pass amongst them as deities and the lovers of beauty were the first Idolaters The command which she exerciseth over men is so powerfull and so pleasing as they are pleased with the losse of their liberty and contrary to the humour of slaves they love their Irons and cherish their prisons could Kings use this art to make themselues be obeyed they should never know what revolts were and all their subjects being their well-wishers they would be absolute without violence rich without imposts and saâ—e without Citadels Thus when the Sonne of God would reign amongst men he wonne their hearts rather by his comlinesse then by his power and he used clemency oftner then justice to reduce his Enemies to their duty consecrated beauty in his person when he took our Nature upon him though he assumed the pain of sin he would not assume the uglinesse thereof and as there was no ignorance in his soul so was there no deformity in his body There was but one Heretique who mis-interpreting the words of a Prophet imagined that Jesus Christ was deformed but tradition upheld by reason teacheth us that he was beautifull without art that the Holy Ghost who formed his body in the Virgins womb would have it adorned with comlinesse and that nothing might be wanting to his workmanship he exceeded men in this advantage as well as in all others His very Types in the old testament were all comely Solomon and David the one of which represented his victories the other his Triumphs were both of them famous for their beauty Nature seemed as if she would picture forth in them the Messias to satisfie the just desires of those who could not see him The Angels took upon them his visage when they treated with the Prophets whilest they spoke in his name they would appeare in his form Abraham saw him in that Glory wherein he appeared on Mount Tabor and numbred this vision amongst the chiefest favours he had received from Heaven Iacob had the honour to see him in the person of that Angell which wrestled with him before the break of day the three Children which were thrown into the fiery furnace saw him amidst the flames his presence freed them from fear they found paradise in the picture of Hell and that Angell which bore the visage of Jesus Christ broke their Irons in pieces preserved their vestures and punished their Enemies In fine Jesus Christ lost not his lovelinesse till he lost his life the Luster of his countenance was not effaced till by buffetting his face grew not pale till by stripes and he lost not that Majesty which infused respect into his Enemies till the bloud which distild from his wounds had made him an object of compassion and horrour In fine beauty is so amiable as her enemy is odious all the Monsters whereby the world receives dishonour are composed of uglinesse 'T is an effect of sin which corrupts the workmanship of God had there been no l sinner there had been no deformed Creature Grace and beauty were inseparable in the estate of originall righteousnesse Nothing was seen in the Terrestiall paradise which offended the eies all things were pleasing there because all things there were innocent There was no deformity known in the world till after sin Il-favourednesse is the daughter and the picture of sin and 't is a piece of injustice to hate the copy and to love the originall Albeit these reasons oblige us to reverence beauty where accompanied with Innocency yet have we as much and as just cause to fear her since she is mingled with impurity For sin hath left nothing in nature uncorrupted this Monster is pleased in setting upon the most Glorious works of nature and knowing that their chiefest ornament lay in their beauty hath pickt out her more perticularly to discharge it's fury upon There are none of nature works now which have not some notable defaults Did not love make men blind he could never make them in love did he not hide from them their imperfections whom they love he should not see so many souldiers fight under his colours and had he not taught women the secret how to imbellish themselves Impurity would have long since been banisht from off the earth The famousest beauties have their blemishes those who are not blind observe their defects had Helen of Greece lived in these our dayes the Poet who put such an esteem upon her would be found to be a lyer and a blind man but say that Nature should make a Master-piece indeed and that Paridoras fable should prove a true story her beauty would notwithstanding be contemptible since she could not grow old and keep it this advantage is so frail as it cannot long continue it is so soon gone as it rather seems a dream then a truth let women take what care they please to preserve it it will vanish from of their faces and when they shall see themselves in a glasse they will have much ado to perswade themselves that ever they were handsome All accidents have some power over beauty Time is as well her murtherer as her producer it effaceth all her glory tarnisheth her roses and Lillies and doth so alter the Godliest workmanship of nature as it maketh horrour and compassion arise in the same hearts which it had struck with love and envy 'T is not death but old age which triumphs over this perfection in women if they grow old they are sure to grow ugly the prolongation of their life diminisheth their beauty and they cannot live long but they must see that die which they loved dearer than their lives In the state of innocency old age would not have injured beauty the food which repaired nature maintained the good liking thereof men lived long and grew not old as death did not put a period to life neither did oldage weaken it the body was as strong at a hundred year old as at forty Beauty was then somwhat durable time bore respect to this quality and divine Justice which found no faults to punish did not punish women with the fear of old age or hard-favourednesse But now this fear is part of their punishment they are compelled to wish to die young if they will not dye ugly and thus divided in their apprehensions they desire to live yet fear to grow old Time is not beauties onely enemy the injuries which accompany it wage war against her and all the evils which we suffer through sin assaile this fraile perfection The mil-dew causeth defluxions which are prejudiciall to her the unseasonablenesse of seasons are averse unto her cold chils her and keeping back the bloud defaceth the vivacity of her complexion heat doth sun-burn her and that constellation which makes lillies white darkens the countenances of women Sicknesses do not so soon alter the temper as they do the tincture and the out-rages which they commit upon the welfare or good liking of the body are
deteined in his body by art The least accidents do sever her from it a vapour doth suffocate her she is choaked with a little flegme and blood which is the seat of life is oft-time the cause of death whithersoever so miserable a creature doth convey himself she receives there new proofs of his weaknesse the change of climates troubles his health a new air incommodiates him cold water hurts his stomake the Sun which lights him scorcheth him and whatsoever is cause of good unto him is cause of Evil. In the State of innocencie grace linkt the Soul to the body death unseconded by sin could not break the chains the elements durst not assail him originall righteousnesse made them observe respect they appeased their differences lest they might trouble mans temper fire agreed with water to preserve his health there was as profound a peace in his person as in his state but since he forewent his duty grace abandoned his body to sin the elements had liberty given them to war one upon another man became the scene of their combates and after once he revolted from God he saw all creatures take up arms against him sorrow death set upon him he was sentenced to live in pain die in sorrow For the sweetest life bears it's punishment with it There is no rose which is not grafted upon a thousand thornes and how handsome soever the chains be which link the soule and body together they are both of them equally exposed to suffering The soule is more capable of sadnesse than of joy though she display her selfe to receive in pleasure yet doth she never taste it purely she weeps amidst her contentments she expresseth her joy by sighs and as if she were not accustomed to great happinesses she seems to suffer when she receives them Though she shut the doore upon sorrow yet suffers she her selfe to be easily siezed on by it though she resist it she cannot withstand it and as if nature had made her more sensible of misery than of happinesse a small displeasure is able to make her forget all her former contentments The body is not more fortunate than the soule for it hath not many parts which can tast delight but it hath not any one which is not capable of pain Pleasures do enter-shock and always leave some of our senses in languishment or need pains agree in their assailing us and though they should not come in a crowd one alone is sufficient to make it selfe be felt by all the parts of the body their straight union makes their mischiefes common and if the head suffer the tongue complains the eyes weep and the heart groanes Thus the happiest life is miserable and that moment passeth not wherein we are not inforced to bewail our innocency to condemn our sin Death comes in to the aid of pain and by an ingenious peece of cruelty agrees with life to augment our miserie For though they appear to be enemies they joyn in our punishment and joyn with Gods Justice to revenge God we live and die daily the change which makes us subsist is deaths taster this cruell one siezeth on us by degrees all the time we have lived is already gotten by him and the years which we hope to make use of are so many titles which he produceth against us As soon as we begin to live we begin to die Death shares with us in all the moments of our life it takes unto it selfe what is past because that is certain and leaves to us only what is to come because that is uncertain So as by a strange mis-fortune the increase of our life is the diminution thereof The farther we grow from our birth the nearer we grow to death our purchases are meer losses m and things are so disposed of since sin as we cannot count our years without either flattering our selves or lying T is perhaps for this reason that the Hebrew that holy language which the blessed shall make use of in heaven imployes but one and the same word to expresse both life and death with the difference of one only point to teach us that death and life are divided onely by that moment which unites them In effect life is nothing but a brittle chaine consisting of three links the past the present and the future the past is no more we retain but a weak remembrance of it all the vows we can make will not fetch it backe it is not void of doubt whether Gods absolute power which finds no resistance amongst his creatures can gather together the present with that which is past and unite these differences of times without destroying their essence The future time is not as yet hope which expects it cannot advance it and wisdom which hath an eye unto it cannot dissipate the obscurity thereof it is lesse at our disposall then the time that is past and for all the vain conjectures which we may flatter our selves withall we know not whether it shall come to us or we shall go to it the present time to say truth is in our power we are masters of it and it is the onely thing which we can say we possesse t is the onely part of our life which we are assured of and who promiseth himself more is either ignorant or impious But this present time is but a moment and this difference of time hath no parts time past time to come comprehend whole ages but the present consists but in an instant so as death and life differ only in a point these two which we judge so contrary are intertained by that moment which doth separate them Though I honour this imagination by reason of the gallantry therof and that respect which I bear to the Hebrew Tongue obliege me to reverence it yet me thinks it doth not sufficiently expresse the miseries of life whose alliance with death is neerer then is thereby represented death subsists only by life and life is only preserved by death they commence end together as soon as a man begins to live he begins to die nature which very well knows that two moments never subsist together Commands death to hurry away the one to leave to life the other that ensues As she doth with moments and houres so doth she with those years whereof the degrees of our life are composed She makes our infancie die to give life to our Boyish age she takes away a childe to substitute a man and robs us of our youth to make old age succeede Thus if we advance in life t is by the favour of death and we enjoy our last years by the losse of the former who will not praise death since it makes us live and who will not blame life since it makes us die who will not confesse that sin is very cruell since it accords these two enemies to our undoing and that for our punishment it hath turned a happy and immortall life into an
