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A26270 The government of the passions according to the rules of reason and religion viz, love, hatred, desire, eschewing, hope, despair, fear, anger, delight, sorrow, &c. Ayloffe, W. (William) 1700 (1700) Wing A4290; ESTC R23106 50,268 134

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which by small pain delivers us from the Torments of the Damned to enjoy the Felicities of the Angels Of Pleasure IF Hope is thought to merit so many and so high Encomiums as that she is the most charming agreeable Passion that rises in Mans Soul and that which flatters our senses with the most sensible delectation what shall we say of Pleasure which is the delicious fruitwhereof the other was but a bud or blossom at most This is the effect and the other was but a fair promise This is the motion of the Soul that terminates all the rest As Love is the commencement this is the consummation and in all the different forms which Love assumes he is the most agreable in this in all the others he is mix'd with troubles dangers fatigues hardships and as many various miseries as he is metamorphos'd into different shapes yet in this of Pleasure he is absolutely all the desires he is at once victorious triumphant and happy Pleasure is the fruition of an agreeable good which renders the Soul satisfied interdicting any motion of desire sorrow or fear this definition excludes all those delights our Memory furnishes us with in the recollection of a past Felicity Those shadows of Joy may serve to entertain our thoughts with but are not solid enough to constitute a real Tranquillity It being as natural to regret a Felicity which we have lost as desire one that is absent from us As also all those infamous Pleasures which Voluptuousness creates the pain of desiring them exceeds by much the delectation of fruition They are such Mortal Enemies of our quiet that they are never enjoy'd without rendring us miserable as well as criminal at one fatal stroke wounding both Soul and Body True Pleasure is never so agreable as when 't is extream the greater it is the more it ravishes us The solid satisfaction of a rational Creature consisteth in the Mind and Man cannot be contented if the more noble part of his System is not happy The knowledge of Truth and the practice of Virtue ought to be his great divertisement He must follow the most pure of his inclinations and in the composition of his Body he must labour rather to please the Angel than gratifie the Beast He must remember that the Body is but the Slave of the Soul and in his choice of Pleasures he ought to give the Deference to the Sovereign If any man is of a contrary sentiment we cannot but conclude that Sin which depriv'd him of Grace has robb'd him likewise of his Understanding and Reason too The pleasures of the Senses are limited but those of the Soul are not so That sweet Odour which gratifies the Smel pleases no other Sense Musick which ravishing the Soul from the Body puts us in Heaven with the glorious Cherubims has no effect but upon the Ear. Virtue satisfies every faculty of the Soul and indeed she is never contented by halves what charms her in one power is diffusive and her Joy becomes universal The happiness of the Body is but a shadow and its felicity but an empty vain appearance Whilst that of the Soul is real solid and substantial not to be taken away from them who possess it even by death it self but what will accompany them into a happy Eternity Of the good use of Pleasure THose who condemn Pleasure at the same time condemn Nature accusing her of over-sights in all her Works for she has so mixt it in all the most minute affairs of our lives that we do nothing wherein she has not equally an agreableness as a necessity Hunger makes us eat and our Nourishment pleases the Palate whilst it concerns our Lives As Pleasure is useful to the Body so it is necessary to the Soul We would not combate against Vice but for the Joy and Glory which the Conquest yields us Who would go through the many difficulties that attend the acquiring of knowledge but for the sweetness they reap after their labours But as Nature has diffus'd some pleasure in all these things 't is to serve us not as an impellent motive but as an assistant only and to be rather our refreshment under our difficulties than the reward of them A spur or encouragement to arrive at the end but it must not be the end it self The pleasures or enjoyments of the Earth may divert us but must not take up too much of us Nature designing them not so much for our felicity as our comfort Our blessed Saviour has assur'd us that all the pleasures and happiness of this World are not worth our looking after and therefore he counsels us to renounce forthwith the blandishments of the World and establish our felicity in Heaven He has order'd us by the mouth of his Apostles never to open the door of our hearts but to those pure unallayed consolations which have the Holy Ghost for their source and spring and consulting our Interests only he obliges us to look after a Joy which being grounded upon himself cannot be ravish'd from us either by the Malice of Man or by the Iniquity of Fortune and which having an infinite goodness for their Cause and Object have their duration only circumscribed by Eternity Of Sorrow THis Passion seems to be natural to Man the others but accidental Few Parts of our Body are Partakers of our Pleasures or capable of receiving any one Particular But no Part of us but alas is sensible of Pain Sorrow and Grief The Spirit is dejected and the Eyes mourn Sadness displays it self through the whole Oeconomy The very deplorableness of our State doth argue Pain to be more essential to us than Pleasure We are born in Tears we live in Sorrow and dye in Sighs For one vain transient and imaginary Pleasure we feel a thousand real weighty Evils And what is a farther Confirmation of the Misery of our Condition we are much more sensible of Pain than Pleasure A small Distemper destroys all our most solid Contentment a Fit of the Gout or Stone is capable to make a Conqueror forget his Lawrels and the Pomp of all his Triumphs Grief is a real Evil that attacks both Soul and Body at once making a double Wound at each Blow When the Body is necessitated to undergo the sharpness of Tortures the rigours of the Seasons and the violence of Distempers the Soul is obliged to sigh with her and that Bond which unites them makes their Misery common she apprehends Wounds tho' she is invulnerable and Death tho' she is immortal and this only by reason of that strict Communication which she has with the Body We all agree that the Soul cannot be happy whilst the Body is miserable and to confirm us in this Opinion we know that the Soul of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ tho' it was happy in it self yet it was pierced with Grief when he said to his Disciples My Soul is sorrowful even unto death And the Felicity of his Divinity seem'd to be
