their maladies may become ours but being bound by faith to believe that the soul is the workmanship of God that she is not drawn from forth the matter of the body though she be inclosed therein and that she is a pure spirit though she doth inanimate her body It is almost impossible to make us discerne how shee becomes criminall when she is thereinto infused she is altogether pure whilst in her Authors hands and she becomes not guilty till she becomes the bodies forme I very well know that she is infused as soon as created and that the same hand which hath extracted her out of nothing hath bound and fastened her to the body but I know not why the father who contributes nothing to her production should contribute to her pollution and wherefore since he gives not life unto her hee should make her inherit his sin Divines are much perplexed with this difficulty and touching the resolution thereof Saint Austin hath oft-times doubted whether the soul were not produced by generation as wel as the body all his reasons seem to be grounded upon this belief he wil have it that the body doth infect the soul and generation is as it were the channell of sin which hath corrupted us He grounds three principles which do produce three severall effects in man God which hath created him his father who hath begot him and sin which hath sullyed him The soul was from God the body proceeds from the begetting Father and the impurity derives from sin he admirably describes the Nature of concupiscence and he is never more learned nor more eloquent then when he sets forth what havock she hath made in our souls he teacheth us that every sin is a particuler concupiscence and that instructed by our own Misery we call Avarice the concupiscence of riches Pride the concupiscence of glory and unchastity the concupiscence of voluptuousnesse he concludes by convincing reasons and which receive no reply that it was necessary that man being guilty should beget sinfull Children and that it was not just that the Children should be more innocent then their Fathers he perswades us effectually that Christians not being regenerate but by the spirit cannot communicate grace to those that descend from them by the way of generation which rests yet in Impurity but truly he doth not sufficiently prove that the soul should become guilty for being engaged in the body nor that to make up one Composition with it she should contract a sin whereof she her self is not capable for though concupiscence reign in the body to speak properly it is not a sin till it pass into the soul Irregularity is the matter thereof but her aversion from God is her Forme and it is impossible to Comprehend that the soul for being infused into a wretched body should become Criminall whence then proceeds this Originall sin by what waies doth it slide into our souls by what Channels doth it shed it self into the handy work of God and how comes it that the Chief workmanship of his hands becomes guilty assoon it is engaged in the body Theologie hath been forced to Imagine a secret Treaty between God and Adam by the which God having made Adam head of all men he had given him grace for all his Posterity and that by the same law that all his Children should share in his sin that this Treaty whereby Gods Justice is not injured discovers unto us the greatnesse of his Sovereignty that it is not strange a Prince should put into the hands of his Subjects the fate of all them that should descend from them that in all the best regulated States the Children share in their Parents evils that receiving the glory of all their best Actions they should likewise pertake of the Pain and Infamy of their offences that so the privation of Grace in men is the punishment of Adams fault that by a necessary consequence the aversion of our will derives from the losse of Innocency Some building upon some Passages in S. Paul would perswade us that all men were included in Adam that there will was united to his that his fault was their sin and that therefore there was no inconvenience that those that lived in him should share in his guilt some others differing but a little from the former have represented us with two universall men whereof one is the 〈◊〉 of sin the other of Grace We are united to the former by Generation and become sinners like him by regeneration we are fastned to the other and become just as he is Thus sin disperseth it selfe as well as Grace unrighteousness is communicated as well as Innocency and we contract sin without a wil thereunto as we receive grace in Baptisme without deserving it All these opinions which I embrace and honour doth sufficiently explain how Adams sin is ours but they do not cleerly enough declare how we do contract it they teach us that we are sinners but do not discover unto us by what means we become so wherefore re-assuming Saint Augustines Principles me thinks a man may say that Adams sin is the sin of all men that that which was voluntary in him is naturall in them that it passeth from the father to those that descend from him as Maladies do which are hereditary in Families or as the Ethiopians which is seen in his Childrens faces To Comprehend this truth it is not necessary to Imagine a Treaty between God and Adam whereby the fathers fault and Punishment becomes the sons but it sufficeth to know that being faln from the State of Innocency and having lost originall righteousnesse he cannot longer transmit it into his Progeny that by necessary consequence he makes them share in a Malady which he could not cure himself of and that he communicates his sin unto them in communicating his concupiscence T is enough for them to be guilty that they are descended from him and without seeking for causes further off it sufficeth to prove their guilt that they are a part of him t would be a Prodigie if a sinfull Father should beget Children void of sin and we were to wonder if nature not being re-establisht in her former Purity her productions should not be Corrupt The difficulty is to know how the soul which issues pure and spotlesse from out the hands of God contracts sin when she is infused into the body To this I answer that her streight union with the body is one cause of her fin that she sullyes her self by Informing it that she receives death by giving it life that wanting original righteousnesse whereby to preserve her self from the contagion occasioned by the first mans sin she is no sooner made companion to the body but she becomes Criminall Thus is she unpleasing to God because she is not in Grace with him she is not in Grace with him because Adam hath lost Gods grace both for himself and his Children and she is
find that in desarts which we want in cities and the bounds which they have prescribed to their desires renders them content in the midst of want the same tree may cloth and feed them the leaves thereof serve them for coverings and the fruit for nourishment Fortune can lay no hold upon their persons wheresoever they goe they carry all they have with them and Famine which doth depopulate whole towns cannot make the earth barren enough to infuse fear into them they are grown acquainted with hunger and cannot fear an enemy with whom they have so often fought Penitency hath lesse need of the creature then poverty hath she takes some pleasure in contemning them she rather loves to be persecuted then to be served by them and knowing that this world is but a banishment she despiseth whatsoever can retard her return into her deer country she incourageth penitents to fight against sin and sorrow to destroy the Father by his Daughters means and to procure Heaven by the losse of Earth Thus all the vertues teach us that all the creatures are corrupted that it is better to passe by them then to make use of them that it is safer to contemn them then to imploy them and that if Philosophy teach us the use of them Religion counselleth us their privation The seventh Discourse That Deluges and Earthquakes are the punishments of the World become corrupted WE must not wonder if Philosophers have argued so weakly upon the disorders of nature their not knowing the the true cause thereof being by reason of their ignorance of Adams sin they were of opinion that the evill was occasioned by the corruption of humours and raising themselves to no higher a consideration they took the punishment of our sin for a condition of Nature they thought that death was rather a law then a punishment and that the two parts whereof man is composed were severed when their chains were worn to peices through the long use of time or broken by the violence of sorrow they thought that the bodies rebellion was a necessary consequence of it's constitution and that the slave being of another nature then his Master it was not to be wondered at if he had other inclinations they were perswaded that the revolt of wild beasts was a meer effect of their fury and that man had no reason to complain thereof since he neither wanted Force to tame them nor Addresse to reclaime them Learning upon the same principle they thought that Earth-quakes and Deluges were onely accidents which found their causes in nature and which were as ordinary to the earth as heats and colds to those that are sick they thought that the wind or fire inclosed in the bowels of the Mother Earth caused the agitations thereof and that these two Elements endevouring their liberty did their utmost to break prison that those constellations which rule in chief over waters made the rivers swell and drawing the sea out of her bed covered the earth with her waves They prepared themselves for these accidents as for disorders which were inevitable and not troubling themselves with appeasing divine Justice which chastiseth men by these dreadfull punishments they remained opinionated in their Errours Ignorance would not suffer them to profit by these disorders and not knowing that they were Punishments they thought that Patience and Fortitude were the onely Remedies The common-people whose opinions were not so corrupted because they were lesse proud reverenced the heavens anger in her severe punishments and finding no means how to obviate so strange disasters they sought for safety in superstition and endevoured to appease the evill spirits with sacrifice but this new sin augmented the rage of heaven thinking to avoid it's Justice they provoked it's indignation and through a blind ignorance they incensed their Sovereign by fawning on their executioners Christians who are instructed in a better school confesse that these great disorders are the punishments of sin and that divine Justice made no use of them till we through our offences had despised his mercy indeed there was nothing but the hand of God alone which could overthrow his workmanship and loosen the earth from it's foundations to affrighten the guilty Were not the winds in-animated by his Justice they could not shake the center of the world the weight of this great frame would stop their fury and nature which loves to preserve her parts would not permit meer exhalations to commit such havock in her state she would open new passages to them to allay their violence and preventing these extraordinary convulsions she would either rend open her own bowels or else dissolve those vapours into rivers But God takes delight to agitate the world that he may intimidate men and that he may teach them by these Earth-quakes that the earth is not so much their abiding place as the place of their punishment Of all the animadversions which his Justice giveth them there is none more horrid or lesse evitable then this for what assurance can we hope for here below if the earth quake under our feet where can we think to escape danger if the most solid thing of all the world do shake and if that which susteins all things threaten us with sinking under our feet what Sanctuary shall we find to defend us from an evill which doth incompasse us round and whither can we withdraw if the gulfs which open themselves shut up our passages on all sides with what horrour are men struck when they hear the earth groan when her trembling succeeds her complaints when houses are loosened from their foundations when the roof falls upon their heads and the pavement sinks under their feet what hope is there to be had in so generall a disorder and what comfort can be given or received in so universall a disorder when fear cannot be fenced by flight Fortune is never so cruell but that she opens unto us some out let whereby to escape the evils which she sendeth us an enemy is beaten from the bulwark which he had possessed himself of earth-works are opposed to the thundering cannon winds which raise Tempests deliver us from them and after having a long time tost us too and fro they cast us upon the shore houses serve us for sanctuaries against the injuries of the air and shepheards cottages which are onely made of leaves and mosse save them from storms Firings which are so hideous follow not them that fly from them though fire be never so light it becomes slothfull when it betakes it self to a combustible matter and if man will resign his goods unto it he may secure his person Thunder hurts not those who hide themselves in caverns it 's boult doth onely grate upon the earth but doth not penetrate it it is stopt with the least resistance and some trees have the vertue to appease it's fury when the plague infects whole citties it may be shun'd by going into the countrey
disobedient or unfaithfull to him whence proceeds this disorder if not from his sin whence proceeds so universall a rebellion if not from his disobedience and why should he have lost his authority in the world if he had not lost his innocency which was the foundation thereof I very well know that Phylosophers who knew not the state of sin endeavour to excuse this insurrection alledging it is naturall but who sees not the excusing of man is to blame God and that to leave innocency to the Creature is to bereave God of his Providence The Elements began not to prosecute man till he became criminall and God is so good and just as he would not have made him subject to these sufferings had he not found him guilty His Sovereignty never gives against his justice he makes such moderate use of his power as he never injures his Providence what ever power he may justly challenge over the Creature he condemns it not till it hath offended who will not then term this unruliness of the seasons a punishment who will not esteem the earths sterility the like who will not believe but that the Pestilences and Earth-quakes Deluges and Punishments by fire are the just rewards of sin more ancient then all these disorders we must also avow that the wisest Phylosophers have acknowledged that there was one cause of all these disorders and though they neither knew the wickednesse nor the name thereof they have known it by its effects Aristotle who may be termed the Genius of Nature who loved her so passionately took such pains to study her and so carefully considered her hath guest at the cause of all the disorders which he observed in her workmanship He wonders that man cannot tame his passions that being victorious every where else he is conquered by himself and that the soul hath not strength nor dexterity to triumph over her body he cannot comprehend how the noblest workmanship of Nature should be a Monster that the senses should be unfaithfull and passions disobedient and that reason which is her light should be obfuscated with so many darknesses he cannot conceive that man being free should be a slave to so many masters that being furnisht w th knowledg he should be ingaged in errours and that being assisted by so many vertues he should be withstood by so many vices had he durst have condemned the Diety he would have found fault with the workmanship thereof wavering between Religion and impiety he admires what he knows not he suspects what he cannot discover he guesses at what he cannot finde and amidst these doubts he confesseth that there is some hidden cause which hath produced these disorders what could a Phylosopher say more who had only been instructed â—n the School of Nature what could a man imagine who never having been enlighted by the beams of Faith was equally ignorant of Adams innocency and guilt if he be ignorant of the name of concupiscence doth not he acknowledge the nature thereof and if he know not the cause of originall sin hath he not observed the effects thereof Cicero who is no less a Phylosopher in his Academick discourses then Orator in his Orations complains that Nature is mans Stepdame that she hath bin negligent in the Master-piece of her workmanship and that as envying his happiness shee hath given him a body exposed to the injury of the Aire to the malice of Maladies and to the Insolencies of Fortune that shee hath lodged an unhappy soule over-born with pains abashed by fear faint in labour and unruly in her delights in so frail a body which hath made Saint Augustine confess that this great Phylosopher had the Cognizance of sin though he knew not its name and that he acknowledged the effects of a Cause which he could not discover Thus reason without faith seems to have found out originall sin And Phylosophy which makes Nature a Diety hath been enforced to accuse the disorderliness thereof and to impute unto her the faults whereof the first man was Author Seneca in whose person was united the pride of a Stoick and vain-glory of a Spaniard and who confesseth no weakness save such as he can neither excuse nor conceal after having pleaded in the behalf of Nature is obliged to forsake her he acknowledgeth in a thousand parts of his Writings that sin is naturall unto us and that Phylosophy is not sufficient to save us from a Monster which constitutes a part of ourselves I know that he varies in his opinions that Pride makes him revoke such Confessions as truth hath extorted from out of his mouth and pen that he complains that we live not as we were born that we do not preserve those advantages that Nature hath given us and that seduced by errour or corrupted by example We commmit errours which she detests but he quickly alters his minde and being prest by his own conscience hee avows that vertue is a stranger vice naturall to us hee confesseth that the first men were not more innocent then we save only in that they were more ignorant that they had not as yet opened the bowels of the earth to enrich themselves with her spoyls nor kill'd beasts to satisfie their appetites but that they even then had the principles of all these crimes in their souls and that there is great difference between a man who hath not the knowledge of evill and him who hath not a desire thereunto Had this Phylosopher read our Histories and had hee learnt from Moses what past in the beginning of the World he had plainly seen that vice comes not by degrees as doth vertue and that corrupted Nature is a Mistris good enough to teach us what is ill in giving us life Murther was Cain's Aprentisage and the Impieties which wee detest have dishonoured the first ages as well as they do ours since man was irregular he became capable of all vice and since hee lost Originall Justice hee is faln into all sort of disorders We polish sins we invent them not we commit them with more pompe not with more wickedness we only add ornament thereunto And in a word wee are not more faulty then our fore-fathers but more industrious In fine if it be lawfull to make use of Fables to strengthen Truth and to beat down lies by Poets who are the Authors thereof I see not a better draught of a man born in sin then that which is represented to us by the Tragoedian in his Thebais For Oedipus recounting the Story of his Misfortunes complains that his death preceded his birth that his sin preceded his reason that nature feared him before she had brought him into the world that by a strange prodigie he had committed sins before he knew what sin was that the Heavens whose decrees are so just had declared him criminall before he was indued with reason and that his father being a servant to divine justice had punisht him as soon as
sinfull because the father which unites her to the flesh as a secondary cause Communicates unto her his disorder not giving her a remedy for it powers his poyson into her and doth not present her with an Antidote makes her Inherit Adams sin and doth Communicate unto her the Grace of Jesus Christ. This it is which Saint Augustine insinuates unto us in other Termes when he says that the Contagion of the body passeth into the soul that the close Cōmerce that is between them makes their miseries cōmon between them and that without extraordinary helps an Innocent soul cannot be lodg'd in a guilty body the purest Liquours are tainted in musty vessels corrupted Air poysons those who breath therein and infected houses give the Plague to those that live in them Thus doth concupiscence glide from the body into the soul and this wicked Host gives death to her that gives him life If these reasons do not content the reader let him know that I glory to be ignorant of what Saint Augustine understood not that I should shew my self too rash if I should think to give an entire light to the obscurest part of Divinity and that I should be unfaithfull if I should pretend to make a truth evident by reason which is only known by Faith The fifth Discourse Of the Nature of Concupiscence CHristian Religion may truly boast that all her Maxims are Paradoxes which agreeing with truth give against humane reason for she proposeth nothing which is not as strange as true and which causeth not as much astonishment as light in the soul he who would prove this truth must make an Induction of all our Mysteries and represent all the wonders which she comprehends but without straying from my subject it will suffice to say that Originall sin is one of her strangest Paradoxes and that if much of reason be required to prove it no less of faith is requisite to believe it for what more prodigious is there then that the sin of one man should be the sin of all men that a Fathers Rebellion should ingage all his Children in disobedience that his malody should be Contagious that he should be the murtherer of all men before he be their Father and that unfortunately he be the cause of their death many ages before they be born Thus is this misfortune more generall then the deluge which drowned the world more universall then the fire which shall consume it and War and Pestilence which doth so easily enlarge themselves are not so Contagious Evills as is this sin If it be wonderfull by reason of it's Effusion it is no less miraculous through it's other qualities for we are taught by Divinity that it is voluntary in the Father and naturall in the Children that that which was only a fault in Adam is both a sin and a punishment in those that descend from him that we contract by birth what he willingly committed and that that which was free in it's beginning should become necessary in the progress thereof He might have kept from disobedience And we can neither shun the punishment nor the fault we are surprized by this misfortune in our Conception we are slaves before we have the use of Liberty and we have already offended God before we knew him we are rather the objects of his anger then of his mercy but that which is more deplorable we are so corrupted from the moment of our Birth as that we oppose our selves to his will If he favour us in our Baptisme the first use we make of Reason is for the most part engaged in Errour we follow the Inclinations of our first father and his sin makes such powerfull Impressions upon our souls as we sin in our first thoughts we for the most part make use of our liberty only to estrange our selves from God we have a secret opposition to his ordinance we are so inclosed within our selves as we can love nothing but for our own interests which is the Rule of our actions and we neither love nor desire any thing save what is either usefull or pleasing to us Such is the corruption of our nature as there is almost nothing in it which is not repugnant to the laws of God It is so misled by sin as all the Inclinations thereof are perverted In this unfortunate Condition man can neither know nor doe good he is inslaved not having so much as the desire of Liberty though he groan under the weight of his Irons he is affraid of being freed from them and though his Imprisonment be painfull yet is not he weary thereof he delights in doing evill and findes difficulty to do what is good the great inclination he hath to sin doth not excuse his offence And he ceaseth not to be guilty though he cannot shun sin in generall to fill up the measure of so many Evils he is blind and insensible he sees not the Evils that environ and threaten him he is full of wounds and hath no feeling of them believing himself to be whole he seeks not for help through proud blindness he despiseth the Physician that would restore him to health Every man that comes into this world is in this miserable q condition and we are guilty of all these Crimes And charged with all these punishments before we be regenerated in Baptisme after this Sacrament we become Innocent but cease not to be miserable sin forsakes us but punishment waits upon us and though we be no more guilty we are notwithstanding out of order our Fathers sin forgoes us but Concupiscence remains This monster is not much lesse savage then is the Cause which produced it It follows the Inclinations thereof and if it be not altogether so wicked it is at least full out as irregular it is much more opinionated then the father that begot it our life is to short to cut it off it 's an enemy not to be overcome wounds give it new life it gathers strength by skars and it must cost us our life to be the death thereof Our first Divines which were the Apostles have given it the very name of sin and as if t were more fatall then it's Father they term it the strength and law thereof it is not content to perswade us to the Crime but endeavours to enforce us thereunto it mingles force with perswasion and when it thinks the way by solicitation to be to mild it hath Recourse to violence and Tyranny it grows the more furious by opposition it 's stomack is set on edge by Inhibition it never becomes more insolent then when Laws are prescribed unto it To Expresse the Nature thereof to the life we must represent a Tyrant who being born of sin will enlarge his Fathers Empire make al mankind his slaves it establisheth it's throne in our souls darkens our understanding infuseth wickednesse into our wils and fils our memories with the remembrance of all unjust acts It abuseth all
