that ever lived in the World is the Honour that is gotten by good Actions and the greatest good they can ever hope to do is that disposal of their Wealth which upholds and cherishes the two best things of this World Piety and Learning whereby the truly Charitable will have the Happiness not only of future and infinite Recompences but they will likewise attain that end which is always the meaning but never the effect of paternal Fondness an Immortality here upon Earth By this means they will inherit the just esteem of wise Men of such as know how to use their Fortunes and that do not love their Money better than themselves They will continue in this World even when they are possessed of a better and by their bountiful Donations they will in all succeeding Ages still remain here exercising the greatest Charity that is instructing the Ignorant reclaiming the Vicious and relieving the Necessitous The fair Monuments of their Piety will out-last all others and if the World should happen to survive them yet the Memory of them will not be lost till Charity it self shall fail Their excellent names will not then be buried when they shall become too great a weight for the Pillars that bear them they must needs live being repeated thrice every year in publick and solemn Commemorations with the greatest Honour that can be paid them by ingenuous Men in a Society collected from the distant parts of our own Country from whence their Charity and Fame will be carried or sent abroad to all others and sent down to all Posterity with the Sculpture of our Building the History of our Benefactors and with the just sincere and eternal Acknowledgments of The Master and Fellows of Clare-Hall PAge 17. Japhet the eldest Son of Noah c. We cannot conclude the respective Ages of the Sons of Noah from the Order in which they are named For then Ham would be the second Son But that he was the youngest is plain from Gen. 9. where it is related v. 22. That when Ham saw the nakedness of his Father he told his two Brethren without and v. 24. That when Noah awoke from his Wine he knew what his younger Son had done unto him Neither can Sem be the first-born For Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood came upon the Earth Gen. 7. 6. He was five hundred years old when he begat his eldest Son Gen. 5. 32. The Son whom at that Age he begat could not be Sem for he was not an hundred years old till two years after the Deluge Gen. 11. v. 10. Forasmuch then as Noah's eldest Son was an hundred years old when he entred the Ark and Sem was then but ninety eight it follows evidently that Japhet must be the eldest of the Sons of Noah These Particulars are confirmed by the general Sense of the Jewish Doctors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes R. Salomon Jarchi of the Sons of Noah Japhet the last named is the eldest But there is better Authority for the Assertion The Septuagint Version says it expresly Gen. 10. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They here call Japhet in the plainest words can be spoken the elder Brother of Sem. Flaminius Nobilius having compared the Copies of the Septuagint reports their Agreement in this reading Neither is it only in Pagnin Arias Montanus Tremellius the Polyglott Interlineary and our last English Translation The Brother of Japhet the Elder but the Sense Propriety and constant Grammatical Construction of the Hebrew do fully prove it For when these words are to be expressed in the Holy Language Sem the elder Brother of Japhet it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if we will have the forementioned words to be the English of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall never be able to find in any part of the Scripture the like Interpretation much less can we tell how the Hebrew should express those last words of this Text any other way without departing from its Idiom or involving its Sense in an ambiguous Phrase PAge 19. Throwing of Stones to Mercury 's Heap If we enquire what Mercury's Heap was we shall see what Reasons S. Hierom had for this rendring of Prov. 26. 8. Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii ita qui tribuit honorem insipienti Whom our English according to its usual regard to him should thus follow in translating the Text As he that throweth a Stone to Mercury's Heap so is he that giveth Honour to a Fool. The payment of Honour where it is not due is compared to the blind Idolatry of the Gentiles in worshipping Mercury by throwing Stones to his consecrated Pile This is the account of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Homer Odyss 16. which was an elevated place in that City of Ithaca from whence Eumaeus saw the Rivals of Vlysses returning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eustathius upon this place informs us that Demosthenes the Thracian who wrote a Paraphrase upon Homer long since lost concludes that the place where Eumaeus had this prospect and which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had its name from the Ceremonies of Mercury He reports it to signifie besides a heap of Stones in the Highway Such were the Terminales lapides among the Romans for showing the Bounds of their Lands which * Lib. 4. de Coronis c. 4. Paschalius upon a Distich in the first