becomes altogether unapt either to help himself or to be reliev'd by the contributions of his neighbours and if any throw him something by way of alms that aggravates his discontent as an exprobration of his poverty From what has been said it appears that 't is our interest as well as duty to BEAR all ill events PATIENTLY ascribing the cause of them to the perversness and obliquity of our own minds and considering withall that since there is a Providence he that is now good
cannot be neglected whatever old marks he bears of the divine displeasure For the very acquist of vertue carries with it an abatement of affliction but by the care of Providence an utter riddance and delivery from it For 't was our own wickedness and the divine judgment consequent upon it which brought upon us our Calamities which again in like manner are remov'd by our amendment and the law of Providence which frees them from evil who give themselves up to what is good Such weighty Precepts do these Verses afford us which conduce to ground us in the first rudiments of Vertue For they seem to contain the most true measures of Providence Fate and liberty of Will whereby this discourse has rectifi'd the trouble arising from the seeming inequality of things and has demonstrated throughout that God is no way the cause of Evil. Which if you join with what went before the result of the whole discourse will be one entire confirmation of the Eternity of the Soul For his exhorting to the exercise of Justice to courage in Death and to a liberal use of Riches serves to shew that the Soul does not dye with the Body But it seems also requisite to our enduring the DIVINE FORTUNE and our being able to cure our selves that the Soul be not generated with the Body as to that 't is apparent from both that the Soul is above generation and corruption of a distinct nature from the body and in its own nature Eternal For 't is as impossible that should last for ever whose production was dated from some time as that that should be capable of Corruption which subsisted from Eternity If therefore after the dissolution of the body the surviving Soul of man is obnoxious to punishment and judgment and receives just retributions according to the things done in the body and if lastly that cannot always remain which began in some time it is evident that the Soul did exist before all time And thus the Soul of man is found among the eternal Works of God and in this respect also partakes of the divine likeness But because we have insisted sufficiently on this 't is high time to consider what follows MANY GOOD AND BAD DISCOURSES PROCEED FROM MEN WHICH NEITHER ADMIRE OVERMUCH NOR YET UTTERLY DISDAIN BUT IF ANY SPEAK UNTRUTH GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS Oft good and ill do in discourse unite Be not too apt t' admire nor yet to slight But if through error any speak amiss Endure 't with mildness The will of man not being always set either upon good or evil begets discourse savouring of both in conformity to its contrary affections whence it comes to pass that some discourses are true some good some bad and some false Which variety requires descretion of judgment that we may chuse the good and refuse the bad so that we be neither prejudic'd against all discourse by condemning the bad nor swallow down any thing without distinction out of greediness after what is good For by prejudice we often deprive our selves of the benefit of good and by too great eagerness of hearing we suck in the hidden poyson of evil discourses We must therefore use our appetite of hearing with the best discretion that so our desire may bring us to hear all but our discretion may refuse what is not good So shall we keep the Pythagorick Precept neither too vehemently moved at bad discourses nor taking in all without distinction because discourses Nor on the same account abstaining from good ones For we do not embrace the good because discourses but because true nor condemn the bad for any other reason than because false Nay I may confidently affirm that none are to be reckon'd among discourses but what are true For they only retain the dignity of the rational nature being the off-spring of a mind disposed to what is best and in possession of its proper ornament But false discourses are indeed no discourses at all For since they lead into Vice and Error they not only degenerate from the ingenuousness of discourse but are the voice of a Soul divested of Reason and immerc'd in Passion You 're advised therefore not to take in all lest you swallow that which is false nor to reject all lest you reject the good too For 't is absurd both ways to hate the good with the evil and to embrace falshood for the sake of truth But we ought to commend the good and upon admission to reduce it into practice and to examin where and how far it is consonant to truth But against the false to contend with force of argument which is supplied from the rules deliver'd in Logick for the discerning of truth and when we can overthrow what is false not to doe it with violence and rudeness but to follow the truth with mildness with decent reprehensions to confute falshood and in the words of the Verse to GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS by which we are not commanded to yield the