cannot be neglected whatever old marks he bears of the divine displeasure For the very acquist of vertue carries with it an abatement of affliction but by the care of Providence an utter riddance and delivery from it For 't was our own wickedness and the divine judgment consequent upon it which brought upon us our Calamities which again in like manner are remov'd by our amendment and the law of Providence which frees them from evil who give themselves up to what is good Such weighty Precepts do these Verses afford us which conduce to ground us in the first rudiments of Vertue For they seem to contain the most true measures of Providence Fate and liberty of Will whereby this discourse has rectifi'd the trouble arising from the seeming inequality of things and has demonstrated throughout that God is no way the cause of Evil. Which if you join with what went before the result of the whole discourse will be one entire confirmation of the Eternity of the Soul For his exhorting to the exercise of Justice to courage in Death and to a liberal use of Riches serves to shew that the Soul does not dye with the Body But it seems also requisite to our enduring the DIVINE FORTUNE and our being able to cure our selves that the Soul be not generated with the Body as to that 't is apparent from both that the Soul is above generation and corruption of a distinct nature from the body and in its own nature Eternal For 't is as impossible that should last for ever whose production was dated from some time as that that should be capable of Corruption which subsisted from Eternity If therefore after the dissolution of the body the surviving Soul of man is obnoxious to punishment and judgment and receives just retributions according to the things done in the body and if lastly that cannot always remain which began in some time it is evident that the Soul did exist before all time And thus the Soul of man is found among the eternal Works of God and in this respect also partakes of the divine likeness But because we have insisted sufficiently on this 't is high time to consider what follows MANY GOOD AND BAD DISCOURSES PROCEED FROM MEN WHICH NEITHER ADMIRE OVERMUCH NOR YET UTTERLY DISDAIN BUT IF ANY SPEAK UNTRUTH GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS Oft good and ill do in discourse unite Be not too apt t' admire nor yet to slight But if through error any speak amiss Endure 't with mildness The will of man not being always set either upon good or evil begets discourse savouring of both in conformity to its contrary affections whence it comes to pass that some discourses are true some good some bad and some false Which variety requires descretion of judgment that we may chuse the good and refuse the bad so that we be neither prejudic'd against all discourse by condemning the bad nor swallow down any thing without distinction out of greediness after what is good For by prejudice we often deprive our selves of the benefit of good and by too great eagerness of hearing we suck in the hidden poyson of evil discourses We must therefore use our appetite of hearing with the best discretion that so our desire may bring us to hear all but our discretion may refuse what is not good So shall we keep the Pythagorick Precept neither too vehemently moved at bad discourses nor taking in all without distinction because discourses Nor on the same account abstaining from good ones For we do not embrace the good because discourses but because true nor condemn the bad for any other reason than because false Nay I may confidently affirm that none are to be reckon'd among discourses but what are true For they only retain the dignity of the rational nature being the off-spring of a mind disposed to what is best and in possession of its proper ornament But false discourses are indeed no discourses at all For since they lead into Vice and Error they not only degenerate from the ingenuousness of discourse but are the voice of a Soul divested of Reason and immerc'd in Passion You 're advised therefore not to take in all lest you swallow that which is false nor to reject all lest you reject the good too For 't is absurd both ways to hate the good with the evil and to embrace falshood for the sake of truth But we ought to commend the good and upon admission to reduce it into practice and to examin where and how far it is consonant to truth But against the false to contend with force of argument which is supplied from the rules deliver'd in Logick for the discerning of truth and when we can overthrow what is false not to doe it with violence and rudeness but to follow the truth with mildness with decent reprehensions to confute falshood and in the words of the Verse to GIVE WAY WITH MILDNESS by which we are not commanded to yield the Cause as they say but to hear without Passion For when he bids us GIVE WAY TO FALSHOOD WITH MILDNESS he does not mean that we should embrace it but only give it a patient hearing and not to count it such a strange thing if men fall off sometimes from truth For humane nature lies open to a multitude of erroneous opinions when it does not closely adhere to its common Notices 'T is no wonder therefore says the Verse if a man never imbued with the principles of truth nor of any experience assert opinions contrary to truth Nay on the contrary 't wou'd be a wonder if a man who is both untaught and unpractis'd in dispute should stumble on truth by chance we should therefore hear those that err with allowance and learn by their defects what evils we our selves are free from who being by the community of nature subject to the same passions are yet privileg'd from them by the Preservative of knowledge Besides the very courage and confidingness of knowledge conduces much to mildness For the mind which comes sufficiently provided to engage in the defence of truth can calmly stand the shock of false opinions having preconceiv'd in the consideration of truth whatever might be alledg'd against it What can disturb such a man as unanswerable His very confidence will suggest thoughts to him for the confutation of error The knowing man therefore will learn quietness and sedateness not only from his morality but from his very confidence And so much for that Prudence which is to be used in distinguishing Discourses Next comes the habit of declining Deceit necessary to a wise man to be treated of BUT OBSERVE WHAT I TELL YOU IN EVERY THING LET NO MAN INTICE YOU EITHER BY WORDS OR DEEDS TO DOE OR SAY ANY THING WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU But be sure of this That none by word or action you intice To doe or speak to your own prejudice This Precept is of general extent and is equivalent with another
Lucid body should be refined and spiritualized that it may endure the society of the Aethereal ones For likeness reconciles all things whereas by unlikeness things that are never so near in respect of place are yet separate from one another This is the measure of the most perfect Philosophy deliver'd by the Pythagoreans which is peculiarly adapted to the perfection of the whole man For he that takes care only for his Soul and neglects his body does not purge the whole Man Again he that thinks it his duty to care for the body without the Soul and that the care of the body will any thing advantage the Soul though it be not purged in particular does ill in that But he that follows both these courses does excellently well and so joyns Philosophy with the Sacred art whose business is to purge the Lucid body which if you separate from the Philosophical mind you will find it has no longer the same vertue For of those things which consummate our perfection some are first invented by the Philosophical mind some are added by the mystical operation which follows the Philosophical mind Now by the Mystical Operation I understand the faculty of purging the Lucid body So that the Contemplative part presides over all Philosophy as a mind and the Practick follows as a faculty Now of the Practick we lay down two kinds Civil and Mystical The former purges us from the brute Nature by the help of Vertue the latter by holy Methods cuts off material Imaginations Moreover the publick Laws are a sufficient manifestation of Civil Philosophy but of the Mystical the sacred Rites of Cities Besides the top of all Philosophy is the Contemplative mind in the middle place is the Civil in the last is the Mystical The first if compared with the other two holds the proportion of an Eye the other two compared with the first of an Hand and a Foot All which have such connexion with and dependence on one another that any one of them would be defective yea almost useless if destitute of the others concurrence Wherefore these must unite together in one constellation that knowledge which finds out Truth that faculty which brings forth Vertue and that which works Purity that civil action may be made perfectly conformable to the presiding mind and that good may shine forth answerable to both And this is the end of the Pythagorick discipline that we may be all over Wing for the perception of divine good that so when the time of death is at hand leaving our mortal body behind us on the earth and putting off its very Nature we who were stout Champions in the warfare of Philosophy may be ready and expedite for our flight towards heaven For then we shall be restored to our primitive station and become Gods as far as humane nature is capable as 't is assured us in the next Verses BUT IF HAVING LEFT YOUR BODY YOU COME INTO THE FREE AETHER YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD INCORRUPTIBLE NEVER MORE LYABLE TO DEATH So when unbody'd you shall freely rove In the unbounded Regions above You an Immortal God shall then commence Advanc'd beyond Mortality and Sense This is the most excellent end of all our labours This says Plato is the great Prize the great Hope This is the most perfect fruit and reward of Philosophy This is the greatest work of the Amorous and Mystical art viz. to familiarize us and lead us up to the things that are truly excellent to rescue us from the labours we drudge under here below as from the deep dungeon of this gross material life to mount us up to the AETHEREAL Splendors and to place us in the Mansions of the blessed if we have walk'd according to the foregoing rules For such only have a title to the Crown of divine Immortality Since no man is capable of being adopted into the number of the Gods but he that has possess'd his Soul of Truth and Vertue and its spiritual Vehicle of Purity For so being sound and intire he is restored to the form of the primitive habit having return'd home to himself by the collection of right reasonings having consider'd the frame of the divine Ornament and so found out the Maker of the Universe And when he is become that as far as 't is possible after Purgation which those beings are always who are not in a capacity to be born he is carry'd up to a God by his knowledge but withall having a body Congenial to him he wants place wherein he may seat himself as a Star Now for such a body that place is most proper which is immediately under the Moon as being above the Corruptible and yet inferior to the Celestial bodies which the Pythagoreans call the FREE AETHER Aether because immaterial and Eternal Free because void of all material passions and terrestrial hurries What therefore shall he be when he arrives thither but that which he says YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD that is like the Immortal Gods spoken of in the beginning of the Verses not really so For how is it possible that he who is Deifi'd for a gradual proficiency in Vertue begun at some certain time should ever be really the same with them who were so from Eternity And this appears from the sequel For to these words YOU SHALL BE AN IMMORTAL GOD he adds INCORRUPTIBLE AND NEVER MORE LIABLE TO DEATH Intimating that our Deifying consists in the removal of what is Mortal and that we are not Gods by nature or essence but by proficiency and improvement So that this makes another sort of Gods Immortal by ascent but by descent Mortal and such as are necessarily subordinate to the Illustrious Heroes since these always behold the face of God whereas the other sometimes do not attend to his perfections For it will not be properly a third kind when perfected nor will it be third in respect of the middle but it will be made like to the first kind yet subordinate to the middle For that habitual resemblance of the Celestial which is seen in men does preexist in the Heroical kind after a more perfect and native manner And thus the common and only perfection of all rational beings consists in their resemblance of God that made them Now this resemblance