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A10663 A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire. Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676. 1640 (1640) STC 20938; ESTC S115887 297,649 518

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Chap. 17. Of other causes of Desire Infirmity Temerity Mutability of Minde Knowledge Repentance Hope of the effects of it in generall labour languor In speciall of rationall Desires bounty griefe wearinesse indignation against that which withstands it Of vitious Desires deception ingratitude envie greedinesse basenesse of Resolution p. 177. Chap. 18. Rules touching our Desires Desires of lower Objects must not be either Hasty or unbounded such are unnaturall turbid unfruitfull unthankfull Desires of heavenly objects fixed permanent industrious connexion of vertues sluggish desires p. 190. Chap 19. Of the affection of joy or delight the severall objects thereof corporall morall intellectuall Divine p. 197. Chap. 20. Of the causes of Ioy. The union of the Object to the Faculty by Contemplation Hope Fruition changes by accident a cause of Delight p. 203. Chap. 21. Of other causes of Delight Vnexpectednesse of a good strength of Desire Imagination Imitation Fitnesse and accommodation Of the effects of this Passion Reparation of Nature Dilatation Thirst in noble Objects satiety in baser Whetting of Industry Atmorous unbeliefe p. 211 Chap 22. Of the affection of sorrow the object of it evill sensitive intellectuall as present in it selfe or to the minde by memory or suspition particular causes effects of it Feare Care Experience Erudition Irresolution Despaire Execration Distempers of body p. 221. Chap. 23. Of the affection of Hope the Object of it Good Future Possible Difficult Of Regular and inordinate Despaire p. 233. Chap. 24. Of the causes of Hope Want and Weaknesse together Experience and Knowledge In what sense Ignorance may be said to strengthen and know ledge to weaken Hope Examples quicken more then Precept provision of aides the uncertainty of outward meanes to establish Hope goodnesse of Nature Faith and Cred●…lity wise Confidence p. 240. Chap. 25. Of the effects of Hope Stability of minde wearines arising not out of weaknes but out of want Contention and forthputting of the Minde Patience under the want Distance and Difficulty of Good desired waiting upon aide expected p. 254. Chap. 26. Of the affection of Boldnesse what it is the causes of it strong Desires strong Hopes Aydes Supplies Reall or in Opinion Despaire and extremities experience ignorance Religion immunity from danger Dext●…rity of Wit Strength of Love Pride or Greatnesse of Minde and Abilities The effects of it Executi●…n of things advised Temerity c. p. 258. Chap. 27. Of the Passion of Feare the causes of it Impotency Obno●…ousnesse Suddennesse Neerenesse Newnesse Conscience Ignerance of an evill p. 274. Chap. 28. Of the effects of Feare Suspition Circumspection Superstition betraying the succours of Reason Feare generative rest●…cting inward wea●…ning the Faculties of the minde base Susp●…tion wise Caution p. 210. Chap. 29. Of that particular affection of Feare which is called shame what it is Whom we thus feare The ground of it evill of Turpitude Injustice Intemperance Sordidnesse So●…nesse Pusillanimity Flattery Vainglory Misfortun●… Ignorance Pragmaticalnesse Deformity Greatnesse of Minde unworthy Correspondencies c. Shame v●…ous and vertuous p. 300. Chap. 30. Of the affection of Anger the distinctions of it The fundamentall cause thereof contempt Three kindes of Contempt dis●…estimation disappointment Calumny p. 31●… Chap. 31. Of other causes of Anger first in regard of him that suffers wrong Excellency weaknesse strong d●…sires sus●…ition Next ●…regard of him who doth it Rasenesse Impudence Neerenesse Freedome of speech Contention Ability the effects of Anger the immutation of the Body Impulsion of Reason Exp●…dition Precipitance Rules for the moderating of this Passion p. 322. Chap. 32 Of the originall of the Reasonable Soule whither it be immediately created and i●…sused 〈◊〉 derived by seminall Traduction from the Parents Of the derivation of originall sinne p. 391. Chap. 33. Of the Image of God in the Reasonable Soule in regard of it's simplicity and spirituality p. 400. Chap. 34. Of the Soules Immortality proved by it's simplicity independance agreement Of Nations in acknowledging a God and duties due to him dignity above other creatures power of understanding things immortall unsatisfiablenesse by Objects mortall freenesse from all causes of corruption p. 407. Chap. 35. Of the honour of humane bodies by creation by resurrection of the endowments of glorified bodies p. 420. Chap. 36. Of that part of Gods image in the Soule which answereth to his Power Wisedome Knowledge Holinesse Of mans dominion over other Creatures Of his love to Knowledge what remainders we retaine of originall Iustice. p. 429. Chap. 37. Of the Faculty of understanding it 's operation outward upon the object Inward upon the will Of Knowledge what it is The naturall desire and love of it Apprehension Iudgement Retention requisite unto right Knowledge Severall kindes of Knowledge The originall Knowledge given unto man in his Creation The benefits of Knowledge of Ignorance naturall voluntary Poenal of Curiosity of Opinion the causes of it Disproportion betweene the Object and the Faculty and an acute versutilo●…snesse of conceits the benefits of modest Hesitancy p. 444. Chap. 38. Of Errours the causes thereof The abuses of Principles falsifying them or transferring the truth of them out of their owne bounds Affectations of singularity and novell courses Credulity and thraldome of judgement unto others How Antiquity is to be honoured Affection to particular objects corrupteth judgement Curiosity in searching things secret p. 483 Chap 39. The actions of the understanding inventition Wit Iudgement of Invention Distrust Prejudice Immaturity Of Tradition by speech Writing Of the Dignities and Corruption of speech p. 500. Chap. 40. Of the Actions of the understanding upon the Will with respect to the End and Meanes The power of the understanding over the Will not Commanding but directing the Objects of the Will to be good and convenient Corrupt Will lookes onely at Good present Two Acts of the Vnderstanding Knowledge and Consideration It must also be possible and with respect to happinesse Immortall Ignorance and Weaknesse in the Vnderstanding in proposing the right means to the last End p. 517. Chap. 41. Of the Conscience it's Offices of Direction Conviction Comfort Watchfulnesse Memory Impartiality Of Consciences Ignorant Superstitious Sleeping Frightfull Tempestuous p. 531. Chap. 42. Of the Will it 's Appetite with the proper and chiefe Objects therof God Of Superstition and Idolatry Of it's Liberty in the Electing of Meanes to an End Of it's Dominion Coactive and perswasive Of Fate Astrology Satanicall Suggestions Of the manner of the Wills Operaation Motives to it Acts of it The Conclusion p. 537. A TREATISE of the Passions and Faculties of the SOULE of MAN CHAP. I. Of the dependance of the Soule in her operations upon the Body IT hath been a just Complaint of Learned Men that usually wee are more curious in our inquiries after things New than excellent and that the very neerenesse of worthy Objects hath at once made them both despised and unknowne Thus like Children with an idle diligence and fruitlesse Curiositie wee turne over this
divers according to the particular nature of the Passions sometimes too sudden and violent sometimes too heavie oppression of the heart the other sudden perturbation of the spirits Thus old Ely dyed with sudden griefe Diodorsu with shame Sophocles Chilo the Lacedemonian and others with joy Nature being not able to beare that great and sudden immutation which these Passions made in the Body The causes and manner of which cogitation I reserre as being inquiries not so directly pertinent to the present purpose unto Naturall Philosophers and Physicians And from the generalitie of Passions I proceed unto the consideration of some particulars according to the order of their former division In all which I shall forbeare this long Method of the Antecedents Concomitants and Consequents of their Acts many particulars whereof being of the same nature in all Passions will require to be observed onely in one or two and so proportionally conceived in the rest and shall insist principally in those particulars which I handle on the causes and effects of them as being Considerations wherein commonly they are most serviceable or prejudiciall to our Nature CHAP. IX Of the affection of Love of Love naturall of generall communion of Love rationall the object and generall cause thereof NOw the two first and fundamentall Passions of all the rest are Love and Hatred Concerning the Passion of Love we will therein consider first its object and its causes both which being of a like nature for every morall object is a cause thoug●… not every cause an object will fall into one Love then consists in a kind of expansion o●… egresse of the heat and spirits to the object loved or to that whereby it is drawne and attracted whatsoever therefore hath such an attractive power is in that respect the object and general●… cause of Love Now as in Nature so in the Affections likewise we may observe from their objects a double attraction The first is tha●… naturall or impressed sympathie of things wher●… by one doth inwardly incline an union with the other by reason of some secret vertues and occ●… qualities disposing either subject to that 〈◊〉 all friendship as betweene Iron and the Loa●… stone The other is that common and mo●… discernable attraction which every thing receiv●… from those natures or places whereon they 〈◊〉 ordained and directed by the Wisedome an●… Providence of the first Cause to depend both in respect of the perfection and conservation of their being For as God in his Temple the Church so is He in his Pallace if I may so call it the World a God of Order disposing every thing in Number Weight and Measure so sweetly as that all is harmonious from which harmonie the Philosophers have concluded a Divine Providence and so powerfully as that all things depend on his Government without violence breach or variation And this Order and Wisdome is seene chiefely in that sweet subordination of things each to other and happie inclination of all to their particular ends till all be reduced finally unto Him who is the Fountaine whence issue all their streames of their limited being and the fulnesse of which all his creatures have received Which the Poet though something too Poetically seemeth to have express'd Principio Coelum ac Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque Astra Spiritus intus al●… ●…otamque infusa per Artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Heaven Earth and Seas with all those glorious Lights Which beautifie the Day and rule the Nights A Divine inward Vigour like a Soule Diffus'd through ev'ry joint of this great Whole Doth vegetate and with a constant force Guideth each Nature through its fixed course And such is the naturall motion of each thing to its owne Sphere and Center where is both the most proper place of its consisting and withall the greatest freedome from sorraine injurie or violence But we must here withall take notice of the generall care of the Creator whereby he hath fastned on all creatures not onely his private desire to satisfie the demands of their owne nature but hath also stamp'd upon them a generall charitie and feeling of Communion as they are sociable parts of the Vniverse or common Body wherein cannot possible be admitted by reason of that necessarie mutuall connexion between●… the parts thereof any confusion or divulsion without immediate danger to all the members And therefore God hath inclin'd the nature of these necessarie agents so to worke of their discords the perfect harmonie of the whole that i●… by any casualtie it fall out that the Body of Nature be like to suffer any rupture deformitie o●… any other contumely though haply occasioned by the uniforme and naturall motions of th●… particulars they then must prevent such damag●… and reproach by a relinquishing and forgetting of their owne natures and by acquainting themselves with motions whereunto considered i●… their owne determinate qualities they have a●… essentiall reluctancie Which propertie and sense of Nature in common the Apostle hath excellently set downe in 1 Cor. 12. where he renders this reason of all that there might be 〈◊〉 Schisme in the Body which likewise he divinely applyeth in the mysticall sense that all the severall gifts of the Spirit to the Church should drive to one common end as they were all derived from one common Fountaine and should never be used without that knitting qualitie of Love to which he elsewhere properly ascribeth the building continuation and perfecting of the Saints Now as it hath pleased the infinite Wisdome of God to guide and moderate by his owne immediate direction the motions of necessarie agents after the manner declared to their particular or to the generall end which motion may therefore as I before observed be called the naturall Passion of things so hath it given unto Man a reasonable Soule to be as it were his Vice-gerent in all the motions of Mans little World To apply then these proportions in Nature to the affection of Love in Man we shall finde first a Secret which I will call Naturall and next a Manifest which I call a Morall and more discursive attraction The first of these is that naturall sympathie wrought betweene the affection and the obj●…ct in the first meeting of them without any suspension of the person ●…ll farther inquirie after the disposition of the object which comes immediately from the outward naturall and sensitive Vertues thereof whether in shape feature beautie motion 〈◊〉 behaviour all which comming under the spheare of Sense I include under the name of Iudiciarie Physiognomie Which is not a bare delight in the outward qualities but a farther presumption of the Iudgement concluding thence a lovely disposition of that Soule which animateth and quickneth those outward Graces And indeed if it be true which Aristotle in his Ethicks tels us That similitude is the ground of Love and if there be no naturall Love stronger
it For our flesh is to be subdued to reason not to infirmities that it may be a servant to the Soule but not a burden But if we let Wine bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen called it to take a freedome against us like Cham to mocke us and discover our nakednesse and make us servants unto it If we doe not only eate Hony but surfet on it If wee must have meat like Israel in the Wildernesse not only for our Need but for our Lust If we eat and drinke so long that we are good for nothing but either to lye downe and sleep or to rise up and play to live to day and to dye tomorrow If we make our belly the grave of our Soule and the dungeon of our Reason and let our Intestina as well morally as naturally farre exceed the length of the whole Man besides This is in the Apostles phrase to be lovers of pleasure rather then lovers of God and it is an intemperate excesse against natural desires which will ever end in pain It was a witty speech of A●…acharsis the Philosopher that the Vine beareth three sorts of Grapes The first of Delight The second of Excesse The third of Sorrow If wee let our Delight steale us into Excesse and become a mocker our Excesse will quickly betray us unto Sorrow as Dalilah did Sampson to the Philistins and let us know that after Wine hath mocked it can rage too Like the head of the Polypus which is sweet to the Palate but after causeth troublesome sleeps and frightfull dreames Secondly there are brutish and unnaturall Desires which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ferine and inhumane instancing in those barbarous Countries where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat and in the Woman who ●…ipped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones Vnto which head I refer those which the Apostle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vile and dishonorable Affections and Passions of Lust wherein forsaking the guidance of Nature they dishonored their bodies amongst themselves and gave themselves over as S. Iude speaketh unto strange flesh also incestuous and promiscuous Lusts going with naked and painted Bodies as the antient Brit●…aines offering of men and children in sacrifices eating of the bodies of Friends that dyed burning of the living with the dead and other like savage and barbarous practices wherein wee finde how farre naturall corruption improved with ignorance and want of Education or Religion can imbrace the Manners of Men. Lastly there are morbid Desires growing out of some distemper of Mind or Body called by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those of children which eate co●…les or dirt and the strange and depraved longings of women with child called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pi●…a from the Bird of that name because the inconstant and various appetences of nature so misguided by vitious humours is well resembled by the strange mixture of white and black feathers in that Bird. Having considered the severall kinds both of Regular and corrupt Desires I shall content my selfe with a very briefe inquiry into the causes and effects of this Passion The causes moving it are Externall ex parte objecti in the object or ●…ternall ex parte subjecti in the minde The Object is any thing apprehended sub ratione Boni Iucundi as good and pleasant For upon those inducements did Satan first stirre the desire of Eve towards the forbidden fruit She saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eye Now the Qualification of these to distinguish the formall reason of their being objects to our desires from that wherein they are Objects of our love is first that they bee Possible For Desire being the motion and indeavour of the Soule towards that good which it loveth and wherein it seeketh to delight take away the possibility of such delight and this would bee motus in Vac●… like that of Noahs Dove that found no place for her feet to rest on Hope is the whetstone and wheele of industry if that saile how ever a man may waste and pine away his thoughts in empty Velleities and imaginary wishes he ca●… ever put forth nor addresse his endeavours towards an impossible good Though an old man may wish himselfe young againe yet no man was ever so besotted as to endeavour it And this distinction betweene vanishing wishes and serious desires is of great consequence to be attended in all th●… motions of the Soule morall or sacred in as much as those Desires onely which are Active and Industrious purposely addressing themselves to the prosecution of that which they apprehend as acquirable doe commend the Soule from whence they issue for vertuous and pious Secondly the object of the Desires quatale is apprehended as Absent and distant in as much as presence worketh delight rather than desire The things we have we enjoy wee doe not covet wee rest in them we doe not move towards them Yet not alwaies Absent quoad t●…m but quoad gradus not in the whole but in the parts and degrees of it for the presence of a good thing doth in some sort quicken the Desires towards the same thing so farre forth as it is capable of improvement and augmentation As we see in externall riches of the body none desire them more eagerly than those that possesse them and the more vertuous the Soule of man is the more is the heart enlarged in the Appetition of a greater measure as the putting in of some water into a Pump doth draw forth more No man is so importunate in praying Lord help mine unbeliefe as hee that can say Lord I beleeve Thus even present things may be desired in order to improvement and further degrees of them as many times a man hath a better stomacke to his meat after he hath begun to eat than when he first sate downe unto it Againe things present may be the Object of our Desires unto continuance as hee that delighteth in a good which he hath desireth the continuance of that Delight And therefore Life even while it is possessed it is desired because the possession of it doth not cause the Appetite to nauseate or surfet upon it Few men there are who desire not old Age not as it is old Age and importeth decay decrepidnesse and defects of Nature For a young man doth not desire to bee old now but as it implyeth the longer and fuller possession of Life For a man being conscious to himselfe first of his owne insufficiency to make himselfe happy from and within himselfe and next of the immortality of his Nature as upon the former reason he is busied in sending abroad his Desires as the Purveyors and Caterers of the Soule to bring in such things as may promote perfection so those very Desires having succeeded doe farther endeavour the satisfaction of
