Pleasure Call its Fruitions slat and insipid if you please but yet they are solid and substantial agreeable and universal They must needs be so indeed because they are Lawful and Innocent free from the Censure of Others and the Reproaches of one's Own Mind What the World calls Love aims at nothing but Delight it hath perhaps somewhat of Sprightliness and is of a quicker and more poignant Relish but this cannot hold long and we plainly see it cannot by so few Matches succeeding well where Beauty and Amorous Desires were at the bottom of them There must be something more solid to make us happy A Building that is to stand for our whole Lives ought to be set upon sirmer Foundations and these Engagements are serious Matters such as deserve and it is Pity but they should have our utmost Discretion employed upon them That Hot Love bubbles and boils in our Breasts for a While but it is worth Nothing and cannot continue and therefore it very often happens that these Affairs are very fortunately manag'd by a Third Hand This Description is only Summary and in general Terms Another more particular one But that the Case may be more perfectly and particularly understood it is sit we take Notice that there are Two Things Essential and absolutely Necessary to this State of Life which however contrary and inconsistent they may at First Sight appear are yet in reality no such Matter These are Equality and Inequality the Former concerns them as Friends and Companions and upon the Level the Other as a Superiour and an Inferiour The Equality consists in that Entire Freedom and unreserved Communication whereby they ought to have all Things in Common their Souls Inclinations Wills Bodies Goods are mutually from thenceforward made over and neither of them hath any longer a peculiar and distinct Propriety exclusive of the other This in some Places is carried a great deal farther and extends to Life and Death too insomuch that assoon as the Husband is dead the Wife is obliged to follow him without delay There are some Countries where the Publick and National Laws require them to do so and they are oftentimes so Zealous in their Obedience that where Polygamy is indulged if a Man leave several Wives behind him they Try for it Publickly and enter up their Claims which of them shall obtain the Honour and Privilege of sleeping with their Spouse that is the Expression they soften it by and upon this Occasion each urges in her own behalf that she was the best belov'd Wife or had the last Kiss of him or brought him Children or the like so to gain the Preference to themselves Th' Ambitious Rivals eagerly pursue Death as their Crown to Love and Virtue due Prefer their Claims and glory in Success Their Lords first Nuptials are courted less Approach his Pile with Pomp in Triumph burn And mingle Ashes in one Common Urn. In other Places where no Laws enjoyned any such Thing it hath been resolved and practised by mutual Stipulation and voluntary Agreement made privately between the Parties Themselves which was the Case of Mark Antony and Cleopatra But omitting This which in truth is a Wicked Barbarous and Unreasonable Custom The Equality which is and ought to be between Man and Wife extends it self to the Administration of Affairs and Inspection over the Family in common from whence the Wife hath very justly the Title of Lady or Mistress of the House and Servants as well as the Husband that of Master and Lord over them And this joint Authority of Theirs over their own private Family is a Picture in Little of that Form of Publick Government which is termed an Aristocracy That Distinction of Superiour and Inferiour which makes the Inequality consists in This. Inequality That the Husband hath a Power and Authority over his Wife and the Wife is plac'd in Subjection to her Husband The Laws and Governments of all Nations throughout the World agree in this Preeminence Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent Victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis Ora perusta viris but the Nature and the Degrees of it are not every where the same For These differ in Proportion as the Laws and Customs of the Place differ Thus far the Consent is Universal That the Woman how Noble soever her Birth and Family how great soever her Fortunes or any other personal Advantages is not upon any Consideration exempted from Subjection to her Husband This Superiority and Inferiority may well be general and be the Opinion of All when it is so plainly the Condition of All. For in truth it is the Work of Nature and founded upon that Strength and Sufficiency and Majesty of the One Sex and the Weakness and Softness and Incapacities of the Other which prove it not equally qualified nor ever designed for Government But there are many other Arguments besides which Divines fetch from Scripture upon this Occasion and prove the Point indeed substantially by Them For Revelation here hath backed and enforced the Dictates of Reason by telling us expresly that Man was made first that he was made by God alone and entirely by Him without any Creature of a like Form contributing any thing towards his Being That he was Created on purpose for the Pleasure and Glory of God his Head That he was made after the Divine Image and Likeness a Copy of the Great Original above and Perfect in his Kind For Nature always begins with something in its just Perfection Whereas Woman was created in the Second Place and not so properly Created as Formed made after Man taken out of his Substance * See 1 Corinth xi 7.8 The Man is the Image and Similitude of God but the Woman is the Similitude of the Man So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similis sum not Glory as we read it which is foreign to the rest of the Words and the whole Scope of that Argument Fashioned according to that Pattern and so His Image and only the Copy of a Copy made Occasionally and for particular Uses to be a Help and a Second to the Man who is himself the Principal and Head and therefore She is upon all these Accounts Imperfect Thus we may argue from the Order of Nature But the thing is confirmed yet more by the Relation given us of the Corruption and Fall of Man For the Woman was first in the Transgression and sinned of her own Head Man came in afterwards and by her Instigation The Woman therefore who was last in Good in order of Nature and Occasional only but foremost in Evil and the occasion of That to Man is most justly put in Subjection to Him who was before Her in the Good and after Her in the Evil. This Conjugal Superiority and Power hath been very differently restrained or enlarged
they are the Natural Qualities and Powers of it Upon these follow the Actions or Operations of the Soul which must needs in order of Nature be after those Faculties that qualifie it for the performance of them And thus the great Dionysius whose Doctrine in this particular is universally assented to observes That in Spiritual Creatures there are Three things to be consider'd The Essence the Faculty and the Operation By the Last of these which is the Action we are led to the Knowledge of the Faculty and from the Faculty again we are carry'd on to the Essence Now we must take notice by the way that the Actions may be obstructed suspended or a final Stop and absolute Cessation put to them without any Prejudice at all being done by this means to the Soul or its Faculties As the Skill and Faculty of Painting shall remain entire in the Artist tho' his Hands be ty'd up or he be otherwise disabled from exerting that Skill But upon a Supposal that the Faculties themselves perish the Soul must perish with them as the Fire can be no longer Fire if we suppose the Faculty of Warming to be taken away from it The Nature and Essence of the Soul being thus in some measure explain'd In Vaity there is another Enquiry which offers it self to our Consideration and That indeed of very great Intricacy and Importance both which is Whether each Animal but more especially each Man have a Complication of several Souls or but One only Concerning which a multitude of Arguments have been offer'd on all Sides and great variety of Opinions have grown but they may I think be reduc'd to Three Some of the Greek Philosophers and almost all the Arabian after Their Examples have fancied that there is but One Immortal Soul not only in each distinct Individual Person but in all Mankind and distributed throughout the whole Species in general The Aegyptians are in the other Extreme and conceive that each Person hath several Souls totally and essentially distinct from one another That every Brute hath Two of these and every Man hath Three Two of which the Vegetative and Sensitive are Mortal and the Third which is the Intellectual Immortal The Third Opinion lies between these Two and as it is more moderate so hath it likewise been more generally entertain'd than either of the Former for most Nations seem to be agreed that however Men may have been oblig'd to consider the several Faculties distinctly yet there is in reality no actual Plurality and but One Soul in each Person which extends to all those Operations assign'd to several The First of these Opinions I shall say nothing to thinking it too absurd and too generally exploded to stand in need of any particular Confutation The Second which asserts a Plurality of Souls in each Animal and particularly in each Man must be confess'd on the one hand exceeding marvellous if not altogether incredible and absurd For what Philosophy will allow us in giving several Essential Forms to one and the same thing But then on the other hand it must be acknowledg'd too that this Notion makes the Way fair and smooth for that of the Intellectual Soul's being Immortal Because upon a Supposition of Three distinct Souls there is no great Difficulty or Inconvenience in admitting that Two of these may die without at all impairing the Immortality of the Third Whereas the Unity of the Soul seems to make War upon its Immortality For which way can we conceive the same Thing to be Mortal in one part and Immortal in another which yet seems to have been Aristotle's Notion Certainly there is an absolute necessity of concluding that it is All of a piece in this respect and either entirely Mortal or Immortal throughout which yet are each of them loaded with very absurd Consequences For the Former Conclusion is destructive of all Religion and sound Philosophy and the Latter advances the Brutes to the same Dignity the same Immortal State with our Selves But the most general and in my poor Judgment the most probable Opinion is that each Animal hath but One Soul but One in Substance That This is the Cause of Life and the Universal Source of all the Actions perform'd by him That though it have but One Essence entire and undivided yet is it adorn'd enrich'd diversify'd with a vast number of Faculties and distinct Powers wonderfully different and some contrary to each other according to the vast Variety of Instruments made use of by it the Vessels in which they are contain'd and the Objects they are employ'd about Thus the Soul exercises what we call the Sensitive and Reasonable Faculties more peculiarly in the Brain there being the Instruments adapted to such Operations The Vital and Irascible in the Heart the Natural and Vegetative which are sometimes distinguish'd by the Concupiscible in the Liver These are the Chief and most Material Distinctions But these so many and so different Operations Instruments and Faculties no more impair the Unity of the Soul or argue a Plurality of Causes than a Multitude of Streams conclude against One Fountain or common Source or the different Effects of the Sun-Beams prove more Suns than One in the Universe For thus we daily see he sheds his Rays and shines upon different Places and Objects with very different Success To One he administers Heat to Another Light The Wax he softens and melts the Clay he dries and stiffens He makes the Snow Whiter and the Complexion Blacker He scatters the Clouds and contracts the standing Pools And if all this be done by One Sun in the Firmament what shou'd hinder the Former to be effected by One Soul in the Body Why shou'd That be admitted for an Argument against the Essential Unity of the Cause in One of these Instances which we our selves are content to allow and constant Experience makes it plain beyond all Contradiction is of no weight at all in a Case so very parallel as This I have last mention'd As to the other Difficulty which relates to the Soul's Immortality when the Matter is carefully considered it will appear that this Opinion of the Unity of the Humane Soul does it no manner of Injury For this Soul does not suffer in its proper Essence by the Death of the Vegetative and Sensitive Faculties by which Death in Reality is meant no more than an Incapacity of exercising and exerting those Powers in a State of Separation from the Body Which must necessarily follow upon the Want and Absence of the Proper Subject and Instrument to exercise them upon But all this hinders not but that the Third and most exalted which is the Intellectual Faculty may still exert it self because a Body though at present it be made use of as its Instrument is not yet so necessary and essential to that that it should not be able to subsist and act without it Supposing then this Soul to return to the Body a second time it would return at
of its Dwelling But that all this notwithstanding They are not Two nor Three distinct Souls neither together nor in Succession That the Vegetative suffers no Diminution by the Accession of the Sensitive nor that again by the Addition of the Intelligent Mind But all Those coalesce into One and are form'd and finished according to the stated Times and usual Process of Nature Others rather incline to believe that the Soul enters the Body entire and takes Possession with her Faculties of every kind at the same Instant That This is done when all the Organs of the Body are framed and the whole Shell finished and compacted that till Then the Body is only a senseless dead Mass without any Soul at all that it had only a Virtue or Natural Energy The Essential Form of that Matter out of which it is made and this acting upon the Spirituous Parts does by the Agitation and Ferment These are put into form and build the whole Body and adjust every Part of this Structure duly When things are brought to this Head then that Energy vanishes and is quite lost and the Soul succeeds into its Place And when this New this Noble Guest arrives all things change their Form and That which before was nothing but Dead Senseless Matter exalts its Name and Nature and from thenceforth commences Man When it hath actually entred the Body we shall do well to know after what Manner it exists It s Residence and the manner of it and dwells in it Some Philosophers whose Notions of this Matter seem to have been much perlex'd and at a mighty Loss how to make out any tolerable Conjunction between these Two have imagin'd the Soul to reside in the Body like a Master in his House or the Pilot in a Ship But though as to the Governing and Directing Part the Comparison be not much amiss yet when applied to explain the particular Mode of its Existence it is absolutely improper and stark naught For at this rate the Soul would not be the Form the Internal or Essential Part of the Animal or the Man It would have no Occasion for the Members of this Body to give it reception would not be affected in any kind from this close Affinity nor have any of those tender and mutual Resentments and Sufferings arising from Bodily Pains and Pleasures but would be a Substance entirely distinct subsisting from and by it self at its own disposal to go or come to separate from the Body without making any Difference in it or any way taking from its own Functions or the Exercise of them All which are intolerable and most notorious Absurdities The Soul then in the Body is like Form in Matter dispersed and extended over every Part of it Giving Life Motion and Sense all thorough and both These taken together make one Person or Hypostasis that is one entire Subject which we call an Animal Nor are we to be Solicitous for the finding out any intermediate Quality which should connect these Two for there is no such thing in Nature All Philosophers consenting in This That there can nothing come between Matter and Form no Common Link or Band more intimate for them The Soul then is all in all the Body but as for what is commonly added of its being all in every Part too I forbear the Expression because in my Apprehension it divides the Soul and implies a Contradiction Now The Seat of the Soul although the Soul in Agreement to what we have but just now asserted be really communicated and diffused through the whole Body in general yet it must be acknowledged that she is more Eminently present and powerful in some Parts than others Where for the Sake of a clearer and more visible Exercise of her Respective Faculties she may be said to keep her Residence or have her Seat though not to Be Entirely there because This would import Confinement and the other Parts upon the Account of her Absence would be left void of all Soul and Form In regard therefore that the Soul is Remarkable for the Exercise of Four Predominant Faculties above the Rest Four Principal Places of Action and Residence have accordingly been assigned to her Now these are the Four distinct Apartments or Work-Houses taken Notice of formerly when we had occasion to treat of the Fabrick and Contexture of the Humane Body These are the most Important and Prime Instruments of the Soul the Rest are subordinate too and reducible under them as the other Faculties are likewise to those exercised in these Parts Namely the Continuation of the Species in the lowest Region The Natural or Nutritive Faculty in the Liver The Vital in the Heart and the Animal and Intellectual in the Brain The next Advance to be made upon this Subject It s Sufficiency concerns the Exercise of these Faculties in geral and how the Soul is qualified for this Purpose Now we shall do well to take Notice that the very Nature and Form of every living Creature cosisting in This Soul it cannot be but the Soul must be abundantly provided with necessary Knowledge and understand its Business without Pains or Industry or the slow and laborious Methods of acquired Instruction As certain is it too that what she is thus instructed in by Nature she fails not to exert and punctually to fulfil as Need requires Provided no Accidental Obstruction prevent or interrupt her and that the Instrument she is obliged to make Use of be rightly disposed to follow her Directions The Philosophers therefore were much in the Right when they stiled Nature a Wise Skilful and Industrious School-Mistress One that qualifies her Children and Scholars for all that is required from them * Insita sunt nobis omnium artium ac virtutum Semina Magisterque ex occulto Deus producit Ingenia The Seeds of all Art and Virtue says one of them are implanted in us Originally and Almighty God the Great Master brings forward our Natural Abilities and draws them forth into Action It were easy to prove this by pregnant Instances of every Kind The Vegetative Soul of its own Accord without Artifice or Institution forms the Embryo in the Womb so curiously so conveniently so wonderfully that we can never sufficiently express and extol the Excellence of this Skill Afterwards it takes equal Care of the Nourishment and Growth conveys seeks and receives Sustenance Retains what is eaten digests and lives upon it throws off the Superfluous and Excremental Parts Refreshes recruits repairs those Parts which sink or faint or fall to decay And These are all of them Operations Manifest and Constant not in Men only but in Brutes and Plants also The Sensitive Soul in like manner of her own Accord puts Men and Brutes upon all necessary Actions Such as Moving their Feet their Hands and Other Limbs and Parts which may be of use to them to scratch to rub to shake themselves to suck to manage their Lips and Mouth to
an Eye-Witness of at Rome An Elephant that in heat of Passion had kill'd his Keeper would neither eat nor drink but pined himself to Death by way of Penance But now on the other hand Is there in the World any Creature that can compare with Man for Injustice and Ingratitude Churlishness and Ill-Nature Treachery and Baseness Lying and Dissimulation Besides allowing Virtue to consist in moderating the Appetite and curbing one's Pleasures Beasts are then a great deal more regular than We and keep themselves more duly within the Bounds of Nature and Convenience As for those Desires that are superfluous extravagant and unnatural they never have any Inclination of that Kind And consequently are exempted from one great and common Species of Humane Vice which is The enlarging our Desires beyond Measure and multiplying nay inventing fresh Objects to our selves and employing Artifice and Industry to heighten and create new Inclinations In those which Nature prompts them to as Eating and Drinking and other Bodily Satisfactions they out-do us much in Temperance and Reservedness But if we would in good earnest be satisfy'd whether Man or Brutes be the more Vicious or Virtuous that is indeed if we would put Man out of Countenance effectually and silence all the Pretensions to this Excellency quite Let us put the Issue upon that single Virtue which is therefore call'd Humanity because lookt upon to be the most proper and inseparable Quality of our Nature as on the Contrary That of Cruelty is esteem'd the most foreign most disagreeable and that which we abandon as sit for wild Beasts only by giving it the Denomination of Ferity But alas in this very Instance they reproach and put us to the Blush particularly upon the following Accounts They never or but seldom fall foul or do any great Mischief upon those of their own Kind It is a lamentable and scandalous Observation but hath too much of Truth in it That Dens and Desarts are more peaceful Habitations than Towns and Cities and even * Major Serpentum Ferarumque concordia quam Hominum Dragons and Beasts of Prey agree better together than Men do But These when they do fall out quarrel upon just and weighty and necessary Occasions Provocations that touch them nearly and to defend that which needs and deserves their utmost Endeavours to defend it Their Life Their Liberty their Young Again They engage and assault each other with such Arms only as Nature hath provided for them they come to fair and open Combat use no Methods of Hostility but plain Strength and Courage encounter single One against One No general Rendezvous of vast Herds and Troops on each side Nor do they act with Stratagem and Design Their Engagements are also very short and presently decided for as soon as one of them is wounded or gives out the Fray is over and which is yet more considerable assoon as the Action is ended the whole Quarrel the Hatred and all the Resentment is at an end too But Man is the very Reverse of all This He is so far from not quarrelling with his own Kind that he quarrels with none besides The Grounds of these Quarrels are frequently trifling and frivolous and of no Consideration nay which is worse they are sometimes unjust they proceed from Falshood and Misrepresentation and if the Matter be examin'd to the bottom the Quarrels have no real Ground at all The Arms he uses are the Work of Industry such as are treacherous and kill without warning and contriv'd to be as much so as is possible The Method of making War is by Deceit and Cunning which we colour over with the specious Name of Conduct and this is seen in Stratagem and Surprize Feints and Ambuscades This again is transacted by vast Numbers of Men met together by solemn Engagement and particular Appointments to Stand and Fall by one another These Wars are vastly long too none lay down their Arms upon the first Disadvantage but still either Side pushes on its Fortune the One to recover their Losses the Other to pursue and perfect their Conquests and the usual End put to these Controversies is by the Death of the Principals Lastly In these Quarrels when Men want the Power they still retain the Will to do Mischief and tho' Acts of Hostility may cease yet the Hatred and Resentment seldom or never cease The Sum then of this Comparison as you have found it here stated The Cenclusion of this Second Consideration amounts to thus much That Man hath no such mighty reason to magnifie Himself in the Advantages of his Nature above That of Brutes For allowing Him some Endowments and Accomplishments which They have not as the Sprightliness and Force of his Mind and Intellectual Faculties and all the other nobler Powers of the Soul yet the Incumbrances upon these is very great and grievous the Evils he is involv'd in upon their account infinite and insupportable The Inconstancy and Irresolution Superstition and Sollicitude sad Remembrances of the Past and Anxious Concern for the Future Ambition and Avarice and Envy restless Curiosity busie Detraction Lying and Deceit a world of unruly Appetites and Passions Troubles and Discontents Thus this Mind with the Thoughts and value whereof Man is so much exalted is the Occasion of infinite Misfortunes and of most of all then when it exerts it self most For in all vehement Agitations it does not only hurt and disturb the Body and render its Forces and Functions disordered and broken and quite tired down but it hinders and confounds its own self For what is it that throws Men into Folly and Madness so much as the Acuteness and Activity and Strength of the Mind it self The subtilest Follies and most exquisite Phrensies proceed from the quickest and sinest and most vigorous Agitations of the Mind as we may observe that the bitterest Aversions and most irreconcileable Immities grow from the tenderest Passions and most intimate Friendships and the most virulent and mortal Diseses from a strong Complexion and healthful Body Melancholy Persons are observ'd by Plato to be best disposed for Learning and Wisdom but they are equally disposed for Folly too much more than Persons of a different Temper And to a Man of nice and just Observation it will appear that when the Soul acts freely and gives her self a Loose there is none of her Altitudes and Sallies without a Mixture of Folly and in good truth these things dwell very close together Wit to Madness nearly is ally'd And thin Partitiens do their Beunds divide Once more If we regard the living in agreement with Nature and in conformity with what she dictates and requires from us Beasts seem to excel us in this respect very much for they lead a Life of more Freedom more Ease and Security more Moderation and Contentedness than Men do And That Man is deservedly reputed Wise who makes them his Pattern and his Lesson and reaps Profit by their Example by reforming and
and Support of Humane Affairs the Cement that knits and keeps them Fast and Strong the Soul that gives them Life and Motion the Band of all Society which can never subsist without it the vital Spirit of this Body Politick that enables Men so many Thousands of Men to breath as One and compacts all Nature together Now notwithstanding the absolute Necessity and unspeakable Convenience This is of for sustaining the Universe yet is it really a very slippery and unsafe thing extremely difficult to manage and liable to infinite Changes and Dangers * Arduum subjectum fortunae cuncta regendi onus The Governing of Men and their Affairs is a very hard Undertaking a heavy Burden and exposed to great variety of Chances It often declines and languishes nay sometimes falls to the Ground by secret Misfortunes and unseen Causes And though its rising to a just Height is Gradual and Slow a Work of much Time and great Pains and Prudence yet the Ruins and Decays of it are frequently sudden and surprizing and the Constitutions which took up Ages to finish and build up are broken and thrown down in a Moment It is likewise exposed to the Hatred and Envy of all Degrees and Conditions The High and the Low watch it curiously and are Jealous of all its Proceedings and set Themselves at Work perpetually to endanger and undermine it This Uneasiness and Suspicion and general Enmity proceeds partly from the Corrupt Manners and Dispositions of the Persons in whom the Supreme Power is vested and partly from the Nature of the Power it self of which you may take this following Description Sovereignty is properly a Perpetual and Absolute Power What Sovereign Power is Subject to no Limitation either of Time or of Terms and Conditions It consists in a Right of constituting and giving Laws to all in General and to each Person under its Dominion in Particular and that without consulting or asking the Consent of such as are to be govern'd by them and likewise in being above all Restraints or having Laws imposed upon it self from any other Person whatsoever For to Impose and Command a Duty argues Superiority and That which is Sovereign can have no Superiour And as another expresses it It infers a Right Paramount of making Reservations and Exceptions from the usual Forms as the King in Courts of Equity corrects the Common Law For Sovereignty in its highest and strictest Importance implies the Contrary to Subjection or the being bound by Humane Laws either of others or its own Appointment so as not to repeal or alter them as there shall be Occasion For it is contrary to Nature for all Men to give Law to Themselves and to be absolutely commnded by Themselves in Things that depend upon their own Will * Nulla Obligatio consistere potest quae à voluntate promittentis statum capit No Obligation can continue firm none can lie there where the Person that engages hath nothing but his own Will to bind him And therefore Sovereign Power Properly so call'd cannot have its Hands ty'd up by any other whether Living or Dead neither its Own nor its Predecessor's Decrees nor the Received Laws of the Country can be Unalterable or Irreversible This Power hath been compared by some to Fire to the Sea to a Wild Beast which it is very hard to tame or make treatable it will not endure Contradiction it will not be molested or if it be it is a Dangerous Enemy a just and severe Avenger of them that have the Hardiness to provoke it †Potestas res est quae moneri doecrique non vult cistrigationem aegrè fert Power says one is a Thing that seldom bears to be admonish'd or instructed and is generally very impatient of Contradiction or Reproof The Marks and Characters which are proper to it Its Properties and by which it is distinguish'd from other Sorts of Power are the Giving Judgment and pronouncing Definitive Sentences whereby all contending Parties shall be concluded and from whence there lies no Appeal A full Authority to make Peace and War Creating and Depriving Magistrates and Officers granting Indulgences and dispensing with the Rigour of the Laws upon particular Hardships and extraordinary Emergencies levying of Taxes coining and adjusting the Value of Money ordering what shall be current in its Dominions and at what Prices Receiving of Homage and Acknowledgments from its Subjects and Embassies from Foreigners Requiring Oaths of Fidelity from the Persons under its Protection and administring them in Controversies and Tryals of Right and Wrong But all is reduc'd at last and comprehended under the Legislative Power the enacting such Laws as it shall think fit and by Them binding the Consciences of Those who live within its Dominions Some indeed have added Others which are so small and trivial in Comparison that they are scarce worth naming after the Former such as the Admiralty Rights of the Sea Title to Wracks upon the Coast Confiscation of Goods in Cases of Treason Power to change the Language the Ensigns of Government and Title of Majesty Greatness and Sovereignty is infinitely coveted by almost All. But wherefore is it Surely for no other Reason so much as that the Outside is Gay and Glorious Beautiful and Glittering but the Inside is hid from common Observation Every body sees the Plenty the Pomp and the Advantages of a Crown but few or none at a distance are acquainted with the Weight the Cares the Troubles and the Dangers of it It is True indeed To Command is a Noble and a Divine Post but it is as True that it is an Anxious a Cumbersome and a Difficult One. Upon the same Account it is that the Persons in that Dignity and Elevation are esteem'd and reverenc'd much above the Rate of Common Men. And very Just it is they should be so for this Opinion is of great Use to extort that Respect and Obedience from the People upon the due Payment whereof all the Peace and Quiet of Societies depend But if we take these great Persons apart from their Publick Character and consider them as Men we shall find them just of the same Size and cast in the same Mould with other common Men nay too often of worse Dispositions and not so liberally dealt with by Nature as many of their Inferiours We are apt to think that every Thing a Prince does must needs proceed upon great and weighty Reasons because all they do is in the Event of great and general Importance to Mankind but in truth the Matter is much otherwise and They think and resolve and act just like One of Us For Nature hath given Them the same Faculties and moves them by the same Springs The Provocation which would set Two private Neighbours to Scolding and Quarrelling makes a Publick War between Two States and what One of Us would whip his Child or his Page for incenses a Monarch to chastise a Province that hath offended him