is constant and uniform in the Celestial beings constant only and not uniform in those Aethereal ones which persevere but neither constant nor uniform in those Aethereal beings which fall down and are apt to converse here upon earth This first and best resemblance of God may be well enough call'd the Pattern of the second and third or else the second of the third For 't is not intended only that we should propose God immediately to our imitation but resemble him also by the best rule or middle likeness But if we cannot attain so far yet at least we reap this most excellent fruit of Vertue that we know the measure of our own nature and that we are not dissatisfi'd at it And this is the highest Vertue to contain ones self within the limits of the Creation whereby all things are specifically distinguish'd and to comply with the laws of Providence whereby all things according to their several capacities are directed to that good which is agreeable and convenient for them And thus have we finish'd our Exposition of the GOLDEN Verses wherein we have given you an indifferent Summary of the Pythagorick Institutions For 't was fit that we should neither confine our Paraphrase to the shortness of the Verses For so the reason of many excellent Precepts would have lain hid nor yet launch out into the Ocean of his whole Philosophy for that were to exceed the limits of our present undertaking but proportion our Comment to the sense of the Text and deliver only those things which serve to a general Explication of the doctrines contain'd in the Verses Which are nothing else but the most perfect transcript of Philosophy a Compendium of its most principal doctrines and an Elementary Institution left to Posterity by those who following the law of God were receiv'd up into Heaven You may truly call these Verses the best discovery of humane generosity and with reason suppose that they were not the memorable Sayings of any one Pythagorean but the common Resolve of the whole Sacred Assembly Whence 't was a law among them that these Verses like so many Pythagorick Oracles should be repeated in the hearing of all every Morning and also at Evening just before Bed-time that so by a continual Meditation of these sentences their Doctrines might shine forth in their lives Which 't were well if we did doe too that we might see what profit we might at length reap from them FINIS
against vice when he says REVERENCE YOUR SELF ABOVE ALL THINGS For if you have once an habitual reverence of your self you will have every where a most intimate Guardian whom you will stand in awe of and from whom you can never withdraw your self For many when retired from their friends and domesticks have taken liberty to act such things which in their presence they would have blush'd to commit But had they no witness I omit God for he is thought to be far off but had they not themselves and the testimony of Conscience They had truly but they did not consider it being immers'd wholly in their passions But such men as these dishonour their reason and degrade it below a Slave Be then an intimate Guardian to your self and from the consideration of your own privity begin your abhorrence of evil For self-reverence does necessarily beget an avoidance of filthy things and whatsoever is unworthy of an Intelligent nature But now how he that thus abhors Evil should familiarize himself to Vertue he proceeds to shew THEN EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD NEITHER USE YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON BUT KNOW THAT 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE AND THAT RICHES ARE SOMETIMES POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST In deed and word to Iustice have an eye Doe not the least thing unadvisedly But know that all must to the Shades below That Riches sometimes ebb and sometimes flow He that truly reveres himself will guard himself from falling into any Vice But of Vices there are several kinds In the rational part Imprudence in the irascible Timorousness in the concupiscible Luxury and Covetousness and throughout all the faculties Injustice To the avoidance therefore of these evils four sorts of Vertues are necessary Prudence in the rational part Courage in the irascible Temperance in the concupiscible and lastly Justice which is conversant about all the faculties as being the most perfect and comprising all the other vertues in it self as parts For which reason it is first of all mention'd in the Verses And next Prudence together with the best designs and undertakings which take their Rise from it and end in compleat and perfect Justice For he that uses right reason has Courage for his fellow-souldier in hardships Temperance in things pleasant and in all things Justice So that in the sum Prudence will be found to be the beginning of all vertues Justice the end and Courage and Temperance the middle For that faculty which weighs and considers all things and seeks out that which is right in every action that all may be rationally disposed is the habit of Prudence which is the best disposition of our rational nature and derives ornament upon the other faculties So that anger commences Courage lust Temperance and Justice swerves nothing from Reason and with this our mortal Man is adorn'd but 't is through the surplusage of Vertue which is in the immortal Man For the vertues first shine out from the mind upon the rational Soul of which they are the proper form perfection and happiness But upon the brute part and mortal body there shines a reflected ray of Vertue that what is united to the rational nature may be replenish'd with beauty and measure But the chief of all divine good is Prudence which when well radicated in the Soul helps us to advise well in all matters to bear Death with courage and the loss of our Goods with mildness and decency For Prudence is able to bear all the changes of this mortal life and of fortune which is appendent to it soberly and undauntedly For she considers the nature of things and knows that what is compounded of Water and Earth must of necessity be resolv'd into them again Neither is she exasperated against necessity or surprised at what befalls us as if 't were strange and unexpected or wonders if what is mortal dye She knows 'T IS APPOINTED FOR ALL MEN ONCE TO DYE and that there is a certain definite time for the duration of these mortal bodies Which when come we should not fret at it but willingly submit to it as to the law of God For the office of Prudence is to follow the best counsels not to seek to escape dying but to dye well In like manner she is not ignorant of the nature of Riches that they sometimes EBB and sometimes FLOW for certain determin'd causes which to oppose were indiscretion For we are not the arbitrary possessors of what is not in our power but neither our bodies nor our riches are in our power nor in short whatsoever is without our own rational nature Neither is it in our power to get or retain when and how long we please But to acquire and part with them vertuously this is in our power and the proper work of the rational nature if we ACCUSTOM IT TO ACT ACCORDING TO REASON in all contingencies and to follow the divine limits which determine all our concerns And here lies the greatest commendation of our power that we can use well what is not in our power and not suffer the vehemency of desire to impeach the freedom of our will What then is the dictate of a prudent judgment To make good use of our bodies and estates when we have them as the instruments of vertue and when they are taken from us to know what becomes us and add patience to our other vertues So will our piety towards God and the measures of Justice be kept inviolable if the rational faculty learn to use things necessary well and to oppose the bounds of Prudence to events seemingly fortuitous and without order Otherwise there can be no observation of Vertue if there be not a right judging faculty in the rational nature For neither will it follow after better things as such but will act as under compulsion Neither will it treat the body honourably or manage the estate rightly Those who are over-carefull to avoid death and desirous to keep their riches doe necessarily much injustice and often blaspheme by wicked execrations against God and denying his providence as often as they fall into that which they imprudently declined By sticking to doe no injury to others and by endeavouring to scrape together all they can to their own profit And so the damage of a wrong perswasion is evident in them whence spring the greatest evils Injustice against equalls and Impiety against superiors from which he will be altogether free who being perswaded by the foregoing Verses bears death generously and with a good judgment and thinks the loss of riches not intolerable From this he draws an argument of embracing Justice when he considers how becoming 't is to abstain from what is another's to hurt no body nor to raise his fortunes upon another's losses None of all these can he observe who thinks his Soul is mortal and who never considers what part that is of us which dies what that is which stands in need of riches and
what that is which exercises Vertue and is advantaged by it For 't is the distinguishing of these things which alone prompts us to the exercise of Vertue and excites us to the pursuit of these excellent things To which these two Precepts are a most divine motive KNOW THY SELF AND REVERENCE THY SELF For the dignity of our nature makes it our duty to consider and ponder the offices of others both IN DEED AND WORD Now Justice is the way to secure the observation of offices and therefore is set before the other vertues that it may be the measure of them For he says EXERCISE JUSTICE IN DEED AND WORD you will never then blaspheme upon the loss of riches or in the pains of a disease lest you should violate Justice in your words Neither will you invade the goods of your neighbour or contrive mischief against his person lest you commit Injustice in deed For if Justice has once the guard of our Souls we shall discharge our offices to God to our Neighbour and to our selves Now the best measure of Justice is Prudence for which reason he join'd these two Precepts together EXERCISE JUSTICE AND USE NOT YOUR SELF IN ANY MATTER TO ACT WITHOUT REASON as if Justice could not subsist without Prudence For that is truly just which perfect Prudence defines And that is TO DOE NOTHING WITHOUT REASON but diligently to consider the mortal body and whatsoever conduces to its use and accommodation and taking all things to be inferior to Vertue to think that the greatest profit consists in the best disposition of the rational soul which gives ornament to all other things according to their Capacity And this is the Scope of the verses before us to set forth and deliver to the Auditors the four Cardinal vertues with the watchfull observation and care wherewith they are to be exercised both in deed and word For he exhorts to Prudence Fortitude and Temperance but above all he recommends Justice to our practice as a transcendent vertue which runs throughout all the rest And whereas he adds that RICHES SOMETIMES ARE POSSEST AND SOMETIMES LOST he signifies that after the disposition of Temperance comes that of Liberality which is a vertue conversant about giving and receiving money For then only to possess or quit possession when reason requires takes away all occasion of sordidness and prodigality But all this flows as from a fountain or principle from that one precept of reverencing ones self Nay and this very precept was anticipated too in that other know your self which must be the ground-work of all gallant actions and speculative notices of things For how do we come to know that 't is our duty to moderate our passions and to know the things that are For there is much doubt concerning these things First whether they be within the verge of humane attaintment and secondly whether they will profit those who have them Again a good man may be so low in the World that he cannot receive unjustly when he ought not or spend justly when he ought And as to his body he lies most open to all assaults since he neither affects Empire himself nor knows how servilely to flatter those who have it So that unless there were some other nature in us advantaged by Vertue we should scarce ever refuse riches or power Wherefore those who think the Soul mortal and yet dispute about the love of vertues cavil rather than offer any thing of truth For if something of us did not subsist after death whose nature is capable to be adorn'd with truth and vertue such as we affirm the rational soul to be we should never have a pure desire of excellent things For the very