this upon the account of such a fear, which a good man ought to have, a fear of being a base person, or doing vile things. - Imposito teneræ custode puellæ Nil agis; ingenio quæque tuenda suo est ; Siqua metu dempto casta est, ea denique casta est; That chastity is the noblest, which is not constrained by spies and severity, by laws and jealousy: when the mind is secretly restrained, then the virtue is secured. Cicero1 puts a case to Torquatus: "Si te amicus tuus moriens rogaverit, ut hereditatem reddas suæ filiæ, nec usquam id scripserit, ut scripsit Fadius, nec cuiquam dixerit; quid facies?" Aruncanus dies, and leaves his inheritance to his daughter, Postumia, and intrusts his friend Torquatus with it, but privately, without witness, without consignation of tables: will Torquatus, who is a feoffee in private trust, restore this to the child, when she shall be capable? Yes, Torquatus will, and Epicurus will; and yet Cicero had scarce a good word for him, whom he hath fondly disgraced during all ages of the world, weakly and unjustly: but the account he gives of it is pertinent to the rule: "Nonne intelligis, eo majorem vim esse naturæ, quod ipsi vos, qui omnia ad vestrum commodum, et, ut ipsi dicitis, ad voluptatem referatis, tamen ea faciatis, e quibus adpareat non voluptatem vos sed officium sequi? plusque rectam naturam, quam rationem pravam valere?" Nature is more prevalent than interest; and sober men, though they pretend to do things for their real advantage and pleasure, yet follow their duty rather than either pleasure or profit, and right nature rather than evil principles. k The reason of this is, because nature carries fear and reverence in the retinue of all her laws; and the evils which are consequent to the breach of natural laws, are really, and by wise men so understood to be, greater mischiefs than the want of profit, or the missing of pleasure, or the feeling the rods and axes of the prince. If there were no more in a crime than the disorder of nature, the very unnaturalness h Ovid. lib. iii. Eleg. 4, 1. Mitscherlich, vol. i. p. 185. Ib. p. 143. 1 66 Ad itself were a very great matter. St. Basil said well,' omnia, quæ descripta à nobis, à Deo præcepta sunt, consequenda, naturales ab ipso facultates accepimus." God hath given to virtues natural organs, or bodily instruments; as to mercy he appointed bowels, eyes for pity, hands for relief; and the proper employment of these is so perfective of a man's condition, according to their proportion, that not to employ them according to the purpose of nature is a disease, a natural trouble; just as it is to trumpet with our mouth, which was intended for eating, and drinking, and gentler breathings. It is punishment enough to do an unnatural and a base action; it puts our soul and its faculties from their centre, and the ways of perfection. And this is fully observed by Seneca: "Male de nobis actum erat, quod multa scelera legem et judicem effugiunt, et scripta supplicia, nisi illa naturalia, et gravia de præsentibus solverent, et in locum patientiæ timor cederet ;-Mankind were in an ill state of provisions, if those wickednesses, which escape the law and the judge, did not suffer the more grievous inflictions of natural punishment, and fear came into the place of patience;" still fear is the bridle: but it is an honest fear, a fear of God, and of natural disorders and inconvenience. Οὐκ ἐν συμβολαίοις πολιτικοῖς οὐδὲ ἐν ἀπαγορεύσει νόμου, ἀλλ ̓ ἐξ ἰδιοπραγίας, καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἀγάπης ἡ δικαιοσύνη, as Clemens of Alexandria calls it; "a righteousness not produced by laws and the sword, fear and interest, but from the love of God," and something that is within: there is a fear, but it is such a fear as still leaves the love to virtue, and secures it in privacies, and enjoins the habit and constant practice of it: a fear that is complicated with a natural love of our own preservation, and is constant and measured by God, and in the natural limit cannot be extravagant; a fear that acknowledges God's omniscience, and his omnipresence, and his eternal justice and this was the sense of that of Sophocles:m Πρὸς ταῦτα κρύπτε μηδὲν, ὡς ὁ πάνθ' ὁρῶν "Do nothing basely and secretly; for time's Father sees and hears all things, and time will discover it, and truth shall be the daughter of time; -and that which is done in Reg. Fusior, inter. 2. 'Ixxoves, frag. i. Musgrave, vol. ii. p. 225. secret shall be spoken upon the tops of houses:" so both the Christian and the heathen are conjoined in the several expressions of the same great truth. This fear is deposited in conscience, and is begotten and kept by this proposition,that "God is a rewarder of all men according to their works." Consequent to this is the love of virtue. RULE IV. The second Band of Virtue is Love, and its proper and consequent Deliciousness. THIS is not wholly natural, but in much of it is empirical, signμa Xgóvov nai Ciov proceeding from the grace of God, and the experience of the deliciousness and rewards of virtue, and the excellence of a greater hope which does entertain our spirits in the outer courts of pleasant expectations: örı iz φιλοσοφίας τοῦτο αὐτῷ περιγέγονε τὸ ἀνεπιτάκτως ποιεῖ, ἅ τινες διὰ τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν νόμων φόβον ποιοῦσι, as both Aristotle and Xenocrates did speak. It is the effect of philosophy and religion, of virtuous and severe institutions, to do that for love and without constraint, which fools, and vicious and weak persons, do for fear of laws. Now, this, I say, is not natural, that