he guards their precious relicks in the bosome of the earth the waters cannot corrupt them nor the flames devour them being innocent he will not deal with them as guilty death spares their body after having separated it from their soul they seem to rest in their graves to repose themselves after their labour and to expect with joy that dreadfull day which all the guilty do apprehend Death then is the punishment of our sin it is the workmanship thereof we have procured it unto our selves by our disobedience God hath ordeined it by his justice and Jesus Christ who draws good out of our evil hath made a sacrifice of it for our salvation The ninth Discourse What advantages we may draw from death by the means of Grace THough death be the first production of sin and that the malice and deformed lothsomnesse of the Father appear in Sons visage some Philosophers have gone about to make apologies for death and after having made use of their reason in the defence thereof they have imployed their cunning in praising it Being ignorant of the first mans fault they would have death to be a law and not a punishment they have excused his rigour by his necessity and have gone about to perswade us that he was pleasing because necessary All things in nature perish this mother hath brought forth nothing which she hath not sentenced to die nothing is immortall and few things durable fountains grow dry and their spring-heads are either lost orstrayed out of the channel the mountaines give way to the violence of floods the sea advances and wins upon the earth whole isles have sunke into the earth we see lakes now where our Ancestours have seen Towns and husbandmen plough up fields where Pilots have steerd their ships The Change which preserves Nature is a kinde of death nature subsists onely by alteration were it not for change she would utterly perish kingdomes which apprehend nothing like vicissitude cannot shun it as oft as they lose their Princes they hazard the losse of their liberty they grow jealous of all their neighbours and ambition is so perfidious as their allyes may become their enemies all those great Colossuses which past for miracles in their age their subsistance depends now only upon paper Time hath made them know that all the workmanship of man is perishable and that frail hands can build nothing which is eternall In fine the world it self is not exempt from death the deluge wherewith it was drown'd and the fire wherewith it shall be consumed teach us that it may perish the Stars which never are at a stay are threatned one day to lose their influences and their light the same hand which hath seated them in the firmament will one day pull them from thence and though Aristotle imagines the heavens to be incorruptible Jesus Christ assures us that they shall perish together with the world Wherefore then do we complain of death since he spares not the Stars and wherefore do we wish that our houses may never have an end since the world cannot escape the fall which threatens it Death is not so cruell as men imagine the fear which we have thereof is rather an effect of opinion then of Nature if we were lesse wise we should be more couragious we augment our evil by thinking too oft of it the weapons wherewith we indeavour to withstand this enemy serve only to make him the more redoubted a Philosopher apprehends him more then doth an ignorant person and all the constancie of the stoicks cannot equall the stupidity of a country clown These silly people are easily comforted they look after no priviledges which their Ancestours have not enjoyed they prepare for death when they see their friends die and having no plots which may fasten them to the world they are not troubled to be interrupted therein by their death All men seem to conspire to be cause of astonishment to themselves and that it fares with them as in the route of an Army where those that ran away cause fear in those that fight Every particular man frames unto himself an Idea of death and he who can make it appear the most hideous passeth for the ablest man Sciences which ought to incourage us do intimidate us and there is not any one who doth not adde somwhat to the image of this Monster to increase his uglinesse and our apprehension Painters represent him as a ghastly skeleton bearing a coffin upon his shoulders and a sithe in his hands to mow down the whole earth Poets whose fictions are more pleasing then those of painters do give him arrowes each of which being shot doth wound a heart physicians decipher him as the enemy of nature and to no end seek for remedies against his wounds Philosophers who boast that they know him that they may withstand him do astonish their disciples by the number of their reasons and perswade them that the Monster which they assail is very terrible since so many preparations are required to overcome him Yet experience teacheth us that he takes upon himselfe pleasing formes to reclaim us that he glides so pleasingly into the heart as those whom he wounds feele him not he set upon Plato sleeping and it was hard to discern sleep from death in this Philosopher one of the Crassuses died laughing and the Romans ceased to fear death seeing it so amiable upon his face Chilon was choked with joy his sons victory was as fatall to him as to the enemies of the State and whil'st men sought for Laurell to crown the Conquerour others sought for Capres to put upon his fathers head Clydemus died not lesse pleasingly since the praises which Greece gave him were the cause of his death and that he lost his life amidst his Triumph He also since the corruption of our nature makes up a part of our selves He is as well an effect of our temper as of a fever and as the agreement of the Elements makes us live their disagreement makes us die We carry the principles of death about us and from once that originall righteousnesse ceased to appease the differences between those parts whereof we are composed we began to die It is not necessary that the world disorder it selfe to bereave us of our lives though the seasons should not be put out of their pace we should not cease to perish And if death be to be feared we must resolve to fear life There are some people who apprehend any thing that happens of disorder in the world and who grow pale as often as they see rivers over-flow their banks as often as they hear thunder or see earth-quakes They think that every clap of thunder comes in pursuit of them and that the sea exceeds not her bounds but to drown them on the earth but the causes of our death are much lesse violent and more naturall For the earth should still stand stable under our feet though the