suspicion of the Souls mortality extinguishes all desires of vertue and turns them all to bodily enjoyments whatever they are or however obtain'd For how upon their principles can it seem the part of a prudent or moderate man not to indulge and gratifie the Body altogether for whose sake the Soul is preserv'd in its subsistence since according to them it has no self-existence but is the result of a certain conformation of the body How again shall he be content to put off the body for the sake of Vertue if at the same time he shall destroy his soul too so that Vertue it self will have no where to exist for whose sake he underwent death But as to this divine Men have abundantly demonstrated that the Soul is immortal and naturally apt to be adorn'd with Vertue But now putting an end to the present disputation we will proceed to what follows adding this only to what has been said That as from the ignorance of our nature all manner of wickedness flows in upon us so if we know our selves and disdain whatever does not become our rational nature we shall truly and constantly perform all our offices And this is the measure of every particular vertue For if we attend to our nature as to a rule we shall find that which is decent in all things living according to right reason and agreeably to nature For whatsoever makes the soul better that is truely Vertue and the law of Philosophy But those things which tend only to humane decency and shew are servile fallacies and mere umbrages of vertue which hunt after popular applause and whose utmost care is to appear vertuous to the World And so much of this Moreover from this right consideration of things it follows necessarily that we DEMEAN OUR SELVES NOT WITHOUT REASON in those concerns of life which seem to come to pass without order but that upon examination of their causes we bear them generously never finding fault with those who have the charge of us who distributing to every one according to merit did not reward all alike whose proficiency was unequal For how since the World is ruled by Providence and the Soul is by nature incorruptible but by the will is carried forth to vertue and vice can those whose office is to defend the Law and consider Merit distribute equally to those who are unequal and not rather distribute to every one his convenient lot which a man is said to draw when he comes into the World If therefore the being of Providence distributing to every one what is fit and the immortality of the Soul be no Fable 't is plain that the cause of our grievances ought to be transfer'd from our Governour upon our selves from which consideration the Verse will shew us a way to remedy our disasters For when we find that the cause of all this inequality is in our selves we first alleviate the grievousness of Events by right reasoning and then exciting our Souls by holy methods and right perswasions to what is more excellent we shall wholly free our selves from trouble But when the afflicted man neither perceives the cause nor conjectures at a like event he will ACCUSTOM HIMSELF TO ACT WITHOUT REASON which is the thing here forbidden For 't is necessary that
before mention'd in these words From filthy actions at all times forbear Whether with others or alone you are And of all things your self learn to revere For he who has learnt to stand in awe of himself and dares not commit any filthy action either in solitude or in company nay and affords not the least entertainment to any such thing even in his very imagination out of reverence to the guardian reason which is within this man is he who is able to hear this LET NONE DECEIVE YOU EITHER BY WORD OR ACTION For he only is above all Imposture and Fallacy who knowing that he has the dignity of a man suffers himself neither to be wheedled with flattery nor dejected with threats whether he has to deal with friends or enemies Now the ways of DECEPTION are either by words or actions The former consists in Flatteries and Threatnings the latter in setting before us Bribes and Punishments Against all these we should have our minds fortifi'd with right reason that we be neither charm'd nor inslaved either by Pleasure or Pain which on all sides assault our Constancy For when right reason which is within has set on both sides those two invincible keepers Temperance and Fortitude to guard the Soul it will secure us from being DECEIV'D either by the smooth insinuations of things pleasing or the dread of things terrible which even temper of mind is accompany'd with that exact justice which we were above exhorted to exercise in Deed and Word By this means none will be ever able to perswade us to let fall a word or commit an action that is not consonant to right reason For 't is manifest that if we stand most in awe of our selves none will appear to us more venerable or more dreadfull than our selves that we should be induced to speak or doe any thing besides our duty For both are prejudicial to the mind and what is hurtfull to that can never be for our advantage since our minds are properly we our selves This therefore is to be diligently heeded WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU Where the first word is to be refer'd to what you properly are If then this be the thing enjoyn'd that none deceive you by Word or Deed to doe or speak what will not be for your Profit and if by YOU is understood the reasonable Soul you will not let any one if you 're wise injure your rational nature which is your self For 't is your Soul which is YOU this which you see is but your body Thus distinguishing you will prevent confusion of natures and find out wherein humane nature truly consists if you take neither your body nor the things without for your own and if you never contend on their account as for your self lest you be drawn to the love of your body or of riches For when we know not what we our selves are we shall be also ignorant of that which we care for and shall be apt to be concern'd for any thing rather than our selves whom we should make our chiefest care For if that which uses the body is the Soul and the body serves only as an instrument for that and if other things are invented to help the frail nature of this instrument it is apparent that what is first and principal should be first and principally cared for and the second only in subordination to the first For this reason a wise man will not be negligent of his health not out of a principal regard to his body but that he may accommodate it to the use of his mind and render it apt to obey its operations with all readiness and expediteness And in the last place he will take care of the last ordering the things that are without to the welfare of the instrument 'T is the Soul therefore which is his chief and perhaps only care since the care of things subordinate to it tends to its advantage Now every thing which is contrary to vertue comes under the notion of WHAT IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU For to whom Vertue is profitable to him what is contrary to Vertue will be unprofitable He counsels you therefore to summon together all the aids of Vertue when he enjoyns you not to give ear to him that endeavours to seduce you from your integrity by whatever methods he tries to doe it For example not if a Tyrant allure you with promises or confirm them in reality not if he terrifies you with threats or offers violence by tortures not if he hide his fraud under the mask of Courtesie let him seduce your Soul from WHAT IS PROFITABLE Now the only things that are profitable to it are Truth and Vertue You shall therefore be out of the reach of all FRAUD if knowing your own essence both what it is and what it naturally resembles you have always a special care of the image which it bears and if you look upon whatsoever perverts you from this likeness as the greatest damage you are capable of For this is the very thing WHICH IS NOT PROFITABLE TO YOU which seduces you from the likeness of God And since that is most for our interest whatsoever promotes this likeness I would fain know what any one can offer to us of such moment or value that we should quit our desire of being like God for its sake Is it the giving of riches or is it the taking them away But alas these we have learnt to desire or refuse as right reason shall dictate to us Neither are we ignorant of the uncertainty of their possession What if they escape the hands of the Thief how many other ways are there of losing them To which we will add one more which is to exchange riches for a voluntary poverty joyn'd with honesty quitting them for a good cause and redeeming our Vertue at as great a rate as he would doe us harm who endeavours to spoil us of it But he will set before us torments and death This is easily answer'd 'T is not we which shall suffer these things if we preserve what is our own but 't is the Body only which suffers all the injury The Body which by dying suffers nothing contrary to its nature For it is by nature subject to death section and infinite other injuries which every disease can inflict more than a Tyrant Why therefore do we so much bestir our selves to fly those things which we cannot avoid why rather don 't we preserve that which is in our power to keep inviolable what by nature is mortal can by no art be exempted from appointed death but what we have immortal which is our Soul our selves we can adorn with Vertue if we faint not at the threats of death which when we undergo on a just account we may make a Vertue of the necessity of Nature by a right election These are the great things which one man can inflict upon another But the inner recesses of the Soul are subject to none but free if
we our selves will if we do not out of an inordinate passion for the body and things without enslave our liberty selling the good of our souls for a Momentary life and riches These are the things which the Precept under consideration commands us always to observe by which the stability and constancy of Vertue is seal'd up and confirm'd Let us now proceed to other Precepts of the same import ADVISE BEFORE ACTION THAT NO FOLLY INSUE HE IS A MISERABLE MAN THAT DOES OR SPEAKS WHAT IS INCONSIDERATE THAT DOE WHICH WILL NOT TROUBLE YOU AFTERWARDS Think before action Folly to prevent Rash words and acts are their own punishment That doe which done after you 'll repent Prudence of Counsel brings forth Vertues perfects them and preserves them being at once their Parent Nurse and Guardian For when we calmly deliberate after what manner we should live then we chuse the beauty of Vertue And when upon deliberation we resolve generously to encounter all Agonies on the account of Vertue and accustom our selves to the possession of it wee keep our minds uncorrupt in all the storms of Calamity not at all startled or dismay'd by tumults from without so as to change our purpose or think any course of life happy besides that which we once concluded best for its self So that there are three offices of good counsel 1. The election of the best life 2. The exercise of that which we have chosen 3. A constant observation of what is once well resolv'd The first of these is that reason which goes before action and is the principle of acting The middle is the reason with the action which accommodates every thing that is done to the preceding principles The third is the reason in the action which examines all that is done and judges of its right performance But the excellency of good Counsel shines throughout partly by bringing forth vertues partly by nourishing and partly by preserving and guarding them So that in this consists the beginning middle and end of our Vertues by this alone our ills are remov'd and our vertues perfected For our nature being rational and consequently capable of deliberation when by its own will it is led either to good or bad Counsels then the life which is according to nature preserves its essence but an election of Evil corrupts it as far as 't is possible The corruption of an immortal being is Vice the Parent of which is want of Counsel which the Verse exhorts you to avoid THAT so FOLLY MAY NOT INSUE Now FOLLY is all one with Misery and Vice For HE IS A MISERABLE MAN THAT SPEAKS OR DOES INCONSIDERATELY But if you deliberate before you act you will never be guilty of any foolish word or action which they must needs be involv'd in who are guilty of unadvisedness For Repentance argues the weakness of Election when Experience only convinces of the damage as good Counsel produces a firm election shewing the profitableness of the action The profitableness I say not in relation to the Body or any thing without but to our selves to whom it is commanded to ADVISE BEFORE ACTION and to doe such things as will occasion