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
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
HENRICUS Dom CARY Baro de LeppingtoÌ„ Com de MONMOVTH Prae nob Ord Baln EQVES W. Marshall fecit Man become Guilty OR THE CORRUPTION OF NATVRE BY SINNE According to St. AUGUSTINES sense Written originally in French By Iohn-Francis Senault And put into ENGLISH By the Right honble HENRY Earle of Monmouth LONDON Printed for William Leake and are to be sold at his Shop at the signe of the Crown in Fleetstreet betwixt the two Temple Gates 1650. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE FRANCES Countesse of Rutland wife to IOHN Earle of RUTLAND Madam GIve me leave I beseech you to present you with this Copy of a Master-piece drawn in its Originall by as rare a hand as I have met withall the which I am the rather encouraged to doe for that I have experienced your Goodnesse to be such as may make me presume upon your Pardoning such Faults as your Iudicious eye shall observe therein especially since they are committed by so Profest and so Obliged a Servant of your Ladiships and further for that All that have the Honor to know you know you to have Piety enough to practice what is therein prescribed as allowed of and to shun the Contrary both which you will finde Rarely drawn to the life by the Authour though perhaps but Slubberd over by the Copyer in almost every Chapter of this book Loyaltie enough not to transgresse the boundaries therein praescribed to due Allegeance and to detest the severall Revolts you shall finde mentioned therein Iudgement enough to discern and I hope to approve of the Eloquence Philosophy History and Divinity which you shall see therein Handsomely and Methodically interwoven to which if you will adde Charity enough a vertue so Eminent in your Ladiship as it is not to be Doubted of to pardon the faults escaped in the Presse I shall thread it to the rest of my Obligations since though they cannot in a Direct line be imputed to Me yet by Reflection as not having had a sufficient Care to peruse the Proofes they may seem to have an Influence upon Me to which I must plead my not being in Town whilest the Presse went and that I have made an Amends by printing an Errata which I shall desire whosoever buyes this book to see bound up with it for his better satisfaction Madam When to this Goodnes Piety Loyalty Iudgement and Charity the Honour shall be added which you derive from that Noble Stock whence you are Immediately descended and that which you atcheive from that Antient Stock of Honour into which you are so happily Engrafted I hope that my Choise of Dedication will by all men be approved of and I shall think my Labour very well Bestowed and Highly Recompenced if your Ladiship shall please to peruse this Rough-hewn Coppy at such Leasure-houres as I pend it and if you shall find anything therein which may make you thinke your Time that meane while not Mis-spent or which may sometimes bring the Humblest of your Servants into your Thoughts He shall have obtained the Height of his Ambition who is Madam Whatsoever your Ladiship shall please to Create him MONMOUTH THE AUTHOURS PREFACE PRide hath made so powerfull an impression in the soule of man as that all the paines he suffers are not able to efface it He is proud amidst his Misfortunes and though he have lost all those Advantages which caused Vaine-glory in him yet ceaseth he not to be vaine-glorious amidst his Miseries He is still flattered in his Exile with those promises which the Devill made him in Paradise though he be slave to as many Masters as he hath Passions yet he aspires to the Worlds Soveraignty though his Doubts doe sufficiently prove his Ignorance yet doth he pretend to the Knowledge of Good and Evill and though all the Sicknesses which assaile him teach him that he is Mortall yet doth he promise to himselfe Immortality But that which is more insupportable and which renders his fault more insolent is that he hopes to arrive at all this happinesse by his Owne Strength he thinks nothing impossible to a creaure that is Free and Rationall that his Good depends upon his Will and that without any other help then what he drawes from Nature he may acquit himselfe of his Losses and Recover his Innocence This Errour being the Outmost of all our evils Religion labours only how to dis-abuse us therein and all her Commandements and Advices tend only to make us Sensible of our misfortune The Sacrifices teach us that we have deserved Death the Law teacheth us that we are Blind and the Difficulty we find in Keeping it doth prove our Want of Power Grace doth yet more strongly insinuate this truth unto us sh uâ—dertakes not to cure us till she hath perswaded us that we are Sick and the First thing which she makes us acknowledge is our Ignorance and Weaknesse Nature as proud as she is agrees in this point with Grace her Disorders are so many Instructions which will not suffer us to doubt of our Miseries the Vnfaithfulnesse of our Senses our Passions revolt and the Fighting of those Elements which environ us and whereof we are Composed are Proofes which will convince the most Opinionated It must also be confest that the Wisest Philosophers have acknowledged that there was a Hidden Cause of all these Disorders and being prest by their Consciences they have confest that since Nature deales more hardly with Vs than with her Other Children some secret fault must of necessity have been which hath incensed her against us The Platonists imagined that our soules were infused in o our Bodies only to Expiate those sins on Earth which they had committed in Heaven the Academicks did not differ much from their opinion and though in their complaints they did sometime lose that Respect which they ought to God yet did they confesse that our Faults did precede our Miseries and that the Heavens were too Iust to punâ—h the Innocent Only the Stoicks whose whole