observ'd of St. Austin touching the insolence of the Stoicks that they only differed from other Philosophers in an affected Arrogancy of terms and that although their expressions were more haughty yet were their sentiments no sublimer than those of other Sects In effect they blame not so much the Passions as their Excesses and if they vainly boasted some fond desire of smothering them yet they never had any hopes of effecting it It seems much less difficult to govern the Passions than the Senses for Love and Fear are sooner brought to reason than Hunger or Thirst so that in as much as we can command our Senses we may by reason subject our Passions likewise and render our desires and fears as virtuous as we make our fastings and watchings religious acts Reason is the great propriety of Man all other qualifications are but exotick and adventitious he loseth them without impoverishing himself and provided he be rational he can always stile himself Man This must be the great source of our felicity and by managing the motions of the inferiour part of the Soul we shall learn how all the Passions may serve to our advantage Fear proves our security and Hope animates us to generous Enterprizes by so much the more glorious as they seem to be environed with difficulties In short the Passions are not so predominant but that they may be subjugated by reason Virtue would want employ if she had not Passions to vanquish or at least to regulate Fortitude bridles in Fear Modesty measures our Desires Temperance represses the violent instigations of Voluptuousness Clemency moderates the efervescency of Choler and if it were not for this Princes would neither be merciful nor just If the Passions receive such great advantages from the assistance of Virtue after some training in her School they repay her richly and serve her as faithfully Fear is the greatest part of Prudence and tho' some tax her with anticipating Evils yet she doth not so much forestall dangers to make them more afflicting but by considering them at a distance she teaches us how we may happily avoid them or patiently undergo them Boldness attends Valour and the most illustrious Conquerors owe their Lawrels to the generosity of this Passion Choler supports Justice animating Magistrates to the punishment of Criminals so that there is not any one Passion but what is subservient to Virtue when it is guided by reason and those who have vented so much of their malicious Eloquence in crying down the Passions have only shewed they were ignorant both as to their use and merit We may define Passion then to be a motion of the sensitive Appetite occasioned by imagination of a real or an apparent good or evil In its birth it hath no other malignity than what it contracts from the Corruption of Humane Nature But when the understanding begins to be obfuscated with the fuliginous Clouds of their Vapours or else vanquish'd with the softer blandishments of their solicitations and so perverts the Will then and only then their motions turn rebellious and who was but irregular before is now become entirely criminal for as the impulses of the inferiour part of the Soul are no ways free of themselves they cannot be vicious but when they are voluntary These Passions we shall endeavour to bring under the Government of Reason and by the assistance of Grace happily transmute them into so many Virtues 'T is not enough here to know the Cause of our Malady unless we are instructed in the Cure too For these are distempers which charm and the Patient frequently fears nothing more than recovery We cannot destroy our Passions without making a rupture in the Oeconomy of our Nature yet we may draw great Service from them more than barely as some fancied by trying our Courage in repelling their too rapid violence or our constancy in supporting them patiently I hope to demonstrate that as Providence did work our Salvation out of our ruine so we may gather our tranquility and happiness out of that very mighty disorder which our Passions occasion in us Of the Number of our Passions SOme have made the Passions as 't were to flow from two different Springs which they term the Concupiscible and the Irascible Apetite Supposing that such contrary Motions could not be effected by one and the same Power or part of the Soul Yet with their leave I should rather follow the Opinion of St. Austin not believing that a diversity of Sentiments presupposes a diversity of Faculties too since one Man frequently desires Things contrary in themselves yet he conserves the unity of his Person in the variety of his Desires The Holy Father had a severe Tryal of this in his Conversion his Soul was distracted with differing Sentiments and the good Saint wonder'd that having but one Will he should be capable of forming such very opposite Resolutions so that the Passions may possibly flow all from the same individual Source since the Soul is not either divided or multiplied by its various Faculties preserving the unity of its Essence even in the multitude of its Operations The Philosophers themselves are divided in their Opinions concerning the Number of the Passions yet I can't but side with St. Austin in this particular likewise and hold that Love is the only Passion which agitates us For as the same vast Body of Water generally termed the Sea has distinct Names in every respective Part of the World through which it passes or as the Heaven 's made a different Divinity of each Attribute and Perfection of God so the various Effects of this one Passion has been the great occasion of Man's judging that there were many of