Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	world_n	3,255	5	4.3685	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

before God grow rich by former Losses thus learning Experience at our own expence we shall never permit our Passions to grow to that fatal height again as to offend God or dethrone our Reason Thus our very Misfortunes may be made to tend to our Advantage and Examples in other things shew us that a Storm may drive us into the wish'd for Haven and the same furious Billows that cast away our Vessel may cast us afterwards on shore Not that a wise Man would leap overboard and trust his safety to the necessity of a Miracle no more should a prudent Christian permit his Passions to come this length to reap the benefit of Repentance for it whereof he is not assured We must not sin that Grace may abound In pursuit of these Truths we may venture to advance on more which is this that considering all things our condition is not so deplorable as some of us peradventure imagine who impute the greatest share of our Misdemeanours to the misery of our Nature Our good Fortune is in our own Hands we sail upon an Ocean whose Billows are absolutely at our disposal we can both avoid the danger of Rocks and if there arise any Tempest we can immediately lay it and what was instanced upon another Juncture we may apply here in honour to Reason which is an Emanation from God himself 't is something extraordinary since the Winds and the Seas of our Passions and corrupt Nature obey it By what means we may moderate our Passions VVE might here use the Policy of the Huntsman who uses tame Beasts to catch the Wild and oppose Hope to Fear that she might not despond Joy to Sorrow that it grow not excessive However there may seem some plausibleness in the method yet it is not safe We may prove the reality of Ovid's Acteon and perish by those Hounds we used for our pleasure We fortifie one Passion to repel the violence of another which now having its force augmented by our indulgence may rebel it self and be more hard to repress than the other was 'T is not safe to shew them how to conquer Tho' in common Policy the practice may hold off making War toobta in a more advantageous Peace or to use the interest of reconciled Enemies to pacifie those who still harass us with Incursions and acts of Hostility and to sow Discord between those Neighbours whose agreement and good intelligence might be prejudicial to us yet in Morality those Maxims have no Authority at all Reason which is the grand Sovereign of all the Passions must use her utmost care and diligence in watching over the first motions of our Passions and by taking away from them all those Objects which serve only to promote their Rebellion keep them in order with so much the less difficulty The Effects must cease when the Cause doth The only great Remedy against these fatal Intestine Commotions is not to give them any occasion of revolting 'T is the Pride of the World the Grandeur of Court the Glories of a Triumph that foment our Ambition and by shewing us these splendid Trophies of other Heroes make us uneasie till we have acquired the same empty Vanities for our selves too So Caesar wept at the reflection that he began to follow Arms at that Age wherein Alexander had conquered the whole World In the private retirement of a Country Village or a poor Farm we see none of all these empty Toys they are utterly strangers to such things and by not seeing any Image of them their Souls are never agitated with that raging Phrenzy that sacrifices every thing to its own ends Nor indeed can we expect it should spare any thing since it sacrifices its own tranquility to the accomplishing its own desires So is it likewise with Sorrow dim Lights dark Chambers every thing coloured with black a profound slence through the whole Family amazement and horrour in every Face makes the impression so much the deeper And indeed one would think Man did not labour so much to bridle his Passion as to indulge it Take away these lugubrious ornaments let the person afflicted but go abroad and converse with those who have no cause to weep and the source of their Tears will quickly dry up Nature it self will be weary of always lamenting and peradventure no Sorrow would be so very intense as 't is did we not heighten it by Circumstances The same may be observed of all the other Passions which are not so difficult to govern but that we will not seriously set about it but on the contrary by our fatal Artifices we render them more obstinate in their Rebellion and assist them in their Insurrections as if we were desirous of being miserable by them or afraid of being victorious over them Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue THE Knowledge of Man being generally but superficial only we are taken with the mere Appearances of things And this was it which made the Dogma's of the Stoicks be received with so universal and so great an approbation They promised no less than to make Angels of their Sectators and to place them in a Condition beyond that of poor Mortality Philosophy alone was to elevate them above all the Storms and Thunders of our Passions and by fixing them in a higher Region of Serenity free them from all those troublesome Disorders which interrupt the happy Calm and Tranquility of the Soul But alas these were empty deluding promises and all these proud Waves turned into meer Froth Had it been possible for them to have made good these haughty pretensions they had at once superseded all those Helps which Nature has given us to become virtuous and the inferiour part of Man's Soul had been without any function For the Passions are but the mediate motions thereof by whose means without being separated from its body it is united to what it desireth or keeps at a distance from those Objects it apprehends Joy is the dilation of the Soul and Sorrow its contraction Desires make us as it were advance and Fear sollicits us to retire So that to abstract the Passions from the Soul were to deprive her of all her motions and render her impuissant as well as useless under the notion of constituting her felicity No reasonable Man would sure purchase his Happiness at so exorbitant a price For if Contentment consisteth in tasting the good we possess it must incontestably and naturally follow that the Passions are so many necessary motions of our Soul and that Joy must consummate the Bliss to which our Desires at first gave Life The Passions being so many Seeds of Virtue that if we will be at the pains to cultivate and improve them they will produce extraordinary delicious and agreeable Fruit. The Man is not born virtuous and that the Art which renders him such is as difficult to acquire as 't is glorious to possess yet it seems to be one power of the Soul to

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