Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	soul_n	2,761	5	5.3627	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

those very Vipers which he sees devouring him This Disorder is the Penalty of our Transgression and the Frailty under which we groan is not the Product of our Nature but the Chastisement of the Justice of God For the Revolt of the Flesh against the Spirit is not a Condition of our Being but a severe Punishment of Sin Since Man then is Criminal and his Reason which ought to regulate his now disobedient Passions is become obnubulated he must of necessity have recourse to Grace and implore that from Mercy which Justice has deprived him of And since he cannot hope for a Peace so must at least labour to obtain a Victory Nature alone cannot regulate our Passions THere was some specious Pretext of Verity in the confounding all our Passions with Vices for in that State to which sin has reduced us we have no Thoughts but what are impure and as our Nature is totally corrupted so of Consequence all our Inclinations are disorderly for the Streams must necessarily be troubled which flow from a foul Spring 'T was a generous Effort I confess of the Philosophers but vain withal to attempt the making Man as moderate in the State of Sin as he was under original Justice But we Christians have learned other Documents from the sacred Scripture we know that Grace must assist Reason to repel the violent Emotions of our Passions for of our selves we are not capable of remedying their Irregularity though we do not approve of it Nature in her self has not lost any thing of her original Excellency tho' examining her under the miserable servitude of sin she has not the power of exerting her self to so much good as formerly She is not annihilated tho' she is become Criminal and even under this Frailty there remains some Tincture of her Ancient Condition For as St. Austin says there is doubtless no question but we esteem the Being of Man tho' we condemn his Sin nor can we more reasonably blame him than in shewing how he dishonours that by the fatal Contagion of his Iniquity which was so very honourable by its own Nature Even under sin Man has some good Inclinations but wanteth the power to follow them he has good Purposes but knows not how to effect them and like Birds caught in a Net can't use those very Wings they have or recover that Liberty they desire Grace only can comfort us under our Misery and give us strength to resist Vice practise Virtue and regulate all the Inordinateness of our Passions Of the necessity of Grace to govern the Passions THE Grace which Jesus Christ has purchased for us at the expence of his Blood is infinitely more precious than what we lost in Adam's Fall its Advantages are so gloriously great that they exceed our very Desires It not only elevates us far above our Condition and promises us a Felicity equal to that of the Angels but makes Christ our Head and obliges God himself to acknowledge us his Children partakers of Glory with his own beloved Son But this only respects Futurity for tho' we have already received the happy Pledges of these most gracious Promises and that this Grace lies in the bottom of our Souls yet alas the Body is still wallowing in its Iniquity and tho' the Spirit be reinforced yet the Flesh is still oppress'd with its usual Weaknesses and groans under an intollerable Bondage whilst its other Sister tastes all the Sweets of Peace and Liberty Baptism doth not totally take away Concupiscence it only moderates it and tho' it strengthens the Soul yet it leaves her still in a certain languid Condition which cannot be taken away perfectly till she comes into Glory This Weakness and Imbecillity of her State is not a Sin and tho' it prove the exuberant Source of many yet it doth not render us culpable but when we too poorely submit to its Instigations We consider not so much the Beginning as the Cause of a Man's Anger Nor do we weigh the deepness of his Sorrow but the Subject of it Nor do we examine so much if a Man be seized with any pannick Apprehension or not but wherefore he is so If he be angry at a sinner to reclaim him or if he is afflicted with the miserable to comfort them or if by his fear he can prevent the ruin of one who was precipitating himself into danger I cannot imagine any Judge would be so severe as to condemn Passions so useful and he must forfeit his Pretensions to Rationality who would forbid us such innocent Affections as those Of consequence then the Excess only is blameable and the Passions are no longer Criminal than they are immoderate Concupiscence is born with us and grows in vigour and strength as we do our selves nor doth it generally leave us but with the last gasp However in an Affair so important to our Salvation it behoves us to be very circumspect lest by our Negligence we should add new Forces to an Enemy that is but too puissant of its self Since we have entred the List together let us manfully attack it and if it be possible by Art or Industry make that die