unfortunate and perishable one If this discourse be thought to be too finely spun yet can it not be denied that mans life is shortened since his offence and if a strong man hath made a shift to tumble in the world a hundred years he is a wonder to those that see him History records his name with respect posterity admires him and if he passe not for a miracle he doth at least for a prodigie Every gift of life is so short as we may easily judge we have divided it onely to deceive our selves Our infancy endures but seven years when our tongue gets its liberty and our understanding is formed we enter into our Bovish age which is of no longer continuance it findes its death in our adolescence and as soon as down appears upon a mans face he changeth qualitie This age which is esteemed the pleasantest of mans life and which I think the most dangerous lasts no longer than doth his boyish-Boyish-age it ends when youth begins which lasts somewhat longer than the other parts of life which did precede it it begins at Thirty years of age and ends not till sixty old age serves it for a Sepulcher and when the head is covered with snow t is time to prepare for death For this age is shortest of all the rest if it have any hope t is ill grounded and the sicknesses wherewith it is assailed are so many summons to the grave If man arrive at that extremity of the age we tearm decrepit he languisheth in pain he calls in death to his aide and the sorrows he suffers makes him think life tedious But for all this the longest life is but composd of moments which multiplied by dayes and monthes produce some years we divide it to make it seem the longer and perswade our selves that by giving it severall names we adde somewhat to the durance thereof We imitate the vanity of Princes who divide the earth to aggrandise it and part it into provinces to satisfie their ambition Mathematitians teach us that the earth compared to the heavens is but a point they ground their operation upon this maxime and that art which teacheth us to measure hours by the Sun-diall draws her certainty from this truth Yet Princes divide this point into kingdoms they thinke to extend the whole by multiplying the parts thereof and that they do inlarge the world by dividing it into Provinces but let their ambition do its utmost let it make fights by Sea and land let it cover the one with Houses the other with Ships they dispute but for a point a pâ—nctum and this place which they have chosen for the Theatre of their vain glory and the Subject of their differences is but an indivisible atome The bounders which we prescribe to kingdoms are as well the proofs of our weaknesse as of our pride The Alpes and Pyrenean mountains which part France from Italy and Spain are lines which nature hath drawn upon the earth to divide it not to aggrandise or inlarge it the Seas which seem to us vast and the Rivers which we think so deep are lesse considerable in the world then the veines are in the bodie and whatsoever it be that feeds the vain glory of Conquerours it is not so great as the least of those Stars which appear to us to be so little If pismires had as much understanding as men they would give as specious nâ—mes to their little caverns since they have a shadow of policie they would divide their States into provinces and by an Ambition equall to ours they would frame a little world of a foot of earth what Monarchs make of the world men make the like of life they distinguish the ages thereof to flatter themselves they thinke to keep off death by extending life and that they have a great way to go when they have yet to passe through their adolescence and their old age They consider not that the longest life is equall to the shortest if it be compared to eternity and that the condition of children is no better then that of old men if it be compared with the worlds lasting The time we live is almost nothing and Nature hath left us but a moment to merit eternity we can adde nothing thereunto by all our cunning but as if we were more ingenious to work our selves evil then good we have a thousand ways to shorten it and the longest life becomes short through the bad use we make thereof We are prodigall of time and greedy of good We think we give nothing to our friends when we give them whole daies and we consider not that we advance death by consuming our time We heap up riches and scatter abroad years we are streight handed in things the profession whereof is praise worthy and prodigall of those whereof the avarice is laudable The time which we have lived for our selves makes the least part of our life and when we shall have atteined to sixty years of age t is found that we have lost more then the half of it If we will cut off what time we have allowed to company keeping what we have employed in visits what consumed in pastimes and what employed in other mens affairs we shall finde the number of our years to be much fewer then we account them to be Nature All whose examples are instructions teacheth us to husband our time well she is rather prodigall then liberall of her favours she hath sewed the stars confusedly in the firmament and though they be the most beautifull parts of the Universe she would not have them to own their worth for their raritie Rivers flow profusively their spring heads are not dried up and though they water never so much ground they grow not dry The earth is alwayes fertile there is no part of it which produceth not somewhat and if you will except rocks which seems to be the bones of this great body her muscles and her veines abound in milk which nourisheth her children But this mother which is so liberall in her productions is covetous of time she gives it us by measure to make us value it the more she spins it out drop by drop the parts thereof succeede one another and continue not together she never gives us one moment but she takes another from us she takes from us what is past when she gives what is present and she threatens to take the present time from us when she promiseth us the future Of all the liberalities which she hath used since the beginning of the world she was never profuse of time and this her avarice teacheth us that time is the most pretious of all her gifts Let us learn of so wise a Mistresse to Husband our years let us by our wisdom prolong our life and let us not part with so much time for our sports and our affairs but that we reserve the greatest part thereof for our well-fare Thus shall we
rather from Infirmity then malice if her subjects forget their duty they are never the first Authors of disorder the tongues diligence in expressing her thoughts exceedeth belief the eyes makes prodigious hast to bring her news and the ears as lazie as they are are wonderfully faithfull in informing her of what they understand the hands invent a thousand means to content her the five branches whereof they are Composed are the mothers of all Arts and they are so affectionate to their Sovereign as she hath no sooner design'd any thing but these industrious officers do forth-with faithfully execute it Nature would be jealous of their labours did she not know that their Power is boūded and that for all they can do to imitate her they can neither give life nor motion to their workmanship in fine the soul which governs them so dexterously and which seems to foregoe all the other parts of the body to inanimate them loseth half her Power when she hath no hands and this high and mighty Sovereign seems to execute her greatest designs by the means of these faithfull confederates As she is absolute in her servitude she is immortall in her grave and all the atteints which sicknesse gives her cannot trouble her rest if she apprehend Pain t is because the body that she inanimates resents it if she fear death t is because it destroys her Mansion and if she seem to be moved or affraid t is because she loves the slave that would foregoe her the knowledge she hath of her own Immortality makes her rest quiet she takes delight in entertaining her self with thought of the life which must succeed this life she sees far into ages that are to come she ordains things which must not be accomplished till after her departure she is very jealous of her honour and knowing very well that death which will destroy her body shall not ruine her she endeavours to do Actions for which she shall suffer no reproach in the other world her cares which extend themselves beyond the precincts of time are proofs of her Immortality and the Paision she hath for Glory witnesseth that she is not ignorant of the happinesse which is prepared for her in Heaven when the moment wherein she is to make her entrance thereinto approacheth and that she is ready to be divorced from her body she operates with a new strength she sees things with more light all her words are Oracles it seems that freeing her self from Materia she becomes a pure spirit and that having no further Commerce with men she treats invisibly with Angels her last endevours are usually the greatest she gathers strength out of her bodies weaknesse and death destroys her Prison only to set her at liberty she beginsto tast the sweet of Heaven and she looks upon parting from the earth as upon the end of her servitude I should be too tedious if I would perticularize in all the souls advantages the rest of this discourse must be imployed in shewing what out rages she receiveth from sin for as soon as she took up her lodging she became slave to the body she lost her Power when she lost her Innocence when she ceased to obey she ceased to command and as if obedience had been the foundation of all her greatnesse rebellion was the cause of her miseries of all the cognizances whichwere together with Grace infused into her none remain'd in her but doubts and jealousies which makes her as oft embrace fals-hood as truth though she know God she adores the workmanship of his hands her enlightnings detein her not from engaging her self in errour and the great Inclination which she hath for the Summum Bonum doth not estrange her from the love of perishable things she is the Image of God and ceaseth to resemble him she expresseth his greatnesse and doth no longer imitate his vertues she conserves the Trinity of her power in the unity of her essence yet cannot conceive one God in three Persons she makes and Idol unto her self of every Creature all that pleaseth her seem Gods unto her her Interest is the soul of her Religion her love ariseth from fear she adores whatsoever she fears and unlesse the God which she serveth had thunders wherewithall to punish her she would have no victimes to load his Altars withall Her Punishment is the Picture of her offence she meets with rebellion in her slave the conspiracy of all the parts of her body is generall her senses do seduce her Her Passions do torment her her Imagination troubles her and her subjects do despise her she sees her self obliged to encourage their disorders to give life to Rebels which justle her Authority to nourish up monsters which rend her in peices and to arme souldiers which plunder her estate but nothing ads more unto her Pain then the love which she bears her enemy for though he prosecute her she cannot resolve to hate him dares not make War against him without assistance from heaven this Traitor is so full of cunning as he makes himself be beloved by her whom he abuseth she is sensible of all the evils that he endures and as if her pain arose from her love she never ceased to suffer since she began to love him she apprehends her slaves miseries more then her own she fears death more then sin she is more affraid of ruine then of falshood and as if this inclination had changed her Nature she desires no other good nor dreads no other evill then what is sensible Musick charms her discontents Pictures serve her for a diversion she is pleased with smels and the greatest part of her delights consists in what contents her senses by a sequell as shamefull as necessary she is burnt by Feavers pained by the Gout weakened by sicknesse and whatsoever hurteth her body abaseth her courage After the Injuries which she hath received from this domestick enemy It is hard to judge which of the two hath juster cause of complaint for each of them seem to be equally guilty and that the one and the other of them are the mutuall cause of their displeafures In Adam sin arose from the soul but in his Children it draws it's birth from the flesh and in the most part of their errours t is the senses which seduce them Pleasures which corrupt them sorrows which keep them love and passions which tyrannize over them Thus our misfortunes drive equally from these two and if the soul made our first father guilty It is the body which makes his Children unfortunate yet must we avow that the soul is the greater Delinquent in us as well as in him for if she have no freedom to defend her self against Originall sin and if necessity may excuse a misfortune which is not voluntary she is more guilty then the body because she commits so many faults with delight stays not for being solicitated by the senses and that by a blind Impetuosity