terrour of all that are faulty But after having had this service from it he reserves it for the generall ruine of the world and to consume that proud building which was the Palace of sinfull man For when the number of the elect shall be accomplisht when the thrice happy ones who shall fill up the places left void by the Angels rebellion shall have finished their course and their labours and that Christs mysticall body shall have all the number which ought to compose it Divine Justice which cannot be satisfied but by the ruine of whatsoever hath been serviceable to sin wil command the fire to consume the world will drown all his works in a deluge of fire Then this Element mixing it selfe with the clouds wil kindle lightnings in all parts the air being set on fire by so many flames shall burn the whole earth which shall open her entrails to let loose those intestine flames which have devoured it for so many ages from the mixture and confusion of so many fires the generall burning of the world shall arise the mountains shall melt with heat and those great râ—ks where coldnesse seems to make it's residence shall be turned into Vesuviuses and Aetnaes the flames inanimated by Gods anger shall lay all Champians waste walls which resist the Thunder of the Cannon shall not be able to defend their Inhabitants from it's fury all the dead shall be made equall the guilty shall burn in one and the same fire and shall be reduced to the same ashes the Sun shall be darkned with smoak and did not the flames serve for torches the world should burn amidst darknesse all the rivers which bathe the earth shall be dried up in their Spring-heads The fire shall triumph over the waters in their channels and this victorious Element shall make it's Enemy which hath had so many advantages over it feele it's power The Ocean it selfe whose extents are so vaste shall see her waters converted into fire and the Whales burn in the midst of it's abysmes Forrests shall help to consume the little hils which bear them those proud mountains whose tops are always covered with snow to which the Sun in his greatest heats bears a respect shall vomit up flames together with their bowels and all those eminent places which command over the vallies shall see their pride buried in ashes all the guilty shall perish amidst this fire they shall finde hell upon earth and shall wish that the mountains might overwhelm them in their ruins to quench the fire which shall devour them The just shall be astonished to see the fire spare them to see the heavens work the same miracle for them as they did in days of yore for the three unjustly condemned Children and imitating the piety of those Innocents they shall sing Canticles of praises whil'st the wicked shall vomit forth blasphemies How horrible will the spectacle be to see the earth burn the sea consumed and whole Nature buried in a Sepulchre of fire this is the revenge which God will take of sin this is the satisfaction which his Justice will exact for our insolency and this is the last punishment which the creatures shall suffer for having been confederate with man The very Stars shall not be able to escape the rigour thereof that solid matter whereof they are composed shall be dissolved by heat and those beautifull parts of the world having the same destiny as gold and brasse have shall trickle down drop by drop upon the earth their having been serviceable to us in their light sufficeth to make them guilty their having received homage from us and accepted of our sacrifices is sufficient to make them receive this punishment God will not permit that that which hath been corrupted should rest unpunished and his holinesse joyned to his justice cannot tolerate that in Eternity which hath been prophaned in Time Jesus Christ himself was of this opinion he taught that this world did not belong unto him he imprinted in the Souls of his Disciples the horrour and contempt of this present Age and obliged them to wish for the Age to come of which he made himself be called the Father All the perfection of Christianity consists in these two points all vertues are composed of these two points and he is perfect amongst the faithfull who contemning Adams world doth incessantly thirst after Christ Jesus his world Though God be the Authour of them both he detests the former since it was prophaned by sin and since the devill hath submitted it to his Tyranny he hath given over the Sovereignty thereof unto his Enemies he suffers the Turk to possesse the best part thereof he permits his most faithfull servants to be persecuted he will not have us to receive more glory there than he doth and if we will follow his counsels and his instructions we must look upon it as a place of exile or as an Enemies Countrey I very well know he giveth Crowns to Sovereigns Lawrell to the victorious that he makes the Angels fight for Christians and that he arms the Elements for the defence of his Church but in fine his Kingdom is not of this world he will not govern in a world which he will destroy he pretends not to command in a State where his Enemy is worshipped and we must not love a world which he will punish because we have made it sinfull Let us expect that which he will give us let us long after that world which will arise out of the others ashes and let us not fix our fortunes in a Kingdom which shall perish when Jesus Christ shall revenge himselfe upon his Enemies 'T is true that it's ruine will be usefull to it and that it will reap advantage by it's losse for all Gods punishments are favours he puts obligations upon those that he punisheth his goodnesse turns their sufferings into salves and to be strucken by the hand of God brings both honour and advantage with it Death which destroys the body prepares it for the resurrection it changeth it's grave into a cradle and as the corruption of corn is the cause of it's re-assuming life we may say that the putrefaction of the body is in some sort the seed of it's mortality Purgatory which burns the soules of men doth purifie them the flames whereby they suffer prepares them for glory that which we esteem a punishment is a lovely penance and that which seems to retard their contentment serves only to advance their happinesse So shall the fire which shall burn the world contribute to it's perfection it shall perish only to become more perfect it 's beauty shall arise from it's being consumed by fire and this last deluge shall be of more honour and advantage to it then was the former the waters purified the world by drowning it this great havock was Natures baptisme and the same Element which did bereave her of her children did restore unto
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
sinfull because the father which unites her to the flesh as a secondary cause Communicates unto her his disorder not giving her a remedy for it powers his poyson into her and doth not present her with an Antidote makes her Inherit Adams sin and doth Communicate unto her the Grace of Jesus Christ. This it is which Saint Augustine insinuates unto us in other Termes when he says that the Contagion of the body passeth into the soul that the close Cōmerce that is between them makes their miseries cōmon between them and that without extraordinary helps an Innocent soul cannot be lodg'd in a guilty body the purest Liquours are tainted in musty vessels corrupted Air poysons those who breath therein and infected houses give the Plague to those that live in them Thus doth concupiscence glide from the body into the soul and this wicked Host gives death to her that gives him life If these reasons do not content the reader let him know that I glory to be ignorant of what Saint Augustine understood not that I should shew my self too rash if I should think to give an entire light to the obscurest part of Divinity and that I should be unfaithfull if I should pretend to make a truth evident by reason which is only known by Faith The fifth Discourse Of the Nature of Concupiscence CHristian Religion may truly boast that all her Maxims are Paradoxes which agreeing with truth give against humane reason for she proposeth nothing which is not as strange as true and which causeth not as much astonishment as light in the soul he who would prove this truth must make an Induction of all our Mysteries and represent all the wonders