Elegy of Tibullus observes to have been adorned with Crowns and Garlands Although there was no Statue in the place yet every Heap of Stones was Sacred Which Heaps were encreased by the superstitious Diligence of Passengers throwing Stones to them in Honour of Mercury This Idolatrous Practice is mentioned in the Talmudic Book * Sanhed c. 7. Sanhedrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that throws a Stone to Mercury is a Person that commits Idolatry for Mercury is thus worshipped This Pagan Rite had its Original from a Fable of Mercury which is not commonly met withall The Story is that when he had killed Argus and was to be tryed for the Fact in a Senate of the Gods he pleaded Jupiter's Commission The Gods were thereupon afraid to condemn him and that they might not incur the displeasure of their King they threw down those Stones by which they were to give their Suffrages at the Feet of the Criminal which did not only discharge him from Punishment but was likewise the occasion of the forementioned Ceremony as well as the gathering of Votes in Judicature by Stones This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does also signifie an Altar erected to Mercury or the Basis of his Image or those Stones which shewed the distances of Miles and Furlongs Mercury being not only the Tutelar Deity but said likewise to have been the first Officer for the Highways and to have begun the clearing of them from great Stones These Stones were laid together by the Wayes side and upon the foregoing account they were stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
THE RIGHT NOTION OF HONOUR As it was delivered in a SERMON BEFORE THE KING At NEWMARKET Octob. 4. 1674. Published by his Majesties special Command WITH ANNOTATIONS The Contents whereof are in the following Leaf By NATH VINCENT D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty and Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXV The Contents of the Annotations THE occasion of publishing this Discourse after its suppression for so many years A sure Expedient for attaining the greatest Honour This conception proved agreeable to the Divine Oeconomy in several Particulars An account of the excellent Life and a Specimen of the admirable Morals of that old Chinese Philosopher Cumfusu Wherein we find the happy influence of the Natural and the Improved sense of Honour upon the Manners of that People and the Prosperity of their Empire in antient times The contrary Sentiments of Ambitious Revengeful or Mistaken Men represented in Historical Parallels between the old Politick Frights of Tyranny and Slavery in other Countries and the like seditious Clamours among our selves in the late Rebellion HOnestatem voco intelligibilem pulchritudinem S. August Honestum idem quod decorum spirituale Dionys de Div. Nomin Formam ipsam tanquam faciem honesti vides quae si oculis cerneretur mirabiles amores ut ait Plato excitaret sapientiae Cic. Caesar cum quosdam ornare voluit non ipsos honestavit sed ornamenta ipsa turpavit Idem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl See the last Particular of the Sermon PSAL. VIII part of Verse v. And hast crowned Him with Glory and Honour THOUGH there is not any thing in the World that hath been always more valued and desired than Honour yet there is nothing that has been so little understood and explicated True Honour does answer the Esteem that hath been always set upon it It is the best of our attainments in this Life Nay it is all we can return to God himself for all the Blessings he heaps upon us Next under God our greatest Obligations are to our Prince and to our Parents Now the Honour we pay to the Fathers of our Country for the security of our Persons and Fortunes and to those that bred us for our Nurture and Education is the fullest Account of our Duty to both Our Labours Hardships and Dangers the sharpest Pains the cruellest Tortures the worst of Deaths we can undergo have no greater temporal Reward than Honour When God Almighty would make a Creature as happy as any thing could be lower than an Angel he created Adam of whom the Psalmist says That his Maker gave him Dominion over the Works of his Hands and put all things in subjection under his Feet In short He made him a King and crowned him upon his Birth-day he crowned him with Glory and Honour The Psalmist in this place describing the infinite Goodness of God in creating Man after his own Image and in repairing afterwards that Image in him calls His original Righteousness and the Supplies of Grace after the Fall his Honour For as we call the Perfections of the Divine Nature to which we owe our Beeing and Happiness the Honour of God so the Integrity and the Renovation of humane Nature are the Honour of Man because they make him capable of doing good An Honour so great that to express it fully the Original reads the former parts of the Verse thus Thou hast made him little lower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than God or almost a God Now as we call the infinite Perfections of God and the Moral or Religious Excellencies of Man their Honour upon account of the Benefits conferred by God upon Man and by good Men upon their fellow Creatures so is it likewise in the case of Temporal Secondary Imperfect