things depend immediately on him and according to the order established in Nature one thing depends on another for instance the birth and increase of Plants on the heat of the Sun it is because that that same God who hath made all the parts of the Universe was pleased to link them one to another and so to make his Wisdom the more conspicuous and visible by that marvellous train of Causes But whatsoever the Holy Scripture teaches us about the Creation of the World it is nothing comparatively to what it says concerning Man Hitherto God had done every thing by his Command Gen. 1. Let there be light Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters and let the waters be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and let it bring forth grass and let there be lights in the firmament of Heaven to divide the day from the night let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind But when he comes to make man Moses gives him then a new Language Let us make man says he in our Image after our lik ness It is no longer that imperious and commanding word it is a word more mild but yet no whit less powerful and efficacious God held a Council within himself He excites himself as it were to shew us that the work he was going then to make exceeded all the other part of the Creation which he had already finished Let us make man God speaks within himself he speaks to some one who doth as himself to some some one whose Creature and Image man is he speaks to another that is his second self he speaks to him by whom all things were made to him who says in the Gospel John 5. v. 19. Whatsoever the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise In speaking to his Son or with his Son he speaks at the same time with the Holy Ghost All-complying Equal and Co-eternal one to the other 'T is an unheard of thing in all the language of the Sacred Scriptures that any other than God should speak of himself in the plural number let us make God himself in the Scripture speaks thus but two or three times and this extraordinary language began to appear when he was engaged in making Man When God changes his way of speaking and in some sort of conduct too it is not to be supposed that he changes in himself but he demonstrates to us that he is going to begin according to his Eternal Council a new order of things Thus Man so highly exalted above all other Creatures whose Generation Moses has described to us is formed in a manner as altogether new and different from them The Trinity begins to declare it self in the making a reasonable Creature whose Intellectual Operations are an imperfect Image of those Eternal Operations by which God is fruitful in himself The word of Council which God makes use of points to us that the Creature which was going to be made was the only One here below capable of acting by Council and Intelligence All the rest is no less extraordinary Hitherto we have not seen in the History of Genesis the finger of God apply'd to a corruptible matter To frame and fashion Man's Body He himself takes up some of the dust of the ground Gen. 2. v. 7. and that dust being managed by such a hand receives the most beautiful form that ever yet was seen in the World This particular attention which was visible in God when he made Man shews us that he hath a particular regard for him tho' otherwise every thing is conducted immediately by his infinite Wisdom But the manner how he formed the Soul is still much more marvellous and astonishing he derives not that from Matter he inspires it from on high it is the breath of life which proceeds from himself When he created the Beasts he said Let the waters bring forth abâ—ndantly every moving Creature Gen. 1.20.24 and in this manner he created the Sea-Monsters and every living and moving Soul which was to fill the Waters He saith also Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind cattle and creeping thing and beast of the Eaâ—th after his kind Thus had those living Souls of a brutal and bestial Life their Being to which God gives for all their Actions nothing but Motions dependent on the Body God takes them out of the Womb of the Waters and of the Earth but this Soul whose Life ought to be an Imitation of his own which was to live as himself by Reason and Intelligence which was to be united to him in Contemplation and in Love and which for this reason was to be made after his own Image and Likeness This Soul I say was incapable of being derived from matter God in making matter can easily form a beautiful and curious Body but in whatsoever sort he turns and fashions it he will never find his Image and Resemblance in it The Soul made after his Image and which can be happy in possessing him must be produced by a new Creation it must come from above and this is that breath of life Gen. 2.7 which God breathed from his own Mouth Let us always remember that Moses speaks to carnal Men by sensible Images of the most pure and intellectual Truths But let us not imagine that God breaths after the manner of Animals let us not suppose our Souls to be a subtil Air nor a flitting Vapor The Breath which God inspires and which bears in it self the Image of himself is neither Air nor Vapor Let us not believe that our Souls are a portion of the divine Nature as some Philosophers have vainly dream'd God is not a Whole to be divided Tho' there should be parts in God yet they should not be made For the Creator