Philosophy is enlivened with Vain-glory did beleeve that if man were irregular 't was only because he Would be so and that as his Liberty had been the sole Cause of his Mischiefe it mâ—ght also be the sole Remedy thereof they imagined that if he would take Nature and Reason for his guides he might get againe into the path of Vertue from whence he had Strayed and that in so good a Schoole he might easily reforme his Disorders and recover his Innocence Peligianisme may be said to have had its Originall risâ— with this proud Sect and that diverse ages before Pelagius his birth Zeno and â—eneca had tane upon them the Defence of Corrupted Nature for they allotted all her disorders to mans Constitution and Education noâ— knowing any other sinnes save such as be meerly Voluntary they were ignorant of that sinne which we inheâ— from our Ancestors and which preceding our Birth makes us Criminâ—ll ere we be Rationall they taught precepts to shun Sin hâ—y
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
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
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
ridiculous Pagan did one might read in the forehead the hearts most secret thoughts If Physiognomie be a Science she hath no certainty but what she draws from the connexion which nature hath placed between the soule and the body all her observations are grounded upon the noblest part of the body if all be true that is said of her as soon as she sees the face she knows the humour and without or Charmes or Magick she knows their intentions whose Lineaments she observes Though I dare not acknowledge all this and that I have much a do to believe that a Physiognomist can discover the designes of a wise Minister of State by looking him in the face and that without racking a malefactour he may read his fault in his eyes it sufficeth me to know that this Science is grounded upon the commerce between the soule and the body and that she draws her conjectures from the straight union that is between them As the Soule doth not forme any designe wherein the body is not a complice so doth she taste no contentment wherein the body doth not share a part if she enjoy the beauties of nature 't is by the Senses if she see the Azure of the Skie the light of the stars if she discover the extent of Fields the fertility of vallies if she hear the fall of Rivers the musick of Birds if she judge of the Glosse or Sent of Lillies or Roses 't is by the benefit either of the sight hearing or smelling It seems the world was made for the bodies diversion and that all those pleasing parts which go to the composure thereof have onely been made to delight the senses the Sun is of no use to the glorified Spirits and all the brightnesse of that goodly Constellation cannot light the Angels those noble Intelligences have a spirituall world wherewith they are possest and ravisht they finde their happinesse in God and all that we wonder at in the world affords them no delight Materia is requisite to tasting the pleasures of sensible nature such contentments presuppose a low condition and it is common with Beasts to partake of such diversions 'T is notwithstanding one of the bodies least advantages that the world should be made for it's use and that this chiefe piece of Gods workmanship is destined either for it's service or it's delight Jesus Christ followed his Fathers steps and when he came upon earth he would have the body to be the object of his mercy and of his power though he laboured for the conversion of sinners his greatest miracles were wrought for the healing of the sick and the body being mans weakest part he thought he was to treat it with most mildnesse and to furnish it with as many remedies as sin hath procured it maladies Somtimes he clensed it of the leprosie and restored to it 's former purity somtimes he freed it from blindnesse and restored unto it the noblest of it's senses somtimes cured it of the Palsey and restored it to the use of it's Members somtimes he withdrew it from the Grave and re-united it to it's soule contrary to the hope of nature somtimes he freed it from the Tyranny of Devils and re-establisht it in it's former freedoms Neither did he neglect it in the institution of the Sacraments for though they were chiefly ordained for the soules sanctification and that these admirable Channels poure grace into the soule yet are they applied upon the body before they produce their effects in the will and they respect joyntly the two parts which go to mans composure The body is washt in water to the end that the soule may be purified the body is marked with the Figure of the Crosse to the end that the soule may be fortified the body receives the unction to the end that the soule may be consecrated the body receives the imposition of hands to the end that the soule may receive Grace and the body eates the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus to the end that the soule may be thereby nourished Thus doth not religion destroy nature and in her highest mysteries the provides for the soules safety by means of the body This maxime is so true as that all Divinity confesseth that the soule can no longer merit when she is once parted from the body whil'st they are together in company their grace may be augmented and whatsoever vertues they have acquired they may yet acquire more but when once death hath divided them and that the body losing 't's lustre is reduced either to ashes or to wormes the soule can no longer increase her merit and in that condition she is onely capable of punishment or of reward Having so many obligations to her body she cannot forget them nay even in the state of Glory where all her designes ought to be satisfied she wisheth to be re-united to her body as that wherein her intire felicity consisteth For though she reign with Angels that she behold the divine Essence and that she enjoy a happinesse