which she comprehends but without straying from my subject it will suffice to say that Originall sin is one of her strangest Paradoxes and that if much of reason be required to prove it no less of faith is requisite to believe it for what more prodigious is there then that the sin of one man should be the sin of all men that a Fathers Rebellion should ingage all his Children in disobedience that his malody should be Contagious that he should be the murtherer of all men before he be their Father and that unfortunately he be the cause of their death many ages before they be born Thus is this misfortune more generall then the deluge which drowned the world more universall then the fire which shall consume it and War and Pestilence which doth so easily enlarge themselves are not so Contagious Evills as is this sin If it be wonderfull by reason of it's Effusion it is no less miraculous through it's other qualities for we are taught by Divinity that it is voluntary in the Father and naturall in the Children that that which was only a fault in Adam is both a sin and a punishment in those that descend from him that we contract by birth what he willingly committed and that that which was free in it's beginning should become necessary in the progress thereof He might have kept from disobedience And we can neither shun the punishment nor the fault we are surprized by this misfortune in our Conception we are slaves before we have the use of Liberty and we have already offended God before we knew him we are rather the objects of his anger then of his mercy but that which is more deplorable we are so corrupted from the moment of our Birth as that we oppose our selves to his will If he favour us in our Baptisme the first use we make of Reason is for the most part engaged in Errour we follow the Inclinations of our first father and his sin makes such powerfull Impressions upon our souls as we sin in our first thoughts we for the most part make use of our liberty only to estrange our selves from God we have a secret opposition to his ordinance we are so inclosed within our selves as we can love nothing but for our own interests which is the Rule of our actions and we neither love nor desire any thing save what is either usefull or pleasing to us Such is the corruption of our nature as there is almost nothing in it which is not repugnant to the laws of God It is so misled by sin as all the Inclinations thereof are perverted In this unfortunate Condition man can neither know nor doe good he is inslaved not having so much as the desire of Liberty though he groan under the weight of his Irons he is affraid of being freed from them and though his Imprisonment be painfull yet is not he weary thereof he delights in doing evill and findes difficulty to do what is good the great inclination he hath to sin doth not excuse his offence And he ceaseth not to be guilty though he cannot shun sin in generall to fill up the measure of so many Evils he is blind and insensible he sees not the Evils that environ and threaten him he is full of wounds and hath no feeling of them believing himself to be whole he seeks not for help through proud blindness he despiseth the Physician that would restore him to health Every man that comes into this world is in this miserable q condition and we are guilty of all these Crimes And charged with all these punishments before we be regenerated in Baptisme after this Sacrament we become Innocent but cease not to be miserable sin forsakes us but punishment waits upon us and though we be no more guilty we are notwithstanding out of order our Fathers sin forgoes us but Concupiscence remains This monster is not much lesse savage then is the Cause which produced it It follows the Inclinations thereof and if it be not altogether so wicked it is at least full out as irregular it is much more opinionated then the father that begot it our life is to short to cut it off it 's an enemy not to be overcome wounds give it new life it gathers strength by skars and it must cost us our life to be the death thereof Our first Divines which were the Apostles have given it the very name of sin and as if t were more fatall then it's Father they term it the strength and law thereof it is not content to perswade us to the Crime but endeavours to enforce us thereunto it mingles force with perswasion and when it thinks the way by solicitation to be to mild it hath Recourse to violence and Tyranny it grows the more furious by opposition it 's stomack is set on edge by Inhibition it never becomes more insolent then when Laws are prescribed unto it To Expresse the Nature thereof to the life we must represent a Tyrant who being born of sin will enlarge his Fathers Empire make al mankind his slaves it establisheth it's throne in our souls darkens our understanding infuseth wickednesse into our wils and fils our memories with the remembrance of all unjust acts It abuseth all
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
ridiculous Pagan did one might read in the forehead the hearts most secret thoughts If Physiognomie be a Science she hath no certainty but what she draws from the connexion which nature hath placed between the soule and the body all her observations are grounded upon the noblest part of the body if all be true that is said of her as soon as she sees the face she knows the humour and without or Charmes or Magick she knows their intentions whose Lineaments she observes Though I dare not acknowledge all this and that I have much a do to believe that a Physiognomist can discover the designes of a wise Minister of State by looking him in the face and that without racking a malefactour he may read his fault in his eyes it sufficeth me to know that this Science is grounded upon the commerce between the soule and the body and that she draws her conjectures from the straight union that is between them As the Soule doth not forme any designe wherein the body is not a complice so doth she taste no contentment wherein the body doth not share a part if she enjoy the beauties of nature 't is by the Senses if she see the Azure of the Skie the light of the stars if she discover the extent of Fields the fertility of vallies if she hear the fall of Rivers the musick of Birds if she judge of the Glosse or Sent of Lillies or Roses 't is by the benefit either of the sight hearing or smelling It seems the world was made for the bodies diversion and that all those pleasing parts which go to the composure thereof have onely been made to delight the senses the Sun is of no use to the glorified Spirits and all the brightnesse of that goodly Constellation cannot light the Angels those noble Intelligences have a spirituall world wherewith they are possest and ravisht they finde their happinesse in God and all that we wonder at in the world affords them no delight Materia is requisite to tasting the pleasures of sensible nature such contentments presuppose a low condition and it is common with Beasts to partake of such diversions 'T is notwithstanding one of the bodies least advantages that the world should be made for it's use and that this chiefe piece of Gods workmanship is destined either for it's service or it's delight Jesus Christ followed his Fathers steps and when he came upon earth he would have the body to be the object of his mercy and of his power though he laboured for the conversion of sinners his greatest miracles were wrought for the healing of the sick and the body being mans weakest part he thought