ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 333 



as an example of the divine virtue, when he says, &quot;Men 

 need make no other prayers to the gods than that they 

 would be but as good and propitious to morals as Trajan 

 was.&quot; 24 But this savors of the profane arrogance of the 

 heathens, who grasped at shadows larger than the life. The 

 Christian religion comes to the point, by impressing charity 

 upon the minds of men; which is most appositely called the 

 bond of perfection, 25 because it ties up and fastens all the 

 virtues together. And it was elegantly said by Menander of 

 sensual love, which is a bad imitation of the divine, that it 

 was a better tutor for human life than a left-handed Sophist; 

 intimating that the grace of carriage is better formed by love 

 than by an awkward preceptor, whom he calls left-handed, 

 as he cannot by all his operose rules and precepts, form a 

 man so dexterously and expeditiously, to value himself f/ 

 justly, and behave gracefully, as love can do. So, without 

 doubt, if the mind be possessed with the fervor of true 

 charity, he will rise to a higher degree of perfection than by 

 all the doctrine of ethics, which is but a Sophist compared 

 to charity. And as Xenophon well observed, 28 while the 

 other passions, though they raise the mind, yet distort and 

 discompose it by their ecstasies and excesses; while love 

 alone, at the same time composes and dilates it; so all other 

 human endowments which we admire, while they exalt and 

 enlarge our nature, are yet liable to extravagance: but of 

 charity alone there is no excess. The angels aspiring to be 

 like God in power, transgressed and fell: &quot;I will ascend, 

 and be like the Most High&quot;; 27 and man aspiring to be like 

 God in knowledge, transgressed and fell: &quot;Ye shall be as 

 gods, knowing good and evil&quot;: but in aspiring to be like 

 God in goodness or charity, neither man nor angel can or 

 shall transgress. Nay, we are invited to an imitation of it: 

 &quot;Love your enemies; do good to those that hate you; pray 

 for those that despitefjilly use and persecute you; that ye 

 may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven: for 



* 4 Paneg. Ixxiv. 4 and 5. *= Colos. Hi. 



56 Cyropsedia. 21 Isa xiv&amp;gt; 14 



