Part iX.

FTTH ago KA6.
423
f ^
xfiviaf
perhaps is for
f'Jaif
Dorici-
j
was born and bred , conduce much ; as alfo the daily courl'e oh life, whether foftning or cor¬ roborating the foul; for, living abroad. Diet, Exercife, and the manners of thofe with whom we converfe, greatly avail to virtue or vice; and thele cccafions ate derived rather from our Pa¬ rents, and Elements, than from our felves ; for they are not ineffedual, we our felves fo eafily no3tt- receding from thofe * adions which are good.
To the well-being of an Animal, it is requifite that the body have the virtues competent to it, Health, perfeClSenfe, Strength, and Beauty. The principles of Beauty are a fymmetry of the parts amongll themfelves, and with the foul; for na¬ ture made the body as an inftrument, obedient, and accommodate toall the buHnelfes of Life. In like manner, the foul muftbe ordered to virtues anfwerable to thofe; to Temperance, as the bo¬ dy to Health ; to Wifdom, as the body to perfed fenfe; to Fortitude, as the body toftrength; to Juftice, as the body to beauty. The principles of thefe are from Nature, their Means and Ends from induftry ; thofe of the body are attained by exercife and Medicine ; thofe of the Soul by In- fticution and Philofophy. For thefe faculties nou- rilh and llrengthen both the foul and body, by Labour, Exercife, and purenefs of Diet ; thefe by Medicaments ; thofe inttituting the foul by chaftifements and reprehenfions, for they ftreng- then it,by exhortation, by exciting the inclination, and enjoyning thofe things which are expedient for adion. The Aleiptick art, and, its neareft ally, Medicine,are defign’d for the cure of Bodies, re¬ ducing the faculties to the belt harmony ; they pmifie the blood, and make thefpirits flow free¬ ly, fo as if any thing unwholefome fettle, the vi¬ gors of the blood and fpirits being thus confirm¬ ed, overmaflerit. Mufick, and its diredor, Phi¬ lofophy, ordained by the gods, and by the Laws, for reformation of the foul, inure, compel and perfwade the irrational part to obey the rational.
and in the irrational mollifie anger, and quiet de¬ fire; fo as they neither move nor reft without rea- fon, the mind fummoning them either to adioii or fruition, The bound of Temperance is obedi¬ ence and fortitude. Now fcience and venerable Philofophy, purifying the mind from falfe opini¬ ons, bring her to knowledge, and reducing her from great ignorance, raife her to contemplati¬ on of Divine things ; wherein if a man be con- verfant with contentednefs as to human things, and endeavour ina moderate way ofiiving,he id happy. For he to whom God hath allotted this Eftate, is undoubtedly guided to a moft happy life. But if a man be ftift' and refradlory, he ftiall be purfued by punifliment according to theLaws, and thofe difeourfes which declare things Ccc- leftial and Infernal. For irremiffible punilhments are prepar’d for the unhappy dead, and many other things, for which I commend the lomck Poet, who makes men religious by ancient fa¬ bulous Traditions. For .as we cure Bodies with things unwholefome, when the wholefome a- agree not with them ; fo we reftrain fouls with fabulous relations, wh^ they will not be led by thetrue. Let them then, fince there is a neceffity for it, talk of thefe ftrange punilhments, as if fouls did tranfmigrate, thofe of the effeminate into the bodies of Women, given up to ignomi¬ ny ; of Murtherers , into thofe of Beafts , for puniihment; of the Lafeivious, into the forms of Swine ; of t^e light and temerarious, into Birds ; of the flothful, and idle unlearned, andl ignorant, into feveral kinds of Filhes. All thefe in the fecond period, Nemejis decrees, together with the vindictive and Terreftrial Di^mons , the overfeers of human affairs, to whom God, the difpofer of all things, hath committed the adminiftration of the World, replenillit with Gods, Men, and all other living Creatures ; all which are formed after the belt image, of the ungenerate and eternal Id^.
* e Cabala, Ubro Z.
An Explication of the Pythagorick Do6trine.
By* JOHN
CHAP. I.
b. Out of
which
Paulut
Schalichitu
collefts
his firft
Canon, de
peri it
Phyihago- ricu: Myfi. Philos. cap. 7. b Florid.
wr|n]
of Pythagoras his ti^ay of Teaching, hy Silence and Symbols.