word of Light But of all these former objects of mans Delight because they are amongst Salomons Catalogue of things under the Sunne none are here without vexation and vanities For to let passe the lightning of an idle mirth which indeed is madnesse and not Ioy. For Seneca telleth us that true Ioy is a serious and severe thing and not to meddle with riches and other secular Delights which have wings to fly from us and thornes to prick us even that highest naturall Delight of the Mind Knowledge and the heavenly eloquence of the Tongues of Angels which a man would think were above the Sunne and therfore not obnoxious to Salomons vanity would be in man without the right corrective thereof but a tinkling noise yeelding rather a windy Pleasure than a true Delight The properties whereof is not to puffe up but to replenish And therefore it is the prayer of Saint Paul The God of Peace fill you with all Ioy. True heavenly Ioy is a filling a satiating Ioy a Ioy unspeakeable with Saint Peter a Peace past understanding with Saint Paul Nor doth this property of overflowing and swallowing the Mind add any degrees of offence or anxiety therunto for it is not the weaknesse of the soule as it is of the body to receive hurt from the excellency of that which it delighteth in nor doth the mind desire to subdue or conquer but onely to be united with its object And here the onely corruption of our Delight is the deficiency and imperfections of it For though this blessed Light leaves not any man in the shadow of death yet it takes him not quite out of the shadow of sinne by the darknesse wherof hee is without much of that lustre and glory which he shall then have when the righteous shal shine like the Sunne in the Firmament Yet at the least our endeavours must be that though our Ioyes cannot be here a Repl●…nishing Ioy yet it may be an Operative Ioy and so worke out the measure of its own fullnesse I have done with the severall Objects of mans delight Corporall Morall Intellectuall and Divine CHAP. XX. Of the Causes of Ioy. The union of the Object to the Faculty by Contemplation Hope Fruition Changes by accident a cause of Delight I Now proceed to speak of the more particular causes and effects of this Passion Touching the former not to meddle with those which are unnaturall belluine and morbid which the Philosopher hath given some instances of The generall cause is the naturall goodnesse of the Object and the particulars under that Any thing which hath a power to unite and make present the Object with the Faculty And that is done to speake onely of intellectuall Powers three manner of wayes by Contemplation by Confidence and by Fruition by thinking of it in the Minde by expecting of it in the Heart and by enjoying it in the whole Man Contemplation addes unto the Soule a double Delight First from it's owne property it being the proper and naturall agitation of mans minde insomuch that those things which wee abhorre to know experimentally our curlous and contemplative nature desires to know speculatively And therefore the Devils first temptation was drawne from the knowledge as well of evill as good for he knew that the minde of Man would receive content in the understanding of that which in it's owne nature had no perfection in it But then secondly in the Object of true Delight Contemplation ministreth a farther Ioy in that it doth in some sort pre-unite our Soules and our Blessednesse together and this is partly the reason why Aristotle so much advanceth his Contemplative before his practique Felicity For though this in regard of it's immediate reference unto Communion be of a more spreading and diffusive Nature yet certainly in that sweetnesse of content that serenity of Soule that exaltation of thoughts which we receive from those noble motions of the higher Mind the other doth farre in pleasure and satisfaction surpasse all active happinesse And hence we see in the parts of Mans Body those which are if I may so speake more contemplative have precedence to those that are more practique The parts of Vision are before the parts of Action the right eye is preferred before the right hand Thus we may observe in God himselfe notwithstanding in him there can bee neither accession nor intermission of Delight yet by way of expression to us ward he did not in the creation of the World so much ioy in his fiat as in his vidit not so much when he gave his creatures their Nature as when he saw their Goodnesse Nature being the Object of Power but Goodnes the Object of Delight and therefore the day of his rest was more holy than the dayes of his working that being appointed for the Contemplation as these were for the production of his creatures And as Contemplation by way of Prescience when it looketh forward on good things hoped So also by way of Memory when it looketh backward and receiveth evill things escaped doth minister matter of renewed Ioy. No Man looketh on the Sea with more comfort than he who hath escaped a shipwracke And therefore when Israell saw the Egyptians dead on the Sea shore the fear of whom had so much affrighted them before they then sang a Song of Triumph Past troubles doe season and as it were ballace present Comforts as the Snow in Winter increaseth the beauty of the Spring But in this particular of Contemplation notwithstanding the excellency of it there may be Corruption in the Excesse For in those matters of Delight except they be such as are disproportioned to our corrupt Nature I meane divine things wee seldome erre in the other extreme And that is when wee doe not divide our selves between our parts and let every one execute his proper function so to attend upon meere mentall notions as to neglect the practicall part of our Life and withdraw our selves from the fellowship and regard of humane society is as wicked in Religion as it would be in Nature monstrous to see a fire burne without light or shine without heate aberrations from the supreme Law being in divine things impious as they are in naturall prodigious And therefore that vowed sequestration and voluntary banishment of Hermits and Votaries from humane society under pretence of devoting themselves to Contemplation and a fore-enjoying of the Light of God is towards him as un●… pleasing as it is in it selfe uncomfortable for their very patterne which they pretend in such cases to imitate was not only a burning lamp by the heate of his owne Contemplations but a shining lamp too by the diffusing of his owne Comforts to the refreshing of others A second cause of Delight is the sure Confidence of the Mind Whereby upon strong and un●…ring grounds it waiteth for the accomplishment of it's desires so that what ever doth incourage our Hope doth therewithall strengthen and inlarge our
Delight Spe gaudent faith S. Paul and Sperantes gaudent saith the Philosopher Hope and Ioy goe both together For where Hope is strong it doth first divert and take off the Mind from poring upon our present wants and withall ministreth tranquillity unto it from the evidence of a future better estate But here we must take heed of a deep Corruption For though I encline not to that opinion which denyeth Hope all asswaging and mitigating sorce in respect of evils or any power to settle a floating Mind yet to have an ungrounded Confisidence and either out of Presumption or Security to resolve upon uncertaine and casuall events there-hence to deduce Arguments of Comfort ' works but an empty and imaginary Delight like his in the Poet Petit ille dapes sub imagini somni Oraque vana movet dentemque indente fatigat Who dreaming that he was a Guest At his Imaginary Feast Did vainely glut upon a Thought Tyring each Iaw and Tooth for naught And when he fanci'd dainty meat Had nothing but a Dreame to eat Or like the Musitian in Plutarch who having pleased Dionysius with a little vanishing Musick was rewarded with a short and deceived Hope of a great Reward A presumptuous Delight though it seeme for the time to minister as good content as that which is raised on a sounder bottome yet in the end will worke such inconveniences as shall altogether countervaile and overweigh the de●…ipt of its former Ioyes For the Mind being mollified and puffed up with a windy and unnourishing comfort is quite disabled to beare the 〈◊〉 of some sudden evill as having its forces scattered by Security which caution and ●…eare would have collected For wee know in Bodies Vnion strengthneth natural motion and weakneth violent and in the Mind the collecting and uniting of it doth both inable it for prosecution of its owne ends and for resisting all opposite force It is therefore no comforting but a weakning Confidence which is not provident and ope●…ative The third and most effectuall cause of Delight is the Fruition of Good and the reall Vnion thereof unto the Mind●… for all other things worke delight no farther than either as they looke towards or worke towards this And therefore if we marke it in all matter of Pleasure and Ioy the more the Vnion is the more is the Delight And Vnion is the highest degree of Fruition that can be thus wee see the presence of a Friend yeelds more content than the absence and the imbraces more than the presence so in other outward Delights those of Incorporation are greater than those of Adhesion As it is more naturall to delight in our meats than in our garments the one being for an union inward to increase our strength the other outward only to protect it In the understanding likewise those assents which are most cleer are most pleasant and perspecuity argues the perfecter union of the Object to the Faculty And therefore we have Speculum 〈◊〉 put together by S. Paul We see as in aglasse darkly where the weaknesse of our knowledge of God is attributed to this that we see him not face to face with an immediate union unto his glory but at a distance in the creature and in the word the glasse of Nature and of Faith both which are in their kind evidences of things not seen we shall only there have a perfection of Ioy where we shall have a consummate union in his presence only is the fulnesse of Ioy. Now three things there are which belong unto a perfect fruition of a good thing First Propriety unto it for a sicke man doth not feele the joy of a sound mans health nor a poore man of a rich mans money Propriety is that which makes all the emulation and contention amongst men one man being agreeved to see another to have that which he either claimeth or coveteth Secondly Possession For a man can reap little comfort from that which is his owne if it be any way detained and withheld from him which was the cause of that great contention between Agamemnon Achilles between the Greeks Trojans because the one tooke away and detained that which was the others Thirdly Accommodation to the end for which a thing was appointed For a man may have any thing in his custody and yet receive no comfort nor reall delight from it except he apply it unto those purposes for which it was instituted It is not then the having of a good but the using of it which makes it beneficiall Now besides those naturall causes of Delight there is by accident one more to wit the Change and Variety of good things which the diversity of our natures and inclinations and the emptinesse of such things as we seeke Delight from doth occasion where Nature is simple and uncompounded there one and the same operation is alwaies pleasant but where there is a mixed and various Nature and diversity of Faculties unto which doe belong diversity of inclinations there changes doe minister Delight as amongst learned men variety of studies and with luxurious men variety of pleasures And this the rather because there are no sublunary contentments which bring not a * Satiety along with them as hath been before observed And therefore the same resolution which the Philosopher gives for the walking of the Body when he enquireth the reason why in a journey the inequality of the wayes do lesse weary a man than when they are all plaine and alike We may give for the walking and wandring of the Desire as Solomon cals it to wit that change and variety doe refresh Nature and are in stead of a rest unto it And therefore as I have before observed of Nero the same hath Tully observed of Xerxes that hee propounded rewards to the inventors of new and changeable pleasures Hereunto may be added as a further cause of Pleasure Whatsoever serveth to let out and to lessen Griefe as Words Teares Anger Revenge because all these are a kind of victory then which nothing bringeth greater pleasure And therefore Homer saith of Revenge that it is sweeter than the dropping honey CHAP. XXI Of other Causes of Delight Vnexpectednesse of a God Strength of Desire Immagination Imitation Fitnesse and Accommodation Of the effects of this Passion Reparation of Nature Dilatation Thirst in noble Objects satiety in Baser Whetting of industry Atimorous unbeliefe VNto these more principall Causes of this Affection I shall briefly adde these few which follow 1 The suddennesse and unexpectednesse of a good thing causeth the greater Delight in it For Expectation of a thing makes the Minde feed upon it before hand as young Gallants who spend upon their estates before they come to them and by that meanes make them the lesse when they come As sometimes it happeneth with choice and delicate stomackes That the sight and smell of their meate doth halfe cloy and satiate them
Israelite That the Crowne of Rabbah was put upon the head of David and the Sword of Goliah used to stay himselfe That the Gold and Myr●…h and Frankincense of the Wise men of the East was offered unto Christ when I finde the Apostle convincing the Iewes out of their Law and the Philosophers out of their Maximes And that every gift as well as every Creature of God is good and may be sanctified for the use and delight of Man I then conclude with my selfe That this Morall and Philosophicall Glasse of the humane Soul may be of some service even unto the Tabernacle as the Looking glasses of the Israelitish women were unto the Altar N●…r 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 a little wonder at the melancholly fancy of Saint Hierom who conc●…iving himselfe in a v●…on beaten by an Angel for being a Ciceronian did for ever after promise to abjure the Reading of secular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himselfe both justifying the 〈◊〉 at use of that kind of Learning and acknowledg●… 〈◊〉 conce●…d vision of his to have beene but a Drea●… It is true indeed that in regard of the bewitching danger from humane learning and the too great aptnesse in the minds of man to surfeit and be intemperate in the use of it Some of the Ancients have sometimes interdicted the Reading of such Authors unto Christian men But this calleth upon us for watchfulnesse in our studies not for negligence for the Apostle will tell us That to the pure all things are pure And even of harmefull things when they are prepared and their malignancy by Art corrected doth the skilfull Physitian make an excellent use If then we be carefull to Moderate and Regulate our affections to take heed of the pride and inslation of secular learning not to admire Philosophy to the prejudice of Evangelicall knowledge as if without the revealed light of the Gospel salvation might be found in the way of Paganisme if we suffer not these leane K●…ne to devoure the sat ones nor the River Iordan to be lost in the dead Sea I meane Piety to be swallowed up of prophane Studies and the knowledge of the Scriptures which alone would make any man conversant in all other kinde of Learning with much greater Felicity and successe to be under-valued and not rather the more admired is a Rich Iewell compared with Glasse In this case and with such care as this there is no doubt but secular Studies prepared and corrected from Pride and Prophanenesse may be to the Church as the Gt●…eonites were to the Congregation of Israel for H●…wers of Word and Drawers of Water otherwise we may say of them as Cato Major to his 〈◊〉 of the Graecian Art●… and Learning Quandocunqu●… ista Gens suas literas dabit omnia Cor●…umpet Nor have I upon these Considerations onely adven tured on the publication of this Tract but because withall in the reviewing of it I found very many Touches upon Theologicall Arguments and some Passages wholy of that Nature Yea all the Materiall parts of the Treatise doe so nearely concerne the knowledge of our selves and the Direction of our lives as that they may be all esteemed Borderers upon that Profession In the perusing and fashioning of it for the Presse I have found that true in writing which I had formerly found true in Building That it is almost as chargeable to repaire and set right an Old house as to Erect a New one For I was willing in the most materiall parts of it so to lop off Luxuriances of Style and to supply the Defects of Matter as that with Candid favourable and ingenuous Iudgements it might receive some toleralle acceptation In hope whereof I rest Thine in all Christian service EDWARD REYNOLDS Perlegi Tractatum hunc cui Titulus A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule c in quo nihil reperio orthodoxae fidei aut bonis moribus adversum quo minus cum summa utilitate imprimatur M●… 14. 1640. Tho. Wykes R. P. Episc. Lond. Capell domest A Summary of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke Chap. 1. OF the dependance of the Soul in her operations upon the body Pag. 1. Chap. 2. In what cases the dependance of the Soul on the body is lessened by faith custome education occasion p. 8. Chap 3. Of the Memory and some few causes of the weaknesse thereof p. 13. Chap. 4. Of the Fancy it's offices to the will and reason vol●…bility of thoughts fictions errours lev●…ty fixednesse p. 18. Chap. 5. Of Passions their Nature and distribution of the motions of naturall creatures guided by a knowledge without them and of rationall creatures guided by a knowledge within them of Passions mentall sensitive and rationall p. 31. Chap. 6. Of humane Passions in generall th●…ir use naturall morall civill their subordination 〈◊〉 or rebell on against right rea●…n p ●…1 Chap. 7. Of the exercise of Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apathy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cure thereof p. 4●… Chap. 8. Of 〈◊〉 ●…ls of Passions 〈◊〉 th●…y 〈◊〉 vertue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diverti●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 57. Chap. 9. Of the affection of Love of Love naturall of generall Communion of Love rationall the object and generall cause thereof p. 74. Chap. 10. Of the rule of true Love the Love of God and our selves similitude to these the cause of Love in other things of Love of Concup●…ence how love begetteth Love and how pr●…sence with and absence from the Object doth upon different reflects exercise and encrease Love p. 81. Chap. 11. Of the effects of Love union to the Object stay and immoration of the minde upon it rest in it zeal●… strength and tend●…rnesse towards it condescention unto it lique●…ion and languishing for it p. 98. Chap. 12. Of the Passion of ●…atred the fundamentall cause or object thereof evill How farre forth evils willed by God may be declined by men of Gods se●…t and revealed will p. 111. Chap. 13. Of the other causes of Hatred secret Antipathy Difficulty of procuring a Good commanded 〈◊〉 base sears disparity of Desires a fixed jealous 〈◊〉 p. 119. Chap. 14. Of the Quality and Quantity of Hatred and how 〈◊〉 either respects it is to be regulated p. 131. Chap. 15. Of the 〈◊〉 and evill Effects of Hatred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisedome to profit by that wee hate w●…th Confidence Victory Reformation Hatred in generall against the whole kinde cunning ●…ss 〈◊〉 cruelty running ●…ver to persons Innocent vielating Religion Envy Rejoy●…ing at evill Creeked suspition contempt contumely p. 137. Chap. 16. Of the affection of Desire what it is The severall kindes of it naturall rationall spirituall intemperate unnaturall morbid Desires The Object of the●… good pleasant as possible as absent either in whole or in degrees of perfection or continuance The most generall internall cause vacuity indigence other causes admiration greatnesse of minde curio sity p. 161.
