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
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
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
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
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
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
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
unto us by as many Paradoxes as the instructions are which she giveth us And knowing that her words serves for laws unto her Children she is pleased to tell us that Adam's sin is ours That the miseries which we undergoe are the punishments of his disobedience That Divine Justice hath condemned us in Him That our misfortune and His sinne did precede our Birth And that contrary to all the Laws of Morality we be guilty before we are reasonable Faith perswades us to these Truths and without troubling our selves to seek Proofs to strengthen them we in all humility believe what we cannot evidently know But because Phylosophy is a Rebel to Faith and that she is more swayd by reason then by the Authority of the Church I will convince her by reason and make her confess that we could not be irregular if we were not guilty All Phylosophers confess That man is Composed of a body soul And that when Divine Providence did first forme him she mingled Beast with Angell and that she gathered Heaven and Earth together to finish her Noblest piece of workmanship If Passion have not prevail'd over reason in these great men they must confess that when God did this his Chiefest work he did so well accord the two Parts which went to the Composition thereof as that the body obey'd the soul the Angell comanded over the Beast They must acknowledge that God observ'd the same Order in the Composing of man as he did in the making of the world and that as he submitted the Earth to the Influences of the Heavens he did likewise assubject Passion to reason and the Appetite to the will And since they observe this decent order to be no longer kept they ought necessarily to infer that sin is the cause thereof And that man hath lost these advantages only because he hath not preserved his Innocency For what likelyhood is there that two Parts joyned together should not indure one another that they should mutually love and hate each other that the flesh should wage war with the soul which gives it life and that the soule should complain of the others insolency which serves her as an Officer or Abetter whence is it that our inclinations are out of Order before we have acquired any bad Habits that our faults precede evill examples that we know what evill is not having learned it and that the soul follows the inclinations of her body before she hath tasted the delights thereof whence is it that sin is naturall to us that in us it preceeds the use of reason that notwithstanding all its deformities it becomes pleasing and that vertue with all her comlinesse seem austere unto us Certainly he who shall conceive aright the reason thereof will be obliged either to blame Divine Providence or els to condemne the sinfulness of the first man who losing originall Justice deprived all his Children thereof And who making us inherit his disorders made us criminall before rationall The Morall Vertues which Phylosophers boast so much off doe authorize the beleife of originall sin For though they perswade themselves that man by the assistance thereof may overcome sin and that God did not Compose him of two rebellious Parts save only to increase his merit and to leave unto him the glory of finishing it yet the use of vertue doth sufficiently prove his irregularity and it is sufficient to acknowledge that he was born guilty since we know he is obliged to become vertuous For vertue is not a production of Nature but an invention of Art she is not infused but acquired and the Pains she causeth fully equall the Pleasures which she promiseth She presupposeth that man is out of order since she hath a design to reforme him and that he is sick since she endeavours to cure him All her exercises are so many Combats all her enemies are born in the very Place where she sets upon them and the industry she is forced to make use off to drive them thence doth sufficiently witness that they govern there before her in effect man is weak before he hath acquired fortitude he is foolish before wise and ere temperate unchast his vertues are proofs of his vices his last victories are signes of his former defeats and the succour which he is enforced to seek for from without himselfe is a witness of his disorder and weakness This it was that made St Augustine say that continency is as well a witness as an enemy of concupiscence that althose glorious habits which fight against our sins do manifest them If vertue make us suspect our misery the Creatures revolt makes us know our sinfulness and he who shall consider that man is in the world as in an enemies Country will have no great difficulty to judge that he is Criminall Reason unasisted by Faith is sufficient to make us Comprehend that man is the Image of God 〈◊〉 That he is his Lieutenant upon Earth That all Creatures owe him homage and that he ought to Reigne in the World either as a visible Angell or as a Mortall God The Place he beares in the Universe challengeth this Advantage and reason which raiseth him above Beasts gives him the Sovereignty over them since all things are made for his use all must be submitted to his will And since he must