kindled and extinct in a moment especially if it be vigorous and exquisite for in proportion as you add to the Degree so much you take off from the duration of it Secondly That it is a nice and tender thing the least Accident corrupts and embitters it that a drop of Pain will sowr an ocean of Pleasure Thirdly That it is mean and base attended with shame and attained by those parts of our Body which Nature hath placed out of sight as if she were out of Countenance at the gratifying our own Inclinations This however is true but of some Pleasures for there are some which affect Pomp and Ostentation Fourthly That we are quickly cloyed with it Men are formed in such a manner that their Constitutions will not bear the long continuance of any exalted Pleasure There is a certain Impatience attends it and we soon grow weary of what we most eagerly desired but just before Whereas on the contrary Nature hath made us hard and tough and able to weather out very long Pains as hath been observed formerly This short Pleasure too is often followed by long Remorse it produces monstrous Mischiefs and is more fruitful in nothing than in the ruin of single Persons and Families and whole Countries But the fault they insist most upon is That when Men are most intent upon gratifying it it does so entirely possess and tyrannize over them that it usurps the whole Man and will not so much as admit Reason to interpose or share in the Entertainment On the other hand the Advocates of Pleasure plead not guilty to this Indictment and alledge in defence of their Cause That Pleasure is natural created by Almighty God himself and contrived for the good of the World made subservient to the Preservation and continuance of his Creatures Nature which is the Parent of Pleasure seems convinced of its necessity in that all the actions by which Life is sustained are seasoned with and recommended by it And yet all Philosophy hath allowed that the way to live well is to follow the Dictates of Nature God placed Man during the state of Innocence in a place and condition richly furnished with vast variety of Delights And the very name given by Moses to Paradise is in the Hebrew Language Pleasure And not only so but Eden if we raise our Eyes and Thoughts above this World to the highest perfection which Religion bids us aspire after What are the felicities of the Saints above but a lasting and uninterrupted Series of Pleasure They shall be filled with the Pleasures of thy House and thou shalt give them Drink out of thy Pleasures as out of the River says the Psalmist when he would describe the Satisfactions of the holiest Men. These I confess do not mean those gross and carnal Satisfactions which this Term is abusively made to denote but it ought not by any means to be confined within that compass as if nothing that is truly generous and great could be intended by it These things ought to be included when we speak in vindication of Pleasure and the other have no reason to be disdained when regulated by Equity and Reason And accordingly we find that the most renowned Philosophers and acknowledged patterns of Virtue such as Zeno Cato Scipio Epaminondas Plato and the Immortal Socrates himself did not think it below them to tast the Comforts and Diversions of Life nay descended so far as even to Discourse and write Tracts of those which some now by an affected nicety pretend to accuse as you have heard and would in their mighty but mistaken zeal for Virtue fain banish out of the World under the odious Character of Pleasures of Sense Since therefore Wise Men have been so much divided in their Opinions upon this Subject it will be necessary for us to proceed cautiously and to distinguish these Pleasures into their several sorts without which we shall never be able to come to any just and true Resolution of the Case arising hereupon nor satisfie our selves which are lawful Pleasures or how far any are so First then we must take notice that some Pleasures are natural and others unnatural This Distinction being of all the rest most important to our present purpose will be considered more particularly by and by Some again are pompous and showy nice and difficult others are silent and secret easie and ready at hand Pleasure is not ambitious of Splendor and Observation but esteems her own solitary Enjoyments Wealth enough without concerning her self what other People think of her and enjoys her self more in Retirement than in the eye of the World Those again that are so very easie as to be always at our command grow flat and nauseous and lose all their relish except there be now and then a little Uneasieness or Obstruction to set an edge upon our Appetite There are likewise spiritual and corporeal Pleasures The ground of which Distinction is not any real Separation capable of being made between them for Pleasure of every kind affects the whole Man and extends to every part of the Composition and one part hath not any one resentment peculiar to it self which the other does not likewise share in nor can have while this intimate Union of Soul and Body continues the present Life to us But that which is the true foundation of this Distinction is that there are some Sentiments which affect the Mind more than they do the Body and may therefore very fitly be called manly Pleasures as being more proper to us better suited to our Faculties and powers of Perception than they are to those of Beasts And as they are more worthy in respect of the Faculties they are commensurate to so are they likewise more steady and durable Such for instance are those Satisfactions which enter at our Eyes and Ears for these two Senses are the Doors of the Soul and the Objects they receive only pass through there in their way to the Soul which entertains feeds upon and digests them and finds long Refreshments and Delights from them But the Body tasts but a very little part of these Satisfactions Others again the Body ingrosses almost wholly to it self such as those of the Touch and the Taste which are more material and of a courser Composition Such as Brutes keep us Company in And such Pleasures are received performed and finished by the Body and its Organs The Mind hath no other advantage in them than by Reflection only and what must needs belong to it while it continues an assistant and Companion to the Body And these are short and transient the crackling of Thorns the flash of a Meteor born and bred up and dead in a moment Now the main thing we are concerned to know upon this occasion is how it will become us to behave our selves in the fruition and government of our Pleasures This is the Lesson that Philosophy pretends to teach and the particular difficulty Temperance makes provision against And
sure no Folly can be compar'd to that which draws off Mens Attention and employs their Diligence and Pains in the Search of other Objects and fixes them every where any where rather than upon themselves For when all is done the true Learning is at home and the proper Science and Subject for Man's Contemplation is Man himself Were this Advice thus generally neglected for want of being seasonably or sufficiently given the Omission were more excusable The Dictates of Universal Reason But the Matter is quite otherwise For God Nature Wise Men the World All conspire to inculcate it and both by the Instructions they give and the Examples they set preach this Doctrine and loudly call upon Man to make Himself the Employment of his own Thoughts and the Object of his own Studies God we know is perpetually taken up with the Contemplation of himself and the unspeakable Happiness as well as constant Business of that vast Eternity is the viewing considering and knowing his own infinite Perfections The World is so contriv'd as to have all its Eyes turned inward and the several Parts of this Universe are ever beholding the Beauties and Conveniences of themselves or of one another For Heaven and Earth and Air and Sea may seem so many independent Bodies yet are they in reality but so many distinct Parts of one Body and the mutual Regards of these to each other are but the several Prospects which one vast united Whole takes of it self So perpetually are the Eyes of the World open upon it self so necessarily contracted and determin'd to it self alone But why should we go abroad for Arguments who have such convincing ones at home For Man hath this Engagement to study and know Himself which no other Part of the World hath that it is Natural to him to think This is the peculiar Character the very Essence of Man and nothing is so near nothing presents it self so immediately to his Thought as Himself So that Nature here hath plainly taught our Duty and shewed that this is the Work she cuts out for every Man Nothing can be so easie as for a Man to meditate and entertain his Thoughts It is incomparably the most frequent most common most natural Practice Thought is the Food the Support the Life of the Mind it must needs be so indeed since the very * Cujus vivere est cogitare Essence of Mind is Cogitation And where I pray shall this Mind begin where will you find a more proper Subject for its Exercise and Entertainment than its own self Can there be any more natural any that hath a greater Right to this Contemplation any that is nearer related or that more highly concerns it to be well acquainted with Certainly to ramble abroad and fix upon Foreign Matters and at the same time quite overlook and forget ones self is the greatest Injustice and the most unnatural Neglect that can be No doubt every Man 's true Business and the Thing he is properly call'd to is the thinking of Himself and being well employ'd to see how Matters go at home These are our Trade and our Concern the rest but Entertainment and Diversion And thus we see it is in every other Creature Each of these takes care of it self makes the Study of its self the first and principal Business hath Bounds set to its Desires and employs not it self nor hath any Aim beyond such a certain Compass And yet thou O vain Man who wilt be grasping at the Universe who pretendest to Knowledge unlimited and takest upon thee to controul and to judge every thing art perfectly ignorant of thy own self and not at any Pains to be otherwise Thus whilst thou labourest to render thy self the most accomplish'd Part of the Creation whilst thou sittest like a Censor upon Nature and determinest magisterially and with an Air of Wisdom Thou in reality art the greatest Ignorant Thou all the while the only Fool in the whole World Thou art the emptiest and most wanting the most impotent and most wretched and yet in despight of all these Mortifications the proudest and most conceited the most arrogant and disdainful Creature upon Earth Look at home then for shame turn thine Eyes inward and employ thy Senses there Call back thy wandring Mind thy Understanding and thy Will which rove and spend their Strength unprofitably abroad and fix them in the Consideration of themselves Thou art Busie and yet Negligent Beggarly and yet profuse For thou losest and wastest thy self in things without and forgettest quite what is thy own within Thus thou art a Thief and a Traytor to thy self Restore then what thou hast thus falsely stolen away and instead of gazing round and looking always before thee collect thy self and confine thy Thoughts at home Look diligently within thee search curiously there and know thy self perfectly Thus our wise Masters have advised * Nosce teipsum nec te quaesiveris extrà Respue quod non es Pers Sat. 1. Tecum habita noris quam sit tibi curta supellex Pers Sat. 4. Dryden Dryden Weigh no Merit by the common Scale The Conscience is the Test of every Mind Seek not thy self without thy self to find Please not thy self the flatt'ring Crowd to hear 'T is fulsom Stuff to feed thy itching Ear. Reject the nauseous Praises of the Times Survey thy Soul Dryden Eng. Pers not what thou dost appear But what thou art and find the Beggar there * Tu te consule Teipsum concute nunquid vitiorum Inseverit olim natura aut etiam consuerudo mala Sift well thy Soul its Product nicely view And learn from whence thy Tares and Darnel grew Which are to Nature which to Custom due If the thin Crop sprung from a Soil too lean Or long neglected Weeds have choak'd the generous Grain The Knowledge of a Man's self is a Step to the Knowledge of God The best and shortest Method we can possibly take of raising our Minds up to Heaven A State leading to Divine Wisdom It must needs be so because there is no other thing capable of being known by us which carries such lively Stroaks such express Images and Characters such clear and convincing Testimonies of God as Man does And also because whatever there is of this kind may be more perfectly known by us For a Man must be of necessity more sensible of those Faculties and Motions which are within himself and better qualify'd to give an Account of them than he can be of those which belong to any other Creature because these are at some distance from him and he cannot possibly be alike conscious of them †Mirabilis facta est scientia tua i. e. tui ex me Thou hast fashioned and closed me in Psal 1 39.5.6 and laid thy hand upon me therefore is thy Knowledge become wonderful That is The Knowledge of thea which results from the Contemplation of my self and the Resemblance of
the Humane Mind Thus the old Poets represented it * Sanctius his Animal c. A Creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet Ovid Met. Lib. 1. and then was Man design'd Conscious of Thought of more capacious Breast And partly as an Ensign of Royalty some Characters whereof Naturalists have observ'd in some other petty Principalities such as the Crown in the Dolphin the Diadem in the Basilisk the Lion's stately Mane which serves as a Collar of Honour the Colour and the Eyes in the Eagle and the King among the Bees But Man being vested with an universal Monarchy walks stately upon the Earth like a Master in his own House He subdues and manages All either by fair means or by foul captivates and brings them to his hand by force or makes them tractable and tame by gentle and winning Usage Hence the same Poet proceeds For Empire form'd and fit to rule the rest He while the mute Creation downward bend Their Sight and to their Earthy Mother tend Looks up aloft and with erected Eyes Beholds his own Hereditary Skies Dryden His Body was form'd at first out of Virgin-Earth of a Red Complexion from whence the proper Name of Adam was deriv'd Adom Rufus Heb. Gen. 2.6 7. For the common Appellative of the Species in general is Ish And This well moisten'd was the common Materials of our Body So again the Poet * Mixtam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem Earth the wise Maker temper'd into Paste And mix'd with living Streams the God-like Image cast In all Reason the Body must be before the Soul as we naturally conceive Matter antecedent to its Form as the House must be fram'd and fitted up before we can suppose an Inhabitant in it and a Shop made and furnish'd before any Trade can be exercis'd there When This was prepar'd and done the next thing in order was to animate this Body by the Infusion of a Soul convey'd thither by Divine Inspiration For God says Moses breathed into him the breath of Life and so Man became a living Soul Of which what Tradition the Heathen World retain'd may be learn'd from the same Author who proposes This as the first probable Solution of that wonderful Production * Hunc divino semine fecit Ille opifex rerum With Particles of Heavenly Fire The God of Nature did his Soul inspire And closes his Account †Sic modo quae fuerat rudis sine imagine tellus Induit ignotas hominum conversa figuras From such rude Principles our Form began And Earth was metamorphos'd into Man The same Order seems to be constantly observ'd in ordinary Generations and the forming of Natural Births ever since For here the Body is first formed and That according to the best Remarks which the Curious have been able to make in or somewhat near the following Method The first seven Days are employ'd in bringing the Seminal Principles to a due Consistency and perfecting the Conception to which some have been apt to think Job might allude Chap. X. v. 10. The next seven Days are taken up in Concocting Digesting and Changing those first Elements into Flesh and Blood which is as yet an unformed Mass but the proper Ground and Matter of the Humane Body In the third Week the Body in gross is formed so that after some one and twenty Days the three most Noble and Useful Parts of the Body are fashion'd the Liver the Heart and the Brain and These lie at length distant from one another in a kind of oval or oblong Figure and connected or just tack'd together by some thin loose Joynings which are afterwards sill'd up and resemble the Form of an Ant where you may observe Three grosser and fuller Parts coupled and held together by Two slenderer that lie betwixt The fourth Week which raises the Account to very near Thirty Days the whole Body is perfected and the Parts and Organs of it distinguishable and from thenceforth it ceases to be an Embryo as that denotes a rude shapeless Mass and is now in a Condition to receive the Soul which accordingly loses no time but comes and takes Possession of its new Dwelling at or before the Term of Forty Days that is at five or six Weeks When this proportion of Time is doubl'd namely after three Months the Animated Infant usually begins to move and much about the fourth Month the Hair and Nails set forward And after the same Term three times told that is after nine Months is the usual time of Maturity and coming into the World These may perhaps to some seem useless Curiosities and not altogether becoming a Treatise of this Nature But I must own that I think one great Advance towards the true and the best Wisdom would be to understand this part of our selves and sure Men could not but express a greater and more awful Regard of Almighty God did they but consider whose Hands have fashion'd and finish'd them who watch'd and brought forward their Substances when crude and imperfect wrote their Members in his Book and made them to be what they are after a fearful and very wonderful Manner CHAP. II. The first and general Distinction of Man MAN as if design'd to be all over Wonder is a Creature made up of Ingredients vastly different First into Two Parts nay directly opposite to one another For what can be more so than those two Constituent Parts His Soul and His Body Look upon him with regard to the former of These and He is a sort of inferiour Deity Turn your Eyes down to the latter and that Person which before you almost ador'd you will now be tempted as much to loath and despise For what is Man thus above a Beast What but a Load of Corruption and a Sink of Ill-Humours And yet this wonderful disparity notwithstanding these two so distant Parts are linked together with such amazing Art and embrace each other so close and kindly that there is at the same time eternal Quarrels and yet an inviolable Friendship between them They cannot live together peaceably and yet they cannot part contentedly Like a Man that hath a Wolf by the Ears and neither knows how to hold him nor to let him go So is each of these Principal Parts in Man and each may say to the other what the Poet did * Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te My Help and Hindrance Health and Sickness I Cannot live with thee and without thee die But in regard one of these Parts admits of a Subdivision by reason of a great and manifest Difference in the Faculties and Parts of this Soul of ours Then into Three the One part Noble and Pure Intellectual and Divine the Other Mean and Sensual and Brutish The best and most lively Representation of Man and the surest Method of attaining to the Knowledge of him seems to be the making of this first Division to consist of Three Branches
Frost and Snow made only this Answer That other People cou'd bear their Faces naked and he was Face all over History tells us of several very great Persons who went constantly bare-headed as Masinissa and Caesar and Hannibal and Severas And some Nations there are who being accusiom'd to no Defence for their Bodies at other times never trouble themselves for any when they go into the Wars but engage in the hottest Action whole Armies of naked Men together Plato thinks it adviseable for the Health never to cover either the Head or the Feet at all Varro pretends that when Men were commanded to stand bare in the Temple of the Gods and in the Presence of the Magistrates it was not only the Respectfulness of the Ceremony but the Wholsomness of it that the Law had regard to since Men by this means harden'd their Bodies against the Injuries of Wind and Weather and strengthen'd themselves while they paid a due Reverence to their Superiours In a Word abstracting from what Revelation hath taught us and looking at Nature only I shou'd make no doubt but the Contrivances of Hutts and Houses and other Shelters against the Violence of the Seasons and the Assaults of Men was a much more ancient Institution than that of Cloathing and there seems to have been more of Nature and universal Practice in it for we see that Beasts and Birds do the same thing The Care and Provision of Victuals was unquestionably of far greater Antiquity than either of the former for this seems to have been one of the first Impulses and Dictates of Nature the Necessities and Appetites whereof return so thick upon us that it is not easie to suppose Man cou'd subsist at all without this Care Book III. In the Vertue of Temperance But of these Matters we shall have other Opportunities to treat more fully when we come to give Rules for the Use and Regulation both of Food and Raiment hereafter CHAP. VII Concerning the Soul in general WE are now entring upon a Subject of all others the most difficult and nice One which has been treated of and particularly canvassed by the greatest Philosophers and most penetrating Wits of all Ages and Countries Aegyptian Greek Arabian and Latin Authors but yet so that their Opinions have been infinitely various according to the several Nations from whence they sprung the Religions they embrac'd the Professions in which they had been educated and the Reasons that offer'd themselves to their Thoughts So that how far soever each Man might satisfie his own Mind yet they have never been able to come to any general good Agreement or certain Determination in the Matter Now the main Points in Controversie upon this occasion are those Ten that follow What may be the Definition of the Soul What its real Essence and Nature Its Faculties and Actions Whether there be One or More Souls in a Man Whence its Original What the Time and Manner of its entring the Body the Manner of its Residence the Seat where it dwels the Sufficiency to exercise the several Functions belonging to it and lastly Its End or Separation from the Body First of all It is exceeding hard to give an accurate Definition of the Soul It s Definâ—tion or be able to say exactly What it is And this in truth is the Case of all Forms in general and we cannot well conceive how it shou'd be otherwise with Things which are Relative and have no proper and independent Subsistence of their own but are only Parts of some Whole Hence without question it hath come to pass that the Definitions of it put abroad have been so many and at the same time so infinitely various too that not any one of them hath been receiv'd without Clashing or Contradiction Aristotle hath rejected no less than Twelve among the Philosophers who had written before him and yet he hath found but little better success with That of his own which he labour'd but in vain to establish in the room of them Nothing can indeed be more easie and obvious than to determine what the Soul is not We dare be confident that it is not Fire Air nor Water nor a Mixture and due Temperament of the Four Elements together the Qualities or the Humours nicely adjusted For This is a thing in perpetual Flux and Uncertainty the Animal subsists and lives without it And besides This is manifestly an Accident whereas the Soul is a Substance To this we may add that Minerals and several inanimate Creatures have a Temperament of the Four Elements and prime Tactile Qualities and still continue Inanimate notwithstanding Nor can the Soul be the Blood for several Instances may be given of Animated and Living Creatures without any Blood at all belonging to them and several Creatures die without losing one Drop of Blood Nor is it the Principle and First Cause of Motion in us for several Inanimate things impart Motion So does the Loadstone to the Iron the Amber to the Straw Medicines and Drugs and Roots of Trees when dry'd and cut to pieces draw and create very strong Motions Nor is it the Act Life Energy or Perfection for Aristotle's Term Eutclechia hath been interpreted in all these dissering Senses For all this cannot be the very Essence of the Soul it self but only the Operation and Effect of it as Living Seeing and Understanding are plain and proper Actions of the Soul Besides admitting this Notion it wou'd follow from thence that the Soul were not a Substance but an Accident only that it could not possibly subsist without that Body whose Act and Perfection it is any more than the Roof of a House can subsist as such without the Building which it covers and is supported by or a Relative without its Correlate In a word When we express our selves after this manner we only declare what the Soul does and what it is with respect to something else but we pronounce nothing of its proper and abstracted Nature or what it is in it self Now though things are thus far clear and easie yet when we go farther the Case alters extremely A Man may say indeed that the Soul is an Essential Life-giving Form which distributes this Gift as the Receiver is capable of it To the Plant it imparts Vegetation to the Brute Sense which includes and contains Vegetation under it and to Man Intellectual Life in which both the former are imply'd as the Greater Numbers comprehend the Less and as in Figures a Pentagone includes a Quadrangle and That again a Triangle I rather choose to term this the Intellectual Life than the Rational which is compriz'd and understood by it as the Less is within the Greater and that particularly in deference to those many renown'd Philosophers who have allow'd Reason in some Sense and some Degree even to the Brutes but not Any of them have ever gone so high as to attribute the Intelligent Faculty to Them and therefore I take Intellectual Life to be a