heart unto the Devill he indiscreetly suffered the immoderate desire of knowing all things to enter there Pride or the Ambition of Command is the last and most dangerous effect of Concupisceuce Flattery whose cheife imployment is to praise sin confounds this Passion with vertue and makes all glorious faults lawful to Conquerors She builds the glory of the Alexanders upon the sin of Maligne spirits and she will perswade Princes of the world that the furious desire which changed Angels into Devils can turn men into Gods but our Religion teacheth us that there is no more insolent Passion then this and that all other sins are the ushers in of Pride In effect if other sins do busie the mind this possesseth it if others fly from God to shun his justice this draws neer unto him to set upon his greatnesse if others leave us when we grow old this accompanieth us even unto death and if the rest chance sometimes to be the sin of the Elect this is almost always the Reprobates fault it will supply Gods place whatsoever name is given to the Impiety thereof it 's design in making it self be either loved or feared is to govern over men either by force or fair means and to commit a rape upon that Glory which belongs only to him who is the beginning and end of all things this Passion dies not with men they preserve the sense thereof after death and their care of having their Prayers recorded in History their Statutes erected in publique Places and stately Monuments in Churches are assured proofs that their Ambition ends not with their lives this disorder can only proceed from the first man who not being able to permit that even God should be his Sovereign unjustly pretended to Independency and endeavouring Sovereignty by Rebellion reaped thereby nothing but a shamefull servitude all these irregularities which derive from self-love as from their spring-head and all our fins which burst out from thence like rivers the Devil who very wel knows how to tēpt man makes no use of any other means then these to seduce him he beats us with our own weapons and he loseth the hope of overcomming man when man keeps himself from delight Curiosity and Ambition he raised all these batteries against the first man and judging of their Power by their good success he made use thereof against Jesus Christ in the Desert but seeing that his soul was sufficient proof against all his on-set she resolved to set upon him by sorrow and gr◠whom he could not seduce by delights The ninth Discourse Wherefore Concupiscence remains in Man after Baptisme WE are taught by Divinity that nothing but the Power of God can make all things out of nothing nothing but his Providence can draw good out of evill and make a mans fault to amend his life Naturall Phylosophy cannot comprehend the former of these wonders and morall Phylosopy cannot comprehend the second Nature worketh nothing without materials her workmanships are rather alterations then productions shee may well change one thing into another but she cannot make a new thing and there is so little proportion between nothing and subsistancy as Aristotle chose rather to believe that the World was eternall then that God created it of Nothing This great Genjus found it lesse inconvenient to acknowledge numberless causes then to confess one only the power thereof was unlimited and morall Phylosophy which is not greatly more enlightned then naturall Phylophy findes such opposition between good and evill as shee would rather think to draw light out of darkness and beauty out of deformity then Vertue out of Vice but Religion which adores in God Almighty a Power which hath no bounds and an unclouded Providence confesseth also that the one may have framed the World out of nothing and that the other may have extracted Grace out of sin in effect the work of our Redemption is the sequell of ou◠loss And if Adams sin be not the cause it is at least the occasion of our salvation the same sin which hath drawn reproches from forth our mouth hath return'd prayses for it And the Church calleth that sin fortunate which hath merited so excellent a Redeemer Concupiscence being the daughter of sin we must not wonder if divine Providence hath made it serviceable to her designes and if she employ her Enemy to execute her will for though this guilty habit be past as it were into nature and that it makes sin so hard to be overcome yet did God leave it in the souls of his faithfull Ones to exercise their vertue to allay their Pride and to make them have their Remembrance of their misfortune always before them During the happy estate of their Innocencie Vertue was so naturall to man as it met with no Resistance Man took delight in doing what was good and the greatness of Merit was not measured by the difficulty of the work his passions were obedient to reason his senses were faithfull to his soule and his body had no other motions then those of the soule the practise of Piety was not as yet become a Combate Continencie and Fortitude were not enforced to give battaile to bear away the victory and these two Noble Habits were given man rather for his ornament then for his defence so we must confess that if he had more quiet then we hee had less glory and that if he tasted more delight he could not hope for so great reward for all our life is spent in Exercise and fighting all our vertues are austeer they are always environed with Enemies they cannot go out of their ordinary tracks without falling into a Precepice and they are Reduced to the Necessity of Continuall fighting unlesse they will be defeated but of all the Enemies that sets upon them they are most vext with Concupiscence and yet win most glory thereby for she is so opinionated as 〈◊〉 cannot be overcome Grace which triumphs over all our Evill complains of being resisted by this although it lose it's vigour it loseth not it's courage and though the Saints do still weaken it yet they cannot stifle it they must dye to defeat it and it must cost them their life to get the full victory yet is this the field wherein they purchase all their Bayes t is the matter of their fights and Triumphs and their vertues would languish in Idleness did not this domestick Enemy keep them in breath To say truth they run much danger but gain much Glory the same subject which causeth their Pain heighthens their courage and increaseth their merit If Concupiscence be of use to vertue she is no lesse fatall to sin for though she be her Daughter she is likewise oft her Murtherer and of all the remedies which Grace hath ordained to cure us of Pride there is none more safe then that of this disorder We are naturally Proud and Miserable and it is hard to say whether Pride or misery makes the greater
his justice never punisheth the Innocent and his goodnesse would not permit us to be miserable if we were not guilty but we must also confesse that his justice would have been remisse had he not punisht sin Adams Rebellion deserved that all men should be punisht for it his sufferings were to be hereditarie and there had been some sort of Inconvenience that a guilty Father should have produced innocent Children we inherit his punishment and his sin and receiving our being from him it was reason we should partake of the Miseries which do accompany it In Point of high Treason the Children are punisht for the Fathers fault When a Princes Anger breaks out upon great personages that are guilty it fals likewise upon their Families to have any relation to them sufficeth to be guilty Crime is contracted by Allyance and though the misfortune may exceed the sin there is always reason enough for the punishment throughout all the Judaicke Law the Children beare the punishment of their fore-fathers sins God requires it to the fourth Generation as a Child is a part of his father we presume he hath drawn along with him Part of his sin and that he cannot inherit his being without inheriting his offence also Gods greatnesse merits this rigour and offences cōmitted against so high a Majesty cannot be sufficiently punished Our Complaints proceed from our Ignorance we defend our own cause only because we know not his Sanctity whom we have offended if we had a little light we would prevent Gods decrees and we should find that Hell is to small a punishment for such as rebell against him In whatsoever sort it be that we have contracted sin it deserveth Punishment we cannot be blamelesse since we proceed from a guilty father and since the bodies maladies are hereditary we must not wonder if those of the soul be contagious there is no difference between Adams sin and ours save only that his is voluntary and ours Naturall that he is more guilty then unfortunate we more unfortunate then guilty that he hath done the mischiefe and we have received it that he hath committed a fault and we bear the Punishmnnt that his disorder is become our Nature that his Rebellion engageth us in disobedience and that as the tree is lost in it's root we are infected in our beginning and corrupted in our father After all these reasous there is no more reason of complaint Miserable man instead of accusing Gods Justice must implore his mercy and must find out that innocency in Iesus Christ which he hath lost in Adam to the end that as naturall generation hath been the cause of his misery Spirituall generation may be the cause of his happinesse and that he may there partake of grace without any other merits then those of the Sonne of God as he hath received condemnation without any other fault then that of Adam OE THE CORRUPTION OF the Soul by SINNE The Second Treatise The First Discourse Of the Souls Excellencie and of the miseries which shee hath contracted by Sinne. THe Church hath oft times seen the Truth of her belief gain-said by contrary Heresies neither hath she almost at any time explained the mysteries of faith but that she hath seen new Sects arise which by different ways have endeavoured to bereave her of her Purity and to engage her in Errour when she explained her self upon the mysterie of the Trinity and that she had taught her Children to adore the plurality of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence she was opposed by two contrary Heresies the one of which confounded the Persons the other divide the Nature when to declare unto us the Oeconomy of the Incarnation she hath taught us that Man-God did unite in the unity of his Person the Divine Nature with the humane there arose Heretiques who desirous to destroy one another quitted the Catholicks opinions and perswaded themselves either that there was but one Nature or two Persons in Iesus Christ when finally the same Church distinguishing between the purity and the corruption of nature taught us that the one was the worke of GOD the other the worke of sinne two Heresies sprung up which withstood this truth with different weapons for the one confounded the corruption of Nature with her Essence and Imagined that there was a bad Principium of which all things visible were the work the other by a clean contrary tract would excuse the disorders of sin by the goodnesse of Nature and perswade us that mans Irregularities were nether the effects nor the punishment of his Rebellion it approoved of Concupiscence and placed it in the Terrestiall Paradice before the Serpent had seduced the first woman it made merry with Original righteousnes and bereft her of the Power of composing the differences of the soul and body it approved of all those revolts which we look upon as the cursed consequences of sin and imployed it's reason to perswade Catholicks that they were rather the effects of our Constitution then the Punishments of our disobedience it maintained together with Phylosophy whose arms it borrowed to fight against Religion that death was rather a law then a punishment and that even in the state of Innocency a man could not have fenced himself against death The Churches belief being equally distant from these two Errours and since she doth as constantly confesse the goodnesse of nature as her corruption I have thought good throughout all this work to mingle Invectives with Panygericks and to observe as well the Advantages which man receives from God as the miseries which he contracts by sin I therefore think my self obliged to set forth the beauties of the soul before I describe her blemishes and to paint forth on the same Table her perfections and her defaults The souls Originall contributes to her greatnesse and though she be brought Ex Nihilo t is no small miracle that Divine Power hath been able to draw so excellent a thing from so barren a subject Phylosophers who never knew the truth without the mixture of falshood and who have always in Religion mingled Fables with History Imagined that soul made a part of the Divine substance that she was a slip of his being that after having inlivened the body which served her for a sepulchre or prison she should be happily re-united to her Principium Some others more modest believe that she drew her birth from Heaven and that preserving the memory of her dear Country she could ill bear with the length of her exile Some others lesse elevated have perswaded thēselves that she was form'd of earth and that being more extenuated not more noble then the body she had the same Element for her Originall the Pythagorians composed her of Numbers and would have harmony to be her Essence as that which maketh Peace in the world and accordeth the Elements some dotards have drawn her from the Atoms of the Sun and gave her a
man becomes by discourse the contagion of a whole Town Conceptions are spread abroad by words and faults are multiplied by communication if those who are dumb conceive envie they cannot shew it by detraction and if they expresse it by signes 't is either the hands or eyes which makes them guilty our soule is not infected with falshood or heresie save by our most refined sense these two poisons are taken in by the care not by the mouth And as faith and truth enter the soule by hearing their mortall enemies make their passage by the same way a man must stop his eares and shut his eyes if he will keep his heart pure It were to be wisht that men were blinde that so they might not see the beauty which inchants them that women were deafe that they might not hear the praises which seduce them In fine the world abuseth us onely by our senses it 's pernicious Maximes get into our soules by our eares the vanities thereof corrupt our wills by our eyes and all those objects whose different beauties do be witch us make no impression in our soule but by our body We should be invulnerable were we spirituall and of a thousand temptations which we have we should hardly be troubled with one were we not engaged in Materia To compleat our mis-fortune we love our enemy the bad offices he doth us cannot diminish our love All the Maximes of Religion cannot perswade us to revenge and though this motion of the minde be so pleasing to the injured it seems severe unto us when we are invited to punish our body Our passion for this unfaithfull one is not extinguished by death The damned preserves it amidst the flames though they know their pains shall be increased by the resurrection of their body they cannot chuse but desire it In hell hope triumphs over fear and pain and this cruell enemy hath so many charmes as though he be reduced to dust yet doth he cause love in the soule which did inanimate him The remembrance of the injuries which the soule hath received from the body and the fear of pain which she expects from thence is not able to stifle this desire She hopes for the day of Judgement where she must be condemned though she know her punishment will be increased by her re-union with her body she cannot but desire it with impatience and places the delay thereof in the number of her sufferings So as we are bound to conclude that if the body be the cause of sin during life it will be the punishment thereof after death and that if it hath made the soule guilty upon earth 't will make her unhappy in hell The third Discourse Of the Infidelity of the Senses NAture being so intermingled with sin as that the one is the production of God the other the work of man the praises which we give to the former are always mingled with Invectives made against the latter and we cannot value the beauty of nature unlesse we blame the out-rages which she hath received from sin the figure of mans body is an evident signe of his Makers wisdome The Lineaments of his face bindes us to admire the power of the hand which hath formed them and the disposall of the parts thereof draw no lesse praises from our mouthes than the like of the universe But the disorder which we see in mans Temperature the opposition of those Elements which go to his composure and that generall revolt which hath shed it self throughout all his members obligeth us to detest sin which is the cause thereof We must argue in the same sort concerning our senses and confesse that as their use deserves estimation their irregularity deserves blame They are admirable in their structure and were they not common to us with beasts we might be permitted to glory in them The operation of the noblest of them is so subtill as that the soule as divine as she is can hardly comprehend it she admireth these Master-pieces of nature though she have so great a share in their miracles yet knows she not how they are done and thinks strange that she should contribute to wonders which she cannot conceive For the soule inanimates the senses and this spirituall forme is a created Divinity which sees by the eyes heares by the eares and expresseth it selfe by the mouth But if the senses have their perfections they have also their defects and if the soule receive any service by them she is by them likewise much injured They are the gates of falshood and errour vanity slides into our soules by their means they are exposed to illusions the objects wherewith they are pleased corrupt them and being once corrupted by delight they make no true reports unto the soule Nature hath endowed us with them that we might know God by things visible and to raise us up to consider the beauty of the Creatour by the like of his works these deceitfull Guides do notwithstanding abuse us and sollicited either by delight or interest make Idols unto themselves of all the creatures and lead us to adore sensible and perishable Gods Saint Augustine confesseth that he never went astray in his beliefe save when he would follow them and that he never engaged himselfe in errour save when he gave beliefe to their advise he sought out God with his eyes he would have touched him with his hands and thought to have found him in the world whom he carried about with him in his heart He gave commission to all his senses to finde him out but these ignorant messengers could learn him nothing and he found not his God because he knew not how rightly to seek for him Their ignorance would be excusable were it not accompanied with injustice but these evill Counsellours grow insolent in chiding us after they have abused us and make violence succeed superchery they tyrannize over our souls after having seduced them and make the Sovereign take laws from his slaves According to the Government of the Universe Inferiour things are alwas subject to their superiour as the earth is lesse noble than the Heavens it is also lower it receives their influences thereof with respect and all the fruit it beareth raise themselves up towards the stars to witnesse that it's fruitfulnesse derives from their Influences In Civill Government women are subject unto their husbands and slaves obey their Masters in Politique the people hold of their Sovereign and the Kings will is the Subjects laws but in man this order is reverst by an irregularity which can be nothing but the punishment of sin his soule depends upon his body and in her noblest operations she is obliged to be advised by the senses Her condition is so unhappy as she seems almost enforced to believe the ignorant to follow the blinde and to obey Rebels A man would blame a State where fools should command over wise men where children should prescribe laws to the Ancient