Reign with God in Heaven he must begin to Reign for him upon the Earth This notwithstanding all Creatures make war upon him they deal with him rather as with a Tyrant then Lawfull Sovereign They obey him not but by Force And it is easie to be seen That having lost the right that he had over them he cōands them now only by violence if he draw any service from beasts it s after having been either their Slave or their Tyrant If the earth be fruitfull it s after having been watered with his sweat and rent in peeces by the Plough If the Sea bear his vessels t is not without threatning them with shipwrack If Aire contribute to his respiration it suffers also corruptions whereby to forme contagions and sicknesses If the winde fils his sails it also raiseth Tempests and drownes his vessels If fire serve him in all his Arts it mingles it self with Thunder and taketh revenge for all the Injuries it hath received from him This generall insurrection is a token and punishment of his offence had he preserved his integrity he had never lost his Authority and had he not falne from his innocency he had never forgon his Throne Phylosophy as haughty as she is cannot deny but that man is the prey of wild beasts and the victime of their fury that he is exposed to the rigour of the Aire and to the unseasonableness of the weather she must confess that he hath no subject which is not rebellious that there is no place within his Territories which is not his enemy and there is no part of his body which is not either
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
his justice never punisheth the Innocent and his goodnesse would not permit us to be miserable if we were not guilty but we must also confesse that his justice would have been remisse had he not punisht sin Adams Rebellion deserved that all men should be punisht for it his sufferings were to be hereditarie and there had been some sort of Inconvenience that a guilty Father should have produced innocent Children we inherit his punishment and his sin and receiving our being from him it was reason we should partake of the Miseries which do accompany it In Point of high Treason the Children are punisht for the Fathers fault When a Princes Anger breaks out upon great personages that are guilty it fals likewise upon their Families to have any relation to them sufficeth to be guilty Crime is contracted by Allyance and though the misfortune may exceed the sin there is always reason enough for the punishment throughout all the Judaicke Law the Children beare the punishment of their fore-fathers sins God requires it to the fourth Generation as a Child is a part of his father we presume he hath drawn along with him Part of his sin and that he cannot inherit his being without inheriting his offence also Gods greatnesse merits this rigour and offences cōmitted against so high a Majesty cannot be sufficiently punished Our Complaints proceed from our Ignorance we defend our own cause only because we know not his Sanctity whom we have offended if we had a little light we would prevent Gods decrees and we should find that Hell is to small a punishment for such as rebell against him In whatsoever sort it be that we have contracted sin it deserveth Punishment we cannot be blamelesse since we proceed from a guilty father and since the bodies maladies are hereditary we must not wonder if those of the soul be contagious there is no difference between Adams sin and ours save only that his is voluntary and ours Naturall that he is more guilty then unfortunate we more unfortunate then guilty that he hath done the mischiefe and we have received it that he hath committed a fault and we bear the Punishmnnt that his disorder is become our Nature that his Rebellion engageth us in disobedience and that as the tree is lost in it's root we are infected in our beginning and corrupted in our father After all these reasous there is no more reason of complaint Miserable man instead of accusing Gods Justice must implore his mercy and must find out that innocency in Iesus Christ which he hath lost in Adam to the end that as naturall generation hath been the cause of his misery Spirituall generation may be the cause of his happinesse and that he may there partake of grace without any other merits then those of the Sonne of God as he hath received condemnation without any other fault then that of Adam OE THE CORRUPTION OF the Soul by SINNE The Second Treatise The First Discourse Of the Souls Excellencie and of the miseries which shee hath contracted by Sinne. THe Church hath oft times seen the Truth of her belief gain-said by contrary Heresies neither hath she almost at any time explained the mysteries of faith but that she hath seen new Sects arise which by different ways have endeavoured to bereave her of her Purity and to engage her in Errour when she explained her self upon the mysterie of the Trinity and that she had taught her Children to adore the plurality of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence she was opposed by two contrary Heresies the one of which confounded the Persons the other divide the Nature when to declare unto us the Oeconomy of the Incarnation she hath taught us that Man-God did unite in the unity of his Person the Divine Nature with the humane there arose Heretiques who desirous to destroy one another quitted the Catholicks opinions and perswaded themselves either that there was but one Nature or two Persons in Iesus Christ when finally the