curus fine

ventibus

cula quæ

Fin. 4

437 innocent in Expreffion, but criminal in Thought: Summum It had a beautiful Outfide, but was all Corruption bonum within: It was honeft in Word, and impudent in negat EpiFact. These loofe Philofophers took up a feem- voluptati ing Aufterity, to difguize their fecret Indul- bus fengence to themselves; and all their Scheme offum moMorality, was but a Veil for their immoral Behaviour. For they lived ill, tho' they fpake well: Cic. Qu fufpicari. And to fecure the Freedom of their own Con- Acad. duct, they were fo difcreet as never to cenfure Voluptua that of others. So nice an Art as this could not rii divertibut represent them under very different Colours runt; vir. to the View of Antiquity; fo as to gain them tutem bathe opposite Characters, fometimes of honeft bent in ore Men, and fometimes of extravagant Libertines, totos dies. Cic. de But thofe who have undertaken to vindicate Epicurus are out-voted by fo vaft a Majority, as Origen. fhould make them afham'd of their Caufe. For contra to fay nothing of the ancient Stoicks, who in- Celf. veigh'd fo plentifully against him, there is no Hieron Doctrine fo univerfally condemn'd by the first contra Chriftian Writers as his. We may allow, that Eunom. Epicurus had great Virtues, and that his Follow- Theod. ers were rational, faithful, commodious and c. friendly; as alfo that he himself was particularly Epicurei viri optifober. Yet this Sobriety was at the Bottom, mi; nulbut a Regimen of Health, in which the Weak- lum genus nefs of his Conftitution oblig'd him to be fo eft minus exact, that the best Hours of his Life were spent m in attending his Digeftion. Besides, he had a Cic. de very artificial Modefty, and that he might feem Fin. 2. to have divested himself, of all the philofophical Arrogance and Prefumption, he would often Epicurus maintain the Caufe of Ignorance against Know- comis in ledge. But in the most rigorous of his moral tuendis 4Precepts, there appear'd fome Strokes of Huma-Cic. de nity and Indulgence, which did not fail to lay N. Deor. open the Bottom of his Heart. After all, what- 1.

La&tant.

malitio

micitiis.

ever plausible Colours may be laid on this Do&trine, from the Confideration of that Pleasure, which Reason and Vertue will allow in the most abstracted Spirits; yet no Man who has any Epicurum Spark of common Honefty can bear its Infolence, in Prefuming to oppofe Religion. And without bo pofuiffe revera fuf going far into this Charge, what Ariftodemus in tuliffe. Plutarch difcourfes of Epicurus's Injustice in atCic.de N. tempting to banish Providence out of the World; Deor. 3. the Speech of Theon in the fame Piece, afferting the Preference of corporeal to intellectual Delights; together with what Diogenes Laertius reports of Epicurus's Gallantries, his Mistresses, the Refinement of his Pleafures, and the Lewdnefs of his Opinions, are fufficient to render this Hypothefis fufpected by any true Philofopher. Plutarch had Reafon to affirm that Epicurus, in taking away Religion, deprived Men of a greater Pleasure than all thofe which he left them to poffefs. And therefore we cannot be guilty of Uncharitablenefs in fuppofing this wife Master to have been none of the best Livers.

VII.

The Noise that was made at Athens, by the Morals of Zeno and Epicurus, then chiefly in Vogue, gave Men an Emulation of cultivating this Part of Philofophy, in Preference to all others: And this Study grew to be fo much the Mode, that the Enquiries of Nature were given over, and the World was fo hotly engag'd in the Search of the fupreme Good, as to negle& all other Pursuits. But here, as every one reaHerillus fon'd by his own Principles, fo every one estab fenfit nibil lifh'd an Happiness agreeable to his own Hueffe fum- mour. Herillus, who was of a ftudious Difpofi tion, plac'd the chief Felicity in Science. Calter Scien. liphon and Dinomachus, would have it confift in

mum bo

num præ.

riam,

Cic. de Fin. 5.

honest

Ibid.