deteined in his body by art The least accidents do sever her from it a vapour doth suffocate her she is choaked with a little flegme and blood which is the seat of life is oft-time the cause of death whithersoever so miserable a creature doth convey himself she receives there new proofs of his weaknesse the change of climates troubles his health a new air incommodiates him cold water hurts his stomake the Sun which lights him scorcheth him and whatsoever is cause of good unto him is cause of Evil. In the State of innocencie grace linkt the Soul to the body death unseconded by sin could not break the chains the elements durst not assail him originall righteousnesse made them observe respect they appeased their differences lest they might trouble mans temper fire agreed with water to preserve his health there was as profound a peace in his person as in his state but since he forewent his duty grace abandoned his body to sin the elements had liberty given them to war one upon another man became the scene of their combates and after once he revolted from God he saw all creatures take up arms against him sorrow death set upon him he was sentenced to live in pain die in sorrow For the sweetest life bears it's punishment with it There is no rose which is not grafted upon a thousand thornes and how handsome soever the chains be which link the soule and body together they are both of them equally exposed to suffering The soule is more capable of sadnesse than of joy though she display her selfe to receive in pleasure yet doth she never taste it purely she weeps amidst her contentments she expresseth her joy by sighs and as if she were not accustomed to great happinesses she seems to suffer when she receives them Though she shut the doore upon sorrow yet suffers she her selfe to be easily siezed on by it though she resist it she cannot withstand it and as if nature had made her more sensible of misery than of happinesse a small displeasure is able to make her forget all her former contentments The body is not more fortunate than the soule for it hath not many parts which can tast delight but it hath not any one which is not capable of pain Pleasures do enter-shock and always leave some of our senses in languishment or need pains agree in their assailing us and though they should not come in a crowd one alone is sufficient to make it selfe be felt by all the parts of the body their straight union makes their mischiefes common and if the head suffer the tongue complains the eyes weep and the heart groanes Thus the happiest life is miserable and that moment passeth not wherein we are not inforced to bewail our innocency to condemn our sin Death comes in to the aid of pain and by an ingenious peece of cruelty agrees with life to augment our miserie For though they appear to be enemies they joyn in our punishment and joyn with Gods Justice to revenge God we live and die daily the change which makes us subsist is deaths taster this cruell one siezeth on us by degrees all the time we have lived is already gotten by him and the years which we hope to make use of are so many titles which he produceth against us As soon as we begin to live we begin to die Death shares with us in all the moments of our life it takes unto it selfe what is past because that is certain and leaves to us only what is to come because that is uncertain So as by a strange mis-fortune the increase of our life is the diminution thereof The farther we grow from our birth the nearer we grow to death our purchases are meer losses m and things are so disposed of since sin as we cannot count our years without either flattering our selves or lying T is perhaps for this reason that the Hebrew that holy language which the blessed shall make use of in heaven imployes but one and the same word to expresse both life and death with the difference of one only point to teach us that death and life are divided onely by that moment which unites them In effect life is nothing but a brittle chaine consisting of three links the past the present and the future the past is no more we retain but a weak remembrance of it all the vows we can make will not fetch it backe it is not void of doubt whether Gods absolute power which finds no resistance amongst his creatures can gather together the present with that which is past and unite these differences of times without destroying their essence The future time is not as yet hope which expects it cannot advance it and wisdom which hath an eye unto it cannot dissipate the obscurity thereof it is lesse at our disposall then the time that is past and for all the vain conjectures which we may flatter our selves withall we know not whether it shall come to us or we shall go to it the present time to say truth is in our power we are masters of it and it is the onely thing which we can say we possesse t is the onely part of our life which we are assured of and who promiseth himself more is either ignorant or impious But this present time is but a moment and this difference of time hath no parts time past time to come comprehend whole ages but the present consists but in an instant so as death and life differ only in a point these two which we judge so contrary are intertained by that moment which doth separate them Though I honour this imagination by reason of the gallantry therof and that respect which I bear to the Hebrew Tongue obliege me to reverence it yet me thinks it doth not sufficiently expresse the miseries of life whose alliance with death is neerer then is thereby represented death subsists only by life and life is only preserved by death they commence end together as soon as a man begins to live he begins to die nature which very well knows that two moments never subsist together Commands death to hurry away the one to leave to life the other that ensues As she doth with moments and houres so doth she with those years whereof the degrees of our life are composed She makes our infancie die to give life to our Boyish age she takes away a childe to substitute a man and robs us of our youth to make old age succeede Thus if we advance in life t is by the favour of death and we enjoy our last years by the losse of the former who will not praise death since it makes us live and who will not blame life since it makes us die who will not confesse that sin is very cruell since it accords these two enemies to our undoing and that for our punishment it hath turned a happy and immortall life into an
Evill p. 91 9 That the will to be able to doe good must be set free from the servitude of sin by the grace of Iesus Christ. p. 97 10 That evill habits bereave the will of her liberty by ingaging her in Evill p. 103 The third Treatise Of the corruption of the Vertues Discourse 1 APaneggrick of Morall Vertue p. 109 2 That Morall Vertue hath her faults p. 115 3 That vain glory is the soule of the Vertue of Infidels p 122 4 That the Vertue of Infidels cannot be true p 128 5 That Wisdome without Grace is blinde weak and malignant p. 134 6 That there is no true Temperance nor Iustice amongst the Pagans p. 140 7 That the Fortitude of the Pagans is but weaknes or vanity p. 149 8 That friendship without grace is alwayes interested p. 156 9 That the uncertainty and obscurity of Knowledge derives from siâ—ne p. â—65 10 That Eloquence is an enemy to Reason Truth and Religion p â—73 The fourth Treatise Of the corruption of Mans Body by sin Discourse 1 OF the Excellencies of Mans Body p. 182 2 Of the Miseries of the Body in generall p. 190 3 Of the Infidelity of the Senses p. 195 4 That the Passions are fickle or wilde p. 201 5 That the health of Man is prejudiced by sicknesse p. 207 6 〈◊〉 the Bodies beauty is become perishable and criminall p. 214 7 That the life of man is short and miserable p. 225 8 That Death is the punishment of sin p. 231 9 What advantages we may draw from Death by meanes of Grace p. 237 10 That Sleep is a punishment of sin as well as the Image of Death and that it bereaves us of Reason as Dreames doe of Rest. p. 243 The fifth Treatise Of the corruption of all exterior Goods called by the name of FORTUNE Discourse 1 THat we must feare what we desire and desire what we feare p. 249 2 That Honour is no longer the recâ—mpence of Vertue p. 255 3 That Greatnesse iâ— attended by Slaveâ—y and Vanity p. 261 4 That the Birth and Cruelty of Waâ—re derives from sin p. 270 5 That Riches render mâ—n poore and sinfull p. 278 6 That since the losse of Innocency poverty is glorious p. 284 7 That aparrell is a mark of sin p. 290 8 That the shame which 〈◊〉 Nakednesse is a punishment for our offence p. 296 9 That Buildâ—ngs are the work of necessity pleasure or vain glory 302 10 That the greatest part of our pasâ—mes are occasions of sin p. 3â— The sixth and last Treatise Of the Corruption of all Creatures Discourse 1 OF the beauty greatnesse and duration of the world p. 319 2 That all creatures have lost some of their perfections p. 328 3 That the Sunne hath lost much of his light and vertue through sin p. 335 4 That there is no creature which men have not adored p. 341 5 That all creatures do either tempt or persecute man p. 348 6 That it is more secure to sequester a mans self from the creatures than to make use of them p. 355 7 That Deluges and Earth-quakes are the punishments of the world become corrupted p. 361 8 That Thunder Plagues and Tempests are the effects of sin p. 368 9 That Monsters and poysons are the workmanship of sin p. 377 10 That God will consume the world corrupted by sin that he may make a new world p. Of the Corruption of Nature by SINNE The First Treatise Of Originall Sin and the Effects thereof The First Discourse That Faith acknowledgeth Originall Sin That Nature hath a feeling thereof and That Phylosophie suspects it THough mans misery witnesse his sin and that to believe he is guilty sufficeth to prove his misery yet is there no one Truth in Christian Religion more strongly withstood by prophanePhylosophers then is this shee cannot allow of a chastisement which punisheth the father in his children neither can shee conceive a sin which precedes our reason as well as our birth Shee appeals from so rigorous a decree and thinks to defend Gods cause in pleading ours Shee attributes all our disorders to our constitution she imputes our errours to our education and the greatest part of our irregularities to the bad employing of our time She opposeth experience by arguing and what ever misery shee makes tryall of shee will not acknowledge the cause shee thinks a man may herein defend himselfe by reason and that there being no sin which is naturall neither is there any which may not be amended by will alone shee makes use of the examples of Socrates Aristides and Cato shee opposeth these Sages to our Saints and pretends that the works of Nature yield not to those of Grace Briefly shee corrupteth the purity of our beliefe by the subtilty of her reasoning and whereas Christians ought to convert all Phylosophers some Christians are perverted by Phylosophers We confesse Originall sinne because we dare not deny it We avow that it hath bereft us of Grace but assure our selves that it hath left us an entire Liberty We confesse it hath robb'd us of our innocencie but maintain that we may recover our innocencie by the means of reason and that if we cannot merit heaven we may at least secure our selves from hell We admire the famous Actions of Infidels our eyes are dazl'd with the lustre they receive from the writings of Phylosophers we side at unawares with Nature against Grace and through an inconsiderate zeale We will have their delusive vertues rewarded with a true happinesse Yet notwithstanding to believe original sin is one of the prime Articles of our Faith if Adam were not guilty Jesus Christ was not necessary and if Humane nature be yet in her first purity it 's in vain that we seek a Saviour Hence it is that the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth so often in his Epistles oppose sin to grace servitude to freedome and Adam to Jesus Christ he is pleased to represent unto us the disorders of Nature to make us admire the effects of Grace and he glories in his Infirmities the more to heighthen the advantages of RedemptioÌ„ He teacheth us that we are conceived in sin and that at our first enterance into the world we are the objects of Gods wrath He shews us that Adams sin is shed abroad throughout mankind That his Malady is become a contagion and that all the Children that do descend from this unfortunate Father are Criminall and Miserable The Prophets agree with the Apostles and this truth is not much less Evident in the Old Testament then in the New The most patient most afflicted of al men coÌ„plaines of the misfortunes of his birth and makes such just imprecations against the moment wherin he was conceived as we may easily conceive he thought it not void of fault David confesseth he was conceived in sin and that though he were born in lawfull Matrimony his birth ceaseth not to be shamefully sinfull The Church confirmes this truth
purity suffered some change thereby to revenge the outrages done to God amidst somany disorders nothing so much afflicted man as his domestick evills he defended himself frō wild beasts by force he gain'd the rest by wiles he saved himself from the Injuries of the Aire by Cloaths and houses He by his labour overcame the sterility of the earth he opposed dikes to the fury of the sea and if he could not calme the waves thereof he found means to overcome her stormes and to triumph over her tempests he invented Arts to allay the miseries of his life after having fenced himself from necessity he sought out pleasure he would occasion his happinesse from his losse as it were thereby to upbraid Gods Justice he changed one part of his paines into pleasures but he could not reform the disorders neither of soul nor body for all he could doe he could find no salve for the sicknesse of his soul and though his haughtines made him hope for help from Phylosophy he could never reconcile himself either to God or himself After having lost the knowledge of the true God he framed Idols to himself weary of having adored the workmanship of his hands he adored the workmanship of his fancy after having offered Incense to all Creatures he became his own Idolater and forgetting the shame of his birth the miseries of his life and the rigour of death he would have Temples and Altars When his madnesse would allow of any intermissions he acknowledged the the danger of his disease and forct thereunto by pain and shame he sought for remedies but self-love wherwith he was blinded rendered all his cares uselesse through a capricheousnesse which cannot be conceived he cherished the evils which afflicted him and preserving the desires which he had in his Innocency he would find the accomplishment thereof in his guiltinesse he was perswaded that he should find in himself what he had lost in God and that assisted by a vain Phylosophy he should make himself fortunate in the midst of his misfortunes Nothing did more crosse his Cure then this insolent belief and nothing did more offend the Grace of Jesus Christ then his confiding in his own reason and Liberty God permitted him to lament a long time to the end that he might be sensible at leasure of his maladie and Divine goodness deferr'd his deliverance only to make him confesse his faultiness he in vain laboured all that he could before he would be brought to cōfess his misery he sought for help from Nature before he would implore ayd from Grace he sought out all the means he thought fitting to Cure himself of so vexatious a Malady and had it not been for despair he had never found out the way to health but when he saw that Conquerors for all their power could not deliver him that Phylosophers could not by all their reasons Comfort him and that Orators could not lessen his evills by their words he betooke himself to God and the misery he indured made him know that nothing but the hand that had hurt him could heal him The third Discourse Of what kinde the first Sinne which ADAM committed was THe two first sins of the World are the most unknown and Divines which agree in so many differing subjects have not as yet been able to agree in this They know that the Angels and man are become Criminall but they know not what the nature of their fault is They know that both of them have violated the laws of God and that over-weaning their own perfections they have not sufficiently prized the perfections of their Creator they very well know that neither of them have preserved their Innocency and that weaknesse which is inseparable from the Creature hath been the cause of their Fall but they know not what name to give to this sinne nor under what degree to rank this crime which hath caused so much Mischeife Some think that the offence Committed by the Angel was so Generall as in the extent thereof it includes all other offences that he flew from God by all the wayes it was possible for him to estrange himself from him that using the utmost ofhis power he grew guilty ofall the wickednesse which so enlightned a spirit was capable of whence it is that the holy Scriptures to teach us the truth thereof terms his fault somtimes Murther sometimes Adultery sometimes Rebellion though man be not so Active as the Angel and that his soul confined within his body be slower in her operations yet there have been some Divines who hath given the same Judgment of both their sins and who have perswaded themselves that Adam by one only offence became guilty of all sins that the law which was proposed unto him conteining in it an Abridgment of all Laws he could not violate it without violating all the rest that his disobedience under one only name Comprehended all sins and that by one only attempt he Committed Adultery by failing in his fidelity to God Theft by taking a fruit which did not belong unto him Sacrilege by abusing his wil which was cōsecrated to God Paracide by occasioning death unto his soul and unto the souls of all his Children Though this be a strange opinion yet the worthinesse of the Author makes me put a valuation upon it for it is S. Augustine yet in the rigour of reason it is hard to conceive that manssoul had so much of sight as that in one sole action it committed so many sins These sins which are imputed to man are rather the effects then parts of his disobedience and if I may be permitted to speak my sense after the Chiefe of all Divines I should conceive that S Augustines design was rather to satisfie his eloquence then the truth and that making use of a figure which is so frequent amongst Orators he would aggravate Adams sin to make us detest it Some others have been of opinion that Pride was the sin of the Angel and of man that these two Noble Creatures puft up with their own perfections aspired after Divinity and that vain glory which is alwayes accompanied by blindnes had perswaded them that being already immortall they might easily make themselves Gods But I cannot think that such a thought could fall into the mind either of the Angell or of man they were induced with too much knowledge not to know that the Creature cannot equall the Creator in Majestie that the degrees of their separation are infinite and that wishes are never made for things absolutely impossible how could that desire of making himself God ever enter into the imagination of an Angell Since Theologie confesseth that they could never suspect the Mystery of the Incarnation and that without being enlightned by Glory or by Faith they never could have thought that God could make himself man or man become God other Divines have therefore rather chosen to believe that the Mysterie of the Incarnation was the occasion of
the Angels sin and that having learnt by Revelation that God was to allye himself to humane Nature he could not tolerate that the Angelicall Nature should be deprived of this honour imagining that the Angels did very well deserve whatsoever dignity God would confer upon man Others have thought that self-love was the sin both of the Angel and of man that seeing themselves so perfect they grew in love w th themselves that forgetting the greatnesse of God they considered only their own beauty that they made an Idoll of their own understandings that not envying Gods perfections they sought for all their happinesse within themselves and that rather by an Amorous then Proud blindnesse they endeavoured to find out their contentment in the Possession of their own advantages If it be not rashnesse to go about to discover what our leaders have been ignorant of and if a man may divide that which hath neither parts nor moments I would say that the sin of man and of the Angell is neither single nor yet Composed of all sins as S. Augustine affirmeth weaknesse which is so naturall to the Creature was as it were the disposition thereunto negligence the beginning self-love the ensuing or progresse and Pride the accomplishment thereof weaknesse is so naturall to the Creature as to free it thereof it must suffer change and be raised above itself Grace whose effects are so many miracles dares not undertake to free the Creature from it there is nothing but Glory which can fix the fancy of the Creature and take from it that Inconstancy which is the cause of all it's offences We acknowledge none but Jesus Christ to be void of sin The Angell and man not being raised to this height of happinesse we must not wonder if they be fallen and if those which proceeded ex nihilo did not defend themselves from sin every perishable Creature may become Criminall that which may lose its being may lose Grace and what cannot preserve it selfe in Nature will have much a doe to preserve it selfe in innocencie Weaknesse then prepared that Angel and man to sin and these two noble Creatures became faulty only because they were not unchangeable negligence begun the fault which weaknesse had prepared they made not use of all the grace which they had received they left a vacuum in their being which made place for sin they did not employ all the advantages which they had received from God and deserved to lose them for having neglected them as this fault was yet but an omission it might have been expiated by humility and by abasing themselves before God it may be they might have obteined pardon they became Idolaters at unawares and framed vain Idols to themselves out of the workmanship of God This fault was already well grown and the Angel and men were guilty of having turned their eyes from Divine perfections to settle them upon their own advantages yet did they only love those beauties which God had placed in them they might have adored his Image in these Looking-glasses and have returned to the Spring-head by these Rivolets and by these beams have raised themselves up to the Sun but Pride finished their fault they grew proud of Gods favours their vain-glory proceeded from his grace that which should have submitted them to their Creator was cause of their Rebellion and the more they were beholding unto him the lesse were they acknowledging from the times they thought themselves able to reigne without him they would reign in despight of him and as soon as they had raised up a Throne unto themselves they would have Subjects the Angel got a party in heaven he debauched some of his companions hee made slaves of his equals and these excellent Spirits were not ashamed to adore a creature which though it were more elevated was not lesse dependent upon God then were the rest Rebellion did not not withstanding disperse it self throughout all their Orders the number of the faithfull exceeded that of the revolters Michael couragiously opposed himselfe to Lucifer and be it that he made good use of his graces or that he received addition thereunto he kept the greater part of the Angels in their obedience and drove the Rebels from the Empyerean Heaven Man was more absolute in his unjust designe for his sin became the sin of all his off-spring not any one opposed himselfe to his blinde fury those who lived in him and descended from him were guilty of his Rebellion they lost themselves together with their unfortunate Father they suffered for a sin which they could not hinder they found themselves engaged in death before they knew life and wondered that not being reasonable they were already criminall This sin which shed it self like a contagion became the Spring-head of errour in the World The greatest part of Hereticks have withstood it and the pride of Phylosophy wherewith they were puft up would not permit them to confesse a disorder which would have forced them to be humble Catholicks believe it though they conceive it not Faith teacheth them what reason cannot perswade them unto and they care not though they be esteemed ignorant so long as they may be esteemed faithfull They finde by experience that man is become guilty but they know not how he hath contracted this crime they dispute not the maladie but cannot comprehend by what secret wayes the Father hath communicated it to his children and the children have received it from their father This is that which we will examine in the pursuit of this Treatise The fourth Discourse How ADAM'S sin did communicate it self to those that are discended from him IT must be acknowledged that there is nothing more hidden nor any thing more known then Originall Sinne unruly nature is an evident proofe thereof mens wicked inclinations doe sufficiently witnesse it and it 's easily to be conjectured that so unfortunate a creature cannot be innocent But certainly the way how this sin sheds it self through mankinde and passeth from the father into the children is extreamly unknown all that is said of it doth but weakly prove it and after having listned to reason we must betake our selves to the light of Faith Doubtlesse Saint Augustine is he who hath written the worthiest thereupon his proofs are efficacious his discourses solid if he had as well established the beliefe of Originall Sin as that of concupisence all men would be convinced and we might as easily make Phylosophers believe Adam's fault as the irregularity of Nature for all men see that Fathers communicate their diseases to such as do descend from them that the Aethiopians Complexion appears in their childrens visages that there are maladies which are more hereditary in Families then are possessions and that there are men which suffer for their fathers debaucheries we must not wonder if we partake of their diseases since we are composed of their substance and since our bodies are a part of theirs it is easily conceived that