to which even wishes cannot adde yet hath hath she a passion for her body and all the good she doth possesse cannot take from her the desire nor memory thereof though she hath made triall of it's revolts though this friendly enemy hath oft-times persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the Tyranny thereof yet doth she languish after it and contrary to their humour who have recovered liberty yet she longs for that which did engage her in servitude Though the body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in it's Enemies and though it cause horrour in those to whom it was so lovely she forbeares not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with Impatience that her body may partake of the blisse which she enjoyes And 't is not without much justice that she beares so much love to her body since she owes the greatest part of her advantages unto it and that she hath hardly any vertue or light which she hath not acquired by the assistance of the senses The soule is ignorant when first infused into the body the knowledge which the Platonists attribute unto her is but a meer capacity of apprehending If she will be intrusted she must be advised either by her eyes or by her eares she must consult with these Masters if she will free her selfe from ignorance How noble soever she be by birth she hath but weak conjectures of truth if these faithfull officers should faile her and should she be ingaged in a body which should have no use of senses she would be plunged in eternall darknesse Sight and hearing are the Organs destined to knowledge and he who is borne deafe and blinde is destined to live and die ignorant As the soule receives these advantages by the body so doth she distribute them by the bodies assistance and doth not expresse her thoughts but by the mouth of her Interpreter she gives with the tongue
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
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
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
such as would not be subjects to a Prince became his enemies Though we have as many proofes of the corruption of our nature as we have inclinations in our soule yet we must confesse there is none more strong then that which an extream desire to wage war doth furnish us withall for fury hath perswaded us that it was the most glorious employment that might be we hear Conquerors spoken of with respect we read their fights w th admiration we tearm their Injustice Heroick actions Eloquence cannot find out expressions noble enough to honour their Ambition Historians think themselves happy when they write a Prince his life who hath drowned the fields with humane bloud and who like thunder hath born down what ever withstood his violence We give the title of grand to those who have unpeopled the world we propound unto our Kings the example of such who have ruined their subjects to overcome their neighbours we foment their ambition by the praise we give usurpers we insensibly perswade them that Justice is but the vertue of private men and that Sovereigns who have no law but their will ought to seek for no other right or title than Violence There is nothing more horrible then war sin is the cause thereof and this wicked Father produceth nothing which more resembles him than this Monster Injustice and ambition are the officers which do guide it Fury and Cruelty the Serjeants which do accompany it and it's exployts are plunder murther violence and burning it carries terrour and dread into all parts where it comes changeth fields into desarts towns into solitary places and Kingdomes into Tyrannies it mingles childrens tears with their Fathers bloud bereaves women of their honour and their husbands of their Liberties raiseth it's Trophies upon the ruine of Cities or upon mounteins of dead men it grounds it's Triumphs upon the undoing of kingdoms and draws it's praises from the cries and complaints of Captives Yet sin obligeth us to value it and though we do experiment the rigour thereof we cannot chuse but approve of it's disorders We number the victories which we have wonne over our enemies we look upon the number of the dead and prisoners with delight the pillaging of towns and taking of places satisfies our vanity and as if passion had made us lose all humane resentments we never think that our victory is our brethrens undoing that our rejoycing draws tears from the eyes of Orphans and widows whose Fathers and husbands we have slain that hell is filled with souldiers whilest the world is unpeopled of Christians and that these advantages which make us insolent cost innocents their lives make free men prisoners and wealthie men miserable Those who see the disasters caused by war imagine the cause thereof ought to be very considerable and that Princes break not with their neighbours or allies uninforced by powerfull reasons yet are the motives thereof oft times ridiculous what causeth a suite at law between two private men begets a quarrell between two Princes what puts a division between two families puts a difference between two states and that which is the undoing of two parties who go to law together doth oft-times ruine two Nations which wage war together an apple was the chief cause of the burning of Troy the ravishing of Helen was but the occasion Poets who hide Truths underfables would have the famousest siege in all the world should be undertaken to revenge the Jealousie of two women and that the greatest Empire of Asia should be ruined to punish a shepheards judgment Ambition which delights in greatnesse hath no juster nor no more worthy motions Greece complained no longer of Persia when Alexander set upon her nothing can make this Conqueror carry fire and and sword into his neighbours country save a vain desire to reign and who should have asked him the motive of so unjust and rash a design must have found it to have been his vain