IIEIndocible and abftrufe tradition of Myiieries and Symbols, is not to be inveftigated by acutenefs of humane Wit, (which rather affeds us with a doubtful fear, than an adherent firmnefs ) it re¬ quires ample ftrength of thinking and believing, and above all things , faith and taciturnity. Whence Tythagoras taught nothing ( a,s(b) A^u- leitts faith to his difciples before Jilence ; it being the firfi rudiment of contemplative ovifdom to learn to me¬ ditate, and to unlearn to talk. As if the Vitbagorick fublimity were of greater worth , than to be comprehended by the talk of Boys. This kind of learning (as other things) Tythagoras brought
into Greece from the Hebrews, that the difciple being to ask fome fublime quelBon, fliould hold his peace ; and being queftioned, fliould only anfwer autat He faid. Thus the Cabalifts anfwer OCS The wife faid ; and Chri-
ftians, Believe. *
(c ) Moreover, all the TythagorickTYiiXo^o'^hy cPag.eSj. ( efpecially that which concerns divine things) is myftical, exprelfed by z/Enigms and Symbols.
The reafons, thefe : Ftrfl, The Ancients ufed to deliver wifdom by Allegories ; all their Phi- lofophers and Poets are full of Riddles , avoiding , by obfeurity, contempt of the vulgar ; for the moft apt interpreter of things, not preceptible
by
PTT H AG 0 K A S.
F^rt IX’
4H
by human infirmity, is Fable* *. That befits Vhtlo- f of hers, which is declared under the picus ’veil of Ft- St ions, hidden in honefi things, and attired in heneft words ^ for, what is eafdy fcord, is hut too negli¬ gently purjud. Secondly, It femetimes happens, . that we cannot exprefi abftrufe things without much circumlocution, unkfs by fome (Kort IF.- nigm. Thirdly, as Generals ufe Watch- words to diflinguifh their own Soldiers from others ; fb it is not improper to communicate to friends fome peculiar Symbols, as diftinblive marks of a Society. Thefe, among the Pythagoreans, were a Auert. chain of indilfoluble love.(d) Pythagoras was ftu- dious of friendfhip ; and if he heard of any that ufed his Symbols, he prefently admitted him into his Society. Hereupon all became defirous of them, as well thereby to be acceptable to their Maf^eiVGs to be known Pythagoreans. Lafily, As memorial notes 5 for, in treating of all things di¬ vine and human, thevaftnefs of the fubjed re¬ quires Ibort Symbols, as conducing much to Memory.
CHAP. II.
The Triple World.
«Pag.664. (ajT^I^ H E Pythagoreans reduce all Beings, g.scahch. fubfihent or fubftant, immediately to
can, 4. j which truly are ; and thofe to the Idaa of
Idaas. Hereupon they allerted thi^e Worlds, wh&tQ- of the third is infinite, or rather not finite; and that all things confifis of Three. The Pythagoreans f faith Arifiotle ) affirm that the whole, and all things are terminated by Three : Some are bodies and magni¬ tudes, others keep- and inhabit bodies and magnitudes, others are the rulers and origines of the Inhabitants. This we underftand of the three Worlds, the In¬ ferior, the Superior, At\6 the Supreme. The Inferior containeth bodies and magnitudes, and their ap¬ propriate Intelligence, movers of the Sphears, overfeers and guardians of things generable and corruptible, who are faid to take care of bodies, each according, to the particular task affign’d ' him ; by the Anciets named fometimes Angels, fometimes Gods, and ( in refped of the anxious Ibllicitude of things whereto they are confin’d) Daemons.
Next over it, immediately fhineth the Superior World; this containeth the fuperior Powers, in¬ corporeal efl'^ces, divine exemplars, the feals of the inferior World, after whofe likenefs, the faces of all inferior things are formed. Thefe f, Aur. (b )Pythagoras calls, Immortal gods, as being the
carm. principles of things produc’d out of the divine
Mind,, effential caujes of thofe forms which
dwellTn bodies, and inform the compounded fubfta.nces of the lower World. There are alfo other gods, incorporeal beings, individual, dif¬ fering, not by material, but ) by formal num- her fpirits void of matter, fimple, unmixt, feared beyond the fenfible Heaven, confin’d neither to tim’e nof place, neither fuffering age nor tranf- mutation, much lefs any alteration ; In a word, not being affeded with any paffion, they lead a •felf-fufficient excellent life, and inhabit Eterni¬ ty, which istti;«;' ah dv, always being, becaufeit always was, is, and lhall be intemporally in the divine Mind; yet by the energy of God, it was
created and placed beyond the convex of the •
vilible Heaven, as being the lucid manfioji of theblefled fpirits, [ whom the Pythagoreans 1 c- lieve gods] placed in the higheft regioti of /Ether, a:viteinal, invefied in the immortal /Evum.
The third Woild, i’i/£rfwe,containing all other Worlds, is that of the Deity, confiding of one divineEffence, exidenc before for it isi
the Age of Ages, the praeexident entity and unity of exidence, fubliance, effence, nature. . *
Thefe three Worlds are called Receptacles, in different refpeds ; the fird, of Quantity ; the fe*’ cond, of Intelligences', the third, of Principles. The- hx?t,circumjcripti‘vely ; thefecond, dcfniti'vel) ; the , third is not received, but receiveth, becaufe it is every where, and is called a receptacle re/j/eriiyt//.