Cause as they say but to hear without Passion For when he bids us GIVE WAY TO FALSHOOD WITH MILDNESS he does not mean that we should embrace it but only give it a patient hearing and not to count it such a strange thing if men fall off sometimes from truth For humane nature lies open to a multitude of erroneous opinions when it does not closely adhere to its common Notices 'T is no wonder therefore says the Verse if a man never imbued with the principles of truth nor of any experience assert opinions contrary to truth Nay on the contrary 't wou'd be a wonder if a man who is both untaught and unpractis'd in dispute should stumble on truth by chance we should therefore hear those that err with allowance and learn by their defects what evils we our selves are free from who being by the community of nature subject to the same passions are yet privileg'd from them by the Preservative of knowledge Besides the very courage and confidingness of knowledge conduces much to mildness For the mind which comes sufficiently provided to engage in the defence of truth can calmly stand the shock of false opinions having preconceiv'd in the consideration of truth whatever might be alledg'd against it What can disturb such a man as unanswerable His very confidence will suggest thoughts to him for the confutation of error The knowing man therefore will learn quietness and sedateness not only from his morality but from his very confidence And so much for that Prudence which is to be used in distinguishing Discourses Next comes the habit of declining Deceit necessary to a wise man to be treated of BUT OBSERVE WHAT I TELL YOU IN EVERY THING LET NO MAN INTICE YOU EITHER BY WORDS OR DEEDS TO DOE OR SAY ANY THING WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU But be sure of this That none by word or action you intice To doe or speak to your own prejudice This Precept is of general extent and is equivalent with another
divine good should take care how he is inticed to doe any thing which is not for his advantage and how he indulges his body those enjoyments which will cost him a dear Repentance Lastly how he embraces any thing which may take off his mind from the study of Wisedom and of which he will shortly after repent The consideration of all this should put us forward in the course of vertuous living that when we come to confess what we have done we may make up our Accounts with pleasure To which in the next place he exhorts us NEITHER ADMIT SLEEP INTO YOUR EYES TILL YOU HAVE THRICE RECOLLECTED EVERY SINGLE ACTION OF THE DAY WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESSED WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED RUN OVER THESE THINGS BEGINNING FROM THE FIRST AND THEN IF YOU HAVE DONE EVIL BE TROUBLED IF GOOD REJOYCE And never let your eyes The sweet refreshings of soft slumber tast Till you have thrice severe reflexions past On th'actions of the day from first to last Wherein have I transgress'd what done have I What duty unperform'd have I pass'd by And if your actions ill on search you find Let Grief if good let Ioy possess your mind In this place you should collect together the sense of all the foregoing Precepts that so giving heed to them as to the laws of God in the inward judicature of the Soul you may make a just examination of what you have done well or ill For how will our remembrance reprehend us for doing ill or praise us for doing well unless the preceding Meditation receive some laws according to which the whole tenour of our life should be order'd and to which we should conform the very private recesses of Conscience all our lives long He requires also that this examination be daily repeated that by continual returns of recollection we may not be deceiv'd in our judgment The time which he recommends for this work is about Even or Bed-time that we may conclude the action of the day with the judgment of Conscience making the examination of our Conversation an Evening Song to God WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED So shall we measure our lives by the rules above mention'd if to the law of the mind we joyn the judgment of reason What then does the law of the Mind say That we should honour the more excellent Natures according to their Essential order that we should have our Parents and Relations in high esteem love and embrace good men raise our selves above corporeal affections every where stand in awe of our selves carefully observe justice consider the frailty of riches and momentary life embrace the lot which falls to us by divine judgement delight in a divine frame of spirit convert our mind to what is most excellent love good discourses not lie open to impostures not be servilely affected in the possession of Vertue advise before action to prevent repentance free our selves from uncertain opinions live with knowledge and lastly that we should adapt our bodies and the things without to the exercise of Vertue These are the things which the Law giving mind has implanted in the Souls of men which when reason admits it becomes a most vigilant Judge of it self in this manner WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE And if afterwards she finds her self to have spent the whole day agreeably to the foregoing rules she is rewarded with a divine