great Booke of Nature without perusing those ordinarie Characters wherein is exprest the greatest power of the Worker and excellencie of the Worke fixing our Admiration onely on those Pictures and unusuall Novelties which though for their rarenesse they are more strange yet for their na ture are lesse worthy Every Comet or burning Meteor strikes more wonder into the beholder than those glorious Lampes of Nature with their admirable Motions and Order in which the Heathen have acknowledged a Divinenesse Let a Child be borne but with six fingers or have a part more than usuall wee rather wonder at One supers●…uous than at All naturall Sol spectatorem nisi cum desicit non habet nemo observat Lunam nisi laborantem adeò naturale est magis nova quàm magna mirari None looketh with wonde●… on the Sunne but in an Eclipse no eye gazeth on the Moone but in her Travell so naturall it is with men to admire rather things N●…w than Common Whereas indeed things are fit for studie and observation though never so common in regard of the perfection of their nature and usefulnesse of their knowledge In which respect the plaine Counsell of the Oracle was one of the wi●…est which was ever given to man To studie and to know himselfe because by reason of his owne neerenesse to himselfe hee is usually of himselfe most unknowne and neglected And yet if wee consider how in him it hath pleased God to stampe a more notable Character of his owne Image and to make him amongst all his Workes one of the most perfect Models of created excellencie wee cannot but acknowledge him to be one though of the least yet of the fittest Volumes in this great varietie of Nature to be acquainted withall Intending therefore according to my weakenesse to take some view of the inside and more noble Characters of this Booke it will not be needfull for me to gaze upon the Cover to insist on the materials or sensitive conditions of the humane nature or to commend him in his Anatomie though even in that respect the Psalmist tells us that he is fearefully and wonderfully made for wee commonly see that as most kind of Plants or Trees exceed us in vegetation and fertilitie so many sorts of beasts have a greater activitie and exquisitenesse in their senses than wee And the reason hereof is because Nature aiming at a superiour and more excellent end is in those lower faculties lesse intent and elaborate It shall suffice therefore onely to lay a ground-worke in these lower faculties for the better notice of mans greater perfections which have ever some connexion and dependance on them For whereas the principall acts of mans Soule are either of Reason and Discourse proceeding from his Vnderstanding or of Action and Moralitie from his Will both these in the present condition of mans estate have their dependance on the Organs and faculties of the Body which in the one precede in the other follow To the one they are as Porters to let in and convey to the other as Messengers to performe and execute To the one the whole Body is as an Eye through which it seeth to the other a Hand by which it worketh Concerning the ministrie therefore of the Body unto the Soule wee shall thus resolve That the Reasonable part of Man in that condition of subsistence which now it hath depends in all its ordinarie and naturall operations upon the happie or disordered temperature of those vitall Qualities out of whose apt and regular commixion the good estate of the Body is framed and composed For though these Ministeriall parts have not any over-ruling yet they have a disturbing power to hurt and hinder the operations of the Soule Whence wee finde that sundry diseases of the Body doe oftentimes weaken yea sometimes quite extirpate the deepest impression and most fixed habits of the minde For as wheresoever there is a locomotive facultie though there be the principall cause of all motion and activitie yet if the subordinate instruments the bones and sinewes be dis-jointed shrunke or any other wayes indisposed for the exercise of that power there can be no actuall motion Or as in the Body Politique the Prince whom Seneca calleth the Soule of the Common-wealth receiveth either true or false intelligence from abroad according as is the fidelitie or negligence of those instruments whom Xenophon tearmeth the Eyes and Eares of Kings In like manner the Soule of man being not an absolute independant worker but receiving all her objects by conveyance from these bodily instruments which Cicero calleth the Messengers to the Soule if they out of any indisposition shall be weakened the Soule must continue like a Rasa Tabula without any acquired or introduced habits The Soule hath not immediately from it selfe that strange weakenesse which is observed in many men but onely as it is disabled by Earthie and sluggish Organs which being out of order are more burthensome than serviceable thereunto There are observable in the Soules of men considered in themselves and in reference one to another two defects an imperfection and an inequalitie of operation the former of these I doe not so ascribe to that bodily weakenesse whereby the Soule is any way opprest as if I conceived no internall darknesse in the faculties themselves since the fall of man working in him a generall corruption did amongst the rest infatuate the Mind and as it were smother the Soule with ignorance so that the outward ineptitude of bodily instruments is onely a furtherance and improvement of that Native imperfection But for the inequalitie and difference of mens understandings in their severall operations notwithstanding it be questioned in the Schooles Whether the Soules of men have not originally in their Nature degrees of perfection and weakenesse whence these severall degrees of operation may proceed yet neverthelesse that being granted I suppose that principally it proceeds from the varietie tempers and dispositions in the instrumentall faculties of the Body by the helpe whereof the Soule in this estate worketh for I cannot perceive it possible that there should have beene if man had continued in his Innocencie wherein our Bodies should have had an exact constitution free from those distempers to which now by sinne they are lyable such remarkable differences betweene mens apprehensions as wee now see there are for there should have beene in all men a great facilitie to apprehend the mysteries of Nature and to acquire knowledge as wee see in Adam which now wee finde in a large measure granted to some and to others quite denyed And yet in that perfect estate according to the opinion of those who now maintaine it there would have beene found a substantiall and internall inequalitie amongst the Soules of men and therefore principally this varietie comes from the sundry constitutions of mens bodies in some yeelding enablement for quicknesse of Apprehension in others pr●…ssing downe and intangling the Vnderstanding in
reduce the Thoughts which by reason of their quicknesse and volubilitie and withall their continuall interchanges and successions are the most numberlesse operations of the Soule of man where by Thoughts I understand those springings and glances of the heart grounded on the sudden representation of sundry different objects for when the Mind begins once to be fixt and standing I call that rather Meditation than Thought This multiplicitie of Thoughts is grounded first upon the abundance of their Objects and next upon the quicknesse and activitie of Apprehension that is the matter this the forme of those Thoughts which I now speake of The abundance of Objects is seene in this that it includes all the varieties of species belonging to other faculties as that knowledge which the Schooles call Philosophia prima doth within its owne limits draw in in some sort all the severall Objects of particular Sciences There are Thoughts belonging unto the Will flying and pursuing Thoughts Wishings and Loathings and there are Thoughts belonging to the Vnderstanding assenting and dissenting Thoughts Beleefe and dis-opinion There are Thoughts likewise proceeding from Anger firie and revengefull Thoughts from Envie knowing and repining Thoughts from Ioy sweet and refreshing Thoughts from Conscience comforting and affrightfull Thoughts and so in all other faculties And for the quicknesse of Working the motions of the Thoughts shew it in the concu●…rence of these two things suddennesse of journey and vastnesse of way while like Lightning they are able to reach from one end of Heaven unto another and in one light and imperceptible excursion leave almost no part of the Vniverse untravelled Now of these two grounds of multiplicitie in Thoughts the former namely the abundance of Objects is ab extrinsec●… and dispersed over things though they are not otherwise the Objects of Thought than as the Mind reflecteth on the Phan●…asmata or images of them in this facultie but the latter which is the quicknesse of Apprehension though it may seeme to be the most peculiar worke of Reason yet the Imagination hath indeed the greatest interest in it For though the Act of Apprehending be the proper worke of the Vnderstanding yet the forme and qualitie of that Act which properly makes it a Thought in that strict sense wherein here I take it namely the lightnesse volubilitie and suddennesse thereof proceeds from the immediate restlesnesse of the Imagination as is plaine by the continuall varietie of Dreames and other Fancies wherein the Facultie is the principall worker The next thing is the Latitude of Imagination in framing of Objects wherein it hath a propertie of boldnesse beyond other faculties For Reason and all other powers have their fixed and determined limits in Nature and therefore they alwayes frame themselves to the truth of things yeelding assent to nothing but what they finde But the Imagination is a Facultie boundlesse and impatient of any imposed limits save those which it selfe maketh And hence it is that in matter of perswasion and insinuation Poetrie Mythologie and Eloquence the Arts of rationall Fancie have ever as was observ'd beene more forcible than those which have been rigorously grounded on Nature and Reason it being as Scaliger observes the naturall infinitenesse of mans Soule Aspernari c●…rtorum sinium praescriptionem to disdaine any bounds and confines in her operations Now the libertie of the Imagination in this particular is three-sold Creation as I may so speake and n●…w making of Objects Composition or new mixing them and Translation or new placing them unto some of which three will be reduced all Poeticall Fictions fabulous Transmutations high Metaphors and Rhetoricall Allegories things of excellent use and ornament in speech Now for the Corruptions and Diseases of this Facultie I conceive the principall to be these three Error Levitie and dull fixednesse The Error of the Imagination may be taken both actively and passively the Error which it produceth and the Error which it suffereth That the Fancie is fruitfull in producing Error is as manifest as it is difficult to shew the manner how it doth it Hence those strange and yet strong delusions whereby the Mind of melancholy men in whom this Facultie hath the most deepe and piercing operation have beene peremptorily possessed Hence those vanishing and sh●…dowie Assurances Hopes Feares Ioyes Visions which the Dreames of men the immediate issues of this Facultie doe produce Hence those gastly Apparitions dreadfull Sounds blacke Thoughts Tremblings and Horrors which the strong working of Imagination doth present unto or produce in men disquieted either with the uglinesse of their Sinnes or heavinesse of their Natures making them to feare where no feare is which whether it be done by affecting onely the Fancie or by the impression of such formes and shapes upon the Spirits which goe unto the outward senses as may thereby affect them with the same Images not by reception from without but by impression and transfusion from within it is manifest not onely by various relations but by continuall experience what strong and strange effects those distempers have produced Neither are wee to conceive this impossible when we see as admirable effects in another kind wrought by the same facultie and as is probable by the same meanes I meane the impression o●… likelinesse of an Infant in the Wombe unto the Parents or some other who shall worke a stronger conceit in the Fancie Or if this be not ascribed unto the working of this power but rather to a secret reall vertue intrinsecall unto the Seed of the Parents as many doe affirme yet that other effect of stamping on the Body the Images and Colours of some things which had made any strong and violent immutation on the Fancie must needs be hereunto ascribed As wee see commeth often to passe in the longing of Women and in her who having the picture of an Ethioplan in her Chamber brought forth a black Child and in the course which Iacob tooke 〈◊〉 putting speckled Rods before the Cattell when they were to conceive that the sancie of them might make their Lambes to be ring-straked and speckled The Errors which are in the Fancie are usually of the same nature with those that are wrought by it Such was the Error of that man which would not be perswaded but that he had on his head a great paire of Hornes and for that reason would not moove sorth nor uncover his face to any And the causes of these Errors are by Francis Mirandula ascribed first to the varietie of tempers in the Body with the predominancie of those humours which give complexion thereunto secondly to the imposture of the Senses thirdly to the government of the Will though that as is granted hath least power over this Facultie and lastly to the ministry of evill Angels who can easily cast into the Fancie strange and false species with such subtletie as shall easily gaine them plausible credit and admittance And of this we finde an expresse
from his mercy he is not delighted in the ruine neither doth hee find pleasure or harmony in the groanes of any thing which himselfe created But hee is said to will those Evills as good and just for the manifestation of his glorious Power over all the Creatures and of his glorious Iustice on those who are voluntarily fallen from him But now because it is left onely to the Wisedome of God himselfe to know and ordaine the best meanes for glorifying of himselfe in and by his creatures we are not here hence to assume any warrant for willing evill unto our selves or others but then onely when the honour of the Creator is therein advanced And so the Apostle did conditionally wish evill unto himselfe if thereby the glory of Gods mercy towards his Countrey-men the Iewes might be the more advanced Secondly it is no good Argument God willeth the inflicting of such an evill therefore it is unlawfull for my will to decline it for first the Will of God whereby hee determineth to worke this or that evill on particular Subjects is a part of his secret Counsell Now the Revealed and not the Hidden Will of God is the rule of our Wills and Actions whence it commeth to passe that it is made a part of our necessary obedience unto God in our wishes or aversations to goe a crosse way to his unrevealed purpose Peradventure in my sicke bed it is the purpose of God to cast my body into the earth from whence it was taken yet for me herein to second the Will of God by an execution thereof upon my selfe or by a neglect of those Ordinary meanes of recovery which hee affords were to despise his mercy that I might fulfill his Will Peradventure in my flight a sword will overtake mee yet I have the warrant of my Saviours example and precept to turne my backe rather than my conscience in persecution alwaies reserved that though I will that which God willeth yet my will bee ever subordinated unto his Wee owe submission to the will of Gods purpose and Counsell and wee owe conformity to the will of his Precept and Command we must submit to the will whereby God is pleased to worke himselfe and wee must conforme to the will whereby hee is pleased to command us to worke And therefore Secondly though the Will of God were in this case knowne yet is not our will constrained to a necessary inclination though it bee to an humble submission and patience in bearing that which the Wisedome and purpose of God hath made inevitable for as the promises and decrees of Good things from God doe not warrant our slacknesse in neglecting or our profanenesse in turning from them so neither doth the certainty and unavoidablenesse of a future evill as death intended upon us by God put any necessity on our nature to deny it selfe or to love its owne distresses Of which that we may be the more sure wee may observe it in him who as hee was wholly like us in nature and therefore had the same naturall inclinations and aversations with us so was hee of the same infinite essence with his Father and therefore did will the same things with him yet even in him we may observe in regard of that which the Scripture saith was by the hand and Counsell of God before determined a seeming Reluctancy and withdrawing from the Divine Decree He knew it was not his Fathers Will and yet Father if thou bee willing l●…t this cup passe from me he was not ignorant that he was to suffer and that there was an Oporte●… a necessity upon it and yet a second and a third time againe Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me Consider it as the Destruction of his Temple and Anguish of nature which hee could not being in all things like unto us but love and then Transeat Let it passe but consider it as the necessary meanes of procuring pretious blessings for mankind and of fulfilling the eternall Decree of his Fathers Love and then Not as I but as thou wilt The same may be applied in any manner of humane evills notwithstanding we are with an armed patience to sustaine them or with an obedient submission unto Divine pleasure to wait for them yet in regard of that pressure of nature which they bring with them on which the God of Nature hath imprinted a naturall desire of its owne quiet and integrity so farre forth all Evill not onely may but must bee Hated by every Regular will upon paine of violating the Law of its Creation And indeed in all this there is not any deviation from the Will of God intending that which we abhorre for as it stands not with the nature of man to hate himselfe or any good thing of his owne making so neither doth it stand with the goodnesse of God to hate his Creature or to delight barely in the misery or afflictions thereof but onely in that end of manifesting his glory and righteousnesse whereunto hee in the dispensation of his Wisdome and Iustice hath wonderfully directed them And therefore as to murmure at the Wisedome of God in thus ordering evills unto a good end were a presumptuous repining so on the other side not to entertaine those naturall desires of a straightned mind after deliverance from those evills were to be in Solomons phrase too Righteous and out of a purpose to answere the ends of Gods Wisedome to crosse the Law of his Creation So then it is evident that the Object and fundamentall cause of Hatred is all and onely Evill which however in respect of the Existence of it it bee in some cases Good for as it is in the power of God to educe out of confusion order light out of darkenesse his owne honour out of mans shame so is it his providence likewise to turne unto the great good of many men those things which in themselves doe onely hurt them Yet I say this notwithstanding as it worketh the deformity and disquiet of nature it is against the created law and in-bred love which each thing beareth to its owne perfection and therefore cannot but be necessarily hated As on the other side those ordinary and commong goods which we call in respect of God blessings as health peace prosperity good successe and the like notwithstanding they commonly prove unto men unfurnished with those habits of wisedome and sobriety whereby they should bee moderated occasions of much evill and dangers so that their Table is become their snare as the experience of those latter Romane Ages proveth wherein their victories over men hath made them in luxury and vilenesse so prodigious as if they meant to attempt warre with God Notwithstanding I say all this yet for as much as these things are such as doe quiet satisfie and beare convenience unto mans nature they are therefore justly with thankefulnesse by our selves received and out of love desired unto our friends I now proceed from the object or Generall