the uncreated Being should not be composed of Creatures The Soul is made and so made that it is no part of the divine Nature but only a thing made after the Image and Resemblance of the divine Nature a thing which is always to be united to him that formed it this is what is understood by that divine Breath it represents to us that Spirit of Life Thus you see how Man was formed God also out of him formed a Companion that he design'd to give him All Mankind is born by one single Marriage that so how dispersed and multiplied soever they have been they may be for ever one single and the same Family Our first Parents thus formed were placed in that delicious Garden which was called Paradise God was only obliged to himself for rendering his Image happy He gave to Man a precept to make him sensible that he had a Master a precept joyned to a thing that was sensible because Man was made with Senses A Precept that was
the whole by relation to each of its two parts so the divine Word whose Virtue sustains the whole is united in a particular manner or rather it becomes himself by a perfect Union that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary that which makes him to be the Son of God and Man both together begotten from all Eternity and yet begotten in time always living in the Bosom of his Father and yet dead upon the Cross for our Salvation But where God finds himself mixed Comparisons drawn from humane things are never but imperfect Our Soul is not before our Body and something fails it when ever it is separated from it The Word perfect in it self from all Eternity is only united to our Nature for its Honour That Soul which presides over the Body and makes several Changes in it it self suffers from it in its turn If the Body be moved at the command and according to the Will of the Soul the Soul is troubled the Soul is afflicted and influenced a thousand ways either tormenting or pleasing according to the Dispositions of the Body so that as the Soul raises up the Body to it self in the governing part so it is cast down below it by what it suffers from the Body But in Jesus Christ the word presides over all it keeps all under its Dominion So Man is raised and the Word is not cast down by any thing Immutable and unalterable it rules and governs Nature which is united to it in all things throughout From thence it comes that in Jesus Christ Man absolutely submissive to the inward direction of the Word which raises it up to it self has only divine Thoughts and Motions All that he thinks all that he wills all that he says all that he conceals within all that he shews outwardly is animated and inspired by the Word led by the Word worthy of Word that is to say worthy of Reason it self of Wisdom it self and of Truth it self Wherefore every thing is Light in Jesus Christ His Conduct is a Rule his Miracles are Instructions his Words are Spirit and Life It is not given to all to understand these sublime Truths nor perfectly to see in himself that marvellous Image of divine things which St. Austin and the other Fathers have thought so certain Our Senses govern us too much and our Imagination which will be concerned in all our Thoughts does not suffer us always to stay upon so pure a Light We do not know our selves we are ignorant what vast Riches we constantly carry about with us because we search not to the bottom of our Natures and only the most inwardly discerning Eyes can perceive them But as little as we do pry into that Secret and observe in our selves the Image of the two Mysteries which make up the Foundation of our Faith that is sufficient to raise us up above all and nothing of Mortality can affect us any more Also Jesus Christ calls us to an immortal Glory and it is the Fruit of the Faith we have for the Mysteries That God-Man that incarnate Truth and Wisdom which makes us to believe such great things upon its single Authority promises to us the clear and happy Vision of it in Eternity as the certain Recompence of our Faith In this way is the Mission of Jesus Christ infinitely advanced above that of Moses Moses was sent to rouse up sensual and brutish Men by temporal Rewards Since that they were become all Body and all Flesh it was necessary for him at first to captivate them by their Senses and by that means to inculcate into them the Knowledg of God and the horror of Idolatry to which Mankind had so prodigious an Inclination That was the Ministry of Moses But to inspire Man with more exalted Thoughts and by a full Evidence to convince him of the Dignity Immortality and eternal Happiness of his Soul this was reserv'd to be the Work of Jesus Christ In the times of Ignorance that is to say those which were before our blessed Saviours days what the Soul knew of its Dignity and Immortality led it for the most part to Error The worshipping of dead Men did almost make up all their Idolatry Almost all Men sacrificed to the Manes that is to the Souls of the Dead Those antient Errors do discover to us indeed how great was the antient Belief of the Souls Immortality and shows us that we ought to place it among the first Traditions of Mankind But Man who spoil'd all things had strangely abused it since the Soul carried him out to sacrifice to the Dead Nay they went at last to that excess as to sacrifice living Men to them they killed their Slaves and even their Women to make them go and serve them in the other World The Gauls did so