mean expression of his truth and but a false beame of his beauty To know him perfectly we must raise our selves above his workmanship to conceive his greatnesse we must rather oppose it to the creature then cōpare it there with all but concupiscence is the Lively Image of sin we see all the Linaments of the father in the Daughters face and she doth nothing wherein a man may not discerne the motions of the father I know that all our punishments are the pictures of our sins and God would have our Chastizement to be the Image of our offences but to take it aright every punishment expresseth but one only quality of sin the Heat which accompanieth fears represents only it 's immoderate heat to us blindness discovers only it's Ignorance The palsie which takes from us the use of our members figures onely out unto us it 's incapabilty of doing good deafness declares only it's obstinacy unto us and death it self which is sins most rigorous punishment represents to us only the death of the soul and the losse of Grace But Concupiscence is a finisht picture which hath all the Colours and Linaments of sin she hath all its wicked Inclinations is Capable of all its Impressions accomplisheth all it's Designes and this unfortutunate Father can undertake nothing which his daughter is not ready to Execute But one only name not being sufficient to expresse all the wickednesse thereof the Fathers have been fain to invent divers names to decypher out unto us the different effects of a Cause which is as fruitfull as fatall Saint Augustine according to Saint Paul terms her the Law and Counsellor of sin Reason was mans Counsellor and in the state of innocency he undertooke nothing but by her advice when sin had weakned Reason and that the darknesse thereof had Clouded the the luster of it's Eternall light God gave him the written Law for a Counsellor and Ingraved those truths in Marble which he had formerly ingraven in his heart Great men formed no designe before they had Consulted with this visible Law and David with all his illuminations protests that the law of God was the best part of his Councell it was the morall Phylosophers wherin the learn'd vertue it was his Politicks and were he either to Conduct his subjects or to fight his enemies he learnt the knowledge both of peace and war in the mysteries of the Law but the sinner hath no other law then Concupiscence he is advised by one that is blind and unfaithfull he executes nothing without her orders he is brought to this extremity That his Counsellor is Pensioner to his Enemies Reasons self is a slave to this perfidious Officer she sees only through her eys and after having well debated a businesse she forsakes better advice to follow the pernicious Counsell of one that is blind who is absolutely the Devils Purchase and who holds Continuall Intelligence with sin When he is weary of perswading us he Chides us when we have received his advice he signifies his Commands unto us and having deceived us as a perfidious Counsellor he torments us as a merciless Tyrant Counsellours never work upon us but by their Reasons they never make use of violence to oblige us to receive their advice and they oftentimes foregoe their own opinions to receive ours if they think them better but Concupiscence is a furious Officer who makes use of Force when Perswasion will not prevail This Tyrant is more insuportable then those who formerly comanded in Greece whō the Orators of that Country have charg'd with so many just opprobries For these Enemies to mankind exercised their cruelty only upon the body and assubjected to their power only the leastpart of man Whosoever valued not theirown lives might make himself Master of theirs and who feared not death might deride their violence but this Tyrant whereof I speak exerciseth his fury upon the spirits he blots out the remembrance of all vertue from out his memory he darkens the understandingwith his mysts oppresseth the will by his violence and leaveth only a languishing liberty in the souls which he possesseth This Monster which had only the faces of men were not alwaies in the Company of their subjects their absence was a truce of servitude some private Closets were to be found where one might tast the sweet of liberty A man might meet with a freind before whom he might lay his heart open and though freindship had been banished from off the heart Compassion would have made it revive for his Consolation T was in these private Conferences that the death of Tyrants was Conspired the parties safety joyned to the desire of liberty caused the Conception of the designes and the desires of glory put it in execution But Concupiscence never parts from sinners this Tyrant keeps his Court in the midst of their wills he hath raised a throne in their hearts He finds so much of obedience and weaknesse in his slaves as he knows they cannot shake of the yoke of his Tyranny without forreign Ayd these publike plagues could not make themselves be beloved in their states though they left some shadows of Liberty they could not win their subjects Hearts there faults were always repaid with publike Hatred and the Necessity they had to make themselves feared was not the least punishment of their Injustice they grew weary of being the Horror of their people and if they could have made themselves be beloved they would have ceased making themselves feared but their subjects were so Incenst against them as to keep them in respect t was necessary to keep them in awe and since they could not purchase their love to resolve to merit their Hatred but though Concupiscence be the cruellest of all Tyrants yet hath she found the secret of making her self be beloved all her subjects reserues their Loyalty even in persecution they are pleased with the pains they undergoe Torments are not able to make them wish for liberty let them be neuer so ill dealt with all by their unjust Sovereign they never blame his cruelty And though they be the most unfortunate slaves of all the world they cease not to be the faithfullest lovers In fine to put an end to this discourse These Tyrants do not allways vex their subjects with angersome Commands all there decrees are not unjust their polluted mouthes have sometimes pronounced Oracles and the Graecian Phylosophers have registred their words who had bereft them of their liberty the Dionsii made laws which the Politicians reverenced their Ordinances were able to instruct legitimate Princes and they have uttered maximes which may serve us for instructions But all the commands made by Concupiscence are unjust all her orders are sin one cannot obey her without blame and to speak in Saint Augustines language a man cannot follow the motions of Concupiscence without contesting against the motions of grace nor can a man live at full liberty unlesse he
David murmured inwardly seeing the prosperity of sinners Iob complain'd that the good fortune of the wicked was so constant as it accompanied them even to death and Saint Augustine who seems to have sought into all the secrets of Divine justice confesseth that it is no lesse difficult to accord the Power of Grace with mans Liberty then Divine justice with the Prosperity of the wicked This is the scandall of silly souls the wicked mans despair and the rock whereon all those run ship wrack who are not soundly grounded in the Faith of Jesus Christ yet this great Doctor avoucheth two or three maximes which may pacifie the mind of man and which prove cleerly enough that there is no sinner who is not miserable To understand his Doctrine we must know that Punishment and reward go to the making up of one part of the worlds beauty and that as Vertue deserves some Pay sin likewise deserves some Punishment It would be unreasonable if the just man should not be recompenced and Irregular if the guilty should not be punished Divine justice is answerable to these two sorts of men and as the great Tertullian says she is no lesse obliged to Erect Heaven for the good then to make Hell for the wicked that Divine perfection which maintains the order of the world never overthrows this Vertue receiveth always her reward and vice is never exempt from Punishment they do not only follow but accompany one another and as the Epicurians did not believe that delight could be seperated from vertue Saint Augustine did not believe that Punishment could be parted from sin This effect is always found with it's cause and man can no sooner Commit an offence but he presently becomes sensible of the Punishment There is an Eternall law which will have good men happy and the wicked miserable it neither defers reward nor Punishment and without putting off the Punishment to Hell or the reward to Heaven it confers them both on earrh God hath made some laws which alters with the times though he be in himself always the same yet he accommodates himself somtimes to his handy-worke and oft times repeals the Decrees which he hath pronounced but the law which regards vertue and vice is immutable and the ugliness of an offence never goeth without the beauty of Punishment nor doth sin ever enter into a soul but it brings it's reward with it Though this maxime may appear strange yet hath it been approved of by prophane Phylosophy and Seneca acknowledged that man who had sinned could not keep unpunished that his Crime was his Torment and that without having recourse to the revengfull furies he bore about with him his hangman and his sin They therefore deceive themselves who believe that there be any guilty unpunished because they are honoured for though men through base flattery confound vice with vertue though they put a value upon what they ought to dis-esteeme though they raise Altars to those that merit the Gallows though the Heavens seem to favour their designs that Fortune fore-running their desires mounts them upon Thrones and put Crowns upon their Heads yet are they unhappy if wicked and amongst this imaginarie felicity which provokes our Envy they suffer Pains which would move our Compassion if they were as evident as true for if they should suffer no other Torment then to be upon ill Tearms with God are they not sufficiently Miserable and say they should undergo no other losse then that of his Grace should they not be rigorously enough punisht banisht People will admit of no Consolation because they are far distant from their Country though they enjoy their estate though they live under a Temperate Climate though they converse with fair conditioned men they think themselves unhappy in that they breath not the Air of their own Countrey Favourites will not out-live their Masters favours the Magnificence of their Palaces the number of their meniall servants the greatnesse of their offices cannot charme their sorrow they are pleased with nothing because their Prince is offended all their contentments cannot countervail the losse of his Favour and his wrath is a Punishment which all the reasons of Phylosophy cannot sweeten if experience teacheth us that banishment and losse of Favour are Punishments shall we doubt whether he that is not upon good Terms with God be upon bad terms with himselfe or no and can we think him happy who through his own default hath lost the well spring of true Happinesse the sinner then is miserable and if men esteeme them happy amongst so many sufferings It is for that they do not know wherein happinesse consists I looked upon the prosperity of the wicked saith Saint Augustine with indignation I could not tollerate that good luck should accompany them in their ways I could have wished that Divine Justice would have made an example of them and that it would have abased their Pride thereby to appease the murmuring of the Innocent but I did unjustly accuse Divine Providence for it never leaves sinners unpunished and if such as are blind think wicked men happy t is because they know not what happinesse is As mans wickednesse draws on Gods justice and as we conclude he is miserable because sinfull we ought also to argue that he is sinfull because miserable for God is not severe without reason our faults do always precede his Punishments and he took not upon him to be a revenger before we became faulty It is our offences that provoke his justice and he had never let his thunder have fallen on our heads if we had not neglected his Commandements T is one of Saint Augustines Arguments which convinceth the most opinioned and obligeth them to confess that since there is no Injustice in God man must needs be Criminall because miserable for God afflicteh nothing that is Innocent nor ruines not his workmanship without a cause he should injure his own goodnes should his justice punish a man that were not guilty Phylosophers agree in this truth the light of reason hath made us know that Punishment presupposeth sin the Ignorance of our Miseries hath perswaded them that man was punisht on earth for sins that he had committed in heaven that his body was his souls prison and that she was deteined there to expiate the faults which she only had committed Though these be not so pure truths but that they have an intermixture of Errour yet they teach us that sin precedes Punishment and that mans misery doth assuredly witness his offence For what likely-hood is there that Divine Providence would have condemned man to so much misery without a fault wherefore should the body rebell against the soul whereunto it is united Wherefore should man be composed of Parts which cannot agree and why should the workmanship of God be out of order were it not corrupred by the sin of man We must have offended this judge before he have condemned us
rather from Infirmity then malice if her subjects forget their duty they are never the first Authors of disorder the tongues diligence in expressing her thoughts exceedeth belief the eyes makes prodigious hast to bring her news and the ears as lazie as they are are wonderfully faithfull in informing her of what they understand the hands invent a thousand means to content her the five branches whereof they are Composed are the mothers of all Arts and they are so affectionate to their Sovereign as she hath no sooner design'd any thing but these industrious officers do forth-with faithfully execute it Nature would be jealous of their labours did she not know that their Power is boūded and that for all they can do to imitate her they can neither give life nor motion to their workmanship in fine the soul which governs them so dexterously and which seems to foregoe all the other parts of the body to inanimate them loseth half her Power when she hath no hands and this high and mighty Sovereign seems to execute her greatest designs by the means of these faithfull confederates As she is absolute in her servitude she is immortall in her grave and all the atteints which sicknesse gives her cannot trouble her rest if she apprehend Pain t is because the body that she inanimates resents it if she fear death t is because it destroys her Mansion and if she seem to be moved or affraid t is because she loves the slave that would foregoe her the knowledge she hath of her own Immortality makes her rest quiet she takes delight in entertaining her self with thought of the life which must succeed this life she sees far into ages that are to come she ordains things which must not be accomplished till after her departure she is very jealous of her honour and knowing very well that death which will destroy her body shall not ruine her she endeavours to do Actions for which she shall suffer no reproach in the other world her cares which extend themselves beyond the precincts of time are proofs of her Immortality and the Paision she hath for Glory witnesseth that she is not ignorant of the happinesse which is prepared for her in Heaven when the moment wherein she is to make her entrance thereinto approacheth and that she is ready to be divorced from her body she operates with a new strength she sees things with more light all her words are Oracles it seems that freeing her self from Materia she becomes a pure spirit and that having no further Commerce with men she treats invisibly with Angels her last endevours are usually the greatest she gathers strength out of her bodies weaknesse and death destroys her Prison only to set her at liberty she beginsto tast the sweet of Heaven and she looks upon parting from the earth as upon the end of her servitude I should be too tedious if I would perticularize in all the souls advantages the rest of this discourse must be imployed in shewing what out rages she receiveth from sin for as soon as she took up her lodging she became slave to the body she lost her Power when she lost her Innocence when she ceased to obey she ceased to command and as if obedience had been the foundation of all her greatnesse rebellion was the cause of her miseries of all the cognizances whichwere together with Grace infused into her none remain'd in her but doubts and jealousies which makes her as oft embrace fals-hood as truth though she know God she adores the workmanship of his hands her enlightnings detein her not from engaging her self in errour and the great Inclination which she hath for the Summum Bonum doth not estrange her from the love of perishable things she is the Image of God and ceaseth to resemble him she expresseth his greatnesse and doth no longer imitate his vertues she conserves the Trinity of her power in the unity of her essence yet cannot conceive one God in three Persons she makes and Idol unto her self of every Creature all that pleaseth her seem Gods unto her her Interest is the soul of her Religion her love ariseth from fear she adores whatsoever she fears and unlesse the God which she serveth had thunders wherewithall to punish her she would have no victimes to load his Altars withall Her Punishment is the Picture of her offence she meets with rebellion in her slave the conspiracy of all the parts of her body is generall her senses do seduce her Her Passions do torment her her Imagination troubles her and her subjects do despise her she sees her self obliged to encourage their disorders to give life to Rebels which justle her Authority to nourish up monsters which rend her in peices and to arme souldiers which plunder her estate but nothing ads more unto her Pain then the love which she bears her enemy for though he prosecute her she cannot resolve to hate him dares not make War against him without assistance from heaven this Traitor is so full of cunning as he makes himself be beloved by her whom he abuseth she is sensible of all the evils that he endures and as if her pain arose from her love she never ceased to suffer since she began to love him she apprehends her slaves miseries more then her own she fears death more then sin she is more affraid of ruine then of falshood and as if this inclination had changed her Nature she desires no other good nor dreads no other evill then what is sensible Musick charms her discontents Pictures serve her for a diversion she is pleased with smels and the greatest part of her delights consists in what contents her senses by a sequell as shamefull as necessary she is burnt by Feavers pained by the Gout weakened by sicknesse and whatsoever hurteth her body abaseth her courage After the Injuries which she hath received from this domestick enemy It is hard to judge which of the two hath juster cause of complaint for each of them seem to be equally guilty and that the one and the other of them are the mutuall cause of their displeafures In Adam sin arose from the soul but in his Children it draws it's birth from the flesh and in the most part of their errours t is the senses which seduce them Pleasures which corrupt them sorrows which keep them love and passions which tyrannize over them Thus our misfortunes drive equally from these two and if the soul made our first father guilty It is the body which makes his Children unfortunate yet must we avow that the soul is the greater Delinquent in us as well as in him for if she have no freedom to defend her self against Originall sin and if necessity may excuse a misfortune which is not voluntary she is more guilty then the body because she commits so many faults with delight stays not for being solicitated by the senses and that by a blind Impetuosity