before us which came into the World with us But the Consummation of this great and happy Victory is not to be hoped for in our Condition and since Grace is not able to extinguish Concupiscence neither can she utterly master our Passions Our Senses are chiefly the Causes of the Disorders of our Passions I Cannot but lament the sad Condition of the Soul when I reflect what a Prisoner she is to the Body nor can I wonder that she so very frequently mistakes Errors for Truths since her Intelligence is conveyed to her through the Parts of the Senses She can know nothing but by the Ears or the Eyes and their Information is generally so deceitful that Blindness were preferable to their false Lights and an utter Ignorance less insupportable than the fatal dubious Knowledge they procure us Nature engaging the Soul in the Body renders her a Slave to all the Senses and thereby obliges her in her most Noble and Considerable Operations to take Advice of those who are Stone-blind From hence is it that the greatest Part of our acquired Knowledge is but a painful Composition of Errors and even the Truth it self is never unattended with some Lyes Our Opinions are uncertain and our Passions which are generally guided by them cannot but be irregular There is more Irregularity in the Passions of Man than in those of Beasts MAn's Advantages are prejudicial to him and Reason it self when once she becomes a Slave to the Senses only serves to make our Affections so much the more unreasonable as they blindly believe themselves in the Right The brute Beasts only apprehend the Danger that is immediately falling down upon them And as they have no Knowledge of what is future so do they hardly ever reflect on what is past But Man born for his own Destruction sollicitously looks out

suspended during his Agony for it was not without Cause that he cry'd My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Soul is much more happy than the Body by this Union for by the very Reflection on a past Misery she creates to her self new Pains whereof the Body feels no part and so of but one only Evil she makes a double Martyrdom The effect of this melancholy Passion are very strange for when Sorrow is not extreme she is ingenious and renders Man Eloquent without the benefit of Rhetorick to hear their pathetick Expressions that multitude of Sighs that so easily second the energy of their lugubrous Discourses one would think that the greatest horrours and anguish of Nature were infinitely less than what they groan under But when she is extreme she stupifies hardly leaving Man the use of any Sense and who was so florid in describing a small Evil confesses by his silence that this is without comparison greater since it is unutterable Curae leves loquuntur magnae stupent This mighty alteration gave occasion to the Poets to feign that it Converted some into Rocks others into Stones The good use of Sorrow VVE must not wonder if the Stoicks condemn a Passion when they do not approve even of the very Virtues she produces placing their Wisemen in such a State of Felicity that no humane cause could ever interrupt In the plundering of a City or the destruction of their Country they were still as unmov'd as Jupiter would be at the dissolution of the Universe and if they granted a Sigh to a deceased Parent or shed a Tear with the reflection of their Countries Ruin yet this was without ever Affecting the Soul whose Felicity consisting in its self it could not be mov'd by any external Cause But sure the pomp of these haughty Expressions could be only to preserve the Soul in her Sovereignty and perswade us not to be so far overwhelm'd with the pain of the Body as to dethrone the Mind and of the Malady of the Slave make the Misery of the Sovereign which the better to effect she us'd the policy of the Orators who by their Hyperboles perswade us of Verities and prove all things possible to animate us to some that are difficult Therefore that the Soul might not sink under the weakness of the Body but be establish'd in her Empire they have made use of Terms somewhat more Eloquent than true Sorrow is so reasonable a Passion that there are some Junctures wherein it were Impiety not to be afflicted and we must not only bewail our own Sins but our Neighbours Miseries We stand indebted to this Passion for our Innocence because our conversion to Grace is perfected in our sorrow for Sin and the Justice of God satisfied with the sincerity of our Tears In other Circumstances she works not so miraculously If our Afflictions comfort the Living they do not raise the Dead and if they assure the Wretched of our Affection they deliver them not from the anguish of their Torments But the sadness of Repentance is of another nature those grievous Sighs which oppress Sin save the Sinner these Tears wash away the Crime and sanctifie the Criminal Sorrow alone for having offended becomes here a compleat satisfaction And as God knoweth that it lies not in our power to alter any thing which has already hapned so he graciously