Part IX.

PTTHAGO HAS.
4^7
CHAP. V.
The Senftble WorlJ.
/»Pag. now come down to the [crfibk
654. f. V V World. Its exemplar is the world 0^
the Deity ^ its example the ttitelliy^ible world of Ida-a’i^ the d.v^7n?ajcv, fubfiftence of exemplirsin it jelf. AsO»^ is the beginning of the intelligible world ; fo is Two of the corporeal, which were not cor¬ poreal, if it did not confift of thefe four, fomt, line, Juperjicies, folidi'y, after the pattern of the Cube, made by one, two, three, four. One, fixed by pofition, creates a point ; a line, being protra¬ cted from one point to another, is made of the number two; a [uperficies aiifeth from three lines ; zfolid, {tom four pofitions,i>e/cre, behind, upwards, downwards. TVc multiplied in it felf prod uceth four j* retorted into it felf (by faying twice tw'O twice)makesthenrftCft^e.Next/w(^ the Tetrago- nicalPyramis principle of the intelligible World) is the cube of eight with fix fidp, architect of the Senfible World. Amongft principles, the Hept ad hath no place, being a virgin, producing nothing,
‘ and therefore named Fallas. This firf cube is a
fertile number, the ground of multitude and va¬ riety, conftituted of Two and of Four. Zaratas termed two the Mother ; we the cube that pro- ceedeth from it. Matter, the bottom and founda¬ tion of all natural beings, the feat of fubftantial hDe Ani- forms. {h')Timrem, of the Tetragone is generated the ma Mm- jjjQfp fetled body, fedfafi every way, ha¬
ving fix fides, eight angles. The form immers’d in this folid receptacle, is not received loofely, but fixtly, and fingly it becomes individual and in¬ communicable, confin’d to time and place, lofing its liberty in the fervitude of Matter. Thus the two principles of temporal things, the Fyramis and Cube\ Form and Matter, flow from one foun¬ tain, the Tetragone, whofe Idara is the Tetrablys, the divine exemplar.^
Now there is requifitefome third thing to unite thefe two. Matter and Fc-,- m, for they flow not in¬ to one another fpontaneoufly, or cafually ; the ' ' matterofonethingdothnotcontingentlyreceive
1 the form of another. When the foul departs out
f of man, the body becomes not brafs or iron, nei-
■ ther is wool made of a ftone. There muft thwr be
i a third thing to unite them, (ootprivation; priva-
, tion and power aCl nothing fubftantively ; nor motion, an accident cannot be the principle of a j fubftance; but ) God, as Socrates and Flato ac-
' Scalich. knowledg, faying,7i&ere are three principles of things ,
, 3. Idaa, and Matter ; fymbolized before by
Tythagoras in thefe three fecret marks, Infinite,
I One and two ; by Infinite, defigriing God ; by U-
\ nity. Form ; by Alterity, Matter. Infinite in the
Supreme world ; One, or Identity, in the Intelle¬ ctual; Two, or Alterity , 'in the Senfible ; for Matter is the mother of Alteration, j: The Tetragonal bafes of thefe figures joyned
|! together, make a Dodecaedre, the fymbol of the
1 * DoQor Univerle. * Alcinous, The Dodecaedre God ujed in I making the Univtrje, this world. If upon an oCian-
gle Cube we ereft a Pyramis, by four arqui-cruraf triangles, it makes a Dodecaedre, wherein the Cube is, as it were, mother, and the Pyramis fa- t De Am- ther. Thus t Ttmam , Form hath the nature of matnundi. father; Matter, of female and mother ;
' . ‘ the compofitions are their off-fpring.
I Of thefe are produced all thing in this world,
by their feminal faculties, w'hich things appear in
a wonderful varietyjby reafon of the various com- menfuration offorms to their matter, and the ad- mixtion of innumerable accidents, by excefs and defeCf, difcord and amity, motion and refi,impe- tuo(ity,and tranquility,rarityanddenfity. Hence arife the Spheres, the Stars, the four Elements, out of which evaporate hot, moift, cold, dry, and all the objeds of fenfe, the tranfmutation of forms, and variety of colours in feveral things.
The gods are natural, the gods of gods fuper- natural ; thofe inhabit the inferior world, thefe the fuperior. The gods of gods are moft fimple and pure, as being no where; they are fuper* celeftial, as being every where, rhey are with us ; here firangers, there natives; never iu our, world but when fent, Angels, melfengers from heaven, appearing in what form they pleafe^kind and be¬ neficial to us. The inferior fpirits never afcend to the fuper- cel efiial, but are fent fometimes on erabaffie to us, whence termed Angels, as the o- thers.God'himfelf inhabits the low^efi, the higheff, and the middlemoft, intimately ; fo that there is no being without God. Moreover the gods of this world are more excellent than the fouls of men, chough thofe affift, thefe inform bodies.Be- twixt theni, are placed Daemons s.nd Heroes ; Dae¬ mons next the gods, Heroes next fouls ; men¬ tioned by Pythagoras in his Golden Fer/es, who af- figns to each a peculiar worfhip.
CHAP. Vl.