Through the Superior world is communica¬ ted from the Tetratljs to the inferior, life, and the being (not accidental, but fubdantial ) of every fpecies ; to fome, clearly ; to others, ob- /
feurely. This the Pythagoreans colled: from thofe words of their Mader :
• - (c) //>eTetradys to our Souls did fend, ^ Carni
The Fountain of Eternal Nature - >
The TetraPiys, is the Divine mind communica¬ ting, the Fountain is the exemplar Id'aa commu¬ nicated, eternal Nature is the ejjtntial Idaa of things received. Idsca , confidered as to God,
( fay they ) is his knowledge', as to the fenfible World, exemplar ; as to it felf, Ejftnce.
• Now as in the Senfible World, the Superior fphear hath an influence on all the fphears be¬ neath it; fo in the Intelligible World, not only every fuperior Chorus of Angels, hath an in¬ fluence upon all the inferior; but the whole 4
fuperior world hath an influence upon the '
whole inferior, whereby all things are reduced according to their capacities, as far as poffible, "
morbentary to eternal, inferior to fuperior. But ' - t6 the third World, nothing that is meerly a Crea- '
ture can be reduced, incapable in its own nature ,
of that fublimity which is proper only to God. f
CHAP. III.
• The Supreme World. ^
(a)ripHE Supream World, being ( as we faid) a?ag.666.‘' i 5 that of the Deity, is one divine, continu- g. , ^ al conltant ElTence of Sempiternity, poized, (as it were) with immovable vyeighc; no: unfitly termed , , the ad-governing
Throne. It is not confined toGenfus, Place, Time or Reafon , but is the free unlimited Prefi- dent over all thefe ; infinitely Supreme in Place,
Power, Polfeflicn, Excellence, above all Ef- fence. Nature, /Evt^m, Age.
This Divine mind, the receptacle of principles, fymbolically terms Number, faying.
Number is the Principle of all things. ( For none can believe fo meanly of fo wifeaPerfon, as that he fliould conceive the ordinary Numbers by which we calt account , to be the Principle of all things, which are far from being antecedent to things, for they are confequential accidents)
So {b) Plutarch, by Pythagoras underjiands y
the Mind ; a Symbol not improper ; in Incorpo- phil. * realsnothing more divine than the Mmd, in Ab- Itradiions nothing more fimple thm Number.
The '
‘Pi^RT IX.
PTT H AG 0 KA S
Tlic divine Effence therefore, exigent before Slid Age, ('for it i^cfie Age of Ag^es) the piarexii'leiu entity and unity of exigence, fub- ilance, tllenee, nature, w as by Pythagoras called tV ewe, by pKrttter.i/ies ov hiivg, both upon a like ground ; becaufe it i-j the fuper elTential Unite and Being froni which, and by which , and rhrougl) which, and in which, and to which, all things ai e, and are ordered, and perfift, and are contained, and are filled, and are Converted.
Of this firlt one, and fit ft ens, Ariftotle thus; Tlato and the Pythagoreans ( faitfthe ) hold no other concirnirg Ens or One, hut that this is their Nature,
!: their eJJ'cnre is the fans-’^'o be One and a Being. Xtno-
j; (5oC lared this Owe to be GoAherein agreeing
i c Scalich. with Pythagoras, ( c) who afterted infinite, and one,
[ Cinon. 2 and be the firft Principles of things by
irfinitt ftgnifying the pwr ; for nothing can be imagined before power, which in God is infinite, or ratherit isitjfinireGod : in him ejjeand pofJearQ not diftinift, wi)o containeththeeffences, virtues ! and operations of all producibles.With Pythagoras
ii iLaert. agreeth (d) Anaxgoras, laying, fior all things
I V>ere together TD tmocPuMS, for all things tvere in
fovstr. This alfo is the commixion of things men¬ tioned by Empedocles, ^nd . Anaxitnander • not confufedly in Chaos, Erebus, or Night, but di- ftincftly and orderly in fti'l light, in the moft per¬ fect fplendor of the divine light intuitive know- : ' ledge, that is ihc Idaa, ( from d'Jh/ yivdaxei) whCife
power is being ; including all, whether Mental,
I Rational, Intelligible, Senfible, Vital, Subftan-
tial, Adhxlible or Adharfive ; and is not only all things that are, but thofe that are not; This is no other than the divine Eflence, within which ('before all thing' ) one produced tivo. Two is the firft number, owr is the principle of Number, One , is God; and the production of tijso being with-
i • in the divine Eflence, (^for number is conftituted
ofitfclf, and next owe is naturally only the num¬ ber this tu’o muft neceflarily be God alfo, for within God is nothing but God. Thus thefe three, (0«e and Two ) being the Principle and firft, and nor exceeding the Eflence of God, are I V indeed one God: for his Eflence is not divided by the production ot two out of one. In like man- ! ner , it often happens in corporeals, that one
I being moved to two, proceeds to three, the fub-
ftance of things continuing ; as, in a Tree, of boughs and branches ; in Man, the body, arms, and finjrers. Of one therefore in the Divinity producing, and two produced, arifeth a Trinity,
' • to which if there be added an eflence formally
diftinCl from them, there will be a formal ternity, which is the infinite 0(je and two, the I Subftance, PeifeCHon, and end of all Number.