glory The Commonwealth of Rome was at the height of her prosperity when Casâ— resolved to change her into a Monarchy Pompeys greatnesse served him onely for a pretence to execute his enterprize for though his sonne in laws exploits had caused no Jealousies in him and that he had not been incouraged to that design by the examples of Marius and Scilla his ambition was of it self sufficient to cause this desire in him his insolent mind could endure no equals his citizens if they will be his friends must be his slaves all whatsoever greatnesse must bow to him lest they cause his indignation and the people must receive a shamefull peace if they will not suffer a direfull war I am further of opinion that this Monster nurst up in butchery and bloud would have made enemies if he had found none that after having vext the Romanes he would have persecuted the Parthians and that passing from one Country to another he would have dispeopled all Kingdoms ruined all Kings The wars of our Ancestours have had no juster pretences those which our Histories ring most of have had but weak motives the jealousie of two Families have oft-times endangered the Kingdom two Favourites have oft-times used their Masters Militia to end their own differences hundred thousand men have interessed themselves in the fight not knowing the occasion thereof But certainly it must be confest if wars have small causes they produce strange effects and that those which we tearm civill exceed all others in cruelty for men make profession to violate all the laws of nature and as if every souldier were of his Generals humour he believes that his nearest kindred are his greatest enemies he dips his hands in his own bloud to assure his Captain of his fidelity his ambition makes him lose all sense of humanity he would think he should betray his duty if he spared his friends and esteem himselfe not worthy the name of a souldier if he could forget the names of father and mother He who sacrificed himselfe upon his brothers body whom he had heedlesly killed in the heat of the battell was yet but an Apprentice in war and more experienced than he would have presented his brothers head unto the Generall to have had some recompence for it Civill Wars stifle all the relations of nature those who fight in the same Kingdom under differing Ensignes have nothing of man but the face they cease to love or know one another after once they begin to fall a siding and when the heart of their Countrey is the Theater of their Battels their cruelty cannot be mitigated by any Alliance History or else Fiction tells us of two brothers whom their mothers tears was never able to reconcile they fought hand to hand in the head of their Armies to spare their souldiers bloud they through their own wounds poured forth their Fathers bloud death which they both received at the same moment could not appease their quarrell hatred appeared in their countenances when it
philosophy can quiet in age Avarice waites close upon it let such handsome gamesters say what they please who do but bite upon the bridle when they loose and who bear their bad fortune with a good grace all men play to win This exercise is a kind of Traffique 't is a generall usury wherein every one glories 't is their clearest incomb who can joyn sleight of hand to good fortune and who can lead fortune as they list They are lesse egg'd on by pleasure then by profit and if they will acknowledge their owne weaknesse they must confesse that those who are most liberall are avaritious at play Anger governs there yet more absolutely then doth avarice a man cannot have ill luck without some commotion his pulse beats high when the dice do not favour him an unlooked for chance puts him in disorder if his ill luck prove constant his fury turns to impiety and after having imprecated the gain he vomits forth blasphemies against heaven Ambition takes her place between avarice and anger for though play makes all men equall though the freedom of play forbids ceremony though it be lawfull in play for every man to defend his own liberty and that therein the servant may argue with his Master yet vain-glory hath a share therein men think winning an advantage and that he that wins is either more dexterous or more fortunate and as if fortune ought to be more just in play than in battels men complain that she favours the weakest or the worst side In fine sorrow succeeds all other passions in this exercise for if the losse be great 't is always accompanied with sorrow Shame and repentance set on those that loose the one siezeth on the heart the other on their countenance they are displeased with all things not knowing to whom to break themselves they betake themselves to every body and are bound to confesse that contrary to their intention they finde pain and repentance where they sought for pleasure and recreation The second disorder of play is that it alienates men from their duty and hinders them from doing what they ought or from attending their affairs All worldly things are so linkt together as an evill seldome comes alone one mis-fortune always produceth another and it is almost impossible that a malady doth not oft-times become a contagion Great winds cause great droughts and whil'st the aire is agitated with these exhalations the earth is noâ— watered with rain Droughts cause dearths and all the husbandmans labour cannot defend us from famine Dearths cause the plague for when necessity makes all things food and that without considering what is good or what is bad men fall to whatsoever they meet withall mens temper must be corrupted and the body which is nourished with unwholesome food must needs gather ill humours Thus in a Kingdom one disorder is always cause of another Indulgency of Princes leaves faults unpunished impunity causeth licentiousnesse licentiousnesse ushers in murder and murder causeth war in the midst of peace Particular families