proboque Deteriora sequor c. Met. l. 7. Which is almost in the same Words and altogether in the same Sense with that of the holy Apostle That which I do I allow not for what I would do that do I not and what I hate that do I. Rom. 7. 15. § 13. And now after a long but I hope not tedious Discourse of the Opposition of the two Natures that make up our compositum and the Reasons thereof 't is but time to draw nearer that I chiefly aim at and to let you know what your Superiour Faculties or rather God by them require of you and this is no other but the subjugating of your Passions and Appetites in order to your threefold Duty to God to your Neighbour and to your Self Whey prohibit you in the First place all those Pleasures Diversions and Alienations of Mind which usually obstruct the Love of God his Fear and Honour They forbid in the Second place all immoderate Desires of Gain which may tempt you to break the Laws of Justice and Charity and will teach you to deny your self those things which stand in opposition to either But their chiefest concern is Thirdly in the regimen of your self which is the ground of both the other that you observe the great Duty of Moderation and Temperance be guided by your Reason and that you be able to make Resolutions and observe them when they are made For these Ends and Purposes as a rational Creature and a Christian you are to settle in your self this high Court of Judicature and a constant firm Resolution of submitting your self to its Determinations 'T is a great Vertue to resolve well but 't is a greater to be able inviolably to observe our Resolutions It is the greatest part of Wisdom and requires our utmost force and strength to stick to a Resolve well taken This is indeed our common Failure and yet he is not a Men that cannot do this A Man cannot be just to himself who is unconstant to his own Purposes the Will originally is the Follower of the Understanding and it is as good nay better to be without an Intellect as the inferiour Creatures are than to ask her Advice and not to follow it The only hindrance to this great Duty is the Importunities of Sense and the Pleas of Pleasure Profit and corporeal Satisfaction Let these be kept under and in obedience and then you will be capable to observe this great and necessary Rule following Resolve on nothing but by the Advice of righteous Reason and when you have resolv'd once let nothing in Nature be able to divert the execution but a countermand from the same Authority § 14. Whensoever therefore you are invited to any Action contrary to the Laws of God or Man your great care must be suppress and conquer that Motion and that as speedily and zealously as you would Fire in your house or a Rebellion breaking out in your Kingdom as tending immediately to the destruction of the whole To this purpose you must stop every wandring or wanton thought every inconsiderate word and every intended Action for surely if Words are to be consider'd twice according to the Grecian Orator's Rule Thoughts deserve one and Actions three Examinations and bring it before the supreme Bar of Righteous and Impartial Reason The Rules of Examination are the Laws of God and Man which are in respect of Morality plain and easie And here the Golden Rule that general Director of all our Actions among Men especially with which our Lord concludes his divine Sermon in the Mount is of universal Use Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do you even the same to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Matt. 7. If your deceitful Heart disguise the Action consult a rectified Conscience and apply this Lydius Lapis this Touch-stone to it and the counterfeit will soon appear and you may make a discovery If you find it an Amalekite spare it not for Favour or Affection no nor upon the Account of Religion it self but utterly destroy it Without a metaphor suppress both your Passions and Appetites whensoever you perceive them to interfere with your Duty and lead you into any Sin This is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if nothing were true Wisdom but this The Latins call it Temperantia Temperance or Government The first of these Wisdom is usually taken in a larger Signification and comprehends this and other Duties The latter Temperance signifies in common use but a part of this Duty the moderate use of Meats and Drink c. And therefore I have made bold to introduce two * Autarchy Autocracy Words into our Language comprehensive of the Duty I teach you and which will include the Regimen of the irascible and concupisciple Passions I mean Autarchy and Autocracy both which signifie Self-Government § 15. Autarchy then is no other but the exercise of that Power that the Soul hath over the Body and the higher Faculties over the lower Appetites in order to the Practice of Vertue and Piety As it respects our Duty to God it is subservient to Devotion and by its Punishments and holy Revenges upon the rebellious Appetites it performs the