suspended during his Agony for it was not without Cause that he cry'd My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Soul is much more happy than the Body by this Union for by the very Reflection on a past Misery she creates to her self new Pains whereof the Body feels no part and so of but one only Evil she makes a double Martyrdom The effect of this melancholy Passion are very strange for when Sorrow is not extreme she is ingenious and renders Man Eloquent without the benefit of Rhetorick to hear their pathetick Expressions that multitude of Sighs that so easily second the energy of their lugubrous Discourses one would think that the greatest horrours and anguish of Nature were infinitely less than what they groan under But when she is extreme she stupifies hardly leaving Man the use of any Sense and who was so florid in describing a small Evil confesses by his silence that this is without comparison greater since it is unutterable Curae leves loquuntur magnae stupent This mighty alteration gave occasion to the Poets to feign that it Converted some into Rocks others into Stones The good use of Sorrow VVE must not wonder if the Stoicks condemn a Passion when they do not approve even of the very Virtues she produces placing their Wisemen in such a State of Felicity that no humane cause could ever interrupt In the plundering of a City or the destruction of their Country they were still as unmov'd as Jupiter would be at the dissolution of the Universe and if they granted a Sigh to a deceased Parent or shed a Tear with the reflection of their Countries Ruin yet this was without ever Affecting the Soul whose Felicity consisting in its self it could not be mov'd by any external Cause But sure the pomp of these haughty Expressions could be only to preserve the Soul in her Sovereignty and perswade us not to be so far overwhelm'd with the pain of the Body as to dethrone the Mind and of the Malady of the Slave make the Misery of the Sovereign which the better to effect she us'd the policy of the Orators who by their Hyperboles perswade us of Verities and prove all things possible to animate us to some that are difficult Therefore that the Soul might not sink under the weakness of the Body but be establish'd in her Empire they have made use of Terms somewhat more Eloquent than true Sorrow is so reasonable a Passion that there are some Junctures wherein it were Impiety not to be afflicted and we must not only bewail our own Sins but our Neighbours Miseries We stand indebted to this Passion for our Innocence because our conversion to Grace is perfected in our sorrow for Sin and the Justice of God satisfied with the sincerity of our Tears In other Circumstances she works not so miraculously If our Afflictions comfort the Living they do not raise the Dead and if they assure the Wretched of our Affection they deliver them not from the anguish of their Torments But the sadness of Repentance is of another nature those grievous Sighs which oppress Sin save the Sinner these Tears wash away the Crime and sanctifie the Criminal Sorrow alone for having offended becomes here a compleat satisfaction And as God knoweth that it lies not in our power to alter any thing which has already hapned so he graciously accepts of our Repentance for having transgressed And as he sees the bottom of our Hearts so when our Tears are unfeigned he never refuses them his Pardon Were it not for this Passion there could be no Salvation since there can be no Repentance without Sorrow we will therefore be vehement in the defence of a Passion from which we receive such considerable Advantages And tho' Princes thinking this too austere a Passion to have admittance into their Courts by Musick Balls Dancings Plays and many other Divertisements seek to keep it from an Entrance yet before the Tribunal of God this Passion has more Credit than all the others united in one She can boast that she works the strange Metamorphosis in Grace of making Saints of Sinners and of the Children of Disobedience Darkness and Perdition she makes Children of Light Brothers with the Son of God and Heirs of everlasting Felicities and of a Crown and Kingdom which can know no end The Conclusion FRom all these Discourses 't is easie to judge that there is no Passion in our Souls which may not be advantageously managed by Reason as well as Grace For to summ up all what has been said in the whole Work Love may be chang'd into a holy Amity and Hatred may be brought to a just Indignation Desires moderated are so many good Assistants to acquire Virtue Eschewing is the proper security of Chastity Hope animates us to brave and generous Undertakings and our Despair turns us from rash ones Fear is serviceable to Prudence and Boldness to Valour As brutish as Anger seems she sides with Justice Joy is an innocent Antepast of Felicity Grief a short pain that frees us from Eternal Torments So that our Salvation depends only upon the good use of our Passions and Virtue it self only subsisteth by the good employment of the Motions of our Soul FINIS INDEX PART I. OF the Number of our Passions 14 Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 17 If there were any Passions in Jesus Christ and wherein they differ'd from ours 19 Of the disorderliness of Man's Pass 22 Nature alone cannot regulate our Passions 24 Of the necessity of Grace to govern the Passions 26 Our Senses are chiefly the Causes of the disorders of our Passions 28 There is more irregularity in the Passions of Man than in those of Beasts 29 As there is nothing more difficult so there is nothing more glorious than the Government of the Passions 32 No Slavery is so miserable as that of being over-power'd by our Passions 37 To govern our Passions we must first moderate them 41 Reason alone is able to restrain the Passions 46 By what means we may moderate our Passions 50 Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue 53 There is no Passion which may not be chang'd into a Virtue 58 The Government of our Passions is the business of Virtue 62 PART II. OF Love 66 Of the good use of Love 68 Of the nature and properties of Hatred 73 The good use of Hatred 76 Of the nature and properties of Desire 80 Of the good use of Desire 83 Of the nature propert of Eschewing 86 Of Hope 88 Of the good use of Hope 91 Of Despair 93 Of Boldness 96 Of the good use of Boldness 100 Of Fear 102 Of the good use of Fear 105 Of Anger 106 The good use of Anger 109 Of Pleasure 112 Of the good use of Pleasure 115 Of Sorrow 117 The good use of Sorrow 119 The Conclusion 122 BOOKS Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard CApt.