being little States and Oeconomy being the picture of policy one disorder never happens there alone the Masters fault is always followed by the confusion of all the Domestiques Excesse in gaming is an infallible proofe of this truth for those who passionately love this pastime give over the thought of businesse neglect the government of their house lose all their relations of Father Master or husband and by one and the same fault injure their children wives and servants They lose all they have in a short time they morgage their lands contract debts and are constrained to keep out of company because they cannot appear abroad in their former gallantry If the wives will not shut themselves up with their husbands they must make friends and must ingage their conscience and betray their honour to continue their ordinary expence and porte But if this misfortune which is but too ordinary should not happen Gamesters must confesse that this exercise bereaves them of all their time which is a disorder no lesse considerable then all the rest For Time is the most pretious thing that is our salvation depends upon the moments thereof eternitie must be his reward or punishment and we shall be happy or miserable according to the good or bad use we make of time which is the measure of merit the rule of good or bad actions and these daies which we are so prodigall of are the bounds which divine Justice hath prescribed to our labours When the soul forgoes the body and passeth from time to eternity 't is no more in her power to acquire vertue or â—hstand vice she carries nothing into the other world but what she hath gathered here good desires are of no advantage to her if they have not bin fore-gone by good effects nor can all the ages to come profit her if she have not imploy'd past moments wel Yet experience teacheth us that gamesters never count their years a man must be very eloqueÌ„t to perswade them that hours are more precious then pistols and that it is easier to pay their debts then to recover the weeks which they have lost Time advanceth always and never returns it is as hard to recall time past as to stop the present When the Sun which is the rule of times motions stood still in the midst of his career to obey a mans word the present time ceased not to roul on though it had lost it's guide when the same constellation returned towards the east to assure a great Prince that his death was deferred the time past did not retreat back with it and divine Providence which changed the course of the Sun would not alter the nature of time Yet all such as play are prodigall thereof they are shamefully profuse of a thing the sparing whereof is honourable they think they give their friends nothing when they bestow but whole days upon them and because the losse thereof is common they think it not considerable their life is iesse deer unto them then their pleasure and they prove that passion blinds them since under pretence of pastime these shorten their life and hasten their death But though they be guilty of so many faults they still alledge vain excuses and use false reason to defend their bad cause they say that a man cannot be allways busied that the weaknesse of his spirit and the misery of his condition considered recreation is requisite for him I confesse that this excuse hath some colour of truth and that men who are most serious need some relaxations in their businesses but they must not make a trade of their recreation nor must they contrary to the laws of Nature imploy those hours in pleasure which are destined for labour as those men are to be blamed who turn their Physick into food and who to purge away some ill humours forego their usuall meat and take nothing but medicines So are
banks did not the hand of God prescibe limits to it's fury All the art of man hath not as yet been able to calme the fiercenesse thereof the most expert Pilots tremble as oft as it is incensed and knowing that no force can withstand it's rage they betake themselves to vowes to appease it The aire seems to hold intelligence with it to make war upon us it gives free scope to the North windes which march furiously through her Champians and bring tempests and shipwracks with them After having revenged themselves on men at sea they set upon them on land and sowing cotagions in Countries they change the best peopled Cities into dreadfull Desarts thus the purest of all Elements assumes impurity mens bodies are infected by the corruption thereof it poysoneth whatsoever it doth penetrate and the lungs which draw it in corrupt the heart and brain The fire being much more active then the air commits more havock if it's consuming flames be not universall as are contagions their fury is more suddain and the evils caused thereby find lesse remedie It mixeth with Thunder to punish us it descends contrary to it's nature to pursue us it flashes out in lightening to affrighten us and changeth it self into a thousand severall shapes to undo us It shuts it self up in the bowels of the earth that it may break forth with the greater violence it strives not so much within this prison to recover it's liberty as to punish our offences it makes it's way through the tops of mountains and shoures down Sulphur and Flames upon the plains from off those high places It seems it knows very well that divine Justice hath chose it to be the Minister of her vengeance and that the spoyles it commits on earth serve onely to shew us what Rigour it will inflict upon the Guilty in Hell Thus all things are changed in the world the Elements have neither the same use nor the same inclinations that which was serviceable to man in innocency persecutes him being become guilty Whole Nature is a scaffold where the Creatures act the part of executioners and revenge themselves on man for the injuries he hath done them For to boot that they are forced to share in his faults they know very well that