us that is our Souls no after trouble For what advantage will it be by Perjuries Murthers or any other evil actions to encrease our store of outward things and in the mean time to be poor within to want the good of the Soul and then either to be insensible of this and so to aggravate the evil or if our Conscience be awaken'd to a sense of what we have done to be tortur'd in our spirit to dread the punishment of Hell and to find no other remedy to cure our misery but by taking Sanctuary at Annihilation So apt is he to cure one Evil by another who solaces himself in his wickedness with the utter destruction of his Soul and thinks himself worthy that nothing of him should remain after death that he may escape Judgment For if a wicked man might have his will his Soul would not be immortal to avoid punishment He therefore endeavours to prevent the Judge of Hell by adjudging himself to death as if a wicked Soul were not fit so much as to be And this sentence which he gives on himself becomes his inconsiderateness well enough whereby he was at first betray'd into sin But the Judge of Hell who does Justice according to the rule of Truth will not sentence his Soul not to be but not to be wicked and will endeavour to abate his wickedness by applying Castigations for the cure of Nature as Physicians heal Malign Ulcers by Scarifyings and Searings Then he will take vengeance of the faults endeavouring to blot out the wickedness of the Soul by Repentance Not annihilating its substance but rather by purging away the passions whereby it was corrupted reducing it to its primitive state For the Soul of Man is in danger of losing its being when diverted to that which is contrary to its nature But when recall'd to that which is according to its nature it renews as it were the lease of its very nature and re-assumes that purity of being which was corrupted by the mixture and dross of the Passions It should therefore be our greatest endeavour not to sin at all but if we fall into sin suddenly to betake our selves to Justice as to a soveraign Medicine rectifying our ill Counsel by the help of better For when we fall from our integrity we are re-instated into it by a just Repentance when we admit the divine Correction Now Repentance is the very beginning of Philosophy the avoidance of all FOOLISH WORDS AND ACTIONS and the first preparation to a life not to be repented of For he that advises well before he enters upon action does not fall into surprising troubles neither is he ignorant that many of his enterprises may have an unwelcom issue but yet he still consents to his present lot and examines fortuitous events So that he does not overlook real good out of a greedy expectation of that which is so call'd or commit any evil through fear of the contrary but having his mind always intent upon the Law of God squares his life accordingly But that you may know he is a miserable man that speaks and acts inconsiderately see how Medea in the Tragedy laments her self who when through excess of love she had unadvisedly betray'd her Country surrender'd up her self to a Stranger but afterwards slighted by him she thought her burthen insupportable and breaks out into this Imprecation Thunder and Lightning on this head descend Then she unravels all the wicked actions of her life then she INCONSIDERATELY wishes what is done were undone and at last madly endeavours to cure one evil with another And if you have a mind to see Homer's Agamemnon you have him crying out under the penance of his inordinate anger I am disturb'd my Heart is from me torn And then he quench'd the fire of his eyes which was
conduces to the perfection of the Soul observe what he subjoins NEITHER OUGHT HEALTH OF BODY TO BE NEGLECTED BUT A MEASURE IS TO BE OBSERV'D IN DRINK MEAT AND EXERCISE AND I CALL THAT A MEASURE WHICH DOES YOU NO PREJUDICE Health is a thing you ought not to despise In Diet use a Mean and Exercise And that 's a mean whence does no damage rise Since our mortal Body is given to us as an instrument whereby to lead a life here upon earth we should neither pamper it with immoderate delicacy nor yet pinch it by substraction of necessaries For both are equal impediments and alike take away its usefulness So that we are exhorted by the Verse to treat our bodies moderately and not to neglect them when either they grow insolent and rebellious or when discomposed with sickness that being kept in a good natural temper they may yield obedience to our Souls which preside over them without impediment That which uses is the Soul and the thing used is the Body The Artist therefore should take care of the Instrument For 't is not enough that we will to use it but we must take care that it be in a capacity of being serviceable to us And since its nature is under continual generation and corruption and is nourish'd by repletion and evacuation sometimes aliment supplying what is wasted and sometimes exercise retrenching superfluities there must be a MEASURE applied to repletion and evacuation Now this MEASURE is that proportion which adapts the habit of the body to the thinking operations of the Soul and consequently has regard to that degreed of HEALTH which becomes a Philosopher He will therefore chuse such exercise and nourishment as shall neither pamper the body nor too much divert it from the motions of the mind For he does not care for his body simply and absolutely but for his body serving his mind Wherefore he refuses an Athletick fare which consults the body without the soul and declines all that luxury which is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as opposite to the rational light of the soul. But as far as a good habit of body will serve to discharge the labours of study and brave undertakings he will endeavour to get it to himself whoever intends to live prudently For to him these words are directed I CALL THAT A MEAN WHICH DOES THEE NO HARM as if he had said let not the MEASURE of bodily care hurt THEE who art all rational Soul It becomes THEE who art an observer of the former precepts to use such Meat Drink and Exercise which will render the body docil and manageable to the works of Vertue and which will not provoke the irrational part to throw off the rains of presiding reason Now we must state the measure of caring for the body with the greater attention because it contains the cause of all the motions which arise from it For if the Horse stumbles 't is through the ill management of the Rider Now in assigning the MEASURE concerning the body he puts DRINK before MEAT because 't is hardest to be temperate in that and because it more disorders the good habit of the body And in the third place he puts EXERCISE as that which corrects the fulness of diet and makes way for wholsome Nourishment For these run in a Circle Nourishment and Exercise Exercise and Nourishment For good nourishment makes us able for exercise and exercise moderately used conduces to nourishment which begets a firm Constitution of body But the MEASURE of these varies in several persons according to the peculiar design which they propose to themselves in caring for the body For every one endeavours to make his body a serviceable instrument for what he engages in The Wrestler for the motions of the Ring the Husbandman for the labours of the Plough One employs his body to one service another to another But what does the Philosopher what does he aim at in the discipline of his body For what will he make it instrumental rather than for Philosophy and the labours of the Brain He will therefore so nourish and discipline his body that it may become the instrument of Prudence caring for his Soul in the first place and for his Body only in subordination to that For neither will he prefer it before that which uses it nor altogether neglect it for the users sake But will take care of it in its proper place as of an instrument referring the HEALTH of the Body to the perfection of the Soul which uses it wherefore he will not nourish it with any thing indifferently but only with things fitting For there are some things which we ought not to feed on because they dull the Senses and weigh down the Spirit which is kin to the Soul to material and gross affections Of which he speaks afterwards when he bids us abstain with judgment from those meats which were mention'd in the book concerning the Lustrations and Expiations of the Soul Such as these he will altogether refuse And of those things which he may eat he will consider the quantity and the season and as Hippocrates advises will diligently attend to the season of the year the Country Age and such like Neither will he inconsiderately fill himself with lawfull meats neither will he indiscreetly prescribe the same course of diet to Young and Old Healthy and Sick to a Novice in Philosophy and a great Proficient in it All these are contain'd in the Pythagorick MEASURE when he adds LET IT NOT HURT THEE For all things that tend to the happy life of a wise man he referr'd in that short saying to the care of the Body and to what he had said before concerning the health of the Soul he adds that THE HEALTH OF THE BODY IS BY NO MEANS TO BE NEGLECTED So that there he recommends the perfection of the User here the preservation of the Instrument joyn therefore this with the other and you shall find whoever you are to whom the Precept is given that to be the MEASURE of caring for the Body WHICH DOES NOT HURT YOU which does not hinder your Philosophical purpose but help and further the progress of the Soul in the ways of Vertue He calls it the MEASURE of drinking and eating because he forbids all excess and defect and recommends what is middle and temperate Whence 't is easie to restrain our Appetite Sleep Lust and Anger For that which is here call'd MEASURE corrects all inordinateness in them and removes whatever grieves and presses down the Soul aspiring to God who is all mind For it becomes the Soul in her addresses to the Eternal Mind to be all calm and serene and not to be disturb'd with passionate Motions but to have all well composed below that she may attend quietly upon the Contemplation of things above This is that MEASURE WHICH DOES YOU NO HURT this is that which at once curbs the Appetite and yet consults the good of the Instrument this is
that which discovers the vertue of the Soul and yet dissolves not the good temperament of the Body For 't is a part of Vertue to know how to preserve the Instrument and fit it for the use of a Philosopher But since the care of the Body consists not only in ALIMENT and EXERCISE but there is need of many other things such as Cloths Houshold-stuff and a House to contain all and since there is need also of a MEASURE in these which may remove luxury and sordidness from the whole course of our life he with good reason subjoins ACCUSTOME YOUR SELF TO A CLEAN WAY OF LIVING WITHOUT LUXURY AND BEWARE HOW YOU DOE THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE OPEN TO CENSURE DON'T SPEND HIGH OUT OF SEASON LIKE ONE THAT KNOWS NOT WHAT IS MAGNIFICENCE NEITHER BE SORDID AND NIGGARDLY MEDIOCRITY IS BEST IN ALL THINGS Be Neat but not Luxurious in your Fare How you incur mens Censure have a care Let not thy ' state in ill tim'd Treats be spent Like one that knows not what 's Magnificent Nor by a thrift untimely rake too clean 'T is best in every thing to use a Mean A MEASURE says he is good not only in eating and drinking but in all other things as freeing us from the sins of Excess and Desect For there may be much immoderateness in all those things now mention'd Partly by LUXURY partly by SORDIDNESS Both of these are to be blamed as disagreeable to the manners of a Philosopher and deviating from the right temperament of the body For too much NEATNESS will slide into LUXURY and softness and too much Sparingness into SORDIDNESS and Slovenliness That we may not therefore incur that by our NEATNESS nor this by OVER SPARINGNESS let us take to the middle path declining the Vices on both hands and making one a remedy for the other So using a SPARE DIET as not to be SORDID and so again a NEAT way of living as not to be LUXURIOUS Let us therefore prefer a MEDIOCRITY in all things which concern the body chusing that kind of Apparel which is NEAT and yet not DELICATE and so every thing else For 't is fit since the rational Soul presides over the Body that all things belonging to the body should also be govern'd by Reason which will neither approve LUXURY nor SORDIDNESS dictating that all things should be agreeable to its dignity Lest therefore it should be seduced into LUXURY it chuses what is remote from DELICACY and lest it should be accustom'd to SORDIDNESS and deformity it chuses NEATNESS For example Apparel not vile and beggerly but clean