with many other People And the Indians observed by the Heathen Authors among the first Defenders of the Souls Immortality Cas de hell Gall. 6. have also been the first Introducers of those abominable Murders in the World under the pretence of Religion The same Indians used to kill themselves to forward the Happiness of the future Life and that deplorable Blindness continues still to this day among those People so dangerous is it to teach the Truth in any other way or manner than what God hath instituted and clearly to explain to Man all that he is before he knew God perfectly 'T was the want of knowing God which made most of the Philosophers not to believe the Immortality of the Soul without believing it at the same time a Portion of the Divinity nay a Divinity it self an eternal Being uncreated as well as incorruptible and which had neither beginning not end What shall I say of those who believed the Transmigration of Souls who made them skip from Heaven to Earth and then from Earth to Heaven again from Beasts into Men and from Men into Beasts from Happiness to Misery and from Misery to Happiness and those Revolutions never to have any end nor any certain order How sadly was the Divine Justice Providence and Goodness darkened amidst so many fuliginous Errors And how necessary was it to know God and the Rules of his Wisdom before he knows the Soul and its immortal Nature Wherefore the Law of Moses gave only to Man the first Notion of the nature of the Soul and its Felicity We saw the Soul at first made by the Power of God as well as the rest of the Creatures but with this particular Character and Distinction that it was made after his Image and by his Breath that it might understand to whom it was obliged by its being and also that it might never fancy it self to be of the same nature with the Body not formed by its order and concurrence But the Consequences of this Doctrine and the Marvels of the future Life were not then universally unfolded This great Light and Discovery was not to be till the coming of the Messiah God had scattered some few
paid what he never owed and acquits the Sinners of their debt for what could better cover our Sins than his Righteousness What better way could the Rebellion of Servants be expiated than by the obedience of the Son The iniquity of many is hid in one just One and the justice of One alone makes it that many are justified What then are we not to pretend to God commendeth has love towards us Rom. 5.8 9. in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him All was for us by Jesus Christ Grace holiness life glory blessedness the Kingdom of the Son of God is our Inheritance there is nothing above us provided only that we do not degenerate and make our selves vile Whilst Jesus Christ was filling up our desires and surpassing our hopes he finished the work of God which was begun under the Patriarchs and in the Law of Moses Then God resolved to make himself known by sensible Experiences he shewed himself very magnificent in Temporal Promises good in heaping upon his Children such Blessings as flattered the Senses powerful in delivering them from the hands of their Enemies faithful in leading them into the Land of Promise to their Fathers just by the Rewards and Punishments which he openly sent them according to their works All his marvellous Works prepared the way for the Truths which Jesus Christ came to teach If God be so good as to bestow on us what is agreeable to our Senses how much rather shall he give unto us what is agreeable to our Souls which were made after his own Image If he be so tender and beneficent towards his Children shall he shut up his love and his bounty in those few years which make up our life Will he give to those whom he loves only a shadow of Felicity a fertile Land in Corn and Oyl Will there not be a heavenly Country wherein he will abundantly recompence us with true and everlasting good things There will be one without all peradventure and Jesus Christ will come to shew it us For indeed the Almighty would do works very unworthy of himself if all his magnificence should terminate in Grandeurs that were only exposed to our weak and infirm Senses Whatsoever is not eternal is neither correspondent to the Majesty of an Eternal God nor does it answer the hopes of man to whom he hath made known his eternity and that unchangeable fidelity which he bears to his Servants will never have an Object proportionable to it until it be extended to something that is immortally permanent Therefore will Jesus Christ at last come and open the Heavens to us to disocover there to our Faith that abiding City Heb. 11.8.9 10 13 14 15 16. which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God where we are to be gathered together after this life He shews us that if God make Eternal to be one of his Titles the Name of the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob it is because those holy men are always living before him Matth. 