they are fallen from their first nobility that they have not all those advantages which they had in the state of innocency and that they have lost some of their naturall qualities The Sun gives not so much light as he did before the sin of Adam his influences are neither so pure nor yet so puissant he who did dispense nothing but heat and light wonders to see himself send forth sicknesses and death The Stars have no longer those favourable aspects which made fruits and flowers to grow in all seasons of the year their efficacy is weakened and the vigour which appeared in all their effects now languisheth But the earth being a neerer neighbour to man then the Heavens it is more changed all the parts thereof are barren if they be not manured the curse which it received by reason of our sin hath made it lose it's fruitfulnesse it is all brisled with thorns or covered with Thistles it refuseth to feed it's children since they are become sinfull and by an innocent parricide it attempts their lives who have lost originall righteousnesse The fruits which it bears proceed rather from our industry then it 's fertility if it assist us at our need 't is with an ill will and it 's being bound to serve the sinful is a part of it's misery if this be not true I know what that great Apostle mean't when by an admirable Prosopopeia he makes whole Nature to speak and groan when affording words unto her sorrow he makes her wish our change and her deliverance for when he says the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God doth he not witnesse that they hope for some advantage by our felicity and when he says that the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly doth he not insinuate that they are corrupted by sin when he adds that the creature it self shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption doth he not make it evident that Jesus Christ will satisfie their desires and that he will restore unto them what we have unjustly bereft them off I am not ignorant that some Interpreters not sufficiently weighing the intention nor words of Saint Paul do wrest this text and understand it to be meant of man but the Apostles ensuing discourse makes it appear that he speaks of all creatures and that the corruption which they complain of is not that which they have received from nature but that which they have attracted from our sin The corn cannot complain of it's putrifaction because it is the cause of it's increase but it hath some reason to complain that it's vigour is diminished and that abusing the Labourers hope it doth not repay his pains with usury The earth doth not complain of it's being placed in the nethermost story of the earth that it serves for basis to all the other elements but it complains with reason that it hath lost it's fertility and that it is adjudg'd to bring up thorns in stead of roses The Air complains not of being subject to these changes which make up a part of it's nature but it complains and that justly that for the punishment of our offence it hath lost it's purity that it is the seat of storms the abode of thunder and that fatall place wherein Famine and Contagions are formed and to passe from the elements into the heavens The Sun doth not complain of his being in a perpetuall motion that he carries light to all the parts of the world and that he doth differently disperse his heat throughout all the climates of the earth but he hath cause to complain that he hath lost his former Lustre that his influences are mortall that his aspects are maligne and that his presence wherein mans happinesse did consist doth now cause fears and sicknesses in him To this misfortune from whence the creatures just complaints proceed we may adde the Devils Tyranny which doth torment them for after once this proud Fiend had overcome our first father he enter'd upon his rights he got a power over the elements and he had permission to make use of them to solicit men to sin from hence proceeds that Praise worthy custome of the faithfull of blessing the fruits of the earth to free them from the fury of wicked spirits and hence doth the use of exorcisme proceed which makes it appear that all creatures are slaves to those who have been our undoing But it is harder to explain this corruption then to prove it and the manner how it is made is as hard to conceive as anger some to tolerate Yet me thinks a man may say that divine Justice hath changed the
and makes the fields barren he shakes the foundations of the earth he over-whelms men under the ruines of their houses and immolates victimes to his fury when he cannot win slaves to his ambition so as be it in prosperity or in adversity we are bound to confesse that by the good will of God the elements hold of the Devil and that the Creatures are corrupted by sin since they serve as Instruments to our enemy to sooth us into our concupiscence and to abase our courage The sixth Discourse That it is more secure to sequester a mans self from the Creatures then to make use of them A Man must be ignorant of all the Maximes of christianity if he know not that he is forbidden the love of the creature and that we cannot love them without betraying our dignities or forgetting our duty for nothing but God can lay lawfull claim to our affections he is the center of all love he is bereft of that love which is not given him and he is injured in the chiefest of all his qualities if one propose any other end unto himself then God himself we are born onely to serve and love him no other object is able to satisfie us and our heart is too great to be filled with a good which is not infinite We molest the order which God hath established in the world when by an unjust going lesse we raise the creatures above our selves He who abaseth himself through the meannesse of his spirit is not lesse guilty then he who through his ambition raiseth himself up and he gives against Gods