and decent Houshold-stuff not of Gold and Silver but of ordinary materials an House not adorn'd with costly Stones nor of excessive beauty and grandeur but answerable to the needs of the body In a word NEATNESS throughout the whole life excludes LUXURY as superfluous and admits what is without LUXURY as chiefly subservient to Necessity For both Cloths House and houshold-stuff are then most usefull when competent and clean For what need of a great dish when there 's but little meat And to what purpose is a sordid one but to disadvantage it What need of an extraordinary great House have they who will live in one corner of it and what is a sordid house good for that is not fit to dwell in And so in all other things you will find these two extremes utterly unusefull For both transgress the MEDIOCRITY of use and pass into the boundlessness of desire Wherefore let all things in your life be temper'd with such a MEAN as declines the bordering vices ACCUSTOM YOUR SELF says he TO A CLEAN WAY OF LIVING Afterwards observing how prone we are to Luxury he adds WHICH IS WITHOUT DELICACY Which if he had said at first because he foresaw an easy descent into Sordidness he would have added CLEAN always restraining the proclivity of Intemperance by opposing one to the other that from the mixture of both may proceed a Masculine way of life and such as becomes a rational Creature If we thus order our life we shall obtain another great advantage We shall decline CENSURE and ENVY the constant adherents to Greatness if always eyeing the golden MEAN we never provoke our neighbours either to hate us for our LUXURY or blame us for our SORDIDNESS to reprehend us as sometimes profuse and lavish and sometimes inquiring into little things which are beneath our notice For all these things will make us be tax'd with immoderation among those we live with For this is meant by the word ENVY as if he had said beware of doing any thing which justly exposes you to the common blame Now LUXURY and SORDIDNESS in life are to be reckon'd among those things which are deservedly blamable by the Vulgar and in expence of Money Profusion and Stinginess In the management therefore of all outward and secular concerns MEDIOCRITY and Liberality should shew a prudent habit of mind and a MEAN WHICH IS BEST IN ALL THINGS For it becomes him who is a lover of tranquility to shun all occasions of ENVY as much as he can and to be as much afraid of provoking it as of rouzing a sleeping Lion that he may make a proficiency in excellent things without disturbance Now the way to live an unenvy'd and inobnoxious life is to chuse that which is slender and without Sordidness and to decline that Pride which arises from the ignorance of what is excellent which is the mother of two evils PROFUSION and UNSEASONABLE THRIFT The former of which argues a dissolute the latter a narrow Spirit But Liberality avoids both finding out what is becoming in Incomes and Expences and ordering the whole Scheme of outward things according to right reason And these are the directions given in the Verses concerning the best use of the Body and the things without that so the beauty of Vertue may be seen even in these Now the following Precept sums up all DOE THOSE THINGS WHICH WILL NOT HURT YOU AND CONSIDER BEFORE YOU ACT. Be not Mischievous to your self advise Before you act He has already used many expressions of this nature and here he gives a Summary of them all advising to abstain from HURTFULL things and to doe what is profitable and that these may be distinguish'd to REASON BEFORE ACTION what is to be done and what not For then is the time for good Counsel when matters are yet entire And when he says WHICH WILL NOT HURT YOU by YOU is to be understood that which is the true Man or rational Nature and he that embraces the study of Wisedom and aspires to the divine Likeness who knows whatsoever is contrary to right reason and the divine Law and which hinders us from being like God Now these are wont to be increas'd upon us by the Conversation of those among whom we live by the administration of the Body join'd to us and by our Goods which are for our use He therefore that is inamour'd with
divine good should take care how he is inticed to doe any thing which is not for his advantage and how he indulges his body those enjoyments which will cost him a dear Repentance Lastly how he embraces any thing which may take off his mind from the study of Wisedom and of which he will shortly after repent The consideration of all this should put us forward in the course of vertuous living that when we come to confess what we have done we may make up our Accounts with pleasure To which in the next place he exhorts us NEITHER ADMIT SLEEP INTO YOUR EYES TILL YOU HAVE THRICE RECOLLECTED EVERY SINGLE ACTION OF THE DAY WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESSED WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED RUN OVER THESE THINGS BEGINNING FROM THE FIRST AND THEN IF YOU HAVE DONE EVIL BE TROUBLED IF GOOD REJOYCE And never let your eyes The sweet refreshings of soft slumber tast Till you have thrice severe reflexions past On th'actions of the day from first to last Wherein have I transgress'd what done have I What duty unperform'd have I pass'd by And if your actions ill on search you find Let Grief if good let Ioy possess your mind In this place you should collect together the sense of all the foregoing Precepts that so giving heed to them as to the laws of God in the inward judicature of the Soul you may make a just examination of what you have done well or ill For how will our remembrance reprehend us for doing ill or praise us for doing well unless the preceding Meditation receive some laws according to which the whole tenour of our life should be order'd and to which we should conform the very private recesses of Conscience all our lives long He requires also that this examination be daily repeated that by continual returns of recollection we may not be deceiv'd in our judgment The time which he recommends for this work is about Even or Bed-time that we may conclude the action of the day with the judgment of Conscience making the examination of our Conversation an Evening Song to God WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED So shall we measure our lives by the rules above mention'd if to the law of the mind we joyn the judgment of reason What then does the law of the Mind say That we should honour the more excellent Natures according to their Essential order that we should have our Parents and Relations in high esteem love and embrace good men raise our selves above corporeal affections every where stand in awe of our selves carefully observe justice consider the frailty of riches and momentary life embrace the lot which falls to us by divine judgement delight in a divine frame of spirit convert our mind to what is most excellent love good discourses not lie open to impostures not be servilely affected in the possession of Vertue advise before action to prevent repentance free our selves from uncertain opinions live with knowledge and lastly that we should adapt our bodies and the things without to the exercise of Vertue These are the things which the Law giving mind has implanted in the Souls of men which when reason admits it becomes a most vigilant Judge of it self in this manner WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE And if afterwards she finds her self to have spent the whole day agreeably to the foregoing rules she is rewarded with a divine Complacency And if she find any thing done amiss she corrects her self by the restorative of an after admonition Wherefore he would have us keep off Sleep by the readiness and alacrity of Reason And this the body will easily endure if temperately dieted it has not contracted a necessity of sleeping By which means even our most natural appetites are subjected to the empire of Reason DO NOT ADMIT SLEEP says he TILL YOU HAVE EXAMIN'D EVERY ACTION OF THE DAY And what is the form of examination WHEREIN HAVE I TRANSGRESS'D WHAT HAVE I DONE WHAT DUTY HAVE I OMITTED For we sin two ways By doing what we should not and by not doing what we should For 't is one thing not to doe well and another thing to commit Evil. One is a sin of Omission and the other of Commission For instance 'T is our duty to Pray but not to Blaspheme to nourish our Parents but not to revile them He that does the former of these does what he ought he that does the latter what he ought not Though there is as much guilt in a sin of omission as in a sin of commission He exhorts also that we proceed methodically in our examination from the beginning to the end leaving nothing out in the middle which is implied by the word RUN OVER. For oftentimes change of order deceives the judgment and makes us favourable to our ill actions through disorder of memory Besides a daily recollection of our actions begets care and studiousness of Conversation and a sense of our immortality And this is worth our admiration that when he bid us recollect every thing yet he added not wherein have I done well or what duty have I perform'd But he turn'd the memory to what was a less occasion of pride requiring a scrutiny only of our sins And as for the Judge he has constituted that which is most just and impartial and most intimate and domestick the Conscience Right-reason or a Man's self which he had before caution'd us to stand in awe of above all things For who can so admonish another as every man can himself For he that is at his own liberty will use the freedom of nature and shake off the admonitions of others when he is not minded to follow them But Reason which is within us cannot chuse but hear it self God has set this over us as a Guardian Instructor and Schoolmaster And this the Verse makes the Judge of the days action acquiesces in its determination whether it condemns or approves it self For when it reads over what is done in the Register of Memory then looking to the exemplar of the Law it pronounces it self worthy of honour or dishonour This course if daily follow'd perfects the divine image in them that use it leading them by additions and subtractions to the beauty of Vertue and all attainable perfection For here end the instructions about civil Vertue He now proceeds to the precepts which make us more particularly resemble God LABOUR IN THESE THINGS MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS LOVE THESE THINGS THESE WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE WAY OF THE DIVINE VERTUE I SWEAR BY HIM WHO DELIVERED TO US THE QUATERNARY THE FOUNTAIN OF ETERNAL NATURE This doe this think to this your heart incline This way will lead you to the life divine Believ 't I swear by him who did us shew The mystery of Four whence all things flow What is said here is the same with that in the Introduction that practick Philosophy makes a man perfect in civil