he was to treat it with most mildnesse and to furnish it with as many remedies as sin hath procured it maladies Somtimes he clensed it of the leprosie and restored to it 's former purity somtimes he freed it from blindnesse and restored unto it the noblest of it's senses somtimes cured it of the Palsey and restored it to the use of it's Members somtimes he withdrew it from the Grave and re-united it to it's soule contrary to the hope of nature somtimes he freed it from the Tyranny of Devils and re-establisht it in it's former freedoms Neither did he neglect it in the institution of the Sacraments for though they were chiefly ordained for the soules sanctification and that these admirable Channels poure grace into the soule yet are they applied upon the body before they produce their effects in the will and they respect joyntly the two parts which go to mans composure The body is washt in water to the end that the soule may be purified the body is marked with the Figure of the Crosse to the end that the soule may be fortified the body receives the unction to the end that the soule may be consecrated the body receives the imposition of hands to the end that the soule may receive Grace and the body eates the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus to the end that the soule may be thereby nourished Thus doth not religion destroy nature and in her highest mysteries the provides for the soules safety by means of the body This maxime is so true as that all Divinity confesseth that the soule can no longer merit when she is once parted from the body whil'st they are together in company their grace may be augmented and whatsoever vertues they have acquired they may yet acquire more but when once death hath divided them and that the body losing 't's lustre is reduced either to ashes or to wormes the soule can no longer increase her merit and in that condition she is onely capable of punishment or of reward Having so many obligations to her body she cannot forget them nay even in the state of Glory where all her designes ought to be satisfied she wisheth to be re-united to her body as that wherein her intire felicity consisteth For though she reign with Angels that she behold the divine Essence and that she enjoy a happinesse to which even wishes cannot adde yet hath hath she a passion for her body and all the good she doth possesse cannot take from her the desire nor memory thereof though she hath made triall of it's revolts though this friendly enemy hath oft-times persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the Tyranny thereof yet doth she languish after it and contrary to their humour who have recovered liberty yet she longs for that which did engage her in servitude Though the body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in it's Enemies and though it cause horrour in those to whom it was so lovely she forbeares not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with Impatience that her body may partake of the blisse which she enjoyes And 't is not without much justice that she beares so much love to her body since she owes the greatest part of her advantages unto it and that she hath hardly any vertue or light which she hath not acquired by the assistance of the senses The soule is ignorant when first infused into the body the knowledge which the Platonists attribute unto her is but a meer capacity of apprehending If she will be intrusted she must be advised either by her eyes or by her eares she must consult with these Masters if she will free her selfe from ignorance How noble soever she be by birth she hath but weak conjectures of truth if these faithfull officers should faile her and should she be ingaged in a body which should have no use of senses she would be plunged in eternall darknesse Sight and hearing are the Organs destined to knowledge and he who is borne deafe and blinde is destined to live and die ignorant As the soule receives these advantages by the body so doth she distribute them by the bodies assistance and doth not expresse her thoughts but by the mouth of her Interpreter she gives with the tongue
man becomes by discourse the contagion of a whole Town Conceptions are spread abroad by words and faults are multiplied by communication if those who are dumb conceive envie they cannot shew it by detraction and if they expresse it by signes 't is either the hands or eyes which makes them guilty our soule is not infected with falshood or heresie save by our most refined sense these two poisons are taken in by the care not by the mouth And as faith and truth enter the soule by hearing their mortall enemies make their passage by the same way a man must stop his eares and shut his eyes if he will keep his heart pure It were to be wisht that men were blinde that so they might not see the beauty which inchants them that women were deafe that they might not hear the praises which seduce them In fine the world abuseth us onely by our senses it 's pernicious Maximes get into our soules by our eares the vanities thereof corrupt our wills by our eyes and all those objects whose different beauties do be witch us make no impression in our soule but by our body We should be invulnerable were we spirituall and of a thousand temptations which we have we should hardly be troubled with one were we not engaged in Materia To compleat our mis-fortune we love our enemy the bad offices he doth us cannot diminish our love All the Maximes of Religion cannot perswade us to revenge and though this motion of the minde be so pleasing to the injured it seems severe unto us when we are invited to punish our body Our passion for this unfaithfull one is not extinguished by death The damned preserves it amidst the flames though they know their pains shall be increased by the resurrection of their body they cannot chuse but desire it In hell hope triumphs over fear and pain and this cruell enemy hath so many charmes as though he be reduced to dust yet doth he cause love in the soule which did inanimate him The remembrance of the injuries which the soule hath received from the body and the fear of pain which she expects from thence is not able to stifle this desire She hopes for the day of Judgement where she must be condemned though she know her punishment will be increased by her re-union with her body she cannot but desire it with impatience and places the delay thereof in the number of her sufferings So as we are bound to conclude that if the body be the cause of sin during life it will be the punishment thereof after death and that if it hath made the soule guilty upon earth 't will make her unhappy in hell The third Discourse Of the Infidelity of the Senses NAture being so intermingled with sin as that the one is the production of God the other the work of man the praises which we give to the former are always mingled with Invectives made against the latter and we cannot value the beauty of nature unlesse we blame the out-rages which she hath received from sin the figure of mans body is an evident signe of his Makers wisdome The Lineaments of his face bindes us to admire the power of the hand which hath formed them and the disposall of the parts thereof draw no lesse praises from our mouthes than the like of the universe But the disorder which we see in mans Temperature the opposition of those Elements which go to his composure and that generall revolt which hath shed it self throughout all his members obligeth us to detest sin which is the cause