Love Wee seach for Evill in our selves to expell it but wee search for evill in another to finde it There is scarse a more hatefull quality in the eyes of God or Man than that of the Herodians to lye in wait to catch an innocent man and then to accuse him Another Effect which proceedeth from corrupt Hatred is proud and insolent carriage whereby wee contemne the quality or undervalue and villifie the Merit of a person For though the Apostle hath in this respect of Pride and Swelling opposed Knowledge unto Love Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth yet the opposition holdeth not there onely For there is Tumor Cordis as well as Tumor Cerebri as well a stubborne as a learned Pride a Pride against the Person as against the weaknesse of our Brother a Pride whereby wee will not stoope to a yeelding and reconciliation with him as whereby wee will not stoop to the Capacitie and Edification of him that is the swelling of Malice and this of Knowledge And hence it is that Hatred as Aristotle hath excellently observed when it is simple and alone though that seldome fall out is without the admixtion of any Griefe And the reason I take it is because Griefe is either for the Evill of another and so it is ever the Effect of Love or for the Evill which lyeth upon our selves and so is the cause of Humilitie neither of which are agreeable with Hatred whose property ever it is to conceive in it selfe some worth and excellency by which it is drawne to a Contempt and Insolence towards another Man And therefore as it was Pride in Men and Angels which wrought the first Hatred between God and them so the most proper and unseparable Effect of this hatred ever since is Pride The last Corruption of this Passion is Impatience Contention and Fury as the wise Man telleth us Hatred stirreth up strife And therefore that worthy Effect of Love which is contrary to this of Hatred is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Longanimitas Long suffering to signifie some length distance and remotion between a Mans Minde and his Passion But Hatred being of a fierce Nature is so farre from admitting any Peace or yeelding to conditions of parley that as hath been observed out of Aristotle it rests not satisfied with the Misery but desires if it bee possible the utter overthrow of an Enemy CHAP. XVI Of the Affection of Desire What it is The severall kindes of it Naturall Rationall Spirituall Intemperate Vnnaturall Morbid Desires The Object of them Good pleasant as possible as absent either in whole or in degrees of perfection or continūance The most Generall Internall cause Vacuity Indigence Other Causes Admiration Greatnesse of minde Curiosity THe next Passions in order of Nature to these two are Desire and Abomination which because they differ not much otherwise from Love and hatred than the Act from the Habit or then a man sitting from himselfe walking Desire being but the motion and exercise as delight is the Quiet and Repose of our Love I shall therefore the more briefly passe it over Desire is the wing of the soule whereby it moveth and is carried to the thing which it loveth as the Eagle to the Car●…ise in the Scripture proves to feed it selfe upon it and to be satisfied with it For as the Appetite of the Eagle is attended with sharpenesse of fight to discover its prey with swiftnesse of wing to hasten unto it and with strength to seize upon it So according to the proportion of the Soule●… love unto its object doth it command and call together both the Wisedome and Powers of the whole man to direct unto and to promote the procuring of it And the very best characters and truest lineaments which can bee drawne of the minds of men are to be taken from their Desires rather than from their Practises As Physitia●… often judge of the Diseases of sicke men by their Appetites Ill men dare not doe so much evill as they desire for feare of shame or punishment Good men cannot doe so much good as they desire fo●… want of Power and Provisions of vertue Besides Practises may be over-ruled by ends but Desires are alwaies genuine and naturall for no man can bee constrained to will that which ●…ee doth not love And therefore in the Scriptu●… good men have had most confidence in approving themselves unto God by their affections and the inward longings of their soules after him as being the purest and most unfaigned issues of Love and such as have least Proximity and Danger of infection from forraigne and secular ends Sai●… Paul himselfe was much better at willing than 〈◊〉 performing and Saint Peter who failed in his promise of D●…ing dares appeale to Christs ow●… Omniscience for the truth of his Loving Wha●… ever other defects may attend our actions this is an inseparable character of a pious soule that ●… desires to feare Gods name and according to th●… prevalency of that affection hath its conversation in heaven too In which regard Christ is called the Desire of all Nations both because where he is he draweth all the hearts and desires of his people unto him and also doth by his grace most fully answer and satisfie all the desires that are presented before him as it is said of one of the Romane Emperours Neminem unquam dimisit Tristem he never sends any discontented out of his presence The desires of the Soule are of three sorts according to the three degrees of perfection which belong unto man Naturall Rationall Spirituall Naturall desires respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of simple Necessity to the Being Preservation and integrity of Nature as the desires which things have to their proper nourishment and place ad conservationem individui for preserving themselves and to propagation increase ad conservationem speciei for preserving of their kind Rationall Desires are such as respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are Elegible in themselves and the proper objects of right Reason such as Felic●…y the common End of all rationall Appetitions Vertue the way and externall good things as Health Strength Credit Dignitie Prosperity the Ornaments of humane life Spirituall Desires respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heavenly and spirituall things the things of God Things which are above The knowledge whereof we have not by Philosophicall but by Apostolicall discovery by the Spirit of God who ●…ely searcheth the deepe things of God The Cor●…pt Desires contrary unto these are either Vitious or Morbid Vitious are againe of two sorts First Intemperate and incontinent Desires which erre not in the substance or nature of the thing desired but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speakes in the measure and manner of desiring them It is lawfull to drinke Wine and a Man may erre as Timothy did in an over rigorous severity to Nature when health or needfull refreshment requireth
the Summer and Roses in Winter the Birds of this Countrey and the Roots of anothor dai●…ties hardly procured without the shipwracks of men to feed the gluttony rather of the eye than of the belly these are the delights of the curiosities of men The same fruits when they are worse but rarer have a farre greater value set upon them then when expos'd by their commones unto every mans purchase And it was a wise complaint of old Cato That it went ill with the City when a Fish was sold for more then an Oxe We see Desires doe not put forth themselves more freely in any then in children I thinke the chiefe Reason of it is the same which the Philosopher giveth of their memories because every thing to them is new and strange for st●…ange things as they make stronger impressions upon the Retentive so they doe upon the Appeti●…ive saculties And therefore we find Herod who cared nothing at all ●…or the Doctrine of Christ because it was holy and divine had yet a great Desire to have seene his miracles because they were wonderfull And Men have travelled farre to see those persons and things the fame whereof they have before admired strange Learning strange Birds and Beasts strange Floures and Roots strange Fashions yea strange Sinnes too which is the curiositie and corruption of Nature are marvellous attractive and beget emulation amongst Men. Nero gave rewards to the inventors of strange Lusts. Even Solomons Ships besides substantiall Treasure did bring home Apes and Peacockes Athens which was the eye the floure and Epitome of Greece to shew that this curiosity is the disease as well of Wits as of Childehood spent all their time and study in inquiring after new things And for this cause it is as I conceive That wise Men have made Lawes to interdict the transporting of their countrey fruits into other places lest the sight of them should kindle in strangers a Desire to bee Masters of the Countries where they grew as we see the Grapes and Figges of Canaan were used as Incentives unto the expedition of Israel●… and hence Plutarch telleth us that the Word Sycophant is derived to note originally such as detected those who surreptitiously transported Figge●… into other Countries As on the other side wee read that the Athenians set up a Pillar wherein they published him to bee an Enemy of the City who should bring Gold out of Media as an Instrument to corrupt them And the Romane Governour commanded hi●… souldiers that they should not carry any Gold or Silver into the Field with them lest there by they should bee looked on by the Adv●…rsary as the Persians by Alexander rather as a prey than a foe A third cause which I shall touch on of exciting Desires is height and greatnesse of minde which cannot well set bounds of measure unto it selfe as Seneca said in another sense Magnitud●… non habet certum modum Great minds have great ends and those can never be advanced but with vast and various Desires A great Ship will not be carried with the Sayle of a Lyter Nor can an Eagle fly with the wings of a Sparrow Alexander was not so great in his Victories as in his Desires whom one World could not satisfie nor Pompey in his Triumphs as in his Ambition to whom it was not enough to be Great except he might be the Greatest Another cause of Desires may be Curiositie which is nothing else but a desire of prying into and listning after the businesses of other Men which is called by Solomon Ambulatio Anim●… The walking up and downe of the Soule as he elsewhere telleth us that the Eyes of a Foole are in the Ends of the Earth Such a Man being like the witches which Plutarch speaks of that weare Eyes when they went abroad but put them in a box when they came home ●… Or like the Falckoners Hawkes that are hooded in the House and never suffered to use their Eyes but to the hurt of other Birds like a man in a Dungeon that sees nothing where hee is but can see a great deale of light abroad at a little passage So these kind of Men have vast desires of forreine Knowledge but wonderfully shun the acquaintance of themselves As they say of a Swine that hee looks every way but upward so we may of Pragma tists that their eyes looke alwaies save onely inward Whereas the Minds of prudent Men are like the Windowes of Solomons Temple broader inward than outward As the Pillar that went before Israel in the Sea whose light side was towards Israel but the darke towards Pharaoh Or as the Sunne in an Eclipse whose light is perfect inwards though towards us it bee darkened A wise Mans eyes are in his head whereas a Foole hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Proverbs his minde in his heeles only to wander and g●…d abroad CHAP. XVII Of other causes of Desire Infirmity Temerity Mutability of Minde Knowledge Repentance Hope Of the effects of it in Generall Labour Languor In speciall of Rationall Desires Bounty Griefe Wearinesse Indignation against that which withstands it Of Vitious Desires Deception Ingratitude Envy Greedinesse Basenesse of Resolution Other causes of Desires are Infirmity Rashnesse and Mutability of Mind Which three I put in one as having a neer Relation and dependance within themselves For commonly impotent Appetions as those of Children of sick of incontinent Persons are both Temerarious in ●…recipitating the Minde and anticipating the ●…ictates of Reason which should regulate or re●…raine them as also mutable and wandring like ●…e Bee from one Floure unto another Infirmity 〈◊〉 suffering a man to hold fast his Decrees and ●…rity not suffering him to resolve on any and ●…stly Mutabilitie making him weary of those ●…ings which weaknesse and rashnesse had unadvisedly transported him unto Omnium Imperitorum animus in lubric●… est Weake minds have ever wavering and unfixed resolutions Like fickle and nauseating stomacks which long for many things and can eat none Like sicke bodies qu●… mutationi ●…us ut remedys utuntur as Seneca speakes which tosse from side to side and thinke by changing of their place they can leave their paine behind them Like Achilles in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now he leans on his side now supine lyes Then grov'leth on his face and strait doth rise This Sicknesse and Inconstancy of Desires is thus elegantly described by the old Poet L●…cretius Vt nunc plerumque videmus Quid sibi quisque velit nescire quarere semper Commutare locum quasi onus deponere possit Exit sape foras magnis ex adibus ille Esse domi quam pertasum est subit●… rever●… Currit agens mann●…s advillam praci●…itanter Auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instet Oscitat extemplo tetigit cum limina Villae Aut abit in somnum gravis atque oblivia quarit Aut
present ●…vill which the mind in vaine strugleth with as finding it selfe alone too impotent for the conflict Evill I say either formally as in sinne or paine present or feared or privatively such as is any good thing which we have lost or whereof we doe despaire or have beene disappointed And this is in respect of its object as the former Passion either Sensitive or Intellectuall Sensitive is that anguish and distresse of Nature which lyet●… upon the body A Passion in this sense little conducing to the advancement of Nature being allwaies joyned with some measure of its decay but onely as it serves sometimes for the better fortifying it against the same or greater evils it being the condition as of corporeall delights by custome to grow burdensome and distastefull so of paines to become easie and familiar The other and greater Griefe is Intellectuall which in Solom●…us phraise is A wounded spirit so much certainely the more quicke and piercing by how much a spirit is more vitall then a body besides the anguish of the soule findes alwayes or workes the same sympathy in the body but outward sorrowes reach not ever so farre as the spirituall and higher part of the soule And therefore we see many men out of a mistake that the distresse of their soules hath beene wrought by a union to their bodies have voluntarily spoiled this to deliver and quiet that The causes of this Passion are as in the former whatsoever hath in it power to disturbe the mind by it's union thereunto There are then two Conditions in respect of the Object that it be Evill and Present Evill first and that not onely formally in it selfe but apprehensively to the understanding And therefore wee see that many things which are in their Nature Evill yet out of the particular distemper of the Mind and deceitfulnesse in them may prove pleasant thereunto And this is the chiefe Corruption of this Passion I meane the misplacing or the undue suspending of it For although strictly in its owne property it be not an advancement of Nature nor addes any perfection but rather weakens it yet in regard of the reference which it beares either to a superior Law as testifying our Love unto the Obedience by our griefe for the breach thereof or to our consequent Carriage and Actions as governing them with greater Wisedome and Providence it may bee said to adde much perfection to the mind of man because it serves as an inducement to more cautelous living The next Condition in respect of the Object is that it be Present which may fall out either by Memory and then our Griefe is called Repentance or Fancy and Suspition and so it may be called Anx●… of Mind or by Sense and present union which is the principall kind and so I call it Anguish For the first nothing can properly and truly worke Griefe by ministry of Memory when the Object or Evill is long since past but those things which doe withall staine our Nature and worke impressions of permanent deformity For as it falleth out that many things in their exercise pleasant prove after in their operations offensive and burden some so on the other side many things which for the time of their continuance are irkesome and heavy prove yet after occasions of greater Ioy. Whether they be means used for the procuring of further good Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum 〈◊〉 in Latium sedes ubi c. Through various great mishaps dangers store We hasten to our home and wished 〈◊〉 Where fates do promise rest where Troy revives Only reserve your selves for better lives Or whether they b●… Evils which by our Wisedome we have broken th●…ough and avoided sed 〈◊〉 olim 〈◊〉 i●…vabit When we are arrived at ease Remembrance of a strome doth please The Objects then of Repentance are not our passive but our active Evils not the Evils of suffering but the Evils of doing for the memory of afflictions past represent●… unto us Nature loosed and delivered and should so much the more increase our Ioy by how much redemption is for the most part a more felt blessing than Immunity but the memory of sinnes past represents Nature obliged guilty and imprisoned And so leaves a double ground for Griefe ●…he staine or pollution and the guilt or malediction a deformity to the Law and a curse from it It would be improper here to wander into a digression touching Repentance only in a word it is then a Godly Sorrow when it proceeds from the memory of Evill not so much in respect of the punishment as of the staine When we grieve more because our sin hath made us unholy then because it hath made us unhappy and not only because we are runne into the danger of the Law but because we are run out of the way of the Law When it teacheth us to cry not only with Pharaoh take away this Plague but with Israel in the Prophet take away Iniquity Concerning Griefe of Preoccupation arising out of a suspitious Feare and expectation of Evill I know not what worth it can have in it unlesse haply thus that by fore-accustoming the Mind to Evill it is the better strengthned to stand under it For Evils by praemeditation are either prevented or mitigated the Mind gathering strength and wisedome together to meet it And therefore it is prudent advise of Plutarch that wee should have a prepared Minde which when any Evill falleth out might not be surprised by it To say as Anaxagoras did when he heard of the death of his Sonne sciome genuisse mortalem I know that I be gat a mortall Sonne I know that my riches had wings and that my comforts were mutable Preparednesse composeth the Minde to patience Vlysses wept when he saw his Dogge which he did not when he saw his Wife he came prepared for the one but was surprised by the other Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem Et perferre soror potero Had I foreseene this Griefe or could but feare it I then should have compos'd my selfe to beare it Which is the reason why Philosophers prescribe the whole course of a Mans Life to be only a meditation upon Death because that being so great an Evill in it selfe and so sure to us it ought to be so expected as that it may not come sudden and find us unprepared to meet the King of Terrour For it is in the property of custome and acquaintance not only to alleviate and asswage evils to which purpose Seneca speakes perdidisti tot mala si nondum misera esse didicisti thou hast lost thy afflictions if they have not yet taught thee to be miserable but further as Aristotle notes to work some manner of delight in things at first troublesome and tedious and therefore hee reckoneth mourning amongst pleasant things and teares are by Nature made the witnesses as well of Ioy as of Griefe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the motions of a wounded Body so the Discourses of a wounded Minde are faint uncertaine and tottering Secondly in the Will it wo●…keth