Complacency And if she find any thing done amiss she corrects her self by the restorative of an after admonition Wherefore he would have us keep off Sleep by the readiness and alacrity of Reason And this the body will easily endure if temperately dieted it has not contracted a necessity of sleeping By which means even our most natural appetites are subjected to the empire of Reason DO NOT ADMIT SLEEP says he TILL YOU HAVE EXAMIN'D EVERY ACTION OF THE DAY And what is the form of examination WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED For we sin two ways By doing what we should not and by not doing what we should For 't is one thing not to doe well and another thing to commit Evil. One is a sin of Omission and the other of Commission For instance 'T is our duty to Pray but not to Blaspheme to nourish our Parents but not to revile them He that does the former of these does what he ought he that does the latter what he ought not Though there is as much guilt in a sin of omission as in a sin of commission He exhorts also that we proceed methodically in our examination from the beginning to the end leaving nothing out in the middle which is implied by the word RUN OVER. For oftentimes change of order deceives the judgment and makes us favourable to our ill actions through disorder of memory Besides a daily recollection of our actions begets care and studiousness of Conversation and a sense of our immortality And this is worth our admiration that when he bid us recollect every thing yet he added not wherein have I done well or what duty have I perform'd But he turn'd the memory to what was a less occasion of pride requiring a scrutiny only of our sins And as for the Judge he has constituted that which is most just and impartial and most intimate and domestick the Conscience Right-reason or a Man's self which he had before caution'd us to stand in awe of above all things For who can so admonish another as every man can himself For he that is at his own liberty will use the freedom of nature and shake off the admonitions of others when he is not minded to follow them But Reason which is within us cannot chuse but hear it self God has set this over us as a Guardian Instructor and Schoolmaster And this the Verse makes the Judge of the days action acquiesces in its determination whether it condemns or approves it self For when it reads over what is done in the Register of Memory then looking to the exemplar of the Law it pronounces it self worthy of honour or dishonour This course if daily follow'd perfects the divine image in them that use it leading them by additions and subtractions to the beauty of Vertue and all attainable perfection For here end the instructions about civil Vertue He now proceeds to the precepts which make us more particularly resemble God LABOUR IN THESE THINGS MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS LOVE THESE THINGS THESE WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE WAY OF THE DIVINE VERTUE I SWEAR BY HIM WHO DELIVERED TO US THE QUATERNARY THE FOUNTAIN OF ETERNAL NATURE This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life divine Believ 't I swear by him who did us shew The mystery of Four whence all things flow What is said here is the same with that in the Introduction that practick Philosophy makes a man perfect in civil
does it beget any within 10 as 2 does 4 as 3 does 9 and as 5 does 10. The QUATERNARY therefore being seated in the middle between unbegotten 1 and motherless 7 it partakes of the virtue of the begotten and the begetting being the only number within 10 which is begotten of and begets some number For 2 if doubled begets 4 and 4 doubled begets 8. Add to this that the first solid figure is in a QUATERNARY For a Point answers to an Vnite a Line to a Binary in that it proceeds from something to something and a Superficies to a Ternary For the most simple of all figures that consist of right lines is a Triangle But solidity is proper to the QUATERNARY For in that is the first Cone whose trianangular Basis is made by a Ternary but the top by an Vnite Besides the faculties of judging are 4 Mind Science Opinion and Sense All things that are judg'd fall under one of these in a word all things are comprised in the QUATERNARY Elements Numbers seasons of the Year and ages of Life Neither can you name any thing which does not depend upon the QUATERNARY as its root and foundation For as we said before the QUATERNARY is the Producer and Cause of the Universe the intelligible God the Author of the heavenly and sensible Gods Now the knowledge of these things was handed down to the Pythagoreans from Pythagoras himself whom the Author of these Verses closely following gives us to know that the perfection of Vertue will bring us to the splendor of Truth So that for this reason it may be said that as the Precept of honouring the Oath is peculiarly observ'd among the gods who always exist after the same manner so does he peculiarly swear in this place by the Master that deliver'd to us the QUATERNARY Who 't is confess'd was not of the number of the Immortal Gods nor of the Heroes by nature but a man adorn'd with the likeness of God and one that preserv'd the divine Image intire in his followers So that he swears by him in such great matters