several Natures supposing that it changed its Condition as often as it changed its Conduct Thus Reason confirms our Belief that there 's but one only Passion and what others have thought to be such were but only so many Properties of this one Desiring and Shunning Hope and Fear are the Motions of Love by which it seeks what pleases and flies what is disagreeable to it 'T is but a very frivolous Objection to this Hyyothesis That Love must of Consequence transform it self into its Contrary which is Hatred for even that very Motion of Love is reconcilable with Reason and Experience since one Cause produces contrary Effects the Sun melts wax and hardens Clay Justice punishes Crimes and rewards Virtue or if we may presume to fly a step higher God only hates sin because he loves himself Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 'T IS so long a Tract of Time since Man lost his Innocence that we at present have but a faint Idea of what it was nay did not the Justice of God punish the Crimes of the Father in the Person of the Son peradventure we should hardly regret the loss as irreparable as it is Every one discribes the State of Innocence according to his own Imagination yet doubtless as the Earth brought
before God grow rich by former Losses thus learning Experience at our own expence we shall never permit our Passions to grow to that fatal height again as to offend God or dethrone our Reason Thus our very Misfortunes may be made to tend to our Advantage and Examples in other things shew us that a Storm may drive us into the wish'd for Haven and the same furious Billows that cast away our Vessel may cast us afterwards on shore Not that a wise Man would leap overboard and trust his safety to the necessity of a Miracle no more should a prudent Christian permit his Passions to come this length to reap the benefit of Repentance for it whereof he is not assured We must not sin that Grace may abound In pursuit of these Truths we may venture to advance on more which is this that considering all things our condition is not so deplorable as some of us peradventure imagine who impute the greatest share of our Misdemeanours to the misery of our Nature Our good Fortune is in our own Hands we sail upon an Ocean whose Billows are absolutely at our disposal we can both avoid the danger of Rocks and if there arise any Tempest we can immediately lay it and what was instanced upon another Juncture we may apply here in honour to Reason which is an Emanation from God himself 't is something extraordinary since the Winds and the Seas of our Passions and corrupt Nature obey it By what means we may moderate our Passions VVE might here use the Policy of the Huntsman who uses tame Beasts to catch the Wild and oppose Hope to Fear that she might not despond Joy to Sorrow that it grow not excessive However there may seem some plausibleness in the method yet it is not safe We may prove the reality of Ovid's Acteon and perish by those Hounds we used for our pleasure We fortifie one Passion to repel the violence of another which now having its force augmented by our indulgence may rebel it self and be more hard to repress than the other was 'T is not safe to shew them how to conquer Tho' in common Policy the practice may hold off making War toobta in a more advantageous Peace or to use the interest of reconciled Enemies to pacifie those who still harass us with Incursions and acts of Hostility and to sow Discord between those Neighbours whose agreement and good intelligence might be prejudicial to us yet in Morality those Maxims have no Authority at all Reason which is the grand Sovereign of all the Passions must use her utmost care and diligence in watching over the first motions of our Passions and by taking away from them all those Objects which serve only to promote their Rebellion keep them in order with so much the less difficulty The Effects must cease when the Cause doth The only great Remedy against these fatal Intestine Commotions is not to give them any occasion of revolting 'T is the Pride of the World the Grandeur of Court the Glories of a Triumph that foment our Ambition and by shewing us these splendid Trophies of other Heroes make us uneasie till we have acquired the same empty Vanities for our selves too So Caesar wept at the reflection that he began to follow Arms at that Age wherein Alexander had conquered the whole World In the private retirement of a Country Village or a poor Farm we see none of all these empty Toys they are utterly strangers to such things and by not seeing any Image of them their Souls are never agitated with that raging Phrenzy that sacrifices every thing to its own ends Nor indeed can we expect it should spare any thing since it sacrifices its own tranquility to the accomplishing its own desires So is it likewise with Sorrow dim Lights dark Chambers every thing coloured with black a profound slence through the whole Family amazement and horrour in every Face makes the impression so much the deeper And indeed one would think Man did not labour so much to bridle his Passion as to indulge it Take away these lugubrious ornaments let the person afflicted but go abroad and converse with those who have no cause to weep and the source of their Tears will quickly dry up Nature it self will be weary of always lamenting and peradventure no Sorrow would be so very intense as 't is did we not heighten it by Circumstances The same may be observed of all the other Passions which are not so difficult to govern but that we will not seriously set about it but on the contrary by our fatal Artifices we render