first Despaire for it being the propertic of griefe to condensate and as it were on all sides besiege the Minde the more violent the Passion is the lesse apparant are the Passages out of it So that in an extremity of anguish where the Passages are in themselves narrow and the reason also blind and weake to finde them out the Minde is const●… ned having no Object but it 's owne pai●…e to re flect upon to fall into a darke and fearefull contemplation of it's owne sad estate and marvellous high and patheticall aggravations of it as if it were the greatest which any man felt Not considering that it feeles it 's owne sorrow but knowes not the weight of other mens Whereas if all the calamities of mortall men were heaped into one Storehouse and from thence every man were to take an equall portion S●…crates was wont to say that each man would rather choose to goe away with his owne paine And from hence it proceedeth to many other effects fury sinfull wishes and ex●…rations both against it selfe and any thing that concurred to it's being in misery as we see in Israel in the Wildernesse that mirror of Patience Iob himselfe and thus Homer bringeth in Vlysses in des paire under a sore tempest bewailing himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thrice foure times happy Grecians who did fall To gratifie their friends under Troy wall Oh that I there had rendred my last breath When Trojan darts made me a marke for Death Then glorious Rites my Funerals had attended But now my life will be ignobly ended Another evill effect is to indispose and disable for Dutie both because Griefe doth refrigerate as the Pilosopher telleth us and that is the worst temper for action and also diverts the Minde from any thing but that which feeds it and therefore David in his sorrow forgot to eate his bread because eating and refreshing of Nature is a mittigating of Griefe as Pliny telleth us And lastly because it weakneth distracteth and discourageth the Minde making it soft and timerous apt to bode evils unto it selfe Crudelis ubique luctus ubique pa●…or Griefe and feare goe usually together And therefore when Aeneas was to encourage his friends unto Patience and action he was forced to dissemble his owne sorrow Curisque ingentibus ager Spem vultu simulat premit altum corde dolorem Although with heavy cares and doubts distrest His looks fain'd hopes and his heart griefes supprest And it is an excellent description in Homer of the fidelity of Antilochus when he was commanded to relate unto Achilles the sad newes of Patroclus death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When Menelaus gave him this command Antilochus astonished did stand Smitten with dumbnesse through his griefe and feares His voyce was stopt and his eyes swamme inteares Yet none of all this griefe did duty stay He left his Armes whose weight might cause delay And went and wept and ran with dolefull word That great Patroelus fell by Hectors sword In a tempest saith Seneca that Pilot is to be commended whom the shipwracke swalloweth up at the Sterne with the Rudd●…r in his hand And it was the greatest honour of Mary Mag. dalene that when above all other she wept for the losse of Christ yet then of all other she was most diligent to seeke him Lastly in the body there is no other Passion that doth produce stronger or more lasting inconveniences by pressure of heart obstruction of spirit wasting of strength drynesse of bones exhausting of Nature Griefe in the heart is like a Moath in a garment which biteth asunder as it were the strings and the strength thereof stoppeth the voyce looseth the joynts withereth the flesh shrivelleth the skinne dimmeth the eyes cloudeth the countenance defloureth the beauty troubleth the bowels in one word disordereth the whole frame Now this Passion of griefe is distributed into many inferiour kindes as Griefe of Sympathy for the evils and calamities of other men * as if they were our owne considering that they may likewise be fall us or ours which is called mercy griefe of repining at the good of another man as if his happinesse were our misery As that Pillar which was light unto Israel to guide them was darknesse unto the Egyptians to trouble and amaze them which is called Envie Griefe of Fretfulnesse at the prosperity of evill and unworthy men which is called Indignation griefe of Indigence when we finde our selves want those good things which others enjoy which we envie not unto them but desire to enjoy them our selves too which is called Emulation griefe of Guilt for evill committed which is called Repentance and griefe of Feare for evill expected which is called Despaire of which to discourse would be over-tedious and many of them are most learnedly handled by Aristotle in his Rhetoricks And therefore I wall here put an end to this Passion CHAP. XXIII Of the affection of Hope the Object of it Good Future Possible Difficult of Regular and Inordinate Despaire THe next Ranks and Series is of Irascible Passions namely those which respect their Object as annexed unto some degree of Difficulty in the obtaining o●… avoiding of it the first of which is Hope whereby I understand an earnest and strong inclination and expectation of some great good apprehended as possible to be obtained though not by our owne strength nor without some intervenient Difficulties I shall not collect those prayses which are commonly bestowed upon it nor examine the contrary extreames of those who declaime against it making it a meanes either of augmenting an unexpected evill before not sufficiently prevented or of deflowring a future good too hastily pre-occupated but shall onely touch that dignity and corruption which I shall observe to arise from it with reference to it's Objects Causes and Effects Concerning the Object or fundamentall cause of Hope It hath these three conditions in it That it be a Future a Possible a Difficult Good First Future for good present is the Object of our sense but Hope is of things not seene for herein is one principall difference betweene divine Faith and divine Hope that Faith being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The substance of things hoped f●…r 〈◊〉 ever respect to it's Object as in some manner present and subsisting in the promises and first fruits which we have of it so that the first effect of Faith is a present Interest and Title but the operation of Hope is waiting and expectation but yet it will not from hence follow that the more a man hath of the presence of an Object the lesse he hath of Hope towards it for though Hope be swallowed up in the compleat presence of it's Object yet it is not at all diminished but encreased rather by a partiall
or dreaming rest The Peace which comes from a living Hope must have these two properties in it tranquillity and serennity otherwise it is but like the rest of mare mortuum whose unmovablenesse is not Nature but a curse CHAP. XXIV Of the causes of Hope Want and Weakenesse together Experience and Knowledge In what sence Ignorance may be said to strengthen and Knowledge to weaken Hope Examples quicken more than Precept Provision of Ayds the uncertainty of outward means to establish Hope Goodnesse of Nature Faith and Credulity wise Confidence THe next things to be confidered are the causes of this Passion the first impulsive cause of Hope is our Want our Weakenesse put together the one driving us ad Bonum to the Object the other ad Auxilium to the Aid and wheresoever there is Indigence there is Impotence likewise Now in what man soever we finde these two unsupplyed there is the root and fundamentall ground of Hope notwithstanding for the defects of other conditions the creature may be carried to the quite opposite Passion out of an apprehension of an inevitable subjection unto evill and utter banishment from the fountaine of good So then of those three estates of man the estate of Fruition which is their Sabbath and rest the estate of Travell which is the day of worke and the estate of damnation which is the night of despaire In the first we have the accomplishment in the third the finall overthrow in the second the exercise of our Hopes because in that alone our Indigence may by Gods fulnesse be filled and our Impotence by his Will and Power supplyed In which respect all men have roome for Hope to enjoy God their last Good though not a hope of Confidence assurance and Expectation which is peculiar only unto the godly who alone have a present interest in his promises yet such a generall Hope as may well suffice to s●…op the mouth of any temptation whereby we are solicited to undervalue the Power or to conclude the unwillingnesse of God to help us The next cause of Hope is Experience and knowledge both in the nature of the thing hoped for and of the means conducing to the attain ment thereof For notwithstanding it may often fall out that ignorance of things and the not tryall of our strength or others opposition or of the difficulties of the Object may with hot and eager minds worke presumptions of successe and an empty and ungrounded Hope which is the reason why young men and drunken men are both observed by Aristotle to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of strong Hopes being naturally or by distemper bold and opinionative even as on the other side strength and acutenesse of understanding because it sees so farre into the Object workes often diffidence slownesse and irresolution in our Hopes as Pliny out of Thucydides observes and the Philosopher likewise of old m●…n that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men slow in th●…ir Hopes because of great experience yet for all this if we do observe it both the former of these proceeds from some opinion of knowledg as the later doth from some opinion of ignorance For of drunken men and those whom in the same place he compares unto them Aristotle saith they are therefore confident quia seputant superiores because they beleeve much in their owne strength And of young men hee faith in the same place of his Rhetoricks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are peremptory in the opinion of their owne knowledge whereas on the other side as a ●…ame man placed upon some high Tower can overview with his eye more ground than hee hath hope to overrun with his feet in a whole day so men that have attained unto some good pitch of knowledge are withall not insensible of their own weaknes out of the vastnes of distance which they discover between themselves and their end doe easily frame unto themselves as narrow Hopes as they doe large desires but then thi●… proceeds not from that knowledge which we have properly but only as it serves to discover unto us how much knowledge we want So then properly knowledge and experience is the cause of Hope experience I say either of the conquerablenesse of the Object by our owne means or of the sufficiency of the Power and readinesse of the Will of him from whom wee expect further assistance For a●… there is lesse casualty and by consequence more presumption to be had of an event of art th●…n of fortune the one proceeding from a gouern'd the other from a blind and contingent cause so consequently there is greater hope confidence to be given to the successe of an enterprise grounded on experience than of one ignorantly and rashly adventured on Experience 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher observeth the Root of Art 〈◊〉 unexperience 〈◊〉 of sort 〈◊〉 Now this Experience may be such either as our selves have had or such as we have observed other 〈◊〉 to have 〈◊〉 which we have from our selves is the most forcible to 〈◊〉 this affection because every man is the best 〈◊〉 of his owne abilities And it is that which 〈◊〉 forth influence and force into all our actions nothing could more assure the hopes of David in his encounter with G●…liah than an experience formerly had against creatures every way as formidable a Lyon and a Beare wherein notwithstanding they were the sheep of Iesse and not of God that were endangered Thus the eye of Faith and Hope looketh both backward upon the memory of actions past and forward with courage and resolution on second enterprises For though in some cases it be requisite with Saint Paul to forget that which is past when the remembrance of it may be an occasion of sloath wearinesse and distrust yet there may a happy use be made of a seasonable memory in matters of difficulty wherein haply our former successefull resolutions and patience may upbraid our present fears and sharpen our languishing and sluggish Hopes O passi graviora was the best Argument which hee could have used to put his fellowes in confidence of that which hee added Dabit De●… his quoque●…inem Since other greater griefes you have found ease Doubt not but God will put an end to these And in that great battell between Scipio and Hannibal ad a●…nem Ticinam though the victory by reason of the excellency of the Generall fell to the adverse part yet the Romane Generall could not have used a more effectuall perswasion unto Hope than when hee told his souldiers that they were to enter on a warre with those men who were as much their slaves as their enemies as being such whom they had formerly themselves overcome Cum ijs est vobis pugnandum quos priore bell●… terrâ marique vicistis You are to joyne battell with those whom in the former warre you conquered both by Land and Sea A strong inducement though that in such a case the feare of a second overthrow
hard thing when great Abilities and vast Hopes meet together to governe them with moderation Private Ends being in that case very apt to engage a mans parts and to take them off from publicke service unto particular advantage And therefore I take it there is no temper of Minde that will with that evennesse and uniformity of proceeding or felicity of successe promote publicke and honourable Ends as Height of Abilities with moderation of Desires because in that case a man can never stand in his own light no●… have any mist or obstacle between his Eye and his End Now from this ground I beleeve did arise that Maxime of some of the States of Greece noted by Tully and at large debated by the Philosopher Nem●… de nobis unui excellat that they would not have any one man to be notoriously eminent in abilities above the rest and thereupon instituted Ostracisme or an honourable Bannishment as a restraint either to abate the excessive worth of eminent men or to satisfie and asswage the Envy which others might conceive against them who are apt to hate the vertues which they can onely admire or lastly to prevent the dangers which greatnesse of parts taking advantage of popularity and vulgar applause might haply venture to bring upon things Vpon this ground the Ephe sians expelled Hermodorus and the Athenians Aristides because he was too just for the rest of the people As one Voice in a Consort which is loud above the proportion of the rest doth not adorne but disturbe the Harmony and therefore usually m●…n of great parts have lien either under Envy or Iealousie Mens minds out of I know not what malignity being apt to suspect that that will not be used unto Good which might be abused unto Evill which Tacitus noteth to have been the quality of Domitian and Ammianus Marcellinus of Constantius towards men of the greatest worth Now according to the difference of this Affection in different men so it worketh two different Effects 1 There is a Happy and Discree●… boldnesse which doth not anticipate but second and attend the mature counsels of the minde and doth first call out and stirre up it selfe by wisedome before it proceed unto Action or Execution like the Boldnesse of the Lyon which is Slow but at last prospers in what it undertakes For after Counsell hath ripened Resolutions Boldnesse is then the best Instrument to accomplish them and in that case quo minus timoris minus fermè perituli as the Historian speaks The lesse feares are the lesse also are their dangers and the greater their Confidence the surer their successe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greeks by venturing did enjoy Their ten yeares wish and gained Troy 2 There is a hasty and rash Boldnesse which beginning too speedily without Counsell doth usually end too Cowardly without Courage for rash men whom the Philosopher cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men made up of confidence and feare are bold and boasting before a Danger but in it very timorous or at least inconstant Lyons in peace but Harts in warre as Tertullians Proverb hath it Like those of whom Livy and Florus tell us That they were more than men in the onset and lesse than women in the issue melting away from their Resolutions like Snow And another ill property of the Rashnesse of this Passion is That it will expose a man to more danger than the successe which it aimes at can compensate●…as he that fishes for a Gudgeon with a golden hooke or as Vlysses who went backe to the Cyclop●… his denne to fetch his cap and girdle which he had left behind him Another is that it makes men Overvalue themselves and so undertake things too hard for them to endure or hold out in Like Menelaus in the Poet who would venture to fight with Hector or Ari●…ioxenus in Tully who being a Musitian would needs determine in questions of Philosophy Lastly it hath a property as we say to breake the Ice and to give the first onset upon dangerous Attempts which is a thing of very perillous consequence not only to the Author but many times to the publick Peace too c forward exulcerated and seditious spirits being too ready to follow what they dare not begin CHAP. XXI Of the Passion of Feare the Causes of it Impotency Obnoxiousnesse Suddennesse Neerenesse Newnesse Conscience Ignorance of an Evill THe opposite Passion to this of of Hope is Feare which being an Equivocall Passion and admitting of many different kinds can sca●…se have any whole and simple definition to explaine it There is a Vertuous Feare a Feare of Sinne and Shame an Intellectuall Feare of Admiration when the excellency of the Object dazleth our Eye a Feare of Reverence an Astonishing Feare by reason of the Newnesse and an Oppressing Feare by reason of the Neerenesse and Inavoydablenesse of the Evill sea red It is a Griefe Trouble Flight Aversation of some approaching Evill apprehended either as destructive or as burthensome to our nature and not easily resistable by our strength For the qualification of the Object thereof because it is in all circumstances like that of Hope save in the Evill of it I shall therefore forbeare to touch it and shall onely in briefe consider the Dignities and Defects thereof in its Causes and Effects Fear is an humbling debasing Passion which alwaies importeth some manner of servitude and subjection in whom it resideth So then as in the former Passion of Hope I noted the fundamentall cause thereof to be Weaknesse and W●…nt so likewise in this of Feare the Root and first Principle is Weakness●… and Subjection whereof the one implyes a disability in us to resist the other a necessity to undergoe an evill Hence it is that wee feare the displeasure of Great men or the Power of Vnjust men or the Competition of Popular and Plausible men or the Cunning of Close and Malitious men or the Revenge of Provoked men or the Guilt of Injurious men that have wronged us already because in all these cases there is some notice of Weakenesse and Subjection in us so that Feare is of all other a naked Passion For as Nakednesse hath three evill properties to disable for Defence to expose to Injury and from both to work shame in the consciousnesse of our dejected condition So likewise Feare hath three properties to make us Impotent and Obnoxious and from both these to beget Shame For though his speech was true Rubor est virtutis color that Shame and Vertue have the same colour which makes it seeme a companion rather of Perfection than of Weaknesse yet indeed it is rather a signe of a mind vertuously disposed in restifying the quicke apprehensivenesse of its own defects than any Adjunct of Vertue it selfe So then the Roots of this Passion are Weaknesse and Subjection both together so that where either condition is wanting there is not any proper ground of Feare and therefore wee