22.32 Luke 20.38 For God is not the God of the dead but of the living It is below him to do only as men accompany his friends to the Grave without giving them any hope beyond and it would be if I may speak with reverence reproachable for him to call himself with so much of force and energy the God of Abraham if he had not founded in the Heavens an Eternal City wherein Abraham and his Children may be happy throughout all Generations 'T is thus therefore that these Truths of a Futurity were unfolded to us by Jesus Christ Heb. 11.14 15 16. He shewed them to us even under the Law the true Land of Promise was the heavenly Kingdom 'T was that blessed Country that Abraham Isaac and Jacob desired Palestine did not deserve to be the Boundary of their fervent Vows nor to be the sole object of so long an expectation of our Fathers Egypt from whence we were to come out the Wilderness through which we were to pass Babylon whose Prison-walls we were to break to enter or to return into our Country that was this World with all its delights and vanities for here it was that we were truly Captives and Pilgrims led astray by Sin and Concupiscence we were to shake off this Yoke to find in Jerusalem and in the City of our God true liberty and an House or Sanctuary not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 eternal in the Heavens where the Glory of the God of Israel should be manifested to us By this Doctrine of Jesus Christ the Mystery of God was laid open to us the Law was all Spiritual its Promises were introductive of those of the Gospel and served as a Foundation to them One and the same light was visible throughout it arose under the Patriarchs under Moses and the Prophets it increased Jesus Christ who was greater than the Patriarchs who came with more Authority than Moses and who was more illuminated than all the Prophets discovered this unto us in his fulness To this Christ to this God-Man to this Man who held upon Earth as St. Austin speaks the place of The Truth and discovers it to be personally resident amongst us to him I say it was reserved to shew us all Truth that is to say so much of the Mysteries of the Vertues and of the Rewards as God had designed for those whom he really loved These were the Grandeurs which the Jews ought to have look'd for in their Messiah There is nothing so great and glorious as to carry in it self and to discover unto men Truth in its fulness and perfection which seeds them and directs them and clears up their eyes so as to make 'em capable of seeing God Now in this time when the Truth was to be discovered to men with that fulness it was also commanded to be promulged throughout all the Earth and at all times God gave to Moses but one single People and one determined time but all Ages and all the People of the World were given to Jesus Christ he hath his Elect every where and his Church extensive as the Universe shall never leave off her bringing them forth Go saith he therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Matth. 28.19 20. and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Amen VII The Descent of the Holy Ghost the Establishment of the Church The Judgements of God on the Jews and on the Gentiles To disperse into all Places and in all Ages such eminent Truths and to put such pure and admirable Practices in force amidst such Corruption there was need of a Vertue more than Humane Wherefore Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy
another Chappel which we will translate from the latin Word Lararium a private Chappel of less Dignity than the former wherein were set up the Image of Achilles and some other great Men but Jesus Christ was placed in the 〈◊〉 Rank It was a Heathen who wrote it and he cites for his Witness an Author that lived in Alexander's time Here then are two Witnesses of this same Fact and you shall have another no less surprizing Porph. 1. of Phil. by Orac. Euseb dem Ev. 3.8 Aug. de Civit. Dei 19. c. 23. Though Porphyry in abjuring Christianity had declared himself an Enemy to it yet he forbears not in his Book entituled Philosophy by Oracles to affirm that some of them were very favourable to the Holiness of Jesus Christ God forbid that we may not learn by the deceitful Oracles the Glory of the Son of God who silenc'd them at his Birth Those Oracles cited by Porphyry are pure Inventions But it is good to know what the Heathen made their Gods to say of our Lord. Porphyry then assures that there were Oracles where Jesus Christ was called a Man Pious and worthy of Immortality and on the contrary the Christians were impure and seduced People He afterwards recites the Oracle of the Goddess Hecate where she speaks of Jesus Christ as of a Man illustrioâ—s by his Piety whose Body indeed submitted to Torments but whose Soul is in Heaven with the Souls of the Blessed That Soul said Porphyry's Goddess by a kind of Fatality inspired Error into those Minds wherein Destiny has not confirmed the Gifts of the Gods and the Knowledg of the great Jupiter which makes them Enemies of the Gods But be very careful how you blame him goes she on in speaking of Jesus Christ and be sure only to accuse the Error of those whose unhappy destiny I have related to you Very pompous and magnificent Words and absolutely void of all Sence but however they shew that the Glory and Honour of our Lord forced his very Enemies to give him Praises But besides the Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviour there is yet a third Point which is of no less Moment and Importance and that is his Miracles It is certain that the Jews never denyed them and we find in their Talmud some of those which his Disciples wrought in his Name Only Tr. de Idololat Com. in Eccl Tr. de Sabb. c. 12. l. generat Jesu seu Hist Jesu Deut. 13.1 2. the more to obscure and hide them they said that he had done them by the Enchantments he had learnt in