more unexceptionable more distinguishing Character of the Humane Soul than the other which some have thought not entirely and peculiarly our own The Soul in the mean while is not the Principle and Original of Life This in my Judgment is a Term due to none but the Sovereign Author of our Being the Lord and Giver of Life but it is the Internal Cause if you please of Life and Motion of Sense and Understanding It moves the Body but is not moved it self as on the contrary the Body is moved but moves not I say it moves the Body but it moves not it self for though Self-Motion be in some sense a Character by which we express the Freedom of the Humane Will yet considering the depending State of a Creature I rather forbear a Term which in its strict and most exalted Sense cannot in my Apprehension belong to any but God himself For whatsoever moves it self thus must be Absolute and Eternal and that Power of moving the Body which the Soul hath it hath not from it self but from Above The next Enquiry concerns the Essence or Nature of the Soul It s Nature the Humane one I mean for as to That of Brutes little doubt is to be made but this is Corporeal and Material conceiv'd born and bred with Matter and corruptible with it too and this is no such inconsiderable Dispute as some perhaps may imagine for some have affirm'd it to be Corporeal others again contend as vehemently that it is Incorporeal Which Opinions we will beg the Reader 's leave to compare a little and how wide soever they may seem we 'll try if it be not possible to reconcile them The Arguments which have persuaded Men to believe the Soul Corporeal are such as follow First The Authority of the most Eminent Philosophers and Divines and of the latter no less than Tertullian Origen St. Basil Gregory Augustine and Damascene who all admit that the Spirits both Good and Bad which are entirely separated from Matter are yet Corporeal and if They be so who have nothing to do with Matter how much more probable is this Notion of the Humane Soul which is in constant Dealings with and closely united to it The Ground of their determining these things to be Corporeal is a Notion that All Creatures of what kind soever when compar'd with God are Gross Corporeal and Material and that God Himself alone is so excellent a Substance as to be Incorporeal and therefore every Spirit is Body and of a Corporeal Nature To this of Authority may be added another Argument drawn from Reason All that is contain'd in this Finite World must needs be Finite it self limited in Virtue and in Essence circumscrib'd by some Supersicies consin'd within some place all which are the true and natural Conditions of a bodily Substance God alone is every where He alone is Insinite and therefore He alone is Incorporeal The common Distinctions of a Circumscriptive Definitive Effective Presence seem to be meerly verbal and to carry very little or no Force at all For still it is undeniably certain See Advertisements That Spirits are in a place after such a manner that at the same time they are there they are not elsewhere too nor can be in more places than one at once They are not in Insinite Space nor in extreme Little nor extremely Large room but take up so much as is proportionable to their Size and equal to their Finite Substance And did not the Case stand thus with them how cou'd Spirits change their Place and Residence how cou'd they Ascend or Descend which yet the Scripture frequently takes notice of their doing For if Incorporeal they must be incapable of Motion Indivisible and so every where indisserently Since then 't is evident they change their places is not this sufficient to convince us that they are capable of Motion and Division subject to Time and the Successions of it which is requisite for the adjusting of Motion and measuring the Passages and mutual Distances from one place to another All which are Qualities belonging to a Body But now in regard that the generality of People who see not to the bottom of these Distinctions by the Word Corporeal form to themselves an Idea of something Visible and Palpable and so gross as must affect our Senses Since they have no Notion of pure and subtle Air nor entertain any Conception of Fire abstracted from Fuel and Flame since I say they cannot persuade themselves that things so subtiliz'd are Corporeal hence it hath grown into Use to say that Spirits in a State of Separation and Humane Souls in the Body are not Corporeal Substances Nor are they so indeed in this gross and vulgar Sense for they are of an Invisible Substance whether that be Airy as many Philosophers and Divines have persuaded themselves or whether Coelestial and yet more refin'd as some Hebrew and Arabian Authors who call Heaven and Spirit both by the same Name of an Essence proper to Immortality or whether it consist of a Substance still more subtle and purify'd than even the Aethereal or Coelestial it self but still Corporeal nevertheless since subject to all those Conditions of a Body of being consin'd and circumscrib'd within a certain Space capable of Motion and measurable in that Motion by the successive Periods of Time Again Were they not Corporeal they must be impassible for which way cou'd they suffer as we find they do The Soul of Man manifestly receives and is assected with Satisfaction and Uneasiness Pleasure and Pain and as deeply as sensibly touch'd with these things in her Turn as the Body is from Her Dictates and Her Passions Again She is likewise wrought upon and distinguish'd by Good and Ill Qualities Virtues and Vices Affections and Inclinations of all sorts All which are Accidents and as such require some Bodily Substance for their Support and Subsistence Lastly All Souls whether separated or united evil Angels and Spirits as well as Men are obnoxious to Punishment and Torture From whence it must follow that they are Corporeal For nothing can be in a Condition of enduring Torment which is not so and so the Subject of Accidents is one particular Property of a Bodily Substance See Advertisement at the End of this Chapter and also That at the Conclusion of the Tenth Now the Soul abounds exceedingly in Faculties and Powers as many almost as the Body hath Members Its Faculties and Operations Some of these she exerts in Plants a greater number yet in Beasts but vastly more in Mankind Such as the Vital Locomotive Appetitive Attractive Collective the Retentive Concocting Digestive Nutritive those of Growing Sprouting Hearing Seeing Tasting Smelling Speaking Respiration Generation Cogitation Reasoning Contemplating Assenting Dissenting Remembring Judging All which Faculties are by no means parts of the Soul for at that rate we must admit the Soul to be capable of Division and made up of nothing but Accidents and Properties but
the same time to the Exercise of its Vegetative and Sensitive Powers as we see plainly by Instances of Persons who have been raised from the Dead to live here below But this would not infer a Necessity of the same things for living in another State For those Faculties whose Exercise supports this Life we now lead are not thereby proved of such Consequence that no other kind of Life could be supported or enjoyed without them It is in this Case with the Soul as with the Sun for the same Instance will be of Use to illustrate our Argument in this Branch also which continues the same in himself every whit as entire and unblemished not in any Degree enfeebled though his Lustre and Vital Influences be sometimes intercepted and obstructed When his Face is cover'd with a Total Eclipse we lose the cheerful Light and cherishing Heat but though no sensible Effects of him appear yet he is in his own Nature the same Powerful Principle and Glorious Creature still Having thus as I hope sufficiently evidenced the Unity of the Soul It s Origine in each Individual animated by it let us in the next Place proceed to observe from whence it is deriv'd and how it makes its Entry into the Body Concerning the Former of these Particulars great Disputes have been maintained by Philosophers and Divines of all Ages Concerning the Origine of the Humane and Intellectual Soul I mean for as to the Vegetative and Sensitive attributed to Plants and Beasts those by general Consent have been esteemed to consist intirely of Matter to be transferred with the Seminal Principles and accordingly subject to Corruption and Death So that the whole Controversy turns upon the single Point of the Humane Soul and concerning this the Four most Celebrated Opinions have been these which follow I omit the Mention of any more which are almost lost in the Crowd because These have obtained so much more generally and gained greater Credit than the Rest The First of these is that Notion of the Stoicks embraced by Philo the Jew and after Him by the Manichees Priscillianists and others This maintains Reasonable Souls to be so many Extracts and genuine Productions of the Divine Spirit Partakers of the very same Nature and Substance with Almighty God himself who being said expresly to have breathed it into the Body these Persons have taken the Advantage of Moses's Words and fixed the sublimest Sense imaginable upon them He Breathed into him the Breath of Life by which they are not content to understand that the Soul of Man is a distinct Thing and of a different and more exalted Original than the Body a Spirit of greater Excellence than that which quickens any other Animal but they stretch it to a Communication of God's own Essence The Second was deriv'd from Aristotle receiv'd by Tertullian Apollinaris the Sect of the Luciferians and some other Christians and This asserts the Soul to be derived from our Parents as the Body is and in the same Manner and from the same Principles with that whence the Soul of Brutes and all that are confin'd to Sense and Vegetation only are generally believ'd to spring The Third is that of the Pythagoreans and Platonists entertained by most of the Rabbinical Philosophers and Jewish Doctors and after them by Origen and some other Christian Doctors too Which pretends that all Souls were created by God at the beginning of the World that they were then by Him commanded and made out of Nothing that they are reserv'd and deposited in some of the Heavenly Regions and afterwards as his Infinite Wisdom sees Occasion sent down hither into Bodies ready fitted for and disposed to entertain them Upon this Opinion was built another of Souls being well or ill dealt with here below and lodged in sound and healthful or else in feeble and sickly Bodies according to their Good or Ill Behaviour in a State and Region above antecedent to their being thus Incorporated with these Mortal and Fleshly Tabernacles How generally this Notion prevail'd we have a notable Hint from that great Master of Wisdom who gives this Account of his large improvements Wisd VIII 19 20. above the common Rate of Men I was a Witty Child and had a good Spirit yea rather being Good I came into a Body undefiled Thus intimating a Priority of Time as well as of Order and Dignity in the Soul and that its good Dispositions qualified it for a Body so disposed too The Fourth which hath met with the most general Approbation among Christians Especially holds that the Soul is created by God infus'd into a Body prepared duly for its Reception That it hath no Pre-existence in any separate State or former Vehicle but that its Creation and Infusion are both of the same Date These Four Opinions are all of them Affirmative There is yet a Fifth more modest and reserv'd than any of the former This undertakes not to determine Positively one way or other but is content Ingenuously to confess its own Ignorance and Uncertainty declares this a Matter of very abstruse Speculation a dark and deep Mystery which God hath not thought fit particularly to reveal and which Man by the Strength and Penetration of his own Reason can know but very little or nothing of Of this Opinion we find St. Augustine St. Gregory of Nice and some others But though they presume not so far as to give any definitive Sentence on any Side yet they plainly incline to think that of the Four Opinions here mention'd the Two latter carry a greater Appearance of Truth than the Two former But how The Entrance into the Body and when this Humane Soul for of the Brutal there is little or no Dispute nor is the present Enquiry concerned in it Whether This I say make its Entrance all at once or whether the Approaches are gradual and slow Whether it attain its just Essential Perfections in an Instant or whether it grow up to them by Time and Succession is another very great Question The More general Opinion which seems to have come from Aristotle is That the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul whose Essence is no other than Matter and Body is in the Principles of Generation that it descends lineally and is derived to us from the Substance of our Parents that This is finished and Perfected in Time and by Degrees and Nature acts in this Case a little like Art when That undertakes to form the Image of a Man where first the Out-Lines and rude Sketches are drawn then the Features specified yet These not of his whole Body at once but first the Painter finishes the Head then the Neck after that the Breast the Legs and so on till he have drawn the whole Length Thus the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul they tell you forms the Body in the Womb and when That is finished and made fit for the Reception of its new Inhabitant the Intellectual Soul comes from abroad and takes Possession
Wise draws out his Artillery in Order sets his Philosophical Aphorisms and profitable Sentences in array applies his Similitudes and Examples pertinently and seasonably improves others by his Reading and renders the Histories of former Ages of present and publick Use enriches all he converses with out of his own inexhaustible Mine offers nothing but what issolid and substantial and try'd and is ready upon all occasions like the Wealthy and Prudent Housholder alluded to in the Gospel to bring forth out of his Treasures things new and old Mat. xiii Such beneficial Instructions as may be of use to regulate the Manners of private Persons and direct the Government and Administration of the Publick such as may be serviceable to all Circumstances all the Parts and Duties of Men and teach them both how to Live and how to Die well And when These are introduc'd at seasonable Times and manag'd with Discretion the Beauty and the Pleasure of them is exceeding great as well as the Benefit and Advantage A Word fitly spoken is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Prov. xxv 11. So the Wisest of Men hath express'd the Counsels or Reproofs or Comforts handsomly deliver'd and what can possibly be more grateful more valuable more ornamental The Mouth of a wicked Man quite contrary is a noisom stinking Pit his Breath is contagious and kills like a Pestilence Murders his Neighbour secretly Stabs and wounds his Reputation to Death and then insults over his mangled Honour with a barbarous Triumph It is Sword and Fire and Poyson and Death and Hell and Every thing that is mischievous and destructive The Holy Spirit it self hath allow'd it no better a Character Jam. iii. 6. for St. James hath call'd it a Fire a World of Iniquity a Defiler of the whole Body an Incendiary to the Course of Nature and this Firebrand it self kindled in Hell And the Son of Syrach hath enlarg'd upon the Subject so well Ecclus. xxviii 13-21 that the whole Passage ought to be inserted Curse the Whisperer and Double-Tongued for such have destroy'd many that were at Peace A Backbiting Tongue hath disquieted many and driven them from Nation to Nation strong Cities hath it pull'd down and overthrown the Houses of great Men. Whoso hearkeneth unto it shall never find rest nor dwell quietly The Stroke of the Whip maketh Marks in the Flesh but the Stroke of the Tongue breaketh the Bones Many have fallen by the Edge of the Sword but not so many as have fallen by the Tongue Well is He that is defended from it and hath not pass'd through the Venom thereof who hath not drawn the Yoke thereof nor hath been bound in her Bands For the Yoke thereof is a Yoke of Iron and the Bands thereof are Bands of Brass The Death thereof is an evil Death the Grave is better than it Now These Two Correspondence of Hearing and Speech Hearing and Speech answer and have a near and intimate Relation to one another Each of them single is of no Significance at all and therefore Nature to make Either of them useful found it necessary to supply us with Both. They are the Two Doors of the Soul whereby she sends in and out and holds a Correspondence all the World over nay she does not only send but go for by these two like Vessels with their Orifices joyn'd the Soul communicates and pours out her Thoughts and transfuses her very Self into another's Breast Where these Passages are shut and closed as they are in the Deaf and Dumb the Mind is in perpetual Misery and Solitude For Hearing is the Door for Entrance and Speech for going Abroad By the former of these the Soul receives the Conceptions of others by the latter she imparts and enriches them with her own The mutual Operation of these Two may be resembled to the Flint and the Steel from the Concussion and Strokes whereof Truth like a Sacred Fire is kindled For They agitating and polishing each other scour off the Rust of the Mind brighten and beautifie it and bring all Knowledge to Perfection Only we must observe that these Noble Effects have their first Beginning from the Hearing for Wisdom must needs have been put into the Mind before it can be drawn out from thence And accordingly we see that Persons born Deaf are constantly Dumb too The first thing to be done is to furnish this House within which is ordinarily done by Hearing and then follows the distributing our Stores by Conversation and Speech So that the Good and Evil of what we speak will depend upon the Good and Evil of what we hear For such as we are accustom'd to receive such of necessity we must give back again And therefore a Man should above all things keep his Ears chaste and unpolluted and stop them against Vice and Indecency for this sort of Communication is exceeding infectious Book III. Chap. 43. and taints the Mind presently The Advices that are proper for the Use and Government of our Speech will be insisted upon hereafter CHAP. XII Of the other Faculties viz. Imagination Memory and Appetite THE Fancy or Imaginative Faculty first collects the several Images receiv'd by the Senses forms Idea's out of them and lays them up for use This is done in so accurate and faithful a manner that though the Objects themselves be far distant nay though the Man be asleep and all his Senses lock'd up yet this Faculty represents them to the Mind and Thoughts in Images so strong so lively that the Imagination does the very same to the Understanding now which the Object it self did by the first and freshest Impressions heretofore The Memorative Faculty is the Register and Store-house of all the Idea's and Images first perceiv'd by the Senses and then collected and seal'd up by the Imagination The Appetite seeks and pursues and culls out of all these things so apprehended such of them as appear to be Good and most Agreeable CHAP. XIII Of the Intellectual Faculty which is peculiar to the Humane Soul BEfore we enter upon any other Discourse relating to this Subject it is necessary to observe the Seat or Instrument of this Faculty and then its Action or Method of Operating Now the Seat The Seat and Instrument of the Soul or rather the Throne of the Reasonable Soul where it sits and reigns Supreme is not the Heart as was generally supposed before Plato and Hippocrates but the Brain For the Heart is not capable of Wisdom but is properly the Seat and Source of Vegetation Now the Brain which in Man much exceeds the Quantity assign'd to any other Creature must be so contriv'd and dispos'd that the Reasonable Soul may act freely and in order hereunto the Figure of it must be almost like that of a Ship it must not be a perfect Round it must not be too Great nor too Little though of the Two Extremes the Excess is much less to be found fault with than
easily loses them again A Second which quickly remembers and seldom or never forgets and a Third where the Impression is hard to be made and yet is presently worn out again The Sciences proper to this Faculty are Grammar and the Theory of the Civil Law Dogmatical Divinity Cosmography and Arithmetick The Imagination abounds in Distinctions and Differences are occasioned by it much more than either the Memory or the Understanding is capable of To this belong after a more peculiar manner Fanciful Inventions Pleasant Conceits Witty Jests Sharp Reflections Ingenious Repartees Fictions and Fables Figures and Comparisons Propriety and Purity of Expression and in a Word All that Quaintness and Elegance and Easiness which adorns Conversation and becomes the Character of a Man of Sense and Good Breeding And therefore we may range under this Division Poetry Eloquence Musick Correspondence Harmony and Proportion Now from hence it appears that Sprightliness The Properties of the several Faculties Subtilty Readiness of Parts and all that which commonly goes by the Name of Wit is to be imputed to the Warmth of Imagination Solidity Mature Judgment and Truth to the Dryness of the Understanding The Imagination is Active and Blustering and Busy keeps all about it awake and sets the other Faculties on work The Understanding is a grave sedate and severe Action The Memory acts not at all but is purely Passive and the manner of these Operations seems to be thus In the First Place the Imagination collects together the Idea's and Figures of Things not only such as are present by the conveyance and ministry of the five Senses but those that are absent too by the Assistance of that Inward and Common Receptacle called the Sensorium commune where the Forms of them lie deposited The Next thing in Order is to represent these to the Understanding if that be thought fit and then this Faculty takes them into Consideration examines digests and makes a Judgment of them When That is over the Imagination lays them up carefully to be preserved in the Memory as a Man takes down a Memorandum in his Table-Book that so they may be consulted and made use of again when any future Occasion shall call for them Or if the Imagination be not so disposed then she commits these things into the Memory's Custody without referring them to the Understanding at all and so the Second Branch of this Operation is wholly Superseded Now this Account informs us that the Acts of Recollection Representing to the Intellectual Faculty laying up in the Memory and drawing out those Stores again for Use are all of them Operations of the Imaginative Faculty So that That Common Repository the Internal Sense Reminiscence as it is called and Fancy come within the Compass of This and are not as some pretend Powers of the Mind distinct and separate from it And consequently there is nothing in those Operations that shou'd oblige us to quit the former Division or allow more Faculties of the Reasonable Soul than the Three already insisted upon The Common People who to give them their due are very seldom in the right have an high Esteem The Faculties compared together and make a marvellous to do with Memory extolling This insinitely above the other Two The only Reason whereof seems to be that this hath more of Shew is more pretending and forward and makes a greater Noise in Conversation Hence it is that a Man whose Memory is well stored is usually reputed a great Scholar and that to pronounce one a Person of good Parts you look no farther than his having a good Memory as if Learning were to be preferr'd before Wisdom which indeed comes infinitely short of it and this Faculty from whence it is furnish'd is the least valuable of all the Three For it is consistent with great Folly and insufferable Impertinence and very rarely to be met with in any great Degree where the Person excels in Understanding and Wisdom for the Temperaments indeed from whence they result are contrary to one another From this vulgar Errour I suppose the improper Methods of teaching Children to have taken their Rise it being the Custom of Country-Schools almost every where to follow them close with Tasks to be got by Heart as they call it that so they may be able to repeat and quote things readily out of Books Thus they stuff their Memories full and load them with the Riches of other Men without taking any care to awaken and whet the Understanding to form or to refine the Judgment Which after all is the most necessary part of Instruction to shew them the true worth of their Natural Faculties to draw out the Stores and Abilities of their own Mind and by the Exercise and Improvement of their Home-Growth to render them considerate and wise and qualify'd for all manner of Business Accordingly we see that many of your Scholars which carry all Aristotle and Cicero in their Heads are mere Prigs and Puts and incapable of any management at all and that generally speaking the World is led by the Nose and all the weightiest Affairs of Governments entrusted with Men of little or no Learning Which yet no doubt is of infinite Advantage and wou'd render even the prudentest and cunningest Politicians yet more capable than they are if wisely instill'd and well us'd But then they must not as the way of the World is value themselves upon Other Men's Wisdom nor think it their Own because they remember it but make it so by digesting what they read incorporating it with their own Thoughts refining and improving upon it and knowing how to convert it to the Use and Benefit of themselves and others But to return All Wise Men have given the Preference to the Understanding and admit it to be the most excellent and choicest Piece of Furniture belonging to the Mind If this moves right all the rest goes true and the Man is wise and if this be false the whole Movement is out of Course Imagination is the Second in Dignity and Memory is the Last and Lowest The following Similitude may perhaps contribute something to our apprehending the true State of these Faculties and the different Circumstances and Relations they are in more perfectly An Image of the Three Faculties The Reasonable Soul then cannot be more painted to the Life than by forming an Idea of it to our selves as a Court of Judicature Now in every such Court there are Three Degrees and Orders of Persons concern'd The Uppermost and most Honourable Order is the Bench of Judges and here there is little or no Noise but a World of Business and Dispatch For they proceed calmly and quietly and without any Hurry or Passion try Causes decide Controversies and Claims make Decrees and give the Final Determination to all Matters brought before them This carries a very lively resemblance to the Understanding which is the highest the most honourable and the judging Faculty of the Soul The Second
Mercy and put what Forms we please upon them And that the Condition they come to us in is not what Nature gave but what the Temper and Disposition of our own Minds have moulded and modell'd them into That which I firmly believe my self I cannot prevail with my Friend to believe Those are Arguments to Me which to Him are none at all Nay which is more Let one be never so confidently assur'd of a thing to Day I cannot engage that I shall continue in the same Opinion of it to Morrow And it is odds I may and plain that I often do entertain very different Notions of it and be quite otherwise affected with it another time So sure it is that Things have just that place in our Opinion and Esteem which we think fit to assign them that they are relish'd just as our Palate stands at that time and shew to us according to those Colours which we our selves have tinctur'd them with Like the Eyes of Men in the Jaundice or the Prismes that refract and vary the Rays that fall upon the Organs of our outward Senses so does the Soul alter its Objects too and the present Constitution of it is the Medium through which they must pass to us St. Paul's observation with regard to Morals may be apply'd to Speculation too Tit. I. 15. Unto the pure all things are pure but unto the defiled is nothing pure Thus our Thoughts are like our Clothes that keep us warm with a Heat which is none of their own but such as we first gave them and they keep it and at the same time that they receive our Warmth from within they receive and keep the Cold of Frost and Snow without But still the Warmth we feel is all our own we first impart it to Them and they in requital preserve it for our Benefit and pay what they received back again to Us. How few are there of those Opinions which we profess to entertain that when lookt into are not at last resolv'd into Authority and taken upon Trust We believe and act we live and die upon Credit and Content and our great Business is to conform our selves to Custom and to think and do like the rest of the World and according to what They not our own Reason esteems most adviseable Thus Fashions and not Judgment govern Mankind and perhaps indeed for the greatest part of Mankind this is not much amiss for most People have not Wit enough to choose for themselves and therefore ought to resign the Government of their Actions to others But Wise Men are above these mean and servile Compliances they have a better Rule to walk by than Authority and Example Book II. As I hope to shew at large in the following Parts of this Treatise CHAP. XVII The Will THE Will is a most exquisite Piece It s Preeminence a magnificent Accomplishment of Humane Nature indeed of wonderful Importance and such as deserves and requires our utmost Care and Study to regulate and manage it well For this hath the most commanding Influence upon a Man's Condition and his whole Happiness in a manner depends upon it alone This is the only Faculty which Nature hath put in our own Power All the rest such as Memory Understanding Imagination are at the Mercy and Disposal of a Thousand Accidents which oftentimes disturb and change and impair nay sometimes destroy and take them quite away from us Again This draws the whole Man after it and carries him whithersoever it self is determin'd for he that conquers the Will hath subdu'd the Person When the Understanding is convinc'd the Conquest is by no means entire for the Will frequently holds out afterwards and makes an obstinate Defence against Reason and Sober Judgment But when once This yields All is surrendred and the Man is not now any longer his own Master he hath from thenceforth nothing left that he can call his own Once more This is the very Thing that fixes our Character It makes and it denominates Good or Ill Men This gives our Temper and Complexion and we appear to the World under its Colours and Dispositions As of all Virtues and Qualifications of the Soul Probity is the first and chief and infinitely more desirable than Learning or Parts All that Nature or Art or Industry can give are not comparable to it so it must be confest that the Will which is the Seat and proper Residence of Virtue and Goodness is infinitely the most excellent Faculty that Humane Nature can boast of A Man is neither Virtuous nor Vicious Honest nor Dishonest for knowing what Virtue and Vice Honesty and Dishonesty are tho' this Knowledge be never so nice and exact in the Speculation but by his Inclination and Love and Practice of these things by the Disposition of his Mind the Choice of his Heart the Bent of his Affections and the general Tendency of his Manners and Behaviour There are indeed some other Preeminences peculiar to the Understanding it is as the Husband in the Family and this as the Wife which ought to be under its Governance and Direction That is the Guide or as the Light This as the Traveller which shou'd follow its Instructions and walk by them But still the last Result of all depends upon the Will This finishes the Action and determines the whole Matter and in that respect the Will is superiour even to the Understanding it self The true and most remarkable Difference between these two Faculties with regard to the manner of their Operation seems to be This That by the Understanding Objects come into the Soul and are there receiv'd and entertain'd as the several Terms by which the Offices proper to this Part are usually expressed such as Apprehending Conceiving Comprehending and the like do plainly import And here they make their Entrance not according to what they really are in their true Nature and full Proportions but according to the present Disposition and Capacity of the Person and in such Measures only as he is able to receive them in Those Objects which are great and sublime are for this reason under a necessity of condescending and contracting themselves and come to us with considerable Abatements and Defalcations because the Passage at which they enter is not large enough for their true Height and Bulk Just as the Ocean flows into the Mediterranean not in such Quantities as are agreeable to its own Fulness but such only as the Streight's Mouth can give admission to Now in the Operations of the Will the Method is quite contrary Here the Soul goes as it were out of it self it stretches and moves forward toward the Object it seeks and runs after it with open Arms and is eager to take up its Residence and dwell with the Thing desired and beloved Nay it even transforms it self into That assumes its Name and its Nature wears its Livery and is distinguish'd by the Things it serves and retains to Hence we give