Honour Humane Authority Power and Greatness is called Honour because it seems to imply and suppose in the Possessors those Perfections which tend to the Use Benefit and Welfare of Mankind Thus Magistrates even when they are corrupt are honoured because by their Station and Condition they are in many respects useful and have always more Power and better Opportunities of doing good than inferiour Persons From whose better Resolutions for the time to come we cannot expect so much of publick Benefit For this Reason when Noblemen are dissolute our Parents vicious the Aged profligate there is still something of Respect and Honour due to them though the Proportion of it is strangely lessened by their defects and miscarriages That which I have here undertaken is to give an account of Honour both in its best Sense and in its largest Extent To which purpose I conclude That Honour is the greatest Excellency both of uncreated and finite Nature that we form our Apprehensions of any Excellency according to its Title to Esteem and that we have the highest and most just Esteem of those Perfections by which we are most of all relieved supplied assisted and comforted What I have been hitherto describing I thus define True Honour is eminent and beneficial Goodness attested And in the common imperfect Notion of it It is any degree capacity or resemblance of signalized Worth This Definition as it comprehends the Particulars of my following Discourse so it serves us to make a Judgment of those two Conceptions of Honour which are as distant in their Sense as their Age in the World The one is old the other very new the former is from Plato Aristotle and their Followers the latter from the Leviathan and his Disciples According to the old Notion it is nothing but a Mark or Inscription upon supposed Goodness According to the new one It is only an Instance or Argument of Power Honourable says the Leviathan is whatsoever Possession Action or Quality is an Argument and Sign of Power His Comment is as bad as his Text for he goes on thus Covetousness of great Riches and Ambition of great Honours are Honourable as signs of Power to obtain them Nor does it alter the case of Honour whether an Action so it be great and difficult and consequently a sign of much Power be just or unjust For Honour consisteth only in the Opinion of Power For proof of this he mentions the fabulous Rapes and Thefts of the Heathen Gods and he says That till there were constituted great Commonwealths it was thought no dishonour to be a Pirate or a Highway-Thief Now he that makes Power to be the Foundation of Right must make Honour to be the effect of Power though never so ill gotten When an Usurper is to be upheld and defended Injustice Violence Ambition Cruelty Theft Murder Sacrilege and Oppression must be of his Life-guard I must needs say That although the old Opinion of Honour is defective it is far more tolerable than this Novel and lewd Extravagancy Would we then know what is to be understood by true and solid Honour we must be instructed by the Principles of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercurial Heaps These Remarques explain that old dark Inscription Deo Merc Viaco M. Attilius Silonis F. Quir. Silo Ex voto We have here likewise an Illustration of that passage in the Epigram Apollinis aras Arcanumque Vii This Arcanum Vii was the mysterious Religion of the Cabiri in Samothracia of which Cabiri Mercury is reckoned for one in that old Distich that recites them Juno Vesta Minerva Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Jovi ' Neptunus Vulnanus Apollo We are told by Drusius out of an Arabick Book against the Alcoran that it was a Practice of the Indians to pile up Stones in Honour of their Gods From them it was carried over into Arabia where the worshipping of Venus with the same Ceremony was the only piece of Idolatry which Mahomet retained at Mecha The Arabian Convert agrees to this Sense of Salomon's expression Neither is the forecited Passage one of the weakest Arguments for our subscribing to S. Hierom's translating the Expression Acervum Mercurii Why we should not follow the Septuagint and translate the Hebrew Word a Sling we have moreover these Reasons That since the Hebrew Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a heap of Stones since the Superstition of those Mercurial heaps was spread through the East many Ages before Solomon since the very name of Mercury was formed out of this Word Margemah since Manetho though a fabulous Writer is confirmed by Josephus in his Opinion That they were Seth's Pillars To interpret the expression As he that tyes a Stone in a Sling is a sense which those that are best acquainted with the Pagan Rites and the Jewish Learning cannot admit of as the most obvious true natural and worthiest of the wise Author of the saying Besides all this it is certain that Margemah is of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markolis the Talmudic name of Mercury and of his Image or Statue They are used promiscuously by the oldest Jewish Writers The Medrasch on the Proverbs thus paraphrases the passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever honours a Fool is like him that throws a Stone to Mercury This is not the only instance in the Old Testament that shews the Antiquity of the Pagan Idolatry Orion and the Pleiades are mentioned by Job Whose youngest Daughter is called in the Hebrew The Horn or Ray of Beauty that is says the version of the Seventy The Horn of Amalthaea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 42. 