OP SENECA's WRITINGS I Tappears that our Author had, among the An dients, three profeffed Enemies. In the first Place Caligula, who called his Writings Sand without Lime ; alluding to the Starts of his Fancy, and the Incoherence of his Sentences. But Seneca was never the worfe for the Cenfure of a Perfon that propounded even the fuppreffing of Homer himfelf; and of cafting Virgil ord: Livy out of all publie Libraries. The next was Fabius ; who tasks him for being too bold with the equence of former times, and failing in that Point himself, and like-wife for being too queint and finical in his Exprethions: Which Tacitus imputes, in part, to the freedom of his own particular inclination, and partly to the Humour of the Times. He is alfo charged by Fabius as no profoural Philofopher; but with all this, he allows him to be a Man very ftudious and learned; of great Wit and Invention; and well read in all Sorts of Literature; and well worth the reading, if it were only for his Murals; adding, that if his Judgment had been anfwerable to his Wit, it had been much the more for his Reputation; but he wrote whatever came next; fo that i would advife the Reader (fays he) to diftinguish where he himself dis not: For there are many Things in him, not only to approved, but admired; and it was great Fity that he that could do what he would, should not always ke the best Choice. His third Adverty is dollies, who falls upon him for his Stile, and a kind of Tinkling in bis Sentence, but yet commends him for his Piety and good Counfels. On the other fide Columella calle Lim a Man of excellent Wit and Learning; Pliny, the Prince of Erudition; Tacitur gives bire the Character of a wife Man, and a fit Tutor for a Prince: Dio reports him to have been the greatest Man of his Age. Of thofe Pieces of his that are extant, we shall not need to give any particular Account: And of those that are loft, we cannot, any farther than by Lights to them from other Authors; as we find them cited much to his Honour; and we may reasonably compute them to be the greater part of his Works.. That he wrote feveral Poems in his Banishment, may be gathered partly from himself: but more exprefly out of Tacitus, who fays, that he was reproached with his applying himself to • Poetry, after he faw that Nero took Pleasure in it, out of a Design to curry Favour.' St. Jerom refers to a Difcourfe of his concerning Matrimony. Lactantius takes Notice of his History, and his Books of Moralities : St. Auguftine quotes fome Paffages of his, out of a Book of Superftition: Some References we meet with to his Books of Exhortations. Fabius makes mention of his Dialogues and he himself fpeaks of a Treatife of his own, concerning Earthquakes, which he wrote in his Youth. But the Opinion of an epiftolary Correspondence that he had with St. Paul, does not feem to have much Colour for't. Some few fragments however of thofe Books of his that are wanting, are yet preferved in the Writings of other eminent Authors; fufficient to fhew the World how great a Treasure they have loft, by the Excellency of that little that's left. Divin. Infiit. Seneca, fays Lactantius, that was the fharpeft of all Stoics, How great a. Veneration has he for the Almighty? As for Inftance; difcourfing of a violent Death: Do you not understand, fays he, the Maje fty, and the Authority of your Judge: He is the fupreme Governor of Heaven and Earth, and the God of your Gods; and it is upon him that all thofe Powers depend which we worship for Deities. Moreover in his Exor tations: This God, fays he, when he laid the Foundations of the Universe, and entered upon the greatest and the best Work in Nature, in the ordering of the Government of the World; though he was himself all in all yet he substituted other fubordinate Ministers, as the Ser ants of his Commands. And how many other Things does this Heathen fpeak of God, like one of us? Which the acute Seneca (fays Lactantius again) faw in his Exhortations, Cap. 2. We, fays he, have our Dependance elfe where, and should look up to that Fower, to which we are indebted for all that we can pretend to that is good. And again, Seneca fays very well in his Morals; they worship the Images Lib. 21. Cap 2. of the Gods, fays he, kneel to them, and adore them; they are hardly ever from them, either plying them with Offerings, or Sacrifices: And yet after all this Reverence to the Image, they have no Regard at all to the Workman that made it. Lactantius again. An lavective(fays Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Seneca in his Exhortations,) is the Mafter-piece of most of our Philofophers; and if they fall upon the Subject of Avarice, Luft, Ambition, they lah out into fuch Excess of Bitternefs, as if Railing were Mark of their Profeffion. They make me think of Galley-pots in an Apothecary's Shop, that have Reme» dies without and Poifon within. Lactantius ftill. He that would know Lib. 3. Cap. 9. all things, let him read Seneca; the most lively Defcriber of public Vices, and Manners, and the fmarteft Reprehender of them. And again: As Seneca has it in the Lib. 6. Cap. 17. Books of moral Philofophy; He is the brave