Women when they had them at their Mercy And all this from no other Principle than a Point of Honour Conquers all other and a Soul enflamed with Ambition to which the Fires of Love were so far from being equal that they were made subservient to it and the Conquest of these Desires became a Triumph and a Sacrifice to their Glory Thus it happen'd very remarkably in Caesar For no Man alive was ever more siercely addicted to Amours of all sorts than He as the many Extravagances he had been guilty of both at Rome and abroad in Foreign Parts abundantly testifie no Man was ever more choice of his Person more nice in Dress more careful to preserve and render it agreeable to the Ladies and yet Ambition was evermore his reigning Passion The Pleasures of Love tho' they had him in perfect Subjection when This came not into Competition with them were then so feeble and so over-match'd that they never cou'd prevail for the throwing away upon them so much as one Hour which was capable of being employ'd or made in any degree serviceable to the promoting his Honour So that notwithstanding the Mixture of any other Passions which had their Seasons too yet Ambition sat Supreme in his Soul and was to all Intents and Purposes as if It had had the sole and ontire Possession of him 'T is true we meet with an Example the very Reverse of this in Mark Anthony and some Others who have been so enslaved by Love as to give up All banish their most necessary and weighty Cares and lose themselves and their Crowns through mere Esseminacy and Neglect But then these have been Persons of quite different Tempers For where both meet together and are fairly weigh'd one against the other Ambition will cast the Scale Some indeed who argue for the force of Love above it tell you that in Reason it must needs be so because This extends to the Body as well as the Mind keeps the whole Man in Captivity and is not only agreeable but necessary and convenient too But I shou'd think the Reason holds on the contrary side and that Ambition is therefore the stronger because the more Spiritual Passion What they pretend of the Body being also concern'd in Love proves the Passion to be so much the Feebler for from hence it must by necessary consequence be capable of being satiated and cloy'd Again What is Corporeal it self admits of Corporeal Remedies and Cures some which Nature provides and others which Art invents and accordingly Experience hath approved these and shewed Instances of many who have beaten down the hottest Flames of Love and of some who have overcome and quenched these quite by artificial Means and good Management But now Ambition is so far from being glutted that its Appetite is never satisfy'd Enjoyment does but whet it more and being seated wholly in the Soul and the Reason renders the Disease obstinate and incurable incapable of outward Application and too deep and subtle for Medicines to reach and fasten upon It does not only conquer the Regard for one's own Health and Ease The Gare of Life for indeed Honour and Ease can never dwell together and make Men content to sacrifice all their Quiet and Comforts and Enjoyment of the World but even the natural Care and Tenderness for our very Lives is not able to stand before it Agrippina the Mother of Nero was an eminent Example of this Nature who being extremely desirous that her Son should be Emperour and inform'd that he should be Emperour indeed but it shou'd be at the Expence of Her Life made an Answer sit for the Mouth of Ambition her self cou'd that be personated Provided he may have the Power says she I am content it should be upon the Condition of using it to my destruction * Occidat mâ—do imperer Let my Son kill me so my Son may but reign Thirdly The Laâ—â— Ambition makes its way through all Laws and tramples Conscience it self under Foot The great Professors of Morality who tell you that a Man must make it his Business to be entirely Virtuous and pay an universal Obedience to Laws yet when they speak of Ambition begin to mince the matter and are content to make an excepted Case of it A Crown it seems is so sweet so delicious a Morsel that the Temptation is invincible and deserves a Dispensation The most abstemious Man may strain a Point and break his Fast upon this Feast †Si violandum est Jus regnandi cauâ— violandum est in caeteris pietatem colas If ever Breach of Law and Equity be allowable says one it is in the Case of gaining a Kingdom but in every thing else be sure to be strictly Virtuous Not that even in this or any Case such Liberties are to be indulg'd but They who thus express themselves signifie the strong Propensity of Humane Nature to this Passion how strong it is in all and how difficult to be subdu'd by any who are tempted with very great Advantages With the same Insolence does it treat the Holiest things Râ—â—g â— eraces all Reverence of God and treads Religion under Foot For what greater Contempt of these can be shewn than the World have seen in Jeroboam who establish'd an Idolatrous Worship for the securing his Throne and Aâ—â—â—â—net who gave general Encouragement to all Persuasions and valu'd not which was uppermost so he might reign And the old Broachers of Heresies who rather chose to forsake the right Way and so become Heads of Parties and Ringleaders in Falshood and Lyes tho' a Thousand Disorders and Impieties were the visible and unavoidable Consequences of that wicked Choice than to continue in a lower and less conspicuous Station by being Disciples and Followers of the Truth With regard to such as these it is that the Apostle hath admirably foretold the Doom of Ambitious Men That they who suffer themselves to be intangled in these Snares make Shipwrack of a good Conscience 1 Tim. i 6. err from the Faith and pierce themselves through with many Sorrows In short It changes Men's Natures Natural Affection hardens their Hearts and makes them brutish defaces all those tender Impressions and Resentments which are most customary and most due to our nearest Relations The infamous Accounts which Sacred or Prophane History hath recorded the Barbarities and Murders committed upon the Persons of Parents or Children or Brethren are most of them insligated by this Passion Witness Absalom and Abimelech and Athaliah Romulus Sei King of Persia who slew his Father and his Brother Soliman the Turk that dispatch'd his two Brothers So unable is any thing to stand against the Force of this impetuous Passion which is for removing every thing out of its way and where-ever it takes its Course overturns and lays all level with the Ground * Est autem in hoc genere molestum quod in maximis Animis splendidissimisque ingeniis
reducing himself to that Innocence Simplicity Liberty Meekness and Gentleness of Temper which Nature had originally implante both in Us and Them And which in Brutes is still very conspicuous but in Us is decay'd chang'd and utterly corrupted by our Industrious Wickedness and Artisicial Depravations thus debauching and abusing the particular Prerogative we pretend to and rendring our selves more vile than the Beasts by means of that very Understanding and Judgment which sets us so far above them Hence sure it is that God intending to shame us into Vertue sends us to School in Scripture and bids us grow wiser by the Example of these Creatures The Crane the Stork and the Swallow the Serpent Jer. viii 7. Mat. x. 16. Prov vi 6. Isa i. 3. and the Dove the Ant and the Ox and the Ass and sundry others are recommended as Teachers to us And after all To take down our Vanity upon this Occasion we ought to remember that there is some sort of Correspondence some mutual Relations and Duties arising from thence if upon no other account yet by reason of their being made by the same Hand belonging to the same Master and making a part of the same Family with our selves And this single Reflection ought to prevail with us to use our Advantages over them modestly tenderly and conscientiously and not to treat them with Cruelty and Contempt For as Justice is a Debt from us to all Men so Kindness and Beneficence and Mercy must needs be due to all Creatures whatsoever that are in any Condition of receiving benefit by us ADVERTISEMENT OUR Author in the midst of his great Care to slate this Comparison so as might be most mortifying to the Vanity of Mankind hath yet found himself oblig'd to acknowledge that the Reason of Men is so much brighteâ— and more noble in its Operations and Effects than any thing discoverable in the Brute part of the Creation that I might have let this Chapter pass without any Censure had it not been for two or three Sentences which seem obnoxious to very ill Construction Such as a sort of Men are in Our Age but too fond of embracing who at the same time that they are vain enough to imagine that neither the Nature nor the Revelations of God himself can have any thing in them above their Reason are yet so sordid and degenerate as to be content that Beasts should be thought endu'd with the same Souls and to be mov'd with the same Principles of Reason with themselves An Opinion which is the rather entertain'd for the sake of a certain Consequence that recommends it with regard to a Future State for it seems they can be satisfy'd with the Portion of Brutes now provided they may but partake in it hereafter And what Favour this Notion might find from these Passages That Brutes and Men both have the same Reason tho' not in the same Degree and that some Men excel others much more than some Men again excel Beasts I was doubtful and therefore look'd upon my self concerned in pursuance of my Proposals at the Beginning of this Book to offer these following Considerations to my Reader First That in the Operations of the Reasonable Soul a great deal depends upon the Organs and Disposition of that Body to which it is joyned and as hath been already explain'd at large more especially upon the Brain Now since Anatomists have not been able to observe any very remarkable Differences between the Contexture of the Humane Brain and that of Brutes we are not to think it strange if there appear some small Resemblances in some particular Actions of Men and Beasts tho' these do not proceed from the same Principle of Motion but owe their Similitude to that of the Body and Medium put into those Motions Secondly That the Impressions of external Objects have very strong Effects upon the Imagination and Memory and these assisted by Custom and Imitation and Example will perform many wonderful things which yet are not the Operations of Reason properly so called Of this kind it is easie to observe great Number of Instances in Them who either by means of their Infancy have not yet attain'd to the use of Reason or Them who by some Natural Defects never have it at all or Others who by some accidental Disturbance have lost it In all which Cases not during the lucid Intervals only or when the Powers of the Mind seem a little to be awakened but even in the most profound Ignorance or most raging Madness Those which are frequently distinguished by the Sensitive Faculties of the Soul put forth sometimes a marvellous Efficacy and Vigour And that These are moved entirely by material and sensible Objects and act as necessarily as any other Parts of Matter whatsoever hath been the Opinion of many new Philosophers some of whom imagine that all the Operations of this kind are as capable of being resolved by Principles of Mechanism those Operations I mean of Imagination and Memory and Custom as any other Affections and Motions of common Matter How just this Conclusion is I do not pretend to determine for They themselves seem to confess it insufficient when they call in to their Assistance another Principle which is Thirdly That of Instinct By which is meant a strong Tendency and Natural Impulse discernible in these Creatures to certain necessary and useful Actions Something of a Principle implanted in them by their wise Creator to qualisie them for their own Preservation and the answering the Ends of his good Providence in Making them And this appears so early as to be plainly antecedent to either Memory or Fancy and yet is so constant too and always the same in the same Circumstances and Occasions as neither to depend upon Causes so mutable as the Impressions of outward Objects nor a Principle so capricious as the Choice of such a Mind perfectly free feels in its Deliberations And as Instruments put together by a skilful Hand perform many Operations so astonishing that a Man unexperienc'd in the Art cou'd not possibly imagine such Materials capable of them so these Philosophers conceive that Almighty God in his infinite Wisdom hath so disposed the Sensitive Parts of the Soul that They by their wonderful Structure shall be adapted to most amazing Effects and possessed with some Original Propensions and Impulses independent from and antecedent to the Impressions of Matter or the power of Institution and Custom which in the needful and most profitable Actions of Life serve these Animals for Fundamental Principles and bear some kind of Affinity to the first common Notions in the Rational and Intelligent Mind And upon these Impulses joyn'd to those other Advantages mention'd before the whole Oeconomy of Brutes and even those Actions which seem most exquisite and admirable in any of them have by the Modern Mechanick Philosophers been generally thought to depend Concerning which tho' almost every System treat in some measure yet I believe my Reader whether
created To This one may reply with Reason enough What do you make of all the Happiness you have enjoy'd What would become of This if you had had no Being And would it not have been some Matter some Hurt never to have enjoy'd it For certainly tho' the loss of the Good which we have and know the worth of be a more sensible Evil yet the mere privation of Good and never having it at all is One sort of Evil too even tho' that Good be such as we shou'd never have missed nor such as was necessary to us These Extremes are too wide they overstrain the Point on both sides and degenerate into Vice tho' they are not equally vicious and erroneous neither I confess speaking in the Quality of a Philosopher and with regard to the present State of Assairs only I do not think That Wise Ancient much out of the way who acknowledged †Vitam nemo acciperet si daretur scientibus Life to be Good but such a Good as no Man would accept of if it were left to his own free Choice and he were fairly inform'd beforehand what Incumbrances lay upon it It is not at all amiss that we are engaged in it before we know what it is We come into the World blindfold but That is no reason why Men shou'd afterwards put out their own Eyes or hoodwink themselves For the Mischief is that when we are got hither we run into different Ways Some cheat themselves into so extravagant a Fondness for Life that they wou'd not part with it again at any rate Others fret themselves into so ill an Opinion of it that they grumble eternally are discontented at every thing and pretend to be weary and sick of Living But Wise Men have juster Notions of the Matter They consider that this was a Bargain made without their Knowledge or Consent for no Man lives or dies assoon or as late or in such Manner and Circumstances as he pleases himself But still it is a Bargain we are bound to stand to and if it be a hard one we must try to make the best of it Sometimes we shall meet with Rough Ways but the whole Passage is not so And therefore Philosophers agree that the best Course is to create no Disturbance nor struggle and flounder unprofitably but for Men to suit their Tempers and comply with their Circumstances as well as they can to carry it off with Evenness and Moderation and make a Virtue of Necessity for That is the Character of Wisdom and Good Management And when they have fixed themselves in this Method then to live as long as is Fit for them consistent with their Duty and Decency Not as long as is Possible for them which is the Principle of foolish and profligate People For there is a Season proper for Dying as well as one for Living and a Virtuous Honourable Death is a Thousand time rather to be chosen than a Wicked and Infamous Life Now a Wise and Good Man makes it his Business to live just so long as Life is better than Death and no longer For as we observed before that They are in the Wrong who esteem the shortest Life best so is that common Opinion a Mistake too which raises the Value by Computation of Years and accounts that Life best which lasts longest The Shortness of that Term allow'd us in this World is a great and a general Complaint Of the 〈◊〉 of Life We meet it in every Mouth not from the Ignorant and Vulgar only where we cannot expect better than that They should be willing to live always but which may be allow'd a little to surprize us even Great Souls and Wise Men reckon it among their very greatest Unhappinesses Now to say the very Truth as Men usually manage the Matter and indeed as Nature hath in some measure contriv'd it Life is very short For the greatest part of it is employed and diverted otherwise and a very small Proportion left for the true Uses and Ends of Living The Time of our Infancy and Ignorance the Decays and Infirmities of Old Age the necessary Intervals of Sleep the Diseases of our Bodies and our Minds and the infinite other void Spaces of it wherein we are incapable of doing Good run away with a great deal of our Time And when the Whole is summ'd up and these Abatements made the Remainder is not much But yet without troubling our selves with the Contrary Opinion which asserts the Shortness of Life to be greatly for our Advantage we shall find Reason enough to accuse this Complaint of Injustice and to think it more the effect of Inconsideration and Ill-Nature than of good Arguing and Virtuous Disposition For what Advantage would a longer Life be to us Shall we wish for it to no other purpose but merely to Live in to take our Ease to Eat and Drink and Sleep to Look about us and see more of the World What need is there of so much Time for this We have already seen and known and tasted what we are capable of in a very little time and when we are got to the End of our Curiosity This is sufficient What Good will it do us or wherefore should we wish to act the same things over and over again and be always beginning afresh Who would not be cloyed with eating upon the same Dish every Day If this be not nauseous and troublesome yet to be sure it is superfluous and unnecessary This is but One Circle which is perpetually rolling and brings the same things uppermost again sometimes they remove to a little distance and then they quickly return back upon us T is but a spinning the same Web and That which may serve a Child to play with but can never be a sit Entertainment for grown Men. Shall we then wish it for nobler Ends that we may grow Wiser and Better and aspire to higher degrees of Virtue and Perfection that we may do more Good and be more useful in our Generations This indeed carries the Appearance of an excellent Disposition but They that know us will not be imposed upon by it For Who shall teach Who shall improve us Alas That Little which is committed to our Trust is so ill used that we cannot have the Confidence to ask for more We neglect what we have already and suffer the greatest part of it to slip thro' our Fingers We squander it away profusely upon Vanity and Trifles nay we abuse and misemploy it upon Wickedness and Vice And yet after all this Unfaithfulness and Folly we cry and complain for more and think our selves ill dealt with that we have not enough Enough for What For the same insignificant and ill purposes to be sure for That wou'd be the Consequence of a more liberal Allowance too But supposing Men serious in this Matter and that they wou'd really do as they pretend yet of what Use wou'd this vast Treasure of Knowledge and Experience prove
passes at Home and in our ordinary Course of Affairs The Third is Publick and respects what is exposed to the common View of the World In the First of these there is no manner of Restraint in the Second no Pains or Study to recommend one's Behaviour as being not accountable for our Own Management to Them that live under our Own Roof and Government but all the Reserve and Artifice and Dissimulation is in a manner appropriated to the last of These Now it is much more difficult to be regular and exact in the first of these Degrees than in either of the other and the Examples of Persons that are or have been so have been infinitely fewer and so in proportion the Case stands with the Second too in comparison of the Third sort The Reason is obvious and evident For where there is no body to judge or controul or countermand nay where there is not so much as a Spectator to observe our Actions where we have no apprehension of Punishment for doing amiss no expectation of Reward for doing well we are much more remiss and careless in our Behaviour Reason and Conscience are here the only Guides we have to follow and although These may be some Check yet that is not comparable to the Restraints we feel when placed in open View and made the common Mark of All who must needs see and will take a Freedom of censuring our Actions Applause and Glory fear of Scandal and Reproach or some other Passion of the like Nature are much more powerful Motives these carry and manage us after a very different manner And indeed the greatest part of Mankind are more govern'd by Passions of this Nature than by any strict Sense of Duty and regard to Virtue These put us upon our Guard and teach us Prudence upon force And from the Influence of These it is that many People have the Reputation of Holy and Excellent Persons and behave Themselves as such in the Eye of the World who yet in reality and at the bottom are mere Hypocrites stark nought and rotten at the Core and have not one commendable Quality belonging to them What passes before Men is all Farce and Counterfeit we put it on for Convenience and are concern'd to appear thus to the Spectators but the Truth of us is conceal'd and the Man can have no true Judgment made of him but from what he does in private and alone We must see him in his constant and every-day's Dress and strip him of those Ornaments that set him off when he comes abroad We must know his Temper and his usual Deportment for all the rest is Fiction and Constraint * Universus mundus exercet histrioniam All the World are Actors and play their Parts to please the Audience And it was well observ'd by a Wise Man That none are good except such as are so inwardly and by Themselves And that Virtue is always the same as cautious as prudent upon the account of Conscience as it is in Obedience to the publick Laws and Customs of the World as fearful of offending one's own Self and as careful to avoid the Condemnation of one 's own Breast when no Eye sees us as it is of the Observation and Reproaches of all Mankind Publick Actions such as Exploits in War delivering an Opinion in Senate or Council discharging an Embassy governing a Nation or the like are bright and loud every body sees every body hears of them and therefore These are perform'd with all possible Diligence and Circumspection but such Private and Domestick ones as Chiding Laughing Selling and Buying Borrowing and Paying and Conversing with our own Families and most intimate Acquaintance are silent and dark they make no Noise fear no Discovery and are therefore thought worthy very little or not any Attention or Consideration at all Nay we are sometimes scarce so much as sensible of them when we do them And if in These Men be so unthinking a little Reflection will soon convince us that they are infinitely more so in Those yet more secret and merely internal such as Loving Hating Desiring of which none is or can be conscious but their own Minds There is one Thing more fit to be observed upon this Occasion and a very sad and wicked Thing it is viz. That Men being depraved by a kind of Hypocrisie natural to them have taught Themselves and Others to make a greater Conscience and be infinitely more Scrupulous and concern'd for their outward Behaviour which consists in Shew and Form and is perfectly free and at their own Disposal of no Consequence in the World but all over Set-Countenance and Ceremony Things of no real Difficulty and as little Substance and Effect than they are for inward Miscarriages or private Actions such as are buried in Secrecy and make no Figure but yet are highly Expedient and Necessary very Valuable in Themselves and therefore very Difficult For upon these Last the Reforming of our Souls the Moderating of our Passions and the Regulating our whole Life and Conversation depends And yet the Former are not only preferred before them in our Care and Concern but the Matter is so ordered that even They who find themselves well disposed will by constant Study and Sollicitude to discharge those outward Actions punctually degenerate into Formality of course and by insensible Degrees grow Cold and Negligent in their Regard for the others Now of all these Sorts it is plain that the Men as Hermits for Instance who live in perfect Solitude and have but One of these Three That of the Internal and most private Life only to take Care of are upon better Terms and have an easier Task to discharge than Those that have Two and so likewise he that hath the Domestick Care added to the former and so lies under a Duty in Two Capacities is exposed to less Difficulty than the Persons of a Publick Life and Character upon whom the Care of all the Three Degrees is incumbent CHAP. LIV. A Life of Company and Business compar'd with one of Retirement and Solitude THey that upon all Occasions recommend and cry up a Solitary Life are so far certainly in the Right that it is an Excellent Means of Ease and Quiet a sure Retreat from the Hurry and Troubles of the World a very proper and effectual Defence against the Vices and Extravagances of a profligate Age which are commonly propagated by Infection and Example and are very likely to Spread and Reign where much the greater Part of those we converse with are already tainted with the Disease For not One in a Thousand is Vertuous and Good the Number of Fools is Infinite and the thicker the Crowd the greater the Danger Thus far I say they have Reason on their Side for ill Company is certainly one of the most fatal and ensnaring Things in the World and that not only in Regard of the Corruption but of the Punishment and Vengeance it exposes Men to Accordingly