as from Crime for we shall never finde that a man who is tender of his Conscience will be Prodigall of his Credit and he who is truely fearfull of incurring Censure from himselfe by the Guilt of a Crime will in some proportion be fearfull of incurring censure from others by the shew and suspition of it for as a Good Conscience is a Feast to give a man a cheerfull heart so a good name is an oyntment to give him a cheerefull Countenance There is a Twofold shame The one Vertuous as Diogenes was wont to say That Blushing was the colour of Vertue The other Vicious and that either out of Cruelty as Tacitus and Seneca observe of Domitian that he was never more to be feared then when he blushed Or else out of Cowardize when a man hath not strength enough of Countenance to out-face and withstand a Vicious solicitation as it was said of the men of Asia that they had out of tendernes of face exposed themselves to much inconvenience because they could not pronounce that one Syllable Noe. It was a better Resolution that of Zenophanes who being provoked unto some vitious practise confessed himselfe a Coward at such a Challenge as not daring to doe dishonestly I will conclude this matter with that Excellent Similitude wherwith Plutarch beginneth it in that golden book of his touching the same Argu ment That as Thistles though noxious things in themselves are usually signes of an Excellent Ground wherein they Grow so shamefastnesse thought many times a weaknesse and betrayer of the Minde is yet generally an Argument of a soule ingenuously and verttuously disposed CHAP. XXX Of the Affection of Anger The Distinctions of it The Fundamentall Cause thereof Contempt Three kindes of Contempt Dis-estimation Disappointment Calumnie I Now proceed to the last of the Passions Anger whereof in it self a subject of large Discourse yet being every where obuious I shall not speake much I intend not therefore distinctly to handle the severall kindes of this Passion which Aristotle in his Ethicks hath given us which are a sharpe Anger and an Hard or Knotty Anger And Saint Paul who likewise gives us Three kindes of it Whereof the first I may call a close and buried anger which he names bitternesse the other a violent burning Anger which he calls Wrath and the last a Desiring and pursuing Anger which seemeth to have it's derivation from a word which signifies to Desire and therefore is defined by Aristotle to a be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the b Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of prosecution and pursute For these differ not Essentially or formerly amongst themselves but onely in diversity of Degrees and in order to the diverse constitutions of the Subject wherein they lodge and of the habits wherewith they are joyned In which respects we might observe severall other shapes of this Affection For there is the a Anger of a Waspe which is an Hasty Pettish and Fretfull Anger proceeding from a nature b Leavened and habituated with Choler which is presently stirred and prouoked And there is the Anger of a Lion which is slow but strong severe thus Elegantly described by d Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He first walkes by with sk●…rne but when swift youth Vrge him with Darts then with devouring mo●…th He turnes againe and at his lips is seene A boyling f●…ame while his stout heart within Rouseth itselfe with groanes and round about His Tayle beating his sides and loynes cals out And wakeneth proud Revenge Thus stir'd he flies Right on with red and fierie sparkling eyes To kill or to be kill'd There is further a Cowardly verball and ridiculous Anger like that of Whelps which barke aloud but run away from the thing which Anger 's them Which spendeth it selfe onely in stormes of empty Expressions rather pleasing then punishing those whom they light on and rendering the person that useth it a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Skarre Crow formidable to children but to men ridiculous like Geta in the Comedian Ruerem agerem raperem tunderem prosternerem There is a grave and serious Anger like that of Agamemnon An insolent and boasting Anger like that of Achilles A sullen and stubborne Anger like that of the Romanc Armie disgracefully used by the Samnitians A cruell and raging Anger like that of Scylla who in an excesse of fury vomited up blood died And thus Saul is said to have breathed out threatnings and bin exceeding mad against the Church A Revengefull and impatient Anger as that of Cambyses who being reprooved by Prexaspes for his Drunkennesse con●…uted the reproofe with this act of Cruelty he shot the sonne of his Reproover thorow the heart to prove the steaddinesse of his hand An Anger of Indignation at the honour and prosperity of unworthy persons as that of the Roman Nobility who seeing Cu. Flavius a man of meane Condition advanced to the Praetorship threw away their golden Rings the signes of their honour to testifie their just Indignation The Poet thus Elegantly expresseth the like against Menas made of a Slave a Freeman by Pompey Videsne Sacram metiente te via●… Cum bis ter ●…lnarum tog â Vt or a vertal ●…uc huc euntium Liberrima Indignatio Sectus flagellis hic trium viralibus Praconis ad fastidium Arat falernimille fundi jugera Et appiam mannis terit When thou pacest up and downe In thy long Gowne Seest thou how the people fret To see thee Iet How with Indignation bold They cannot hold To see a man so lately plow'd With scourges low'd Vntill at length the weary Cryer Began to Tyre Dressing a thousand Acres now With Horse and Plow Lastly an Anger of Emulation or a displeasure against our selves for comming short by our negligence of the perfections of other men whom haply by industry we might have equalled As Themistocles professed that the Trophie of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleepe And Caesar wept wh●… he read the atchiements of Alexander as having not at his age done any memorable thing And Thucydides hearing Herodotus recite a History which he had written brake forth into a strange passion of weeping which the Historian espying thus comforted his Father you are a happy man to be the Father of such a Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is carried with such a vehement affection unto Learning But to passe over these particulars I shall in the generall content my selfe with a briefe Consideration of the Causes and Effects of this Passion The Fundamentall and Essentiall Cause of Anger is Contempt from others meeting with the love of our selves Whether it be disestimation and undervaluing of a mans person or disappointment of his purposes or slandering his good name or any other way of casting injury on him or any of these particulars being impaired if by such on whom we
he desired to suppresse and dissemble Both which were true in Scaur●…s one of the Senatours who adventuring to collect Tiberius his willingnesse of accepting the Empire in that he did not sorbid by his Tribunitiall Authority the relation thereof by the Consuls did thereby procure his utter and jmplacable hatred But of all Contempts the last of the three is greatest that I meane which immediately violates our Reputation and Good name because it is a derivative and spreading injury not only dishonouring a man in private and reserved opinion but in the eyes and Eares of the World nor only making him odious in his life but in his memory As there is in a man a double Desire the one of Perfecting the other of Perpetuating himselfe which two answer to that double honour of our creation which we lost in our first Father the honour of Integrity in Goodnesse and the honour of Immunity from Corruption So there may bee from the violation of these sundry degrees of Anger or any other burthensome Passion wrought in us But when in injury we find them both assaulted and not only our parts and persons which belong to our perfection privily undervalued but our name and memory which belong to our prepreservation tainted likewise we cannot but be so much the more insenced by how much perpetuity accumelates either to weaknes or perfection But of this Fundamentall cause of anger enough CHAP. XXXI Of other Causes of Anger first in regard of him that suffers wrong Excellency Weaknesse strong Desires Suspition Next in regard of him who doth it Basenesse Impudence Neerenesse Freedome of Speech Contention Ability The Effects of Anger the Immutation of the Body impulsion of Reason Expedition Precipitance Rules for the moderating of this Passion THose which follow are more Accidentall whereof some may be considered ex parte Patientis on the part of him that suffers and some ex parte Inferentis Injuriam on the part of him that doth the Injury Touching the patient or subject of an Injury there are three Qualifications which may make him more inclinable to Anger upon supposition of the Fundamentall Cause Contempt and the first of these is Excellency whether Inward from Nature or Accidentall from Fortune For hereby men are made more jealous of their Credit and impatient of Abuse as well perceiving that all Injury implies some degree both of Impotency in the Patient and of Excellency at least conceited in the Agent As Aristotle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Injurious men are commonly highly conceited of their owne Excellency which cannot well stand with the height and distance of that minde which is possessed with his owne good opinion and this cause the Poet intimates in those words Manet altâ mente repôstum Iudicium Paridis Spretaeque injuria formae A deep and lasting Discontent is bred To see their Beauties undervalued By a weake wanton Iudgement It wrought a deep Indignation in the Minds of Power and Wisedome to see a weake and wanton Iudgement give Beauty the precedence in their Emulation Which undervaluing of worth how much it is able to possesse a man with Griefe and Fury the one example of Achitophel alone may discover who upon the rejection of his counsell when he was too low to revenge himselfe on Absalon executed his Anger on his owne necke The second Qualification of the subject is Weaknesse and De●…ect when the mind finds it selfe assaulted in those things wherein it is most of all Deficient which Aristotle hath observed when he tels us that Sicke men Poore men and Lovers are commonly most subject to this Passion It being as great a paine and a greater contempt to ●…ub and provoke an old wound than to make a new That injury which proceeds against men of high and eminent quality cannot possibly pierce so deep as that which is exercised upon open and naked weaknesse because the former proceeds only from strife and emulation but the other from insultation and pride the one is only a disesteem but the other a contumely and exprobation the one is a conflict of judgements but the other a conflict of passions and therefore likely to be the greater For a neglect of worth and good parts unlesse as sometimes it falleth out it proceeds from Basenesse and Ignorance is an injury from Worth also but a Neglect and despising men already downe is an injury from stomacke and height of mind wherein the party offended cannot labour so much to cleere it selfe from the Imputation as to revenge it selfe for it Another reason why Weaknesse the better disposeth a man to Anger may be because such men are most Tender to feele an injury most Suspitious to feare it and most Interpreting to over-judge it All which being circumstances of aggravation to increase a wrong are likewise good means to adde degrees and heat unto our Passion Lastly to give a reason of both these two former causes together it may be a Disappointment and Frustrating of Expectation For men of eminency and worth expect rather Approbation and Imitation than Contempt And men weake and defective expect Compassion to cover and not Pride to mocke and so double their wounds and both these are in some sort debts of Nature it being the Law of Reason to honour Merit as it is the Law of Mercy to cover Nakednesse and for both I am sure it is the Law of Charity as not to vaunt or be puffed up in our selves so neither to rejoyce or thinke evill of another and we may well conceive Anger will be strong when it thinks it selfe lawfull Vnto this particular of Weaknesse wee may also reduce that which the Grammatian hath observed on Virgil Plus Irarum advenit cum in manus non potest venire cui irascimur Anger is increased when it cannot reach the thing with which it is angry And therefore the chaining up of Woolves and Mastives enrageth them because it restraineth them which the Poet hath excellently described Ac veluti pleno Lupus iusidiatis evili Cum fremit ad caulos ventos perpessus imbres Nocte super media tuti sub matribus agni Balatum exercent Ille asper improbus irâ Savit in absentes collecta fatig at edendi Ex longo rabies siccae sanguine fauces Haud aliter Rutilo muros castra tuenti Ignescunt Ira durus dolor ossibus ardet As a fierce woolfe with winds storms midnight whet When in close solds the secure lambs do bleat Barks at his absent prey with the more Ire When rag'd and deceiv'd Hunger doth him tyre So Rutilus seeing his foes all safe Doth vex and boyle with the more burning chase For it is a great torment to an Enemy when he can finde no in-let nor advantage against him whom he hates Another cause of Anger may be strong Desires For alwaies vaster and more exact our desires are it is so much the harder for them to be
pleased or satisfied And therefore as the Philosopher notes Luxurious men are usually transported with Anger because men love not to be stopped in their pleasures and hence as Plutarch observes men are usually most angry there where their desires are most conversant as a Country-man with his Bayliffe or an Epicure with his Cooke or a Lover with his Corrivall because all these crosse men in that which they most love Now strength when it is opposed is collected and gathered into the more excesse as we see in Winds or Rivers when they meet with any thing which crosseth their full passage The last Qualification of the Subject whereby he is made more Inclinable to this Passion is a suspitious apprehensive and interpreting fancy ready to pick out injury where it cannot be justly found and that its Anger may be imployed to frame occasions unto it selfe And therefore t is wise advise of Seneca Non vis esse Iracundus ne sis Curiosus He which is too wise in his judgement on other mens Errours will be easily too foolish in the nourishing of his owne Passion and it s commonly seen in matters of censure and suspition the more sight and reason goes out the lesse useth to abide within Now is it hard for a man if he be peremptorily possessed with this opinion yet he is a common subject of others contempt to find out either in defects of Nature or rudenes of custome habit education temper humour or the like some probable ground or other for exception which yet when it is further inquired into will prove rather strangenesse than injury And this is generally a Corruption of Anger First because it is hereby oftentimes unjust either in fastning it selfe there where it was justly neglected for we may ever observe that Suspition proceeds from Guilt and none are more jealous of being neglected than those that deserve it as it is observed of some reproachfull speeches which a Senatour was accused to have uttered against the honour of Tiberius Quia ver a erant dicta credebantur His suspitious mind was persuaded that they had been spoken because hee was conscious that they had been acted and therefore as was before noted it was the custome under such men to avoid all manner of Curiosities and search into things done by them which might easily be subject unto sinister judgement and rather to affect Ignorance with Security than to be ruined with wisedome And next it is corrupt because it is rash and hasly being led by a halfe judgement the worst guide to a headlong and blind Passion The next degree of causes is of those which qualifie the Agent or him that worketh the injury and there may be amongst many other which cannot be reckoned these generall ones First Basenesse which works a double cause of Anger One for an injury of Omission in neglecting those respects which are required in men of meane and inferiour ranke towards their superiours Another for a positive enquiry in the evill exercised against them And many times the former alone is a cause of Anger without the later For this distance of persons doth quite alter the nature of our Actions insomuch that those demeanors which are commendable and plausible toward our equals are rude and irreverend toward those that are above us and this is that which makes the wrath of God in the Scripture to bee set out so terrible unto us because of the infinite distance between the Vnmeasurable Glory of the Maker of the World and the basenesse of sinners and therefore the comparison which useth to bee made for the defence of Veniall sinnes that it is altogether unlikely that God infinitely more merciful than men should yet be offended at that which a mans neighbour would pardon him for as a foolish angry word or the stealing of a Farthing or the like is without reason because between man and man there is a Community both in nature and weaknesse and therefore Ha●…c veniam petimu●…que damusque vicissim Because we both our Errours have We pardon give and pardon crave But it is an Argument of infinite Insolence in a vile Creature for feeding it own Corruption and selfe-love in a matter of no value to neglect one command of him who by another is able to command him into Hell or into nothing The next Quality in the Injurer which may raise this Passion is Impudence either in words or carriage And the reasons hereof may be First because as Aristotle observes all Impudence is joyned with some Contempt which is the Fundamentall and Essentiall Cause of Anger Secondly because all Impudence is bold stiffe and contentious which are all incitements to this Passion For as Shame being a Degree of Feare works an acknowledgement of our owne weaknesse and therefore a submission to the power wee have provoked which as Aristotle observes procureth from beasts themselves lenity and mercy So Impudence in all other things being contrary to it must likewise produce a contrary Effect Thirdly those things which we Impudently do we do willingly likewise And therefore wee shall observe in the Scripture how reigning sins that is those which are done with greedine●…se of the appetite and full consent of the will are set forth by the names of Stubbornnesse Rebellion whorish Fore-head Brasse and Yron Now nothing doth more aggravate a wrong then this that it proceeded from the will of man And the reasons are First because a mans Power is in his Will but Passions and other blind Agents when they work ungoverned are our Imperfections and not our Power and therefore the easier borne withall Secondly to a Plenary Spontaneous Action such as I take most of Impudence to be there are required Antecedenter Deliberation Approbation and Assent and Consequenter Resolution Perseverance and Constancy All which as they take away the two principall conditions required unto Lenity Consession and Repentance so likewise doe they adde much to the weight of an injury because an actition which is thus exercised is a worke of the whole Man and imployes a perfect consent thereunto so a perfect and compleat en mity toward the person offendeth thereby Wheras others are but the wrongs of some part such as are of those of the wil led by an ignorant or those of Passion led by a traduced Vnderstanding and they too not of a part regular but of an Vnjointed and Paralyticke part which followes not the motion of a stayed reason and therefore as they proceed from more disorder in our selves so doe they worke lesse in the party offended Another thing which may raise and nourish this Passion is any degree of neer Relation between the parties whether it be Naturall by Consanguinity or Morall by Society Liberality or any other friendship For as it is prodigious in the Body Naturall to see one member wrong and provoke another so in Vnions Civill or Morall it is strangely offensive to make a divulsion Therefore we are more angry for