severest part of the great Duty of Repentance As it respects our Duty to our Neighbour it represses the Emotions to Covetousness and teaches us to know what is that which is sufficient for us It rebates all Inclinations to Injustice and obliges us to the Golden Rule it abates the Swellings of Self-conceit and Philauty and consequently keeps Peace amongst Men for Pride and Selfishness are generally the Causes of all Wars and of Quarrels Dissentions yea and of all the Schisms in Religion of all the evil Words and invidious Actions with which foolish Mortals torment themselves and others And lastly in respect of our selves it teaches us to measure our selves by just Rules and Proportions and not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think but to think soberly to judge meanly of our selves and of our own Endowments and Deserts for we are or may be too well acquainted with our own private Failures and Lapses and charitably of other Men because we know not theirs and thus it lays the Foundation of Humility that great Christian as well as moral Vertue It represses Anger prevents Malice and regulates the irascible Passions and so is nothing less than Meekness and Lowliness the two specifick Graces of the Holy Jesus It quenches the Heats of Lust and defends us from those Legions of Tormentors that are Consequents of it It makes us to possess our Vessels the Body in Sanctification not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original words it in the Passions of furious and unbridled Desires It guards us from Gluttony and Drunkenness and teaching the right use of Meats and Drinks prescribes the necessary Rules of Quantity and Quality Briefly there is no Vertue or Grace but what it labours for
leave him and he is fain to use Arts to keep them his Lusts slight him and deceive him and he hath nothing but a sinful vitiated Will and a polluted Fancy left which yet makes him ridiculous and exposes him His Lusts first seduced his Mind and now a defil'd Mind is forc'd to caress them like an out-worn Mistress once ador'd now slighted by her old Servants 'T is but time certainly then to retire when we can pursue our pleasures no longer when Providence hath taken away the Temptation we ought not to make to our selves Images and Shadows of that which hath forsaken us This is the Order of Nature and thus Days speak if we would hear and multitude of Years would teach us Wisdom Lastly Let him endeavour to obtain a true Estimate of the different Pleasures and Advantages the Ends and Consequences of Vertue and Vice and by comparing them together become satisfied how much better 't is to live the Life of a good Man and a Christian here and to be received into Bliss hereafter than to be a Sot a Slave a Fool for a few days and afterwards to be damned § 26. This is the great Truth which the two following Essays do endeavour to illustrate and which I hope your Experience will one day convince you of In the mean time let me only tell you That the Sensualist for all his gay Colours and fine Shows is but a poor miserable Slave and enslav'd to that which every good and wise Man keeps in Subjection I mean his Brutish Part his Lusts and Appetites Whilst the Man that keeps his Liberty and rules within himself that uses Pleasures as a Cordial not continual Nourishment and takes only what will agree with his Spiritual Advantages the Man that can learn and practise this short Lesson of the excellent Moralist of old sustine abstine suffer and abstain suffer with Patience and Resignation what Providence lays upon thee and abstain from every thing which may be hurtful for thy Body or Soul This mighty Man I say this more than Emperour reigns a Soveragin in himself is invulnerable and unconquerable he falls into no sin nor runs into any Danger but is the Favourite and Care of Heaven here and hereafter And thus much of The Nature of Autarchy and Rules of its Practice with which I shall conclude the First Part of this Essay and am Yours c. ἈΥΤΑΡΧΊΑ· OR THE ART of Self-Government The Second PART BEING A Vindication of the Pleasures of Autarchy compar'd with those of Sensuality § 1. AFTER a curious Search into the Original of Corrupt Nature the Reasons of its Conjunction with the purer Spirit and the Rules to make it serviceable to Religion which was the Argument of my former Discourse my Dear Dorotheus you may perhaps think it unnecessary to write a Second time or add any thing to that Subject And truly after I had finished the Former Letter I became inclinable to that Opinion my self till besides my Promise I had consider'd that it is easie to give and hard to take such Counsel that Autarchy is the most difficult and perhaps in some Sense our only Duty and that Sense will become importunate especially when it hath Health and Youth to be its Advocates And truly when I find so few Men even in their best Age and most vivid Exercise of their Reason able to tame the Wild Beast within I must confess I cannot rigorously exact