is, although it be agreeable to nature, yet not primarily introduced by it, without a tutor, because nature forbids injustice, but does not command justice,- but secondarily, and by accident, and upon supposition of other contingencies. To do injustice is always a sin, but not to do a justice is not always. For a man may depose the person of a judge, or a trustee, or a delegate; but they who habitually do justice, find the rewards of reputation, and the ease of being freed from the torments of an evil conscience, which is a delicacy, like the being eased of the horrid gripes of the colic; and so insensibly grow in love with justice, that they think they love justice for justice sake. Ipsa sui merces erat et sine vindice præda. Concerning which it is fit we consider a little, lest it become the occasion of scruples and nice opinions. Anti gonus Sochæus, an old Jew, was famed for saying, Be not servants who serve their lord that they may receive a reward from him; but be such who serve him without consideration of wages, or recompenses, and let the fear of God be upon you:' Baithus and Sadoc, his disciples, from whom the sect of the sadducees did spring, not well understanding him, took occasion from hence to deny the resurrection and rewards after this life. And, indeed, such sayings as these are easily abused; and when some men speak great things, and others believe as much of it as they understand, but understand it not all, they make sects and divide their schools, and ignorance and faction keep the doors, and sit in the chairs sometimes. It is impossible a man should do great things, or suffer nobly, without consideration of a reward; and since much of virtue consists in suffering evil things, virtue of herself is not a beatitude, but the way to one. He does things like a fool, who does it for no end: and if he does not choose a good end, he is worse and virtue herself would, in many instances, be unreasonable, if, for no material consideration, we should undertake her drudgery: and, therefore, St. Austin said well, "Sublatis æternis præmiis et pœnis verum staturum à partibus Epicuri:" sensual pleasure were highly eligible, and not virtuous sufferings,if in this life only we had hope.' But if it be accounted the top of virtue to love virtue for virtue's sake, and without intuition of the reward; many times good men observing that themselves are encouraged by all God's promises to obedience and patience, and that in martyrdom there is no natural or sensitive pleasure, and that it cannot be loved for itself, but wholly for its reward, will find themselves put into 'fear where no fear is,' and that a nequam humilitas,' an unworthy opinion of their duty, shall affright their peace and holy confidence. Peregrinus, the philosopher, in A. Gellius, expressed this love of virtue for itself, thus: "Etiamsi Dii atque homines ignoraturi forent ;" to do good though" neither God nor men should know of it:"but as this is impossible in fact, so it is in speculation: for there were no such thing as virtue, if it were not relative and directed to God or man: but yet the thing which they mean is very good. Good men love virtue for virtue's sake, a Lib. xii. c. 11. that is, they act it and love it, they do it with so habitual and confirmed elections and complacency, that many times they have no actual intuition to the reward; they forget this, they are so taken with that; like a man that chooses a wife upon many considerations, as portion, family, hopes, and beauty; yet when he hath conversed long with her, and finds her amiable and fruitful, obedient and wise, he forgets all other considerations, and loves her person for her own perfections, but will not quit all his other interests. The difference is best understood by variety of motions. Some motions cannot be continued, unless some agent or other do continually urge them; but they are violent and unnatural: others are perfective and loved, and they will continue and increase by their own principle, if they be not hindered. This is the love of virtue,- that is, fear, or, it may be, hope; save that hope is a thing between both, and is compounded of both, and is more commendable than fear. But to love virtue for itself, is nothing else but to love it directly and plainly; he that loves it only for the reward, and is not, by the reward, brought to love the thing, loves not this at all, but loves something else: but he that loves it at all, sees good in it, because he finds good by it; and, therefore, loves itself, now, whatever was the first incentive: and the wooden arch may be taken away, when that of marble is concentered. 2. "Vir fortis et justus- in summa voluptate est et periculo suo fruitur." "When a good man lays before him the price and redemption of his mortality, the liberty of his country, the safety of his friends, he is hugely pleased, and delights in and enjoys his danger. But if he feels not this pleasure, yet without trembling and uncertainty he will dare to die, facere recte pieque contentus;' and if you tell him, this reputation which he gets of his citizens, will die almost as soon as he shall die; he answers, All those things are without the nature and consideration of my work: Ego ipsum contemplor, hoc esse honestum scio:' I look upon the work itself, and find it honest;"-and that is enough; meaning secretly, that though these outward rewards were pared off, yet there are secret pleasures, which will follow and stick close to virtue, as the shadow does to the body, and this good men must consider, because they feel it, and that is part of the reward. |