accepts of our Repentance for having transgressed And as he sees the bottom of our Hearts so when our Tears are unfeigned he never refuses them his Pardon Were it not for this Passion there could be no Salvation since there can be no Repentance without Sorrow we will therefore be vehement in the defence of a Passion from which we receive such considerable Advantages And tho' Princes thinking this too austere a Passion to have admittance into their Courts by Musick Balls Dancings Plays and many other Divertisements seek to keep it from an Entrance yet before the Tribunal of God this Passion has more Credit than all the others united in one She can boast that she works the strange Metamorphosis in Grace of making Saints of Sinners and of the Children of Disobedience Darkness and Perdition she makes Children of Light Brothers with the Son of God and Heirs of everlasting Felicities and of a Crown and Kingdom which can know no end The Conclusion FRom all these Discourses 't is easie to judge that there is no Passion in our Souls which may not be advantageously managed by Reason as well as Grace For to summ up all what has been said in the whole Work Love may be chang'd into a holy Amity and Hatred may be brought to a just Indignation Desires moderated are so many good Assistants to acquire Virtue Eschewing is the proper security of Chastity Hope animates us to brave and generous Undertakings and our Despair turns us from rash ones Fear is serviceable to Prudence and Boldness to Valour As brutish as Anger seems she sides with Justice Joy is an innocent Antepast of Felicity Grief a short pain that frees us from Eternal Torments So that our Salvation depends only upon the good use of our Passions and Virtue it self only subsisteth by the good employment of the Motions of our Soul FINIS INDEX PART I. OF the Number of our Passions 14 Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 17 If there were any Passions in Jesus Christ and wherein they differ'd from ours 19 Of the disorderliness of Man's Pass 22 Nature alone cannot regulate our Passions 24 Of the necessity of Grace to govern the Passions 26 Our Senses are chiefly the Causes of the disorders of our Passions 28 There is more irregularity in the Passions of Man than in those of Beasts 29 As there is nothing more difficult so there is nothing more glorious than the Government of the Passions 32 No Slavery is so miserable as that of being over-power'd by our Passions 37 To govern our Passions we must first moderate them 41 Reason alone is able to restrain the Passions 46 By what means we may moderate our Passions 50 Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue 53 There is no Passion which may not be chang'd into a Virtue 58 The Government of our Passions is the business of Virtue 62 PART II. OF Love 66 Of the good use of Love 68 Of the nature and properties of Hatred 73 The good use of Hatred 76 Of the nature and properties of Desire 80 Of the good use of Desire 83 Of the nature propert of Eschewing 86 Of Hope 88 Of the good use of Hope 91 Of Despair 93 Of Boldness 96 Of the good use of Boldness 100 Of Fear 102 Of the good use of Fear 105 Of Anger 106 The good use of Anger 109 Of Pleasure 112 Of the good use of Pleasure 115 Of Sorrow 117 The good use of Sorrow 119 The Conclusion 122 BOOKS Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard CApt.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS According to the RULES OF Reason and Religion VIZ. Love Hatred Desire Eschewing Hope Despair Fear Anger Delight Sorrow c. Sapiens uno minor est Jove Horat. London Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. To the Right Honourable John Earl of Marleborough Baron Churchill of Aymouth and Sandridge Governour to His Highness the Duke of Gloucester and one of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord A Soldier cannot lay the Endeavours of his Pen any where so properly as at your Lorships Feet We have seen you in Flanders as great as at Kensington You were the Delight of our own Troops and the Terrour of our Enemies the mighty Darling of Mars and Minerva In Your Lordship alone we found all those fatal Contrarieties reconcil'd The Captain was a Courtier the Courtier a Man of Honour the Man of Honour preferr'd But not to be tedious where the most that can be said will be too little Your Lordship was all that Man cou'd wish or Man cou'd be The brightest Planet of the Creation has been Eclips'd But Europe's Genius alas cou'd not long support your Retirement For tho' his present Majesty t is true cou'd manage an Army without a Marlborough yet there was another task more difficult and out of his Sphere too I mean that glorious Imployment Your Lordship possesses at St. James's The Education of so Great so Young so Hopeful a Prince adds not more to your Grandeur than it subtracts from your Tranquility For the Charge of so inestimable a Jewel cannot but make Your Lordship very solicitous The Early dawning of his Infant Years gave us all assurances he would be something extraordinary