as these tacitly insinuating in what reverence Pythagoras was with his followers and what dignity he procured himself by the Precepts which he deliver'd The greatest of which was the knowledge of the All-productive QUATERNARY But since the first part is briefly explain'd and the second relies on a firm promise since the sacred Interpreter of the QUATERNARY is made known and also what this QUATERNARY is as far as is conducing to the present purpose come on let us proceed to what the Verse leads us shewing in the first place with what endeavour and preparation and with what assistance of the more excellent beings we may aspire to them THEN PROCEED TO YOUR WORK HAVING PRAY'D TO THE GODS THAT YOU MAY FINISH IT Then to your work having pray'd Heaven to send On what you undertake an happy end These Verses briefly comprize all that conduces to the attainment of good viz. the voluntary motion of the Soul and the assistance of God For although the election of good be in our own power yet since we have even this our power from God we stand in need of his cooperation and perfective influence For our own endeavour is like a hand held forth to receive good but the perfective influence which comes from God is the fountain which supplies us with it Our part is to seek out after that which is good and God's part to shew it to him that seeks aright Now PRAYER is the middle term between our seeking and God's giving whereby we adhere to our Maker who as he first gave us our being so can alone perfect our being Besides how can any one receive good unless God bestow it Again how can God though of his own nature never so liberally disposed give to him who has liberty of asking and yet does not That we might not therefore pray only in words but confirm our Prayers by action nor confide in our own single strength but implore the assistance of God joyning Prayer to action as Form to matter and all this that we should pray for what we endeavour and endeavour for what we pray he joyns these together SET TO YOUR WORK HAVING PRAY'D TO THE GODS THAT YOU MAY FINISH IT For we must not so undertake what is excellent as if we could go through with it on our own single strength without the assistance of God nor on the other side so satisfie our selves with bare praying as not to joyn any endeavour of our own toward the attainment of what we pray for For so either our vertue will be without God if it be possible to suppose such a thing or our Prayers will be without action The first of which takes away the nature of Vertue the latter the efficacy of Prayer For how can that be good which is not done according to the divine Law And how can that which is so done not stand in need of the assistance of God whereby it may subsist For Vertue is nothing else but the image of God upon the rational Soul Now every image wants the Prototype to support its subsistence and in vain do you endeavour to possess your self of Vertue if you refer it not to him for the sake of whose likeness you endeavour to acquire it They therefore that aspire to active vertue should use Prayer and they that pray for its attainment should also doe their endeavour This is that which makes men look up to what is divine and excellent to apply themselves to the study of Wisedom and the first cause of all good For that Quaternary the fountain of eternal Nature is the constant cause not of the being only but of the well-being of all things diffusing its innate good throughout the Universe as a pure and intelligible light which when the Soul adheres to and wipes her eyes as it were to clear her sight by the ardent desire of good she is stir'd up to Prayer and then again by the grant of her Prayer she heightens her desire joyning actions to words and confirming her good actions by divine intercourses And when she has found out the one and is illuminated by the other she does what she prays for and prays for what she does And this is the union of diligent ENDEAVOUR and PRAYER What are the effects of both we come now to consider THIS IF YOU OBSERVE YOU SHALL KNOW THE CONSTITUTION OF THE IMMORTAL GODS AND OF MORTAL MEN HOW FAR EVERY THING PROCEEDS AND WHERE IT CONSISTS This Course if you observe you shall know then The Constitution both of Gods and Men The due extent of all things you shall see In the first place he promises that those who so demean themselves shall obtain the knowledge of God and of all things which subsist by the sacred Quaternary together with the distinction of them according to their kinds and their union in making up one World For the word CONSTITUTION here