Providence as well who obeys those creatures which are inferiour to him as he who would command over those which are his equals or Superiours Man hath received an unrepealable law which obligeth him to submit himself to God because he is his Sovereign and to raise himself above the other creatures because they are his Servants he treats upon equall terms with other men because they are his equals he bears respect unto the Angels without adoring them because they are his companions do in the difference of their natures aspire with man to one and the same end and seek out the same happinesse Whatsoever is not rationall is subject to the Empire of man and he is not vain glorious when he thinks the earth is fruitfull onely to afford him nourishment that the Sun rises onely to light him and that the flowers do display themselves onely for his recreation when he loves them out of an inclination or out of necessity he disturbs the order of God he submits himself to that which is below him he degenerates from his nobility and becomes a slave to his subjects for if he love a creature he must obey it he cānot give his love to it preserve his liberty Love is an imperious passion it assubjects all those souls which it possesseth it makes as many slaves as lovers and reduceth them to a condition wherein having no longer any will they are not Masters of their desires they look pale when in the presence of those that they adore they tremble when they come neer them and the Stars have not so much power over their bodies as those whom they love have absolute command over their souls the object of their love is the cause of all their motions if it be absent they consume away in desire and languish in vain hopes if it be threatened with any danger they quake for fear if it be set upon they pluck up their courage if it go far off without hopes of being soon seen again they fall into despair and if it be lost without hope of recovery they give themselves over to grief and sorrow Thus these slaves take upon them their Masters livery these Camelions change colour as oft as that which they love changes condition and betraying their own greatnesse they assubject themselves to creatures which ought to obey them I know very well that lovers indevour to throw of this yoke that they strive to free themselves from this Tyranny and that being weary of obeying they fain would command their turn about but all they can do is to no purpose and the unalterable laws of love force them fairly to submit to those subjects which are Masters of their liberty The ambitious man would fain be the Sovereign of honour but let him do what he can he still remains the slave thereof and whilst he leads on Troops and commands Armies he is shamefully enforced to obey ambition which tyrannizeth over him The Avaritious man would fain be Master of his riches what ever pleasure he takes in keeping them he would take more in spending them but he is as it were bound to adore them and to dedicate all his care and watching to the Devil which doth possesse him The lustfull man wisheth that he were his Mistresses Master and that he might prescribe laws to that proud beauty which domineers over him but his excesse of passion keeps him a servant still and the nature of love forceth him with content to renounce his liberty his slavery is a just punishment of his ambition and Heaven permits that he remain a slave to the Creature because he would have made himself Master thereof by unlawfull means This is the cause why he will not acknowledge any thing to be amisse in what he loves why he doth admire the perfections thereof and why he doth mingle his vices and vertues together for to give right judgment of any thing a superiority is required in the judgment giver Some advantage must be had over that whose weaknesses would be known and lovers being slaves to those they love their blindnesse lasts as long as doth their slavery by a no lesse necessary then unfortunate consequence they assume the qualities of that object which causeth their love they transform themselves into what they love and change nature as well as condition but that which is most unjust in this change is that these wretched creatures take unto themselves the worst of the qualities of what they love and cannot take the best and having a capability of becomming easily imperfect they can never become accomplisht a deformed man loseth not his deformity though he love an exquisite beauty an ignorant body grows not learned though he love a Philosopher an ambitious man mounts not the throne though he love a Sovereign and covetous men grow not rich though they court wealth but by a deplorable misfortune lovers share in the faults of that subject whence they derive their love they put on all the evill qualities thereof and having no design to imitate it they resemble it in loving it Ambitious men become as vain as the honour which they idolatrize greedy men are no lesse obdurate then is the metall which they adore and the lascivious are as base as is the pleasure which they so much cherish Love is the mixture of Lovers he mingleth their wils
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