Vertue but the speculative makes him like God by the illumination of the mind through truth and that in reference to us lesser things should always go before greater For 't is easier to use humane life with moderation than to put it quite off which may be done by wholly converting ones self to Contemplation And besides 't is impossible to have a secure and undisturb'd possession of truth if the brutish faculties be not subjected to us by moral Vertue For since the rational Soul is of a middle nature between the pure mind and a privation of reason then only can it inseparably adhere to the mind above it when being freed from the contagion of the inferiour passions it touches them purely And that it does when it does not comply with the brutish part or mortal body but as another cares for things of another nature bestowing as much care on the body as the divine Law requires which does not permit us to throw it off but commands us to stay till God shall set us at liberty Such a Soul therefore will stand in need of a twofold Vertue Civil which subdues the brutish Appetite to inferiour things and Contemplative which unites us to the divine excellency Now of these two Vertues these Verses are the middle term This doe this think to this your heart incline is the conclusion of civil Vertue and this other This way will lead you to the life divine is the beginning of Speculative knowledge For it is declared by what follows that he who has put off the brutish life and as far as 't is possible has purifi'd himself from inordinate affections and so from a Brute is become a Man will from a Man commence a God as far as humane Nature is capable And that this is the end of Contemplative Truth appears from the high and noble conclusion of all in these Verses So when unbody'd you shall freely rove In the unbounded regions above You an Immortal God shall then commence Advanc'd beyond Mortality and Sense The holy Book shews us as we shall see anon that we shall obtain a restitution to our former state that is be Canoniz'd by the practice of the Civil Vertues and the knowledge of Truth ensuing upon it But now to return to the Verses before us we will consider whether by LABOUR MEDITATION and LOVE any other thing be meant than that we apply our selves to the exercise of Vertue with the whole Soul The Soul as rational has a threefold faculty One whereby we learn which he commands here to MEDITATE on these things Another whereby we retain what we learn which he exhorts to LABOUR in these things And lastly another whereby we embrace what we know and retain which he commands to LOVE these things That therefore we might have all the faculties of the rational nature intent upon the precepts of Vertue from that which is apt to MEDITATE he requires MEDITATION from that which is apt to retain LABOUR and from that which is apt to embrace what is excellent LOVE that by the right application of all these we may arrive to a possession and firm retention of Vertue together with an adhering love towards it which is attended with a divine hope that introduces the splendor of Truth as he promises when he says THESE WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE WAY OF THE DIVINE VERTUE That is these things will make you like God by the certain knowledge of things For by rightly considering the causes of things which are originally in God we ascend to the top of divine knowledge which is the very thing wherein our likeness to God does consist And this similitude he calls the DIVINE VERTUE as justly excelling the humane premised Let the end of the first Verses be the love of Wisedom and Honesty and upon that foundation let the knowledge of Truth be superstructed which leads us to likeness of the divine Vertue as is shewn in the ensuing discourse Furthermore he confirms the necessity of their connexion by an Oath For he swears very appositely that the thorough possession of humane vertue makes way for the divine likeness And whereas in the beginning he commanded us to dread an oath his meaning was that we should forbear it in things contingent and of uncertain issue For those things are of small moment and casual So that 't is neither just nor safe to swear in them because 't is not in our power to bring them to pass But in those things that are present of necessary connexion and of great moment 't is both safe and decent to swear For neither will the issue of the matter deceive us the things whereof we now swear being connected by the laws of Necessity neither will the low groveling nature of the matter refuse the divine Testimony For Truth and Vertue are not in men only but principally in the Gods Moreover an Oath is used in the Precept because so much honour is due to the Master of Truth as to swear by him if confirmation of Doctrine require it He thought it therefore not enough to use that solemn form He has said it unless he also swore by him that 't is so Now by swearing he at once speaks divinely of the connexion of the best habits and shews that the QUATERNARY is all one with God the Fountain of the Eternal order of things But in what manner this QUATERNARY is God you may easily find in the holy Book of Pythagoras in which God is celebrated with this title The Number of Numbers For if all things that are subsist by his eternal Counsel it is plain that Number in each species of Beings depends on the cause of them and that the first Number is with him and thence derives to us Now the finite interval of Number is 10. For he that will number farther must go back again to 1 2 and 3 till by adding the second Decad he makes 20 by adding the third 30 and so on till the tenth Decad being up he comes to an 100. In the same manner he numbers an 100 and so by repeating the interval of 10 he may proceed to infinity Now all the virtue of 10 lies in 4 for before you come to the perfection of 10 there is the same united perfection in 4. For in the composition of 1 to 4 the whole collection will amount to 10. For 1 2 3 4 make up 10. Besides 4 is the Arithmetick middle between 1 and 7. For it exceeds and is exceeded equally falling short of 7 by 3 and by 3 exceeding 1. For the properties of an Vnite and a Septenary are the most excellent of all An Vnite as the beginning of all number has the force of all virtually in it self and a Septenary being Motherless and a Virgin has secondarily the dignity of an Vnite For it is neither begotten of any number within 10 as 4 is from twice 2 6 from twice 3 8 from twice 4 9 from thrice 3 and 10 from twice 5. Neither
signifies their Conjunction the Phrase AS FAR AS THEY PROCEED shews their specifick difference and the Phrase WHERE THEY CONSIST their generical community For the otherwise distinct kinds of rational beings by this distinction enter into one society For in that some are first some middle and some last they are at once distinguish'd and united For neither can the first be middle or last neither can the last be middle or first but they remain eternally distinct by the limits of their Creation And so we understand HOW FAR THEY PROCEED But WHERE THEY CONSIST we shall again consider Nothing of this kind can be perfect which has not the first middle and last parts in it self as the beginning middle and end of the whole System And the first would not be first if the middle and last did not follow neither would the middle be what it is call'd if it wanted extremes on each side neither would the last be last if the first and middle did not go before They conduce therefore mutually to the perfection of the Universe And this is the meaning of CONSISTING among themselves For although they are distinct as to variety of kinds yet they fall in together as the parts of one World filling by their distance and union the whole constitution and frame of the divine Ornament which you shall know says he if you faithfully RETAIN the foremention'd good Moreover under the name of extreme kinds is contain'd also the middle which he intimated when he said the CONSTITUTION both of Immortal Gods and of mortal Men for the first are link'd to the last by the interposal of the middle and the last proceed to the first by the interposition of Illustrious Heroes Now these and the order of Intelligent Beings has been already deliver'd by us in the beginning where 't was said that the Immortal Gods had the first station in the World the Illustrious Heroes the second and the Demons of the Earth the last which are call'd mortal Men. And it has been already set forth how each of these is to be conceiv'd which we shall rightly doe if we get a certain knowledge of those things in the delivery of which we have already touch'd upon the honour due to them who adorn'd practick Vertue by speculative Truth and pass'd from the goodness of the humane Habit to the divine Vertue For so to know the things that are as they receiv'd their subsistence from God is to obtain the divine likeness But because after the eternal Ornament follows corporeal Nature which fills this visible world and is intended and accomdated for the dominion of rational beings he shews further that they shall obtain the good of Philosophical Science who proceed orderly to their knowledge MOREOVER YOU SHALL KNOW AS FAR AS IS FIT NATURE IN ALL RESPECTS LIKE HER SELF THAT SO YOU MAY NOT HOPE WHAT IS NOT TO BE HOPED AND THAT YOU MAY NOT BE IGNORANT OF ANY THING And Nature in her uniformity That so your ignorance may not suggest Vain hopes of what you cannot be possest When Nature had moulded this visible World to the divine proportion she made it every where variously CONFORMABLE to its self by Analogy and Imaged the divine beauty upon all the Mundane forms in a different manner assigning perpetuity of motion to the Heavens and to the Earth permanency so that each of these should bear a footstep of the divine Likeness She assign'd also to the Celestial body the Circumference of all but to the Terrestrial the Centre Now in an Orb the Centre is one way the beginning and another way the end of the Circumambient whence the upper part is enammel'd with Stars and fill'd with Intelligent Animals and the Earth is adorn'd with Vegetables and Animals indued only with Sense Now Man seems the middle of these two extremes partaking of each life the last of those above and the first of those below So that he is first of all compared with the Immortal Gods and recovers his proper state when he converts himself to the mind and sometimes he is herded among the mortal forms when by transgression of the law of God he falls from his own dignity For being the lowest of Intelligent beings he is not disposed to contemplate God constantly and uniformly otherwise he would not be a Man but a God neither can he contemplate him constantly though not uniformly for that would insert him into the order of Angels whereas now he is a man he is capable of being rais'd by resemblance to that which is more excellent but still by nature is inferiour to the Immortal Gods and Illustrious Heroes But as he is inferiour to them in as much as he does not always consider but is sometimes ignorant and unmindfull of his own nature and of the light which descends from God upon him so does he excell brute Animals Vegetables and his Terrestrial and mortal Nature by his essence in as much as he is capable of returning again to God of abolishing his forgetfulness by remembrance of recovering what he has lost by discipline and of curing the flight of things above by a contrary tendency It becomes therefore us Mortals to know the CONSTITUTION of the Immortal Gods and of mortal Men that is the order of Intelligent beings And to know NATURE IN ALL RESPECTS LIKE HER SELF that is the Corporeal substance in which from the beginning to the end the divine Likeness shines forth But so know all these AS FAR AS IS FIT so as they are order'd by Law so as they were produced by God and so as they are disposed by his laws whether they are Corporeal or Incorporeal For this knowing as far as is FIT is to be understood of both in common For we ought not out of a fond indulgence to our own unreasonable humour to wrest the dignity of things as we please but following the limits of truth to know all things as far as is FIT and as the law of Creation has distinguish'd them Now from this twofold knowledge of the divine Workmanship things Corporeal and Incorporeal springs a most excellent advantage that we neither HOPE FOR WHAT IS NOT TO BE HOP'D NOR BE IGNORANT OF ANY THING For 't is from our ignorance of the nature of things that we hope for what we should not and project impossibilities As if a man shou'd hope to become one of the Immortal Gods or Illustrious Heroes Such a one knows not the bounds of nature nor has learnt to distinguish the first middle and last Again If any one think his Soul dies with his mortal body out of ignorance of the immortality of the Soul he looks for that which neither should nor can be In like manner he that hopes to put on the body of a brute beast and to become an irrational creature by his wickedness or a Vegetable by inactivity of sense the same in opposition to those who transform the humane nature into that of superiour beings IGNORANTLY degrades
