Page:The Commentaries of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus.pdf/15

 ( x ) Declarations,

to which his Belief it ſeems

did not extend, butfrom the Properties and Circumſtances of

the divine Works them

felves ; according to this irrefragable Rule, that if God is conſiſtent with himſelf, bis Will muſt be, that Men ſhould act and be diſpoſed

1 agreeably to the principal Qualification of that Nature which be has given them.

Now

the principal Attribute of human Nature, is that whereby it is qualified to diſcern, wherein lies its own Perfe &tion and Beati tude, and when diſcerned, to purſue the ſame invariably ; ſo as being diveſted of falle Opi from the neceſary Con nion, to be exempted ſequence of vicious Axion. Accordingly in this Purſuit of the Perfc &tion and Beati tude of buman Nature, lies buman Virtue, as in deviating from that Road lies human Vice : and every ſingle Action is either vir. tuous or vicious, according as it leads to that End, or has a contrary Tendency. cerning Faculty

This dif

raiſed to its full Vigour

and determining Force,

is called Reaſon,

and is that ſame Reaſon in Kind, allowing the other to be higher in Degree, which Je fus manifeſted to the World, and in which the Apoſtle John ſays, there was Light and there was Life, that it was in the Beginning, In a was with God, and even was God.

Word,