to believe that she was yet spirituall This violent though irregular love was occasionally the cause of good and served the soul to free her from the body for Divine Justice which oft times makes us find our Punishment in our faults condemned the soul to forego the body as soon as she began to love it in excesse the same sin which did unite them did by death divide them their Chains grew weaker as their affection strengthened and when the soul had most passions to retein her body she was forced to forsake it for when Originall righteousnesse was retreated the Elements began to mutiny Naturall heat usurped upon the radicall moisture and all these contraries which lived in Peace declared open War Nature was enforced to call in industry to her succour and tooke advice with Physick to appease all her domestick divisions but she knew by experience that losing grace she had lost all remedies and that death was an incurable evill Thus did mans life become a long sicknesse in the which he was for some years preserved by food which could not notwithstanding keepe him from dying his soul was fain to employ her care to defend her self from death and she who by an irregular love was become Corporall by a just punishment became mortall for though the soul be immortall in her substance and that she continues this advantage even in her very sin yet is she punisht in her bodies death she is so well pleased with her Prison as she loves the lothsomness thereof and she is so accustomed to serve as she abhors the very name of Liberty she trembles when one speaks to her of death she makes her fear appear upon the body which she in-animates she weeps through the eyes thereof looks pale in it's visage sighs by it's mouth and in this mutuall suspiration a man cannot tell whether it be the souâ— that is afflicted or the body that complaineth The evill hath it's beginning in the body but passeth into the soul it is the body that perisheth but t is the soul that suffereth the body which is corrupt but the soul which despairs in fine it is upon the body that death exerciseth his cruelty but it is the soul that is pierced through with sorrow This is the bodies death the souls punishment and two guilty parties are punished with one and the same scourge But this bodily death is the effect of a spirituall death which is peculiar to the soul and which though it be invisible ceaseth not to be veritable this death is nothing else but the privation of Originall righteousnesse which commits more outrages upon the soul then natural death doth upon the body for man by losing grace lost all the advantages whereof Grace was the cause he ceased to be upon good Terms with God and began to be upon bad with himself all his Inclinations were changed all his enlightenings darkened and all his faculties out of order he could not conceive how being still himself in appearance he was no longer effectually so and that the fault which had drawn down Gods just anger upon his head had bereft him of all those glorious Qualities which he possessed with Innocency he sought himself out and could not find himself he was ashamed of his bodies nakedness and affraid of his souls misery he could not indure himself when he yet loved himself better by a strange miracle self caused hatred and the same sin which made him proud loaded him with confusion He was sensible of all evils at once and passed in a moment from supreame happinesse to extreame misery we are not sensible of sin because it is born with us we are not touched with the disorders thereof because it fore-runs our reasons Nature and sin are mutually confused in us and nothing doth so much comfort us in our misfortunes as that we have been always unfortunate If we have recourse to Grace in Baptisme t is of so nice a Nature as it is undiscernable and as we continue to find illusions in our senses and revolts in our Passions we have much ado to believe that Grace should reign there where sin doth yet live when by a voluntary offence we lose it we were hardly sorry for the losse of a thing the Possession whereof we are hardly sensible of we must become convinced by reasons before we be perswaded to believe that we are unfortunate preserving in our offence whatsoever we value most in our Innocence we cannot believe that we are faulty for a Phylosopher becomes not ignorant though he lose Grace a Prince though faâ—ulty descends not from his Throne the avaricious rich man augments his Revenue by continuing his usury a proud man loseth not his greatnesse though he lose humility nor doth a fair woman lose her beauty though she stain her honour Our sins bereave us not of our advantages and finding no change neither in fortune nor body we cannot believe that any such hath befaln us in our soul if the same sin whereby we lost Grace had taken from us our health we should strive more to preserve our Innocence and did Crimes cause the same disorder in our conditions as it doth in our souls we should oft times set Phylosophers ignorant Kings without subjects rich men ruined proud men abased and fair women become ill-fauoured but all the losse being spirituall it is insensible and because it leaves us whatever is most precious to us we doubt whether it be true or no. The Pledges of Heaven which Grace giveth unto us the quality of the Children ofâ— God which she obteins for us the dignity of the Temples of the Holy Ghost which she procures us and the honours of being the Members of Jesus Christ which she acquires in our behalf are the advantages which we possesse without being sensible thereof and which we lose without sorrowing Faith is requisite to the knowledge of our souls health and of our losse and unlesse we carefully enquire into our conscience hardly can we know whether we be guilty or innocent but Adam had all miseries poured down at once upon him his losse was not by degrees as ours is it was great at the first and if any advantages remain'd to him after his losse of favour he needed new Grace to make good use thereof he was sadly sensible of the privation because it was generall he was so much the more unfortunate for that his misery succeeded a height of happiness and he had so much the less reason of Comfort for that the fault which bereft him of righteousnes took therewithall from him all that he was thereby indow'd withall his soul found no longer any submission in her body no more faithfullnesse in her senses nor obedience in her Passions she was forced to encourage all their disorders and to give life to Rebels or such as were guilty she felt her self distracted by her own Inclinations and not comprehend how being but one in her Essence she
win Credit by their dangerous leaps memory amuseth her self in reteining things which have no coÌ„nexion and to repeat things in order which have no order in themselves and astonisheth simple people by these vanities which they term her Master-Pieces When all this is done that ancient Writer had reason to say that memory was only usefull to three sorts of people to those who did negotiate who to the end they may not be surprized are obliged to have always all their affairs present to those who speak much for it is memory that furnisheth them with acceptable things which serve for recreation to the Company and to those that use to lye for that to shan the shame which accompanieth that sin they must remember their falshoods on the contrary the default of memory may be of use to us and as wee profit by our losses wee may draw from thence three advantages The first is not to lye lest we be surprized in that sin The second not to speak much but to keep silence out of a happy necessity The third to love our enemies and to practise the excellentest vertue of Christianity by a noble forgetfulnesse of injuries The seventh Discourse That Conscience is neither a good Iudge nor faithfull witnesse since sin THose who pretend that nature is not corrupted by sin and that she remains still in her prrimitive purity have no better proof thereof then what conscience doth furnish them withall for conscience takes alwayes Gods part and never absolveth the guilty 〈◊〉 she is so just as that she condemns her self in her own cause no reasons can justifie us before her Tribunall and let us use what art we please it is impossible to make her approve of our Misdemeanors Phylosophers have also acknowledged that she was both our witnesse Judge and executioner and that such secret sins as are left unpunished by mans justice receive their whole payment from conscience she her self is worth a thousand witnesses Nothing can be hid from her eyes which are never shut she is an ever-waking Dragon and hath such qualities as will not suffer her either to be abased or surprized Witnesses that they may not be accepted against ought to have three conditions The first to be well informed therefore those who have seen are to be prefer'd before those that have heard for the eye is more certain then the eare The second that they speak truth and that they say nothing which they do not think The third that they be rationall and do so calm their passions that neither hatred nor love nor hope nor feare may ever make them disguise the truth Conscience hath all these three qualities for she is well instructed of the fact and nothing passeth in our hearts which she hath not perfect knowledge of she knoweth our most secret thoughts she seeâ—h the end of our intentions and not stopping at our words knoweth the secret motions of our souls It is easiy to cozen men who ground their judgments only upon the change of our countenances they are abused by dissimulation and he that can but counterfeit may easily cozen them but Conscience is our best Counsell nothing is done whereof she is not aware she assists in all our Resolutions and this Sun which never sets doth by her light dissipate all the darknesse of our hearts Hence it is that she is true in all her depositions for she speaks things as she sees them she cannot be deceived nor can she lye disguises are so contrary to her Nature as she ceaseth to be her self when she bâ—gins to feign Her Essence consists of Truth and though she may fall into errour the cannot fall into a lye In fine she is so rationall as she is not to be troubled or seduced by passion she is a derivative of that primitive reason which we adore in God a copy of that Divine Originall a beam of that Sun which is never Eclipsed and they are so streightly joyned together as Saint Augustine doth mix their lights and makes but one Deposition of the Testimony of God and of conscience How miserable are they who set at naught so faithfull a witnesse for what satisfaction can those men have who want the Peace of Conscience to what purpose doth Publique applause serve when secret approach gives it the lye what advantage can they pretend too from the peoples approbation if they condemn themselves And what Happiness can they enjoy if whilst others praise their false Vertues they be inforced to blame their reall sins This Faithfull witnesse is a severe Judge which can neither be bribed by presents nor frightned by threats and who being allwayes Innocent never spare the guilty All his decrees are just and though the guilty be his Allyes he forbears not to condemn them Whatsoever favour they may obtein from other Judges they can never be absolved by this and whilst their Mouth pleads for them their consciences condemns them And truly we ought to thank Divine Providence for having given us this uncorruptible Judge to keep sinners within the bounds of duty for there are faults which escape the rigour of the Law and which being unknown are unpunished there are sins which being glorious ones are rewarded there be some who being Authorized despise correction so as our condition had been very deplorable if Conscience had not tane the place of Laws and if she had not condemned that which men dare not blame nor cannot Punish In fine this Judge becomes an executioner and after having denounced judgment he himself doth execute it he believes that if it be glorious to condemn sin it s no dishonour to punish it whatsoever tends to the defence of vertue and pulling down of vice seems glorious unto him and the names of Judge and Executioner are equally honourable to him True it is that he useth not this rigour till he imploy'd his harmlesse cunning to frighten the faulty For Conscience is a bridle which holds men within their duty before sin but when once they began to despise her Counsell she became their Punishment and being no longer able to keep back sin she endeavours to punishit T is a revengefull fury which never suffers the wicked to rest in quiet she assails them in towns and in deserts she declares war unto them in the midst of their palaces where danger can get no entrance thither she sends fear into whatsoever Sanctuary sinners retire themselves she makes them feel the smart of their offences when they see any punishments they apprehend what they themselves have deserved as oft as they feel the earth-quake under their feet or the thunder roar above their heads they imagine justice is armed to punish them In fine all their sweets are mingled with some sowres they can take delight in nothing remorse of conscience troubles their contentments they tremble amidst their Armies they are afflicted in publick rejoycings they languish in their best health are poor amidst
torments Uncleannesse lights her Torches at the eyes to consume the heart she would be weak were she not assisted by these faithfull officers she undertakes nothing but by their looks and before she imployes the hand to write or the mouth to speak she hath already made use of the eyes to expresse her designes In fine the eye is so guilty as the wise Man findes nothing more pernitious he wisheth to be blinde that he might purchase innocencie and he leaves in dispute whether Pestilence and War or the sight be cause of greater Mischief As hearing contends with it for worth so may it do for wickednesse and it must be granted that the good and bad which we receive thereby are equally considerabâ—e t is the sense which is most peculiar to the understanding and which Nature and Religion seems to have addicted to the knowledge of the Highest Truthes Nature makes use thereof to learn sciences she knows generall things onely by the ears and those who are deaf remain Ignorant much longer than those that are blinde Religion makes use of it to insinuate faith into the soul of all our senses t is the only one which is faithfull to her all the rest withstand faith and meet with difficulties which offend them Hearing is more credulous and more rationall its affinity with the understanding makes it capable of the wonders of Christianity and the great Apostle confesseth that Faith enters the Soul by the ears Passions themselves are obedient to it and these unruly Subjects which countenance the Empire of reason obey the Empire of the care t is by it that Commanders incourage their Souldiers to Battle t is by it that Orators oppease incensed people t is by it that Philosophers perswade their Disciples t is by it that Polititians instruct Princes and make Conquerours undertake gallant actions eloquence which works such wonders in the world owes all her might to hearing she languisheth upon paper when by the eyes she glides into the Soul she looseth half her force but she bereaves us of our liberty where she insinuates her self by the ears and a man must be either stupid or opinionated if he resist reasons which are pleasingly conveyed into the understanding by handsome discourse For all the praises are given to a sense so requisite to science and Religion it ceaseth not to have it's faults and to bear the characters of sin It is a slave to superstition and errour it makes hereticks as well as true believers and 't is the part by which the Serpents perswasions entred our first mothers soule The poison which is poured in by the eare is much more dangerous than that which is taken in by the mouth and the soule is more easily corrupted by hearing than by seeing All vertues are endangered when set upon in this place and there is not one of them which is not extreamly threatned when the vice which is it's enemy will make it come forth by the part by which it entred 't is by it that idle discourse undertakes chastity 't is by it that errour triumphs over truth 't is by it that calumny oppresseth innocency 't is by it that blasphemy doth spread abroad it's contagion 't is in fine by it that the devill drives out Jesus Christ and possesseth himselfe of the Throne which he had raised up in our hearts So as 't is not without good reason that the wise man counselleth us to hedge in our eares with thornes and carefully to lock up a gate by which falshood heresie and impiety do confusedly get into our soules And 't is not without cause that we declare that if the whole body be infected by sin the eare is the part most dangerously corrupted The fourth Discourse That the Passions are fickle or wilde IF man were a meer spirit he should have no passions nor should his rest be ever troubled by these motions of the sensible soule Angels which have no commerce with flesh and bloud have one of these changes if they desire any thing that is good they languish not for it if they punish a fault they are not transported with choler and if they assist us in our misery they are not touched with compassion whence I conclude that passions proceed from the soules marriage with the body and that it is as naturall for a man to hope and feare to love and hate to rejoyce and to be sorry as to eate and drink or to wake and sleep Since nature doth nothing without a reason man reapes some advantage by his passions and meets with a thousand occasions wherein he may make good use of them Desire is the soules course and she seems to command this nimble heeled passion to put her in possession of what she loves Hope comes in to the succour of desire and promiseth her such good successe as she resolves to make her way through all difficulties which oppose her designes If hope meet with more opposition then she imagined she calls in courage to her aid which by her valour purchaseth her the enjoyment of what she had long wished for Such passions as are opposite to these serves the soule to keep aloofe from what she apprehends Fear is her flight she doth her utmost to keep her enemy off though she be timerous she mingleth her selfe with hope to effect her designes and imployes boldnesse to overcome such dangers as threaten her if her strength be too weak she falls insensibly into despair and giving way to griefe doth of necessity become unhappy Somtimes she assumes courage in her disasters sollicited by hatred animated by desire and incouraged by despair she gets the better of the enemy which possesseth her and findes by experience that somtimes to be happy a man must have been miserable These passions have so much affinity with vertue as let but never so little care be taken in husbanding them they may become vertuous Fear is serviceable to wisdome wise men are always timerous good successe always their apprehension and prosperity which makes others insolent makes Polititians modest The Tragedian makes Agamemnon from the ruine of Troy apprehend the like of Sparta his victory causeth his diffidency and the Poet who will make this Prince a perfect Polititian seems to have grafted his wisdome onely upon fear Audacity is a naturall fortitude a man must be couragious to be valiant this vertue is no lesse a work of nature than of morality and unlesse a mans constitution contribute towards his generosity Philosophy with all her counsell will hardly make him seek out an honourable death That which is said of Poets ought to be affirmed of all vertuous men as these cannot be famous in their profession unlesse they be borne of that heat which is the soule of Poesy these cannot be valiant unlesse they be born with that generous heat which desplseth dangers and which boasteth in the losse of life when glory is won thereby Anger doth somwhat
resemble justice the one and the other of them will punish faults and if the former be not better regulated in the revenge which she takes for injuries 't is because she is blinde and that self-love whereby she is guided makes her commit excesse Sorrow and griefe are happy servants to repentance they mixt their tears together to bewaile one and the same sin and the contrition of a guilty person is the joynt work of nature and grace As to be faithfull a man must be rationall so to be penitent a man must be afflicted and God will have passion to conspire with reason in repentance to the end that the two parts whereof man is composed may satisfie justice In fine all the motions of the sensitive soule seem so addicted to good as some of them cannot forgoe it's party pitty is always praise-worthy and the compassion of anothers evill which she imprints in the heart is so just that the very Barbarians cannot condemne it the indignation which we conceive for the misery of the good and for the prosperity of the wicked is a naturall justice which hath not yet met with a censure rigid enough to blame it The shame which makes us blush at our advantages or our defaults doth look so like modesty as their Interests are inseparable she serves for an ornament to vertue and for an expiation to sin be it that her Father be infamous or her mother glorious the daughter is always equally honourable and if a man be too blame in having committed sin he is to be praised in witnessing his shame for having committed it But let Philosophers be as carefull as she pleaseth in praising of our passions they have lost their innocency since nature hath lost her purity The justest of them are irregular and those which seem to side with vertue are slaves to sin their first motions are out of our power let us take what care we can to reduce them to their duty they get on wing without our leave they are subjects to whom rebellion is naturall wilde beasts which are never tamed and faithlesse souldiers which fight oftner in the behalf of vice than of vertue The Saints think themselves happy when after much ado they can overcome one of these domestick Enemies their life is not long enough to assubject them totally and when they think to have overcome them they finde that like Anteus in the Fable they draw strength from their weaknesse and courage from their defeats there is no passion in man which doth not set upon some vertues oft-times they conspire together to fight against them They reconcile their own differences that they may ruine them and as the Elements use violence upon their qualities to preserve nature these force their inclinations to destroy her Their peace is more fatall to us than war we know not that whether they be more to be dreaded when they adopt themselves to our humours or when they oppose our desires The best of them the state considered wherein they are put by sin are almost always irregular the most innocent of them seem to be somwhat criminall and those which men mix with the vertues have always some affinity with vice the greatest part of their motions are violent unlesse they be reformed to grace and whatsoever advantage morality may promise unto her selfe by them she findes by her experience that it is never good sporting with a wilde beast though it appear never so tame Naturall pity is almost always unjust she considereth the pain but not the offence she would break open prison to let murtherers loose and guilty men cease to be odious to her if once they become miserable Indignation is not much more just than pity she complaines of the prosperity of the wicked and of the good mans adversity onely because she knows not that riches and honours are not the true rewards of vertue and that shame and poverty are not the true punishments of sin She is onely severe because she is blinde she would not condemne the secrets of Gods providence if she were conversant with the laws of justice and mercy Shame is alwayes mixt with sin if sin be not the cause thereof it is the occasion And of as many guilty people as seem shamefull there are but few which do not more fear the dishonour than the offence It is very hard in the condition whereunto sin hath reduced us for the passions to be serviceable to us without grace since nature is become our punishment they are become our executioners they serve for Ministers to Gods Justice to revenge his goodnesse upon our offences they must be subject to charity if we will reap any profit by them and if the greatest part of mens vertues be sins without faith the greatest part of their passions are disorders without grace they are not to be safely guided by morality without Religion their unrulinesse surpasseth her addresse and as there are certain storms which passe the Pilots skill there are revolts in man which exceed reason They say that Bees have some shadow of Policie in their Government they chuse a King whose wil they reverence they fight for his Glory and shew as much courage in War as industry in Peace They suck the juyce of flowers without tarnishing their Colours they rob Gardens without disaraying them and with the same sting wherewith they fight against their enemies they make their hives and gather their hony This handsome order endures no longer then doth their Kings life for as soon as he is dead they give over working betake themselves to parties conspire one against another having no King to keep them within their bounds they divide their state Whilest innocencie made reason rul'd in Man the passions were peaceable all their motions were regular anger committed no injustice all its Decrees were equitable and the measure of the offence was alwaies the rule of punishment hatred set onely upon sin and love betook himself wholly to vertue every passion plotted the publike good but since originall righteousnesse hath forsaken Reason and that man being but half himself hath ceased to be the perfect Image of God his passions have despised his Empire his Subjects have revolted and losing the respect which he ought to God he hath lost the authority which he had in his own person Profane Philosophy which saw the effects of a cause whereof she was ignorant sought for a remedie though without successe She laughed at those who would destroy the passions as knowing that they were naturall to men she invented some vertues to guide them forming unto her self a Continencie to moderate pleasures a fortitude to withstand sorrow a wisdom to regulate accidents and a Justice to decide the differentes between the Body and the Soul she thought to have quieted all their disorder and to have revived innocency in the world but when she saw how weak these vertues were despaire made her arm mutineeres