them more obstinate in their Rebellion and assist them in their Insurrections as if we were desirous of being miserable by them or afraid of being victorious over them Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue THE Knowledge of Man being generally but superficial only we are taken with the mere Appearances of things And this was it which made the Dogma's of the Stoicks be received with so universal and so great an approbation They promised no less than to make Angels of their Sectators and to place them in a Condition beyond that of poor Mortality Philosophy alone was to elevate them above all the Storms and Thunders of our Passions and by fixing them in a higher Region of Serenity free them from all those troublesome Disorders which interrupt the happy Calm and Tranquility of the Soul But alas these were empty deluding promises and all these proud Waves turned into meer Froth Had it been possible for them to have made good these haughty pretensions they had at once superseded all those Helps which Nature has given us to become virtuous and the inferiour part of Man's Soul had been without any function For the Passions are but the mediate motions thereof by whose means without being separated from its body it is united to what it desireth or keeps at a distance from those Objects it apprehends Joy is the dilation of the Soul and Sorrow its contraction Desires make us as it were advance and Fear sollicits us to retire So that to abstract the Passions from the Soul were to deprive her of all her motions and render her impuissant as well as useless under the notion of constituting her felicity No reasonable Man would sure purchase his Happiness at so exorbitant a price For if Contentment consisteth in tasting the good we possess it must incontestably and naturally follow that the Passions are so many necessary motions of our Soul and that Joy must consummate the Bliss to which our Desires at first gave Life The Passions being so many Seeds of Virtue that if we will be at the pains to cultivate and improve them they will produce extraordinary delicious and agreeable Fruit. The Man is not born virtuous and that the Art which renders him such is as difficult to acquire as 't is glorious to possess yet it seems to be one power of the Soul to
the Passions are only insupportable because they are attended with Desires which like a Contagious Malady is spreading its fatal Poison through all the Faculties of the Soul to render Man so much the more miserable If Desire be so cruel she is as shameful for it is as much an Argument of our Indigence as our Affection for we never desire but Things that we have not Alexander the Great who could make Sovereigns of his Slaves could not accomplish his Desires in other Things He saw his dear Friend Hephestion at the Point of Death and could only specifie his Love to him in the Fervour of his unfeigned Wishes for his Recovery The Vows he made to Heaven for his Health were so many evident Proofs of his Weakness and Incapacity as well as of his Love and Sorrow Desires are so many Publick Marks of some Private Necessity for the Soul that wishes shews its Indigency This made Tertullian say That Desire is the Glory of Things desired and the Shame of the Party desiring the Honour of Riches and the Infamy of the Miser the Reputation of Dignities but the Scandal of the Ambitious Of the good Use of Desire ALthough there is nothing more frequent than Desires yet there is nothing more rare than their good Use For of so many who make Wishes how few know how to moderate them Nature has bestowed on us this Passion in order to the acquiring the Good we want and which is necessary for us We must be cautious and have only faint Desires for Transitory Things and be reserved in our wishing for what may be taken away from us with Violence The Fruition of no sublunary Felicity can be so fixed but by a Reverse of Fate it may be interrupted therefore we must love them without Ardour desire them with Moderation possess them with Indifference and part with them without Sorrow But the great and principal Use we ought to make of this Noble Passion is to elevate us to God and unite us inseparably to him for as he is the only and proper worthy Object of our Love so must he be of our Desires likewise The most glorious Things below are but imperfect at best and if they have some Charms to attract our Affection they have also many Faults which merit our Contempt The Sun with the beautiful Lustre of his splendid Rayes hath found People so Captivated with his Glory that they raised Altars to him Christianity which spread almost all over the Face of the known Earth has not been able to convince these of their Idolatry yet he has his Imperfections too which argue him but a Creature he cannot enlighten at once both the Parts of the World and though he goes round it every Day yet but the one half of it enjoys his Light He cannot avoid Ecclipses and see his Glories obfuscated by a Planet much inferior to him both in Magnitude and Beauty His Influences are not always propitious he is the Parricide as well as the Parent of Flowers If his Rays warm us here in Europe they scorch those in Africk But God has nothing which is not amiable in the highest Degree Millions of Angels sing forth the Honour of his Perfections which have had immortal Admirers paying Homage and Adoration to them from the very Infancy of the Creation This is that supream Good which we all long after he alone is able to fill the vast Immensity of our Desires with the Infinity of his Glories the Exuberancy of his Perfections and the