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

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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
which by small pain delivers us from the Torments of the Damned to enjoy the Felicities of the Angels Of Pleasure IF Hope is thought to merit so many and so high Encomiums as that she is the most charming agreeable Passion that rises in Mans Soul and that which flatters our senses with the most sensible delectation what shall we say of Pleasure which is the delicious fruitwhereof the other was but a bud or blossom at most This is the effect and the other was but a fair promise This is the motion of the Soul that terminates all the rest As Love is the commencement this is the consummation and in all the different forms which Love assumes he is the most agreable in this in all the others he is mix'd with troubles dangers fatigues hardships and as many various miseries as he is metamorphos'd into different shapes yet in this of Pleasure he is absolutely all the desires he is at once victorious triumphant and happy Pleasure is the fruition of an agreeable good which renders the Soul satisfied interdicting any motion of desire sorrow or fear this definition excludes all those delights our Memory furnishes us with in the recollection of a past Felicity Those shadows of Joy may serve to entertain our thoughts with but are not solid enough to constitute a real Tranquillity It being as natural to regret a Felicity which we have lost as desire one that is absent from us As also all those infamous Pleasures which Voluptuousness creates the pain of desiring them exceeds by much the delectation of fruition They are such Mortal Enemies of our quiet that they are never enjoy'd without rendring us miserable as well as criminal at one fatal stroke wounding both Soul and Body True Pleasure is never so agreable as when 't is extream the greater it is the more it ravishes us The solid satisfaction of a rational Creature consisteth in the Mind and Man cannot be contented if the more noble part of his System is not happy The knowledge of Truth and the practice of Virtue ought to be his great divertisement He must follow the most pure of his inclinations and in the composition of his Body he must labour rather to please the Angel than gratifie the Beast He must remember that the Body is but the Slave of the Soul and in his choice of Pleasures he ought to give the Deference to the Sovereign If any man is of a contrary sentiment we cannot but conclude that Sin which depriv'd him of Grace has robb'd him likewise of his Understanding and Reason too The pleasures of the Senses are limited but those of the Soul are not so That sweet Odour which gratifies the Smel pleases no other Sense Musick which ravishing the Soul from the Body puts us in Heaven with the glorious Cherubims has no effect but upon the Ear. Virtue satisfies every faculty of the Soul and indeed she is never contented by halves what charms her in one power is diffusive and her Joy becomes universal The happiness of the Body is but a shadow and its felicity but an empty vain appearance Whilst that of the Soul is real solid and substantial not to be taken away from them who possess it even by death it self but what will accompany them into a happy Eternity Of the good use of Pleasure THose who condemn Pleasure at the same time condemn Nature accusing her of over-sights in all her Works for she has so mixt it in all the most minute affairs of our lives that we do nothing wherein she has not equally an agreableness as a necessity Hunger makes us eat and our Nourishment pleases the Palate whilst it concerns our Lives As Pleasure is useful to the Body so it is necessary to the Soul We would not combate against Vice but for the Joy and Glory which the Conquest yields us Who would go through the many difficulties that attend the acquiring of knowledge but for the sweetness they reap after their labours But as Nature has diffus'd some pleasure in all these things 't is to serve us not as an impellent motive but as an assistant only and to be rather our refreshment under our difficulties than the reward of them A spur or encouragement to arrive at the end but it must not be the end it self The pleasures or enjoyments of the Earth may divert us but must not take up too much of us Nature designing them not so much for our felicity as our comfort Our blessed Saviour has assur'd us that all the pleasures and happiness of this World are not worth our looking after and therefore he counsels us to renounce forthwith the blandishments of the World and establish our felicity in Heaven He has order'd us by the mouth of his Apostles never to open the door of our hearts but to those pure unallayed consolations which have the Holy Ghost for their source and spring and consulting our Interests only he obliges us to look after a Joy which being grounded upon himself cannot be ravish'd from us either by the Malice of Man or by the Iniquity of Fortune and which having an infinite goodness for their Cause and Object have their duration only circumscribed by Eternity Of Sorrow THis Passion seems to be natural to Man the others but accidental Few Parts of our Body are Partakers of our Pleasures or capable of receiving any one Particular But no Part of us but alas is sensible of Pain Sorrow and Grief The Spirit is dejected and the Eyes mourn Sadness displays it self through the whole Oeconomy The very deplorableness of our State doth argue Pain to be more essential to us than Pleasure We are born in Tears we live in Sorrow and dye in Sighs For one vain transient and imaginary Pleasure we feel a thousand real weighty Evils And what is a farther Confirmation of the Misery of our Condition we are much more sensible of Pain than Pleasure A small Distemper destroys all our most solid Contentment a Fit of the Gout or Stone is capable to make a Conqueror forget his Lawrels and the Pomp of all his Triumphs Grief is a real Evil that attacks both Soul and Body at once making a double Wound at each Blow When the Body is necessitated to undergo the sharpness of Tortures the rigours of the Seasons and the violence of Distempers the Soul is obliged to sigh with her and that Bond which unites them makes their Misery common she apprehends Wounds tho' she is invulnerable and Death tho' she is immortal and this only by reason of that strict Communication which she has with the Body We all agree that the Soul cannot be happy whilst the Body is miserable and to confirm us in this Opinion we know that the Soul of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ tho' it was happy in it self yet it was pierced with Grief when he said to his Disciples My Soul is sorrowful even unto death And the Felicity of his Divinity seem'd to be