terrour of all that are faulty But after having had this service from it he reserves it for the generall ruine of the world and to consume that proud building which was the Palace of sinfull man For when the number of the elect shall be accomplisht when the thrice happy ones who shall fill up the places left void by the Angels rebellion shall have finished their course and their labours and that Christs mysticall body shall have all the number which ought to compose it Divine Justice which cannot be satisfied but by the ruine of whatsoever hath been serviceable to sin wil command the fire to consume the world will drown all his works in a deluge of fire Then this Element mixing it selfe with the clouds wil kindle lightnings in all parts the air being set on fire by so many flames shall burn the whole earth which shall open her entrails to let loose those intestine flames which have devoured it for so many ages from the mixture and confusion of so many fires the generall burning of the world shall arise the mountains shall melt with heat and those great râ—ks where coldnesse seems to make it's residence shall be turned into Vesuviuses and Aetnaes the flames inanimated by Gods anger shall lay all Champians waste walls which resist the Thunder of the Cannon shall not be able to defend their Inhabitants from it's fury all the dead shall be made equall the guilty shall burn in one and the same fire and shall be reduced to the same ashes the Sun shall be darkned with smoak and did not the flames serve for torches the world should burn amidst darknesse all the rivers which bathe the earth shall be dried up in their Spring-heads The fire shall triumph over the waters in their channels and this victorious Element shall make it's Enemy which hath had so many advantages over it feele it's power The Ocean it selfe whose extents are so vaste shall see her waters converted into fire and the Whales burn in the midst of it's abysmes Forrests shall help to consume the little hils which bear them those proud mountains whose tops are always covered with snow to which the Sun in his greatest heats bears a respect shall vomit up flames together with their bowels and all those eminent places which command over the vallies shall see their pride buried in ashes all the guilty shall perish amidst this fire they shall finde hell upon earth and shall wish that the mountains might overwhelm them in their ruins to quench the fire which shall devour them The just shall be astonished to see the fire spare them to see the heavens work the same miracle for them as they did in days of yore for the three unjustly condemned Children and imitating the piety of those Innocents they shall sing Canticles of praises whil'st the wicked shall vomit forth blasphemies How horrible will the spectacle be to see the earth burn the sea consumed and whole Nature buried in a Sepulchre of fire this is the revenge which God will take of sin this is the satisfaction which his Justice will exact for our insolency and this is the last punishment which the creatures shall suffer for having been confederate with man The very Stars shall not be able to escape the rigour thereof that solid matter whereof they are composed shall be dissolved by heat and those beautifull parts of the world having the same destiny as gold and brasse have shall trickle down drop by drop upon the earth their having been serviceable to us in their light sufficeth to make them guilty their having received homage from us and accepted of our sacrifices is sufficient to make them receive this punishment God will not permit that that which hath been corrupted should rest unpunished and his holinesse joyned to his justice cannot tolerate that in Eternity which hath been prophaned in Time Jesus Christ himself was of this opinion he taught that this world did not belong unto him he imprinted in the Souls of his Disciples the horrour and contempt of this present Age and obliged them to wish for the Age to come of which he made himself be called the Father All the perfection of Christianity consists in these two points all vertues are composed of these two points and he is perfect amongst the faithfull who contemning Adams world doth incessantly thirst after Christ Jesus his world Though God be the Authour of them both he detests the former since it was prophaned by sin and since the devill hath submitted it to his Tyranny he hath given over the Sovereignty thereof unto his Enemies he suffers the Turk to possesse the best part thereof he permits his most faithfull servants to be persecuted he will not have us to receive more glory there than he doth and if we will follow his counsels and his instructions we must look upon it as a place of exile or as an Enemies Countrey I very well know he giveth Crowns to Sovereigns Lawrell to the victorious that he makes the Angels fight for Christians and that he arms the Elements for the defence of his Church but in fine his Kingdom is not of this world he will not govern in a world which he will destroy he pretends not to command in a State where his Enemy is worshipped and we must not love a world which he will punish because we have made it sinfull Let us expect that which he will give us let us long after that world which will arise out of the others ashes and let us not fix our fortunes in a Kingdom which shall perish when Jesus Christ shall revenge himselfe upon his Enemies 'T is true that it's ruine will be usefull to it and that it will reap advantage by it's losse for all Gods punishments are favours he puts obligations upon those that he punisheth his goodnesse turns their sufferings into salves and to be strucken by the hand of God brings both honour and advantage with it Death which destroys the body prepares it for the resurrection it changeth it's grave into a cradle and as the corruption of corn is the cause of it's re-assuming life we may say that the putrefaction of the body is in some sort the seed of it's mortality Purgatory which burns the soules of men doth purifie them the flames whereby they suffer prepares them for glory that which we esteem a punishment is a lovely penance and that which seems to retard their contentment serves only to advance their happinesse So shall the fire which shall burn the world contribute to it's perfection it shall perish only to become more perfect it 's beauty shall arise from it's being consumed by fire and this last deluge shall be of more honour and advantage to it then was the former the waters purified the world by drowning it this great havock was Natures baptisme and the same Element which did bereave her of her children did restore unto