to believe that she was yet spirituall This violent though irregular love was occasionally the cause of good and served the soul to free her from the body for Divine Justice which oft times makes us find our Punishment in our faults condemned the soul to forego the body as soon as she began to love it in excesse the same sin which did unite them did by death divide them their Chains grew weaker as their affection strengthened and when the soul had most passions to retein her body she was forced to forsake it for when Originall righteousnesse was retreated the Elements began to mutiny Naturall heat usurped upon the radicall moisture and all these contraries which lived in Peace declared open War Nature was enforced to call in industry to her succour and tooke advice with Physick to appease all her domestick divisions but she knew by experience that losing grace she had lost all remedies and that death was an incurable evill Thus did mans life become a long sicknesse in the which he was for some years preserved by food which could not notwithstanding keepe him from dying his soul was fain to employ her care to defend her self from death and she who by an irregular love was become Corporall by a just punishment became mortall for though the soul be immortall in her substance and that she continues this advantage even in her very sin yet is she punisht in her bodies death she is so well pleased with her Prison as she loves the lothsomness thereof and she is so accustomed to serve as she abhors the very name of Liberty she trembles when one speaks to her of death she makes her fear appear upon the body which she in-animates she weeps through the eyes thereof looks pale in it's visage sighs by it's mouth and in this mutuall suspiration a man cannot tell whether it be the souâ— that is afflicted or the body that complaineth The evill hath it's beginning in the body but passeth into the soul it is the body that perisheth but t is the soul that suffereth the body which is corrupt but the soul which despairs in fine it is upon the body that death exerciseth his cruelty but it is the soul that is pierced through with sorrow This is the bodies death the souls punishment and two guilty parties are punished with one and the same scourge But this bodily death is the effect of a spirituall death which is peculiar to the soul and which though it be invisible ceaseth not to be veritable this death is nothing else but the privation of Originall righteousnesse which commits more outrages upon the soul then natural death doth upon the body for man by losing grace lost all the advantages whereof Grace was the cause he ceased to be upon good Terms with God and began to be upon bad with himself all his Inclinations were changed all his enlightenings darkened and all his faculties out of order he could not conceive how being still himself in appearance he was no longer effectually so and that the fault which had drawn down Gods just anger upon his head had bereft him of all those glorious Qualities which he possessed with Innocency he sought himself out and could not find himself he was ashamed of his bodies nakedness and affraid of his souls misery he could not indure himself when he yet loved himself better by a strange miracle self caused hatred and the same sin which made him proud loaded him with confusion He was sensible of all evils at once and passed in a moment from supreame happinesse to extreame misery we are not sensible of sin because it is born with us we are not touched with the disorders thereof because it fore-runs our reasons Nature and sin are mutually confused in us and nothing doth so much comfort us in our misfortunes as that we have been always unfortunate If we have recourse to Grace in Baptisme t is of so nice a Nature as it is undiscernable and as we continue to find illusions in our senses and revolts in our Passions we have much ado to believe that Grace should reign there where sin doth yet live when by a voluntary offence we lose it we were hardly sorry for the losse of a thing the Possession whereof we are hardly sensible of we must become convinced by reasons before we be perswaded to believe that we are unfortunate preserving in our offence whatsoever we value most in our Innocence we cannot believe that we are faulty for a Phylosopher becomes not ignorant though he lose Grace a Prince though faâ—ulty descends not from his Throne the avaricious rich man augments his Revenue by continuing his usury a proud man loseth not his greatnesse though he lose humility nor doth a fair woman lose her beauty though she stain her honour Our sins bereave us not of our advantages and finding no change neither in fortune nor body we cannot believe that any such hath befaln us in our soul if the same sin whereby we lost Grace had taken from us our health we should strive more to preserve our Innocence and did Crimes cause the same disorder in our conditions as it doth in our souls we should oft times set Phylosophers ignorant Kings without subjects rich men ruined proud men abased and fair women become ill-fauoured but all the losse being spirituall it is insensible and because it leaves us whatever is most precious to us we doubt whether it be true or no. The Pledges of Heaven which Grace giveth unto us the quality of the Children ofâ— God which she obteins for us the dignity of the Temples of the Holy Ghost which she procures us and the honours of being the Members of Jesus Christ which she acquires in our behalf are the advantages which we possesse without being sensible thereof and which we lose without sorrowing Faith is requisite to the knowledge of our souls health and of our losse and unlesse we carefully enquire into our conscience hardly can we know whether we be guilty or innocent but Adam had all miseries poured down at once upon him his losse was not by degrees as ours is it was great at the first and if any advantages remain'd to him after his losse of favour he needed new Grace to make good use thereof he was sadly sensible of the privation because it was generall he was so much the more unfortunate for that his misery succeeded a height of happiness and he had so much the less reason of Comfort for that the fault which bereft him of righteousnes took therewithall from him all that he was thereby indow'd withall his soul found no longer any submission in her body no more faithfullnesse in her senses nor obedience in her Passions she was forced to encourage all their disorders and to give life to Rebels or such as were guilty she felt her self distracted by her own Inclinations and not comprehend how being but one in her Essence she
have no occasion to complain of the shortnesse of our life and though it be composed but of moments we shall finde that if well employd 't will suffice to purchase eternity The eighth Discourse That death is the punishment of sin OF all the pains which sin hath procured us death is the most cruell and the most common all others have their remedies and self-love teacheth us how to shun them we by our industry and labour overcome the earths sterility We fence our selves from the shame of our nakednesse by the means of our clothes we save our selves from the injury of the aire and unseasonablenesse of weather by the commodiousnesse of buildings physick furnisheth us with remedies against sicknesse and reformeth our temper by the government which it prescribes us Arts are invented onely to free us from the miseries of life and the greatest part of Artificers labour onely to fence men from the punishment of sin But death is a punishment as rigorous as inevitable humane wit hath not yet been able to free man from it All her care cannot make a man live a hundred years our first fathers lived longer and the heavens which would people the earth by their means prolonged their life to allow them leisure for it but they died after some hundred years and the oldest amongst them could not attain to a thousand years The rigour of this punishment doth equall it's necessity for death is deafe to pitty tears cannot appease it and whatsoever causeth either respect or pitty in us cannot stay the fury thereof It enters Princes Palaces as well as shepheards cottages it knaps in two the Scepters of Kings with as much insolency as the shepherds crook it keeps no other law than what is prescribed unto it by divine Justice it siezeth on the son before the father the daughter before the mother sets upon Infants in the cradle or Monarchs in their Thrones and on Judges on their Tribunalls There is no sanctuary against it's fury and those who can pardon the condemned cannot obtain the like favour from death There are many prodigies in the world whereat we wonder and there is nothing so strange whereof there hath not been some example which facilitates our beliefe there be some whole intire Provinces where the Inhabitants liâ—e so happily as that they are never troubled with sicknesse there are some so auspicious Climates as that in them the plague doth never mow down men where the ground is not made sterill through â—amine and whereas thunder never falls upon the guilty head France cannot nourish Monsters nor are her houses at any time shaken with earthquakes Some men are seen to grow old yet not grow gray and women who preserve their comelinesse in their age and lose it not but with losse of life Italy hath mountains whose entrailes are full of fire and their heads covered with snow as if nature took delight in according these two contraries and by ending their differences to make her power appear But how fantasticall soever this mother hath pleased to shew her selfe what ever diversity she hath put in her workmanships to delight us and what ever miracles she hath wrought to astonish us she could never free man from death The devill who promised us immortallity to engage us in disobedience could not make good his word and the law which bindes us to die is too generall to admit of any dispensation or exception When God himselfe became man he became mortall and taking our nature upon him he would not exempt himselfe from death All Gods friends have born this punishment the justest have oft-times lived the shortest life and death to astonish others hath made examples of them if some have been rapt up to Paradise that favour did not bereave death of his rights for after having lived a long time with Angels they shall descend on earth again to die there with men This rigour would be pleasing were it not accompanied with circumstances which make it unsupportable but death assumes fearfull shapes to affrighten us he is not content to part our soules from our bodies to break in two the chains which did unite them and to destroy Gods chiefest workmanship but to satisfie his cruelty tire our patience he assumes a thousand frightfull shapes and leaves marks of his fury in the persons of the dead which terrifie the living He appears hideous even in the beautifullest visage that ever was he shrinks up the nerves hollows the eyes defaceth the complexion alters the lineaments and turns a miraculous beauty into a dreadfull Monster Somtimes he burnes the bowels by the scorching heat of a fever somtimes swels up the body by a long continued dropsie somtimes he makes an anatomy or skeleton thereof by an irksome consumption somtimes forms strange characters in the lungs or brain somtimes he covers the face over with an ulcer and changes the Throne of beauty into the Seat of deformity Violent deaths are yet more uncoucht than such as are naturall they are not to be beheld without terrour and those who have courage enough to tolerate the gout or stone have not constancy enough to endure the torture of fire or rack 't is therefore that it is said that our father Adam knew not the heinousnesse of his sin till he saw the picture of death in Abels face the losse of grace Gods anger the Angels indignation his banishment from Paradise the creatures revolt the alteration of seasons warring of Elements nor yet the insurrection of the body against the soule were not sufficient to make known unto him the exorbitancy of his sin nor the injustice of his disobedience but when he saw his son want motion his eyes want light when he heard no words proceed from his mouth saw no colour in his face nor felt no motion of his heart he thought his sin was very great since it deserved so sore a punishment To say truth death is the image of sin this father makes himselfe seen in his daughter his uglinesse is seen in his production and there needs no more to acknowledge the misery of a sinner than to consider the aspect of a dead man Those pale lips those sunk eyes those hollowed cheeks and that corruption which always accompanies stench is the shadow of a soule which mortall sin hath bereaved of innocency and grace All teacheth us that we are criminall and that the evills which we endure are as well the portraitures of our punishments as of our offences The rebellion which we meet withall in the Elements and creatures is the punishment of our disobedience the irregularity of the seasons is a signe of the disorder of our passions the blinding of our eyes proves the like in our understanding and the sicknesses which our bodies suffer under are the effects of our souls infirmity but of all the punishments wherewith we are afflicted death is the onely true copy of sin and in this copy it is that we