pass amongst them as deities and the lovers of beauty were the first Idolaters The command which she exerciseth over men is so powerfull and so pleasing as they are pleased with the losse of their liberty and contrary to the humour of slaves they love their Irons and cherish their prisons could Kings use this art to make themselues be obeyed they should never know what revolts were and all their subjects being their well-wishers they would be absolute without violence rich without imposts and saâ—e without Citadels Thus when the Sonne of God would reign amongst men he wonne their hearts rather by his comlinesse then by his power and he used clemency oftner then justice to reduce his Enemies to their duty consecrated beauty in his person when he took our Nature upon him though he assumed the pain of sin he would not assume the uglinesse thereof and as there was no ignorance in his soul so was there no deformity in his body There was but one Heretique who mis-interpreting the words of a Prophet imagined that Jesus Christ was deformed but tradition upheld by reason teacheth us that he was beautifull without art that the Holy Ghost who formed his body in the Virgins womb would have it adorned with comlinesse and that nothing might be wanting to his workmanship he exceeded men in this advantage as well as in all others His very Types in the old testament were all comely Solomon and David the one of which represented his victories the other his Triumphs were both of them famous for their beauty Nature seemed as if she would picture forth in them the Messias to satisfie the just desires of those who could not see him The Angels took upon them his visage when they treated with the Prophets whilest they spoke in his name they would appeare in his form Abraham saw him in that Glory wherein he appeared on Mount Tabor and numbred this vision amongst the chiefest favours he had received from Heaven Iacob had the honour to see him in the person of that Angell which wrestled with him before the break of day the three Children which were thrown into the fiery furnace saw him amidst the flames his presence freed them from fear they found paradise in the picture of Hell and that Angell which bore the visage of Jesus Christ broke their Irons in pieces preserved their vestures and punished their Enemies In fine Jesus Christ lost not his lovelinesse till he lost his life the Luster of his countenance was not effaced till by buffetting his face grew not pale till by stripes and he lost not that Majesty which infused respect into his Enemies till the bloud which distild from his wounds had made him an object of compassion and horrour In fine beauty is so amiable as her enemy is odious all the Monsters whereby the world receives dishonour are composed of uglinesse 'T is an effect of sin which corrupts the workmanship of God had there been no l sinner there had been no deformed Creature Grace and beauty were inseparable in the estate of originall righteousnesse Nothing was seen in the Terrestiall paradise which offended the eies all things were pleasing there because all things there were innocent There was no deformity known in the world till after sin Il-favourednesse is the daughter and the picture of sin and 't is a piece of injustice to hate the copy and to love the originall Albeit these reasons oblige us to reverence beauty where accompanied with Innocency yet have we as much and as just cause to fear her since she is mingled with impurity For sin hath left nothing in nature uncorrupted this Monster is pleased in setting upon the most Glorious works of nature and knowing that their chiefest ornament lay in their beauty hath pickt out her more perticularly to discharge it's fury upon There are none of nature works now which have not some notable defaults Did not love make men blind he could never make them in love did he not hide from them their imperfections whom they love he should not see so many souldiers fight under his colours and had he not taught women the secret how to imbellish themselves Impurity would have long since been banisht from off the earth The famousest beauties have their blemishes those who are not blind observe their defects had Helen of Greece lived in these our dayes the Poet who put such an esteem upon her would be found to be a lyer and a blind man but say that Nature should make a Master-piece indeed and that Paridoras fable should prove a true story her beauty would notwithstanding be contemptible since she could not grow old and keep it this advantage is so frail as it cannot long continue it is so soon gone as it rather seems a dream then a truth let women take what care they please to preserve it it will vanish from of their faces and when they shall see themselves in a glasse they will have much ado to perswade themselves that ever they were handsome All accidents have some power over beauty Time is as well her murtherer as her producer it effaceth all her glory tarnisheth her roses and Lillies and doth so alter the Godliest workmanship of nature as it maketh horrour and compassion arise in the same hearts which it had struck with love and envy 'T is not death but old age which triumphs over this perfection in women if they grow old they are sure to grow ugly the prolongation of their life diminisheth their beauty and they cannot live long but they must see that die which they loved dearer than their lives In the state of innocency old age would not have injured beauty the food which repaired nature maintained the good liking thereof men lived long and grew not old as death did not put a period to life neither did oldage weaken it the body was as strong at a hundred year old as at forty Beauty was then somwhat durable time bore respect to this quality and divine Justice which found no faults to punish did not punish women with the fear of old age or hard-favourednesse But now this fear is part of their punishment they are compelled to wish to die young if they will not dye ugly and thus divided in their apprehensions they desire to live yet fear to grow old Time is not beauties onely enemy the injuries which accompany it wage war against her and all the evils which we suffer through sin assaile this fraile perfection The mil-dew causeth defluxions which are prejudiciall to her the unseasonablenesse of seasons are averse unto her cold chils her and keeping back the bloud defaceth the vivacity of her complexion heat doth sun-burn her and that constellation which makes lillies white darkens the countenances of women Sicknesses do not so soon alter the temper as they do the tincture and the out-rages which they commit upon the welfare or good liking of the body are
it in the flower of their youth and revenged themselves upon their own countenances for the unchast thoughts which they without design had caused they never appeared in publick unvailed they sentenced themselves not to see that they might not be seen very well knowing that these two faults proceed from the same principle They would not cause love for fear of receiving it they were so scrupnlous as they thought their chastity blemisht by mens eyes that as fruits lose their verdure if once toucht a woman lost her chastity if once seen and that since adultery begins by the eyes sight was as much to be shun'd as touching they remembred that their beauty was cause of scandall in Heaven and interpreting the Scripture according to the letter they feared to cause love in men since they imagined their mothers had done the like in Angels In fine these chast women did sufficiently witnes by their negligence how much they undervalued their beauty for sackcloth was their habit ashes the powder with which they perfumed their heads the white of innocency and red of shamefac'tnesse was the paint they used modesty did give life to all their actions and thus adorned they had Jesus Christ for their lover If the example of these famous women cannot reform the disorder of those of our age yet ought they at least to think that beauty is no lesse dangerous to those that possesse it than to those that covet it that it is exposed to temptations and environed with scandals that if it be not the cause of sin it is the occasion thereof and that if it do not form bad desires it is at least unfortunate in causing them This effect is so ordinary to beauty as the Fathers of the Church make the contrary pass for a miracle for if the comlinesse of the Virgine Mary infused good thoughts if her countenance inspired chast desires and if her eyes the tears whereof did propagate our souls health did raise mens souls to God t' was rather an effect of Grace then of Nature and as her Innocency was a priviledge wherewith the heavens would honour her purity the sense of piety which she inspired into mens hearts was a favour wherewith they would advantage her beauty Other saints did not deserve to obtein so much though nothing was so precious to them as their chastity they perceived nevertheless that their countenances caused sometimes unchast thoughts that flames iâ—hued from their eyes which against their wils set mens hearts on fire and that though their bodies were consecrated to Jesus Christ yet did they not cease to be pleasing in the eyes of his enemies Therefore did they revenge the faults of others upon themselves they sentenced their mouth to moanes their eyes to tears and their heart to sighs they did penance for a sin which they never committed and to the end that Gods justice might be satisfied they punished the innocent for the guilty some of them were so generous as they pul'd out their own eyes not being able to resolve to keep one part of their body which without their consent had been cause of unchastity If the beauty of unpolluted souls be so dangerous we must not wonder if the like in lost women be so pernitious and that the Devil makes use thereof to corrupt the mightiest men For women is a fatall Instrument in the Devils hands he is never more to be feared then when assisted by this fatall second If he undid Adam by Eves cunning if he made so many wounds with one blow and if by one single combat he got so many victories 't was because our first mother held Intelligence with him if he cannot tire out Iob's patience by the losse of his goods and his children he hath recourse to his wife speaking through her mouth he endevours to make him despair and to perswade him under pretence of compassion to end his unhappy life by an honourable death but of all women the handsomest are properest for his designs and when a singular beauty serves him for Organ or Interpreter he is almost sure to overcome those he assails By Dalila's charms he triumphed over Sampsons c strength by the allurements of Bathsheba he engaged David in adultery and in murther by the idle discourse of a handsome stranger he perswaded the wisest of all Kings to offer up incense to the workmanship of his hands he rob'd him of his wisdome by depriving him of his continency and to execute so great a designe he onely used the countenance of a Pagan Princesse But he never appeared more powerfull then when he set upon the whole Army of the Israelites and when in a moment he made it unchaste and idolatrous This wicked spirit had to no purpose armed the Midianites against the Iews all their endeavours proved vain though their numbers were greater and their souldiers better warriours they were ever either repulst or beaten the very names of Israelites wan battells the glittering of their Arms routed their enemies and the Elements anticipating the valour of these Conquerours did most commonly begin the battell So many bad successes made the Devill have recourse to his old tricks He commanded his partners by the mouth of a faithless Prophet to set upon those with women whom he could not overcome by men and to make use of beauty where strength was bootlesse Obeying this his counsell they placed before their Battalions a troop of loose women who carrying looking glasses and Idols in their hands invited the Israelites at one and the same time to lose their continence and to forgoe their religion This wile was of so great power that the Army in whose favour the heavens had done so many miracles doth adore these women and their idols they forget their duty to obey their love and renounce their faith to satisfie their lust He still useth the same cunning he corrupts Christians as he did the Israelites and the beauty of women is the smallest temptation wherewith he astonisht the courage of men A handsome woman is the Courts plague after she hath once resolved to bereave hearts and to have servants she purchaseth as many subjects to the devill as she deprives Christ Jesus off After once she hath resolved to hazard the reputation of an honest woman to purchase the name of a stately dame she turnes to be a false Diety to which all unchaste people offer incense an Idoll which makes more Idolatours than impiety makes Libertines a contagion which being taken in by all the senses sweeps away more men than the plague doth consuming fire which heats whatsoever it comes nigh and burns all that it toucheth a Monster which being the more dangerous by how much the more pleasing scatters abroad impurity wheresoever it passeth and which commit murthers and adulteries by all the parts of it's body Her looks undo men the flames which proceed from her eyes reduce soules to ashes her words bewitch those that hear
them she inthrals the heart by the ears and whosoever doth not use Ulysses his harmles cunning indangers the losse of liberty Her hair is a net wherein Lyons and Tygers are taken her strength like that of Sampson lies in her weaknesse she imployes onely these weak arms to overcome the couragious and makes use onely of these small threads to stop the course of the most unconstant The lillies when on her face lose their purity and the innocent rose becomes guilty upon her cheeks and as the spider makes her poyson of the best things she composeth the venome wherewith she infects souls of the fairest flowers Modesty and Majesty which else where defend vertue do corrupt it in the person of a handsome woman and these two advantages which makes her beauty the more powerfull make it also the more dangerous her very gate is not without affectation and fault her studied steps have a certain becomingness which is fatall to those that behold them each pace steals a heart from some of her servants and doing nothing without design she either wounds or kils those indiscreet ones which approach her In fine beauty is so pernicious as God himself who extracts Grace from sin makes use thereof onely to punish his Enemies it is more dreadfull in his hands then thunder and he hath tane more vengeance by womens allurements then by the arms of souldiers He ruin'd Hamans fortunes by Hesters countenance the gracefull demeanor which he indued her withall made Ahasuerus condemn his Favorite and the death of this insolent enemy of the Iews is not so much an effect of Mordecais wisedom as of his Nieces beauty God chose out a widow to slay Holofernes he obteined two victories over this Conqueror by the means of one onely woman he took his heart from him by her eyes and his head by her hands he made first use of her beauty then of her courage and would have the Assyrians defeat to begin by love and end by murther Thus are handsome women the Ministers of Gods fury he imploys Hesters and Iudeths as souldiers to revenge his quarrels and beauty which causeth impurity doth oft-times punish it We see no faults in the creature from whence God draws not some advantage our weaknesse is the cause of our penitency if we cannot alter we cannot repent and if we had the constancy of Angels we might have the opiniatricy of Devils Our offences serve to humble us and the proudest spirits cannot think upon their sins without confusion Concupiscence which is one of the originals of our disorders is one of the foundations of Grace Adams sin fastens us to Jesus Christ and the miseries which we suffer under make us have recourse to divine Mercy But beauty seems onely proper to seduce sinners if she be not serviceable to Gods justice she is serviceable to the Devils malice and causeth Murthers when she cannot produce Adulteries Of all the perfections of man this is the onely one which Jesus Christ would not imploy to save souls He imployed the eloquence of Orators to perswade Infidels he made use of the doctrine of Philosophers to convince the ignorant he useth the power of Kings to reduce rebels and he imployes the wisedome of Politicians to govern states but he rejects beauty and judging her to hold Intelligence with his enemy he never makes use thereof but to undo sinners The beauty of those Virgins which were consecrated to him converted no Infidels the innocent allurements of the Lucia's and Agneses were of no use to the establishment of our Religion there modest countenances forbore not to kindle impure flames and if their executioners were toucht to see their constancy their beauty set Tyrants hearts on fire Gods beauty is then that which can onely securely beloved t is that that we ought to sigh all other desires are unjust Whosoever betakes himself to the beauty of Creatures revives idolatry erecting an Altar in his heart he offers Sacrifice to the chief Diety which he adores where he himself is both the Priest and Sacrifice The beauty of the creature ought not to be looked upon otherwise then as that of a picture which we value either for the persons sake whom it represents or for the painters hand that drew it He who exceeds these bounds Commits ungodlinesse and who doth not elevate his love to the first and chiefest beauty of which all others are but weak copies is either ignorant or impious If the beauty of the first Angel have made Apostates and if the love which it occasioned in the hearts of those pure spirits made them idolators what may we expect from a beauty which being engaged in the flesh and in sin produceth onely wicked desires Those who have fallen into this disorder must repent themselves with Saint Austin To repair their outrages done to th beauty of God by their infidelity they must afflict themselves for having so late known him And to make amends for their losse of time and losse of love they must labour to love him with more fervencie and to serve him with more constancie The seventh Discourse That the life of man is short and miserable T Is strange yet true that man having changed his condition hath not changed his desires and that he wisheth the same thing in his state of sin as he did in his innocency For that strong passion which he had for glory is but the remainder of that just desire which he had to command over all creatures his indeavouring to enlarge the bounds of his Empire tends onely to recover what he possessed before his revolt the pleasure which he seeks after in all his pastimes is grounded upon the remembrance of his former felicity Those riches which he accumulates with so much labour and preserves with so much care witnesse his sorrow for being fallen from his aboundance and the extream desire which he hath to prolong his life is a testimony that he as yet aspires after immortallity Yet hath not life those Charms which made it so amiable the longest is but short the sweetest but full of troubles and the most assured uncertain and doubtfull For since the soul ceased to be upon good tearms with God the body ceased to correspond fairly with the Soul Though they go to the composure of the same Integrall they cannot indure one another their love is mixt with hatred and these two lovers have alwayes somewhat of 〈◊〉 which makes them not agree The cords wherewith they are joyned together are so weakened as the least accident is sufficient to break them that whereof man is composed may destroy him the very things without the which he cannot live make him die rest and labour are equally prejudiciall to him his temper is altered by watching and by sleep when either are immoderate the nourishment which susteines him suffocates him and he fears abundance as much as want his soul seems as if she were borrowed and that she is onely