it to the inferiour not considering that the essential form of humane nature is unchangeable For the same man by the alternate possession of Vertue and Vice is said to become a God or a beast Not that he is either by nature but by habitual similitude And indeed he that knows not the dignity of the things that are but either exceeds it or comes short of it makes his ignorance an occasion either of a vain opinion or false hope But he that judges of all according to the measures of the Creation that knows the things that are in the same manner as they were made and that lastly measures God from the knowledge of himself he best observes the precept of following God knows the best measure and is above all Fraud and Imposture AND YOU SHALL KNOW MEN EMBRACING EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD MISERABLE AND WHO NEITHER SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD AND THAT THERE ARE FEW WHO KNOW HOW TO DISINTANGLE THEMSELVES FROM EVIL SUCH A FATE HURTS THE MINDS OF MORTALS WHO ARE ROLLED HERE AND THERE UPON CYLINDERS BEARING INFINITE MISERIES FOR A PERNICIOUS CONTENTION IS THEIR INBRED COMPANION WHICH TREACHEROUSLY HURTS THEM WHICH WE SHOULD BY NO MEANS PROVOKE BUT YIELDING AVOID You 'll see how poor unfortunate Mankind To hurt themselves are studiously inclin'd To all approching good both deaf and blind The way to cure their ills is known to few Such a besotting fate does men persue They 're on Cylinders still rol'd up and down And with full tides of Evil overflown A cursed inbred Strife does lurk within The cause of all this Misery and Sin Which must not be provok'd to open field The way to conquer here 's to fly and yield The order of the Incorporeal and Corporeal Natures being well understood it remains that we exactly know the nature of Man both what it is and what passions it is liable to How it stands in the middle confines between those beings which never fall into Vice and those which are not capable of Vertue Hence 't is that he acts both parts in his manners sometimes embracing the felicity of the Intellectual life and sometimes the affections of Sense So that 't was well said by Heraclitus that we live their death and dye their life For Man descends and falls from the happy Region as Empedocles the Pythagorean says Man yields unto the rage of Appetite Heaven's Exile straying from the Orb of light But he returns and resumes his first habit if as he says He fly the confines of this dismal Cell Where Murthers Anger and all mischiefs dwell In which whosoever fall They wander in dark regions of Death But the desire of him that flies these regions of Death will speedily conduct him to the regions of Truth which if he once leaves by the force of the moulting of the Wings he comes down into an earthy body Losing the life of bliss Agreeable to this is that which Plato says of the descent When the impotent Soul can no longer enjoy the vision of God and having suffer'd a deflux of her wings falls down to the earth then she ought by the Law to inhabit a mortal body And concerning the Ascent he says this when a Man has overcome by his reason that tumultuous brute Commotion which accrues to him from Earth Water Air and Fire he shall return to the form of the first and best habit and being made sound and whole shall recover his proportionate Orb. Sound because free from the diseases of Passion which is done by Civil Vertue And whole by the recovery of Knowledge as of his proper parts which is to be done by Speculative Truth He shews moreover that by Aversion from the things below we should retrieve those excellencies which we lost by Apostasie Since he defines Philosophy to be the flight of Evil. For he declares that men only are obnoxious to Passions that evil cannot be utterly lost nor exist in the gods but is necessarily conversant about this place and humane nature For it is consequent to the nature of things generable and corruptible to be sometimes preternaturally affected which is the beginning of evil But by what means we should avoid these he subjoins when he says we must fly from hence thither that this flight is as much a resemblance of God as Man is capable of but the Similitude it self is to become Just Holy and Prudent For he that would fly from Evil must first be averse from humane nature since they who are immers'd in that cannot but be fill'd with the concomitant evils As therefore our departure from God and the moulting of our plumes whereby we soar'd aloft caused our descent into the region of Mortality and Wretchedness So 't is the rejection of our bodily Passions and the growth and springing of Vertue as of new wings which will carry us to the pure habitations of holiness and divine felicity For the nature of Man being in the middle between those beings which always contemplate the face of God and those whose nature is never capable of such contemplation it ascends to them and descends to these by the possession and rejection of the mind and alternately puts on the divine and brutish Similitude by reason of its natural propension to both He therefore that knows these things of the humane nature knows also how men are said TO EMBRACE EVILS OF THEIR OWN ACCORD and how they become unhappy and MISERABLE by their own election For when they could have remain'd longer in that station they are drawn down to be born by the rashness of desire and when they could with more speed have loos'd from hence they intangle themselves in the security of their passions And this is that he means when he says that they neither SEE NOR HEAR NEIGHBOURING GOOD so that by good he understands Vertue and Truth And by their not seeing neighbouring good is meant that they are not moved of themselves to the search of excellent things and by their not hearing is meant their unattentiveness to the Instructions of others For there is a twofold way of recovering knowledge either by discipline as by hearing or by invention as by sight They therefore are said to embrace evils of their own accord who neither willing to learn of others nor to find out of themselves remain destitute of the sense of all good and consequently altogether unprofitable For he that neither considers himself nor gives attention to the Instructions of others is an unprofitable man But they who employ their endeavours in the learning and finding out things excellent these are they who know how to DISINTANGLE themselves from evil and who by the flight of all worldly labours are translated into the free Aether But of these there are but few For the major part of Mankind are evil and in subjection to their passions nay and of unsound minds by reason of their propension to earthly things And this evil they have brought upon themselves because they would
of seeing may be made up a manifestation This being so let us suppose that all would be freed from evil if their Maker did SHEW to all the knowledge of his own nature and WHAT DEMON THEY themselves USE But we find that all are not at once deliver'd from evil it follows therefore that he does not make this discovery to all but to those only who of their own accord endeavour to free themselves from evil and voluntarily fix their eye upon what is SHEWN by the intention of Contemplation God therefore is not the cause why he is not SHEWN unto all but they themselves who neither see nor hear Neighbouring good whence they are said to embrace evil of their own accord The will therefore of him that chuses is in the fault but God is no way the Author of evil who does what is required on his part that all men may see what is good but he does not actually SHEW it to all because at the time when he holds it forth the eye of Contemplation in most men is shut or fix'd downward upon worser objects This exposition of the Verses before us is both agreeable to the truth and the context For if it be the part of God to drag men to the truth whether they will or no why do we blame them as suffering voluntary evils Why again do we advise them not to provoke the Pernicious contention but yielding to avoid Why also do we exhort them to bear events patiently and to endeavour to heal them For the way to Vertue by moral discipline is quite block't up to them if liberty of Will be once taken away For my part I would neither doe think nor love any of those things that are excellent if I thought 't was God's part to keep us from Sin and replenish us with Vertue without any concurrence of our own which if true then all our sins also must be father'd upon God But if God as it has been said be no way the Author of sin we may thank our selves if we depart from good since when 't was near to us nay by the common notices of the Soul lodg'd within us yet we neither see nor hear it But the cause of this blindness and deafness is this pernicious Contention and voluntary Evil which we must not provoke any farther but by yielding fly from it so shall we know how to free our selves from evil and find out the way of returning to God And thus every illumination of God by the concurrence of our vision becomes a DISCOVERY Now the fruits of this discovery are calmness of mind freedom from earthly labours a tast of divine good and a participation of the fatherly conversation Having premised these things of Vertue and Truth and having closed up the precepts of Vertue in the nightly account and carried on the hopes of Truth as far as the quiet and safety of the Soul he proceeds now to those things which belong to the splendor of winged Purity in joyning a third kind of Philosophy to what has been already said ABSTAIN MOREOVER WITH JUDGMENT FROM THOSE MEATS WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL AND CONSIDER ALL THINGS SETTING REASON THE BEST CHARIOTEER IN THE UPPERMOST PLACE Abstain from Meats which you forbidden find In our Traditions wherein are defin'd The Purgings and Solution of the mind Consider this then in the highest sphere Enthrone your reason the best Charioteer The rational Nature was produced by the great Creator with a body adhering to it and so though incorporeal it self yet its whole species is consummated in the body Just as it is in the Stars that which is Superior in them is an Incorporeal substance that which is Inferior a Corporeal And so the Sun is all a Compound of somewhat Incorporeal and somewhat Corporeal which were never once separate and then coupled together for so they would be separate again but produced both at once in such order that one should rule and preside and the other obey And so 't is in all the Intelligent-beings Heroes and Men. For every Hero is an Intelligent Soul joyn'd to a lucid Body and a Man in like manner is a rational Soul with an immortal body congenial to it And this was the doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards publish'd to the World when he compared every divine and humane Soul to the congenial force of a winged Chariot and Charioteer We have need therefore in order to the perfection of the Soul of Truth and Vertue but to the purgation of our lucid body 't is required that we be scour'd from material pollutions and use sacred purgations and receive strength from God whereby we may fly hence upwards And this is taught in the Verses before us when they prescribe us the way of removing the luxuriant pollutions of matter in these words ABSTAIN WITH JUDGMENT FROM THE MEATS WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And when they recommend to us the sacred purgation and the concurring aid of God in these words IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL and when they give us a description of humane Nature in its integrity and perfection in these words SETTING REASON THE BEST CHARIOTEER IN THE UPPERMOST PLACE For here is an entire draught of humane Nature with an orderly distinction of the parts Whereof one is to Judge which resembles the CHARIOTEER the other to obey which holds proportion with the Chariot He therefore that believes the Symbols of Pythagoras may now from these Verses that he ought by the exercise of Vertue and by the recovery of Truth and Purity to take care of those things which concern our lucid body which by the Oracles is call'd the subtil Vehicle of the Soul Now this PURGATION reaches as far as our Meat and Drink and the whole management and usage of our mortal body in which our lucid one is lodg'd which inspires life into the inanimate body and preserves its harmony For life is a body void of matter which generates that life which is inherent in matter by which our mortal body is perfected which is compounded of irrational life and matter being the image of that man who is constituted of a rational substance and an immaterial body Since therefore we are Men and since this is the constitution of humane Nature there is a necessity that all of us should be purged and perfected But we must observe the peculiar manner of each nature For different natures require different purgations For example the purgation of the rational Soul as to its rational faculty is Scientifical Truth But as to its Opinionative part the vertue of Deliberation For since we are of such a make by nature that we should contemplate the things above and rule the things below for the first work we shall want Truth for the second Civil Vertue that so we may be wholly taken up in the contemplation of things Eternal and in the action of things becoming But in