must observe the horrour of the originall To discover all his rigours we must examine the terme of our sentence we must consider what punishments he condemned us unto and observe with how many evills he threatens us The first is to die the same day that we have sinned and to bear the punishment as soon as we have committed the offence Few are aware of this punishment and though it be severe enough we suffer it without being sensible of it or complaining we perswade our selves that life and death cannot agree in our punishment and that God himself is not powerfull enough to make two so contrary things serve his justice but notwithstanding 't is true that we die as soon as we are born that death assailes us as soon as we are surprized by sin and that we bear Adams punishment as soon as we contract his offence For death holds so good intelligence with life as these do equally part our years we perish for our preservation as soon as we enter into our boyes estate we forgoe infancy we divide every houre of the day between death and life and we neither conceive the heinousnesse of our fault nor the greatnesse of our punishment if we think that that death which puts an end unto our life is our onely one because it is our last We die every moment we lose the years which we number and part of our being glides away with them we are but halfe our selves all of us that is past is deaths purchase and the youth which hath left us is a losse which we cannot repaire That complexion the freshnesse whereof was more lively than that of the rose that whitenesse which sham'd the lilly that lustre which sparckled in the eyes that Majesty which appear'd upon the forehead those pearles which shewed themselves within the currall of the lips and all those ornaments which nature had united in a handsome face to make thereof her chiefest workmanship do they not serve for a prey to death and who hath no longer these advantages are they not obliged to confesse that they have lost the best part of themselves the destinies end their work in silence death gives blows which hurt not he mingles himselfe so pleasingly with life as that he is received insensibly and under hope of living men take a kinde of pleasure in dying The second punishment which our decree bringeth is that in not expressing what kind of death we shall die we are obliged to fear all sorts of death There is nothing more certain than this punishment neither is there any thing more secret Every one knows he must die every day affords us proofs and examples of it our friends and enemies confirme this truth no man is so ignorant or vain-glorious as to doubt it the sepulchres of Kings are faithfull witnesses thereof and those heads for which the lives of a whole Nation are exposed make us see that death spares no body but the manner thereof is as unknown as the hour is uncertain The stars do not shew the particulars thereof and unlesse the heavens reveale it the devill cannot foretell it to those that serve him our decree pitcheth not upon any one that we may stand in fear of all and after the example of Princes which have ended their lives by deaths from which their qualities ought to have warranted them we may justly apprehend all It may be 't will be naturall it may be violent it may be 't will sieze on us in war it may be in peace it may be 't will be short and cruell it may be lesse cruell but languishing the Judge which hath condemned us hath not been pleased to expresse himselfe therein to the end that the fear of death might be a severer punishment unto us then death it selfe it may suffice us to know that he is incensed and that we may justly expect from his just anger whatsoever death our sin deserves The truth is we can suffer but one the weaknesse of our constitution doth not permit both the waters to drown us the fire to burn us and the wilde beasts to devoure us but the darknesse of our decree obligeth us to fear all these punishments and there is no Monarch whose greatnesse can exempt him from so just a fear the plague hath not so spared our most pious Kings and the valiantest among them hath been murthered amidst the triumph which he prepared for his dearest wife A clap of thunder bruiseth the pride of crowned heads poison is mingled in their drink and violent death doth but too oft befall Sovereigns Who ought then to stand in fear when he shall read a decree which threatens every guilty person with a hundred thousand deaths and who ought not to dread a Judge who conceals the condition of our punishment only to make us reverence his power and have recourse unto his clemency The third punishment is not lesse severe then are the rest for though we know not what sort of death we shall die yet we know we shall be reduced to ashes and that divine Justice following us even into the grave will war upon us after death it treateth us like those notorious Malefactours who finde not the end of their punishment in the end of their lives they are degraded to make them lose their honour their children are prosecuted to make them lose their posterity their bodies are burned that their ashes may be scattered in the winde their houses are beaten down to ruinate their workmanship and nothing is left in any part that did belong unto them but characters of their faults and of their Princes anger Thus doth our supream Judge deal with guilty man he drives him out of the terrestiall paradise and banisheth him into the world he threatens the place of his exile to be totally consumed with fire for having received this guilty person he confiscates all his goods takes from him all the honourable marks of his greatnesse and reduceth him to the condition of beasts who did pretend to the glory of Angels he makes all his subjects despise his authority he makes his slaves either Rebels or Tyrants and after so many punishments he shortens his shamefull life by some tragicall end But all these punishments leaving yet some remainder of the guilty person they pursue him into his sepulchre he commands the worms to devoure him and what escapes their fury he reduceth into dust you shall see dreadfull marks of the execution of this decree in the stateliest monuments of our Kings descend into the most magnificent Maâ—soleums you will finde nothing there but ashes the earth covers the pride of Conquerours and of all these Monarches greatnesse wherewith their subjects in their life were astonished there remaines nothing after death but a little dust A man must be a Saint to be exempt from this punishment God affords not this favour save to those that serve him unworthily he preserves their bodies in the sepulchre
which must give her heat revenge which must provoke her and vain glory which must in-animate her since 't is not Faith that doth assist her All these passions mixt together make up the greatest part of her greatnesse and when one shall examine her intentions or motives he shall finde that her noblest exploits are but magnificall sins All those men who in ancient times have been esteemed couragious have contemned onely pain to purchase Glory they have given their life for a little smoak and in so unjust a battering have sufficiently shewn that their Fortitude was not reall since she wanted Justice and wisdome In effect their most glorious Actions have their defaults their valour is nothing but despair and all that the Roman Eloquence calls courage is but Pusillanimity Certainly Cato was the wise man of Rome he held there the same Rank which Socrates did amongst the Athenians his death goes for the chiefest testimony of his courage and Historians never speak thereof without highly praising it he had fruitlesly endeavoured to appease the Civill Wars he sided which the Common-wealth whilest every one took part either with Caesar or Pompey he remained free whilest every one had chosen a Master he assisted the dying Common-wealth with his counsell and his weapons he opposed his courage to Fortune and if this blinde hus-wife could have seen his merit she would have been inamored thereof After having given all these Testmonies of his affection to his Country what lesse could he do then secure his own Liberty by his death and dip that Innocent sword in his bloud which the civil wars could not defile he therefore considerately prepares himself for this blow he dissembles his design to couzen his friends he spent the night either in reading or taking rest he encourageth himself to die by the thought of Immortality when he was well perswaded he would go see what he had beleeved and by a generous blow free his soul from the prison of her body his hand did not serve his courage faithfully his Friends who came into his succour bound up his wounds and endeavoured to alter his designe he seemed to approve of their reasons so to free himself from their Importunities but when he was alone he tore off his apparel opened his wounds and ended that with his hands which he had begun with his sword Fortune would prolong his death to try his constancie and this Tragedy seemed so pleasing to him as he endeavoured to spin it out that he might the longer taste the pleasure thereof Seneca complaines that Eloquence is not happy enough to make Panegyrickes upon this death He prefers it before all the battels of Conquerours he calls all the Gods to witnesse it he leaves us in doubt whether Cato be not more Glorious then his Iupiter he is troubled that his age knew him not Complains that the Common wealth which should have raised him above Caesar and Pompey hath placed him beneath Vatimus and Clodius and to erect a stately Trophye to this vanquisher of fear and Death he sayes that Cato and Liberty died both on a day and were buried in one and the same Tombe Yet a man need not to be much enlightened to observe the defaults of a so well disguised death for if Cato be to be praised for having killed himself all those that did survive him deserve to be blamed 'T was weaknesse in Cicero to have recourse to Caesars clemencie 't was either Folly or Fearfulnesse in him not to despair of the Republiques well-fare and yet to reserve himself to raise her up after her Fall But not to make use of so weak a reason to condemn him who sees not that pride had a greater share in this Action than Courage Who does not think that Cato was prouder than Caesar and that it was not integrity but want of Courage which put the Poneyard in his hand Who knows not that it was rather weaknesse than Constancie that made him die had he had courage enough to have under-gone adversity he would never have had recourse to despair he wanted patience in his misfortune and if he could have endured Caesars victories he had not Committed self-Murther For if he thought it shame to beg his life of his enemies wherefore did he Counsell his Son to do it If he thought death so glorious wherefore did he disswade his friends from it If he thought the Common-wealth might be restored by their Counsels wherefore did he deny her his and if he advised every one to seek for mercy from the Conquerour wherefore did he by his errour prevent it What ever mischief threatens us we must never flie to despair though the decree be pronounced the Scaffold set up and that all things assure us we must die we must not play the Hangmans part nor hasten our death to free us from misery This is to make our selves Ministers of our enemies cruelty to excuse their fault by preventing it and to commit Parricide to exempt them from man slaughter Socrates who was not better instructed than Cato was more generous because more Patient he might have freed himself from Poyson by a sword and by fasting five or six dayes have acquitted himself from his Enemies violence yet he spent a whole Month in Prison he affordeth death leisure to imploy all its horrours to try his constancie he thought he was to give way to the Laws of his Country and not to refuse his last instructions to his friends they intreating for them If this Pagan Philosopher thought he ought not to attempt any thing against his own life because he was in the hands of justice no man can with reason make himself away for from the first moment of his birth he is subject to the Laws of God and unless he will do an unjust act he must waite till he that put him into the world take him from thence to hasten our death is to intrench upon his rights to kill our selves is to overthrow his workmanship and to bereave him of the least of his Subjects is to attempt against his Sovereignty In this case we have lesse power over our selves than over others for we may kill an enemy in our own defence but it is not lawfull to shun his fury by preventing it We must wait till the same Judge which hath pronounced the decree of our Death make it be executed and it belongs to one and the same Power either to shew favour or Justice to the guilty All those stately words which flatter our vain Glory and do incourage our despair do not excuse our fault when we attempt upon our owne lives Nature teacheth us sufficiently by those tacite instructions which she giveth us that if it be treacherie to abandon a place which a Prince hath committed to our charge 't is perfidiousnesse to forgo the body which God hath given us the guidance of and which he hath joyned so straightly to our soul as that