suspended during his Agony for it was not without Cause that he cry'd My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Soul is much more happy than the Body by this Union for by the very Reflection on a past Misery she creates to her self new Pains whereof the Body feels no part and so of but one only Evil she makes a double Martyrdom The effect of this melancholy Passion are very strange for when Sorrow is not extreme she is ingenious and renders Man Eloquent without the benefit of Rhetorick to hear their pathetick Expressions that multitude of Sighs that so easily second the energy of their lugubrous Discourses one would think that the greatest horrours and anguish of Nature were infinitely less than what they groan under But when she is extreme she stupifies hardly leaving Man the use of any Sense and who was so florid in describing a small Evil confesses by his silence that this is without comparison greater since it is unutterable Curae leves loquuntur magnae stupent This mighty alteration gave occasion to the Poets to feign that it Converted some into Rocks others into Stones The good use of Sorrow VVE must not wonder if the Stoicks condemn a Passion when they do not approve even of the very Virtues she produces placing their Wisemen in such a State of Felicity that no humane cause could ever interrupt In the plundering of a City or the destruction of their Country they were still as unmov'd as Jupiter would be at the dissolution of the Universe and if they granted a Sigh to a deceased Parent or shed a Tear with the reflection of their Countries Ruin yet this was without ever Affecting the Soul whose Felicity consisting in its self it could not be mov'd by any external Cause But sure the pomp of these haughty Expressions could be only to preserve the Soul in her Sovereignty and perswade us not to be so far overwhelm'd with the pain of the Body as to dethrone the Mind and of the Malady of the Slave make the Misery of the Sovereign which the better to effect she us'd the policy of the Orators who by their Hyperboles perswade us of Verities and prove all things possible to animate us to some that are difficult Therefore that the Soul might not sink under the weakness of the Body but be establish'd in her Empire they have made use of Terms somewhat more Eloquent than true Sorrow is so reasonable a Passion that there are some Junctures wherein it were Impiety not to be afflicted and we must not only bewail our own Sins but our Neighbours Miseries We stand indebted to this Passion for our Innocence because our conversion to Grace is perfected in our sorrow for Sin and the Justice of God satisfied with the sincerity of our Tears In other Circumstances she works not so miraculously If our Afflictions comfort the Living they do not raise the Dead and if they assure the Wretched of our Affection they deliver them not from the anguish of their Torments But the sadness of Repentance is of another nature those grievous Sighs which oppress Sin save the Sinner these Tears wash away the Crime and sanctifie the Criminal Sorrow alone for having offended becomes here a compleat satisfaction And as God knoweth that it lies not in our power to alter any thing which has already hapned so he graciously accepts of our Repentance for having transgressed And as he sees the bottom of our Hearts so when our Tears are unfeigned he never refuses them his Pardon Were it not for this Passion there could be no Salvation since there can be no Repentance without Sorrow we will therefore be vehement in the defence of a Passion from which we receive such considerable Advantages And tho' Princes thinking this too austere a Passion to have admittance into their Courts by Musick Balls Dancings Plays and many other Divertisements seek to keep it from an Entrance yet before the Tribunal of God this Passion has more Credit than all the others united in one She can boast that she works the strange Metamorphosis in Grace of making Saints of Sinners and of the Children of Disobedience Darkness and Perdition she makes Children of Light Brothers with the Son of God and Heirs of everlasting Felicities and of a Crown and Kingdom which can know no end The Conclusion FRom all these Discourses 't is easie to judge that there is no Passion in our Souls which may not be advantageously managed by Reason as well as Grace For to summ up all what has been said in the whole Work Love may be chang'd into a holy Amity and Hatred may be brought to a just Indignation Desires moderated are so many good Assistants to acquire Virtue Eschewing is the proper security of Chastity Hope animates us to brave and generous Undertakings and our Despair turns us from rash ones Fear is serviceable to Prudence and Boldness to Valour As brutish as Anger seems she sides with Justice Joy is an innocent Antepast of Felicity Grief a short pain that frees us from Eternal Torments So that our Salvation depends only upon the good use of our Passions and Virtue it self only subsisteth by the good employment of the Motions of our Soul FINIS INDEX PART I. OF the Number of our Passions 14 Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 17 If there were any Passions in Jesus Christ and wherein they differ'd from ours 19 Of the disorderliness of Man's Pass 22 Nature alone cannot regulate our Passions 24 Of the necessity of Grace to govern the Passions 26 Our Senses are chiefly the Causes of the disorders of our Passions 28 There is more irregularity in the Passions of Man than in those of Beasts 29 As there is nothing more difficult so there is nothing more glorious than the Government of the Passions 32 No Slavery is so miserable as that of being over-power'd by our Passions 37 To govern our Passions we must first moderate them 41 Reason alone is able to restrain the Passions 46 By what means we may moderate our Passions 50 Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue 53 There is no Passion which may not be chang'd into a Virtue 58 The Government of our Passions is the business of Virtue 62 PART II. OF Love 66 Of the good use of Love 68 Of the nature and properties of Hatred 73 The good use of Hatred 76 Of the nature and properties of Desire 80 Of the good use of Desire 83 Of the nature propert of Eschewing 86 Of Hope 88 Of the good use of Hope 91 Of Despair 93 Of Boldness 96 Of the good use of Boldness 100 Of Fear 102 Of the good use of Fear 105 Of Anger 106 The good use of Anger 109 Of Pleasure 112 Of the good use of Pleasure 115 Of Sorrow 117 The good use of Sorrow 119 The Conclusion 122 BOOKS Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard CApt.