I • One, two, three, four, by a colleftive progreflion
make Ten; beyond ten there is not any thing. This Pythagoras meant , when he aflerred the Principle of all things TetraElts; he underftood God by it ; for he (wore by it, and Teems to have transferr'd the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, into a Greek Symbol, .
t (c) Thus the moft apt Symbol, of the Prin-
686 d, tiples of things, is one and two ; for when we
make enquiry into the caufes and origine of all things, what fooner occurs than one and two ? j That which we firft behold with our Eyes, is the
fame, and not another ; that which we firft con¬ ceive in our mind is Identity and Alterity, One and
4^5
TvJo. ( Alomaov, coiitemporary with Pythagoras) affirmed t7.voto be many, which hefaid wCre perhaps the fame wdth Empedocles"' yet unconfin’d and indefinite, as White and Black,
Sweet and Bitter, Good and Evil, Great and Small. Thefe multiplicious diverfities the goreans defigned by the number Ten, as finite "
and infinite, even and odd, one and nniny,. right and left, male and female, ftedfaft and moved, ftraight and crooked, light and darknefs, good and ill, fquare and oblong. Thefe pai.'-saretwoj and therefore contrary ; they are reduced all in¬ to ten, that being the moft perfeCl number, as containing more kinds of numeration than the reft, even, odd ; fquare, cube; long, plain; the firft uncompounded, and firft compounded, than which nothing is more abfolute, fincein ten proportions, four cubiefe numbers are confum- mated, of which (according to the Pythagoreans) all things confift. By this all Nations reckonXiiot exceeding it ) as by the natural account of ten fingers ; Heaven it felf confifts of ten Spheres.
Architas includeth all that is, in the number ten ; I'"'
in imitation of whom Ariftotle nameth ten kinds of Ens, Categories, reducible to two, Subftance and Accident, both fpringing from one Eflence ; for ten fo loves two, that from one it proceeds to two, and by mo it reverts into ow. ThefirftTor- is of owe and rw'o, not compounded, but con- fiftent ; one having no pofition, makes no compo- fition ; an unite whilft an unite hath no pofition j nor a point whilft a point. There being nothing before One, we rightly fay, one is firft ; two is not compounded of numbers, but a co-ordinati¬ on of unites only. It is therefore the firft num¬ ber, being the firft multitude; not commenfu- rableby any number, but by unite the common meafure of all number ; for one, two, is nothing but two; fo that the multitude which is called Triad, Arithmeticians term the firft number- ttn- compounded, the being not an uncompoiind- ed number, but rather not-compounded.
(a) Now the Triad, through its propenfity to ^ ScaUcL multiply , and communicate its goodnefs to all can. 9. creatures, proceeds from power to opera:tion, beholding with a perpetual intuition that fascun- dicy of multitude which is in it, produdlive (as it were) of number from number, and that elTen- tiality which is one in it, the fountain of all pro- dudion, the beginning of all progreffion, the per¬ manence of all immutable (ubftance ; it reverts it felf into it felf, multiplying it felf (as it were^ by unity and duity, faying, Once twice two, are four, (b) This is the TetraBys, the Ida;a of all hScalicK created things; for all progreffion is perfededin can. io. four. Hence arifeth the Decad, the ten moft ge¬ neral kinds of all things; one, two, three, four, go¬ ing out of Omnipotency to Energy j(out of pow¬ er to ad) produce ten, the half whereof is five ; now in the midft put five, on the right hand the next fuperior number fix, on the left hand the next inferior/car ; thefe added, make ten. Again, the next fuperior fieven,tind the next inferior three, make ten. Again, the next fupetior eight. ^and the next inferior make tm. LuMy, one and nine make ten. This ten being carried up to twenty, comes again to one ; and fo on, in all the Cai dinal .nuiTibers to a hundred: For, as twice one make two, thrice one three, four times one four, andfo forward j fo twice ten makes twenty, thrice ten
1 i i thirty.
t
426
vrr H AG 0 K AS.