strange opinions in men for if they be Just they ought not to desire that their friends contentment should be disquieted by their misfortunes they are unworthy of their Compassion if they too eagerly desire it they deserve not to be bemoned if they exact tears they are Tyrants and Hang-men if they will have their friends to be their Martyrs and that for having partaken in their Prosperity they should do the like in their Adversity notwithstanding 't is true that Friendship never appears but in Affliction 'T is misfortune that tries Friends their friendship is approved of when Fortune frowns we must be Miserable to know that we are beloved we cannot get this assurance without the Losse of our Felicity and as long as Fortune favours us we dare not build upon our friends Fidelities Heaven therefore is the true harbour of Friendship 't is there that our Love divides it self without fear of Jealousie and waxeth not weak 't is there that we shall have so many Friends as God makes blessed Saintes 't is there that without trying them by our Misfortunes we shall be assured of their good-wills 't is there that reading their Hearts and seeing their Thoughtes we shall no longer run the hazard of being abused by Words 't is there that without fear of adding to our mis-fortunes by the increase of our Friends we shall enjoy all good and fear no evil 't is there that living for ever together we shall no longer fear to be separated by Death or absence Finally 't is there that being perfectly united to God we shall see our selves in his Light and love our selves in his Goodnesse The ninth Discourse That the Uncertainty and Obscurity of Knowledge is derived from sin IT must be confest that man is very unfortunate in becoming guilty since his perfections and his defects are almost equally fatall to him His vertues are false and his vices true his most glorious actions do oft-times derive from so bad an originall as they are not to be praised without injuring in some sort both grace and reason His ignorance doth not always excuse his sin and his knowledge doth not always enhance his vertue The more he is knowing the more guilty is he as Saint Paul saith He withholds the truth in unrighteousnesse and his light is intermixt with so much darknesse that it may lead him out of the way and cannot conduct him This is notwithstanding mans most violent passion desire of knowledge is born with him and if it makes not his difference it is one of his chiefest Proprieties For Beasts are wrought on by ambition they fight for glory and as if that were the onely reward of their victory they pardon their enemies after they have beaten them they are tormented with love and jealousie Lions can endure no rivalls and if they want rewards to honour fidelity they want not chastisements to punish Adultery Desire of life is not much lesse violent in beasts than in men the same instinct which animates Tigres to seek out prey for their nourishment makes Stags hide themselves in woods for their preservation Nature teacheth them remedies for their evils and this common mother furnisheth them with herbes to cure them the apprehension of death encourageth the most timerous when they are bereft of all hope of safety they turn their fear to fury and to shun danger throw themselves head-long into it But the desire of knowledge is peculiar to man and there is no cruelty which he useth not to content his curiosity He rips open the bowels of the earth to know the secrets thereof he melts metals to discover their essences he descends to the bottome of the Sea to learn the wonders thereof he turns the world upside down to know it under pretence of succouring those that live he dissects those that are dead and seeks out the causes of their maladies that he may finde out remedies for them This passion is much augmented by the esteem which it hath won in the world for nothing is more honoured than knowledge the Devil gave it credit in the earthly Paradise by the praises which he gave it made our first Parents long after it their children imitated them in their errour consecrated their watchings to the atchieving of so rich a fleece Greatest honours have been conferr'd upon the most knowing men and if those which have freed their Countrey from the Insolence of Tyrants have past for Heroes those who have found out Arts who have defended men either from ignorance or from necessity have had Temples and Altars erected to them in so much as the Devill kept his word which his gave our first Parents when to seduce them he would perswade them their knowledge would make them Gods and his promise though false hath been in some sort accomplisht by peoples simplicity who have adored knowing men For it must be confest that the monuments of our mindes are more durable than those of our hands and that Sciences have much better fenced themselves against the injuries of time than the stateliest Edifices of Antiquity Aristotles Philosophy hath had her admirers in all Ages this gallant man had more Disciples since his death than during his life and there have been greater disputes had to maintain his Doctrine than the most famous Conquerour hath given Battels to enlarge his Territories Homers Verses are still read with respect men admire his invention reverence his defects and labour almost as much to understand his Conceipts as to understand Oracles some men passe whole nights in perusing his works who glory to be a dead mans Interpreter who enrich themselves at the cost of a poor man and boast themselves of enlightning all mens understandings by explicating the words of a blind man since his time all Empires have been dissipated Rome hath seen her self twice or thrice buried under her own ruines her Republique hath been turn'd to a Monarchy and her Monarchy hath divided it selfe into as many parts as there are Kingdomes in the world Men know not where the capitall Cities of Media and Persia were situated it is disputed in what parts of the World Thebes and Memphis were built their high walls large circuits and number of Inhabitants have not been able to preserve the memory thereof these works of great Kings have not been able to defend themselves against Time and these miracles of Art have either been ruin'd by the Sword or devoured by fire but Homers works live yet Troy was never so beautifull in Asia as in his Verses if he could not keep it from being burnt he hath kept it from being forgotten The Grecian Achilles and Hector of Troy never won so much renown by their valour as by his praises This onely example makes it evident that Knowledge hath the upper-hand of Courage and that the labours of the brain are more durable than the Conquests of Kings yet hath knowledge her defaults since the state of sin
harder to be repaired than those which they commit upon the constitution whole mouthes are required to their reparation after p the fever hath left them the colour in the cheek is not so soon re-gained as health And women as if they did prefer pleasure before profit are sorry to see themselves sooner well than fair nothing can consolate them for the losse of a thing held so precious but the knowledge that it was natures pleasure it should not be permanent For her rarest workmanships are of least durance there is no beauty constant save that of the stars and yet they may complain that the cloudes darken them by night and the sun by day The rain-bow is the most beautifull of all Meteors it shames the Art of painting be it either for lustre or for the mixture of colours it 's figure is so perfect as the compasse cannot imitate it the greatnesse thereof is so vast as it incompasseth halfe the world the waters whereof it is composed nourish hope in the husbandman it causeth fruitfulnesse in fields and warns men to shun the storms which it threatens 'T is a pledge of the peace which heaven hath made with earth and though it presage rain to men in generall yet doth it assure the faithfull that the world shall never be drowned again yet so rare a marvaile lasts but a few moments One and the same hour sees the beginning and the end thereof the Sun seems to have made it only to please itselfe in the un-making thereof The rose amongst flowers is like the rain-bow amongst Meteors her vermillion out-vies all the beauty of the world Her odour naturally as it is disputes for precedency with the most pleasing perfumes that Art can compose the placing of her leaves puts painters who would imitate her to their wits ends yet too boot that she is environed with prickles and that she seems to share more in the curse of the earth than other flowers her life lasts but for a few days the Sun which gave her life gives her death and that fire which enlivens her purple is extinguished as soon as lighted Neither is the beauty of women of long durance that lustre which bewitcheth men is lost in a few years and they are unjust in wishing that men should be constant in their love since the object which gives it birth is so subject to alteration But this fault in beauty were excusable since it cures the malady which it caused were it not accompanied with another which can admit of no excuse neither deserves any pardon For beauty is become an enemy to chastity and since the soule and body are at ods these two qualities have much adoe to agree Fair women are seldome chaste nature since corrupted is turned hypocrite beauty is no longer a mark of goodnesse she forgoes the soule as soon as she appears upon the body and as if perfection were no longer to be found upon earth a woman ceaseth oft-times to be chaste when she begins to be lovely That Father in Ovid did witnesse this very well who being desired by his daughter that he would give her leave to consecrate her virginity to Diana reply'd that her beauty gain-said her designe that she was too fair to be chaste and that though she should have resolution enough to keep her vow she had too many lovers to preserve her chastity 't is very hard for a woman who delights in causing love in others not to share therein her selfe and that a woman of an excellent beauty should be ice since she gives fire to so many flames she cannot resolve to hate all those that love her she cannot be perswaded that those who honour her should undoe her what advise soever her directour gives her she cannot believe that those who are her slaves should be her enemies nor that those that praise her beauty would wound her honour She thinks that beauty of no power which hath no Martyrs she believes she cannot judge of her own charmes but by her servants sighes that she is ignorant of her own conquests if she learn them not from their mouthes and that there is yet somwhat wanting to her Triumph if those who have experience of her cruelty do not implore her mercy Flattered by these false perswasions she exposeth her selfe to danger and out of hope of obtaining new victories she engageth her selfe in fresh combates if she be not seduced by vanity she is misled by pitty and believes that those who behave themselves so handsomly in their complaints suffer reall pains compassion makes her throw open the doores to love and under pretence of easing anothers malady she forgets her duty and betrayes her honour If she preserves her chastity amidst so many rocks which threaten her shipwrack she runs great hazard of loosing her humility her lovers Panegyricks make her think better of her selfe and those praises which men rob God of to give her perswade her that she is somwhat of divine Those who cannot corrupt her by their idle discourse seduce her by their adorations not being able to make her unchaste they make her proud not being able to bereave her of her chastity they take from her her modesty and bring her into a sad condition wherein pride is as it were necessary to her for defence of her honesty She likes not of common homage she thinks her selfe injured if men use not blasphemy to heighten her beauty and unlesse upon cold bloud men say what enamour'd Poets use to do in raptures she thinks her selfe slighted her lovers extravagancies are her Panegyricks she thinks not that they love unlesse they lose their reason nor doth she judge their passion to be extream unlesse they commit a thousand follies She judges of her power by her injustice if she doth not engage those who serve her in hard and ridiculous enterprises she doubts of their fidelity and because love is a kind of madnesse she will have all her lovers to be either mad or out of their wits 'T is not enough for a man to lose his liberty in her service unlesse he lose his judgment also more cruell then Tyrants and more absolute then Kings she will have her slaves to be her Martyrs that they kisse their fetters love their sufferings and listen with respect to their doom of death Thus Pride springs from beauty fair women grow proud and their insolence grows to that height as to ravish men from God to commit that execrable attempt on earth which Lucifer did in Heaven and to make all creatures adore rhem The first Christian women who very well knew the misfortune which accompanied this advantage did gallantly despise it they were ashamed to be handsome they neglected what our women so much value they thought it a fault to heighten a perfection which produceth lewd desires the purest amongst them wisht that old age might free them of this domestick enemy the most zealous did set upon
