frame rivolets We are poor amidst our treasure and vnlesse we trim and prune our understanding it either continues barren or brings nothing forth but thorns the senses which seem to be ordâ—ined by Nature for the service of reason keep her in ignorance or throw her head-long into errour The passions which are born to obey her rise so tumultuously against her as she is forced to follow their Motions and to side with Rebels To enjoy peace she is content to be engaged in a fault she believes that to serve willingly is to reign that to follow her passions is to command them and to approve of their Revolts is to preserve her authority Yet is she so little at liberty in this coÌ„dition as that one must excuse her sin by her servitude she is only thought innocent because she is a slave her faults are forgiven unto her only because she cannot and she preserves her reputation only through the losse of her Liberty When the first Motions of her Passions are a little alaid and that she may avenge her selfe of the affronts done unto her by her insolent subjects t is observed that by siding with them she is infected with their Inclinations that by suffering their disorders she corrupts her own purity and that by going about to excuse their revolt she her self becomes guilty Thus man is almost never rationall because he is always passionate and he dâ—th but seldome make use of his reason because he oft times followeth his passion To so many Enemies which bereave man of the most glorious of all his Qualities sicknesse is added which making war upon our bodies declares it openly also against our souls for these two parts are so streightly bound together as their good and bad are Common between though the soul be the more Noble yet stands she in need of the body in her chiefest operations she must follow after that which she would avoid borrow forces from her Enemy to fight him and make use of the senses to reduce him to his duty If this slaves Temper be altered by any disorder the soul rescents it if the bloud spring in the veins if the vapours which arise from thence trouble the Imagination or if a burning Feavor seize upon the brain the soul can reason no longer This Noble part of man fals into extravagancies the confusion of species puts it in disorder and all the wisedome thereof is turn'd to folly Sleep is not so violent yet is it little lesse shamefull then sickness for it benums the senses luls the faculties of the soul asleep blots out the remembrance of Glory from out the minds of Conquerours stops the designs of Monarchs interrupteth the waknings of Phylosophers Levels the conditions of the living to that of the dead and to preserve our life takes from us the use of reason For my part I cannot think that sleep did us thus much injury before the State of sin I am of opinion that the power thereof extended only to the senses that it undertook nothing upon mans most Noble Part that it leâ—t him the liberty of reasoning and that like to Jesus Christ his soul was awake though his body slept For what likely-hood of belief is there that man should be every day reduced to a Condition wherein his highest operations should be interrupted wherein his will can command nothing his understanding conceive nothing nor his memory represent nothing unto him Who can suppose that in so happy a condition man should passe half his life away in sleep that his soul should be able to do no other functions then what the souls of beasts do and that all her employment lay in the digesting of meat dissolving of vapours and moving of Arteries When I consider what disorder sin hath caused in man I am forced to say that he hath very much altered his Condition and that Phylosophers had reason to believe that death was as much of his Essence as reason was for from the time he began to live he began to die he lost his life as soon as he received it and this decree pronounced against him is executed the very first moment of his Birth that which we call life is but a prorogued Death and Divine Justice seems to take pleasure in prolonging it that we may be sensible thereof Life would be undeservable did it last but a Moment and our Punishment would not be very great if it ended at the same instant that it began We dye in life and live in death death is engaged in life and life subsists only by death but reason is as it were a stranger to man When he began to be Criminall he began to be iâ—ationall he lost his principall advantage in losing his Innocency and he left us in doubt whether he was any longer man being become a sinner for reason which is his principall difference is an accident which forgoes him upon a thousand occasions Nature admits him to life before she admits him to reason When age grants him this benefit Passion forbids him the use thereof when passion doth not molest his judgment she dozeth it and of all things that man is Master of he loseth none more often then his reason Yet this losse is indifferent to him he complains of all the rest and laughs at this he esteems himself unhappy if he have lost his wealth he gives himself over unto sorrow when he falls from his greatnesse and languisheth in Pain when he hath lost his health But when passion bereaveth him of the use