Every day shews us more and more the collected Endowments of all his Royal Predecessors And if the rest of those who are about His Highness's Person could come any thing near Your Lordship in Care or Capacity He cannot possibly be otherwise than as Wise as Tiberius as Victorious as Alexander as Valiant as Julius and as happy as Augustus But I rob my Prince and the Publick too by the length of this Dedication Wherefore my Lord I humbly crave Pardon for the Liberty I have taken so publickly to profess my Self My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient and most Entirely Devoted Servant W. AYLOFFE The Government of the Passions The Introduction REason is that Emanation from the Divinity which if it be not the sole end of our being yet is one difference between us and the rest of the Creation Those who first studied the improving it were justly called Wise Men for as they excelled in knowledge and understanding they seem'd the better Copies of their great Original We may indeed form to our selves som Principles of Moral Philosophy because its Object is the Work of Man But it was a bold attempt of Reason and somewhat more curious than cautious more daring than advised to pry into the Eternal Wisdom of the Almighty St. Austin's defining the World to be a great Theatre where the Art of him that made it shone forth on all hands was more pious than exact The greater effects of God's Wisdom and Power are concealed from our Eyes and utterly impossible for us to comprehend Those many wonderful Springs by which every part of this glorious Machine is moved are all behind the Scenes and past our finding out we see no more than the Dial Plate of the Clock as it were and nothing at all of the movement Matter is we know not what this Globe is suspended we know not how and the whole Universe is we know not where Might not the World be rather thought a wonderful Riddle of the Infinite Wisdom of God to employ our admiration but punish if not prevent our Curiosity The causes of all things are so abstruse and our Capacities so shallow that not only the Astronomers but other Natural Philosophers too may find all their Principles vain and that Man is equally ignorant of the Grass that grows in the Fields and of the Sun that moves in the Firmament of a Fly a Pismire and his own Person Every thing is so uncertain in the Systems of Natural Philosophy that our greatest prudence is not to meddle with it at all but humbly admire what whilst we are here below we can never understand Aristotle himself that had the profoundest Capacity of any Man if he knows any thing at all now sees a great many mistakes in his Books of the Heavens of Meteors and the Soul c. For experience and the benefit of new invented Instruments have taught us a great many absurdities in his Works and hereafter we may come to find that we are not far from being altogether in the dark For Man's Reason is not so universal but that she is limited in most Subjects Pythagoras though he learnt much Natural Philosophy from the Aegyptians yet he was more curious of Morality and found out a method of improving that even whilst he investigated Nature Socrates was a great and good Man and reduc'd it to Principles Zeno affected a Gravity in all the Air of his Philosophy and that supercilious Sect when they thought as others did could not be brought to omit the haughtiness of their stile In other Points they sought by a captious Dialectick to conceal the defects in their Doctrines to be Sophisters where they could not be solid the better to varnish the falshoods of their Philosophy they thought to out-vy the Modesty and Patience of the Primitive Christians but acting by a different Principle their Virtue was frequently overthrown and in short most of their Virtues were but a Policy whereby they conceal'd their Ignorance and Vice and impos'd upon the unthinking part of Mankind The whole Study of Philosophy is charming and every part of that body has its beauties as well as its benefits Ethicks I confess has the least lustre and if its utility did not enhance its worth Socrates had walk'd by himself and no body been in the Porch with Zeno. However Epicurus would have been crowded for where Sensuality is the great Principle of a Sect of Philosophers the School will never be empty if Paris be Judge and fair Helen the Bribe Venus may be sure of the Cause 'T is true our dispute is somewhat unequal and the Enemies we are to engage with in this Intestine Warfare are not only powerful but dishonourable St. Paul seem'd to mention his Victory at Ephesus with disdain since he fought with Beasts and what alas are all our Passions but such To triumph over Avarice is not a subject to boast of since daily experience informs us it is its own punishment and we are as anxious in concerning as we were in acquiring nay the horrours wherewith we apprehend a loss and the eager desires of gaining more are two such tormentors as make the covetous Man suffer more than one Hell What glory is it to be not prodigal since what