he guards their precious relicks in the bosome of the earth the waters cannot corrupt them nor the flames devour them being innocent he will not deal with them as guilty death spares their body after having separated it from their soul they seem to rest in their graves to repose themselves after their labour and to expect with joy that dreadfull day which all the guilty do apprehend Death then is the punishment of our sin it is the workmanship thereof we have procured it unto our selves by our disobedience God hath ordeined it by his justice and Jesus Christ who draws good out of our evil hath made a sacrifice of it for our salvation The ninth Discourse What advantages we may draw from death by the means of Grace THough death be the first production of sin and that the malice and deformed lothsomnesse of the Father appear in Sons visage some Philosophers have gone about to make apologies for death and after having made use of their reason in the defence thereof they have imployed their cunning in praising it Being ignorant of the first mans fault they would have death to be a law and not a punishment they have excused his rigour by his necessity and have gone about to perswade us that he was pleasing because necessary All things in nature perish this mother hath brought forth nothing which she hath not sentenced to die nothing is immortall and few things durable fountains grow dry and their spring-heads are either lost orstrayed out of the channel the mountaines give way to the violence of floods the sea advances and wins upon the earth whole isles have sunke into the earth we see lakes now where our Ancestours have seen Towns and husbandmen plough up fields where Pilots have steerd their ships The Change which preserves Nature is a kinde of death nature subsists onely by alteration were it not for change she would utterly perish kingdomes which apprehend nothing like vicissitude cannot shun it as oft as they lose their Princes they hazard the losse of their liberty they grow jealous of all their neighbours and ambition is so perfidious as their allyes may become their enemies all those great Colossuses which past for miracles in their age their subsistance depends now only upon paper Time hath made them know that all the workmanship of man is perishable and that frail hands can build nothing which is eternall In fine the world it self is not exempt from death the deluge wherewith it was drown'd and the fire wherewith it shall be consumed teach us that it may perish the Stars which never are at a stay are threatned one day to lose their influences and their light the same hand which hath seated them in the firmament will one day pull them from thence and though Aristotle imagines the heavens to be incorruptible Jesus Christ assures us that they shall perish together with the world Wherefore then do we complain of death since he spares not the Stars and wherefore do we wish that our houses may never have an end since the world cannot escape the fall which threatens it Death is not so cruell as men imagine the fear which we have thereof is rather an effect of opinion then of Nature if we were lesse wise we should be more couragious we augment our evil by thinking too oft of it the weapons wherewith we indeavour to withstand this enemy serve only to make him the more redoubted a Philosopher apprehends him more then doth an ignorant person and all the constancie of the stoicks cannot equall the stupidity of a country clown These silly people are easily comforted they look after no priviledges which their Ancestours have not enjoyed they prepare for death when they see their friends die and having no plots which may fasten them to the world they are not troubled to be interrupted therein by their death All men seem to conspire to be cause of astonishment to themselves and that it fares with them as in the route of an Army where those that ran away cause fear in those that fight Every particular man frames unto himself an Idea of death and he who can make it appear the most hideous passeth for the ablest man Sciences which ought to incourage us do intimidate us and there is not any one who doth not adde somwhat to the image of this Monster to increase his uglinesse and our apprehension Painters represent him as a ghastly skeleton bearing a coffin upon his shoulders and a sithe in his hands to mow down the whole earth Poets whose fictions are more pleasing then those of painters do give him arrowes each of which being shot doth wound a heart physicians decipher him as the enemy of nature and to no end seek for remedies against his wounds Philosophers who boast that they know him that they may withstand him do astonish their disciples by the number of their reasons and perswade them that the Monster which they assail is very terrible since so many preparations are required to overcome him Yet experience teacheth us that he takes upon himselfe pleasing formes to reclaim us that he glides so pleasingly into the heart as those whom he wounds feele him not he set upon Plato sleeping and it was hard to discern sleep from death in this Philosopher one of the Crassuses died laughing and the Romans ceased to fear death seeing it so amiable upon his face Chilon was choked with joy his sons victory was as fatall to him as to the enemies of the State and whil'st men sought for Laurell to crown the Conquerour others sought for Capres to put upon his fathers head Clydemus died not lesse pleasingly since the praises which Greece gave him were the cause of his death and that he lost his life amidst his Triumph He also since the corruption of our nature makes up a part of our selves He is as well an effect of our temper as of a fever and as the agreement of the Elements makes us live their disagreement makes us die We carry the principles of death about us and from once that originall righteousnesse ceased to appease the differences between those parts whereof we are composed we began to die It is not necessary that the world disorder it selfe to bereave us of our lives though the seasons should not be put out of their pace we should not cease to perish And if death be to be feared we must resolve to fear life There are some people who apprehend any thing that happens of disorder in the world and who grow pale as often as they see rivers over-flow their banks as often as they hear thunder or see earth-quakes They think that every clap of thunder comes in pursuit of them and that the sea exceeds not her bounds but to drown them on the earth but the causes of our death are much lesse violent and more naturall For the earth should still stand stable under our feet though the
thunder should never roar over our heads and though the sea should never exceed her bounds the elements which we bear about us would notwithstanding condemne us to death Death is so a punishment as it is also a consequence of our constitution Whatsoever is composed of contrarieties can not subsist without miracle and when the contrary parties do no longer agree their division must be the ruine of what they compose Mans immortality in the state of innocency was not an effect of nature he lost this priviledge as soon as he lost his righteousnesse and experience taught him that nature without grace could not keep him from death He should then be unjust if he should complain of a mis-fortune which is in some sort naturall unto him and he might justly be accused of too much nicety if he should not patiently endure a punishment which he could not escape without a kind of Miracle But I dare adde that death is rather a favour than a punishment and that in the estate whereinto sin hath reduced man it is not so much a mark of justice as of mercy the evils which we undergo considered to live eternally would be eternall misery earth would become hell and the continuance of our torments would make us wish death which is not dreadfull save to those abused soules which think themselves happy The miserable desire it and as death to one who lives contentedly is a punishment so is life to him who lives discontentedly Cain desired to die had not the heavens prolonged his life to punish his parricide he had prevented Lamechs cruelty and after having been his brothers murtherer he would have been his own hangman Poets who cloke truths under fables have not without reason fained nature to have invented death to oblige her children for seeing that their offence had incensed heaven that their life became a misery that fortune intrencht upon their goods calumny upon their innocency and sicknesse upon their health that the fever burnt up their entrails by unsupportable heat that the gout stung their nerves and that they lived not but in fear and sorrow she broke the cords wherewith the soul was fastned to the body and ended their lives to shorten their miseries To leave fables to Infidels is it not a constant truth amongst Christians that life would be an eternall punishment did not death come in to the succour of old age to deliver us from it and that we should pray to go out of the world if we were condemned to live there after we had lost the use of our members by the palsey and were grown blinde and deaf Hell is onely more cruell than earth for that death is banisht thence if the pains of the damned could have an end they should losâ— the greatest part of their rigour and those miserable ones would finde some ease in their sufferings if after many ages they were assured to die nothing makes them despair but that eternity of their punishment and nothing doth so much comfort men as the shortnesse of their tortures Tyrants who unjustly endeavour to imitate God in justice complain that death freed their enemies from their indignation and that by assisting the miserable it hindred their designes for they very well knew that he knows not how to revenge himselfe of his enemy who puts him suddainly to death and that those who will taste the pleasure of revenge never condemne a guilty man to die till he be re-possessed of their favour In fine there are few who owe not thanks to death Those who fear him in prosperity invoke him in adversity those who shun him in opulency seek him out in poverty and those who list not to know his name in health call upon him in sicknesse He is the onely cure of the incurable the assured succour of the afflicted the desire and hope of the miserable and of as many as implore his succour there are none more obliged unto him than those whose miseries and desires he preveneth Though these thoughts may seem uncouth to those who love life they cease not to be approved of by Christianity and to passe for truth amongst the faithfull If death be rigorous because he is the punishment of sin he is pleasing because he is the childe of the Crosse he hath changed nature since he was consecrated in the Person of Jesus Christ he hath forgone those dreadfull names which caused terrour to assume those pleasing ones which bring consolation He is onely asleep which charms our disquiets a passage which leads us unto life a happy shipwrack which throws us into the haven an enemy which takes us out of prison a Tyrant which breaks our chains and a son of sin which furnisheth us with weapons wherewithall to fight with and to overcome his Father In the state of innocency death was a punishment wherewith divine Justice did threaten man in the state of sin it was a chastisement wherewith she did punish the faulty and in the state of grace 't is a sacrifice which she requires at our hands and whereby she is appeased Formerly to astonish man he was told if thou sinnest thou shalt die and now to fortifie him in persecution it is said unto him if thou dost not die thou shalt sin death which was a punishment is become a victime and the sinners chastisement is become the merit of the just The Son of God hath thus instructed us by his example when he would fight with sin he took up no other arms than death he thought the victory would be more honourable wherein he should employ the son against the father and where he should make use of the effect to destroy the cause this is that which the great Apostle teacheth us in these words where he saith that the Son of God hath overcome sin by sin and that in the punishment of our offence he hath found a remedy to cure us Fictitious Hercules vaunts himselfe amongst the Poets to have overcome Monsters by other Monsters to have made himselfe weapons by their spoils and to have ended his last labours by the help of what he had purchased in the former This fable of Hercules is become a truth in Jesus Christ and the Gospell obligeth us to acknowledge that in the death of God which falshood had found out in the life of man For he by dying hath satisfied his Father he hath destroyed sin by it's Son he hath saved the sinner by his punishment Religion bindes us to confesse that death is the rise of our happinesse that it is the Christians vow that without being miserable they rejoyce in being mottall and that they should want somewhat of their glory if since Jesus Christ did lose his life upon the Crosse they were to ascend to Heaven without dying they live with pain they die with pleasure and to describe a true Christian according to Tertullians language we must say that they are a sort of men