unutterable Joys of his ravishing Beauties Let us then hug our Misery and rejoyce that Nature has given us this Passion since it may serve as Wings to elevate us to God and as Chains for to fasten us there too Our Wishes after Salvation can never be Fruitless the Object being Good their Virtue consisteth in their Ardour Our Converssion depends upon our own Will Desire animated with Grace blots out all our Transgressions and though Heaven be so glorious and so happy a Place yet it has cost little more than Desires to them who now enjoy it The Power of this Passion is so great that it makes us heard in Heaven even without speaking and nothing was ever refused there to the Importunity of its Demands It makes one of the glorious Appellations of Jesus Christ for before he was known by the Name of the Saviour of the World he was known by that of the Desired of all Nations Of the Nature and Properties of Eschewing VVE should have but too just Reasons of reprehending Nature in the dispensing of her Favours if after having given us an Impression whereby we covet Good she had not also given us one to avoid Evil for since we hate it 't would be a severe Affliction not to be able to fly it This Passion seems to be the Daughter of Hatred or her Hand-Maid at least she is as impetuous in running from any Object she apprehends as Love is in pursuit of what it desires Her Motions are generally innocent and rarely Criminal but by surprize We must then consider whether the Evil she labours to shun is really or apparently so and if Opinion has not perswaded her of an Error instead of a Truth There is properly but two things that may be termed Evil that is Guilt and Pain yet as we are much more sensible of the one than of the other so are we more diligent to avoid it and there are but few Men who had not rather be criminal than miserable We fly the Plague more than Sin and though we would not live in an Air that were prejudicial to our Health yet we run daily into Company that robs us of our innocence However Pain has this great advantage that it contributes equally to the Salvation of Man and the Glory of God For he is as much glorified in the punishment of the wicked as in the rewarding of the Just Therefore we must adore the Arm that strikes us and love the stripes for the dear Hand 's sake which inflicts them and teach the whole World that the Thunderbolts of the Almighty are just since they who are struck with them even adore them Sin is a real Evil and there ought our aversion to be irreconcilable There is no motion of it but what is odious the irregularity of the Will is its Cause and an infiniteness its Object it violates all Laws and dishonours both Angels and Man All the Miseries we suffer here are the punishments of its Disorders This is the great Evil we must eschew which has Hell for its place of residence and Eternal Death for its Chastizement Of all the Sins none seems more properly to stand in need of this Passion to curb it than that of Lasciviousness other Passions may jointly be employ'd to combat some Vices but nothing can be so efficaciously apply'd here as eschewing No Charms will be so powerful no Temptation so strong no Opportunity so favourable but that if we retire from
own Blood would by no means admit of our harbouring an Enemy that gave us such mortal Counsels Both these Opinions are equally unjust For Nature has shew'd her Care and Indulgence of Man in nothing more than in giving him this Passion since thereby he delivers himself from many Evils which oppress him and to which Philosophy it self could prescribe no Remedy Love makes us desire and that very Desire excites such anxious motions in our Breast whilst we do not compass what we so earnestly long for that we become miserable because we can't refrain loving a Good which we do not enjoy But Despair terminates this wretched uneasiness which otherwise would not terminate but with our Lives By a natural Prudence she obliges us to leave off the pursuit of what she finds impossible to attain and to kill those Desires which serve only to heighten our Misery We must accuse our Hope that too easily engages us in Perils and commend Despair that delivers us from them She is indeed more prudent than courageous and regards rather Safety than Glory yet when reduc'd to the last push and that a retreat is impossible she grows honourably Courageous resolving either to Dye or Conquer She has often snatch'd the Lawrels out of the Hands of the Victorious and by efforts which might almost pass for Miracles in surmounting Nature she preserves Man's Life by making him despise it and obtains for him glorious Triumphs whilst he sought an honourable Death But to make this Passion subservient to our Design we must keep it from those two dangerous Extreams Timidity and Timerity And tho' this Passion is sometimes innocent in Nature yet it is always criminal in Grace For our hope being founded on the veracity of God's Holy Word we can't despair without accusing him either of insufficiency or untruth In Religion Despair is the blackest Sin we can define and he shews that he merits not to have his Iniquity pardon'd who despairs that it will be 'T is a trampling the Blood of Christ under our Feet And what made Judas more criminal then the very betraying of his Master and Cain then in the murthering his Brother God has so equally mix'd his Promises with his Menaces his Blessings with his Maledictions throughout the sacred Scriptures that Man should neither Despair nor yet Presume To assure the former he has propos'd Repentance whose Door is open to all that will come in