it between conquering and not hazarding our Persons in the Engagement And when Men are in a Capacity of becoming beneficial to Others and may be Instruments of Great and General Good to excuse Themselves from serving the Publick and abandon all Society when they might adorn and be useful in it is to betray their Trust to bury their Talent in a Napkin to hide the Candle which God hath lighted under a Bushel when the setting it on a Candle-Stick might enlighten others and do great Service to all that are in the House It requires then much Deliberation and many uncommon Circumstances to give Men a Right thus to dispose of Themselves And they who presume to do it merely out of private Considerations and make the Publick no part of their Concern are so far from deserving to be applauded for their Virtue and Resignation that they are guilty of a great Fault and liable to very just and severe Censure CHAP. LV. A Life in Common compared with That of distinct Properties SOme Persons have been of Opinion that a Life where all Things are in Common and there is no such Distinction as Mine or Thine hath the greatest Tendency to Perfection and is best accommodated for the cherishing and maintaining of Charity and Concord and Union among Men. But Experience shews us daily that whatever Conveniencies it may really have of this kind yet are they not so great nor so effectual to the Purposes before-mention'd as those Persons have imagined For in the first Place whatever Appearance there may be outwardly of Kindness and good Agreemeent yet there is no such Thing as an entire and hearty Affection nor the same tender Regards for That which is in Common as a Man finds where he alone is concern'd To this purpose it is that we have two Proverbs The College Horse is always ill saddled and Every Body's Business is No Body's Business Men consider that Others are equally concern'd in the Care and in the Damage that the Loss is not immediately their own and that each Member of the Society stands in that respect equally related to them and that begets a Coldness and Indifferency among them But which is a great deal worse this State does naturally produce Quarrels and Discontents Murmuring and mutual Hatred every Community is but too full a Demonstration of it and the very Holiest and Best that ever was the Primitive Church it self could not you see be exempted from the Misfortune For though the Institution design all Things should be equal yet unless you could make the Desires of the Persons so too they will always be full of Complaints and Jealous that some are preferred and others neglected Acts vi like the Grecians and their Widows in the Daily Distributions The Nature of Love is like that of Great Rivers which while they continue united in one Stream are Navigable and carry Vessels of Vast Burden but if you cut them into fresh Channels and divide the Water they are no longer Serviceable in that kind and thus when Men's Affections are divided and parted as it were among a great many Objects not any one of those Persons or Things is of very tender Concern for all the Force and Vigor of the Passion is scattered and broke to Pieces Now in a Life of Community there are several Degrees To live that is to eat and drink together at a common Table is very decent and well Thus we find it practised in some of the best and most ancient Commonwealths as Lacedemon and Crete particularly such publick Meals are very useful for the teaching Men to be Modest and reserved and keeping up Dicipline Society and Good Order and they do also minister occasion for great variety of very useful and improving Discourse But to think of pulling up the Fences and Inclosures and lay all in Common is a wild Imagination Plato was once of this Opinion but he thought better of it afterwards And indeed the Project would be so far from reconciling and uniting All that the certain Consequence of it would be to overturn and confound All. CHAP. LVI A Town and a Country Life compared together THis is a Comparison very easie for any Man who is a true Lover of Wisdom to make for almost all the Advantages lie on one side The Pleasures and Conveniences both of Body and Mind Liberty Contemplation Innocence Health and Delight In the Country a Man's Mind is free and easie discharg'd and at his own Disposal But in the City the Persons of Friends and Acquaintance one 's own and other People's Business foolish Quarrels ceremonious Visits impertinent Discourse and a Thousand other Fopperies and Diversions steal away the greatest part of our Time and leave no Leisure for better and more necessary Employment What infinite Perplexities Avocations Distractions of the Mind and which is worst of all what abominable Debaucheries and Depravation of Manners does such a Life expose Men to Great Towns are but a larger sort of Prisons to the Soul like Cages to Birds or Pounds to Beasts This Celestial Fire within us will not endure to be shut up it requires Air to brighten and make it burn clear which made Columella say that a Country Life is Cousin-German to Wisdom For a Man's Thoughts cannot be idle and when they are set loose from the World they will range and expatiate freely in noble and profitable Meditations But how shall a Man hope to command his Thoughts or pretend to call them his Own in the midst of all the Clutter and Business the Amusements nay the Confusions of the Town A Country Life is infinitely more plain and innocent and disposed to Purity and Virtue In Cities Vice assembles in Troops the very Commonness of it makes it unobserv'd it hardens and reconciles us to the Practice Example and Custom and the meeting with it at every Turn makes the thing familiar and thus the Disease seizes us strongly and presently and we are gone all on the sudden by living in the midst of the Insection Whereas in the Country those things are seen or heard with Abhorrence and Amazement which the Town sees and does every Day without Remorse or Concern As for Pleasure and Health the clear Air the Warmth and Brightness of the Sun not polluted with the Sultry Gleams and loathsome Stenches of the Town the Springs and Waters the Flowers and Groves and in short All Nature is free and easie and gay The Earth unlocks her Treasures refreshes us with her Fruits feasts every Sense and gives us such Entertainment as Cities know nothing of in the stifling press of Houses so that to live there is to shut one's self up and be banish'd from the World Besides all this a Country Retirement is more active and sit for Exercise and this creates an Appetite preserves and restores Health and Vigour hardens the Body and makes it lusty and strong The greatest Commendation of the Town is Convenience for Business and Profit It is
they should not bear to have it so much as recommended or mentioned but prefer Slavery and Dependance before living upon their own Stock getting above Fortune and making themselves easy and Masters at all times and places and upon all Accidents alike May we not most justly cry out with Tiberius more justly indeed than He did O Wretches born to be Slaves How absurd is it that we who are such Patrons and Sticklers for Liberty in the Case of our Bodies Estates and all other Properties should not bear to have our Mind free which after all is the only Free-born thing that belongs to any of us We seek and employ conveniences fetch'd from all parts of the World count no expence too great for the Health the Service the Ornament of the Body but grudge every thing for the improvement and enriching of the Mind In short We are so partial as to take all possible pains that the Body may be at large while the Soul is fettered and coop'd up in Prison The other Branch of this Liberty in which the Will is concerned is of yet greater value in which the Wills is concerned is of yet greater value Liberty of the Will and ought to be more endeavour'd after by a Wise Man as indeed it is more serviceable to him than the former Now here I think it necessary to admonish my Reader that the Matter under our present Consideration is not that Faculty and Privilege of Human Nature which Philosophers and Divines commonly stile Free-Will nor shall we treat of it in the same Method with Them But my meaning is That a Wise Man ought to preserve his own Ease and Quiet to keep his Will and Affections free and disengaged and to lay them out upon very few objects and those such as may justify his Choice For indeed the things that deserve our Choice and challenge our Affections if nicely examined will be found but very few But this is not all For even Those that deserve them best will not justify our Vehemence and Eagerness and immoderate Fondness of them And here I find my self under some necessity of encountring two very popular and plausible Opinions The One is That which teaches us to be always forward to serve other people to lay aside all thoughts of one's self for the sake of our Neighbours and especially when the Publick Good is concerned pretends that no private Interest ought to come in Competition with it And the Other prompts us to espouse such Matters with all possible Zeal and to the very utmost of our power He that declines the Former is accused of wanting Good nature and a publick Spirit and He that is remiss in the Latter is suspected of Coldness and Indifference want of Generosity and the Zeal that is required of a Good Man and in short reputed incapable of making a Friend Now whatever there may really be at the bottom of these Opinions yet it is plain the World have overloaded the Foundation and built such Notions upon it as exceed all Reason and Measure and nothing can be more Romantick and Extravagant than what we sind delivered upon these Occasions For our Governors who feel the Advantage of them oftentimes infuse Principles into us not according to the true merits of the Cause but in proportion as they perceive they may prove serviceable and beneficial And it frequently falls out that those Opinions which are in themselves most reasonable and true are not most convenient to be generally entertained And besides this Observing how natural the Love of our Selves and our own private Advantage is and what Partialities and unreasonable Excesses it is apt to carry us into they thought it necessary to divert and draw us off as far from This as possibly and so took the Common Course of bending the Crooked Stick the Contrary way that it might at last stand strait by being forced toward the other Extreme 1 These Opinions when misunderstood and misapplied which is commonly the Fate of most Opinions when they fall into the hands of a Multitude occasion great Injustice and Disorder many Difficulties and grievous Mischiefs As we may plainly observe in those persons that snap at every bait of this kind let themselves out to hire as it were and devote all their Time and Pains to the service of other people These men do not only suffer themselves to be managed and taken absolute Possession of by their Friends but they thrust themselves forward of their own accord and will have an Oar in every Boat It is indifferent to Them whether the Matter concerns them or not whether it be of greater consequence or of none at all still they Interess themselves in all alike for indeed they often do it merely to keep themselves in Motion and Employment It stirs their Spirits put their Soul into a pleasing sort of Agitation and thus * In Negotio sunt negotij causà they are busy purely because they love to be so They cannot bear the having nothing to do nor can they confine their Thoughts to their own Affairs but either do not see or carelesly overlook them and so seek Employment abroad and meddle and turn undertakers in things that are foreign and distant as if they had nothing at all to do at home no concerns that are essential and necessary to be followed no personal no domestick Cares that lye upon their hands such as ought to be first dispatched and which if duly attended to would leave no room for Sloth nor leisure so great as should prove a Temptation to us to turn Managers for other people that we may keep our selves in Action Many of these persons are good husbands of their purse and careful not to part with a Penny of Money but upon valuable considerations but they are unreasonably prodigal of their Soul their Life squander away their Time and their Pains their Affections and their Will most profusely and unaccountably dedicate Themselves and all their Powers to any occasions that calls for their Assistance And yet when all is done These are the valuable Treasures of which we ought to be exceeding choice and sparing and in such Instances it is chiefly that Frugality and good Management are commendable But alas the Persons we speak of are so far from this that they glory in their Extravagance act all with such Violence and Passion that they are lost to Reason and common Sense and never think they do enough till they have engaged as deep as is possible and given up their Persons and their Wits both to the Cause they espouse Great Men make their Advantage of such Tempers as these Men that will be eager and angry and expose nay lose their lives upon pretences of Friendship and Punctilio's of Honour and Respect are special Tools for Their purpose And they are not wanting to countenance and caress them throw out large Promises and use a thousand little Stratagems to draw them in and six them to their
every Place every Emergency will find him the same For this Law of Nature is perpetual the Obligation of it is lasting and inviolable the Equity and Reason of it are Eternal written in large and indelible Characters no Accident can deface them no length of time waste or wear them out even Wickedness it self by the Customary Habits whereof the positive and additional Improvements of this Law are corrupted yet cannot debauch or exterminate these first and Natural Notions no Place no Time can alter or disguise them but they continue every where the same The Collections inferred from them differ infinitely but these first Principles themselves which are the Ground of all Moral Institutions admit of no Change no Increase no Abatement no Fits and Starts no Ebbings and Flowings but as they are a part of our Substance so do they agree with what the Schools say of all Substances in general * Substantia non recipit magis minùs that it is contrary to their nature to be more or less than they are Why then Vain Man dost thou trouble thy self to seek abroad for some Law and Rule to Mankind What can Books or Masters tell thee which thou mightest not tell thy self What can Study or Travel shew which at the expence of much less pains thou might'st not see at home by descending into thy own Conscience and hearkning attentively to its Admonitions When Ignorance of this kind is pretended the same Reply is fit for Thee which would be given to a shuffling Debtor who when Payment is demanded professes not to know how the Money became due when all the while he hath the Bill about him For thou carriest the Bond and the particulars of thy Debt in thy own Bosom and what thou seekest Information of from others canst not but know if thou consult thy Self To what purpose is all this Labour and Cost the toilsome tumbling over of Codes and Institutes of Precedents and Reports of Statutes and Records when all these are contained in one small portable Volume The Two Tables of Moses the Twelve Tables of the Greeks Rom. 2.12 the Law written in the hearts of Them who had no Law and in short all the Rules of Equity and Good Laws that have any where been enacted and obtained in the World are nothing else but Copies and Transcripts produced in open Court and published from that Original which thou keepest close within thee and yet all the while pretendest to know nothing of the matter stifling and suppressing as much as in thee lies the Brightness of that Light which shines within and so falling under the Condemnation of those mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 1.18 who hold or detain the Truth of God in Unrighteousness If This have not been sufficiently published and promulged as loud as clear as intelligibly as other humane Laws the only Reason is that that Light which is really All-heavenly and Divine hath been put under a Bushel that is too much neglected and industriously forgotten All other Institutions are but so many Rivulets and Streams derived from this common Source And although they be more visible and obvious and express yet is not the Water they carry so copious nor so lively and pure as that of the unseen Spring within thy own Breast if thy own Negligence did not suffer it to waste and dry up It is not I say so Copious for as one well observes * Quà m multa Pietas Humanitas Liberalitas Fides exigunt quae extra Tabulas sunt What a world of Good Offices are there which Prety Humanity Liberality and Fidelity require from a Man and yet no written or positive Law ever prescribed Alas how poor and scanty a thing is that Honesty of your Formal and Hypocritical Pretenders who stick to the Letter of the Law and think when That is satisfied they have fully discharged their Duty whereas there are infinite Obligations incumbent upon a Man which no human Law ever binds upon him †Quà m angusta Innocentia ad Legem bonum esse latiùs Officiorum quà m Juris patet Regula He that is honest only in the Eye of the Law hath but a very slender sort of Innocence to boast for the Measure of our Duty is of a much larger extent than the Law can pretend to There are infinite Cases unforeseen sudden Emergencies and extraordinary Conjunctures the Occasions and Circumstances whereof are too many and too intricate for any human Wisdom to foresee and much more impossible for it to make any competent Provision for so that a Man must often be left to his own Judgment and Discretion and even where he is not a Good Man will sometimes think the Rule too narrow and disdain to consine or cramp up his Virtue within the Compass of that which was thought necessary to be imposed upon every Common Man And as this invisible Fountain within is more exuberant and plenteous so is it more lively and pure and strong than any of those Streams derived from it Of which we need but this single Testimony That whenever any Disputes arise about the Interpretation and right Execution of a positive Law the constant and best Method of Understanding the Equity and true Intent of it is by running it back to its first Head and observing what is most agreeable to the Law of Nature in the Case This is the Test and Touch This the Level and the Truth by which all the rest are to be judged For as we commonly say * Anima Legis Ratio Reason is the Soul and Life of the Law here we find things clear and limpid in their Source which when drawn out into Rivulets grow foul and sullied by all that Faction and Interest Ambition and serving of Parties which corrupt all human Sanctions and Establishments And thus I have described to you a Real Substantial Radical Fundamental Honesty born with us rooted in us springing from the Seed of Universal Reason This in the Soul is like the Spring and Balance in a Clock it regulates all its motions like the Natural Warmth in the Body which sustains and preserves it self and is both its own Strength and Safety and the Person 's to whom it belongs The Man that proceeds according to This acts in conformity to the Will of God in consistence and agreement with himself in compliance with Nature and obedience to those Rules upon which all Government and Civil Constitutions are founded he proceeds smoothly gently silently His Virtue draws little Observation perhaps as it makes no Noise but slides on and keeps its Course like a Boat carried down by the Course of the Water in a Calm day Whereas all other sorts of Virtue are the Products of Art and Accident grafted into us by Discipline and not of our own natural growth fickle and out of Temper like the Intermitting Heat and Cold of a Fever they are acquired at first and drawn out into exercise afterwards by Chance and
that whereas the Concurrent Advice of all Wise men hath been to follow Nature the Generality of Mankind run away from it We let it sleep and rust upon our hands play Truant while we may learn at home and chuse to beg our Improvement abroad to have recourse to Study and Art which are comparatively sordid and despicable ways of attaining Knowledge rather than content our selves with an Independent and noble Wisdom which is generous and of our own Growth We have all of us a busy turbulent Spirit that affects to be ever managing and governing and will have a hand in every thing this is variable and humorsome perpetually bustling and restless fond of Novelty and Disguise inventing adding altering never pleased long with the same thing nor ever content with pure Nature and unaffected Simplicity but a Contemner and Vilifier of Plainness as if it were not possible for any thing to be Good which is void of Art and Cunning and nice Contrivance Thus * Simplex illa aperta Virtus in obscuram solertem Scientiam versa est Virtue which is genuine instead of the Frankness and Openness peculiar to it is corrupted and changed into dark and crafty Speculation And besides all this One Fault more we are tainted with which is The Disesteem of every thing in general which is the product of our own Soil What we can have for nothing is worth nothing it must be far fetched and dear bought to recommend it Foreign things only can please and in agreement with this Whimsey it is that we prefer Art before Nature which is in effect To shut out the Sun when shining in its Strength and to light up Candles at Mid-day All which Follies and Extravagant humours are owing to One more which is a Weakness in a manner entail'd upon the whole World That I mean of estimating things not according to their real and intrinsick Value but only according to the Shew and Figure and Noise they make which is to renounce our own Judgment and Experience and in effect to give our selves up to be determined by the Common Opinion of those who are least qualified to know or judge at all Nor does this Folly stop here but we proceed to yet higher degrees of Insolence we even trample Nature under foot disdain despise and are perfectly ashamed of it are nice in Positive and National Laws and disregard those that are Natural and Universal Nay for the sake of bringing Ceremony and Form into Reputation which is a most horrible Indignity and very Contemptuous Treatment We cancel and condemn a Law of God's making to advance Laws of Civility and Good Manners of our own forging Thus Art carries away Nature the Shadow is of greater Consideration with us than the Body and the Air and Face of things than the Solidity and Substance We take great care to cover and conceal some things that are natural that we may not give offence we blush at the very sound of some words in modesty and good breeding and yet we are under no Fears no restraint of doing things unlawful and unnatural To keep us at as great a distance from some sorts of Sins as is possible we are not allowed so much as to name the parts employed in them and yet after all this scrupulous shyness How many are there who never boggle in the least at abandoning themselves to all manner of Debauchery and Lasciviousness It was an old Complaint of the Stoicks that though some very natural and innocent Actions of Life were industriously concealed yet Many others were named without a blush which yet were in their own nature wicked and abominable and what both Nature and Reason detest such as Perjury Treachery Cheating Lying Murther and the like We may improve the Complaint by adding that in Our days Men pretend to more nicety in Conversation but these really wicked things they do not only mention without Shame but act without Fear Nay even in Treasons and Assassinations those blackest of all Villains make pretensions to Ceremony and think themselves obliged to Murther in point of Honour and Duty and when this is done that it be done with some sort of Decency Prodigious Impudence and Folly That Injustice should complain of Incivility and Malice think it self wronged by Indiscretion Does not the Art of Ceremony then plainly prevail over Nature and shew that its Influence is much stronger upon corrupt Mankind Ceremony forbids us to express some things which Nature allows and justifies and we submit contentedly Nature and Reason would restrain us from wicked and mischievous actions and no body obeys or at all regards them This is manifestly to Prostitute our Consciences and abandon all distinctions all common sense of Good and Evil and yet at the same time think our selves obliged to put on a modest Face and look grave and demure As if it mattered not what we are within so nothing appear amiss in our Countenance and the setting our looks in Form were of more consequence than the Innocence of our Souls This Hypothesis is most Monstrous and Absurd and Nature cannot furnish us with an Incongruity like it in all the Creatures that ever God made My meaning is not here what some may maliciously represent it to find fault with that Decency and Ceremony which gives an Ornament and Beauty to our Actions and ought therefore to be strictly regarded But my Complaint is like that of our Saviour to the Pharisees Ye Hypocrites ye make clean the outside of the Cup and Platter Mat. xxiii These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone One very sad effect of this so general Alteration and Corruption of our first Notions and Principles is That we are now come to that miserable pass as to have no Footsteps of pure Nature left discernible among us Insomuch that we are wonderfully perplexed and at a loss What and How many those Laws are which she prescribes to us The peculiar Character by which the Law of Nature used to be distinguished from all others is that of Universal Approbation and Consent For it must needs be supposed that what this Common Mother and Mistress of us All had really enacted and appointed for our Rule would be readily obeyed by all her Children that in This there would be as it were One Heart and One Soul and not only every Nation and Countrey but every private Man would come in and live in perfect Agreement with it Now if we come to examine matter of Fact in this Case we shall scarce find any one thing in the world which is not somewhere or other disapproved and contradicted not by a few particular Persons only nor by one single Nation but in several entire Countries And on the other hand there is not any thing in Our Apprehension so prodigious and unnatural but some Countries have entertained it and given it not only the Countenance of a favourable Opinion but the Authority of Custom and
disability is Fear and Phlegm Coldness and Listlessness There is oftentimes not the least of Real Conviction or any Principle of Conscience in it And sure a feeble Body is a very unfit Conveyance to carry us to God and drive us to Repentance and our Duty For true Repentance is somewhat very different from all this it is a particular Gift of God by which we grow wise in good earnest a Remorse which checks our hottest Career even in the midst of Springhtliness and Courage and this is what must be created and cherished in us not by the want of opportunities or of power to use them not by the weakness of a Body broken and worn out and grown unserviceable to Vice any longer but by the Strength of Reason and Thought and the better consideration of a Resolute and Vigorous Mind For nothing more argues Greatness of Soul than the Correcting our former Follies and Steadiness in a new Course of Life notwithstanding all the Difficulties and Discouragements of an entire Reformation Now One fruit of true Repentance is a frank and conscientious Confession of one's Faults Of Confessing and Excusing Faults This is usually the Sign the Consequence and in some Cases so necessary a Qualification that all Professions of Penitence without it are Hypocritical and vain It is with the Mind in these Respects as with our Bodies For as in Bodily Distempers there are two sorts of Remedies made use of One that make a perfect Cure by going to the very Root and removing the Cause of the Disease Another which only sooth the Patient consult his present Ease and are properly termed Quieting Medicines and as in this case that former Application is much more painful but withal more powerful and effectual and better for the person than the latter So likewise in the Wounds and Sicknesses of the Soul the true Remedy is of a searching and a cleansing quality and This is such an Acknowledgment of our Faults as is full of Seriousness and Shame a being content to take the Scandal and the Folly of them upon our selves But there is another deceitful Remedy which only covers and disguises them its design is not to heal so much as to conceal the Disease and this consists in Extenuations and Excuses from whence we commonly say That Wickedness makes it self a Garment to cover its own Shame This is a Remedy invented by the Author of Evil himself and it answers the Malice of his Nature and his purposes by rendring the Party so much the worse and obstructing the Methods of his Recovery Such were the Shifts and Shufflings such the Covering of their Nakedness which the First Transgressors made the Fig-leaves and the Excuses were both alike and made the Matter but so much the worse while they laboured to mend it We should therefore by all means learn to accuse our selves and get that necessary Conquest over our Pride and Self-love as frankly and fully to confess the very worst of our Thoughts and Actions and not allow our selves in any reserves of this kind For besides that this would beget a brave and generous Openness of Soul it would likewise be a wonderful Check and effectual Preservative against all such Actions and Thoughts as are not fit to be publickly known and what a Man would be ashamed of if they were so For He that obliges himself to tell all he does will be sure to take care not to do any thing which shall need to be concealed But alas the Common Practice of this naughty World is the direct contrary to the Advice I am giving Every Man is discreet and modest and secret in the Confessing but bold and free from all restraint in the Committing part For as indeed the Confidence and Hardiness of the Crime would be very much curbed and abated so likewise would it be in some measure compensated by an equal frankness and hardiness in the accusing of our Selves and acknowledging what we have done amiss For whatever Indecency there may be in doing an ill thing not to dare to confess our selves in the wrong is ten thousand times more odious and base To this purpose we may observe that there are several Instances of Persons eminent for Piety and Learning such as St. Augustin Origen Hippocrates and the like who have taken pains to disabuse the World and to publish Books wherein they confess and retract their own Mistakes and erroneous Opinions and well were it if People could be brought to such a Degree of Sincerity as to do the same in point of Morals and Misbehaviour Whereas now they oftentimes incur a greater Guilt by endeavouring to hide and smother a less for a publick premeditated Lye seems to Carry some Aggravations along with it which render it more abominable and more Vicious than some other Facts committed in secret though these be such as in their own Nature are apt to raise a greater Abhorrence and Detestation in us All This does but inflame the Reckoning it either makes the first Fault worse or adds a fresh one to it and in either case the Guilt of the Man is not abated but increased and whether we count this Increase by way of Addition or of Multiplication the Matter comes all to one CHAP. IV. The Second Fundamental Point of Wisdom The Fixing to one's self a particular End and then chalking out some determinate Track or Course of Life which may be proper for leading us to that End AFter having spoken so largely concerning this first Fundamental Point the Real and Hearty Sincerity upon which Wisdom must be built we are now led to say some small matter of the Second Predisposition which is also necessary in order to living prudently and well And That is the Pitching upon and Drawing out to one's self some determinate Method or Course of Life that we may not live at large and at random but betake our selves to some particular sort of Business or Profession which may be proper and convenient for us My meaning is such as a Man 's own Temper and Natural Disposition qualifies him for and applies it self chearfully to with this Caution only that while we follow our own Nature in particular there be a constant Regard had to the Dictates of Human Nature in general which is and ought to be the Great the General the Governing Mistress of us all as you were told in the last Chapter For Wisdom is a gentle and regular Management of our Soul that moves and acts in due measure and proportion and consists in a constant Evenness of Life and Consistency of Behaviour It must then of necessity be a matter of very great momment This no eaâ—â— matter to manage our selves well in making this Choice with regard to which People behave themselves very differently and act with great confusion and perplexity by reason of the great variety of Considerations and Motives which they are influenced with and These many times such as interfere and confound one another