439 honest and lawful Pleafure. Theophraftus, who Voluptas lov'd an easie and commodious Life, believ'd that adjuncta Virtue could not make a Man happy, without Calliphoni boneftati the Concurrence of Fortune. Some added & DinoHealth as a neceffary Ingredient; others Beau- macho ty, Indolence, and a good Conftitution. Some placuit, affirm this fovereign Happiness to be compos'd doloris vanitas of Honour, Credit, Authority and thofe other Diodore. Advantages, that any way contribute to the Satif- Ibid. faction of Body or Mind. By this Eagernefs and TheophraApplication that Men exprefs'd in drawing out vitâbeata, fti liber de a Plan of Felicity, in which each establish'd his in quo favourite Intereft, fuperior to all others; No- multum tions fo multiplied upon the Point, according fortune to the Variety of Spirits and Inclinations, that datur. Varro reckon❜d up no lefs than two hundred eigh- Menedety eight different Opinions, concerning the mus putat Summum Bonum, as St. Auftin affures us in his omne boBook de Civitate Dei: Every one running after his num in own Fancy, and setting up that for the Object fitum qua of his Happiness, which was most attractive of cernitur his Defire. But the Understanding of Man is veritas. fo weak in all its Reasonings about the fupreme Cic. Qu. Good, by its own unaffifted Powers, as never L.19. c.1. to reach but a fhort and imperfect Idea: It is not able to come up with Truth, and therefore idly follows its Shadow. Indeed that Phantom of Decency and Glory, which was the fole Aim of Pagan Morals, as vain and frivolous as it was, yet ferv'd to excite fome Men to Virtue; as the most folid Foundation that the ExcitanReason of Mankind difcover'd by mere natural tur gloria Light. It was upon this Principle, that Pana- opinione tius in his moral Inftructions, fo well difplay'd the que for quæ most fubftantial Duties of human Conduct. For mam ba after Zeno and Epicurus we have no Remains of any bet bonenew Draught of Morality. The Characters fimilitudi of Theophraftus, the Comedies of Menander, Plau- nem. Cic. tus de Fin.s.

mente po

Acad. 4.

adumbrata

tus and Terence, are very good Leffons of Manners, but without any Principles. But of all the Heathen Systems, the most accurate is that of Tully's Offices, the Rules of which are founded upon the feverest Virtue. Seneca's Morals are not fo pure, and fo exact: For tho' he advances fome of the finest Maxims in the World, yet he does not always fupport them with an equal Spirit. Plutarch is more real, and more in Earneft: He teaches Virtue with the greatest Simplicity imaginable, by the just Recital, and Commendation of virtuous Actions. Pliny, tho' a profefs'd Libertine, yet in his Prefaces to his Book of natural History, has fome very bright and forcible Strokes of Morality. He always fpeaks like a masterly Genius, and with a Nobleness of Expreffion, that is familiar to him. He really aims at the Reformation of Uni ani- Manners, when he inveighs with fo much Heat bomini against the Luxury, Debauchery, and other Corruptions of the Times. He is always well ria, uni designing, and fhews an equal Sincerity in his ambitio, Cenfure and his Praife. Epictetus is the most uni avari- rational of all the Stoicks, as being the leaft tia, nulli vita fra tranfported, and fhewing the greatest Integri. gilior,nul- ty of Heart. The other Philofophers that comli rerum pos'd Treatifes of Morals, either built them upomnium on the Principles of Ariftotle, as Panatius, Cicero and Plutarch; or writ them to no Purpose.

mantium

luxu

libido ma

jor, nulli

pavor,

nulli rabies acrior. Plin, Proem. 1. 7.

VIII.

But nothing fo obfcur'd the Glory, and bus viri- broke the Measures of Heathen Morals, as the

Scio qui

bus opus

fit, ut perfuadeatur fuperbis quanta virtus fit bumilitatis. Aug. de Civ. Dei 1. I. c. I.

Lives of the first Chriftians. The Doctrine preach'd by the Apostles, and their Succeffors, which alone could teach Men to be humble under Greatnefs, and modeft under good Succefs, together with all that strictness of Probity, profefs'd and practis'd in the Church, appear'd fo admirable in the Eyes of the Pagan Inftructors, that by striving to imitate and rival the Chriftian Vertue, they fell into the utmoft Extravagance; going fo far out of their Character, and beyond the Limits of that fecular Wisdom, whofe Maxims they had avow'd. All their Vertue degenerated into Oftentation; all their Wif dom fpent it felf in empty Boafts and ungrounded Pretenfions: And as Cowardice, fometimes makes a Man bold, fo Vanity fometimes made an Heathen vertuous. The Life of Apollonius, fo fraught with Prodigies, was written by PhiLoftratus, with no other Intention, but to oppofe it to the Life and Miracles of our Saviour: As the Lives of the Sophifts by Eunapius, who flourish'd under Theodofius the Great, were defign'd to vie with thofe of the first Believers, and by that Means to overthrow the Doctrines of the Go

fpel. Vopifcus attempted fomewhat of the like kind, in imitation of Eunapius. And long before them, Epictetus, who by his Converse with the Chriftians, had abated very much of the Pride of Zeno's School, began that Spirit of Emulation, which reviv'd the moral Doctrine of the Stoicks, under the Reigns of the Antonini; for then moft of the Philofophers joyn'd themfelves to this plures fu Tribe, as Sextus Empiricus informs us: And the iffe tum Reafon of their Choice was, that they might qui Sioicounterfeit the Chriftian Severity, by the unna- corum Sea tural and train'd Gravity of the Porch, fit only darentur, &am fe