violent are more respectfull than is Sleep their first motions are only dangerous who can shun being surprized by them may fence himselfe against their fury they are as easily calmed as raised and knowing that reason is their sovereign they reserve some respect unto her even in their revolt But Sleep contemneth her authority it obligeth this Queen to withdraw her selfe into the center of her State and forceth her to abandon the extreamities It mingles force with sweetnesse to corrupt men steals so pleasingly upon a man as it hath got entrance before one be aware and reignes so absolutely that unlesse it withdraw itselfe it cannot be repulsed it 's violence is pleasing because sweet it 's Tyranny supportable because necessary and it 's authority is so absolute as it calmes those passions which reason cannot allay it takes from Conquerours the desire of glory quencheth the flames of unchaste love charmes the violence of choller draws displeasure in it's vapours and if it take not from desperate men the designe of making themselves away it doth happily bereave them of the means of doing it But he sels his good turnes at a deer rate since to cure our passions he bereaves us of our reason and puts us in a condition wherein we cannot exercise our vertues for though he cannot deface the habits thereof yet he interdicts us the use and brings us into the condition of wars under age who being born rich have not the liberty to dispose of their goods we have reason yet are not rationall Philosophers have high conceptions yet cannot discourse Princes conceive great designes yet cannot execute them Saints have good desires but cannot accomplish them and the faithfull have vertues and cannot practise them Dreams which may be termed the productions of sleep are not lesse injurious to man than is their father for they appear to men be the extravagancies of a drowsie imagination and the follies of a wise man there is no Philosopher which hath not some ravings in his sleep nor so well a govern'd mind which is not debaucht in dreaming the soule hath liberty onely left her to forme Chimaeraes and be it either that the vapours which arise from the bowels trouble her presented forms be it that the senses being drowsie make but confused reports unto her or be it lastly that the organs of our bodies being bound up hinder her operations she acts in such confusion and disorder as all her thoughts are but ravings and her discourses but extravagancies if she light rightly 't is by hazard and if in this bad condition she take a good resolution she is more obliged to fortune than to wisdome A man must either be superstitious or out of his wits to be guided by dreams and who takes their ravings for revelations is in great danger running mad if he be not so already We do not live in those days wherein God made his will known by dreams he treats no more with men a sleep but doth rather dispence his favours to those who are awake Since Truths have succeeded figures God doth not often declare his oracles by dreams and we learn his designs rather by prayer than by Sleep It is true that as his mercy makes us reap advantage by our misfortunes and turns our losse to our souls health so doth it make use of Sleep and dreams for our good the first sweetens our Pains drowns our displeasures and levels our conditions takes the crowns from off the heads of Kings Lawrels from Conquerors and Miters from Bishops breaks the bolts of Slaves opens the prison doors and if he do not restore liberty to captives he at least makes them forget their servitude The Prince hath no advantage over his subjects when they are both asleep though his bed be more stately his rest is no sweeter and if any remembrance of his greatnesse remain in him when asleep it causeth most commonly but disquiet and suspition All men are alike when asleep and sleep as well as death levels all conditions a Philosopher is not more able then an ignorant person when he sleeps the poor man is as happy as the rich when both of them have forgot their condition and pleasure and pain cause no difference in men when their senses are stupefied with sleep He who doth so many acts of justice do's some also of mercy for he prepares us for death reclaims us thereunto and being more prevalent than all the discourses of Philosophers perswades us that a man may die without pain since he sleeps every day with delight In effect sleep is a short death and death is nothing else but a long sleep the bed is a grave for one night and the grave a bed for many ages we expect to waken from our beds and we hope to rise again from our sepulchres thus one and the same thing teacheth us two differing Truths and sleep which fits us for death animates us to beleive the resurrection the dreams which he shapes whilest we rest and those pleasing illusions wherewith he diverts our soul when the senses refuse to serve her are either proofs or presumptions of our Immortality and we easily imagine that our soul may very well escape death since she is not wholly engaged in sleep which is deaths picture In fine dreams becomes often oracles our spirit being losened from the senses presages either good or bad fortune when it is retired to within it self it doth act more easily then when it is dissipated by objects Great Personages receive advertisement from Heaven sleeping and Angels treat with them whilest they cannot treat with men God chose the time of sleep to declare his designs unto his servants and in the old Testament the dreams of Saints were oracles and prophesies Ioseph wonne his credit in Egypt by interpreting Pharohs dreams and superstition which glories to imitate religion did always believe that her Gods declared their wils whil'st men slept But this advantage is as reproach full one to us and when the heavens deal thus with us it is doubtlesly to teach us that if we will be informed what their designs are we must forego our callings and that to purchase Faith we must renounce reason so as it is apparent enough that sleep and dreams upbraid us with our weaknesse and are punishments of our sin OF THE CORRUPTION OF All exteriour Goods called by the name of FORTVNE The Fifth Treatise The First Discourse That we must fear what we desire and desire what we feare T' Is with much reason that originall sin is by Saint Austine tearmed the universall corruption of nature since there is nothing left in man uncorrupted his understanding is so clouded with darknesse as he cannot discern truth from falshood his memory is so weakened as it is painfull for him to learn and naturall to forget his will is depraved as it loves nothing but what is pleasing to the senses His very aids are pernitious and the
Aristotle that generous minded men prefer her before life and those that bereave us of her are more injurious to us and more unjust than those who bereave us of our riches Princes hazard their persons and their Estates and leaving the spoile of their enemy to their souldiers they reserve unto themselves onely the glory of having overcome T is the onely thing which men carry with them to their graves 't is that which makes men live after death that which preserves their memory in the world and which triumphing over years makes their worth be known to all posterity Vertue would not have charms sufficient to make her self be beloved were she not accompanied by glory and this austeer Mistris would have no servants did she not promise them eternall reputation all the famous actions of antiquity had no other originall and it may be said that as honour was the end of their Labours so vain glory was the soul of their vertue Ambition which since sin is become naturall unto men did undoubtedly perswade him that glory was the shadow of Divinity and that it was she who altering his condition would make Temples and Altars be raised unto him after his death He thought he might by the means of honour obtein what he could not do by the serpents counsell and that this fathfull companion of vertue would restore unto him what his sin hath bereft him off But this argumentation is as seeble as false for honour hath lost her purity since man hath lost his innocency she is dealt about more unjustly then riches ti 's a good which depends onely upon opinion which is as soon gotten by vice as by vertue and which subsists more by good fortune than by justice We have seen great Princes whose lives have been buried in oblivion for having been The Aristides and the Phocions who are the famousest ornaments of of Greece could not vanquish oblivion Socrates owes his reputation onely to his disciples eloquence and had not Plato recorded his last words we should not know how couragiously he dyed The world values much more glorious actions than vertuous ones Poets and Historians who are the Trumpets of Monarchs tie themselves more to Combats than to counsels and do much more exalt the defeat of enemies then the Government over subjects Alexander wonne much more reputation amongst the Grecians then did Pericles and Caesar is much more honoured amongst the Romanes then Cato The Luster of great actions dazles the eyes those which make the greatest noise receive the greatest praises men never consider good advice so much as good successe nor the resolution as the event The very Theater whereupon things are acted serves to put a valuation upon them that which was done in Rome made a greater noise then what at Lacedemon and the world which suffers it self to be surprized by greatnesse never values vertue or worth unlesse it be crowned private souldiers do more gallant actions than their Captains but the lownesse of their condition stifles them Italy hath produced slaves more nobly minded than Cato and they have uttered Maximes which Polititians would have reverenced like Oracles had they been spoken by a Prince 'T is thought that one of the Scipio's ows all his advantages over the Carthaginians to the wise advice of Laelius and the Criticks know very well that Cicero studied the purity of language in Terence and the grace of expressing it upon Roscius his Theater but because the one was but a franchised slave and the other a common Player he onely reaped the glory of their labours This unjust vanity is crept even into religion we oft-times judge of Saints greatnesse by the eminency of their births we read the life of a Prince with more admiration then that of a Peasant and be it either that vertue be rarer in Courts than in cottages or that we be rather born away with appearances than truths a common action in the person of a Prince seems noble to us All things appear great underneath a Crown and we are so accustomed to flatter Princes as they passe for good if they be not bad Eloquence labours to disguise their faults she gives honourable names to shamefull actions and she thinks that Traffick is not base there where she barters smoak and wind for Gold But that which makes natures disorder evidently appear is that fortunate faults passe for rare vertues and that men appear onely to be famous for that they have indeed been wicked If Caesar be more esteemed than Catiline 't is because his design had better successe they were both guilty of the same fault both had vowed the ruine of their Country the one offered at it but in vain the other succesfully accomplisht it the lesse guilty went for a Traitor and the more faulty for a legitimate King the ones name is odious in all history the others honourable and most Monarchs by assuming his name shew that they approve of his Tyranny He is the first Emperour of Rome the gloriousest Scepter of the world was the reward of his trechery his life serves for example to all Conquerors and his usurpation for excuse to all their unjust undertakings Yet he is guilty of Catilines fault he is not more honoured save for that he is more unjust or more fortunate and he is numbred amongst the Emperours onely because he did execute what the other did project If Cicero's eloquence could have stayed the progresse of his ambition or had he died before he had made himself Master of Rome his memory would be more odious than that of Dionysius of Syracusa and as all Kings would have been styled Pompeys all Tyrants would have been termed Caesars but because his faults was fortunate he was honoured and the man of the world that stood most in need of Apologies may glory in having all history made his Panygericks 'T is true that Caesar would have had reason to complain had he been otherwise dealt withall since all Nations treat their usurpers so and reserve all their praises for those that rob them of their liberty Great faults are the noblest vertues Princes who shed most bloud receive most honour robbery and murther are the steps whereby Tyrants get into Kings Thrones people put not so great a valuation upon those who have defended them as on those who have conquered them and all things in the world are so out of order as usurpation in Monarches is more glorious than succession The one is the work of Nature the other of Fortune they owe their election to their subjects love and are bound for their conquests to their souldiers valour Triumph which was vertues highest recompence amongst the Romans was granted onely to such as had committed most murthers and sackt most Towns renown was not to be purchased in that Commonwealth but by violence and injustice That which their Historians calls victories their enemies terme butchery what served for a sport to the Romane Dames