same Church distinguishing between the purity and the corruption of nature taught us that the one was the worke of GOD the other the worke of sinne two Heresies sprung up which withstood this truth with different weapons for the one confounded the corruption of Nature with her Essence and Imagined that there was a bad Principium of which all things visible were the work the other by a clean contrary tract would excuse the disorders of sin by the goodnesse of Nature and perswade us that mans Irregularities were nether the effects nor the punishment of his Rebellion it approoved of Concupiscence and placed it in the Terrestiall Paradice before the Serpent had seduced the first woman it made merry with Original righteousnes and bereft her of the Power of composing the differences of the soul and body it approved of all those revolts which we look upon as the cursed consequences of sin and imployed it's reason to perswade Catholicks that they were rather the effects of our Constitution then the Punishments of our disobedience it maintained together with Phylosophy whose arms it borrowed to fight against Religion that death was rather a law then a punishment and that even in the state of Innocency a man could not have fenced himself against death The Churches belief being equally distant from these two Errours and since she doth as constantly confesse the goodnesse of nature as her corruption I have thought good throughout all this work to mingle Invectives with Panygericks and to observe as well the Advantages which man receives from God as the miseries which he contracts by sin I therefore think my self obliged to set forth the beauties of the soul before I describe her blemishes and to paint forth on the same Table her perfections and her defaults The souls Originall contributes to her greatnesse and though she be brought Ex Nihilo t is no small miracle that Divine Power hath been able to draw so excellent a thing from so barren a subject Phylosophers who never knew the truth without the mixture of falshood and who have always in Religion mingled Fables with History Imagined that soul made a part of the Divine substance that she was a slip of his being that after having inlivened the body which served her for a sepulchre or prison she should be happily re-united to her Principium Some others more modest believe that she drew her birth from Heaven and that preserving the memory of her dear Country she could ill bear with the length of her exile Some others lesse elevated have perswaded thēselves that she was form'd of earth and that being more extenuated not more noble then the body she had the same Element for her Originall the Pythagorians composed her of Numbers and would have harmony to be her Essence as that which maketh Peace in the world and accordeth the Elements some dotards have drawn her from the Atoms of the Sun and gave her a
she willingly embraceth whatsoever is pleasing unto her she ads voluntary sins to sins of Nature and will have that of her faults some be the effects of her misfortune and others of her lewdness In fine it seems that those that follow her motions endevour to exceed the sin of their birth by the sins of their life and as if they thought it an offence to be more innocent then their Father they strive to be more faulty then hee who committed all the sins in the world when he made all that descended from him Criminall The second Discourse That the soul is become slave unto the body by reason of sin THough the soul be the noblest part of man yet is she not void of fault and for any excessive praise that Prophane Phylosophy may give her she hath naturall weaknesses which do accompany her even in Innocency Adams soul was engaged in his body and in her Noblest operations she needed the Organes thereof to expresse her thoughts or execute her designs though she were pleased with this dependancy she ceased not to be servile and whosoever should reduce an Angel to this condition should take from him his glory and his liberty she could not quit her body to go to Heaven whethersoever her love did carry her she must carry her host with her and rather then to forego this pleasing Prison she did prorogue the accomplishment of her desire Ignorance was in some sort naturall unto her and though knowledge was infused into the soul of Adam together with Grace we are not sure that he could have transmitted it unto his off-spring had not the way of learning it been painfull it would have at least been tedious and if labour had not been requisite time would at least have been required to the acquiring thereof though the Organes of the body had been well disposed there would have been a difference in their temper and all souls would not have had the same advantages of Grace which was their last perfection would never have raised them into the rank of Angels and whatsoever communication men might have had with those happy spirits they could never have arrived at their Hierarchy Though we are hereby taught that the soul had her weaknesses in the state of Innocency yet being Naturall they were not painful and though they were faults yet were they not punishments for in this condition man knew nothing which pained him he was satisfied with his Advantages and was not lesse happy though no Angell his nature being the meer work of God had no defaults that which seem'd humble ceased not to be glorious and the tye which the soul had to the body was not a servitude though a necessity she