it of Youth My Business therefore shall be in the following Papers to work upon your Affections I mean to engage my self in the Cause of the superiour Faculties and endeavour to convince you that they are not rigorous nor exercise any Tyranny over us but that by a wise and sweet Conduct they would if permitted gently and carefully pilot our crazed Vessel through the turbulent Sea of this World to the Haven of Happiness and this not only when the Rules are drawn by Morality but by the strictest Religion If this can be made out Self-Government will be your Choice not your Yoke and you will find it your great Duty and greater Interest § 2. And because there be several sorts of Judgments as well as Constitutions so that some will be convinc'd with that Argument which others cannot Apprehend or count ridiculous Lest from hence Autarchy and its Vertues should be disparaged by a real or seeming poor Apology I must here premonish you that its Exercise doth not merely depend upon those outward Encouragements which follow Morality is our Duty and our Interest though never so ungrateful and its great Obligations arise from Spiritual Promises and Rewards in this Life and the Eternal Joys of the Life to come and tho' she were ever so sorrowful hirsute and Squallid yet those inexpressible Joys she inspires into the Soul in this Life and those she reserves for the future state are abundantly sufficient to subdue any rational Understanding Even Afflictions themselves may be elegible when being light and Momentary they work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory The End makes Sufferings tolerable and we see in Temporals Men are very willing to be sick for future Health to serve a severe Apprenticeship for a lasting Freedom to labour toil and sweat for an approaching Harvest and to hazard the dangers of the Seas for Merchandice and of War for Glory These are common Practices founded upon rational Conjectures And why should not Religion engage us upon greater and more certain Motives The Arguments then that follow are not necessary but ex abundanti If they convince they will sweeten the Methods of Providence reconcile the Sons of Sense to Vertue answer the Objections of the Sensualists and remove some Stumbling-blocks that offend the Carnal minded if not know yet that Religion stands upon eternal Foundations and remains secure as having no need of outward Rewards though it may yet receive some encouragements and advances in Minds not so defecate and stript of the World as ours must needs be while we live with Flesh and Blood And indeed the Prejudices of Sensualists are so many loud and clamorous and improv'd to that degree that I thought it worth my time to search into the matter and consider whether Piety makes all her Votaries in this Life most miserable For Men mostly preferr present to future Comforts and these short Joys in a Vale of tears to those of the Regions of Happiness which are above If I therefore can demonstrate that Religion hath its present Comforts and perhaps greater and more substantial than Sensuality can pretend to all these Prejudices will vanish and Men will entertain it for its present as well as future Reward § 3. And here I expect to meet with great Disadvantages by reason of those Prejudices which seem to be congenite and twisted into humane Nature for the Pleasure of Self-denial which must accompany Autarchy are look'd upon as a Paradox and Men bear a kind of antipathy to restraining Vertue when
Interest it serves and as Visionary as the nightly Feasts of Witches As these imagine that they eat and drink and yet still find themselves pursued by the same hunger and Misery so Voluptuousness leaves us as empty as before and raises a greater Thirst than it allays nay more it is lost by Usage and the poor deluded loaths what he hath admires what he hath not is always to seek and is never satisfied he pursues an Aery Expectation and courts a Mistress that when once enjoyed inspires him with new Wants and puts him upon fresh Quests and Dangers Thus the Slave to his own Lusts rowls the stone of Sisyphus and carried by the Gyre of his untam'd Desires moves an unconstant constant Round till Sickness or Age disables him and Death arrests him and carries him to the Infernal Prisons where only he becomes Stationary And thus I have made some Reflections upon that Men call Fruition or Sensual Enjoyment And I have been the longer because if there be any Pleasure in Sensuality it must be in this By what has been said it will appear That there is not a greater cheat impos'd upon Mortals or rather that they impose upon themselves And I will be bold to conclude That Sin begins and proceeds by Delusion and ends in Misery That Voluptuousness is a Masque acted by Furies in disguise which towards the end they throw off and appear in their proper Shape For this is the true End of all Sinful Enjoyments which I must next demonstrate § 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a Man saith the Divine Preacher but the End thereof is the ways of Death Prov. 14. 