thereof We must argue in the same sort concerning our senses and confesse that as their use deserves estimation their irregularity deserves blame They are admirable in their structure and were they not common to us with beasts we might be permitted to glory in them The operation of the noblest of them is so subtill as that the soule as divine as she is can hardly comprehend it she admireth these Master-pieces of nature though she have so great a share in their miracles yet knows she not how they are done and thinks strange that she should contribute to wonders which she cannot conceive For the soule inanimates the senses and this spirituall forme is a created Divinity which sees by the eyes heares by the eares and expresseth it selfe by the mouth But if the senses have their perfections they have also their defects and if the soule receive any service by them she is by them likewise much injured They are the gates of falshood and errour vanity slides into our soules by their means they are exposed to illusions the objects wherewith they are pleased corrupt them and being once corrupted by delight they make no true reports unto the soule Nature hath endowed us with them that we might know God by things visible and to raise us up to consider the beauty of the Creatour by the like of his works these deceitfull Guides do notwithstanding abuse us and sollicited either by delight or interest make Idols unto themselves of all the creatures and lead us to adore sensible and perishable Gods Saint Augustine confesseth that he never went astray in his beliefe save when he would follow them and that he never engaged himselfe in errour save when he gave beliefe to their advise he sought out God with his eyes he would have touched him with his hands and thought to have found him in the world whom he carried about with him in his heart He gave commission to all his senses to finde him out but these ignorant messengers could learn him nothing and he found not his God because he knew not how rightly to seek for him Their ignorance would be excusable were it not accompanied with injustice but these evill Counsellours grow insolent in chiding us after they have abused us and make violence succeed superchery they tyrannize over our souls after having seduced them and make the Sovereign take laws from his slaves According to the Government of the Universe Inferiour things are alwas subject to their superiour as the earth is lesse noble than the Heavens it is also lower it receives their influences thereof with respect and all the fruit it beareth raise themselves up towards the stars to witnesse that it's fruitfulnesse derives from their Influences In Civill Government women are subject unto their husbands and slaves obey their Masters in Politique the people hold of their Sovereign and the Kings will is the Subjects laws but in man this order is reverst by an irregularity which can be nothing but the punishment of sin his soule depends upon his body and in her noblest operations she is obliged to be advised by the senses Her condition is so unhappy as she seems almost enforced to believe the ignorant to follow the blinde and to obey Rebels A man would blame a State where fools should command over wise men where children should prescribe laws to the Ancient
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
thunder should never roar over our heads and though the sea should never exceed her bounds the elements which we bear about us would notwithstanding condemne us to death Death is so a punishment as it is also a consequence of our constitution Whatsoever is composed of contrarieties can not subsist without miracle and when the contrary parties do no longer agree their division must be the ruine of what they compose Mans immortality in the state of innocency was not an effect of nature he lost this priviledge as soon as he lost his righteousnesse and experience taught him that nature without grace could not keep him from death He should then be unjust if he should complain of a mis-fortune which is in some sort naturall unto him and he might justly be accused of too much nicety if he should not patiently endure a punishment which he could not escape without a kind of Miracle But I dare adde that death is rather a favour than a punishment and that in the estate whereinto sin hath reduced man it is not so much a mark of justice as of mercy the evils which we undergo considered to live eternally would be eternall misery earth would become hell and the continuance of our torments would make us wish death which is not dreadfull save to those abused soules which think themselves happy The miserable desire it and as death to one who lives contentedly is a punishment so is life to him who lives discontentedly Cain desired to die had not the heavens prolonged his life to punish his parricide he had prevented Lamechs cruelty and after having been his brothers murtherer he would have been his own hangman Poets who cloke truths under fables have not without reason fained nature to have invented death to oblige her children for seeing that their offence had incensed heaven that their life became a misery that fortune intrencht upon their goods calumny upon their innocency and sicknesse upon their health that the fever burnt up their entrails by unsupportable heat that the gout stung their nerves and that they lived not but in fear and sorrow she broke the cords wherewith the soul was fastned to the body and ended their lives to shorten their miseries To leave fables to Infidels is it not a constant truth amongst Christians that life would be an eternall punishment did not death come in to the succour of old age to deliver us from it and that we should pray to go out of the world if we were condemned to live there after we had lost the use of our members by the palsey and were grown blinde and deaf Hell is onely more cruell than earth for that death is banisht thence if the pains of the damned could have an end they should losâ— the greatest part of their rigour and those miserable ones would finde some ease in their sufferings if after many ages they were assured to die nothing makes them despair but that eternity of their punishment and nothing doth so much comfort men as the shortnesse of their tortures Tyrants who unjustly endeavour to imitate God in justice complain that death freed their enemies from their indignation and that by assisting the miserable it hindred their designes for they very well knew that he knows not how to revenge himselfe of his enemy who puts him suddainly to death and that those who will taste the pleasure of revenge never condemne a guilty man to die till he be re-possessed of their favour In fine there are few who owe not thanks to death Those who fear him in prosperity invoke him in adversity those who shun him in opulency seek him out in poverty and those who list not to know his name in health call upon him in sicknesse He is the onely cure of the incurable the assured succour of the afflicted the desire and hope of the miserable and of as many as implore his succour there are none more obliged unto him than those whose miseries and desires he preveneth Though these thoughts may seem uncouth to those who love life they cease not to be approved of by Christianity and to passe for truth amongst the faithfull If death be rigorous because he is the punishment of sin he is pleasing because he is the childe of the Crosse he hath changed nature since he was consecrated in the