under the Name of IVPITER For 't is a just thing that he shou'd be named from his power from whom all things receive both being and life For the truly proper name of God is that which is sutable to his power and works But as for those names which seem to us proper they are rather casual and arbitrary than accommodated to the propriety of essences as is to be seen in many names which are quite remote from the nature of the things as when a man of an ill life is call'd good or one of Atheistical principles Pious Such as these have not the true nature of Names because they do not at all carry in them the Essence or Operation of those things which they are intended to signifie We should therefore seek the true reason of Names in things Eternal and of these in things Divine and of things divine in the best of them Whence it comes to pass that the Name IVPITER carries in the very word a Symbol and Image of the All-producing nature since the first Imposers of Names by their exceeding great wisedom as so many expert Statuaries express'd the virtues of things by their names as by Images For they made Names the symbols of their conceptions and their conceptions declarative of what they conceiv'd For when dwelling upon intelligible Objects they abounded with Contemplation and growing pregnant were deliver'd of their thoughts by the Midwifery of words they gave such names to things which by the very sound and the letters used in the pronunciation should express the forms of the things named and convert the attentive Hearers to their essences So that what was the end of their contemplation is to us the beginning of obtaining the knowledge of things Thus before the Maker of the Universe was call'd the Quaternary and now FATHER IVPITER for the reasons already mention'd But that which this present Prayer desires of him he is ready to bestow on all by his goodness but 't is our part to receive what he is always ready to give For 't was said before Then to your Work having pray'd to heaven to send On what you undertake an happy end Implying that God is always disposed to give what is good but that we then only receive it when we attend upon the divine Bounty For 't is inconsistent with the liberty of our wills that good should be obtruded upon us whether we will or no. Now all good is either Truth or Vertue both which constantly and uniformly shine forth upon all from the All-producing nature The Prayer also desires in order to the necessary freedom from evil that we may see the dignity of our own essence for this he means by the Phrase WHAT DEMON THEY USE which is the Soul By this conversion to our selves we are assured of these two necessary consequences a freedom from evil and a discovery of those things which God holds forth to us as means whereby we may obtain happiness The Prayer therefore proceeds on a supposition That if all did but know who they are and WHAT DEMON THEY USE they would all be freed from evil But this will never be For 't is impossible that all should at once embrace the study of wisedom and lay hold on those good things which God always offers towards the perfection of an happy life What therefore remains but that they only be of GOOD CHEAR who advance to that knowledge which shews our own proper good For it is certain that they only shall be freed from the evils which are rivetted into the mortal nature since they only apply'd themselves to the contemplation of things truly good And these are worthy to be inserted among the DIVINE KINDRED as persons taught by SACRED NATURE that is Philosophy and well exercised in their duty Now if we are at all interested in the society of divine men we shall shew it by applying our selves to honest actions and intellectual disciplines by which alone the Soul of Man is heal'd freed from terrestrial labours and translated into the divine order In short therefore this is the sense of the Verses in hand They that know themselves are freed from mortal passions Why then are not all freed since all are sufficiently assisted with the opportunities of knowing themselves from their inbred Notices Because the greatest part of men as he says embrace evils of their own accord since they neither see nor hear neighbouring good But there are some few who for this reason know how to free themselves from evil because they know what DEMON THEY USE And they are such as have purged themselves from brutish passions by the help of Philosophy and deliver'd themselves from the bodily Mansion as from a Prison How therefore does he say to IVPITER either FREE US ALL FROM SO GREAT EVILS OR DISCOVER TO ALL WHAT DEMON THEY USE Does he thereby imply that though 't is in his power to turn all men to the truth even against their wills yet he does it not either through neglect or out of design that they may still be held fast by their chains No 't is Impious to think so This is rather the import of the Prayer That we ought to turn our selves to God as to our Father who furthers us in the way to happiness For God indeed is the Creator of all men but of good men he is also a Father He therefore that knows how to free himself from evil and not only so but has actually done it and by a voluntary flight has avoided the pernicious Contention he it is that imploring a competent measure of the divine assistance cries out O FATHER IVPITER For he calls God Father on this only ground because he has already perform'd the part of a Son Then he concludes from his own case that if all did the same all would be likewise freed from evil as well as himself Afterwards observing that the contrary happen'd not through any fault of God but through the perverseness of the most who embrace evils of their own accord he says to himself BUT BE THOU OF GOOD CHEAR who hast found out the way to free thy self from evil And that was by applying himself to those things which God had shewn to him by the help of sacred Philosophy Which things pass unobserv'd by many because they do not rightly improve those common notions which our Maker has imprinted upon rational beings as a mark to lead us to the knowledge of himself Since therefore that any thing be SHEWN to any one 't is necessary that the actions of two persons concur for how can you shew what you have a mind to to a blind man although you offer it to him a thousand times or how can you shew to one that sees if you offer nothing to his sight both these must be present some good proposed by him that shews and an eye capable of seeing in him to whom it is to be shewn so that from a visible object and a faculty