and to intimidate the latter who by their delays impose upon his Mercy he has made the hour of Death uncertain reducing them hereby to the necessity of apprehending that fatal Moment which being unknown to every living Creature may easily surprize us all Of Boldness IF the difficulties which accompany Virtues enhance their price and those are regarded as the most beautiful which are the most painful Boldness ought to be distinguish'd as the most glorious since she undertakes to encounter only with what the World produces of terrible and astonishing proposing no other benefit to it self of all the many Conquests it gains but the bare glory of having atchieved them Like generous Princes she leaves the Pillage to the Soldiers and is satisfied with Honour for her dividend As this Passion never takes any thing for its Object but what is both dangerous and difficult she is rather severe than charming It is easie to remark in the very Countenances of those Hero's whom she animates a certain austerity and fierceness which argues that her pleasure is in fatigues and her chiefest diversion consisteth in surmounting difficulties she has no Consolation but in glory and no nourishment but in hope with these feeble succours she attacks all her Enemies and gains almost as many signal Victories as she gives Battles she promises nothing but gives much and tries sometimes even Impossibilities to accomplish those Promises which Hope had made us and surmounts all meer difficulties that retard their execution She is generous in all her designs and tho' they are ever attended with hazards yet they are for the most part crowned with a happy but always with a glorious event And if the blind Piety of the Poets made them ascribe the softer impulses of Love to a Divinity which they styl'd Cupid the miraculous effects of this Passion has constrain'd them to raise Altars to her and offer up Sacrifices to her under the appellations of Pollas and Bellona To make the qualities of this Passion more evident we will subjoyn some Instances to all our antecedent Reasons Zerxes was the most puissant Monarch that ever was but gave the most palpable demonstration of his Power when he undertook the Conquest of Greece His Army consisted of no less than two Millions of Men The Rivers were too small to make so many but quench their thirst the Clouds of his Arrows obumbrated the Sun and this glorious Planet suffered Eclipses which the Astrologers could not foresee in the countenances of the Heavens All these mighty preparations were to subjugate a Country that was hardly sufficient to afford Quarters for such numerous Troops However Leonidas possessing himself of the Straits of Thermopile and entertaining himself between these Mountains resolv'd to give him Battle with only 300 Men. Without all dispute Hope and Fortitude elevated his Courage and animated this generous Warriour to an Enterprize equally difficult and glorious As Hope represented to him the Honour of having made head against the common Enemy and secur'd his Country's Freedom prevented their Altars from being raz'd and their Women from being ravish'd yet Fortitude more sincere in her Counsels shew'd him the greatness of the peril setting before Leonidas's Eyes that tho' his death was inviolable yet he ought not to quit his Post there was no necessity of his overcoming but there was of his dying and that he should do enough if in sacrificing his own Life he could but repel somewhat of the Enemies haughty Fury Following then the motions of this generous Passion he resolv'd to sustain the Charge of an Army which extended beyond the Horizon and so bid his Soldiers prepare for Combate and Death Thus we see that Hope feeds upon Pleasures which are imaginary but Fortitude upon pains which are real The Hope of Success was as much against Reason as the being overthrown was inevitable Yet we know that this small Handful of Men defended themselves so bravely and so long that tho' they fell there themselves yet they might be said to have conquered Zerxes's Army But at least we must allow that this was the Foundation of his total Defeat and the so happy event of this resolution so bravely executed encouraged all Greece and shewed them that so powerful an Enemy was not invincible if they durst dye The Power of a Prince may make him undertake great things yet nothing inspires so much boldness as Innocence For she thinks that Heaven it self is obliged to appear in her Cause in as much as she is without offence Of the good use of Boldness 'T
IS true that our Passions are oftner criminal than virtuous and the disorder of our Nature since the Sin of our first Parent has occasioned their greatest inclinations to be towards Vice yet with some assistances we may bring them from it This glorious Passion made all the Martyrs despise their Torments and whilst their Bodies distill'd drop by drop from the glowing Grid Irons their Tongues reproach'd their Persecutors and prais'd their God Grace we must grant to be more strong than Nature yet she doth not refuse the assistance of Nature Virtue stands in need of the succours of our Passions and they on the other hand require Virtue to be their Guide To make then this Passion a Virtue we must see she is accompanied with Justice He that takes Arms to ruin his Country is rather Criminal than Courageous and tho' he dye with his Sword in his Hand in the thickest of his Enemies yet the illegitimateness of his intentions will take from him the Character of Glorious We must likewise try our Forces before we begin to attack our Enemy Virtue is not so rigid as to exact