Man, whofe Splendor and Authority is the leaft part of his Greatnefs; that can look Death in the Face, without Trouble, or Surprize; who if his Body were to be broken upon the Wheel, or melted Lead to be poured down his Throat, would be lefs concerned for the Pain itself, than for the Dignity of bearing it. Let no Man, fays Lactantius, think himfelf the fafer in his Wickednefs for Lib.6.Gap... Iwant of a Witnefs; for God is om *nifcient; and to him nothing can be a Secret. It is an admirable Sentence that Seneca concludes his Exhortation withal. God, fays he, is a great, (I know not what) an incomprehenfible Power: It is to him that we liver; cand to him, that we must approve ourselves. What does, it avail us, that our Confciences are hidden from Men, when our Souls lie open to God? What could a Christian have spoken more to the purpose in this Case, than this divine Pagan? And in the Beginning of the fame Work, fays Seneca, What is it that we do? To what end is it to ftand contriving, and to hide ourselves? We are under a Guard, and there's no escaping from our Keeper. One Man may be parted from another by Travel, Death, Sickness: But there's no dividing us from ourselves. It is to no purpose to creep into a Corner where no body. fhall fee us. Ridiculous Madness! Make it the Cafe that no mortal Eye could find us out. He that has a Confcience, gives Evidence against himself. It is truly and excellently spoken of Lib. 6. Cap. 25. Seneca, fays Lactantius once again; Confider, fays he, the Majefty, the Goodness and the venerable Mercies of the Almighty; a Friend that is always at hand. What delight can it be to him, the Slaughter of innocent Creatures, or the Worfhip of bloody Sacrifices? Let us purge our Minds, and lead virtuous and honeft Lives. His Pleafure lies not in the Magnificence of Temples, made with Stone, but in the Piety and Devotion of confecrated Hearts. L. De Civ. Dei In the Book that Seneca wrote against Superftitions, treating of Images, fays St. Auftin, he writes thus, They reprefent the holy, the immortal, and the inviolable Gods, in the basest Manner, and without Life or Motion: In the Forms of Men, Beafts, Fishes; fome of mixed Bodies; and thofe Figures they call Deities; which, if they were but animated, would affright a Man, and pass for Monsters. And then a little farther, treating of natural Theology; after citing the Opinions of Philofophers, he fuppofes an Objection against himself: Some body will perhaps afk me; Would you have me then to believe the Heavens, and the Earth to be God's; and fome of them above the Moon, and fome below it? fhall I ever be brought to the Opinion of Plato, or of Strate the Peripatetic: The one of which would have God to be without a Body, and the other without a Mind? To which he replies; And, Do you give more Credit then to the Dreams of T.Tatius, Romulus and Hoftilius, who " caufed among other Deities, even Fear and Palenefs to be worshipped? The vileft of human Affections; the one being the Motion of an affrighted Mind; and the o ther, not so much the Disease, as the Colour of a difordered Body. Are these the Deities that you will rather put your Faith in, and place in the Heavens ? And fpeak ing afterwards of their abominable Caftoms, with what Liberty does he write? One, fays he, out of Zeal, makes himself an Eunuch; another lances his Arm: If this be the way to please their Gods, what should a Man do if he had a mind to anger them? Or if this be the way to please them, they do certainly deferve not to be worshipped at all. What a Phrenzy is this, to imagine, that the Gods can be delighted with fuch Cruelties, as even the worst of Men would make a Conscience to inflict ! The most barbarous and notorious of Tyrants, fome of them have perhaps done it themselves, or ordered the tearing of Men to Pieces by others; but they never went fo far, as to command any Man to torment himself. We have heard of those that have fuffered Caftration, to gratify the Luft of their imperious Masters; but never any Man that was forced to act it upon himself. They murder themselves in their very Temples, and their Prayers are offered up in Blood. Whofoever shall but obferve what they do, and what they fuffer, will find it fo misbecoming an honeft Man, fo unworthy of a Freeman, and fo inconfiftent with the Action of a Man, in his Wits, that he must conclude them all to be mad, if it were not that there are fo many of them; for only their Number is their Juftification, and their Protection. WHEN he comes to reflect, fays St. Auguftine, upon those Paffages which he himself had feen in the Capitol, he cenfures them with Liberty and Refolution: And no Man will believe that fuch Things would be done, unless in Mockery or Phrenzy. What Lamentation is there in the Egyptian Sacrifices for the Lofs of Ofiris! And then what Joy for the finding of him again? Which he makes himself Sport with; for, in truth it is all a Fiction: and yet thofe People, that neither loft any thing, nor found any thing, must express their Sorrows, and their Rejoicings, to the higheft Degree: But their is only a certain Time, fays he, for this Freak, and once in a Year Peo |