or to retaine any the least Prints of those Pure and Divine Impressions of Originall Righteousnesse yet still there remaines even in depraved and Polluted Nature fome shadowes thereof There is stil the Opus Operatum in many Actions of Mortality though the Obliquity of the Heart and Ignorance of the true end whether it should be directed take away the Goodnesse and the Sanctity thereof The top and highest pitch of Nature toucheth the hemme and lowest of Grace We have in us the Testimonies though not the Goodnesse of our first estate the Ruines of a Temple to be lamented though not the holy Places thereof to be Inhabited It is true indeed those great endowments of the most severe and illightned Heathen were indeed but glorious miseries and withered Vertues in that they proceeded from a depraved Nature and aymed at sinister and false ends yet withall both the corruption of them proves their praecedent losse which also the Heathen themselves espied in their distinction of Ages into Golden and Iron times And likewise the pursuit and practice of them though weak imperfect corrupt imply manifestly that there was much more an Originall Aspiring of Nature in her perfection to be like her Maker in an absolute and universall Purity Now in this Rectitude and Perfect Regularity of the Soule in this divine Habit of Originall Justice did man most eminently beare the Image and Signature of God on him And therefore notwithstanding we continue still Immortall Spirituall Reasonable yet we are said to have defaced that Image in us by our hereditary Pollution And hee alwayes recovereth most thereof who in the greatest measure repaireth the ruines and vindicateth the Lapses of his decayed estate unto that prime Originall Purity wherein he was Created These are the Dignities of the Soule considered wholy in it selfe In all which it farre surmounts the greatest perfections which the Body or any Faculty thereof are endowed withall And yet such is the preposterous and unnaturall basenesse of many men that they are content to make their Soules vassals to their owne Servant How do they force their Understandings which in their owne worthiest objects those deepe and Divine Contemplations are as drowzie as Endymion to spend and waste themselves in proud luxurious vanishing Inventions How doe they enthrall that Supreame and Architectonicall Power in Mans little World his Will to the Tyrannie of slavish appetite and sensuall desires as if they served here but as Cookes to dresse their owne Bodies for the Wormes Strange is it that Man conscious to himselfe of Immortality and of an Heroicall and Heavenly complexion that hath received such immediate Impressions of God and is the very Modell of all Natures Perfections should so much degrade himselfe as to doat only on that part which is the vassall and slave of Death If there were no other mischife which sinne did the Soule but to debase it even that were argument sufficient for noble spirits to have it in detestation For man being in honour and which understandeth not is like the beasts that perish CHAP. XXXVII Of the Faculty of Vnderstanding Its operations outward upon the Object Inward upon the Will Of Knowledge What it is The naturall Desire and Love of it Apprehension Iudgement Retention requisite unto right Knowledge Severall kindes of Knowledge The Originall Knowledge given unto Man in his Creation The Benefits of Knowledge Of Ignorance Naturall Voluntary Penall Of Curiosity Of Opinion the Causes of it Disproportion betweene the Object and the Faculty and an Acute Versatilousnesse of Conceits The benefit of Modest Hesitancie NOw it followes to speak of the parts or principall powers of the Soule which are the Vnderstanding and the Will Concerning the Understanding the Dignity thereof though it may partly be perceived in the Latitude and excellent Variety of its Objects being the whole world of things for Ens Intelligibile are reciprocall omnia intelligit saith Aristotle of the understanding yet principally it proceeds from the Operations of it both Ad extra in respect of the Objects and ad intra in respect of the Will The one is a Contemplative the other a more Practique office whereby the speculations of the former are accommodated unto any either Morall or Civill Actions Those which respect the Objects are either Passive or Active Operations Passive I call those first Perceptions and apprehensions of the Soule whereby it receiveth the simple species of some Object from immediate Impression thereof by the Ministry of the Soule as when I understand one Object to be a Man another a Tree by Administration and Assistance of the Eye which presents the Species of either Another sort of Passive Operations that is of such as are grounded on Impressions received from Objects are mixed Operations of Compounding Dividing Collecting Concluding which wee call Discourse Of all which to speake according to their Logicall Nature would be impertinent Their Excellencie chiefly stands in the End whereunto they move and serve which is Knowledge of the which I shall therefore here speak a few things Knowledge is the Assimilation of the Understanding unto the things which it understandeth by those Intelligible Species which doe Irr●…diate it and put the power of it into Act. For as the beames of the Sunne shining on a glasse doe there work the Image of the Sunne so the species and resemblances of things being convayed on the Understanding doe there work their owne Image In which respect the Philosopher saith That the Intellect becommeth All things by being capable of proper impressions from them As in a Painters Table wee call that a face a hand a foot a tree which is the lively Image and Representation of such things unto the eye There is not any Desire more noble nor more Naturall unto a Man who hath not like Saul hid himselfe amongst the stuffe and lost himselfe in the Low and perishing provisions for Lust than is this Desire of Knowledge Nature dictating to every Creature to be more intent upon its Specificall than upon its Genericall perfection And hence it is that though Man be perfectest of all Creatures yet many doe excell him in sensitive Perfection Some in exquisitenesse of Sight others of Hearing others of Tast Touch and Smell others of Swiftnesse and of Strength Nature thereby teaching us to imitate her in perfecting and supplying of our Desires not to terminate them there where when wee have made the best Provision wee can many Beasts will surpasse us but to direct our Diligence most to the improving of our owne specificall and rationall perfection to wit our Understandings Other Faculties are tyred and will be apt to nauseate and surfet on their Objects But Knowledge as knowledge doth never either burden or cloy the Minde no more than a Covetous man is wearied with growing Rich And therefore the Philosopher telleth us that Knowledge is the Rest of the Vnderstanding wherein it taketh delight as a Thing in its naturall Place
Solidity of Iudgement to try and weigh the particulars which wee apprehend That out of them wee may sever for our use the pretious from the vile for Knowledge lies in Things as Gold in a Mine or as Corne in the Straw when by diligent inquiry after it wee have digged it up and thresh'd it out wee must then bring it to the fire and fanne to give it us purified from drosse and levity And this in Speculation answereth unto the generall vertue of practicall prudence in Morality whereby wee weigh the severall Mediums unto the true Ends of life and accordingly select and prosecute the Best Thirdly Fidelity of Retention for hee is not likely to grow Rich who puts up his Treasure as the Prophet speaks into a bag with holes For as Nature hath given to the Bodies of men for the furtherance of corporeall strength and nutriment a Retentive power to clasp and hold fast that which preserveth it untill a through concoction be wrought so proportionably is the Faculty of Memory given to Reason as a meanes to consolidate and enrich it And fluxes as in the Body so in the Minde too are ever Arguments and Authors of Weaknesse Whence it comes to passe that in matter of Learning many of us are faine to be Day-labourers and to live from hand to mouth being not able to lay up any thing And therefore in the choice of fit persons to breed up unto Learning wee should take a like course as wise Architects doe in choice of fit timber for Building They choose first the straitest and that which hath fewest knots and flawes in it which in the mind answereth unto clearenesse and evennesse of Apprehension For a cleare minde like strait and smooth timber will work easiest Next they take the heart and strongest substance and cut out the sap because that is best able to beare the weight that shall be laid upon it And this answers unto Maturity and firmnesse of Judgement Lastly they doe not take Sally or Willow or Birch and such other Materialls as are quickly apt to putrifie and weare away but such Timber as is lasting and Retentive of its Nature as Oake and Elme which may make the Superstruction of the nature of the Foundation strong and lasting and this answereth to that excellent Faculty of the Minde a Rationall memory from which one particular I think more than any other doe arise those vast differences of felicity and infelicity in the mindes of men addicted to the search of Knowledge Strange was the unhappinesse of Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca who being at vast charges in matter of learning was not yet able to retaine fast the Names of Achilles or Vlysses But as his Parasite was wont deridingly to advise him wanted a Grammaticall Attendant to gather up the fragments which his Memory let fall And Curio the Orator in Tully was wont when hee had proposed three things in an Oration to forget some one or other of them or to add a fourth yea Messala Corvinus forgat his owne name as Pliny telleth us And as wonderfull on the other side hath beene the felicity of some others Seneca the father could repeat two thousand words together in their Order Cyrus and Themistocles could call all their Souldiers by their Names by which one Art of Curtesie Otho aspired unto the Empire Adrian could read a Book which hee never saw before and after recite it by memory and of the Emperour Iulian it is said that hee had drunk Totum memoriae dolium the whole vessell of memory To say nothing of Simonides and Apollonius Tyanlus who in their old age the one at 80 the other at a 100 yeeres old were very famous for the exquisitenesse of their memories nor of Cyneas Charmidas Portius Latro and divers others who have beene admired for this happy Quality Now unto this Felicity doth conduce a Methodicall and orderly Disposition of minde to digest and lay up things in their proper places It was easier for Cyrus to remember men in an Army than in a Throng And hence hath proceeded the Art of Memory invented as Pliny tells us by Simonides and perfected by Me●…rodorus Sceptius consisting in the committing of severall Heads of matter unto distinct places whereof Quintilian discourseth in his Oratory Institutions Of Knowledge there are severall sorts according to severall considerations with respect to the Ends of it Some is Speculative for the improving of the Minde as Physicall Metaphysicall and Mathematicall Knowledge Others Practicall for fashioning and guiding of the manners and conditions of Men as Ethicall Politicall Historicall Military Knowledge Some mixt of both as Theologicall Knowledge consisting in the speculation of Divine Verities and in the direction of Divine Duties Some Iustrumentall being only subservient unto others as Grammaticall Rhetoricall Dialecticall learning In regard of Order some Superiour others Subalternate as Musick to Arithmetick Opticks to Geometry In regard of their Originall some Ingrafted as the supreame Principles of Verity and implanted notions of Morality which is called the Law of Nature and written in the Heart of all men Rom. 2. 14. 15. Other Acquired and by search and industry laboured out of those Principles and the others which are taught us Other Revealed and Divinely manifested to the Faith of Men whereof the supreame Principles are these two 1. That God in his Authority is infallible who neither can be deceived nor can deceive 2. That the things delivered in Holy Scriptures are the Dictates and Truths which that infallible Authority hath delivered unto the Church to be beleeved and therefore that every supernaturall Truth there plainely set downe in termini●… is an unquestionable Principle and every thing by evident consequence and deduction from thence derived is therefore an undoubted Conclusion in Theologicall and Divine Knowledge In regard of the manner of Acquiring some is Experimentall A Knowledge of Particulars and some Habituall a generall knowledge growing out of the reason of Particulars And those Acquired either by Invention from a mans Industry or by A●…scultation and Attendance unto those that teach us In regard of Objects some supre●…me as the Knowledge of Principles and Prime Verities which have their light in themselves and are knowne by evidence of their owne Tearmes Others derived and deduced by argumentation from those Principles which is the Knowledge of Conclusions In regard of Perfection Intuitive Knowledge as that of Angels whereby they know things by the View and Discursive as that of Men whereby wee know things by Ratiocination In regard of Order and Method Syntheticall when wee proceed in Knowledge by a way of Composition from the Causes to the Effects and Analyticall when wee rise up from Effects unto their Causes in a Way of Resolution With this noble Endowment of Knowledge was the Humane Nature greatly adorned in its first Creation So farre forth as the Necessity of a happy and honourable life of
well be called the Pride and the Wantonnesse of Knowledge because it looketh after high things that are above us and after hidden things that are denied us And I may well put these two together Pride and Luxurie of Learning For I beleeve wee shall seldome finde the Pride of Knowledge more praedominant than there where it ariseth out of the curious and conjectural enquiries of Wit and not out of scientificall and demonstrative Grounds And I finde the Apostle joyning them together when hee telleth us of some who intruded themselves into Things which they had not seene and were Vainely puff'd up by a fleshly Minde And hee himselfe complaineth of Others who were Proud and languished about needlesse Questions as it is ever a signe of a sick and ill-affected stomack to quarrell with usuall and wholsome meat and to long for and linger after Delicacies which wee cannot reach too When Manna will not goe downe without Quailes you may be sure the Stomack is cloyed and wants Physick to Purge it I will not here add more of this point having lately touched it on a fitter Occasion A third Corruption of this Faculty in regard of Knowledge is in the Fluctuation wavering and uncertainty of Assents when the Understanding is left floating and as it were in Aequilibrio that it cannot tell which way to encline or what Resolutions to grow unto and this is that which in Opposition to Science is called Opinion For Science is ever cum certitudine with Evidence and Unquestionable Consequence of Conclusions from necessary Principles but Opinion is cum Formidine Oppositi with a feare least the contrary of what wee assent unto should be true And so it importeth a Tender Doubtfull and Infirme Conclusion The Causes of Opinion I conceive to be principally two The first is a Disproportion betweene the Understanding and the Object when the Object is either too bright and excellent or too dark and base the one dazles the Power the other Affects it not Things too Divine and Abstracted are to the Understanding Tanquam lumen ad Vespertilionem as light unto a Batt which rather astonish than informe and things too Material and Immerst are like a Mist unto the Eyes which rather hinder than affect it And therefore though whatsoever hath Truth in it be the Object of the Understanding yet the Coexistence of the Soule with the Body in this present Estate restraines and Limits the Latitude of the Object and requires in it not onely the bare Nature and Truth but such a Qualification thereof as may make it fit for representation and Impression by the conveyance of the Sense So that as in the True perception of the Eye especially of those Vespertiliones to which Aristotle hath compared the Understanding in this estate of subsistence with the Body there is required a mixture of Contraries in the Ayre it must not bee too light lest it weaken and too much disgregate or spread the sense nor yet too dark lest it contract and lock it up But there must bee a kinde of middle Temper cleerenesse of the Medium for conveyance and yet some degrees of Darknesse for qualification of the Object Even so also the Objects of mans Vnderstanding must participate of the two contr●…ries Abstraction and Materiality Abstraction first in proportion to the 〈◊〉 of the Vnderstanding which is Spirituall And Materiality too in respect of the Sense on which the Vnderstanding depends in this estate as on the Medium of Conveyance and that is Corporall So that where ever there is Difficulty and Vncertainty of Operation in the Vnderstanding there is a double defect and disproportion first in the Power whose Operations are restrained and limited for the most by the Body and then in the Object which hath not a sufficient mixture of those two qualities which should proportion it to the Power This is plaine by a familiar similitude an Aged man is not able to read a small Print without the Assistance of Spectacles to make the Letters by a refraction seeme greater Where first wee may descry an Imperfection in the Organ for if his Eyes were as cleare and well-dispos'd as a young mans hee would be able by his Naturall Power without Art to receive the Species of small Letters And next there is an Imperfection and deficiencie in the Letters for if they had the same Magnitude and fitnesse in themselves which they seeme to have by Refraction through the Glasse the weaknesse of his power might haply have sufficient strength to receive them without those Helps So that alwayes the Uncertainty of Opinion is grounded on the Insufficiencie of the Vnderstanding to receive an Object and on the Disproportion of the Object to the Nature of the Vnderstanding The next Cause of Opinion and Vncertainty in Assents may be Acutenesse and Subtilty of wit when Men out of Ability like Carneades to discourse probably on either side and poizing their Judgements betweene an equall weight of Arguments are forc'd to suspend their Assents and so either to continue unresolved and equally inclineable unto either part or else if to avoyd Neutrality they make choise of some thing to averre and that is properly Opinion yet it is rather an Inclination than an Assertion as being accompanied with feare floating and Inconstancie And this indeed although it be in it selfe a defect of Learning yet considering the Estate of man and strict conditions of perfecting the Vnderstanding by continuall Inquiry man being ●…ound in this also to recover that measure of his ●…irst fulnesse which is attainable in this Corrup●…ed Estate by sweat of braine by labour and degrees Paulatim extundere artes I say in these considerations Irresolution in Iudgement so it be not Vniversall in all conclusions for that argues more weaknesse than choise of conceit nor Particular in things of Faith and Salvation which is not Modesty but Infidelity is both Commendable and Vsefull Commendable because it prevent●… all temper of heresie whose nature is to be peremptory And both argues Learning and Modesty in the softnes of Iudgement which will not suffer it selfe to be captivated either to its owne conceits or unto such unforcible reasons in the which it is able to descry weaknesse And this is that which Pliny commends in his friend Titus Ariston whose hesitancy and slownesse of resolution in matter of Learning proceeded not from any emptines or unfurniture but ex diversitate Rationū qua●… acrimagnoque Iudicio ab origine Caus●…que primis repetit discernit expendit out of a learned cautelousn●…sse of judgment which made him so long su spend his Assent till he had weighed the severall repugnancies of reasons and by that means found out some truth whereon to settle his conceit For as the same Pliny elsewhere out of Thucydides observes It is rawnes deficiency of learning that makes bold and peremptory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demurs and fearfulnes of Resolution are commonly the companions of