was well pleased with her abode and though she were of a more elevated Condition then was her body the service she had from thence made her love her Quarter the Chains wherewith they were united were so strong as nothing but sin could breake them their Inclinations in the difference of their Nature were so conformable as whatsoever pleased the one did not dislike the other the body by an admirable prodigie heighthned it's self into the souls Employments without violence and the soul deigned to submit her self to the necessities of the body without injury to her self she found no difficulty in all she did and if the body were not serviceable to her in her more noble works yet did it not resist her therein their contentments were Common and as the soul was not subject to sorrow neither did the body feel any pain This happy Condition lasted no longer then the time of Innocency when man once lost his righteousnesse he lost his happinesse and when he became Criminall he became miserable the soul went less in her greatnesses and this living Image of the Divine Essence saw her self brought to such misery as may better be exprest by tears then words nothing remain'd intire in man and the outrages of sin dispersed themselves into all the parts of the body the understanding was darkned the memory weakned and the will depraved In all the faculties of the soul the soul received some prejudice in her very Essence and evill found her out in such a condition wherein as being Forma corporis she was engaged in the Materia thereof for since her offence she her self as it were obliged to love a cruell Tyrant to bear with an irreconcileable Enemy to serve a rebellious slave and to make up all her misfortunes reduced to that necessity as she is not able without sorrow to forego the Cause of all her disasters To conceive her corruption we must of necessity comprehend her purity and observe the Effects which Originall righteousnesse wrought in the soul the first was that notwithstanding her being engaged in a body she ceased not to be spirituall her Functions made her not Animale and though united to the body by Grace yet was she not thereby a Prisoner she communicated her perfections to it and shared not in it's defects she was free though bound her body was her Temple not her Prison and the love she bore unto it did not injure her liberty but as soon as sin had insinuated it self into the ground work of her Essence she changed condition the chain of love which tyed her to her body was turned to a servile ord which bound her to her slave her charity was turned into self-love she forgot her greatnesse and that she might interest her self in all the desires of her body she lost all the qualities of her spirit sensible things became her diversions she delighted in nothing but the voluptuousnesse of the senses if she had changed nature by changing condition she ccased to love the Summum Bonum and began to idolize her body she fore-went her noble desires for such as were infamous and confining all her wishes either to the affairs or pleasures of her body she loved nothing but what was earthly and sensible They say that in the state of glory the bodies of the blessed will become spirituall and that losing all the feelings of their Materia they shall only have the inclinations of the spirit that they shall follow their soul without trouble and by an unconceiveable agility they shall fly faster then the winds or lightening that they shall pierce the most solid things and that being more subtill then flames of fire they shall penetrate even the substance of the Heavens they shall shine with glory and being more radiant then the Sun they shall fill all parts with light but in the state of sin the soul assumed the qualities of the body her love engaged her further in the Materia then Nature had done she made her Prison more streight and more obscure she lost the lights she was infused withall that she might see no longer but through the senses and her Compliance with her slave did so alter her Inclinations as reflecting upon her self she had much ado
was divided in her will But nothing did so much astonish her as to see that Rebellion was spread abroad throughout her whole Empire and that all her subjects were become Rebels for her Passions which formerly followed her orders now did nothing but by their own motions they waited no longer for Commands from reason and consulting with nothing but their own Interests began to rise as oft as they were solicited either by Pleasure or Profit so to do if her senses were not disobedient they were unfaithfull and being corrupted by objects made her no more true reports Falshood entred into her by the eyes or by the ears under the likenesse of Truth vice did insinuate it self into them with more delight then vertue and these wicked Spies holding Intelligence with the enemy tooke Pleasure when once they had suffered themselves to be corrupted to abuse their Sovereign In fine the revolt was so generall as it passed even into all the parts of the body the operations whereof being necessary it seemed they could not be irregular Naturall Heat did no longer perform all it's Functions and were it either that it had lost it's strength or that it found any resistance in Food it could not perfectly digest nourishment and crudities were occasioned thereby which furnished matter for sicknesses Old age which was a consequence of this disorder tooke from her the use of her Members and the