thunder should never roar over our heads and though the sea should never exceed her bounds the elements which we bear about us would notwithstanding condemne us to death Death is so a punishment as it is also a consequence of our constitution Whatsoever is composed of contrarieties can not subsist without miracle and when the contrary parties do no longer agree their division must be the ruine of what they compose Mans immortality in the state of innocency was not an effect of nature he lost this priviledge as soon as he lost his righteousnesse and experience taught him that nature without grace could not keep him from death He should then be unjust if he should complain of a mis-fortune which is in some sort naturall unto him and he might justly be accused of too much nicety if he should not patiently endure a punishment which he could not escape without a kind of Miracle But I dare adde that death is rather a favour than a punishment and that in the estate whereinto sin hath reduced man it is not so much a mark of justice as of mercy the evils which we undergo considered to live eternally would be eternall misery earth would become hell and the continuance of our torments would make us wish death which is not dreadfull save to those abused soules which think themselves happy The miserable desire it and as death to one who lives contentedly is a punishment so is life to him who lives discontentedly Cain desired to die had not the heavens prolonged his life to punish his parricide he had prevented Lamechs cruelty and after having been his brothers murtherer he would have been his own hangman Poets who cloke truths under fables have not without reason fained nature to have invented death to oblige her children for seeing that their offence had incensed heaven that their life became a misery that fortune intrencht upon their goods calumny upon their innocency and sicknesse upon their health that the fever burnt up their entrails by unsupportable heat that the gout stung their nerves and that they lived not but in fear and sorrow she broke the cords wherewith the soul was fastned to the body and ended their lives to shorten their miseries To leave fables to Infidels is it not a constant truth amongst Christians that life would be an eternall punishment did not death come in to the succour of old age to deliver us from it and that we should pray to go out of the world if we were condemned to live there after we had lost the use of our members by the palsey and were grown blinde and deaf Hell is onely more cruell than earth for that death is banisht thence if the pains of the damned could have an end they should losâ— the greatest part of their rigour and those miserable ones would finde some ease in their sufferings if after many ages they were assured to die nothing makes them despair but that eternity of their punishment and nothing doth so much comfort men as the shortnesse of their tortures Tyrants who unjustly endeavour to imitate God in justice complain that death freed their enemies from their indignation and that by assisting the miserable it hindred their designes for they very well knew that he knows not how to revenge himselfe of his enemy who puts him suddainly to death and that those who will taste the pleasure of revenge never condemne a guilty man to die till he be re-possessed of their favour In fine there are few who owe not thanks to death Those who fear him in prosperity invoke him in adversity those who shun him in opulency seek him out in poverty and those who list not to know his name in health call upon him in sicknesse He is the onely cure of the incurable the assured succour of the afflicted the desire and hope of the miserable and of as many as implore his succour there are none more obliged unto him than those whose miseries and desires he preveneth Though these thoughts may seem uncouth to those who love life they cease not to be approved of by Christianity and to passe for truth amongst the faithfull If death be rigorous because he is the punishment of sin he is pleasing because he is the childe of the Crosse he hath changed nature since he was consecrated in the Person of Jesus Christ he hath forgone those dreadfull names which caused terrour to assume those pleasing ones which bring consolation He is onely asleep which charms our disquiets a passage which leads us unto life a happy shipwrack which throws us into the haven an enemy which takes us out of prison a Tyrant which breaks our chains and a son of sin which furnisheth us with weapons wherewithall to fight with and to overcome his Father In the state of innocency death was a punishment wherewith divine Justice did threaten man in the state of sin it was a chastisement wherewith she did punish the faulty and in the state of grace 't is a sacrifice which she requires at our hands and whereby she is appeased Formerly to astonish man he was told if thou sinnest thou shalt die and now to fortifie him in persecution it is said unto him if thou dost not die thou shalt sin death which was a punishment is become a victime and the sinners chastisement is become the merit of the just The Son of God hath thus instructed us by his example when he would fight with sin he took up no other arms than death he thought the victory would be more honourable wherein he should employ the son against the father and where he should make use of the effect to destroy the cause this is that which the great Apostle teacheth us in these words where he saith that the Son of God hath overcome sin by sin and that in the punishment of our offence he hath found a remedy to cure us Fictitious Hercules vaunts himselfe amongst the Poets to have overcome Monsters by other Monsters to have made himselfe weapons by their spoils and to have ended his last labours by the help of what he had purchased in the former This fable of Hercules is become a truth in Jesus Christ and the Gospell obligeth us to acknowledge that in the death of God which falshood had found out in the life of man For he by dying hath satisfied his Father he hath destroyed sin by it's Son he hath saved the sinner by his punishment Religion bindes us to confesse that death is the rise of our happinesse that it is the Christians vow that without being miserable they rejoyce in being mottall and that they should want somewhat of their glory if since Jesus Christ did lose his life upon the Crosse they were to ascend to Heaven without dying they live with pain they die with pleasure and to describe a true Christian according to Tertullians language we must say that they are a sort of men
he knew by the disorders which he found in himselfe that obedience of the soul caused obedience in the body and that the revolt of the one arose from the like of the other Since this fatall hour man had shame mingled with his delights those which are most requisite are most shamefull those delights by which the world is preserved are infamous those which withstand death and make amends for the havock he makes in families require solitude and darknesse Man hides himselfe to re-produce himselfe marriage which is holy in it's Institution and sacred in it's type is shamefull in it's use nor hath the necessity which doth authorize it been able to take away the shame which doth accompany it Mans death is more honourable than his birth they glory in murder though it be unjust and are ashamed of marriage though it be lawfull Open Champions are the Theaters whereon battels are fought these fatall and bloudy actions are done at noon day they are made famous and publique by the beating of drums and sound of Trumpets all men are called in to assist in the routing of an Army the Conquerours ground their renown upon the number of the enemy that are left dead in the place and that which is termed a Triumph is the reward of an hundred thousand murders but mans birth is shamefull this guilty party steals into the world Solitarinesse and obscurity are destined for his production and nature makes him suspect that his conception is criminall since 't is infamous I very well know that a modern Authour hath imputed this shame to mans fantasticknesse that he hath endeavoured effrontedly to maintain that that ought not to be esteemed shamefull that was naturall that amongst Philosophers the production of man was esteemed honourable and that the Art which instructeth how to murder was as infamous as unjust but this Authour who never had other guide than nature no religion but libertinisme no faith but experience nor other felicity then the delight of the sense had not fallen into this errour if he would have consulted the holy Scripture he might there have learnt that shame was born together with sin that nakednesse accompanied innocency and that man did not abhor himselfe till he became sinfull If he commit murder with impunity if he boast of fighting if he be not pleased in the glory thereof save when it is bloudy 't is because sin hath corrupted his reason and that engaging him in cruelty it hath made him turn beast But not to engage my self in seeking out the cause of so strange a disorder which seem to countenance murther and to place mans glory in the destruction of his like 't will suffice to know that shame is the punishment of sin and that nakednesse was banished from off the earth together with innocence Man could not consider his bodies revolt without confusion he was troubled to see that he who was so absolute in the world was now no longer so in his own person and that he who commanded over savage beasts could not commmand the moyetie of himself 'T is argued against this truth that the Barbarians continue their going naked though they have lost their innocency that shame hath not been able to make them cloth themselves and that nature which is equall in all nations hath not imprinted in them that resentment of shame which makes even the most affronted to cover themselves and to carry this their argumentation higher and to give it all the strength they can they say that these people discovered of late are not polluted with originall sin since shame which is the punishment thereof hath not as yet appeared in their faces They laugh at our apparell and their climats being much more hot then ours they are contented with such clothing as nature hath given them and they leave us in doubt whether shame be a punishment of sin or no since they being as well faulty as we they are either lesse ashamed or more affronted To answer this objection we must suppose that shame which is a punishment of our sin is also a remainder of our innocency that Adam who lost grace lost not reason that that light of nature which remained to him in his obscurity was sufficient to make him distinguish between good bad and to make him abhorre that which contradicted seemlinesse Though he endevoured to excuse his fault he observed the disorder thereof and though he loved the greatnesse which he had unjustly endevoured he forbare not to blame his rashnesse Though this remorse was not sufficient to obtein pardon for hisoffence 't was sharp enough to cause shame in him and that of reason which remained in him was sufficient to make him blush His passions revolt caused as much shame as pain in him and the rebellion of his flesh made him cover himself as well as the rigour of the elements this punishment was mixt with grace and God who would not for ever undo him sent him this shame to reduce him to his duty 't was an evidence that though his nature was corrupted yet it was totally destroyed and that sin which had tyrannized over him had not been able to efface all the principles which he had received from his Sovereign but he neglecting the use thereof and those who came of him not improving this remainder of innocency it grew weaker with time and the more faulty they grew the more shamelesse they grew They lost as well the shame of sin as the knowledge of God they lost the onely advantage which remained to them in their misfortune and nature growing obdurate they did no longer lament their past happinesse nor were they ashamed for their present misery This is that which makes the Barbarians not blush at their nakednes which makes them glory in their shame which makes them esteem that naturall which is irregular and which makes them authorize their disorder by their evill custome We must not wonder if those who have lost all the sense of humanity have not preserved the like of shamefac'tnesse if those who make greatnesse of courage to consist in revenge makes simplicity to consist in impudence if those who eat mans flesh do prostitute it and if those wild people who know no religion be likewise ignorant of modesty but I wonder why Christians take upon them the fashions of Infidels why shamelessnesse should passe from America into Europe why believing women who have no more familiar vertue then shamefac'tnesse should imitate Barbarians and that by discovering their bosoms they should defie modesty They put on their apparell not to cover themselvs but to make a shew that which served for their shame serves now for their vain glory apparell which was the mark of their modesty is now a proof of their impudence did not the weather constrein them to put on cloths they would go naked their vanity is such as seeks onely occasion to shew it self they cast off
change of air is a remedy for incurable evils and when Physicians cannot cure a stubborn sicknesse either by diet or letting blood they cure it by waters or by travelling There is no disaster so generall as doth assail the whole world at once Thunder frightens more then it hurts the plague whose mischiefs are so great may well dispeople towns but doth not throw down the houses though tempests do shatter ships yet some do escape their fury but the earth quake doth inclose whatsoever it overthroweth it openeth the earth wide as it swalloweth down whole towns it wageth not war with some few houses onely but with whole provinces it leaveth nothing behind it which can inform posterity of it's outrages more insolent then fire which spares rocks more cruell then the Conquerour who spares wals more greedy then the sea which vomiteth up shipwracks it swalloweth and devoureth whatsoever it overturneth Whatever stedfastnesse the places have wherein we live we cannot say they are exempt from this so dreadfull accident what hath befaln some parts of the earth may befall all the rest those which never were yet agitated are not unmoveable their condition is not better though they have been preserved from this disorder they ought to apprehend it because they have escaped it and those parts which have undergone it ought to fear it the lesse because nature hath consumed the forces thereof in shaking them Self-love doth abuse us if we perswade our selves that there are some parts of the world which are exempt from this mischief they are subject to the same laws nature cannot defend her workmanship against the justice of her Sovereign what happens not at one time may happen at another as in great towns one house fals after another so in the world doth earth-quakes succeed and France will one day suffer what Italie hath suffered the bravest parts of the world have not been able to secure themselves from it those which have been most populous and most abounding in fruit have been most subject thereunto and Asia whose beauty may make Europe jealous hath often been the Theater of famous Earth-quakes she lost twelve towns in one day Achaia and Macedonia have been sensible of this disorder and the most delightfull parts of Italie have seen their wals thrown down and their houses swallowed up amidst their greatest felicity Destiny seems to make the circuit of the world it sets upon those parts which it hath a long time spared and teacheth all sorts of people that no force can resist it's fury The Sea is subject to it's Empire and Marriners confesse that those storms are most dangerous which are occasioned by earth-quakes the Ocean is astonished when the element which serves it for it's basis will forego it it grows incensed and breaks it's bounds when the earth sinks under it's waters and goes to seck out another bed when that which nature hath given it appears willing to be it's Sepulchre In fine this misfortune is common to all kingdomes since man became criminall all parts of the earth are become moveable the parts thereof do dis-unite themselves since the division of the body from the soul and stedfastnesse must no longer be looked for in the world since innocency is banished thence by injustice This disorder is the punishment of our sin and reason together with faith doth sufficiently perswade us that the universe would never have been agitated with these furious accidents during the estate of originall righteousnesse Wherefore should Gods anger have armed the elements against his faithfull subjects wherefore should it have overthrown all his works to destroy innocent men why should it have overwhelm'd the inhabitants of the earth with the ruines thereof if they had not been sinfull why should it have buried those in the bowels of the earth who were not to die Let us then conclude that Earth-quakes are the effects of sinne and let us also make it appear that Deluges are also the just Rewards thereof We are bound by the holy Scripture to believe that that dreadfull disorder was not so much the effect of Nature as of Divine Justice that it was to punish mans insolency that the floâ—ds forsook their channels and that the world would never have been drowned had it not been infected with mans sin Nature could not have furnished waters enough to cover the mountains had not Gods anger imprinted in her a new fertility she could not have wrought so powerfully towards her own ruine unlesse he whose motions make her inclinations encourage her against her self all the Seas put together could not have covered the face of the whole world though their banks should have been broken down and that they should have been set at Liberty by the hand which holds them in they would not have had waves enough to have overflowed all the earth if those rains which made the waters swell came not from out the bosome of the clouds a Sovereign power formed the vapours which did produce them The same Justice which shall burn the world did drown it and let Philosophers say what they list that prodigious accident was not a meer effect of nature Nature is not powerfull enough to destroy what she hath not made that hand onely by which she is guided can disorder her those great disorders which draw along with them her generall ruine could have no other cause but the will of God Philosophy hath not been able to find out a cause for it she speaks of the deluge as of a fable and hath rather chosen to give all antiquity the lye then to betray her own ratiocination To say truth he that knows not sin cannot comprehend this disorder of nature to the belief thereof a presupposition is requisite that man is guilty that God is angry with him and that he will make use of his absolute power to punish him All other reason is too weak to prove so strange an accident though the world subsist by change and that the elements whereof it is composed are onely preserved by their opposing one another yet do not their combats tend to the ruine of nature the peace of the Universe is entertained by their divisions they sacrifice themselves for the publique good and violate their particular inclinations to prevent a generall disorder Fire descends to assist nature when she is set upon water mounts aloft to supply the place of vacuum which is the common enemy to all elements the earth opens her bowels and loosens her self from her foundations to suppresse the disorders which sin hath caused in the world but it is not to be comprehended how all the parts of the world should conspire natures ruine nor by what secret veins the sea could issue forth so much water as could drown her the sea even when incensed useth violence upon her self not to overflow the earth it remembers what order it received from God in the beginning it useth violence upon it self