happen that a Man be obliged to struggle with his own Inclination and must conquer and commit a violence upon his Nature to make it serviceable to his purpose and capable of discharging the Employment he hath taken upon him Or on the other hand if in obedience to Nature and to gratify our Inclination we are either with our own consent or insensibly and against our Wills trapann'd into a Course that falls short of our Duty or runs counter to it what miserable Confusion and Disorder must here needs be How can we ever expect Evenness under so much Force Constancy from so much Constraint or Decorum where every thing is against the Grain For as is well oberved * Si quicquam decoium nihil profecto magis quam aequabilitas Vitae universae singularum actionum quam conservare non possis si aliorum imitans Naturam omittas tuam If there be such a thing as Decency in the world it is seen in nothing more than in an easiness and consistency both of one's whole life in general and of each particular Action in it And this Decorum can never be maintain'd if you live in conformity to other people's dispositions and have no regard to the following your own There cannot be a vainer Imagination than to suppose any thing can last long or be well done and eminently good in its kind or that it can become a Man or sit easy upon him if there be not somewhat of Nature and Inclination in it †Tu nihil invitâ dices faciesve Minervâ Hor. Art Poet. Discern which way your Talent lies Nor vainly struggle with your Genius Lord Roscom * Id quemque decet quod est suum maximè Sic est faciendum ut contra naturam universam nil contendamus eâ servarâ propriam sequamur That which is most a Man 's own is always most graceful And we must always take care so to order matters as first to offer no Violence against Nature in general and then to follow our own Genius in particular But now if it should so fall out that a Man either through Misfortune Imprudence or any other Accident should perceive himself entred into a Profession and course of Life full of Trouble inconvenient and improper and that he is so deeply engaged too that there is no possibility of changing or getting quit of it in this case all that Wisdom and good Conduct hath to do is to resolve upon supporting and sweetning it keeping one's self easy and making the most of it Like skilful Gamesters who when they have an ill Throw mend it in the playing For Plato's Counsel is best upon these occasions the bearing our Chance patiently and managing it to all the Advantage an ill Bargain is capable of You see what a Knack of this kind Nature hath given to some sort of Creatures when the Bees out of an Herb so rough and harsh and dry as Thyme is can extract so sweet a Substance as Honey And this is such an Excellence as all those wise and good Men Imitate who manage Difficulties dextrously and as the Proverb expresses it make a Vartue of Necessity CHAP. V. The First Act or Office of Wisdom The Study of and serious Endeavour after True Piety THE necessary Preparations to Wisdom being thus explained in the former Chapters which are in the manner of laying our Foundation it may now be seasonable to proceed to the Building it self and erect upon this Ground-work the Rules and Precepts of Wisdom And here the First both in Order and Dignity which offers it self to our Consideration concerns true Religion and the Service of Almighty God For certainly Piety ought to have the precedence of all Virtues and is the highest and most honourable in the Scale of Duties But the greater and more important it is the more we are concerned to have a right notion of it especially when to the insinite consequence of the thing we add the danger of being mistaken and withal how very common and easy it is to deceive our selves in this point Great need therefore we have of Caution and good Adâ—ice that we may be truly informed how the Man who makes Wisdom his Aim and Business ought to manage himself upon this weighty occasion And the giving Directions of this nature is the design of my present Discourse after I have first made a short Digression concerning the State and Success of several sorts of Religion in the World Of which I shall chuse to speak but briefly here and refer my Reader for farther Satisfaction to what I have said more at large to this purpose in another Treatise of mine called the Three Truths And first of all Difference of Religions I cannot but take notice how dismal and deplorable a thing the great Variety of Relgions is which either now do or formerly have obtained in the World And which is yet a greater misfortune and reproach the Oddness of some of them Opinions and Rites so fantastical so exorbitant that it is just matter of wonder and astonishment which way the Mind of Man could so far degenerate into Brutality and be so miserably besotted with Frauds and Folly For upon examination it will appear that there is scarce any one thing so high or so low but it hath been Deified and even the vilest and most contemptible parts of the Creation have in some quarter of the World or other found People blind enough to pay them Divine Honours and Adoration Now notwithstanding this Difference be really as vast and as horrid as I have intimated or my Reader can imagine yet there seem to be some General Points in common which like Principles or Fundamentals are such as Most if not All of them have agreed in For however they may wander from one another and take different Paths afterwards yet they set out alike and walk hand in hand for some Considerable Time At least they appear and affect to do so the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of Light and undermining the Truth by Mimicking it as knowing that the most effectual Art to seduce Men is by contriving fair and plausible Lies and dressing up Wickedness in its most engaging Attire To this purpose it is observable that the most prevailing Persuasions have sprung from the same Climate and first drew breath in almost the same Air. Palestine I mean and Arabia which are Countries contiguous to one another Some of their First and main Principles are very near alike such as the Belief of one God the Maker and Governor of all things All own the Providence of God and his Particular Love and Favour for Mankind the Immortality of the Soul a Reward in Reserve for the Good and terrible Punishments which await the Wicked even after this Life some particular Profession and set Form of Solemn and External Worship by which they put up their prayers invoke the Name of God and think that a decent Honour and acceptable
of Good whatsoever The Profit or Gain which is a real Amendment and bettering of our Persons and Conditions is an essential and internal Benefit and This belongs to Man who is of himself and without this a Creature Impotent and Empty Indigent and Necessitous and miserable in all respects The Glory is not so much an Advantage as an Ornament an Additional and External Grace and This belongs to God only for he is the Fulness and Perfection of all Good so absolute and compleat that nothing can be added to his Essential Happiness and therefore Benefit is a thing he cannot receive And thus if you please you may understand that Angelick Hymn Glory to God in the Highest Luke II. 14. and on Earth Peace and Favour towards Men. Thus much being premised in general the particular Steps or Directions in this matter Piety explained must be these that follow First It is necessary that we apply our selves to study and in such a measure as we are capable to know God To know God For our Knowledge of Things is the Foundation and the Standard of the Honour we have for them The first thing then that we ought to be convinced and fully persuaded of upon this occasion is His Existence then That he created the World and that all other Beings whatsoever are the Products of his Power and Goodness and Wisdom That by these same Attributes he governs this Universe of his own making That his careful Providence watches over all things and even the least and most inconsiderable Events do not escape his observation That whatsoever his Dispensations to Us are they are all for our Good and that all our Evil comes from our selves alone For if we should account those Accidents which God appoints for us to be Evils this were to be guilty of great Prophanation and to blaspheme against his Government this were to tear up the very Foundations of all Piety and Religion because Nature teaches us to Honour and love our Benefactors but begets hatred and aversion to them that deal unkindly by us and do us mischief Our Duty therefore is to get a right Notion of God's dealings toward us to resolve that we will obey him at any rate to receive all that comes from his hand with Meekness and Contentation to commit our selves to his Protection and Care and to submit all we are and all we have to his direction and wise disposal The next Duty which follows upon our Knowing God To Honour him and which indeed results most naturally from it is the Honouring him And the best the most becoming and most Religious Honour we can pay him consists First of all In raising our Souls far above any Carnal Earthly or Corruptible Imagination and then exercising our selves in the Contemplation of the Divine Nature by all the purest the noblest the holiest and most reverent Conceptions that can be When we have adorned and represented this most excellent Being to our selves in all the most magnificent Ideas when we have given him the most glorious Names and sung forth his Praises in the most excellent manner that our Mind can possibly devise or strain it self up to we are still with all Humility to acknowledge that in all this we have not done or offered to his Majesty any thing suitable to his own Excellency or in it self worthy his Acceptance and to possess our selves with yet more awful and respectful Ideas of him by the profoundest Sense of our own Imperfections That it is not in the power of Human Nature to conceive any thing better though we plainly see that our most exalted Thoughts serve not so much to shew us his Glory as to reproach us with our own Weakness and Defects For God is the last and highest Flight which our Imagination is able to make when it would soar up towards absolute Perfection and in aspiring to this Idea every Man le ts loose his Mind and enlarges his Notions according to his own Capacity or rather indeed God is infinitely greater and higher than all the boldest and bravest Flights of poor feeble Man a Perfection more exquisite more bright than the Dim Eye of Mortals can receive the Lustre of or the most tow'ring Imagination make any approach to We must also serve this God Sincerely in Spirit and from the Heart for this is a sort of Service To serve him with our Spirit Joh. iv 24. which is most agreeable to his Nature God himself is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth says he who best knew both what he was and what he expects from Us. This Argument the very Heathens could enforce for Inward Purity and a Sanctified Mind * Si Deus est animus sit purâ mente colendus This he will not only accept but it is what he seems desirous of and hath declared will be exceeding welcome and delightful The Father seeketh such to worship him V. 23. The Offering of a sweet-smelling Savour and what he values indeed is That of a clean free and humble Spirit The Mind is a Sacrifice to God says Seneca an unspotted Soul and an Innocent Life And thus others †Optimus Animus pulcherrimus Dei Cultus Religiosissimus Cultus imitari Unicus Dei Cultus non esse malum Lactant. Merc. Trism He that brings the best heart worships God best The most Religions Adoration is to imitate the Perfections of Him we adore The only way of serving God is not to be an ill Man The truly Wise Man is a True Priest of the most High God His Mind is God's Temple and the House where his Honour dwelleth His Soul is God's Image a Ray or Reflection of that Brightness and Glory above His Affections and Appetites like so many Oblations are all consecrated and entirely devoted to his use and service And his great his daily his most solemn Sacrifice is to imitate and serve and obey him You see how different this is from that absurd Notion of those People who make Religion consist in Giving to God Alas what can We give to Him All is his own already and the most we can possibly do is but to restore and pay back what his Bounty hath bestowed upon us But we are wretchedly mistaken if we imagine it possible for God to receive any Addition or be enriched from Men No he is above all That Our business must be to ask of Him to implore his Favour and Assistance for our Wants and Weaknesses It is the Character of the Great to give and of the Poor and Mean to ask And therefore we may easily discern which of these two parts belongs to an Infinite Almighty God and which to wretched indigent Mortals Acts xx 35. It is more blessed to give than to receive And however he may graciously condescend to interpret those Works of Mercy done for his sake yet in the way of Sacrifice and Worship of himself it is a
and restores our Souls to perfect Liberty and true Enjoyment Instead of locking us up in the dark it sets us in the clearest and brightest Light and serves us as we use to deal by the best Fruits when we take off the Skin or Shell or other Covering that so we may see and use them and taste their Natural Excellence It removes us out of a streight inconvenient Dwelling from a Dark and Rheumatick and Diseased Place where we can see but a very little Spot of Heaven and only receive Light by Reflection and at a vast distance through Two little Holes of our Eyes into a Region of absolute Liberty confirmed and uninterrupted Health perpetual and incessant Light a Sun that never sets and Endless Day without any gloomy Intervals * Aequaliter tibi splendebit omne Coeli latus Totam lucem suo loco prope totus aspicies quam nunc per angustissimas ocuâ—orum Vias procul intueris miraris A Place where our Faculties shall be enlarged and all Heaven will display it self to us where we shall not only see Light but dwell with it in its own proper Sphere In a word It delivers us from the very Thing we dread most by making us Immortal and putting a sinal and full Conclusion to that Death which took place from the Instant we came into the World and was finished at our Passage into Eternity †Dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est For the Day we have such dreadful Apprehensions of as if it were to be our Last is really our First the joyful Birthday into a Life which can never have an End We come now to consider the Second Sort of Resentment which Men are affected with upon the account of Death which is Waiting for and entertaining it with contented and chearful Minds when it comes This is indeed the Quality of a Good a Gentle and well-governed Spirit and the Practice of it is peculiar to a plain easy way of living and to Persons who as they make the best of Life and enjoy the Quiet of it so know very well how to esteem it as it deserves but still they make Reason the Standard of all their Affections and Actions and as they are well satisfied to stay here so they readily obey when Providence thinks fit to call them out of the World This is a Medium very justly tempered a Masterly Greatness of Soul and such an Indifference to all here below as a Life of Retirement and Peace seems best qualified for and the Two Extremes between which it lies are Desiring and Dreading Courting and Running away from Death accoring to that of the Poet * Summum nec metuas diem nec optes With Courage firm and Soul sedate Attend the Motions of thy Fate And whether Death be far or near Live free from eager Wish and anxious Fear Now these Extremes except there be some very particular and uncommon Reason to give them countenance are both of them Vicious and exceeding blameable and when I come hereafter to speak of this Matter in its proper place you will see that nothing less than a very extraordinary Cause can render them so much as excusable To desire and pursue Death is very criminal for it is very unjust to throw away one's Life without a sufficient Reason it is spightful to the World and injurious to our Friends to grudge them the longer Use and Continuance of a thing which may be serviceable to them It is the blackest Ingratitude to God and Nature thus to slight and throw back again the best and most valuable Present they can make us as if it were a Trifle or a Burden not worth our keeping It savours too much of Peevishness and Pride and shews us humoursome and difficult when we cannot be easy and bear the Lot that falls to our share but will needs quit our hands of the Station God hath called us to when there is nothing extraordinary to render it cumbersome And on the other hand to fear and flee Death when summoned to it is an Offence against Nature Justice Reason and every Branch of our Duty since Dying is Natural Necessary and Unavoidable Reasonable and Just First It is Natural Dying is Natural it is a part of that Great Scheme by which the Order of the Universe is established and maintained and the whole World lives and subsists And who are We that all this Regularity should be broken and a new System contrived in Our Favour Death is really one of the Principal and most Material Articles in the Constitution and Administration of this vast Republick and of infinite Use and Advantage it is for determining the Continuance and promoting a Constant Succession of the Works of Nature The Failure of Life in One Instance propagates it afresh in a Thousand others * Sic Rerum Summa novatur Thus Life and Death successive keep their round Things dye to live and by decays abound But which comes nearer home Death is not only a part of this Great Complex and Universal Nature but of thy Own Nature in particular and That every whit as essential a part as that Birth which gave Thee Life So that in cherishing an Aversion and running away from This thou attemptest to flee from thy own self Thy Being is divided equally between Death and Life These are the Two Proprietors and each claims a share and hath an indefeasible Right in every one of us These are the Terms upon which Thou wer't created and Life was given with a Purpose and upon Condition of being taken away rather indeed it was only lent and like all other Trusts or Debts must be demanded back and may be called in at pleasure If then the Thoughts of Dying discontent Thee consider that the Hardship does not lye here but carry thy Reflections higher and be concerned that ever thou wast born For either there is no cause of Repining in either case or else the Ground of all the Complaint lies in having lived at all You had Neighbours Fare and purchased Life at the Market Price which is The laying it down again no body hath it cheaper and therefore they who do not like the Bargain and are loth to go out again should have refused at first and never come into the World at all But this is what Men were they capable of such a Choice would never do if their Fondness of Life be so excessively great The First Breath you drew bound you fast and all the Advances you made toward a more perfect Life were so many Steps toward Death at the same time †Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Asson as born we dye and our Live's End Upon its first Beginning does depend Manil. Ast 4. To be concerned then that we must Dye is to be concerned that we are Men for every one that is so is Mortal And upon the strength of this Impression it
Good especially that God likes us the better merely because we use our selves the worse is a very Fantastical and Erroneous Imagination And such as any Communion or Party of Men by Encouraging do great Injury to the Honour of God deceive the Souls of Penitents and hinder the Essentials of Religion which are Faith and Newness of Life In short They expos Religion in general to the scorn of all those who see the Foppery and unreasonableness of those mistaken Methods and call the very foundations of it into Question by tempting such to think that it is all Invention and Trick and Empty Sensless Formality Advertisement the Second Book II. Chap. 5. Sect. 8. Monsieut Charron hath in this Section put together Two Objections against the Divine Origine of Religion and such as no doubt do it prejudice in the Minds of Men who do not attend to the Reasons of things and judge impartially The First concerns the Manner of Propagating Religion and Man's first entrance into it The Second That want of Efficacy which one would expect an Institution coming immediately from God must needs have upon the Lives and Actions of Those who have Embraced and profess to be Governed by it I. Page 125. The Former of These is urged to be only a matter of Custom and Necessity the Fate of a Man rather than his Choice who if Adult is brought over by Custom and Multitudes and if an Infant is presently initiated into the prevailing Persuasion of his Country or his Family and so continues all his Life long Now for Custom and Multitudes and Example it is very evident This was much otherwise in the first Plantation of Religion that of the Christian in particular A Persuasion which it is manifest came into the World with all possible disadvantages and the Establishment whereof was one of the most amazing Miracles that ever was wrought since the Beginning of the World For People had common Sense then as well as now and all the Corruptions of Human Nature were equally powerful There was the same Arrogance and Vain Opinion of their own Wisdom to render the Mysteries which are acknowledged above the Comprehension of a Human Mind offensive to the Men of some Learning and more Vanity The same sensual Appetites and Vicious Practices to hold out and stand at defiance against the Precepts of Chastity and Sobriety Self-denial and Mortification The same Pride and Opinion of Worldly Grandeur to raise their Indignation and Disdain of a Crucified Saviour The same Love of the World and Tenderness for their Persons to prevent any rash Sacrificing of their Lives and Estates for a Persecuted Faith when nothing was promised in Reward but a very distant Happiness after Death And yet notwithstanding prevail that Faith did in despight of Human Opposition and Interest and prevail it could not have done by any other means than the Almighty Power of its Author and Protector and the Astonishing Effects which the Conviction of its Truth produced upon men's Consciences This certainly was Argument sufficient even to Demonstration that those Words were not in any degree misapplied when put into the Mouth of Christianity and its Preachers Not of Man neither by Man nor of any other Creature but of God And shall it be esteemed any Prejudice to this Religion that Men do not still lie under the same Difficulties in the Choice of it When it hath made its own way triumphantly and weatied out or won over its Persecutors shall the Multitude of its Professors and the Peaceable and Easy Exercise of it be thought to derogate from its Authority Sure it is very unreasonable that Faith should be thought of Divine Extract no longer than while it bids Men embrace it at their Peril The being handed down in Families is a plain and natural Effect of an Established Principle Parents could not have the Affection which becomes their Character did they not take all lawful and Commendable Methods of putting their Children into the same way to Heaven which they trust they are in themselves Especially if the Case lie between any other Persuasion and Christianity which we have reason to believe is the only possible Ordinary way thither The entring Children early into Covenant with God is a very Profitable and Charitable Custom what He himself not only admitted but enjomed formerly and since He is much more eminently the Father of the Christians than of the Jews we have no reason to suspect they shall be less favourably received when as early dedicated to him This gives Security that they shall be taught when their Years enable them to learn how they ought to believe and act so that if their Religion afterwards be merely the effect of Custom and Example This is utterly beside the Design of Those early Initiations where the Express Contrary is positively indented for If Men happen to be bred up in a wrong Persuasion there is little Question to be made but great and gracious Allowances will be made for that fast hold which the Prepossessions of Education have taken But be they in the right or in the wrong it is every One's duty so far as his Opportunities and Capacity will give him leave to examine and see that he may have comfort and be better established in the Truth or else retract his Error Where This is not done it is a neglect and far from the intent of Truth for Truth will bear Enquiry and the more nicely she is look'd into the better she is lik'd the more admired and triumphs and reigns more absolute St. Peter positively commands that we should be ready to give a Reason of the Hope that is in us 1 Pet. III. 15. and though Men are more disposed to consider when their Opinions are like to cost them dear yet the Reason of the Command is Universal and by no means restrained to Times of Persecution only Every Man should do his best to obey it and every Persuasion ought to encourage it and if any do not but hide the Key of Knowledge either by detaining the Scriptures or not leaving Men to the Free Use of Modest and Impartial Reason These are the Men who are most contrary to St. Peter and best deserve the Censure of Monsieur Charron in this Passage II. The Second Insinuation against the Divine Authority of Religion is taken from the Visible Inefficacy of it upon Men's Lives as if all that came from God must needs be effectual for reforming the World Now This how popular and plausible soever at first appearance yet is an Argument of no Foundation or Strength at all For the Short of the Matter lies here Religion never was intended to destroy Men's Nature but only to mend it to change Men indeed in their Affections and Inclinations but so as that this Change should be wrought by themselves Hence it is that though the Grace of God be Almighty yet Man is not a proper Object for its Omnipotence to exert it self upon For
Justice We may nay we must sometimes use Artifice and Subtilty we may sometimes wheel off a little and fetch a Compass about it but we must never lose Sight of it much less turn our Backs upon it and cast all Regard for so Sacred a Thing behind us For there is a Cunning very consistent with Virtue and strict Honour such as St. Basil the Great calls a Great and Commendable Cunning Magna laud tbilis Astutia such as tends to Good and may be used as Mothers and Physicians deal by their Children and their Patients when they tell them fine Stories to amuse and entertain them and by degrees cheat them into Health In short many things may be transacted secretly and in the dark which are not sit for publick View and will not bear an opener Process Prudence and Stratagem may be added to Courage and Strength Art and Wit may supply the Defects of Nature and Force in cases which these are not sufficient to manage A Governour may nay he ought to be as Pindar calls it a Lion in the Field and a Fox at the Council-Table or as that Divine Saviour who was Truth it self hath exprest himself upon another occasion He may be a subtle Serpent but still a harmless Dove To say somewhat of this Matter more particularly and give the Reader a distinct Notion Distrusting others what sort of Subtlety I mean I say that Distrust and the keeping himself much upon the Reserve is highly requisite in a Prince and this is to be done without abandoning Virtue and Equity Distrust which is the former of these two Qualifications is absolutely necessary as indeed its contrary Credulity and Easiness and rash Confidence is a very great Fault and of most dangerous Consequence to a Prince For his Station obliges him to Vigilance he is accountable for the whole Community and therefore no Faults of his own can be light and inconsiderable and where every Action hath so mighty effect such universal Influence great Care should be taken and every thing done advisedly If he be of a confiding Temper he discovers his Intentions and lays himself open to Shame and Reproach and a world of Dangers * Opportunus Injuriae Senec. Aditum nocendi Perfido praestat Fides He lays himself in the way of being ill used nay he even invites and tempts treacherous and deceitful People to practise upon him and gives them a power to do a World of Mischief with very little danger and great Opportunities of Advantage to themselves Knaves have always the Inclination to be false and trusting them gives them Ability of gratifying that Inclination to our Prejudice A Prince should always retreat behind this Shield of Diffidence as some of the Philosophers have stiled it who represent it as a very considerable Branch of practical Wisdom the very Nerves and Sinews that impart Strength and Motion That Diffidence I mean which consists in keeping ones Eyes open ones Mind in suspence suspecting and providing against every thing And for all this he will not need any more convincing Reason any stronger Inducement than barely the reflections upon the Temper and Condition of the World would give him To observe how all Mankind are made up of Falshood and Deceit of Tricks and Lies how Unfaithful and Dangerous how full of Disguise and Design all Conversation is at present become but especially how much more it abounds near his own Person and how manifestly Hypocrisie and Dissimulation are the reigning Qualities of Prince's Courts and Great Men's Families above any other places whatsoever A King therefore must be sure to trust but Few but very Few and those should always be such as long Acquaintance and many Tryals have given him a perfect Understanding and good Assurance of And even these most intimate Confidents must be consulted with so discreetly that he never commit himself entirely and without any reserve to them he must not give them all the Rope but constantly keep one End in his own Hand and how long a Range soever he think sit to allow them yet it will be very necessary to have an Eye always upon their Motions But yet at the same time this very Distrust must be concealed and dissembled too and in the very midst of his Reserves a Prince must put on the Air of Openness and Friendship and appear to repose a mighty Confidence in those about him For nothing is more provoking and offensive than plainly to see one s self suspected and this Distance and Jealousie is sometimes as strong a Temptation to Treachery and soul Play as too supine and free a Confidence * Multi fallere docuerunt timentes falli Sen. Many Persons says Seneca have put it into People's Heads to deceive them who would never have harbour'd any such Thought if their own Fears of being deceived had not given the first Hint And thus it is sometimes in the other Extreme too A very great Frankness and declar'd Reliance oftentimes takes off the Inclination to betray a Secret and wrong the good Opinion and Confidence you have of them And many People have been brought over to strict Loyalty and Fidelity and hearty Affection by seeing themselves freely dealt with For * Vult quisque sibi credi habita sides ipsam plerunque obligat fidem Every body naturally loves to be trusted and the reposing a more than ordinary Confidence sometimes sixes a Man in Your Interests and engages him to be Secret and Faithful So much Ingenuity still remains in the most degenerate Minds that they see the Odiousness of Treachery and Falâ—hood and tho' Gain put toomany upon doing the thing yet not one of all those can bear the Imputation or be reconciled to the Character of Falsifying a Trust From that Distruct springs Dissimulation which is a Branch of the same Stock Dissimulation For were there no such thing as Diffidence and Reserve but Frankness and Fidelity and Good Assurance every-where there would be no place left for Dissembling whose Business it is to open the Face but cover the Heart and while one's outward Air seems to unlock all to keep the Thoughts and Intentions close and unseen Now the same Dissimulation which in Persons of private Condition would be vicious and abominable is in Princes highly commendable there is no discharging their weighty Affairs without it and the very thing which ruins common Conversation is the best Security and necessary support of Government Feints and Pretences are absolutely requisite not in Military Conduct only and time of War to amuse Enemies and Strangers but even in Peace and Civil Administration towards one's own Subjects tho' upon such Occasions I confess they ought to be practised more sparingly and nicely The plain and free and open such as we commonly say carry their Heart in their Faces are by no means cut out for the Business of Governing they often ruine and betray both themselves and their People And yet as was observed