Those dispensations which raise men to an absolute power which give them authority over the beasts or Elements are the reward of voluntary poverty If the chief of the Apostles did miracles 't is because he fore-went his goods if by his words he cured maladies 't is because he had forsaken all his riches if his shadow cure the sick 't is because his heart was never wounded with avarice and if nature bear a respect to his commandments 't is because he had vowed poverty When he healed the legs of the man that was born lame he began by a confession of his poverty he thought the first dressing which he was to apply to this evill was the contempt of riches Gold nor silver have I none saith he to this infir ne man but that which I have give I thee in the Name of Iesus Christ arise and walk Weaknesse bare respect to poverty nature violated her laws to obey the words of the poor and the heavens will was that he who could give no alms should do miracles In fine Paradise is the poors inheritance and after having commanded upon earth they shall reign with Jesus Christ in glory That which is promised to other vertues is performed to poverty in the acknowledgement of merit and the distribution of Crowns the poor are dealt withall as advantagiously as are Martyrs and these two conditions are equally rewarded in the Gospell to teach us that poverty is a kind of Martyrdom To say truth if men do miracles when they overcome pain when they tire their Torturers when they triumph over Tyrants and vanquish the Elements and wild beasts do not they do wonders when they preserve poverty amidst riches sobriety amongst Festivals when they go naked amidst the pomp of apparell when they are humble amidst honours and when they persevere to refuse the Goods which the devill promiseth them which the world offers them and which the flesh propounds unto them ought not they to be crowned who overcome the world with all it's promises who contemne the devill with all his illusions and who tame the flesh with the concupiscence thereof But in the advantages of poverty we ought to observe the unrulinesse of our nature which is reduced into such a condition as she cannot without danger make use of what she hath of good she cannot without injustice pretend to her ancient riches neither can she acquire new wealth without avarice we must look upon the things of this world without desiring them we must live upon the earth as in a place of exile and to be happy and innocent we must be poor or imitate those that are so The possession of riches is always accompanied with somwhat of Agglutination which is never without impurity we are slaves unto our wealth they possesse us when we think to possesse them we take pains in heaping them up are carefull in keeping them and sorrowfull in their losse 't is as troublesome to keep them as to lose them and the pain of purchasing them doth always exceed the pleasure of squandring them away To free a mans selfe from these misfortunes he must grow familiar with poverty he must sweeten his pain by suffering it patiently and look upon all the things of the world as upon goods which we had lost before were born We are ruined in the person of our first father our defeat as well as our default preceded our use of reason and the same fault which took from us our innocency bereft us of our riches If we make use of the blessings of the earth 't is out of mercy if the Sun light us the earth support us and the fruits thereof do nourish us 't is an obligation which we owe unto our God when once he pronounced the decree of our death our goods were confiscated to him the power of making use of them is a priviledge which we hold of his goodnesse and he deals with us as we do with those malefactors which we suffer to live in prison after their sentence of death is past if they dispose of their goods 't is by their Prince his favour and if they leave them to their children 't is by his permission Thus we ought to think that nothing belongs to us in this world that God gives us all which he takes not from us and that he makes use of his own rights when he re-demands that which he had but lent us When Famine doth dispeople the earth when all our labour cannot overcome her sterility and when the seed we sow answers not our expectation we ought to adore Gods justice which having sentenced us to death hath reserved unto himself the kind of our punishment If souldiers plunder our houses if they do what they please abroad if they burn what they cannot carry away and if they in a moment destroy what we have been gathering many years we must think that poverty is the punishment of our disobedience that we have no more right to our goods than to our lives and that he may well ruine us who can when it pleaseth him make us die If our families be undone by law if Judges be corrupted by the credit of a powerfull man if those who ought to defend us do oppresse us and if an unjust decree bring us to beggery let us remember that the decree pronounced against us in Paradise was more rigorous and more just that succession or industry is no prescription against Gods Justice that how soever our goods be gotten they are always forfeited to him and that processe at law is as lawfull a way to bereave us of them as fire or shipwrack In fine whatsoever losse befals us let us find our consolation in our offence let us make our punishment our remedie and whilst we consider that we are guilty let us not complain of being poor The seventh Discourse That Apparell is a mark of sin IF whole man be but meer vanity if Nature be out of order by his disobedience if his soul which hath the honour to be the image of God and which boasts of her innocency ceaseth not to find death in his sin if the will which joyned with Grace is the beginning of merit be more inclined to vice then vertue if his understanding which enlightens all the faculties of the soul be more capable of errour then of truth if all his knowledge be but meer ignorance if his most perspicuous vertues want not their faults and if his body be his souls prison we must not wonder that the necessity of apparel be a punishment of his fault as well as riot therein is a mark of his vain glory But as it often fals out that we are most taken with things of least consideration we find by experience that there are women in the world who would rather have their souls sullied then their cloths who would rather have the state be out of order then their head attire and who would be
banks did not the hand of God prescibe limits to it's fury All the art of man hath not as yet been able to calme the fiercenesse thereof the most expert Pilots tremble as oft as it is incensed and knowing that no force can withstand it's rage they betake themselves to vowes to appease it The aire seems to hold intelligence with it to make war upon us it gives free scope to the North windes which march furiously through her Champians and bring tempests and shipwracks with them After having revenged themselves on men at sea they set upon them on land and sowing cotagions in Countries they change the best peopled Cities into dreadfull Desarts thus the purest of all Elements assumes impurity mens bodies are infected by the corruption thereof it poysoneth whatsoever it doth penetrate and the lungs which draw it in corrupt the heart and brain The fire being much more active then the air commits more havock if it's consuming flames be not universall as are contagions their fury is more suddain and the evils caused thereby find lesse remedie It mixeth with Thunder to punish us it descends contrary to it's nature to pursue us it flashes out in lightening to affrighten us and changeth it self into a thousand severall shapes to undo us It shuts it self up in the bowels of the earth that it may break forth with the greater violence it strives not so much within this prison to recover it's liberty as to punish our offences it makes it's way through the tops of mountains and shoures down Sulphur and Flames upon the plains from off those high places It seems it knows very well that divine Justice hath chose it to be the Minister of her vengeance and that the spoyles it commits on earth serve onely to shew us what Rigour it will inflict upon the Guilty in Hell Thus all things are changed in the world the Elements have neither the same use nor the same inclinations that which was serviceable to man in innocency persecutes him being become guilty Whole Nature is a scaffold where the Creatures act the part of executioners and revenge themselves on man for the injuries he hath done them For to boot that they are forced to share in his faults they know very well that they are fallen from their first nobility that they have not all those advantages which they had in the state of innocency and that they have lost some of their naturall qualities The Sun gives not so much light as he did before the sin of Adam his influences are neither so pure nor yet so puissant he who did dispense nothing but heat and light wonders to see himself send forth sicknesses and death The Stars have no longer those favourable aspects which made fruits and flowers to grow in all seasons of the year their efficacy is weakened and the vigour which appeared in all their effects now languisheth But the earth being a neerer neighbour to man then the Heavens it is more changed all the parts thereof are barren if they be not manured the curse which it received by reason of our sin hath made it lose it's fruitfulnesse it is all brisled with thorns or covered with Thistles it refuseth to feed it's children since they are become sinfull and by an innocent parricide it attempts their lives who have lost originall righteousnesse The fruits which it bears proceed rather from our industry then it 's fertility if it assist us at our need 't is with an ill will and it 's being bound to serve the sinful is a part of it's misery if this be not true I know what that great Apostle mean't when by an admirable Prosopopeia he makes whole Nature to speak and groan when affording words unto her sorrow he makes her wish our change and her deliverance for when he says the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God doth he not witnesse that they hope for some advantage by our felicity and when he says that the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly doth he not insinuate that they are corrupted by sin when he adds that the creature it self shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption doth he not make it evident that Jesus Christ will satisfie their desires and that he will restore unto them what we have unjustly bereft them off I am not ignorant that some Interpreters not sufficiently weighing the intention nor words of Saint Paul do wrest this text and understand it to be meant of man but the Apostles ensuing discourse makes it appear that he speaks of all creatures and that the corruption which they complain of is not that which they have received from nature but that which they have attracted from our sin The corn cannot complain of it's putrifaction because it is the cause of it's increase but it hath some reason to complain that it's vigour is diminished and that abusing the Labourers hope it doth not repay his pains with usury The earth doth not complain of it's being placed in the nethermost story of the earth that it serves for basis to all the other elements but it complains with reason that it hath lost it's fertility and that it is adjudg'd to bring up thorns in stead of roses The Air complains not of being subject to these changes which make up a part of it's nature but it complains and that justly that for the punishment of our offence it hath lost it's purity that it is the seat of storms the abode of thunder and that fatall place wherein Famine and Contagions are formed and to passe from the elements into the heavens The Sun doth not complain of his being in a perpetuall motion that he carries light to all the parts of the world and that he doth differently disperse his heat throughout all the climates of the earth but he hath cause to complain that he hath lost his former Lustre that his influences are mortall that his aspects are maligne and that his presence wherein mans happinesse did consist doth now cause fears and sicknesses in him To this misfortune from whence the creatures just complaints proceed we may adde the Devils Tyranny which doth torment them for after once this proud Fiend had overcome our first father he enter'd upon his rights he got a power over the elements and he had permission to make use of them to solicit men to sin from hence proceeds that Praise worthy custome of the faithfull of blessing the fruits of the earth to free them from the fury of wicked spirits and hence doth the use of exorcisme proceed which makes it appear that all creatures are slaves to those who have been our undoing But it is harder to explain this corruption then to prove it and the manner how it is made is as hard to conceive as anger some to tolerate Yet me thinks a man may say that divine Justice hath changed the