III.

Pythag.

Carm.

p. 254.

BOOK Which words cannot be better rendered than in the words the Scripture useth concerning Cain; and he went from the presence of the Lord, and was a fugitive in the earth, and under continual perplexities. For the soul of man having left τὸν λειμῶνα τῆς ἀληθείας, (it is Hierocles's own expression,) the pleasant meadow of Hieroc. in truth, (a fit description of Paradise,) Ty ópμñ tñs πτepoрpvήσεως εἰς γήϊνον ἔρχεται σῶμα ὀλβίου αἰῶνος ἀμελθεὶς, through ed. Lond. the violence of her moulting, or deplumation, she comes into this earthly body deprived of that blessed life which she before enjoyed. Which he tells us is very consonant to Plato's sense of the κábados, or descent of souls; that when, by reason of their impotency of fixing wholly on God, they suffer συντυχίαν καὶ πτεροῤῥύησιν, some great loss, and a deprivation of former perfections, (which I suppose is meant by the repoppúnois, the soul's impotency of flying up above this earthly world,) then they lapse into these terrestrial and mortal bodies. So Hierocles concludes with this excellent and divine speech, ὥσπερ οὖν ἡ θεόθεν φυγὴ, καὶ ἡ πτεροῤῥύησις τῶν κουφιζόντων ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὰ ἄνω εἰς τὸν τῶν θνητῶν ἤνεγκε τόπον, οἷς τὰ κακὰ συνεισέρχεται· οὕτως οὖν ἡ τῆς θνητῆς προστ tà παθείας ἀποβολὴ, καὶ ἡ τῶν ἀρετῶν, οἷον πτερῶν τινῶν, ἔκφυσις πρὸς τὸν τῶν καλῶν καθαρὸν τόπον, εἰς τὴν θείαν εὐζωίαν ἡμᾶς aváže. As therefore, by apostasy from God, and the moulting of those feathers of our souls, whereby we may be raised up above this world, we have fallen into this place of mortals which is compassed about with evils; so by the casting off carnal affections, and by the growth of virtues like new feathers to the soul, we shall ascend to the place of pure and perfect good, and to the enjoyment of a Divine life. So much more becoming Christians do these excellent philosophers speak of the degeneracy of men's souls, and the consequents of it, than some who would be accounted the

P. 257.

III.

followers of reason, as well as of Christ, who make it CHAP. so much of their business to extenuate the fall of man: which we find those who were mere philosophers far more rational and ingenuous in, than those who pretend so highly to reason; but I think with as little of it as any, supposing the Scriptures to be of Divine authority. But it is not here our business to consider the opinions of those who pretend to Christianity, but only of such who, pretending only to reason, have yet consented with the doctrine of the Scriptures as to the degeneracy of the souls of men, that it lies in an apostasy from God, and having lost those perfections which they had before.

XVI.

2.

Aur. Carm.

p. 258.

That man's will is the cause of his apostasy; this we have already manifested at large from the testimony and reason of Simplicius; and Hierocles is as large and clear in it as the other, with expressions much of the same nature. Μέση γὰρ οὖσα ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου Hieroc. in yàp ý οὐσία τῶν τε ἀεὶ νοούντων τὸν θεὸν, καὶ τῶν μηδέποτε νοεῖν πεφυκότων, ἄνεισι πρὸς ἐκεῖνα, καὶ κάτεισι πρὸς ταῦτα, νοῦ κτήσει καὶ ἀποβολῇ, πρὸς τὴν θείαν ὁμοίωσιν καὶ τὴν θήρειον, διὰ τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἀμφίβιον ἀναμέρος οἰκειουμένη. Man's nature lying between those beings which perpetually contemplate God, and those which are uncapable of it, it sometimes ascends to those, and sometimes descends to these, according as it observes or rejects the dictates of reason; and so, by reason of the indifferency of the will, is liable to take upon it the similitude of God or a beast. Ταῦτ ̓ οὖν ὁ περὶ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐγνωκως οὐσίας, οἶδε Ibid. πῶς αὐθαίρετα πήματ' ἔχουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ πῶς τλήμονες καὶ τάλανες ταῖς ἑαυτῶν αἱρέσεσι γίνονται. And whoever thoroughly considers this, will easily understand how men are the causes of their own evils, and become unhappy and miserable through their own choice and

BOOK self-wills. Which he brings in by way of explication III. of that truly golden Pythagorean verse,

Aur. Carm.

p. 263.

P. 264.

Γνώσῃ δ ̓ ἀνθρώπους αὐθαίρετα πήματ' ἔχοντας

Τλήμονας.