both we shall escape the impetuous floud of the irrational Nature if we contain our selves within the divine bounds For we ought to purge the rational nature from that because it was in being before the generation of the other But since our lucid body has also a mortal one joyn'd to it we must also purge that and free it from its own contagion There remains therefore the purgation of the Animal body which must be done by observing sacred laws and by using holy arts This way of purgation is in a peculiar manner Corporeal so that it heals the material part wheresoever it is apply'd and presently prevails with this animal body to strip it self of matter and to wing away to the Aethereal mansion wherein was the primitive station of Bliss Whatsoever is done in order to this if done in a manner worthy of God and not deceitfully will be found to agree with the rules of Vertue and Truth For the purgations of the rational Soul provide also for the lucid Vehicle which now by their help being wing'd soars aloft without any incumbrance Now that which most conduces to the growth of its plumes is by degrees to wean it self from earthly things to accustom it self to immaterial abstractions and to shake off those pollutions which it has contracted from its union with the material body For by this means it revives as it were is firmly knit is fill'd with divine vigour and is joyn'd to the intellectual perfection of the Soul What therefore if some Meats conduce to this Without doubt 't wou'd be a preparative to Purgation for them who accustom themselves to abstain from all mortal things immediately and wholly to abstain from some and especially those which please the mind and provoke the mortal body to Venery And for this reason the Symbolical precepts enjoyn abstinence from some whose first sense indeed is more general and large but which consequently takes in at this particular thing which is almost every where mention'd This Precept for example Eat not of the Matrix The literal sense of which forbids but one single thing and that a very small one too But if you consider the various sense of the Pythagorick Mystery you will find that abstinence from all manner of Venery is couch'd in the precept of abstaining from one certain sensible thing In like manner in order to the Purgation of the Lucid body he forbids us to eat the Heart whereby he principally intends that we should abstain from Anger but by consequence also from that part So when he commands us to abstain from that which dyes of its own accord his principal meaning is that we reject the mortal Nature but withall that we should not participate of that flesh which is unfit for Sacrifice and unholy For 't is fit that in Symbolical precepts we observe both the express Letter and the retired meaning For a continual observation of what is most obvious will beget in us a care of observing things of greater weight So therefore let us understand his mind at present as if he design'd to give us in few words the Principles of the greatest actions ABSTAIN FROM MEATS he says which is all one with this Abstain from Corruptible bodies But since 't is impossible to abstain from all meats he adds THOSE WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And he tells you where IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL That by abstinence from Meats such care may be taken of the splendor of the Corporeal Vehicle as becomes a Soul that is purg'd and loos'd from material impediments He adds moreover to this performance the JUDGMENT of Reason which is able to bestow such care upon the Lucid Body as is sutable to the purity of the Soul wherefore he calls it REASON the CHARIOTEER as that which was naturally framed for the regular guidance of the Vehicle But the Amorous eye is placed above the CHARIOTEER For although the Soul be one yet with its eye it contemplates the field of Truth and by its force as with an hand restrains its Congenial body and turns it towards it self that it may wholly gaze upon God and be fill'd with the divine likeness And this is the general form of abstinence and these are the excellencies which it aims at As for those things which are severally deliver'd in the sacred and mysterious Apothegms although each of them insinuate a peculiar kind of abstinence as of Beans among Seeds those that dye of their own accord among Animals and of these in their whole kinds Rotchets among Fish and so of many among Beasts and Birds and lastly of several parts of Animals as the Head and Heart yet all the Purgative perfection that is in each of these singly is summarily express'd in the Verse in that it culls out this or that for abstinence according to their natural properties insinuating by each a purgation from