14. In the desolation of Babylon Isai 13. 21 22. it is said by the Vulgar Latin and the Maronites That Satyrs shall dance and Sirens lodge there Sirenes Daemonia illic salt abunt So likewise in Ezechiel's Vision ch 8. v. 14. At the North Door of the Temple there sat Women lamenting Adonis concluded by S. Hierom to be understood by Tammuz Mulieres sedebant plangentes Adonidem Now S. Gregory Nyssen in his ninth Homily on the Canticles gives good satisfaction to those that wonder at the mention of Poetick Fables in the holy Oracles of God PAge 19. There is a Pagan Empire on the further side of Asia It is that Empire where all Nobility is from Worth and Knowledge where none are born great but those of the Royal Family where Men are honoured and advanced then only when they deserve to be so The principal Sect among them called Jukia hath no other charge but to mind the business of Government and the practice of Moral Vertues This people the Inhabitants of Cathaia and the Northern China have little Philosophy that is considerable besides Morality Their chief Science is the Moral Contemplation of Man In which it is their business to consider the Offices of Princes and their Subjects of Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Brethren and Friends They have three thousand Rules concerning Decency Civility Modesty and the Vertues of that Rank Prudence is one of their most admired Vertues And next to that they esteem Courage when it is imployed in the conquest of our selves They value Justice because it directs us to look into our selves when we determine any thing referring unto others In which they place the highest degree of Humane Perfection They say they are lovers of Vertue for no other Reason but because it is its own abundant Recompence They do not concern themselves in any enquiries about future matters alledging they have not yet attained the knowledge of those things that are before their Eyes They understand little and dote very much in Natural Philosophy They hold a double Metempsychosis that of Pythagoras and the transmigration of the Soul into new Passions and Desires They affirm all the Events of this Life to be Good or Evil according to our Opinion and Judgment of them The great things that are reported of them are credible enough if it can be made out That they are the Posterity of the old Seres Quos Lusitani perperam Sinas appellarunt sayes the very learned Mr. Is Vossius in his late Tract De Art Scientiis Sinarum And when we receive the account of their Socrates that Divine Philosopher Cumfusu Now Ptolemy Mela Pliny Strabo Salinus Dionysius and others make the Country of the Seres to border Southward upon India without Ganges and to be that very Tract which is now called China Pliny taking notice of the simplicity of their Manners says they are very unlike their Neighbours the Scythians Those very places which Ortelius Mercator and the generality of Modern Geographers make the Boundaries of China are named by the Antients as the Confines of Serae Ptolemy sets their Country whose Metropolis he sayes was called Sera in the Neighbourhood of Scythia on the outside of the Mount Imaus next India without Ganges and on the further side of Asia The same situation is given them by Ammianus Marcellinus who asserts their Country to reach Southward as far as India Ganges and the forenamed Mountain Imaus In Pomponius Mela we find the Serae and the Chineses to be the same people And that the Persians and Saracens call the Inhabitants of Cathaia Seres Solinus carries us through the Scythian and Eastern Ocean to this Country which Pausanias says derives its name from the Worms that supply the Inhabitants with Silk which according to him and others as we find in Suidas are called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seres This appears further from their great plenty of Silk and their skill in weaving it Which was first called Serica from their Country Their Art is thus set out by Dionysius in his Periegesis v. 755. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Weaving rich colour'd Robes they Flowers strow Such as Dame Natures Tapistry does show Such as the Spiders finest Art out-go There have been those Opinions and Reports of their great Antiquity that might give some occasion to the vast Extravagancies of the Chinese Chronology They are the oldest people that were known to Pliny Primi sunt hominum qui