Person of Jesus Christ he hath forgone those dreadfull names which caused terrour to assume those pleasing ones which bring consolation He is onely asleep which charms our disquiets a passage which leads us unto life a happy shipwrack which throws us into the haven an enemy which takes us out of prison a Tyrant which breaks our chains and a son of sin which furnisheth us with weapons wherewithall to fight with and to overcome his Father In the state of innocency death was a punishment wherewith divine Justice did threaten man in the state of sin it was a chastisement wherewith she did punish the faulty and in the state of grace 't is a sacrifice which she requires at our hands and whereby she is appeased Formerly to astonish man he was told if thou sinnest thou shalt die and now to fortifie him in persecution it is said unto him if thou dost not die thou shalt sin death which was a punishment is become a victime and the sinners chastisement is become the merit of the just The Son of God hath thus instructed us by his example when he would fight with sin he took up no other arms than death he thought the victory would be more honourable wherein he should employ the son against the father and where he should make use of the effect to destroy the cause this is that which the great Apostle teacheth us in these words where he saith that the Son of God hath overcome sin by sin and that in the punishment of our offence he hath found a remedy to cure us Fictitious Hercules vaunts himselfe amongst the Poets to have overcome Monsters by other Monsters to have made himselfe weapons by their spoils and to have ended his last labours by the help of what he had purchased in the former This fable of Hercules is become a truth in Jesus Christ and the Gospell obligeth us to acknowledge that in the death of God which falshood had found out in the life of man For he by dying hath satisfied his Father he hath destroyed sin by it's Son he hath saved the sinner by his punishment Religion bindes us to confesse that death is the rise of our happinesse that it is the Christians vow that without being miserable they rejoyce in being mottall and that they should want somewhat of their glory if since Jesus Christ did lose his life upon the Crosse they were to ascend to Heaven without dying they live with pain they die with pleasure and to describe a true Christian according to Tertullians language we must say that they are a sort of men
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
necessity be troubled with an intestine war which threatens it with an inevitable corruption that the seasons cannot be better regulated since the Sun going over our heads in an oblique line doth according to the Summer or the Winter approach neerer to us and draw further from us That beasts according to their naturall Temper should either be wild or docile that those which have most fire in them are the nimblest and that those which have most earth are the heaviest and the most stupid that thus the faults of the creatures do not proceed so much from the workman as from the matter whereof they are composed This opinion is too injurious to the power of God to be approved of by Christians and since it proceeded from Philosophers schools who did believe that Materia Prima was eternall we must not wonder if laying a false ground they draw from thence bad conclusions some others who are somwhat more respectfull yet not much more rationall imagine that God made the world in the same condition that now it is that he might fit himselfe according to the condition of man who was to become sinfull that he had no regard to his innocency because it was not to last so long and that he left some disorders in his work to the end they might serve for punishment to the faulty These Philosophers seem to me to have lost their reason out of too much fore-sight they do not consider that originall righteousnesse ought to have been as exempt from punishment as from sin that man in his innocency had had reason to complain if having nothing amisse in his person he should have found disorders in his Estate God always waits for our offences before he punisheth them and though his mercies may through his favour fore-run our services his justice doth never through punishments prevene our sins What likelihood was there to lodge an innocent person in an infected house to make the seasons irregular which did measure a life not yet troubled by passions and to give mortall influences to constellations which were to enlighten immortall man what reason have we to believe that man not being guilty the creature should rebell against him and that the Elements should not be at peace in a body which was perfectly assubjected to the soul. I know very well that they reply that originall righteousnesse did free man from these disorders and that serving him in stead of a buckler of defence his body was thereby miraculously preserved from being burnt in the midst of of Summer or frozen in the midst of Winter But say he should have no feeling of these irregularities he would yet have seen them and his eyes would have suffered punishment in beholding an unpleasing object What pleasure could he have taken in seeing a sun the heat whereof did scorch the grasse and cause the flowers to fade to which it had given birth What delight should he have tasted in feeling the earth-quake under his feet or to hear the thunder roar over his head what contentment would he have found amidst boisterous windes and storms at sea should he not have had some reason of complaint if he should have seen so many punishments prepared for a sin not yet committed The best Divines do therefore confesse that the face of the world was changed when man altered his condition that the earth lost his beauty when man lost his innocency and that thorns were mingled with roses when concupiscence was mingled with nature From that time forward divine Justice did fit our abode to our desert and thought it not reasonable that guilty man should be lodged in a Palace prepared for the innocent She punisht man in his state after having punished him in his person and altering the inclinations of all creatures made them the Ministers of her vengeance The earth lost the fertility which was naturall to it this nurse which by her profusions did prevent our need brought forth nothing but bulrushes as soon as she was cursed she grew avaritious her bosome must be opened with the plough share and watered with our sweat and tears if we will get any thing from thence this mercifull mother became a severe step-dame she dis-avowed us for her children when once we ceased to be obedient to our Father and as if her fertility had been affixed to our innocency when we grew sinfull she grew barren every part of the world is a proofe and punishment of our sin it 's irregularity upbraids us with our disobedience and to know upon what ill terms we stand with Creatour a man needs onely to consider the worlds confusion The Sun which doth precede at our birth is oft-times the arbitratour of our death his heat is as fatall to us as necessary and the same influences which keep us in health infuse maladies into us the same stars which denote our good fortunes presage our ill adventures as they have propitious so have they malignant aspects and if some constellations do promise good successe unto us others threaten us with bad Nature is changed into a punishment whatsoever makes us live makes us die and the Elements are as well the causes