significant Part of it that so his Eye may command all the Quarters and like the Sun in the midst of the Firmament pierce enlighten and warm all round about him with the Influence of his Beams For when a Prince resides in some very remote Corner of his Dominions this Distance emboldens those in the contrary Extremity to behave themselves insolently and grow Tumultuous and Unruly As forâ—h's Conversation That should be very reserved his Considents and familiar Friends but few his Progresses and other Appearances in publick but seldom that the People may always be eager and glad to see him For the shewing himself often and giving too easie Access to his Person will mightily lessen the Majesty of his Character * Continunâ— Aspectus minùs verendos magnos homines ipsa satietate facit Liv. The being always admitted to the Sight and Presence of Great Persons does mightily impair and diminish our Respect by Glutting our Curiesity says one of the Roman Historians And another to this purpose †Majestati major ex longinquo Reverentia quia omne ignotum pro magnih co est Majesty is always most reverenc'd at a distance for Nature forms all our Idea's bigger than the Life and what we are not acquainted with is always fancy'd to be very Great and Stately After the Three Things already treated of The fourth Head Counsel The Knowlege of his People and Government the Virtues of his Mind and the Fashion and Address of the Prince all which are inseparable from his own Person The next things we are led to consider are such as are near and about his Person And therefore in the fourth place let us say somewhat concerning his Counsel which in truth is the main Point of all this Head which relates to his Politicks and of Consequence so vast that it is in a manner All in All. For Counsel is the Soul of any Government the Spirit that insuses Life and Motion Energy and Vigour into all the rest And upon the Account of This it is that the Management of Affairs consists in Prudence because Hand are of no Significance at all till the Heads have cut them out their Work and prescrib'd their Methods It were indeed to be wish'd That a Prince were enrich'd with so great a Stock of Prudence and Consideration as to be able himself to govern and dispose and contrive every thing without calling in Help from abroad This is such a Sufficiency as the first Chapter of this Book observed to be the Noblest Perfection and highest Degree of Wisdom and no Question can be made but that Matters would be better order'd and more successfully dispatch'd if it could be so But this is an Accomplishment meerly imaginary no Instance of it is to be found in Nature whether it be that Princes want the Advantage of Good Temper or Good Instruction And indeed let Nature be never so bountiful and Education never so proper yet it is scarce possible to suppose That all the Parts and all the Improvements in the World could ever qualifie one single Head for the Comprehending and Direction of such infinite Variety of Business * Nequit Princeps suâ scientià cuncta complecti nee unius Mens tantae molis est capax No Prince says Tacitus can have a Reach so great as to be Master of all his Concerns no one Mind is strong enough to carry so great a Burden A single Man hears and sees but very little in Comparison But Kings have need of abundance of Eyes and Ears to assist and give Intelligence Great Weights and great Undertakings can only be made light by a Multitude of Hands And therefore it is absolutely necessary for a Prince to provide himself with good Advice and with Persons every way capable of giving it for as the Case stands and the Intrigues of Government are perplex'd he that will take upon him to do all of his own Head shall much sooner six upon himself the Character of Pride and Conceitedness than gain the Reputation of Wisdom A Prince then of all Men hath most need of faithful Friends Liv. and diligent Servants who may assist him in his Difficulties and ease him of part of his Cares These are the real the most valuable Treasures of a King Tacit. and the most useful Instruments to the Publick And therefore the first and great Care must be to make a wise Choice of Assistants and employ the utmost Application Plin. and bend all one's Judgment to have such as are excellent and proper for a Post of such vast Importance Now of these Assistants there are two sorts One that contribute their Advice and Project only Xenoph. and these employ their Wit and their Tongue and are in strict propriety of Speech Counsellors the Other are concern'd in the executive part they lend us their Hands and their Pains and these are more properly styled Officers Of these the former sort are in much the more Honourable Character For thus the two great Philosophers have declared their Opinion Plato Aristot that it is a most Sacred and Divine Accomplishment to consider judiciously and be able to advise well Now in Persons thus to be chosen and employed Qualifications of Counsellors several Qualifications are necessary As first of all It is necessary to choose such as are Faithful and fit to be trusted that is in one Word Men of Virtue and good Principles * Optimum quemque sidelissimum puto I take for granted says Pliny that the better Man any one is the more stanch and true be is and more safe to be depended upon Secondly They must be Persons of Ability and proper for this Office not only in regard of their Knowledge and Learning in general but upon the Account of their Skill in Politicks and that express Form of Government in particular such as have been used and try'd before and have come off with Honour and Success versed in Business and accustomâ—d to Difficulties For Hardships and Adversities are the most useful and improving Lessons †Mihi Fortuna multis rebus ereptis usum dedit bene suadendi Mithr in Salusi Fortune says one in the room of many Advantages which she hath torn frem me hath given me the Faculty of Advice and Posuasion And in one Word They must be wise and discreet moderately quick not too sprightly and sharp for such Men will be always projecting And â‚ Novandis quam gerendis rebus aptiora ingenia illa ignea Mon of Fire are more for Change than steady Management Now in order to these Qualifications it is necessary that they should be Men of ripe Years to give them Stayediness Experience and Consideration nay I may add to inspire them with Caution too for it is one of the many Unhappinesses attending Youth that Persons then are easily imposed upon of which the Tenderness and Softness of their Brain may perhaps be one reason as that
a brighter Image of Virtue and Magnanimity than a Monarch pardoning the Affronts and Ill-Usage which he never deserv'd But it is also very often the most prudent and politick Course and most effectual Security to him for the Future For Men who have any the least remains of Ingenuity and Humanity will be melted by it into Repentance and better Principles Perfidiousness it self will be put out of Countenance and others who see such eminent Goodness will be ashamed of any base Design and effectually diverted from pursuing or projecting it And of this Augustus hath given us a famous Instance both as to the Prudential and the Successful Part in his Behaviour to Cinna when engaged in a Conspiracy against him SECT VI. Treasonable Practices BY Treachery and Treasonable Practices I understand a secret Attempt or Conspiracy not against the Prince's own Person or the Government in general as the former Head was but against some particular Post or Place of Strength or some distinct and less Body of Men. In this respect it differs from what went before but they both agree in their Nature and Character of being secret and unforeseen Evils extremely dangerous if they succeed and as hard to be avoided or prevented For the Traytor is commonly hid in a Crowd in the very midst of the Party he designs to betray or of the Fortification which he intends to make sale of and deliver up into the Enemies hand The Persons most disposed to this abominable perfidious Trade are the Covetous the sickle and fond of Change and the formal Dissemblers And this Quality too they have that they make a mighty Noise and Bustle with their Loyalty are large in their Commendations of it violently and unseasonably clamorous against all breach of Trust superstitiously nice in Matters of little or no Consequence and these Pretences and Extraordinary Affectations of Fidelity by which they labour to conceal their Villany are really the best and surest Marks to discover and distinguish them by For they are so natural to Men of such Principles that any Man who knows what it is to over-act a Part cannot but find them out Now the Directions proper for such Occasions are for the most part the same with those in the former Case Only in the Matter of Punishment indeed this difference is to be made That These Men ought to be made Examples immediately to be dealt with after a very rigorous manner and excluded from all Mercy For they are Men of wretched profligate incorrigible Tempers the Bane and Pest of Mankind no Reformation is to be expected from them and therefore since Pity is lost as to all hopes of doing Good upon the Offenders themselves it is necessary they should be cut off for the Sake and Safety of others SECT VII Disorders and Popular Insurrections OF these I reckon several Sorts according as the Causes which provoke and kindle these Combustions the Persons concern'd in them the Manner and the Continuance of the Disorders differ The Variety whereof will appear more evidently by treating in the following Sections of Factions and Combinations Seditions Tyranny Rebellion and Civil Wars But at present I shall insist upon the plainest and most generally receiv'd Notion of the Word for such Risings of the People as proceed from some present Heat and are only a Tumult soon up and soon down again The Prescriptions proper for this Distemper are To draw them if possible to a Parley to try if they can be prevail'd with to hear Reason and in case they will suffer themselves to be argu'd with Then to expostulate and remonstrate things fairly by the Interposition of some Person of established Reputation eminent Virtue powerful Eloquence and skill'd in Address One whose Gravity and Industry and Authority may be sufficient to gain upon them and soften the Fury even of an incens'd Rabble For at the Presence of a Person thus qualify'd they will presently be Thunder-struck and all he says will gain credit and make its own way through them * Veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Jamque faces saxa volant furor arma ministrat Tum pietate gravem ac mentis si forte virum quem Conspexere silent arrectisque auribus astant Ille regit dictis animos pectora mulcet Virgil. As when in Tumults rise th' ignoble Crowd Swift are their Motions and their Tongues are loud And Stones and Brands in rattling Vollies fly And all the Rustick Arms that Fury can supply If then some Grave and Pious Man appear They hush their Noise and lend a listning Ear He sooths with sober Words their angry Mood And quenches their innate Desire of Blood Mr. Dryden It may not be amiss upon some Occasions for the Prince himself to appear among them but then he must take great Care in what manner this be done He must have a serene and free Countenance an Air of Gayety and Assurance a Soul at perfect Liberty and free from all Apprehension of Death or Danger and ready prepared to entertain the worst Treatment that can possibly happen to him For to shew himself with a Face full of Fear and Distrust to descend to Flatrery and mean Remonstrances is beneath a Prince's Character It makes him cheap and contemptible encourages the Insolence of the People and does but inflame instead of appeasing their Rage This therefore was done exactly as ought to be by Caesar who when his Legions were in a Mutiny and rose up in Arms against him is described in the midst of them thus †Stetit aggere fulti Cespitis intrepidus vultu meruitque timeri Nil metuens mdash Lucan On the Top Of a Turf Mount stands Caesar fearless up Deserving Dread by his undaunted Look The same Account in effect does Tacitus give of Augustus composing the Discontents of his Legions at Actium So that upon the whole Matter there are two ways of managing the Mobb and quieting them when they run into Tumults and riotous Insurrections The best and bravest is that of the Prince himself quieting them but This as I observ'd is a nice Undertaking and had much better be waved if he have not an absolute Mastery over his Passions and be not in all Points qualify'd for the managing it dexterously The other which is more usual and more seasible is to do it by another hand and here a greater Latitude may be allow'd than the Majesty of a Monarch can admit of Flattery and Cajolling and all the Arts of Mollifying are the proper Applications for Stiffness and open Force will do nothing and the more you oppose the Torrent the higher and louder it grows The many-headed Beast is in this regard like all other Wild ones which are never to be tam'd with Blows and Beating but may be brought to hand by soothing and gentle Usage And therefore an Agent should never spare for good Words and fair Promises since these are
for these will but ferment there and gall him and therefore it is necessary he should stay with him till all that Uneasiness be got over In order whereunto he must contrive to turn his Discourse upon some common entertaining Subject which may divert the present remembrance of the Reprehension and bring them to part very good Friends and in perfect Humour CHAP. X. Of Flattery Lying and Dissimulation FLattery is a most dangerous Poyson to all private Persons that drink and suck it in Flattery But as for Princes it is almost the Only the Universal Cause of their Ruin and infinitely fruitful in Mischiefs to their Subjects and Government in general by betraying them to and supporting them in their Tyranny and Male-Administration It is a Thousand times worse than False-witness That deceives and mis-leads the Judge it draws a Sentence from him wicked and unreasonable in it self but not so with regard to Him for his Will and Judgment are blameless They proceed according as Matters appear in Evidence and so the Man preserves his Integrity still But here the very Mind and Judgment is debauch'd the Soul is charm'd and bewitch'd made incapable of improving in the Knowledge of the Truth and utterly averse from the Love of it It is a Rank and spreading Evil for if once a Prince be corrupted by Flattery and fond of it there is a necessity that all about him who desire to be well in his Opinion and hope to make their Fortunes by his Favour should turn Flatterers For Interest and Ambition will not fail to make Converts enough and the Rule these govern themselves by is to study and practise what they see agreeable and likely to recommend them most to the good Graces of their Patron Whatever can be said to shew the Excellence of Truth all That proves the Baseness and Deformity of Flattery They who esteem and adore the one must in proportion despise and detest the other which indeed is nothing else but the Corruption and Perverting of the Truth It is a pitiful mean Vice the Submission of a poor degenerate Spirit an Effeminacy and Weakness as unbecoming a Man as Garishness and Affected Confidence is to a Woman * Ut Matrona Meritrici dispar erit atque Discolor infido Scurrae distabit Amicus Horat. Lib. XVIII Not Friends and faithless Flatterers differ more Than a chast Woman and a common Whore Upon this Account Flatterers are compar'd to Strumpets to Sorcerers Poysoners Publick Cheats Debauchers of Mankind nay to Wolves and Foxes and a wise Author declares it better to fall among Birds of Prey and be Crow's Meat than come into the Hands of Flatterers There are two Sorts of Persons who lie open to Flattery and as they never want sawning People who are always ready to offer them this Trash so they for the most part as greedily receive and swallow it These are Princes with whom these Hucksters get into Credit and grow acceptable by this means and the Ladies who are so marvelously delighted with hearing well of themselves that the most usual and successful Stratagem for corrupting their Virtue is generally thought to be the entertaining them with their own Commendations It is really very hard to avoid the Danger of Flattery and so to arm and strengthen our Minds that they shall be proof against all its Insinuations 'T is particularly so to Women by reason of their natural Disposition which by a Weakness almost universal to the Sex inclines them to be fond of Vanity and greedy of Praise And it must needs be so to Princes by reason their Relations and Friends and prime Ministers such as they must of necessity hold constant conversation with are all bred up to this Trade and value themselves upon being expert and dextrous in it Alexander who was so great a Monarch with all the Philosophy of his Tutor Aristotle to Arm him could not stand against it And tho' we commonly pretend to lessen and condemn Kings for suffering themselves to be thus imposed upon yet there is never an one of us all but if we were in Their Circumstances and perpetually laid at by Parasites and Sycophants as They are we should be a Thousand Times worse than They. No Man of ordinary Condition can be a competent Judge in this case because he cannot have any Thing like the Tryals and Temptations of an elevated Post But tho' Flattery like Diseases do not seize all Persons and Constitutions alike yet contagious it is and no Man lives utterly out of the reach of its venomous Infection There is somewhat so agreeable that even They who hate and seem most to reject it conceive a secret Pleasure and shut the Door against it so faintly that after many pretended Denyals it is let in and kindly entertain'd in private That which adds to the danger is that Men are tainted by it insensibly for it is so cunningly varnish'd over so disguis'd with a Mask of Friendship which it affects always to wear that one cannot very easily distinguish between them It usurps and invades all her good Offices puts on her Air and Countenance calls it self by her Name counterfeits her Voice in short observes the Tone the Meen the Readliness the Zeal so that you would swear it could be none but she The Business of Flattery is to please and be taking It pays marvellous Respect and Deference is very liberal in Praises exceeding officious and eager to serve the Person apply'd to and careful to be always in good Humour or indeed in any Humour that prevails and will be most agreeable at that time Nay to shew how exquisite the Hypocrisie of this Vice is it goes a great deal farther and ventures upon the last and highest the severest and most dangerous Act of Friendship and is free and full in its Expostulations and Reproofs In own Word the Flatterer's Care is always to profess and make himself believ'd much more sincere and passionate in his Affection and Concern for the Person whom he addresses to than he is or can be to Him in return But all these boasting and pompous Pretensions notwithstanding there is not in the World any thing more destructive of true Friendship Ill Language Affronts open and avowed Enmity are not in reality greater Contradictions how different soever they are in Figure and outward Shew It is the very Bane of all Sincerity and true Love they are irreconcilable and cannot dwell together * Non potes me simul Amico Adulatore uti When once I am your Friend I cease to Flatter and when I begin to Flatter from that very instant you may conclude me none of your Friend And therefore that Observation is most true †Meliora vulnera diligentis quà m oscula blandientis That the Wounds and Strokes of a Friend are better and more desirable than the Kisses of a Flatterer Those tho' we feel some Pain in them are yet well intended and may contribute to our Benefit
Parts The Preventing Ill Habits and Cultivating Good Ones The Former is the more Necessary and Requires the more diligent Attention of the Two And This is a Business which ought to be begun very early indeed a Man can hardly set about it too soon For Vicious Dispositions grow into Habits apace so that the Corruption of Nature is sure to be beforehand with us and if these Things be not stifled in the Birth it is very difficult Dealing with them afterwards I suppose I need not say that this Endeavour ought to be Universal and bend it self against all Vice without Exception But some there are which I shall mention and recommend the subduing of more especially because they are more incident to that Condition of Life and therefore more formidable than the rest The First is Lying A pitiful poor-spirited Vice the Character of Slaves and Cowards the most ungenteel Quality that can be and certain Indication of a base degenerate and timorous Soul but more particularly sit to be caution'd against in this Place because harsh Methods and rigorous Severities in the Education of Children very often fright them into it at first and lay the seeds of Fear and Falshood for their whole Lives The Second is an Aukward Bashfulness which puts them upon hiding their Faces hanging down their Heads blushing and looking out of Countenance when they are spoken to makes them incapable of bearing any sort of Correction or the least angry Word without being disordered and put quite out of Humor A great deal of This is owing to the Natural Weakness and Tenderness of their Minds but this Infirmity must be corrected by Study and Application by learning them to bear Admonition and Rebukes using them to see Company and fortifying them with a becoming Assurance and Presence of Mind Thirdly All Affectation and Singularity in their Dress their Mean their Gate their Gestures their Speech and every other Part of Behaviour Making their Deportment and Conversation Masculine and free easie and unconstrained For Affectation is a sure Sign of Vanity an inordinate Desire of recommending themselves by doing somewhat particular and out of the common Road and is extremely Nauseous and Offensive to all Companies it displeases even where it labours to oblige and casts a Blemish upon our best Actions and kindest Intentions * Licet sapere sine pompâ sine invidià A Man may be Wise without Ostentation and should labour to be so without giving Prejudice or Offence But especially They must check and utterly banish all Anger and Peevishness and Spight and Obstinacy And in order hereunto It will be a good Rule to settle a Resolution never to gratifie Children when they are froward nor give them any thing they cry and are outragious for To make them sensible betimes that these Arts will never do them service and are therefore unprofitable as well as unbecoming Another necessary Course to this purpose will be never to flatter or wheedle or caress them in their querulous Humours for Fondness and Indulgence which is blameable at all times is of most dangerous consequence at such times as these This absolutely ruines them to all Intents and Purposes incourages them to be Passionate and Sullen if they have not what they ask for and renders them at length Obstinate and Headstrong Intractable and Insolent For * Nihil magisreddet Iracundos quam Educatio mollis blanda Nothing disposes Men more to extravagant Passion and Resentment than the being humour'd and cocker'd in their Infancy and the greatest part of those Fretful Exceptious and Self-conceited Qualities which render Conversation so difficult and so full of Cavils as we find it are owing most certainly to a Failure in this part of Education The Niceness and Tenderness they have been us'd with in their Infancy and the Unreasonable Compliances with their Passions then have absolutely broke their Tempers and make them Whimsical and Jealous Furious and domineering all their Life-long They expect because Mothers and Nurses have done it to my young Master and Miss that all the World shou'd submit to their Humours when they come to be Men and Women But it is not sufficient to clear the Soil of Weeds and Bryars except you sow it with good Seed and therefore at the same time you root out Ill Habits Care must be taken to implant Good ones The first and most important part whereof is to Infuse into them and take care they be throughly season'd with a becoming Reverence and awful Fear of God learning them to tremble at his infinite and incomprehensible Majesty to admire and adore the Perfection of his Holiness to take his Name into their Mouths but very seldom and when they do to mention it with Gravity and great Respect to discourse of his Power his Wisdom his Eternal Essence his Will his Word and his Works not indifferently and upon every Occasion but with such Seriousness and Submission such Modesty and Humility and at Seasons so proper that all the World may perceive we have due Dread and a constant Awe of that Being which we take care to treat so very respectfully Not to use themselves to dispute upon Religion or call the Mysteries of it in into Question but resign their Understandings to the Oracles of God and be content to believe the Scriptures in such a Sense as the truly Catholick Church hath embrac'd and commanded to be taught and receiv'd In the Second Place The Spirit of Children shou'd be strengthen'd and confirm'd by Ingenuity and Frankness of Temper Openness and Easiness of Conversation Candor and Integrity and especially they shou'd be fix'd in the Fitness and the Necessity of Virtue and so made resolute and zealous in Justice and Goodness deaf and inflexible to every thing which is Vicious and Dishonourable Thus the Youth must by degrees be brought to embrace and stick to Virtue upon a true and solid Principle for its Own sake and real Excellence and exact Congruity to the Dictates of uncorrupt Reason and not be induc'd meerly by the force of Fear or Interest or some other Consideration so slavish and mercenary that it cannot deserve a Name so noble as Virtue These Two Directions are principally for a Man 's private use and centre in his own proper Benefit The Third regards other People and hath a more immediate tendency to fit him for and render him easie and agreeable in Company And to this purpose you must use all means possible for the Sweetning his Temper teach him the Rules of Civility and Complaisance and shew him the Deference that ought to be paid to all Qualities let him know how to make himself acceptable how far it is fit to accommodate himself to other People's Humours and submit to their Manner Alcibiades's peculiar Excellence was said to lie in this obliging Easiness of Humour And Aristippus was a Man of perfect Address so far from Moroseness or suffering the Study of Philosophy to sowre him that