heaven was offended at him that the anger thereof was not to be appeased but by a general satisfaction chose the plague before either war or famin out of a beliefe that this scourge might aswell light on him as on the meanest of his subjects In effect it spares no man neither youth nor age can allay the rigour nor stop the progresse thereof it mows down more souldiers then war doth it cuts off more Commanders then the sword it boasts of ending the differences between Kings and of making them make peace by taking from them the means of making war There have been some so contagious plagues as have dispeopled the greatest part of the world the seas did not stop their Conquests and this vast element which serves for a stop to the ambition of Conquerours could not dissipate the fury thereof the winds served them for post-horses and they crost the seas to carry infection into the utmost parts of the world without either oares or fails the number of the dead was so great as the earth was not able to cover them nor yet the forrests to bury them Physicians died together with the sick Children dropt down after their fathers and lost their lives in doing them their last duties A man need onely to consider the horrour of this malady to acknowledge that it is one of the punishments of sin during the time of innocence the air was not corrupted the earth brought forth no fruits which could breed bad humours death did not reign where there was no guilty persons Heaven which breeds contagion by it's mortall influences did not punish those which it had not as yet condemned our sins must have provoked it to have made it our enemy we must have lost our innocency to incurre the dis-favour thereof and sin must have wounded our soul before the plague had seized on our bodies One may say that the same thing which causeth contagion on the land causeth tempests at sea that it conspires together with sin to undo man that it unpeoples the earth to people hell and that it holds Intelligence with the winds to sink ships Some Philosophers have been of opinion that the sea did not belong to the Empire of man that this element was reserved for fishes as the air for birds that it was an usurpation to sail thereon to cut through the waves thereof to discover it's champians and to penetrate the depths thereof that Nature which punisheth all injustice had raised up storms and formed rocks to revenge his Tyranny but certainly reason binds us to believe that there was nothing in the world which was not put under â—he power of man that his authority had no other bounds then those of Nature and that God who had placed him in the world to admire his works had left to him aswell the disposall of the sea as of the land but when through rebellion he became gnilty of high treason his Empire was divided his subjects contemned his power and every part of his estate brought forth Monsters to destroy him The sea is so fruitfull herein as the most of her productions are monstruous every fish is an enemy to man they are not to be tamed by art and violence bereaves them rather of their life then of their fury It seems that being by divine Justice imployed against men in the deluge they retain yet some remembrance of that first imployment and that they think to revenge God as oft as they punish us they by their strength overturn great ships they leap into lesser vessels to assail us they make storms in the midst of calms being living rocks do oft-times cause the skilfullest Marriners run shipwrack This great danger is accompanied by the like of Tempests which seem to enrage the Sea onely that she may drown the Land or bury mankind in her waves This disorder is good for nothing but to undo us prophane Philosophy findes no other cause for it the more it considers the strange effects thereof the more is it obliged to adore Gods Justice and to condemne mans sin The winde purifies the aire and disperseth the clouds the rain waters the earth and vapours which are the originall of Aire make the fields fruitfull fire doth not much consume the wealth of nature it betakes it selfe to buildings and punisheth our vanity in destroying our workmanship The plague it selfe which violating all the Laws of Nature sweeps away the Son together with the Father and buries in the same grave the Physician and the Patient doth oft-times by the havock which it makes prevent the cruelty of war and kils men to hinder them from committing parricide for when it sees the earth groan underneath the burthen of her children that she can no longer nourish those which she hath brought forth that the scarcity of victuals makes people take up armes and prepare for war to free themselves from famine it dispeoples Towns dis-burthens the fields and bereaves men of their lives only to preserve their innocence but Tempests are only fit to punish either our avarice or our ambition the Seas rage is only usefull to make us know our offences the deeps which open themselves beneath ships the mountains of water which raise themselves above the Sailes the lightnings which mingle themselves amongst the waves and threaten us at the same time both which being drown'd and burnt are formed by the hand of Nature only to make us die with more of pomp and more of horrour And certainly it was very just that the Theater of our Ambition should be the like of our punishment that the windes which we make slaves to our avarice should become the Ministers of Gods anger that those Spirits which put life into our ships should inanimate storms and that they which fill our Sailes should make our designes give against the rocks for it must be confest we are more insolent in our abusing this Element then the rest that we do more unjustly imploy the windes then all other things in the world Nature hath produced them for our service they are of use to us even in rebellion whereinto sin hath thrown us and we cannot sufficiently praise providence which hath drawn them out of her Treasures to fit them to our needs they purge the aire by fanning iâ— and trouble the repose thereof onely to preserve it's purity they gather vapours together and then scatter them abroad they separate rain by dividing the clouds and if they hide the heavens from the earth 't is to adorn her with flowers and enrich her with fruit they entertain commerce amongst nations they make that common to the whole world which nature had appropriated to some one province they help us to go round the world and husbanded by our dexterity they discover unto us all the beauties thereof without their assistance we could not know the customes of Forraigners we should be ignorant of what is done underneath our feet
her self after the pains which those wonders have occasioned her which she hath continued since the beginning of the world she goes astray for sports sake and for her pastime commits faults yea her disorders are oft-times usefull to us she produceth Monsters to fore-shew things to come and goes out of her ordinary course to advertize us of Gods anger Thus we may observe that in all ages the birth of Monsters have been followed with some disasters and the worlds irregularity hath presaged the like in kingdomes All the predictions of Pagans were grounded upon these prodigies they studied the guidance of Empires in that of nature and judged of the ones disorder by the others debaucheries When Caesar and Pompey fought in the Pharsalian fields and that the Romane Common wealth was upon the point of being changed into a Monarchie beasts were the interpretors of nature the Elements violated their qualities it rained bloud and a generall confusion did foretell the alteration of that state As famous Princes have had new constellations which have discovered them Tyrants have had Monsters to proclaim them and the Births of the one and of the other have had these Fortunate or Unfortunate Predictions Poysons are not so mischievous but that some good use may be made of them when they are prepared by physick good medicines are made of them there are some sicknesses which cannot be cured but by corrected poyson the greatest part of those drugs which we make use of to assist nature when she is weakened by sicknesse partake more of poison then of nourishment and onely help the naturall heat by provoking it and by contesting with it If they be contrary to our constitutions they are good for and do preserve some creatures and if they be averse to man they are favourable to the asp and viper their venom is not to be taken from them without taking away their lives the Antidotes which preserve us kill them and as if they imprinted their qualities in us when they sting us their stingings are not to be cured but by their poison Who knows not the vertue of venomous plants is ignorant of the half of Nature she subsists by contrariety and as she indues her works with differing qualities she must preserve them by contrary remedies that which is hurtfull for some is good for other some and amongst the infinite number of creatures whose Constitutions are so different there is nothing which is absolutely bad or unusefull These are the usuall reasons which Philosophy makes use of to defend her errour in maintaining Natures part but being prest by truth she must confesse that these Monsters are the products of sin and that the earth never bore them till since it was covered with Thorns the motions thereof were too regulaâ— in the state of innocency to commit any faults the heavens were too favourable to it in their aspects to corrupt it's workmanship this charitable Mother would rather have been barren then fruitfull in Monsters and all her children were so beautifull as she was not bound to make any ilfavoured to set the others off she hath placed variety enough in her productions without being forced to transgress that she might vary them though she be not always serious she had never been debauched and before she was corrupted she would not have found her diversion in her disorder Who knows not that Monsters are the errours of Nature that she had no design in making them that she is sorry she hath produced them that she treats them as illegitimate children that she shortens their life to efface her own shame that repenting her of her fault she speedily corrects it and re-assumes her ordinary Tract which she went not out of but only for want of heed or being surprized 'T is chance and sin that produceth Monsters they are not born but by unlawfull coupling they are always barren to the end they may have no posterity their Species is never preserved and let men who delight in Natures debaucheries use their utmost skill they could never perpetuate Monsters nor make them generate We behold them with horrour the delight which they cause in us is mingled with aversion if their novelty do delight us their strange shape doth displease us and after having for a while admired them we are scandalized and nauseated with them These just resentments are infallible proofs that sin is the father of all Monsters and that as we detest the father so do we his children But that which confirms our belief therein the more is the rarity of them amongst beasts and their frequency amongst men for these innocent creatures being only so far guilty of our sins as they are subject to our power they do not stray so often as we in their productions there is but one part in the world where they commit these faults and set aside Affrica where Monsters are common Europe and Asia do scarce produce two in one age but men are irregular in all places the greatest part of their productions are monstruous all their children bear the marks of their debauchery and the punishment of their sin we see the mothers wishes stampt on their childrens faces some tokens of their parents incontinency are seen in the bodies of these Innocents and generation is so corrupted amongst men as they cause either horrour or pity in Natures self some of them cannot stand upright by reason of the weaknesse of their legs and are enforced to seek for help for their infirmities unlesse they will make their house their perpetuall prison some carry mountains on their backs and makes some that see them doubt whether not having the shape of men they be endued with the judgement and reason or no some are so deformed in their faces as one would rather take them for Munkeys than for the Images of God others speak with such confusion and with so much difficulty as Parrots may teach them our language some are born blinde and are condemned to darknesse all their life time others cannot explain themselves and their tongues not being able to speak cannot be the Interpreters of their thoughts others cannot understand those pleasing discourses which fill the souls of those that listen thereunto with the light of truth they rather guesse at our intentions then understand them to make them capable of them we must speak unto them with our hands and make them understand that by the eyes which cannot be infused into them by the eares In fine the greatest part of men are Monsters Nature mistakes her selfe oftner in them then in beasts and be it that their intemperance causeth these disorders be it that these irregularities are produced by the imagination which is more quick in them be it that their Temper which is more refined is more easily altered we see that most children inherit their Parents defects as well as their sins and that they are not born monstrous till they be born
sinfull If Monsters be the productions of sin poisons are likewise the workmanship thereof though they seem naturall to some creatures I conceive they did not make any part of their Essence till after they had served the Devill for an Organ to deceive our first mother all insects which bear in them any poison are kinds of Serpents God curseth them to revenge us they creep upon their bellies in memory of the fault which our Enemies committed by their interposition they feed upon the earth for the punishment of a sin whereof they were but innocent Complices as their sight causeth horrour in us so doth ours cause fear in them the heavens have put a secret enmity between them and us if their venom be fatall to us our spittle is mortall to them and if they with their teeth give us incurable wounds we with our feet give them mortall Catches The same justice which would condemne them to all these punishments confin'd their venom to some parts of their bodies to make them more odious she would have their very looks to be contagious to make us shun them and instructing us by sensible things she secretly imprinted in our hearts a hatred against the Devill whose image they are she teacheth us by this example that we cannot hold innocent commerce with one that is sinfull that that proud fiend which could inspire us with nothing but pride that there was more danger in communing with him than in treating with aspes and vipers And certainly venom must needs be a punishment of sin since all sorcerers make use thereof in their charmes and in all the mischiefe that they do imploy those poisons which hature hath produced to undo us these things seem to be abandoned to their fury that they have some jurisdiction over them and that they are permitted to assaile their Enemies with these weapons In effect all the harme they do to men is by this mingling of poisons the words which they use are of no efficacy they cannot hurt us by their curses 't is a trick of the Devill whom his weaknesse will imitate the power of God and perswade us that words uttered by those whom he imploys change nature and work miracles We are taught by reason and by faith that only God can act by speaking and produce things by his will The Angels which are the noblest Subjects of his Empire can alter nothing in the world but by the mediation of the Elements they are forced to employ their qualities to bring to passe their own designes and to make use of their heat or of their cold to hasten Winter or retard Summer they assume bodies in the clouds to make themselves visible they speak by the means of the aire to make themselves be understood and make use of vapours to form storms and Thunder but the devils who are rebels to Gods Kingdom having no designes but what are pernitious they employ venom to execute them they gather up the foam of Dragons and Serpents slaver and compose drinks of all these differing poisons they mingle a thousand deaths together to revenge themselves of their Enemies but say they did not make use of these things to satisfie their fury is it not sufficient to know that these things are averse unto us as to judge that they have been altered by divine Justice for our punishment or does not the knowledge of their being altered by divine Justice for our punishment suffice to ascertain us of their aversion to us In Gods first designe all creatures were tied to serve man they were to contribute either to his pastime or to his profit they had no other end but his pleasure or his advantage and had they been able to expresse their meanings they would have witnessed that their being in the world was only to follow his inclinations What place should poisons have held then in this world how could they have been serviceable to man in the state of innocency could he have taken any satisfaction in the sight of creatures whose qualities were fatall to him could he have treated with the Basilisk whose looks cause death could he have approached Serpents which poison the aire with their breath could he have communed with him who was the cause of his undoing had he suspected either his breath or his looks and ought we to imagine that there was any creatures which could offend man in a time when not having committed any fault he was not to fear any punishment what delight could he have taken in the company of those beasts which are fatall to all other beasts what sport could he have taken in Monsters which carry death in their eyes or mouth and from whence a man must fence himself as well as against the plague or war But it may be objected Originall righteousnesse served him for a safe-gard he saw the danger with delight because the sight thereof caused no apprehension in him he was well pleased to to handle poyson the efficacy whereof was tane away by his innocency and to touch venome which had not power to hurt him Divine Providence which prescribed bounds to the raging of the sea gave laws to the malice of Serpents and the same power which hindered the Sun from burning men when he gave them light would not suffer the Basilisk to poyson them by his lookes but who perceives not how weak this answer is and how it compares Creatures which do no ways resemble one another the Elements hurt not us but onely through their disorders the seasons annoy us not but by their irregularities All things in their purity are usefull to us we dread not nature for them but her corruption and even in the very state of sin we make use of them without either fear or danger Owles onely complain of light Harmony is onely hated by Savage beasts a man must either be sick or mad to detest food which preserves life but every body apprehends poyson it must be corrected by art before the malignity thereof be tane away to make any use of it it must be destroy'd it is so dangerous as it oft-times kils those Physicians who prepare it The smell of poyson is as pernitious as the substance it poures forth it's malignity throughout all the Senses penetrates all the pores of the body and there are some so subtil poisons as even Iron is not solid enough to fence us from them Let us then conclude that the earth bore not those unlucky plants which seem to conspire mans ruine till that made barren by Gods Curse it was bound to turn it's roses into Thorns and it's fruits into poysons Sin was the occasion of this disorder Divine Justice the cause and the same power which caused the earth to open underneath the feet of Dathan and Abiram caused wolfes-bane and Hemlock to come out of her bowels to hasten his death who had lost his innocency The tenth and last Discourse That God will
consume the World corrupted by Sinne that he may make a new World THough Sinne hath wrought such havock in man as it hath brought darknesse into his understanding and malice into his will that it hath effaced out of his soul those inclinations which she had to vertue and that corrupting his nature it seems to have destroyed Gods goodliest workmanship yet do some glimmerings of light remain in the bottome of his soul which sin could never darken Idolatry which hath so long raigned in the world hath not been able to blot out the belief of the unity of God the Pagans have preserved this opinion amidst the worship of their Idols words have escaped from them which have given their actions the lie and when they followed the meer motions of Nature they spake the same language as christians do Though Poets made Hell to passe for a fable and that their pleasing fictions made a prison be despised whence Orpheus had escaped by musick and Pyrithous by force the people ceased not to apprehend eternall pains after death they had already cognizance of Devils under the name of revengfull furies they knew that the fire wherewith the sinfull were burnt could not be quenched that it was preserved without nourishment and as serviceable to the power of God it had operation upon the soul. Though the Devil to introduce licentiousnesse amongst men made them hope for impunity for their faults and that r Minos and Rhadamantus had not credit enough to terrifie Monarchs Nature more powerfull then fiction had imprinted in all men an apprehension of an universall Judgment there was no guilty person who did not fear it nor none miserable who did not hope it every one in the belief of this truth found either punishment for his fault or consolation in his misery when the oppressed innocents could not defend themselves against their Enemies they implored aid from that rigorous Judge which punisheth all sins and rewardeth all vertues In fine though the earths solidity might have made men confident though the water which doth inviron it might have freed them from the fear of a generall consuming by fire though so great a disaster had no certain proofs nor assured predictions yet they believed that the world should be consumed by fire that the seas should not be able to extinguish the flames thereof and that nature which had been cleansed by water should be purified by fire but they knew not the cause of this prodigie and the vanity wherewith they were blinded would not permit them to believe that this disorder should be the punishment of their sin yet the holy Scripture gives no other reason for it nor did it threaten us with the worlds ruine till it had acquainted us with the story of our misfortune As Adam had never lost his life had he never lost his innocency the world had never lost its adornment had it not lost it's purity As death is the punishment of sinfull man water and fire are the punishments of the corrupted world for though insensible creatures commit no sins and that guiltinesse presupposeth rationality yet do they contract some impurity by our offences the Sun is sullied by giving light unto the sinfull the light which shines as bright upon a dirty puddle as upon the cleerest river and which is not more undefiled in Chrystall then in mire is endamaged by our sins and ceaseth to be innocent when it gives light unto the guilty the air is infected by our blasphemies the earth cannot be the Theater of our vanity without sharing in our offences whatsoever is serviceable to our misdemeanors is polluted though the creatures are scandalized to see themselves inthral'd to our insolency yet do they incurre heavens displeasure and deserve punishment for having been imployed in our offences hence doth the sterility of the earth proceed hence was occasioned that deluge which did bury it in it's waters and from hence shall arise that universall fire which shall consume it in it's flames For Divine Justice seems to deal with sinners as humane Justice deals with the greatest offenders the latter is not contented to punish the guilty party in his own person but vents it's anger upon his Children and servants it believeth that whatsoever toucheth him is defiled that those who converse with him are either his Copartners or confederates and that to be allied to him is sufficient to share in his sin it mingleth the bloud of the children with that of the father it wraps up the innocent and the guilty in the same punishment and to make the fault appear more odious it punisheth whatsoever doth appertain unto the offender it spareth not even unsensible things it sets upon the dead after having punisht the living for it puls down the houses and demolisheth the castles of the enemy it makes rocks and Marble feel it's anger burns what it cannot throw down and as if the party offending did live in every thing that was his it thinks to kill him as oft as it beats down his buildings or cuts down his forrests it endevours to rob him of his reputation after it hath bereft him of his life and not to leave any token that may renew the memory of his person or of his crime Thus doth Divine Justice deal with sinfull man and Adam must confesse that heaven hath used this rigour in punishing his sin For after having past the sentence of death upon him it will have his grave to serve him for a funerall pile that time consume what the flames could not devour and that nothing remain of that body which was the prime piece of it's workmanship then either worms or dust it condemns all that come of him to the same punishment their whole guilt consists in their birth it is enough to make them guilty that Adam was their father God waits not till they have broken his Commandements to punish them he forestals the use of their reason and makes them miserable before their time to the end that they may be known to be guilty before they be born by an ingenious yet just rigour after having punisht this father in his children he punisheth him in his estate he makes his subjects revolt and because they are somtimes serviceable to him in their rebellion he bereaves them of their excellentest qualities and makes them together with their miserable Sovereign unfortunate he takes from the Sunne part of his light he takes the Government of Nature from the Stars he makes the earth barren and moveable he hides rocks in the sea and troubles the calm thereof by storms he formes maligne rain in the middle region of the air and corrupts the purity thereof to infect the whole earth he makes use of fire in Thunder and ordains it to punish offenders he inforceth this noble Element to descend contrary to it's inclination and fastning it to the matter which serves for nourishment to his anger he makes it the