of our death as of our life The earth is not only barren of fruit but abounds in poisons by detaining what is usefull for us she brings forth what is pernicious her sterility and her fruitfulnesse are equally prejudiciall to us we ought to suspect whatsoever she brings forth without our labour and as there is danger in the presents of an Enemy the free-gifts of this step-dame are fatall she nourisheth Monsters to devour us and all her children are our Enemies our sin hath made them lose the respect which they owed us when they are oppressed with hunger they come forth of their dens over-run our grounds and make us take up Arms to defend us from these revolted subjects In fine the earth hath no one part which doth not threaten us with danger her entrails vomit out flames of fire to consume us her depths open underneath our feet to swallow us up her mountains loosen themselves from their foundations to overwhelme us and she delights in destroying her self that she may un-do us The sea is not more respectfull than is the earth this Element obeys us not but against it's will it punisheth our avarice and our ambition by ship wrack it drowns the vessels which it is forced to bear it raiseth it selfe up in mountains and sinks again into vallies to free it selfe from our servitude and troubles it 's own tranquillity to revenge it selfe of our Tyranny When Divine providence which keeps it within it's channell gives it it's liberty it overflows the fields and makes us know by the rage thereof that it seeks out all occasions to annoy us The waters thereof would cover the tops of mountains did not the Heavens stay their impetuosity and the whole earth would be nothing but a vast sea without either bounds or
and the Antipodes would passe for a fable had not these faithfull guides brought our Pylots thither This good turn would be rare did not mans fury abuse it but we make them serve our avarice or our ambition by their means we seek out new dangers and new enemies we load our ships with souldiers to pillage strange countries we commit our life to the infidelity of the sea and the lightnesse of the wind we indevour to overcome tempests which astonish nature we run upon death without hope of a grave and we seek out a doubtfull war upon such conditions as would seem unjust to those who would undertake an assured victory what blind madnesse doth possesse us wherefore do we raise troops to carry them through rocks and tempests wherefore do we trouble the Seas quiet for our unjust designes are there not hazards enough on the earth but that we must seek for new ones in another Element whether do we complain of Fortunes favours or of natures goodnesse is the former too faithfull or the latter too indulgent are our bodies so strong or our health so certain that we must go seek for sicknesses and dangers amongst the waves do we desire to assaile the destinies in the midst of their Empire to declare war against them then where their power doth most evidently appear is not death terrible enough on Land but that we must provoke it on the Sea shall we not finde it soon enough in a house without seeking for it in a ship and is not our life short enough but that we must make it yet shorter by the accidents which are subject to those who saile upon the Ocean must not a man have lost his reason to expose himselfe voluntarily to dangers unnecessitated to fight with men without any cause and conquer Countries without justice wilde beasts war not one upon another untill enforced by hunger or provoked by injuries and we who take our name from humanity are profuse in shedding of humane bloud we come aboard frail vessels we trust our safety to the fury of Tempests and wish for fair windes to carry us into forreign Countries where we must either because of death or die our selves We think not any one part of the world a Theater large enough for our ambition Every one will have his madnesse manifest and that it have as many witnesses as it hath made men miserable Thus the King of Persia entered Greece which he could not overcome though he covered it all over with Souldiers Thus would Alexander passe over unknown seas carry his forces to the utmost parts of the earth and after he had overcome so many Kings vanquish Nature her selfe Thus did Crassus strive to enrich himselfe at the cost of the Parthians and would enter the large desarts which border upon their State he despised the Tribunes who opposed his voyage he laughed at the Tempests which shattered some of his ships the Thunders which fore-told his bad successe could not stay him and not withstanding that both God and man were offended with him he would go whether his avarice called him and seek out the death which destiny had prepared for him Had not Nature been more favourable unto us if she had caused the windes to cease and if to hinder the execution of so many unjust designs she had forced all Conquerours to keep peacefully within their own dominions should not we be much beholden to her if interdicting us to enter on the sea we should have nothing but our own misfortunes to fear and undergo and if the winds made us not dread those unknown waves which bring war servitude and death to the Countries whereon they coast we are not the more secure for the distance of places there is no enemy how far off so ever he be who may not surprize us as oft as the winds blow we have cause to fear lest they bring either enemies or Tyrants upon us The Tempests which they raise are the least evils which they threaten us withall Shipwracks which fear makes appear so terrible unto us are but the first tryals they expose us to those dangers when they carry us to war and the evill which wait for us on the shores whither they conduct us are more vexatious then those which assail us at full sea Thus are all things in the world armed against us Every Element is become an executioner since we are become male factours Nature is plentifull in punishments and all the pieces whereof she is composed are so many faithfull Ministers which serve God in taking revenge upon his rebels The ninth Discourse That Monsters and Poysons are the workmanship of Sinne. DIvine Providence knows so well how to husband the defects of creatures as most men take them for perfections and we gather such advantage from our misfortunes by it's guidance as we should be unfortunate if we had not been so Death which is sins severest punishment is so precious in it's hands as it seemeth rather a favour then displeasure and a reward then a chastizement Sicknesses are cause of so much good unto us by bereaving us of our health as it were to be wished that most men should fall sick and that pain might make them out of love with their bodies to make them be the like with the earth the injuries of the Elements are of such use to the faithfull as they ought rather to be praised then complained of by them when they with patience suffer all the pains which sin hath occasioned they may make a happy use thereof to destroy sin and a sweet smelling Sacrifice to Gods Justice Hence it is that Philosophers who know what advantage we draw from our mis-fortunes perswade themselves that Nature is not corrupted and account her disorders advantages they term death a law more necessary then rigorous they call sicknesse the souls salve the tryall of vertue and the exercise of patience they call poverty a dis-ingagement from uselesse things a nearer cut to vertue a help to argue with more freedom they term the persecution of the Elements an innocent war which causeth the worlds peace a hatred which conduceth to a perfect friendship or an excellent picture of musick whose harmony is composed of the differences of voices and contrariety of tones By the same reason they justifie the disorders of nature and call Monsters irregularities which heighten her other works they plead in the behalf of poysons and make them passe for remedies whose use we are yet ignorant of In effect Monsters seem to serve for ornament to the world that they contribute to the beauty thereof that they constitute that admirable variety wherein consists honest mens most innocent delight that they are in the world what shadows are in Pictures and that not to excuse them they are handsome faults and pleasing debaucheries This wise Mother hath her serious businesses and her serious diversions she sports her self after having laboured and to recreate