mortal affection and intending throughout to bring Man home to himself that so bidding farewell to the place of his nativity and death he may be translated into the Elysian field and FREE AETHER But because the Pythagoreans observ'd an orderly progress in their abstinences for which reason some Precepts seem to contradict others for that of abstaining from Animals is contrary to that of abstaining from the Heart unless you 'll say that this was deliver'd to Novices and that to mature Proficients it being superfluous to enjoyn a partial abstinence when the whole animal is forbidden we should therefore diligently attend to the order of ascent which appears in the Verses ABSTAIN he says FROM MEATS and then as if some body had ask'd what Meats he answers WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And again as if he had been ask'd where and in what traditions of discipline the Pythagoreans had spoken of abstaining from Meats he added IN THE PURGATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL Implying that Purgations must go before and Solution follow Now the Purgations of the rational Soul are Mathematical disciplines but the Solution which carries it upwards is the Logical inspection into the things that are Wherefore he uses the singular number IN THE SOLUTION OF THE SOUL whereas Mathematicks comprehends many disciplines 'T is fit therefore that to what has been peculiarly said of the Soul in reference to Purgation and Solution we joyn what is of affinity with it and what relates to the Lucid body Wherefore 't is necessary that to Mathematical Purgations be added those which are Mystical and that the Logical Solution should be attended with the Sacerdotal discipline which carries us upwards For these properly Purge and perfect the Spiritual Vehicle of the rational Soul Besides they refine us from the dross of the brute Nature and fit us for the conversation of pure Spirits For what is impure can have no fellowship with what is pure The Soul therefore should be adorn'd with Knowledge and Vertue that it may be able to converse with those who are always so qualifi'd and so the
Lucid body should be refined and spiritualized that it may endure the society of the Aethereal ones For likeness reconciles all things whereas by unlikeness things that are never so near in respect of place are yet separate from one another This is the measure of the most perfect Philosophy deliver'd by the Pythagoreans which is peculiarly adapted to the perfection of the whole man For he that takes care only for his Soul and neglects his body does not purge the whole Man Again he that thinks it his duty to care for the body without the Soul and that the care of the body will any thing advantage the Soul though it be not purged in particular does ill in that But he that follows both these courses does excellently well and so joyns Philosophy with the Sacred art whose business is to purge the Lucid body which if you separate from the Philosophical mind you will find it has no longer the same vertue For of those things which consummate our perfection some are first invented by the Philosophical mind some are added by the mystical operation which follows the Philosophical mind Now by the Mystical Operation I understand the faculty of purging the Lucid body So that the Contemplative part presides over all Philosophy as a mind and the Practick follows as a faculty Now of the Practick we lay down two kinds Civil and Mystical The former purges us from the brute Nature by the help of Vertue the latter by holy Methods cuts off material Imaginations Moreover the publick Laws are a sufficient manifestation of Civil Philosophy but of the Mystical the sacred Rites of Cities Besides the top of all Philosophy is the Contemplative mind in the middle place is the Civil in the last is the Mystical The first if compared with the other two holds the proportion of an Eye the other two compared with the first of an Hand and a Foot All which have such connexion with and dependence on one another that any one of them would be defective yea almost useless if destitute of the others concurrence Wherefore these must unite together in one constellation that knowledge which finds out Truth that faculty which brings forth Vertue and that which works Purity that civil action may be made perfectly conformable to the presiding mind and that good may shine forth answerable to both And this is the end of the Pythagorick discipline that we may be all over Wing for the perception of divine good that so when the time of death is at hand leaving our mortal body behind us on the earth and putting off its very Nature we who were stout Champions in the warfare of Philosophy may be ready and expedite for our flight towards heaven For then we shall be restored to our primitive station and become Gods as far as humane nature is capable as 't is assured us in the next Verses BUT IF HAVING LEFT YOUR BODY YOU COME INTO THE FREE AETHER YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD INCORRUPTIBLE NEVER MORE LYABLE TO DEATH So when unbody'd you shall freely rove In the unbounded Regions above You an Immortal God shall then commence Advanc'd beyond Mortality and Sense This is the most excellent end of all our labours This says Plato is the great Prize