more able wits And for the use of Doubtings First they lessen the number of heresies which are as I said alwaies obstinate And next it gives occasion of further enquiry after the Truth to those who shall find themselves best qualified for that service But Heresie comming under the shape of Science with shewes of Certainty Evidence Resolution especially if the inducements be quick and subtle doth rather settle the Vnderstanding and possesse it with false Assents than yeeld occasion of deeper search unlesse it meet with a more piercing Iudgement which can through confidence descry weaknesse For questionlesse the Errours of Great men generally honoured for their Learning when they are once wrapped up in the boldnes of Assertions do either by possessing the judgement with prejudice of the Author make it also subscribe to the error or if a more impartiall eye see insufficiency in the ground the Authority of the man frights and deterres from the opposing of his conceipt Whereas when mens assents are proposed with a modest confession of distrust and uncertainty the Vnderstanding is incited both to enquire after the reasons of Diffidence as also to find out means for a more setled Confirmation and cleering of the Truth CHAP. XXXVIII Of Errours the Causes thereof the Abuses of Principles Palsifying them or Transferring the Truth of them out of their owne bounds Affections of Singularity and Novell courses Credulity and Thraldome of Iudgement unto others How Antiquity is to be honoured Affection to particular Objects corrupteth Iudgement Curiosity in searching things Secret THe other maine Corruption of Knowledge was Errour whereby I understand a peremptory and habituall assent firmly and without wavering fixed upon some falshood under the shew of truth It is Aristotles assertion in his Ethicks that one man may conceive himselfe as certaine of his Errour as another man of his Knowledge and this indeed is so much the more dangerous Aberration from Knowledge by how much it seemes most ●…erly to resemble it If wee enquire after the prime Fundamentall Cause the Gate by which Errour came first into the World Syracides will tell us in a word that Errour and Darknesse had their beginning together with Sinners And the reason is because sinne being a partition-wall and a separation of man from God who is P●…ter Luminum the Father and Fountaine of all Knowledge and whose perfections man did at first one principall way by Knowledge resemble cannot chuse but bring with it darknesse and confusion into the Soule But I shall enquire rather after the more Immediate and Secondary Causes some whereof amongst sundry others I take to be these 1 A first and most speciall one is the Abuse of Principles For the Vnderstanding must have ever somthing to rest it selfe upon and from the conformity of other things thereunto to gather the certainty and evidence of its Assents For it is the nature of mans minde since it had at first it selfe a beginning to abhorre all manner of Infinity á Parte-Ante I meane in Ascending and Resolution as well of Sciences and Conclusions as of Entities and Natures as I before noted And therefore as the Vnderstanding is not quieted in Philosophicall inquiries about created things till it have according to their severall differences ranged them severally within the compasse of some Finite Line and subordinated the Inferiors of every kinde Sub an●… Summ●… Genere under one chiefe and rests not in the Resolution of Effects into their Causes till it come to Aliquid primum in Time in Motion in Place in Causality and Essentiall Dependance so likewise it is in Knowledge Truth notwithstanding a Parte Post downward our pursuits of them seeme Infinite and Vnlimited by reason of our owne Infinities and Aeviternity that way yet upward in the resolving of Truth into its Causes and Originals the Vnderstanding is altogether Impatient of proceeding in Infinitum and never rests till it finds a Non ●…ltra an utmost linke in the chaine of any Science and such a Prime Vniversall Vnquestionable Vnprovable Truth from whence all Inferiour Collections are fundamentally raised and this is the Truth of Principles which if it be traduced and made crooked by the wrestings of any private conceipt mishapes all Conclusions that are derived from it for if the foundation be weak the whole edifice totters if the root and fountain bee bitter all the branches and streames have their proportionable corruptions Now the Abuses of Principles is either by Falsifying and casting absurd Glosses upon them within their owne limits as when Philosophicall Errours are falsly grounded upon Philosophicall Axiomes which is Error Consequentia or Illationis an Errour in the Consequence of one from the other or else by transferring the Truth of them beyond their owne bounds into the Territories as I may so speake of another Science making them to encroach and to uphold Conclusions contrary to the nature of their Subject which is Error Dependentia or Subordinationis an Errour in the Dependance of one on the other For the former it hath been alwaies either the subtilty or modesty of errour to shrowd it self under truth that it might make its fancies the more plausible to fasten them upon undenyable grounds by a strange kinde of Chimistry to extract darknesse out of light Fraus sibi ex parvis said Fabius Maximus in Livy upon another occasion I will alter it thus Error sibi ex principlijs fidem prastruit ut cum magnâ mercede fallat Vnreasonable and groundlesse fancies alwaies shelter themselves under a plausible pretence of truth and ostentation of Reason As Praxitiles the Painter drew the Picture of Venus by the face of his Minion Cratina that so by an honourable pretext he might procure Adoration to a Harlot Thus as Plat●… is said when he inveighed chiefly against Orators most of all to have played the Oratou●… making a Sword of ●…loquence to wound it selfe So they on the contrary never more wrong Knowledge than when they promise to promote it most It was the custome of that Scipio honoured afterward by the name of his Punicke Conquest alwaies before he set upon any businesse as Livy reports of him to enter the Capitoll alone pretending thereby a consultation with the gods about the justnesse issue and successe of his intended designes and then Apud multitudinem plerumque velut mente divinitus monitâ agebat Hee bore the multitude in hand that whatsoever exploits hee persuaded them to attempt had all the Approbation and Vnerring Iudgement of their Deities What were the ends of this man whither an Ambitious hope of fastning an Opinion of his owne Divinenesse in the midst of the people or an happy and politicke imposture the better to presse those people alwaies more inclinable to the perswasions of Superstitions than Reason to a free Execution of his designes it is not here necessary to enquire Sure I am even in matters of greatest consequence there have never been
hath bestowed on them proceed onely from the Impression of Fancy and sensitive Appetite to serve themselves but not to improve one another And therefore Speech is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Name of Reason because it attendeth onely upon Reason And as by this the Soule of man differeth in Excellency from all other Creatures so in two things amongst many others both subservient unto Reason doth his Body excell them too First in the Vprightnesse of his Stature whereby he is made to looke up to Heaven and from his Countenance to let shine forth the Impression of that Light which dwell●…th within him For the Face is the Window of the Soule Pronáque cum spectent Animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedi●… Caelumque tueri Iussit erectos ad Sydera tollere Vultus Whil'st other creatures downward fix their sight Bending to Earth an Earthly Appetite To man he gave a lofty Face might looke Vp to the Heavens and in that spatious Booke So full of shining Characters descry Why he was made and whether he should fly Next in the Faculty of Speech which is the Gare of the Soule through which she passeth and the Interpreter of the Conceits and Cogitations of the mind as the Philosopher speaks The uses whereof are to convey and communicate the Conceptions of the Mind and by that means to preserve humane Society to derive Knowledg to maintaine mutuall love and supplies to multiply our Delights to mitigate and unload our sorrows but above all to Honour God and to edifie one another in which respect our Tongue is called our Glory Psal. 16. 2. Act. 2. 26. The force power of Speech upon the minds of men is almost beyond its power to expresse How suddenly it can inflame excite allay comfort mollify transport and carry captive the Affections of men Caesar with one word quiets the Commotion of an Army Menenius Agrippa with one Apologue the sedition of a people Flavianus the Bishop of Antioch with one Oration the fury of an Emperour Anaximenes with one Artifice the indignation of Alexander Abigail with one Supplication the Revenge of David Pericles and Pisistratus even then when they spake against the peoples liberty over ruled them by their Eloquence to beleeve and imbrace what they spake and by their Tongue effected that willingly which their Sword could hardly have extorted Pericles and Nicias are said to have still pursued the same Ends and yet with cleane different successe The one in advancing the same busines pleased the other exasperated the people and that upon no other Reason but this the one had the Art of Perswasion which the other wanted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One spake the Right with a slow Tongue Another fluently spake wrong He lost this stole the Cause and got To make you thinke what you thinke not And this power of Speech over the Minds of men is by the Poet in that knowne passage of his thus elegantly described Magn●… in popule cum sapè Coorta est Seditio savitque Animus Ignobile vulgus Ian●…que faces Saxa volant furor arma ministrat Tum pietate gravem ac merit is si fortè virūquem Conspêxere silent arrectisque auribus astant Ille regit dictis Anim●…s pectora ●…ulcet When in a Multitude Seditions grow And Vicerated Minds do overflow With swelling Ire when stones firebrands fly As Rage doth every where weapons supply Then if some Aged man in Honor held For Piety and Prudence stand to wield And moderate this Tumult strait wayes all Rise up with silent Reverence and let fall Their Angry Clamors His grave words do sway Their Minds and all their Discontents allay The Vertues of Speech whereby it worketh with such force upon the Minde are many which therefore I will but name some Grammaticall as Property and Fitnesse and Congruity without Solaecismes and Barbarousnesse some Rhetoricall as choice Purity Brevity Perspecuity Gravity Pleasantnesse Vigo●… Moderate Acrimony and Vehemency some Logicall as Method Order Distribution Demonstration Invention Definition Argumentation Refutation A right digesting of all the Aydes of Speech as Wit Learning Poverbs Apologues Emblemes Histories Lawes Causes and Effects and all the Heads or Places which assist us in Invention Some Morall as Gravity Truth Seriousnesse Integrity Authority When words receive weight from manners and a mans Speech is better beleeved for his Life than for his Learning When it appeares That they arise esulce pectoris and have their foundation in Vertue and not in Fancy For as a man receiveth the selfe same Wine with pleasure in a pure and cleane Vessell which he lo●…ths to put unto his mouth from one that is soule and soiled so the selfe same Speech adorned with the Piety of one man and disgraced with the Pravity of another will be very apt accordingly to be received either with delight or loathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Speech from Base men and men of Respect Though 't be the same works not the same Effect And therefore the Spartan Princes when they heard from a man of a disallowed and suspected Life an Opinion which they approved They required another man of reputation to propose it That the prejudice of the person might not procure a rejection of his Iudgement For wee are apt to nauseate at very good meat when we know that an ill Cooke did dresse it And therefore it is a very true Character which Tully and Quintilian give of a right Oratour That he must be Vir bonus dicendi Peritus as well a Good man as a Good speaker Otherwise though he may speake with admirable wit to the fancy of his hearers he will have but little power over their Affections Like a fire made of greene wood which is fed with it as it is fewell but quencheed as it is greene Lastly some are Civill in Causes Deliberative or Iuridicall as Wisedome pertinency and fitnes to the Nature and Exigence of the End or Matter whereupon we speake For in that case we are to ponder and measure what we say by the end whereunto we say it and to fit it to all the Circumstances incident thereunto Paul amongst the Philosophers disputed with them from the Inscription of their Altar from the Authority of their Poets and from confessed Maximes of Reason by these degrees convincing them of Idolatry and lending them to Repentance But amongst the Iewes hee disputed out of Scripture With Felix that looked for money he disputed of Righteousnesse and Iudgement to come but amongst the Pharisees and Sadduces of the Resurrection that a Dissention amongst themselves might procure a party for him It is not wisedome for a man in misery to speake with a high stile or a man in Dignity with a Creeping The same speech may be excellent in an umbratile Exercitation which would be too pedanticall and smelling of the Lampe in a matter of serious and weighty debate and
Mind Lastly the Will hath no Dominion Absolute and Soveraigne over those Apprehensions of the Vnderstanding which depend on necessary and demonstrative Principles It can require it not to discourse about such Objects and divert it but it cannot make it assent unto them contrary to the Evidence of Truth demonstrated Briefly then the Dominion of the Will is partly Mandatory and partly Perswasive The one is Absolute working on meere Passive and Obedient Faculties the other more Conditionall and upon Supposition of Regularity or Subjection in the Inferior Powers For the Will hath both an Oeconomicall Government in respect of the Body and the Moving Organs thereof as over Servants and it hath a Politique or Civill Government towards the Vnderstanding Affections and Sensitive Appetite as Subjects with which by reason of their often Rebellions it hapneth to have sundry conflicts and troubles as Princes from their seditiou●… and rebellious Subjects So that the Corruption of this Power in the Will is either Tyranny in it selfe or Vsurpation in another an Abuse of it and a Restraint of it The Abuse when the Will absolutely gainsayes the Counsels Lawes and Directions of the Vnderstanding which is wrought by the Allection Inticing Insinuation of the Sensitive Appetite secretly winning over the Will to the Approbation of those courses which are most delightfull to sense for since the Fall the sweet Harmony and Subordination of Sense to Reason and of Reason to God is broken and the highest Faculties of the Soule become themselves Sensuall and Carnall And the Restraint when the Will is desirous to obey the Dictates of Reason or of Grace and Lust by her tyranny overbeares the Soule and leads it captive to the Law of Sinne so that a man cannot do the things which he would As a Bird whose wings are besmeared and intangled with some viscous slime though hee offer to flye yet falleth downe againe Now touching the Corruption of the Will in regard of Desire Liberty and Dominion there have been heretofore some who ascribed them to Naturall and Divine Causes and so make the Will to be corrupted only ab Extrinseco and that Necessarily The Stoicks they framed a supreme swaying Power inevitably binding it as all other Agents to such particular Actions by an eternall secret connexion flux of causes which they call Fate Astrologers understanding by Fate nothing but the Vniforme and Vncha●…gable working of those beautifull Bodies the Heavenly Orbes and their Influencies upon Inferiours annexed unto them a Binding Power Necessarily though Secretly over-ruling the Practises of men Inquire the reason why one man lives conformably to the Law of God and Nature another breakes out into Exorbitant courses Anne aliud quàm 〈◊〉 occulti miranda potentia Fati What is it else but Stars Malignity And wondrous power of secret Destiny It is not to be denyed but that the Heavens having strong and powerfull Operations on all Sublunary Corporall Substances may in altering the humours of the Body have by the mediation thereof some kind of Influence if it may bee so called upon the manners but to ascribe unto them any Dominion is as much repugnant to Philosophy as it is to Piety For by Binding the Actions of mans Will to such a Law of Destiny and making them inevitably to depend upon Planets Houses Constellations Conjunctions c. Wee doe not onely impiously take away the Guilt of Sinne in that we make all mens Lapses to be wrought without free Principle in himselfe and so d●…rogate from the Iustice of God in punishing that whereunto wee were by other of his Creatures unavoydably determined nor onely rob God of his Mercy in Ascribing those vertuous dispositions of the Mind which are his immediate Breathings into man unto the Happy Aspect of the Heavens but withall wee deny to the Soule both Naturall Motion and Spirituality Naturall Motion first since that alwaies flowes from an Inward Principle that is Essentiall to the Mover which in the Will must needs be free and voluntary and not from violence or impression made by some Extrinsicall Worker And then Spirituality likewise since the Heavens being Corporall Agents can therefore extend the Dominion of their Influence no farther than over Bodily Substances Others there have been yet more Impious which seeke to fasten all the Corruptions of their Wils on somthing above the Heavens even the Eternall Foreknowledge and the Providence of God As if my Foreknowledge that on the morrow the Sunne will rise or that such men as these shall one day be brought to a severe Doom were the Cause working Necessity of the next Day or the last Iudgement It is true indeed Gods Prescience imployes a Necessity of our working after that manner as he foreknowes but this is Necessitas onely Infallibilitatis in regard of his Vndeceivable Knowledge which ever foresees things as they will certainly come to passe by the free or naturall workings of the Agents whence they proceed It is not Necessitas Coactionis or Determinationis whereby the Will of man is without any other disposition or propension in it selfe inforced or unspontaneously determined to the producing of such Effects The Actions of our Will are not therefore necessarily executed because they were foreknowne but therefore they were foreknowne because our Will would certainly execute them though not without Freedome and Election And for Providence notwithstanding there be Providentia Permissiva whereby God hath determined to suffer and permit men to sinne and moreover a Disposing Providence in Ordering all things in the World unto his owne Glorious Ends yet we may not presume to think that God doth determine or actuate impell and overrule the wils of men to Evill It is true indeed that nothing is done which God in all respects dothwill shall not be done with the secret Will of his good pleasure for who can withstand his Will and that his purposes are advanced by all the operations of the Creature but yet hee doth not so worke his Will out of mens as thereby to constraine and take away their 's for indeed the constraint of a liberall and free Faculty is as it were the extinction thereof This were an Argument of Weaknesse as if hee were not able to bring his owne Ends about but by chaining and 〈◊〉 his Oppugners from exercising the Freedome which he first gave them nor doe his owne Will but by taking away his owne Gifts But herein is rather magnified the Power of his Providence and the great Wisedome of his Power that notwithstanding every man worketh according to the inclination of his owne heart and that even Rebelliously against him yet out of so many different so repugnant so contrary intents hee is able to raise his owne Glory the End whether we will or no of all our Actions and even when his Will is most resisted most powerfull to fulfill it For as sundry times Gods Revealed Will is broken even by