not fail to explain in a little time when they usurped and exercised a soveraign unlimited and absolute Power over the King himself and all his Subjects when the Protestation was a sufficient Law to enforce the bringing in of Money Plate and Arms for the Service of the Commonwealth when there were Ordinances made for Sequestring the Estates of those who persisted in their Loyalty and Duty to the King when they seized the Revenues of the Crown and the Church when they raised Money without the King's Authority to carry on a Rebellion against him when they maintained their Army with free Quarter when they revived a distinction declared to be Treason by two Acts of Parliament the distinction between the Kings natural and political Capacity between his Person and his Power or Authority when they distinguished between the equitable and literal sense of the Law to give liberty to the Subject to interpret the King's Laws according to his own pleasure and to justifie all contempt and disobedience when they asserted the Legislative and Judicative Power to be in the two Houses of Parliament without the King lastly when they declared themselves to be the irrevocable Trustees of the Peoples Lives Liberties and Properties without being obliged to give an account of their Trust What remains is only the Reader 's business which is to compare the late Occurrences in this Kingdom with the foregoing Parallels Whoever does so if he be not blinded by Prejudice will quickly find that it is no new thing for Men to pass among the Ignorant for great Patriots who have rased out of their minds all natural sense of Honour and Honesty for Vermin and the Pests of Humane Society to set up for Heroes and the Saviours of their Country and then for the popular Herd to be led away to their Ruine by the breath of Panthers and the smooth faces of Harpies It must therefore be needless to add any thing further upon this Argument more than the following Consideration As there are at this day and have been in former Ages though in a very small proportion to good Monarchs Tyrants in many parts of the World so it is at this present as it hath been always heretofore the hard Fate of the best Princes to be tormented with the Jealousies of their Subjects to be charged with the affectation of Tyranny then constantly when there is the least ground for it to be always as much mistrusted by the crazy-headed Rabble while they live as they are pitied and admired when they are dead Now it is likewise the same uncharitable corrupt Temper which renders the People as vexatious to their fellow Subjects as they are to their Soveraign The number is strangely small of the Men who have any regard to those Principles of everlasting Righteousness which hinder us from tearing and destroying one another of those few that have and are the wisest because the best of Men there is not one of many hundreds who considers the mischief this is done to the World by the easiness of most Persons in receiving and uttering scandalous Reports Some People think to make themselves great by lessening or undermining others but of those that design it there are very few who succeed Injustice and Calumny are equally pernicious to the World in general and to the Men that manage by those Arts. For till Integrity and Charity become the universal Resolution of Mankind till the Experiment comes to be tryed whether Sincerity Justice and Benignity are not better Measures than Deceit and Malice surer and readier ways to Prosperity the World can never be happy and therefore it is too probable that it will remain to its Dissolution a Mass of Sin and Misery The Author's Misfortunes are too little to come into this account Yet those two reports which were raised upon his Preaching the foregoing Sermon should not be quite forgotten One was concerning his Dress the other about the delivery of his Sermon As to the former it is a matter of Dispute between Persons of different Years and Tempers who can never agree upon the Point of Decency in Attire But what it is to read a Sermon both young and old the Candid and the Morose the Spightful and the Kind do all agree in their Verdict however they are divided in the other Case Now whenas the preceding Sermon which was spoken as readily without Book as any thing perhaps that hath been delivered before His Majesty which is well enough remembred at the Court was said to be read word for word and that report as false as it was divulged and credited in all parts of the Kingdom it supplies us with the following Conclusion If a private Person may at any time be brought upon the Stage and exposed to the censure of the World by Men as little as himself it is no wonder a Government should be suspected and endangered when great united subtle Factions make it their business to misrepresent it when its Friends are modest slow unactive and secure when its Enemies are bold restless and implacable when the People are distrustful fickle conceited petulant and mutinous to that degree of madness that if the Devil of Sedition goes out of them for a while and the unclean Spirit walks through the dry places that were lately covered with Blood and a torrent of Miseries he can find no rest till he returns to his House from whence he came out that House where he roars out his pretended Fears of Superstition and Slavery in those hideous yells which fright the common People out of their Wits When he cometh to the House he findeth it empty and swept and garnished too with the fairest Pretences for Religion Law Right Liberty and Property Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other Apostate Spirits a select number of corrupt and disgraced Ministers of State they enter into the House and dwell there and the last State of that miserable possessed People is worse than the first ERRATA Page 3. l. 6. r. part p. 9. l. 4. r. Arias Montanus c. THE END