both we shall escape the impetuous floud of the irrational Nature if we contain our selves within the divine bounds For we ought to purge the rational nature from that because it was in being before the generation of the other But since our lucid body has also a mortal one joyn'd to it we must also purge that and free it from its own contagion There remains therefore the purgation of the Animal body which must be done by observing sacred laws and by using holy arts This way of purgation is in a peculiar manner Corporeal so that it heals the material part wheresoever it is apply'd and presently prevails with this animal body to strip it self of matter and to wing away to the Aethereal mansion wherein was the primitive station of Bliss Whatsoever is done in order to this if done in a manner worthy of God and not deceitfully will be found to agree with the rules of Vertue and Truth For the purgations of the rational Soul provide also for the lucid Vehicle which now by their help being wing'd soars aloft without any incumbrance Now that which most conduces to the growth of its plumes is by degrees to wean it self from earthly things to accustom it self to immaterial abstractions and to shake off those pollutions which it has contracted from its union with the material body For by this means it revives as it were is firmly knit is fill'd with divine vigour and is joyn'd to the intellectual perfection of the Soul What therefore if some Meats conduce to this Without doubt 't wou'd be a preparative to Purgation for them who accustom themselves to abstain from all mortal things immediately and wholly to abstain from some and especially those which please the mind and provoke the mortal body to Venery And for this reason the Symbolical precepts enjoyn abstinence from some whose first sense indeed is more general and large but which consequently takes in at this particular thing which is almost every where mention'd This Precept for example Eat not of the Matrix The literal sense of which forbids but one single thing and that a very small one too But if you consider the various sense of the Pythagorick Mystery you will find that abstinence from all manner of Venery is couch'd in the precept of abstaining from one certain sensible thing In like manner in order to the Purgation of the Lucid body he forbids us to eat the Heart whereby he principally intends that we should abstain from Anger but by consequence also from that part So when he commands us to abstain from that which dyes of its own accord his principal meaning is that we reject the mortal Nature but withall that we should not participate of that flesh which is unfit for Sacrifice and unholy For 't is fit that in Symbolical precepts we observe both the express Letter and the retired meaning For a continual observation of what is most obvious will beget in us a care of observing things of greater weight So therefore let us understand his mind at present as if he design'd to give us in few words the Principles of the greatest actions ABSTAIN FROM MEATS he says which is all one with this Abstain from Corruptible bodies But since 't is impossible to abstain from all meats he adds THOSE WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And he tells you where IN THE LUSTRATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL That by abstinence from Meats such care may be taken of the splendor of the Corporeal Vehicle as becomes a Soul that is purg'd and loos'd from material impediments He adds moreover to this performance the JUDGMENT of Reason which is able to bestow such care upon the Lucid Body as is sutable to the purity of the Soul wherefore he calls it REASON the CHARIOTEER as that which was naturally framed for the regular guidance of the Vehicle But the Amorous eye is placed above the CHARIOTEER For although the Soul be one yet with its eye it contemplates the field of Truth and by its force as with an hand restrains its Congenial body and turns it towards it self that it may wholly gaze upon God and be fill'd with the divine likeness And this is the general form of abstinence and these are the excellencies which it aims at As for those things which are severally deliver'd in the sacred and mysterious Apothegms although each of them insinuate a peculiar kind of abstinence as of Beans among Seeds those that dye of their own accord among Animals and of these in their whole kinds Rotchets among Fish and so of many among Beasts and Birds and lastly of several parts of Animals as the Head and Heart yet all the Purgative perfection that is in each of these singly is summarily express'd in the Verse in that it culls out this or that for abstinence according to their natural properties insinuating by each a purgation from mortal affection and intending throughout to bring Man home to himself that so bidding farewell to the place of his nativity and death he may be translated into the Elysian field and FREE AETHER But because the Pythagoreans observ'd an orderly progress in their abstinences for which reason some Precepts seem to contradict others for that of abstaining from Animals is contrary to that of abstaining from the Heart unless you 'll say that this was deliver'd to Novices and that to mature Proficients it being superfluous to enjoyn a partial abstinence when the whole animal is forbidden we should therefore diligently attend to the order of ascent which appears in the Verses ABSTAIN he says FROM MEATS and then as if some body had ask'd what Meats he answers WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN OF And again as if he had been ask'd where and in what traditions of discipline the Pythagoreans had spoken of abstaining from Meats he added IN THE PURGATIONS AND SOLUTION OF THE SOUL Implying that Purgations must go before and Solution follow Now the Purgations of the rational Soul are Mathematical disciplines but the Solution which carries it upwards is the Logical inspection into the things that are Wherefore he uses the singular number IN THE SOLUTION OF THE SOUL whereas Mathematicks comprehends many disciplines 'T is fit therefore that to what has been peculiarly said of the Soul in reference to Purgation and Solution we joyn what is of affinity with it and what relates to the Lucid body Wherefore 't is necessary that to Mathematical Purgations be added those which are Mystical and that the Logical Solution should be attended with the Sacerdotal discipline which carries us upwards For these properly Purge and perfect the Spiritual Vehicle of the rational Soul Besides they refine us from the dross of the brute Nature and fit us for the conversation of pure Spirits For what is impure can have no fellowship with what is pure The Soul therefore should be adorn'd with Knowledge and Vertue that it may be able to converse with those who are always so qualifi'd and so the
at first kindled with passion with a showr of tears Such is the whole life of an INCONSIDERATE man who by reason of contrary passions is liable to various changes He is odious in prosperity pitifull in adversity headlong in hope and dejected in fear In a word he that is void of good Counsel changes his mind with every blast of fortune Lest therefore our life should prove such a sad Tragedy by acting and speaking inconsiderately let us use right reason as our guide in all things imitating that of Socrates I can hearken to none of mine but my reason Now all that may come under the notion of ours though not of our selves which serves to the use of reason viz. Anger Desire Sense and the Body it self which is given as an instrument to these faculties none of which as he says should be follow'd but right reason that is the rational part of us when disposed according to nature For this is able to discern what is to be SAID and DONE Now to act according to the dictates of right reason is the same as to obey God For the rational nature being once rais'd to the possession of its native brightness wills and acts according to the determinations of the divine law and pleasure and the holy Soul that thus participates of the Deity becomes in every thing conformable to the mind of God and frames the whole system and comprehension of its actions by the conduct and guidance of that eternal Splendor But 't is not so with the Soul contrariwise disposed which knows not God walks in the dark and as it were at a venture being destitute of the only rule of good God and Reason So many and so great are the advantages of good Counsel Add to the other advantages of Preconsultation that it cuts off the causes of uncertain opinions recovers us to knowledge and procures us the most pleasant and best life as appears from what ensues DOE NOTHING WHICH YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND BUT LEARN WHAT IS DECENT AND SO YOU WILL LIVE THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE That which you know not do not undertake But learn what 's fit if Life you 'll pleasant make Not to attempt any thing which we are ignorant of is the only way to keep us from sinning But to learn the things which conduce to the best life does not only secure us from sin but serves to rectifie our actions For Intelligence removes all precipitancy of opinion and the possession of Science gives expediteness of action Now both these are excellent things not to be ignorant that we are ignorant and to know what we do not which is attended with the BEST and MOST PLEASANT LIFE Such is that which is freed from Opinion and replenish'd with Science when we are not puff'd up with a conceit of what we do not know but are willing to learn what is worth learning And those things alone are so which lead us to the likeness of God which make us deliberate before action that folly be not committed which will not suffer us to be seduced by any either by word or deed which qualifie us to distinguish occasional discourses which perswade us to bear mildly and to heal the divine fortune which instruct us how to undergo Death and Poverty to exercise Justice Temperance and Continence which declare to us the laws of Friendship and the honour due to Parents lastly which inform us in the true way of honouring the Superior beings These and such like are the things which the present discourse recommends to us as FIT to be learnt which are attended with the MOST PLEASANT LIFE For the vertuous man has also his pleasures but they are such as are not to be repented of and which imitate the solidity and permanency of Vertue For all pleasure is the Companion of action For it has to subsistence of its self but accompanies us in our doing such and such things Hence 't is that the worser actions are accompany'd with the worser pleasures and vertuous actions with good pleasures So that the good man does not only excel the wicked man in what is good but has also the advantage of him even in pleasure for whose sake alone he is wicked For as much as one disposition is more excellent than another so much is one pleasure more eligible than another Since then a life order'd according to the rules of Vertue and adhering to the divine likeness is truly divine but that which is spent in wickedness is brutish and without God it is plain that the pleasure of a good man imitates that divine Complacency which waits on God and heavenly minds but the pleasure of a wicked man to give them a common name for once amounts to no more than the gratification of a Sottish Appetite the entertainment of a Beast Pleasures and Sorrows are put in our reach from whose fountains whosoever draws both whence when and as much as he ought is an happy man but he that knows not the measures of these is emphatically miserable Thus therefore the life which is freed from Opinion is only void of sin but that which is well fraught with Science is happy and perfect the MOST PLEASANT AND BEST LIFE Let us never therefore doe what we KNOW NOT nor what we know when we ought not For Ignorance leads into wickedness but Knowledge seeks out a convenient season For there are many good things which by change of time become evil Let us therefore mind the order of the Precept which by restraining us from action keeps us sinless and by exhorting us to learn not all things promiscuously but only what 's FIT leads us to the most excellent actions For goodness of action does not consist barely in not sinning but in KNOWING WHAT' 's FIT the former is effected by the purgation of Opinion the latter by the presence of Knowledge But if not sinning be accounted well doing see what will accrue to you SO SHALL YOU LIVE THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE But what 's that which derives its pleasure from Vertue In which both honesty and pleasure concur If therefore what 's good and what 's pleasant be singly desirable what will they be when united He tells you THE MOST PLEASANT LIFE For he that chuses pleasure with filthiness although for a while he be sweetly entertain'd yet at last through the filthiness annex'd to his enjoyment he is brought to a painfull repentance But he that prefers Vertue with all her labours and difficulties though at first for want of use it sits heavy upon him yet by the conjunction of good he alleviates the labour and at last enjoys pure and unallai'd pleasure with his vertue For if any filthy thing be done with pleasure the pleasure is gone but the stain remains So that of necessity that life is most unhappy which is most wicked and that most pleasant which is most vertuous And so much may suffice for this But since the discipline and good usage of the Body