sinfull If Monsters be the productions of sin poisons are likewise the workmanship thereof though they seem naturall to some creatures I conceive they did not make any part of their Essence till after they had served the Devill for an Organ to deceive our first mother all insects which bear in them any poison are kinds of Serpents God curseth them to revenge us they creep upon their bellies in memory of the fault which our Enemies committed by their interposition they feed upon the earth for the punishment of a sin whereof they were but innocent Complices as their sight causeth horrour in us so doth ours cause fear in them the heavens have put a secret enmity between them and us if their venom be fatall to us our spittle is mortall to them and if they with their teeth give us incurable wounds we with our feet give them mortall Catches The same justice which would condemne them to all these punishments confin'd their venom to some parts of their bodies to make them more odious she would have their very looks to be contagious to make us shun them and instructing us by sensible things she secretly imprinted in our hearts a hatred against the Devill whose image they are she teacheth us by this example that we cannot hold innocent commerce with one that is sinfull that that proud fiend which could inspire us with nothing but pride that there was more danger in communing with him than in treating with aspes and vipers And certainly venom must needs be a punishment of sin since all sorcerers make use thereof in their charmes and in all the mischiefe that they do imploy those poisons which hature hath produced to undo us these things seem to be abandoned to their fury that they have some jurisdiction over them and that they are permitted to assaile their Enemies with these weapons In effect all the harme they do to men is by this mingling of poisons the words which they use are of no efficacy they cannot hurt us by their curses 't is a trick of the Devill whom his weaknesse will imitate the power of God and perswade us that words uttered by those whom he imploys change nature and work miracles We are taught by reason and by faith that only God can act by speaking and produce things by his will The Angels which are the noblest Subjects of his Empire can alter nothing in the world but by the mediation of the Elements they are forced to employ their qualities to bring to passe their own designes and to make use of their heat or of their cold to hasten Winter or retard Summer they assume bodies in the clouds to make themselves visible they speak by the means of the aire to make themselves be understood and make use of vapours to form storms and Thunder but the devils who are rebels to Gods Kingdom having no designes but what are pernitious they employ venom to execute them they gather up the foam of Dragons and Serpents slaver and compose drinks of all these differing poisons they mingle a thousand deaths together to revenge themselves of their Enemies but say they did not make use of these things to satisfie their fury is it not sufficient to know that these things are averse unto us as to judge that they have been altered by divine Justice for our punishment or does not the knowledge of their being altered by divine Justice for our punishment suffice to ascertain us of their aversion to us In Gods first designe all creatures were tied to serve man they were to contribute either to his pastime or to his profit they had no other end but his pleasure or his advantage and had they been able to expresse their meanings they would have witnessed that their being in the world was only to follow his inclinations What place should poisons have held then in this world how could they have been serviceable to man in the state of innocency could he have taken any satisfaction in the sight of creatures whose qualities were fatall to him could he have treated with the Basilisk whose looks cause death could he have approached Serpents which poison the aire with their breath could he have communed with him who was the cause of his undoing had he suspected either his breath or his looks and ought we to imagine that there was any creatures which could offend man in a time when not having committed any fault he was not to fear any punishment what delight could he have taken in the company of those beasts which are fatall to all other beasts what sport could he have taken in Monsters which carry death in their eyes or mouth and from whence a man must fence himself as well as against the plague or war But it may be objected Originall righteousnesse served him for a safe-gard he saw the danger with delight because the sight thereof caused no apprehension in him he was well pleased to to handle poyson the efficacy whereof was tane away by his innocency and to touch venome which had not power to hurt him Divine Providence which prescribed bounds to the raging of the sea gave laws to the malice of Serpents and the same power which hindered the Sun from burning men when he gave them light would not suffer the Basilisk to poyson them by his lookes but who perceives not how weak this answer is and how it compares Creatures which do no ways resemble one another the Elements hurt not us but onely through their disorders the seasons annoy us not but by their irregularities All things in their purity are usefull to us we dread not nature for them but her corruption and even in the very state of sin we make use of them without either fear or danger Owles onely complain of light Harmony is onely hated by Savage beasts a man must either be sick or mad to detest food which preserves life but every body apprehends poyson it must be corrected by art before the malignity thereof be tane away to make any use of it it must be destroy'd it is so dangerous as it oft-times kils those Physicians who prepare it The smell of poyson is as pernitious as the substance it poures forth it's malignity throughout all the Senses penetrates all the pores of the body and there are some so subtil poisons as even Iron is not solid enough to fence us from them Let us then conclude that the earth bore not those unlucky plants which seem to conspire mans ruine till that made barren by Gods Curse it was bound to turn it's roses into Thorns and it's fruits into poysons Sin was the occasion of this disorder Divine Justice the cause and the same power which caused the earth to open underneath the feet of Dathan and Abiram caused wolfes-bane and Hemlock to come out of her bowels to hasten his death who had lost his innocency The tenth and last Discourse That God will