202 ADVAifCEMEJJT OF LEARNING. [BOOfc VIL 



Wi au example of the divine virtue, when he says, "Mexi 

 need make no other prayers to the gods than that they 

 would be but as good and propitious to morals as Trajaii, 

 was."* But this savours 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,'^ because it ties up and fastens all the 

 virtues together. And it was elegantly said by Menander ot 

 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 himselt justly, and 

 behave gracefully, as love can do. So, without doubt, if the 

 mind be possessed with the fervour 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,*^ whilst the other passions, 

 though they raise the mind, yet distort and discompose it by 

 their ecstasies and excesses ; whilst love alone, at the same 

 time composes and dilates it ; so all other human endow- 

 ments which we admire, whilst 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 : " I will ascend, and be like the 

 Most High :"^ and man aspiring to be like God in knowledge, 

 transgressed and fell : " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 

 evil : " 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 : " Love your enemies ; do good 

 to those that hate you ; pray for those that despitefuUy use 

 and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your 

 Father, which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise 

 upon the good and upon the evil, and sends his rain upon the 

 just and upon the unjust."^ And thus we conclude this part 

 of moral doctrine, relating to the georgics oi the mind. 

 So in the archetype of the Divine nature — the heathea 



* ■ Paneg. ixxiv. § 4 and 5. * Colos. iii. ' CjroptBdia. 



<> laa. xiv. 14. * Matt. r. ii. 