Egypt or rather by the name of God that unknown and ineffable Name whose Virtue can do all thing as the Jews themselves acknowledge and that Jesus Christ had discovered they know not how in the Sanctuary or else because he was one of those Prophets taken notice of by Moses whose deceitful Miracles were to seduce the People to Idolatry Jesus Christ the Abolisher of Idols whose Gospel preached up the acknowledging of one only God throughout all the World stands in no need of being justified from that Reproach the true Prophets have no less preached up his Divinity than he hath done himself and that which is the Result of the Jewish Testimony is that Jesus Christ wrought Miracles to justify his Mission Now when they calumniously said that he wrought them by Magick they would do well to consider that Moses was accused of the same Crime 'T was the antient Opinion of the Egyptians who being astonished at the wondrous things that God had done in their Country by that great Man ranked him in the number of the principal Magicians We may likewise see this Opinion in Pliny and Apuleius where Moses was found named with Jannes and Jambres those famous Inchanters of Egypt of whom St. Paul speaks and whom Mâ—ses had confounded by his Miracles Plin. 30.1 Apul. Apol. 2. Zim 3.8 But the Answer of the Jews was easy The Illusions of the Magicians never have a lasting Effect neither do they tend to establish as Moses did the Worship of the true God and holiness of Life To which we may also add that God knows very well how to make himself Master by doing such Works as the Power of the Enemy cannot imitate The same Reasons placed Jesus Christ above so vain an Accusation which as we have already observed was only iâ—strumental to justify that his Miracles are incontestable They were in effect so powerful that the Gentiles could never disprove them no more than the Jews Celsâ—s that great Enemy of the Christians and who attack'd them in the earliest Days with all imaginable Address and Subtlety seeking with a most industrious Scrutiny whatsoever might turn to their Prejudice has not been so hardy as to deny all the Miracles of our Lord He was for shifting them off by saying with the Jews that Jesus Christ had learnt the Secrets of the Egyptians that is to say Magick Orig. cont Cels 1. 2. and so would fain attribute the Divinity to himself by the Miracles which he wrought by vertue of that damnable Art Orig. ibid. in Act. Mart. passim Jul. ap Cyr. lib. 6 â—p Aug. tom 2. Ep. 3.4 And for the same Reason also were the Christians look'd on as Magicians and we have a Passage of Julian the Apostate who laughed at the Miracles of our Lord but who for all that did not bring them into Question Volusian in his Epistle to St. Austin has done the same and that Discourse was grown common among the Heathen Therefore we need not be astonished that they who were so used to make Gods of all Men in whom there appeared any thing particular and extraordinary would set up Jesus Christ too among their Divinities Tiberius upon the Relations were sent to him from Judea proposed to the Senate to give divine Honours unto Jesus Christ This was not a Fancy in the Air Tertull. Apolog. 5. Euseb Hist Eccles 2.2 for Tertullian reports it as a thing publick and nâ—torious in his Apologetick which he presented to the Senate in the name of the Church who to be sure would not have contributed any thing to the weakening of so good a Cause as his by Stories which might have been confuted with so much ease and evidence If we would have the Testimony of a Heathen Author Lampridius will tell us that Adrian had erected Temples to Jesus Christ which were then to be seen at the time when he wrote and that Alexander Severus after he had done him Reverence in particular was resolved publickly to prepare him Altars and to put him in the number of the Gods It is certainly a great piece of Injustice not to be willing to believe any thing concerning Jesus Christ but what those write of him that were none of his Disciples This is to seek for Faith among the Incredulous or Care and Exactness among those who having their Heads full of other Matters look upon
Humour and peradventure the brisk and violent Nature of those People required a Government that was more firm and more absolute The manner how they bred up the Children of Kings is admired by Plato and proposed to the Grecians as the model of a perfect Education Plat. Alcib 1. At seven Years of Age they are taken from the hands of the Eunuchs to teach them how to ride on Horseback and to follow the Chase At fourteen when the Mind begins to form it self there are given them to their Instructors four Men who are the most Vertuous and Wise that can be found out in the Kingdom The first says Plato teaches them Magick that is to say in their Language the Worship of the Gods according to the antient Maxims and according to the Laws of Zoroastres the Son of Oromases The second instructed them how to speak the Truth and how to do Justice The third taught them how they should not suffer themselves to be overcome by their Pleasures that so they might be always free and truly Kings Masters of themselves and of their desires The fourth fortified their Courage against Fear which had made slaves of them and had robbed them of that Confidence which was so necessary for Command The young Lords were bred up at the Gate of the King with his Children Xenoph. de exped