that there is no Distinction observ'd in our Respects to the Memory of the Good and the Bad. Kings are the Law 's Fellows if they be not their Masters And the Revenge which Justice will not permit to be taken upon their Persons it is but sitting that it shou'd take upon their Reputation and the Estates of their Successors We owe Subjection and Obedience to all Kings alike because This is an Obligation annex'd to their Offices and payable purely upon that Consideration but we cannot be accountable for our Affection and Esteem to all alike because These will depend upon their Qualities and are due only to their Merits and Virtue Let us then resolve patiently to endure even the worst and most unworthy while we have them let us endeavour to cover and conceal the Vices of the Living for this is what Respect to their Authority requires from us and besides the Weight and Difficulty of their Charge and the Preservation of Publick Peace and Order challenge our joint Endeavours and stand in need of the utmost we can possibly do to support them But when they are withdrawn and gone off the Stage it wou'd be hard to deny us a just Liberty of expressing our real Thoughts of them without all that Reserve Nay it is an honest and a commendable Pattern which these Proceedings set to Posterity who cannot but look upon it as a singular Commendation of our Obedience and Respect that we were content to pay these to a Master whose Imperfections we were very well acquainted with Those Writers who upon the Account of Personal Interest or Obligations espouse the Memory of a wicked Prince and set it off to the World do an Act of Private Justice at the Expence of the Publick For to serve or shew themselves grateful they defraud Mankind of the Truth This Reflection were an admirable Lesson for a Successor if it cou'd be well observ'd and a powerful Check it might be to the Exorbitancies of Power to think with one's self that the Time will thortly come when the World will make us as free with his Character as they do at present with his Predecessor's CHAP. XVII Duty of Magistrates THose few Wise and Good Men who are Members of the Common-wealth would doubtless be better pleased to retire into themselves and live at Ease full of that sweet Content which excellent and intelligent Persons know how to give themselves in the Contemplation of the Beauties of Nature and the works of Providence than to sacrifice all this satisfaction to Business and a publick Post were it not that they hope to do some good in being serviceable to their Country by their own Endeavours and in preventing the whole Administration of Affairs from falling into ill or unskilful hands This may and ought to prevail with Persons of this Character to consent to the trouble of being Magistrates But to cabal and make Parties and court Employments of Trust with Eagerness and Passion especially such as are judicial is a very base and scandalous Practice condemned as such by all good Laws even those of Pagan Republicks as the Julian Law among the Romans abundantly testisies unbecoming a Man of Honour and the shrewdest sign that can be that the Person is unsit for the Trust he seeks so vehemently To buy publick Offices is still more infamous and abominable the most sordid the most villainous way of Trading in the World For it is plain he that buys in the Piece must make himself whole by selling out again in Parcels Which was a good Reason for the Emperour Severus when he was declaring against a Fault of this nature to say That it was very hard to condemn a Man for making Money of that which he had given Moncy for before Just for all the World as a Man dresses and sets his Person in order and form putting on his best Face before he goes abroad that he may make a Figure and appear well in Company so is it sit that a Maâ— should learn to govern his own Passions and bring his Mind to good Habits before he presume to meddle with publick Business or take upon him the Charge of governing other People No Man is so weak to enter the Lasts with an unmanaged Horse or to hazard his Person with such a one in any Service of Consequence and Danger but trains and teaches him first breeds him to his hand and uses him to the Exercise he is designed for And is there not the same reason that this wild and restiff part of our Soul should be tamed and accustomed to bear the Bit Should be perfectly instructed in those Laws and Measures which are to be the Rules of our Actions and upon which the good or ill Conduct of our Lives will depend Is it not reasonable I say That a Man should be Master of his own private Behaviour and expert in making the best of every Accident and Occasion before he venture out upon the publick Stage and either give Laws to others or correct them for the neglect of those they have already And yet as Socrates observed very truly the manner of the World is quite otherwise For though no body undertakes to Exercise a Trade to which he hath not been Educated and served a long Apprenticeship and how Mean or Mechanical soever the Calling be several Years are bestowed upon the Learning of it Yet in the case of publick Administrations which is of all other Professions the most intricate and difficult so absurd so wretchedly careless are we that every body is admitted every body thinks himself abundantly qualified to undertake them These Commissions are made Complements and things of Course without any Consideration of Men's Abilities or regarding at all whether they know any thing of the matter as if a Man's Quality or the having an Estate in his Country could inform his Understanding or secure his Integrity or render him capable of discerning between Right and Wrong and a competent Judge of his Poorer but perhaps much honester and wiser Neighbours Magistrates have a mixt Quality and are placed in a middle Station between sovereign Princes and private Subjects These Subalterns therefore have a double Task incumbent upon them and must learn both how to Command and how to Obey To obey the Princes who trust and employ them to submit to and truckle under the Paramount Authority of their Superiour Officers to pay Respect to their Equals to Command those under their Jurisdiction to Protect and Defend the Poor and those that are unable to Contend for their own to stand in the Gap and oppose the powerful Oppressor and to distribute Right and Justice to all Sorts and Conditions of Men whatsoever And if this be the Business of a Magistrate well might it grow into a Proverb that the Office discovers the Man since no mean Abilities no common Address can suffice for the sustaining so many Characters at once and to Act each part so well as to merit a general
not esteem it worth a thought when so trivial a loss was compared with the abundance he had left Now this Body of ours is no other than a garment borrowed for a little while that our Soul may make its appearance and act a short part in it upon the stage of this lower World But the Soul in the mean while is that which commands our value and regard and our great affair is to secure the honour and quiet of this better part while sojourning in this busie and tumultuous life And what do we think may be the true reason why Pain provokes us to so great impatience What indeed but that we place our happiness upon wrong objects and do not set up our rest nor seek our satisfactions in the Soul * Non assueverunt animo esse contenti nimium illis cum corpore fuit Men grow into coldness and negligence of this part and grow too familiar and fond of the Body And Pain as if it were sensible of this folly of ours plies us hard in our tenderest part especially when a Man shivers and trembles at its approach as if it took a pride to insult over such unreasonable fear and concern The advantages however of this so much dreaded misery are considerable it helps to wean our affections and teaches us to work off our relish and delight from that which we must shortly leave for there is no one thing more assisting to us in giving us a due sense of the emptiness of the World and what an errant cheat it is than Sickness and Pain and I think every Man must confess this to be a very considerable piece of service It heightens the pleasure consequent upon it For when a Disease hath had its course the satisfaction of a recovery is much more sensible than any enjoyment of uninterrupted health This chears and enlivens us like Light out of the midst of Darkness and a Man would almost imagine that nature had contrived Pain on purpose that by mingling some of those sharp intervals ease and pleasure might have due honour done them and be rendred more acceptable and exquisite Let us then reflect upon these few Suggestions and see what consequences they naturally offer to us If our Pain be moderate the virtue of Patience cannot be very difficult if it be extream the glory of enduring it as becomes us is proportionably great if it appear insupportable our own cowardice and effeminacy have made it so if there are but very few who can bear it decently let us try to be of that number for the smaller it is the more distinguishing and commendable it is to be in among them Let us not lay the blame at nature's door for making us no stronger This is all pretence it is not natural weakness but affected nicety and tenderness that disables us in this point If we run away from Pain it will pursue us if we surrender our selves to this enemy and suffer it to conquer us we shall be treated with insolence and barbarous usage and the reproach of tameness will stick hard upon us If it tries to terrifie us and we stand our ground the success will be above our expectation let us therefore defeat and disappoint this design by shewing our selves more resolute and brave than it thinks for For the greatest part of the smart and anguish is owing to our own softness and delicacy our yielding and sinking under it * Non quia difficilia non audemus sed quia non audemus difficilia We do not flinch from things so much because they are hard to be born as we create that hardship to our selves by dreading and shrinking at them I may reasonably expect that all the former arguments should be lookt upon as flights of speculation Philosophical notions which Men of refined thoughts entertain when they are at ease but would soon find impracticable if brought to the tryal and therefore to obviate this objection I have reserved to the last place the instances and examples of persons whose practice hath justified the possibility and mighty efficacy of all that hath been said here or is usually urged in Books upon this occasion And these not only of wise and extraordinary but of ignorant and common Men Nay even Women and Children are frequently mentioned in story to have endured both long and acute pains and diseases and with a mind so steady and unbroken that the anguish which hath taken away their lives was never able to subdue their constancy and courage They have waited the approach of their torments and encountered them knowingly and met them gladly and supported themselves under them with marvellous chearfulness nay have even sought and courted the severest and most exquisite tortures humane nature is capable of suffering The Lacedaemonian Boys are notorious for whipping one another till sometimes they expired under the scourge and all this without the least change of Countenance A sort of barbarous discipline instituted to harden them that they might be better qualified to do their Countrey service when thus inured to sussering Alexander's Page was burnt to the very Bone with a Coal and endured it without the least complaint rather than he would interrupt the Sacrifice A Spartan Boy let his Bowels be cat out by a Fox rather than he would discover his Theft Pompey when taken by King Gentius who would have compelled him to reveal the secrets of the Roman state thrust his singer into the Fire and burnt it till Gentius could bear the sight no longer to convince him that all Torture would be lost upon him The Case of Mutius with Pâ—rsenna was another instance of the same kind and good old Regulus endured more than all of them from the Carthaginians The account of Anaxarchus hath scarce any Parallel who when pounded in a Mortar at the Command of a Tyrant cried out Beat on beat on your Belly-full you cannot touch Anaxarchus his self you only bruise the Shell of him But that which is a remedy indeed is one peculiar to Christians the sure prospect of a future and eternal state the consideration what cruelty and contradiction of sinners their Saviour condescended to suffer and that participation of glory and bliss with him in Heaven which is ordained and reserved for those who suffer with and for him that is after his example in a good cause and for the sake of Faith and a good Conscience These reflections will animate Men not by rendring them insensible or taking sanctuary in nice and airy distinctions but by furnishing arguments superiour to the quickest and tenderest sense of Pain And accordingly we see what incredible effects these Religious comforts had in all the Primitive Persecutions how triumphant they were in the midst of Racks and Fires and Crosses The having respect to the recompence of Reward The balancing the light Afflictions of a moment with the Eternal and far more exceeding weight of Glory the committing this Body to the Ground
take our measures from Reason and Nature and be satisfied with what these desire and prescribe to us we shall seldom or never want enough for our purpose But if we will create to our selves fantastical and imaginary wants nothing can ever satisfie us * Si ad naturam vives nunquam eris pauper si ad opinionem nunquam dives Exiguum natura desiderat opinio immensum He that lives by Nature says Seneca can never be Poor and he that lives by Fancy can never be Rich for the former will gladly take up with a little but the latter grasps at all and there is no end of it A Man that is master of any sort of Trade or bred up to any Profession nay he that hath neither of these advantages if he have but the use of his Hands is safe from these Extremities and will find no just reason to fear or to complain of this first sort of Poverty The other sort consists in the want of those things which exceed a sufficient provision for the uses of Nature and minister to Pomp and Pleasure Delicacy and Supersluity what we commonly call a Decency and this is in truth the thing most Men are so mightily concerned for loss of rich and sumptuous Furniture the not having a Down Bed and a Table well spread or a stately House shut out from the Comforts and the Ornaments of Life But this when all is done is not Want but Niceness and that is the very Disease we labour under Now all complaints of this Nature are highly unjust for what they dread as Poverty is rather to be preferred and wished for We see the Wisest Man that ever lived was for neither Poverty nor Riches but only such Food as was a convenient Subsistence for him It is more agreeable to nature more truly rich more quiet and safe than all that abundance Mankind are so fond of First it is more congruous and agreeable to our Condition because Man came Naked into the World and he must go so out and how can he call any thing his own which he neither brought along with him nor can carry away with him The Possessions we pretend to here are like the Furniture in an Inn ours to use while we stay but not to remove when we leave the House And therefore all we ought to look at is our present Accommodation Secondly it is more true Riches for a larger Mannor none can be possest of He that hath enough hath all the World 1 Tim. 6 Godliness with Contentment is great Gain says the Apostle it is safer and more quiet For here is no Fear to perplex no hope of Booty to tempt no danger of Enemies to fence against Poverty is secure in the inidst of Banditi A little Man when covered all over with his Buckler is less liable to danger than a bigger and stronger who is in many parts exposed and cannot bring his whole Body within the compass of his Shield such a condition as it does not burden and fatigue a Man with great Troubles so neither does it make him capable of great Losses And therefore these sort of People are always more easie and free and cheerful for they have not so much to take care of nor can they suffer so much by any storm that shall happen to blow Such a Poverty as this is snugg and close gay and jolly and secure all foul Weather flies over its head it makes us truly our own Men masters of our Lives without the hurry and noise the squabbles and contentions which are the necessary incumbrances of plentiful Fortunes and devour the greatest part of their Ease and Time who stand possest of them And what precious things are these to be called the Goods of this World that are big with so many Mischiefs such substantial and vexatious Evils that expose us to Injuries enslave us to Jealousies and Suspicions to anxious Fears and inordinate Desires and have so many thousand artifices to trouble and disquiet us He that is discontented with the loss of these things is miserable indeed because he is deprived of his Possessions and understanding both and so does more than double his loss The Life of Men in moderate Circumstances is a condition much like that of Coasters but that of the rich is like Sailors out at Sea These are tost and driven and cannot make Land though they would never so fain they must wait a favourable Gale and the Current of the Tide to carry them in The former are always near home and have it in their power to Debark whenever they please To all these Considerations we shall do well to add one more That of Great and Generous and justly Celebrated Persons who have despised such Losses nâ—y have welcomed and improved them to their advantage and thanked Almighty God for them as so many signal Blessings Such as Zeno after his Wrack the Fabricij Serrani and the Curij among the Romans And this is an extraordinary Attainment in Virtue when a Man can find his account and discern and satisfie himself with the wisdom and kindness of Providence in instances which the generality of the World look upon with the greatest Horrour and Aversion The Gods were heretofore painted Naked to intimate that they are above both the Necessities and Gayeties of this World and how Godlike a Quality the Philosophers heretofore esteemed the despising of them we may learn by that voluntary Poverty which so many of them embraced at least if it was the work of Fate and not their own Choice by that easie Content and Acquiescence of Spirit with which they entertained it To summ up all then in one word to Persons of Prudence and unprejudiced Affections Men of elevated Souls refined and purged from the dross of Sensuality and Avarice this condition of Life will appear preferrable but to all People who think at all it is very tolerable CHAP. XXVI Of Infamy or Disgrace THis Affliction is of several sorts according to the different Senses of which the Title here is capable If by Disgrace be meant the loss of Honour or Dignity or offices of Importance and Trust the Man is rather a Gainer than otherwise and hath made a very advantageous Exchange For what are such promotions but splendid slaveries by which a Man hires himself out to the Publick and lays out his Property and the enjoyment of his Person in the Service of other People These Honours shine indeed and glister but with that dazling light they kindle Envy and Jealousie burn up the Owner and at last go out in Exile and Poverty Let a Man but refresh his memory with the Histories of all Antiquity and the most memorable passages of Great Men see how thick a cloud they set in and whether almost to a Man those that were most renowned for Gallantry and Virtue did not finish their course in Banishment or a Prison by Poyson or some other violent Death See the declining Aristides
all that know him and beyond the very utmost of his own most Sanguine hopes Prosperity is a State of infinite hazard and danger As soon as ever this fair Gale begins to blow all that is light and empty in the Soul is immediately carried up with the breath of it Nothing hath so pestilent an influence to stupifie and ruin Men and make them forget themselves They perish and are spoiled like Corn born down by a full Ear and Branches broke with excessive quantities of Fruit. And therefore it is necessary a Man should be sensible what slippery ground he stands upon and look to his steps accordingly but especially he should beware that he be not carried to Insolence and Contempt of others Pride and Presumption with regard to himself These are Vices so incident to Mankind that the least Temptation will suffice for them And as some People according to the Proverb will be drowned in two foot of Water so there are some too who upon the least smile of Fortune swell and look big scarce know themselves and are intolerable to all their Acquaintance Of all the Pictures of Folly which the World can furnish us with this seems to be drawn most like the Life From the unsteadiness of Mind it is that we are able to give a rational account why Prosperity should be so very short and uncertain as generally we find it For Persons in this Condition are for the most part ill-advised and this Inadvertency makes frequent and quick Revolutions changes the Scene from Joy and Grandeur to Calamity and Sorrow and Want alienates the Affections of Providence provokes Almighty God to take back again what Men make such ill use of To all which we may add the secret and undiscernable Reasons of his Dispensations or to express the thing in a more secular Phrase that Inconstancy of Fortune which from a fond Mother changes her humour unaccountably to all the Severities of a cruel and cursed Stepmother Now the properest Advice upon this occasion is for a Man to restrain and moderate his Opinions and Affections of the good things of this World not to esteem them too highly nor imagine himself one whit the better or the worse Man for the Enjoyment or the Want of them and the natural Consequence of this so low Valuation will be not to desire them with any degree of vehemence If they fall to his Lot to accept them as the Gift of a bountiful Master and to serve him with them thankfully and cheerfully but always to look upon these as foreign and additional Advantages no necessary no inseparable part of Life Such as he might have been very well without and such as while he hath them are not to be made any great account of or suffered to change the temper of his Mind either higher or lower For * Non est tuum fortuna quod fecit tuum Qui tutam vitam agere volet ista viscata beneficia devitet nil dignum putare quod speres Quid dignum habet Fortuua quod concupiscas What Fortune hath made yours is none of yours He that will live safe and easie must decline those treacherous Baits those Limed twigs of Fortune For what hath she in her disposal worth engaging our desires or fixing our Heart and Hopes upon CHAP. XXXVIII Of Pleasure and Directions concerning it BY Pleasure I understand a Perception or Sensation of that which is agreeable to Nature a delightful Motion or tickling of the Senses as on the contrary by Pain is meant some disagreeable Sensation which produces Sorrow and is grievous to Nature But those Philosophers as the Sect of the Epicuraeans in particular who resolved the chief Happiness of Man into Pleasure and paid it greater Honour than we think fit to do took it in another Signification and extended the thing no farther than a privation of Grief or Uneasiness such as they thought sit to express by Indolence According to their notion humane Nature was capable of rising no higher than the not being uneasie This is a sort of middle State a Neutrality between the first and vulgar acceptation of the Word and Pain And bears the same Proportion with regard to this Life which some Divines have thought Abraham's Bosom does to the next A Condition between the exquisite Happiness of Heaven and the extreme Torments of Hell 'T is a sweet and peaceable sedateness of Body and Mind an uniform constant and fixed Pleasure which carries some resemblance to that Euthymia or tranquility of Soul which other Philosophers esteemed our chief Good Whereas the other is an active and sensible Pleasure full of vigorous and sprightly motion At this rate there would be three distinct Conditions of which Mankind are capable two in extremes Pleasure and Pain which are neither stable nor durable but both of them sickly and in excess the Mean between them firm and sound healthful and permanent to which the Epicuraeans attributed the name of Pleasure and such indeed it is when compared with Pain and placed the supreme happiness of our Nature in it This unhappy Name brought that general scandal upon their Sect which the opposite Parties of Philosophers insult over with so much Pomp and Triumph For after all as Seneca with great Ingenuity confesses there was no hurt but in the Name no offence but what was meerly Titular for to those who will be at the pains of a nice Examination into their Lives and Manners it will appear that none ever advanced Doctrines of stricter Sobriety none were greater Enemies to Vice and all manner of Debauchery none more distant from those Reproaches to a rational Soul than the Men of this Profession Nor indeed was it without a fair appearance of Reason that they gave this name of Pleasure to that so much exalted Indolence of theirs For this Titillation of the Sense comes at last to this and seems to make it the ultimate end and aim of all the more feeling satisfactions we find in it as for instance the delight we find in Meats and Drinks pretends to nothing more than to deliver us from that torture and those eager cravings which Hunger and Thirst had brought upon us and by satifying the Appetite to place us in a Condition of Ease and Repose till the same Wants return again upon us The learned World have behaved themselves very differently upon this occasion They have determined very peremptorily on both sides and as is usual with hot and positive People have both over-shot the Mark Some have perfectly adored Pleasure and exalted it into a Deity others pretend the greatest Detestation of it and expose it for a Monster They start and tremble at the very Name and cannot allow it to import any thing but what is full of Guilt and a Scandal to humane Nature Those who condemn it without more ado proceed to Sentence upon these following Considerations They tell you that it is First a short and transitory Enjoyment a fire of Thorns
Sun and Moon for their Excellencies and the good influences they shed When we enjoy this Beauty and have made it our own property by fair and honest means let us even then remember that this is a very low and mean satisfaction so far from being peculiar to the dignity of Humane nature that Brutes all partake and are most of them supposed to exceed us in it That the immoderate use of Pleasure wastes the Body softens and effeminates the Soul enfeebles and darkens the understanding That a world of people have fallen miserable Sacrifices to their inordinate Lusts some in the loss of their Lives others of their Fortunes and others of their Senses but the Reputations murdered by it are innumerable Consider again that there is more honour nay I will add more pleasure too in vanquishing these desires than in complying with them And all the transports of fruition are flat and dull nauseous and insipid in comparison of those ravishing satisfactions which overflow in our Souls when we have gained a virtuous and noble Conquest over our selves And this is the general Sense of Sober Mankind for there is no one Action in the Life of Alexander or Scipio in which their Historians so justly glory as that of the treatment they gave to their beautiful Captives and the tenderness for their Honour which the Fortune of War was generally thought a privilege to violate This Continency and Conquest of themselves is more highly commended than all their successes and hath more engaging Charms than the fairest of their Prisoners could ever boast of These I say are Considerations pertinent and proper enough but it cannot be expected they should have a constant efficacy For this Vice abounds with Sophistry and cunning and as it will not be reasoned with sometimes so at other times it will not be safe to go about it And therefore in cases of violent Assaults the best course will be to betake our selves to our heels and get loose from the Temptation And it is very observable that the Holy Ghost which bids us in all ordinary cases Resist the Devil Jam. 4.7 with a promise that he shall flee from us yet when he mentions Youthful Lusts the advice is that we would flee from them 2 Tim. 11.22 Debates as well as delays are dangerous here the Cause must be referred to a Judge under shrewd suspicions of Corruption and therefore the safest Issue we can make is to throw it out and never give it the hearing Business Recreation Company any thing to divert this stream of our Thoughts and Affections into another Channel There can be no difficulty in the Choice for in such cases the worst Company a Man can possibly be in is to have none but his own Now we are to observe that both the Virtue of Continency and its contrary Vice is of several kinds and different degrees The chief and that which I shall speak to at present is the Conjugal sort that mutual and inviolable Fidelity between Man and Wife which as it was the first and highest Obligation so is it the most sacred the most important and that which both Publick Society and Private Persons are deeply and inevitably interested in And therefore this ought to be held in the most Profound Veneration and Esteem and not suffered to become the Jest and common scorn of profligate Lewdness the Diversion of a Theatre or the boasted Triumph of a Man of the Town The Parties concerned in these holy Engagements must have no Affections nor cherish any desires beyond the Chast Embraces of each other but utterly Abandon the very wishes of stollen and unlawful delights and be content to Drink the Waters of their own Cistern Prov. 5.15 and the running Waters of their own Well that is pure and innocent unpolluted and untroubled delights of a faithful and lawful Marriage as the Wise Man expresses it according to the usual significancy and extraordinary decency of the Scripture Stile They that allow themselves in other liberties fall into the blackest and most complicated guilt imaginable they violate and Sin against their own Bodies by making them Vessels and Instruments of Uncleanness and Dishonour they transgress against all manner of Laws which any Man can be bound by The Laws of Revealed Religion which forbid us to prostitute our selves to silthiness and shame and have commanded the strictest purity of Conversation the Law of Nature which forbids the invading another Man's property and the tenderer the right is to him the more detestable is the injustice the Law of Reason and Equity which enjoyns fidelity and stedfastness to promises and mutual Contracts the Laws of the Land which have Established Marriages as the only conveyance of Right and giving a Title and Propriety in such cases the undoubted Rights of Families by grafting in a foreign growth upon the natural Stock injuring the other Children and transferring the fruit of a Man's Industry his Acquisition or his Inheritance to Strangers and Interlopers the Laws of Justice and Charity by starting difficulties and Disputes among Friends and Relations alienating the Affections of Parents from their Children and dissolving in great measure the Duty of Children to their Parents when there are these Jealousies among them and leaving a lasting and indelible stain upon the Unfortunate though innocent Posterity of so suspected a Race As to the other parts of this Vice I add only in one word that though Adultery be the highest yet it is not the only Violation of it Men would therefore do well to see how many Aggravations of this kind just now mentioned concur in any of those allowances they make to themselves to lay aside the byass of their present Passion and even in cases of simple Fornication ask their own Consciences how they should like to have the honour of a Sister or a Daughter so injured by another person and if they think but scurvily of such a blemish in a near Relation this at least makes the gratification an offence against Reason and Equity and natural Justice nor is it in such circumstances for a Man to alledge that the partner of the crime is no other Man's it is enough to Condemn him that She is not his own CHAP. XLII Of Ambition and Temperance with regard to the Desire of Honour and Fame THat this is a Desire which stands in great need of being tempered and restrained no Man can suffer himself to doubt who at all considers the inordinacy of the Affection the injurious courses it pushes the Patient upon and the infinite mischief it does to society when the Reins are let loose and we give it its head But though the free Range of this Affection be so pernicious yet we ought to take notice that according to what hath been formerly delivered upon the same occasion all Ambition all thirst either of Honour or of Reputation is not to be condemned without any distinction but that as it may be ordered and managed there