The ft ate of the Soul after Death.
Ational man is more noble than other crea- cures, a^more divine, not content folely with one operation, ( as all other things drawn along by nature, which always ads after the fame manner ) but endu’d with various gifts,- which he ufeth according to his free will, in re- fped of which liberty,
— - " Men are of heavenly race, b Attr.
Taught by diviner Nature what F embrace. csntn.
By diviner Nature is meant the Intelledual foul; as tointelled, man approaches nigh to God ; as to inferior fenfes, he recedeth from God ; Rea¬ fon teaching us what to imbrace,whGn it converts it felf to the mind , renders us bleffed ; when perverted by the fenfes, wretched. For men often Braying from the rule of right reafon.precipitate themfelves into milery , dvcFfiTze ttIixat in Pythagoras's word, incurring ills voluntary.
Thus is man placed between Virtue and Vice, like the ftalk betwixt the two branches in the Py- thagorical T; or youngHerrw/er.defcribed by Frodi- cits. As therefore noine can be called happy before their death, ( as Solon faid to Crcefm) fo none is to Xer.ofds. be efieemed unhappy whilft he is in this life: We memor. mufi expeCt the lafi day of a man. If- when he hath put off his body, he remaineth burdened with ox/.^'Mcr vices, then begins he to be truly miferable. This mifery after death, divides into two
kinds. The unhappy are either near Beatitude, which though at the prefent they enjoy not, yet are they not oppreffed with exrream mifery, be¬ ing hereafter to be delivered from their putiijh- ment: Or, wholly diftant from Beatitude, in endlefs infinite pains. Thus chere*are two u'-aii- fions in theinferi, Eltrjum, pofiefi by thofe chat are to alcend into bleffednefs ; anrJ Tartarus, hv thofe who endure infinite torments,
IrActirsltv , (as Plato, imitating lythagara;, lakh)
1 i i 2 - whence
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FTTH AGO K AS.
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whtvce thty juver come out. But when a man, who hath lived jaftly, diech, his foul afcends to (he pure /h'.cher,- and lives in the happy ^divum with the bJeiled, as a ^od with the gods.
Man is the image of the world; he, in many things, metaphorically , receives the name of the world. 1 he?»;»i of man f as the lupreme mind) is termed God, by participation ; the rati¬ onal I 'only if direded by the mind, it inclines the will to vii tue, is termed x.\\tgood Datr.onox Genius if by phanrafieand ill affedions, it draweth the will to vices, the evil Darncn. Whence Pythagoras defires of God, to keep us from illy and to (hew every one the Dttemon he ought to ufe. Leaving the body, the foul, ifdefiied with vices, becomes an evil Daemon: Its life, duHa/fiovU, infelicity ^ but if having forfaken vice, it retain a follicitous af- fedion to the good exercifes and virtues which it pracf ifed in this life, it Tnall become a good Da¬ mon, and in the amasnity of that world live hap¬ pily. refledfing with joy upon the good adions if hath done, and retaining the fame willingnefs to the right doing of them. This life is l/odto^oviA, felicity, of which
- - the fame care
Which heretofore, breathing this vital air.
Of Chariots, Arms, and feekt-skiiid Steeds they pur I ties them vow in eartld s cold bojem laid, fhad, Thefe fouls the Ancients termed Lemures ; of thefe that which lives in, and takes care of any particular Houfe, is Lar -familiar is \ that which for its demerits in this life, wanders up and down in the air, a terror, vain to good men, but to the bad hurtful, is Larva ; thofe which are not cer¬ tainly known to be Larva or Lares, are called Dii manes ; Dii, out of reverence, who having performed the courfe of their lives prudently and juffly, died holily.
CHAP. VII.
of the Vythagorical Tranf migration,
IT is commonly averred Pythagoras was of opi¬ nion, that the fouls of men after death infor¬ med the bodies of beafts. We cannot imagin this of fo knowing a perfon. This fufpicion of this. Tranfanimation, feems rather to have been rai fed by I'uch, as were partly ignorant, partly en¬ vious, of the Pythagorick myfteries, as Ttmon, Xenophanes, Craiinus, Arifophon, Hermippus, and Others, who have aferibed many things to Pytha¬ goras which he never faid nor wrote, and have perverted what he did fay. (b) He holds, that the fubHantive unity of one number, is not the unity of another number. That the Monads in the Duad are inconnexive to thofe in the Triad. That the participate elTence of every thing is One , which will not occupate the effence of another thing. No Animal (then ) cah tranfmigrate into the life of a different animal ; bat muft continue under the Law of its own nature in its proper of¬ fice ; 7^' fTj'©- tlJW » avv'i^yflcu, fpecies not being
coincident with fpecies. One feal may make many impreffions upon feveral pieces of wax; but one piece of wax cannot bear the form of many feals. * The feal of human form ( the image of GodJ is not permitted*to fet an impreffion upon inferior nature, implied by in this Symbol, We
muf} wear the image of God in a Seal-ring, The image of God (man’s foul j cannot feal or form the other natures that are near it. So Hermes Tnjmegijins, Of men, one part is fimple, which we