222 Of the Advancement of Learning. L i b. VII. 



ligence of Divines, being praftii'd in DHties^ Moral virtues. Cafes of 

 Cofifciencey dnd circnttifcrjptions of fin, hive far outgone the Philofo- 

 phers. No/n'/^/&/?4W/«'^ (to return to the Philofophers) if before they 

 had addreft themfelvesto the popular and receiv'd notions of Virtue, 

 Vice, Vain, Vleafure, and the reft; they had ftaid a little longer and 

 had fearched the Roots of Good and Evil, and the firings of thofe Roots 5 

 they had given in my judgement a great light unto all which might fall 

 into enquiry afterwards : efpecially if they had confulted as well with 

 tht Nature of things, as with the Axioms of Morality, they had made 

 their Doftrines lefs prolix, and more profound : which being by them 

 either altogether omitted, or very confufedly handled, we will brief- 

 ly re-examine and endeavour to open and clear the fprings of Moral ha^ 

 bits, before we come unto the dodrine of the Culture or Manurance of 

 the Mind, which we fet down as Deficient. 



II. There is inbred and imprinted in every thing an appetite to a du- 

 ple Nature of Good j the One as every thing is a Total or Subfiantive in i& 

 felf:, the other as it is a part or member offome greater Total : and this 

 latter is more excellent and potent than the other : becaufe it tendetb 

 to the confervation of a more ample form, Thefirfi may be called In- 

 dividual or felf Cood--^ the latter the Good of Communion'. Iron in a par- 

 ticular" Sympathy moves to the Load/lone, but yet if it exceed a certain 

 Quantity it forfakes thofe afFeftions, and like a good Citizen and a true 

 Patriot moves to the Earth, which is the Region and Country of its 

 connaturals. To proceed a little further 5 Denfe and MaJJie Bodies 

 move to the Earth, to the great Congregation of clofe-compaCfed Bodies ; 

 yet rather than to (ufFer a divulfion in the continuance of nature, and 

 that there fhould be, as they call it, a Vacuum, thefe Bodies will move 

 upwards, forlaking their duty to the Earth that they may perform the 

 general duty they owe unto the World : fo it is ever feen that the Confer-- 

 vationofthe more general and publicly form, commands and governs the 

 lefier and moreparticular Appetites and Inclinations. But this Preroga- 

 tive of the gW<?/C<?w«/«»w», is efpecially engraven upon Man, if he 

 degenerate not, according to that memorable {peech ofPompeius Mag-- 

 tjus, who being in Commiffion for purveyance for a Famine at Rome,^ 

 and being diflwaded with great vehemence and inftance by his friends 

 that he would not hazard himfelf to Sea in an extremity of weather, he 

 anfwered only this, Necefie eSi ut earn, non ut vivam. So as the love 

 of life which in every Individual Creature is (o predominant an afFefti- 

 on, could not out-ballance his love and loyalty to the ftate. But why 

 do we dwell upon this Point > There was never extant in any age of 

 the world, either Philofophy, or StSt, or Religion, or Law, or Dif- 

 cipline, which hath fo highly exalted t\\Q Good of Communion andde- 

 ^xds A Good private and particular, as the Holy Chrifii an Faith, where- 

 by it clearly appears, that it was one and the lame God that gave the 

 Ghriftian Law to Men, who gave thofe Laws of Nature to Creatures 

 of inferior order. Wherefore we read that many of the eleft Saints of 

 St Pan!, God have rather wiflbed themfelves anathematiz'd and raz'd out of the 

 Rom. IX. g^^j^^y^^jfj^^jhan that their brethren (hould not attain falvation 5 pro- 

 voked through an extafie of Charity and an infinite feeling oUheGood 

 of Communion. This being fet down and ftrongly planted, doth judge 



f!Qd 