12. The End of Voluptuousness is always calamitous and that commonly in this Life Sin brings forth Shame and Sorrow and forbidden Enjoyments tend to the Destruction of that Body they are brought to gratifie Thus Intemperance weakens the Appetite and consequently the Body Thus Lust incites Ammon even to incest and then to hate even to Death till Drunkenness and the Sword of Absalom hath cut him off and so put an end to both Passions And as Sin at last brings a dismal Catastrophe upon it self so each Crime hath its particular Nemesis even in our own Conscience And I dare appeal to Experience whether when a Man's Passion is over and he is at leisure to consider calmly what he hath done he feels not Shame invade him and a natural Horrour dart through his Soul Whether he doth not run as it were from the Presence of God as Adam his Forefather did as asham'd of his Nakedness or sow some thin Fig-leaves together some poor Excuses to cover it Thus 't is at first till Conscience is seared or lull'd asleep and so becomes senseless Custom will take off the Dread of Punishment and because Vengeance seems to slumber the hardned Sinner removeth it far out of his Sight and yet for all this commonly Conscience at last awakes and laying before him the things that he hath done arraigns and condemns him the black Fumes of Atheism which hitherto have hid his Sin and Punishment will at last withdraw and the Deity just and terrible discover himself to his Soul and then learn from his own mouth the Agony of his distracted Mind when he considers that he must leave all his Pleasures Friends and Acquaintance and be carried alone into the dreadful unknown Abyss of Eternity When he begins thus to question with himself What if now at last there should be a God which I have not only provoked but denied a Heaven which I have slighted and a Hell which I have not only chosen but made it my Business and taken pains to procure What if this God shall meet me in the other World and convince me of his Being by his Justice in what a Condition shall I be then Why no worse than eternally and irrecoverably miserable And is it so I find then I have liv'd to a fair purpose I have enjoyed some few shadows of Pleasures and suffer'd many real Griefs I have been cheated all my Life time with Hopes Fears and Expectations and found all at last both Vanity and Vexation of Spirit And now I can perceive no glimpse of Joy no comfort to my Soul but a Darkness and Horrour and the Expectation of a dreadful Sentence when I shall depart hence But Oh sacred Vertue and you hospitable Graces of Integrity and Innocence who alone are able to banish these dreadful Apprehensions and bring home in Peace how have I slighted and despised you This is very probable to be the End of the Voluptuous because the nearer he approaches to his Death the clearer are the discoveries of his Misery yet I know very well that some die as well as live senseless and unapprehensive of future Danger but then their Condition is never the better because their Despair as well as Punishment are transferr'd to the other World The Rich man in the Gospel was never the happier in Hell because he perceiv'd it not before he opened his Eyes in its Flames § 13. I have led you my Dorotheus through the Folly to the Misery of Sensuality of living in Rebellion against the higher Powers of the Soul and working Wickedness with Greediness You may easily perceive upon the whole Matter That there is much Sorrow and very little Pleasure in Debauchery and that Hell stands at the end of it That those poor Pleasures that are enjoyed are little else but Cheat and Delusion and at last leave us not only disappointed but miserable Happy is the Man that can see through the Disguise and apprehend the Deformity and End of Vice Happy is he that by an early Conquest of himself and his Earthly part makes himself capable of the Pleasures of Autarchy of those that are to be found in the Paths of Virtue and the Regimen of the upper Soul And these are they which come next to be considered § 14. It was the wise Epictetus that reduc'd all Morality and his Readings thereupon to these two words mentioned in the end of the former Part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer and abstain These two infold the whole Duty of Autarchy and regulate at once our irascible and concupiscible Appetites The First of these tells us we must suffer Injuries Reproaches and Slanders patiently The Second enjoins us Abstinence from Sin I mean and from all Occasions and Appearances of it These two were the constant Doctrine of our Lord first and then of his Disciples only he went beyond Epictetus refin'd and exalted these Duties and made the first especially the hardest of the two one of the Beatitudes Matt. 5. Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you The Conquest of our selves the Exercise of Self-denial and the patient bearing of Injuries is a