the great Hope This is the most perfect fruit and reward of Philosophy This is the greatest work of the Amorous and Mystical art viz. to familiarize us and lead us up to the things that are truly excellent to rescue us from the labours we drudge under here below as from the deep dungeon of this gross material life to mount us up to the AETHEREAL Splendors and to place us in the Mansions of the blessed if we have walk'd according to the foregoing rules For such only have a title to the Crown of divine Immortality Since no man is capable of being adopted into the number of the Gods but he that has possess'd his Soul of Truth and Vertue and its spiritual Vehicle of Purity For so being sound and intire he is restored to the form of the primitive habit having return'd home to himself by the collection of right reasonings having consider'd the frame of the divine Ornament and so found out the Maker of the Universe And when he is become that as far as 't is possible after Purgation which those beings are always who are not in a capacity to be born he is carry'd up to a God by his knowledge but withall having a body Congenial to him he wants place wherein he may seat himself as a Star Now for such a body that place is most proper which is immediately under the Moon as being above the Corruptible and yet inferior to the Celestial bodies which the Pythagoreans call the FREE AETHER Aether because immaterial and Eternal Free because void of all material passions and terrestrial hurries What therefore shall he be when he arrives thither but that which he says YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD that is like the Immortal Gods spoken of in the beginning of the Verses not really so For how is it possible that he who is Deifi'd for a gradual proficiency in Vertue begun at some certain time should ever be really the same with them who were so from Eternity And this appears from the sequel For to these words YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD he adds INCORRUPTIBLE AND NEVER MORE LIABLE TO DEATH Intimating that our Deifying consists in the removal of what is Mortal and that we are not Gods by nature or essence but by proficiency and improvement So that this makes another sort of Gods Immortal by ascent but by descent Mortal and such as are necessarily subordinate to the Illustrious Heroes since these always behold the face of God whereas the other sometimes do not attend to his perfections For it will not be properly a third kind when perfected nor will it be third in respect of the middle but it will be made like to the first kind yet subordinate to the middle For that habitual resemblance of the Celestial which is seen in men does preexist in the Heroical kind after a more perfect and native manner And thus the common and only perfection of all rational beings consists in their resemblance of God that made them Now this resemblance is constant and uniform in the Celestial beings constant only and not uniform in those Aethereal ones which persevere but neither constant nor uniform in those Aethereal beings which fall down and are apt to converse here upon earth This first and best resemblance of God may be well enough call'd the Pattern of the second and third or else the second of the third For 't is not intended only that we should propose God immediately to our imitation but resemble him also by the best rule or middle likeness But if we cannot attain so far yet at least we reap this most excellent fruit of Vertue that we know the measure of our own nature and that we are not dissatisfi'd at it And this is the highest Vertue to contain ones self within the limits of the Creation whereby all things are specifically distinguish'd and to comply with the laws of Providence whereby all things according to their several capacities are directed to that good which is agreeable and convenient for them And thus have we finish'd our Exposition of the GOLDEN Verses wherein we have given you an indifferent Summary of the Pythagorick Institutions For 't was fit that we should neither confine our Paraphrase to the shortness of the Verses For so the reason of many excellent Precepts would have lain hid nor yet launch out into the Ocean of his whole Philosophy for that were to exceed the limits of our present undertaking but proportion our Comment to the sense of the Text and deliver only those things which serve to a general Explication of the doctrines contain'd in the Verses Which are nothing else but the most perfect transcript of Philosophy a Compendium of its most principal doctrines and an Elementary Institution left to Posterity by those who following the law of God were receiv'd up into Heaven You may truly call these Verses the best discovery of humane generosity and with reason suppose that they were not the memorable Sayings of any one Pythagorean but the common Resolve of the whole Sacred Assembly Whence 't was a law among them that these Verses like so many Pythagorick Oracles should be repeated in the hearing of all every Morning and also at Evening just before Bed-time that so by a continual Meditation of these sentences their Doctrines might shine forth in their lives Which 't were well if we did doe too that we might see what profit we might at length reap from them FINIS