Men are grown miserable through their own fault. And afterwards Hierocles excellently describes the nature of evil in these words, ἦν δὲ συμφυὲς ἅμα καὶ ἐπίκτη Hieroc. in τον ἡμῖν κακὸν, ἡ τοῦ αὐτεξουσίου παρὰ φύσιν κίνησις. Both our natural and contracted pravity is nothing else but the unnatural motion of our free wills: according to which, saith he, ἐναντιοῦσθαι τοῖς θείοις νόμοις πειρώμεθα, οὐδὲν ἐπαισθανόμενοι ὅσον ἑαυτοὺς βλάπτομεν, διὰ τοῦ δοκεῖν ἀντιτείνειν Θεῷ· ἀλλὰ μόνον τοῦτο τυφλῶς ὁρῶντες, ὅτι ἐδυνήθημεν ἀφηνιάσαι τῶν ἐκείνου θεσμῶν. We dare to contradict the laws of God, not being sensible how much we injure ourselves when we do it; and only look at this, that we are able to cast off the reins of God's laws from our necks. And he truly saith, That it is the greatest abuse of liberty to offend God, when we either do what he forbids, or neglect what he requires. "Iva ἑκατέρωθεν τῆς ἀθλιότητος ἑαυτοὺς πληρώσωσιν οἱ τὸν θεῖον νόμον ἐκβαίνοντες, τῷ τε μὴ ποιεῖν τὰ προστεταγμένα καὶ τῷ ποιεῖν τὰ άπnуoрevμévα. So that on both sides men bring misery upon themselves, by transgressing the Divine law, both by not doing what they are commanded, and by doing what they are forbidden. So that he fully ascribes the origin of evil to the τὸ αὐτεξούσιον κίνημα παρὰ Þúσn diatelèv, as he calls it, the irregular motion of the will of man; which we have already shewed to be the doctrine of the Scriptures.

Ibid.

3.

As to the necessity of the soul's recovery from this condition, in order to her felicity, we have these philosophers expressing their consent with the Scriptures. Porphyrius, as St. Augustine tells us, in the end of his

III.

August. de

1. x. c. 32.

first book de Regressu Animæ, doth acknowledge the CHAP. necessity of a way of recovering souls, which should be universal. Cum autem dicit Porphyrius, nondum Civit. Dei, receptam unam quandam sectam, quæ universalem ed. Par. viam animæ contineat liberandæ, nondumque in 1613. suam notitiam eandem viam historiali cognitione perlatam, proculdubio confitetur esse aliquam, sed nondum in suam venisse notitiam. But the necessity of the purgation of the soul in order to its felicity, is so largely and fully discoursed of by all the Platonists and Pythagoreans, that it will be needless to insist upon it. Thus far then we find the account given of the origin of evil in Scripture to be embraced by the sublimest of the heathen philosophers, as most rational and satisfactory; which was the thing to be proved.

Neither do we find only the main of this account XVII. acknowledged as rational; but we may trace some not obscure footsteps of the truth of particular circumstances which concern the fall of man, among the heathens; such as the Devil's envying of man's happiness, his disguising himself under the form of a serpent, and man's being thrown out of Paradise upon his fall.

Original of

Evils.

1. The Devil's envying the happiness of man. It D. Casaub. hath been truly observed by a learned man, that the temporal original of that very ancient opinion among the heathen, de invidia Dæmonis, had its rise from the history of the fall of man; which he hath made out so fully, that I shall the less need to prove it. And that there was an undoubted tradition of some malignant spirits which envied the welfare of mankind, appears by that ample testimony of Plutarch, in his Dio, mentioned by the same author; Ouк oldα, μn Twν Táv Tα- Vit. Paral. λαιῶν τὸν ἀτοπώτατον ἀναγκασθῶμεν προσδέχεσθαι λόγον, ὡς τὰ ἔa. Franc. φαῦλα δαιμόνια καὶ βάσκανα, προσφθονοῦντα τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδρά

p. 958.

ed.

III.

BOOK σιν καὶ ταῖς πράξεσιν ἐνιστάμενα, ταραχὰς καὶ φόβους ἐπάγει, σείοντα καὶ σφάλλοντα τὴν ἀρετήν· ὡς μὴ διαμείναντες ἀπτῶτες ἐν τῷ καλῷ καὶ ἀκέραιοι, βελτίονος ἐκείνων μοίρας μετὰ τὴν τε λευτὴν τύχωσιν. Plutarch was much troubled to give an account of the apparitions which Brutus and Dio, who were learned and philosophical men, were haunted withal; and doubts he can give no just account of it, unless he embraced that very ancient tradition (which yet seemed absurd and incredible), viz. That there are certain wicked and malignant dæmons, which envy good men, and withstand their enterprises, by raising fears and troubles to them, that so they might hinder them in their pursuit of virtue; lest, if they continue stedfast and unmoveable in good, they should be at last partakers of greater felicity than they enjoy. There being so ancient a tradition of such ὑβρισταὶ δαίMoves, (as the learned man mentioned hath more fully shewed in his notes on this place of Plutarch,) gives a great confirmation to the truth of what the Scripture reports concerning the Devil's being so great an instrument in procuring the fall of man. To him therefore I refer the inquisitive reader, and shall only add to the testimonies of him cited, that of Xenocrates in Plutarch. Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, where he saith, that the Osir.p.361. calamities of life, and misfortunes men meet with, do not agree with that veneration which we have for the Deity and good spirits, Αλλ' εἶναι φύσεις ἐν τῷ περιέχοντι μεγάλας μὲν καὶ ἰσχυρὰς, δυστρόπους δὲ καὶ σκυθρωπὰς, αἳ χαί ρουσι τοῖς τοιούτοις. But that there are in the air some great and potent beings, which are of a surly and malignant nature, and rejoice to do men all the misIamblich. chief they can. Iamblichus, in his answer to Porphyrius concerning the Egyptian mysteries, undertakes to ed. Lugd. give an account of these evil spirits or dæmons, and that from them the origin of evil in the world is; for

de lsid. et

et c. 26.

ed. Oxon.

de Myster.

p. 105.