impossibilities of us she requires but what is in our power and would have us in all undertakings weigh whether the Medium we use is proportionable to the end we propose But a Christian's boldness must have two other Conditions which are Humility and Hatred of our selves for he who has not conquer'd his Inclination cant hope to triumph over Pleasuress and he who has not declar'd open Wa against his Body is in no good condirtion of doing it against the sorrow of his Mind Let us then make use of our Forces against our selves that we may the better succeed when we employ them against other Enemies and let us surmount the love of our selves if we would surmount the fear of Death Of Fear THere are some Passions whose Names belie their Nature and which are nothing less within than what they appear without Hope hath an agreeable Aspect yet she procures us as many Miseries as she promises us Advantages Fear is look'd upon as the basest of all the Passions and is thought to be the pure result of an ignoble Spirit But there is a great deal of Error and Injustice in this Sentiment for she is prudent in effect only descrying Evils to shew us how to avoid them and as Man is expos'd to many Multitudes of various Dangers that may overwhelm him this passion is continually upon guard prying even into futurity it self to discover a possible danger which being cautiously warded off secures our Felicity at the same time it prevents any Disaster Fear then is a natural prudence which delivers us from an Evil by the very Apprehension alone she gives us of it and is not less useful in the Church than in State The fear of eternal Punishments first made Man seek to appease the irritated Gods to build Temples erect Altars burn incense and Immolate Sacrifices And tho' Religion bids us love God for his own worthiness sake yet 't is highly to be presum'd that Fear has made the most of his Votaries nay sav'd more guilty Souls than Hope it self The fear of God says the Divine Text is the beginning of Wisdom that is in other words the supporter of Virtue and the foundation of Piety Vice would grow insolent and the Law of no use had not Nature plac'd this Passion in Man's Soul and made the most hardy Criminal apprehend Punishment And the Judge can give Sentence but upon what he knows yet this faithful Minister of God's Vengeance makes the Guilty tremble in the midst of their Friends and enjoy neither rest nor security either in Cities or Deserts This may serve for one Instance that our Nature is not entirely corrupted since she retains still in the midst of all those Imperfections which environ her an abhorrence and hatred of Sin as well as a fear and dread of Punishment Wheresoe'er we hide our selves the secret remorses of our Consciences go with us assuring us that there is a Divinity which sees the most secret transactions of our Lives and punishes them after our Death Of those many thousands of Christians who confess and acknowledge Christ there are but few that stand not more indebted to their Fear than their Love and endeavour to purchase Heaven only to secure them from Hell loving God's Mercy because they fear his Justice And 't is no small matter that this Passion by its motions should open a Door of Salvation to the ungodly and shew Sinners the way to Virtue If she is thus beneficial in Affairs of Religion she is no less in Affairs of State We live alas no longer in that happy Age when Friendship united Mankind and superseded Laws when Love banish'd Injustice from the face of the Earth No now our Love to our selves is establish'd in hating our Neighbour and we must restrain them by Fear whom we cannot win by Affection We erect Gibbets to terrify the Criminal and invent Tortures to render Death more horrid that so what was an indispensable Tribute of Nature should by this means become a Chastizement of Iniquity Nature has not given us this Passion to be a Torment to us but a Security for she considers only those Dangers that are avoidable If once she finds them inevitable she leaves off the intentions of strugling with them vain efforts are to be condemn'd in every thing so we must support what we cannot shun Who would not judge Fear to be the Guardian of our Repose who studies nothing but our security and only gives us an Alarm that we may prepare to oppose an Enemy who cometh to invade it But as there are some Accidents which our Prudence can't fore-see nor our Courage vanquish we must not be astonished if some others surprize Fear and get the better of a Passion after having triumph'd over two glorious Virtues Of the good use of Fear FEar hath this property of Prudence that it is most especially busied about things to come and when she has discover'd a Danger at a distance calls in all her Forces to combat it Courage and Conduct is not every Man's Lot and hardly any Man 's in perfection for one is the property of fiery vigorous Youth and the other the tedious Lessons of a long Experience acquir'd only in an Age wherein we are no longer fit for Action our selves and therefore only proper to give Advice As Fear is more considerate than generous so is she more proper to deliberate than engage She may be as successfully applied in Vertue as against Vice What is Shame but the fear of Infamy and this innocent Passion protects all the Virtues How many Men would be look'd upon under a less glorious Character were it not for the Instigations of this Passion owing their Innocence to their apprehension of Scandal acting not to satisfie their Duty but to save their Reputations If we would encourage this Passion in our Souls we should keep