Cyri. Jun. lib. 1. there was particular Care taken that they should neither see nor hear any thing that was unbecoming they gave the King an account of their Conduct And that account which was given of them was by his Order attended with suitable Punishments or Rewards The Youth who saw them did early with their Vertue learn the knowledg of both how to obey and command And with such an Institution what might not be hoped for from the Kings of Persia and their Nobles if as great a Care had been taken to direct them well in the Progress of their Age as there always was to instruct them in their Infancy But the corrupted Manners of the Nation drew them quickly into their Enchanted Pleasures against which no Education can Fence Yet it must be confessed that notwithstanding the Effeminacy of the Persians and notwithstanding the Care they had of their Beauty and of their Dress they wanted not Valour They stood always much on that and they have given very signal marks of it The Military Art with them had the preference it deserved as that under the Covert whereof all others might be exercised in quiet Xenoph. But they never understood the bottom of it nor knew what an Army could do that used Severity Discipline ranking of their Troops the order of Marches and Incampments and to conclude a certain Conduct which made those great Bodies to move without Confusion and in the best manner They thought they had done all when they had collected together a huge number of People without any choice to go to the War with Bravery and Courage but without Order and who found themselves Embarassed with an infinite multitude of unnecessary Persons whom the King and the great Men drew after them only for their Pleasures For their Effeminacy was so great that they would find in the Army the same Magnificence and delicacies as in those places where the Court made its ordinary Commoration and Stay so that the Kings marched with their Wives their Concubines their Eunuchs and whatsoever else might contribute to their Pleasures Their Gold and Silver Vessels and the best sort of moveable Houshold Goods followed in a most prodigious abundance and in short all the train that such a Life requires An Army made up of this manner and already encumbred with the excessive Multitude of its Soldiers was overcharged by the unaccountable number of those who did not Fight In this Confusion it was impossible to move in any Regularity and by consent the Orders never came in time and in any action all went as they could and no body could make any Provision or Forecast And withal they must make but a short work of it and come rapidly like a Torrent into a Country for such a vast Body and greedy not only of what was necessary for Life but also what was Serviceable for their Pleasure consum'd all in a little time and one can scarce imagine where they could get all their substance And yet with this great Pomp and Ceremony did the Persians astonish the People that understood the trade of War no better than themselves And those who did understand it found themselves either weakned by their own divisions or overpowred by the Multitude of their Enemies and by that means it was that Egypt a proud as she seemed to be both of her Antiquity and of her wise Institutions and of the Conquests of her Sesostris became subjected to the Persians It was no hard matter for them to conquer the lesser Asia and also the Greek Colonies which the softness of Asia had Corrupted But when they came to Greece it self they found what they had never seen a regulated Militia well bred Commanders Soldiers used to live sparingly Bodies hardned to Travel which the Lute and other Exercises common in that Country had made dexterous and nimble Armies very small indeed but yet were like to those vigorous Bodies that seem to be all nervous and where all is made up of Life and Spirit and withal so well commanded and so compliant to the orders of their Generals that one would think that the Soldiers had all but one and the same Soul such an exact harmony of agreement was seen in all their Motions But what Greece had still that was more great was a firm and Provident Politie that understood how to abandon hazard and defend what was necessary and what was greater yet a Courage which the love of Liberty and that of its Country made invincible The Greeks naturally full of Spirit and Courage had been early cultivated by Kings and Colonies come from Egypt which establishing themselves at the first in divers parts of the Country had every where discovered that excellent Politie of the Egyptians From thence they learnt the Exercises of the Body the Lute Foot-races running on Horseback and in Chariots and the other Exercises which they put in Perfection by the glorious Crowns of the Olympic Games But the best thing of all which the Egyptians had taught them was Docility and how they should form themselves by Laws for the publick Weal This was not in particular relating only to their own private affairs nor only minding the Evils of the State so far as they themselves suffered by them or the quiet of their Families were disturbed and troubled The Greeks were taught how to look after themselves and also to have a regard for their Families as they were part of a greater Body which was the Body of the State Parents educated their Children in this Principle and the Children learnt from their Cradles to look upon their Country as a common