soul was never more troubled then when she found that an humour falling upon the Nerues hindred their motion and caused Pain in them Man abhorred himself he saw wrinckles in his face and he thought his death was not far off when he saw his hair grow gray that his eyes lost their lustre that his ears distinguisht no more of sounds and that his legs grown weak could no longer sustain him To all these evils that the soul of our first Father suffered after having sinned our disorders have added some more direfull for the soul seems only to be fastened to her body that she may undergo a thousand Punishments Death presents himself before her in a thousand dreadfull shapes every sicknesse is a Torment every part of the body is a place where Pain may assail her the remedies which she seeks for to cure her are new pains and the very vertues which she cals in to her ayd are so austeer as they oft times send her back to despair sometimes she changeth her disease into a remedy by an extravagancy which Nature teacheth her she makes use of the rigour of death against the miseries of life Though this blind Fury be always unjust and that it be not lawfull for any how unhappy soever to hasten the hour of his death yet it is a good proof of the misery of sinfull man and an excellent argument to prove that the soul is very unhappy since she finds no more wretched Place of abode then her body and that she resolveth to lose life that she may recover her liberty The third Discourse Of the weaknesses which humane understanding hath contracted by Sin IF the understanding be not the Noblest of all the faculties of the soul it is at least the most illustrious it is the Sun of our soul which conveys light into the will which guides this blind Queen which dictates her decrees unto her which pronounceth them for her and which serves her for an Interpreter when she will expresse her intentions t is this which seeketh out truth and finds it which vaunts it self to be to be the Father of Sciences and which solicited by admiration discovers the causes the effects whereof she hath observed It is this which conceiveth the perfections of each Creature and which without losing it self from the soul hath the vertue of attracting objects and of transforming them into it's self that it may know them it makes the Sun descend from the Skie without Magick it makes mettle rise from the bottom of Abisses without violence and dissects whole Nature without the effusion of bloud It is this Noble faculty likewise which appears first in man which entertains Company and takes the heart and which makes it self be admired even by those that do condemne it but though it retein so many advantages as makes it be generally esteemed of yet hath it it's defects and a man may easily judge by the weaknesse thereof that as it had a great share in the sin of man it had the like in his punishment for to convince mans understanding and oblige him to condemne himself making him his own Judge you need but set Nature and Religion before him and let him see the shamefull spots he hath contracted by sin in these two faithfull looking-glasses Since it's Rebellion it is become slave unto the senses and cannot discover truth but by their Inter medium it is inwardly possest with ignorance it 's cruellest enemy is it's first hostesse it carryes it's butcher in it's bosome and though nothing be contrary unto it then errour yet nothing is more natural it hath much ado to rid it's hand thereof and knowledge which promiseth to free it of Errour is not got without much labour it's roses are mingled with thorns Curiosity is a Punishment and it is disputable whether sciences be not more troublesome then the evils whereof they cure us Colledges are shamefull Prisons the Masters thereof are unsufferable Tyrants and the Scholers unfortunates innocents to learn Sciences we lose content and liberty and our understanding is so out of the way as it must be made to endure a great deal of evill before any good be done unto it whatsoever cunning is used to make arts pleasing unto us they always cost us tears and that we may see ignorance is naturall unto us since we are become guilty t is hardly driven away but returns with ease But the rigour of our Punishment is the more augmented in that the understanding is enjoyned to employ unfaithfull Officers to be instructed by ignorant Masters and to be led by blind guides In the state of Innocence truth was written by the hand of Nature in the bottom of our soule knowledge was thereinto infused and was not seduced by the senses the soul learnt nothing of them which shee knew not before of her self she was wise without trouble or errour and if she made triall of her eyes or eares 't was rather for recreation then necessity but now Ignorance reigns in our understanding and to overcome this Monster we must make use of our senses which hold intelligence with it What Victory can a Prince hope for who employs Rebels to defend his State or to fight against his enemies and what good success can mans understanding hope for which is necessitated to be instructed by Masters which are as ignorant as its self the senses perceive but the appearances of things their substances are unknown unto them their operations are uncertain and they stand in need of Air or Light to be inform'd
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
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
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