of reason when sleep reduceth him to the condition of beasts or when sin blots out the Image of God from out his soul he doth but jest at his disaster and takes pleasure in hazarding that thing which of all the world he ought to esteem most precious This is also that dread full punishment wherewith divine justice chastizeth the greatest sins God never gave a more fearfull example of his rigour then when he bereft Nebuccadnezar of his reason when he turned a Sovereign Prince into a wild beast and that together with the shape of man he took from him his understanding and judgment There is no monarchy which hath not seen some of her Princes stript thereof Providence takes Pleasure in beating down Thrones in 〈◊〉 of Septers and in taking away of Crowns she sets upon Sovereigns in their Palaces and after having raised them up to the highest pitch of greatnesse she throws them into a precepice of miseries her most ordinary revenge is changâ— no age passeth over wherein she witnesseth not her power by these sorts of Punishments but when Innormities of the fault deserves a greater punishment she together with their Scepter takes away their reason from such Monarchs as she will Chastize she troubles both their State their judgment and brings them to a Condition wherein they are both the scorn and the hatred of their subjects By all this discourse t is easie to conclude that
must be set free from the servitude of sin by the Grace of Iesus Christ. THe Passion which all men have for the preservation of their Liberty is no weak proof of the Excellency thereof there be but few who do not prefer it before life and do not rather love an honourable death then a shamefull servitude all revolts have had no other pretexts and Conquerors have only been odious because they have intrencht upon the Publique Liberty we suspect their Vertues because they bear with them some shadow of Tyranny and men have hardly believed that they were very just who would Command over free people yet man hath no advantage which he oftner loseth then his Liberty he becomes a slave without a Master and finds servitude as well in a Republique as in a Monarchy he hath not the use of this perfection till a long time after he be be born he lives when he is not at liberty and he who ought to command the whole world begins his life in slavery Nature gives him Kings in his Parents and if death take them away the laws appoint him Tutors which supply the place of Masters in his minority he is a slave and wanting wisedome to govern himself he is not suffered to dispose of himself the better part of his life is spent in servitude and unlesse he have permission from the Prince he must be 25 years old before he can dispose of his goods When this age puts him in possession of his principall advantage enemies arise who clap Irons upon him for the passions are Imperious Mistresses who intrench upon our Liberty and which making use either of fair or foul means makes man do a thousand things unworthy of his condition he sometimes breaks his Chains but forgeth new ones himself and he thinks he is free because he is the Author of his own servitude If he calm his passions and amidst their quiet recover his Liberty he cannot defend himself from a pleasing Enemy which deprives him of the use thereof for sleep which preserves our life bereaves us of our Liberty his poppies which sweeten our vexations and inchant our sorrows take from us the disposall of our will We are not at Liberty when we sleep and as the good actions which we do in that estate cannot expect recompence so neither ought our bad ones to fear punishment Thus Liberty is a Treasure which we are oft robbed of t is a Good which we are not always Masters of and if rest be reasons Grave t is also Liberties Sepulchre t is true that it restores us what it had taken from us and the same awaking which delivers us from death frees us from servitude but we make tryall of a Tyrant who treateth us much more rigorously then doth sleep for when sin hath possest it self of our Liberty it never makes restitution Our slavery ends not with our lives we are born dye slaves thereunto There is nothing but the Grace of Jesus Christ which can free us from the Tyranny thereof It enters into our soulby our body and gives us death wheÌ„ our Parents give us life and penetrating even into our will sets there the Characters of its usurpation and of our servitude Reason is too weak a succour to defend us against so powerfuâ—l an Enemy and Prophane Phylosophy is not a sufficient remedy to cure us of so dangerousa Malady Wee cannot drive away sin but by help from Heaven nor can we recover perfect Liberty but by the servitude of Jesus Christ we may well shun one fault by another but hardly can we do anything which is solidly vertuous without our Saviours assistance we defend our selves from intemperance only through vain glory if we be chast t is because we are proud but in the one and the other of these Actions we are slaves to sin To understand this truth which is Saint Austins very Doctrine we must know that in our belief Piety was never parted from Morality and that to be vertuous a man must always have been Faithfull The will was created together with grace they both contributed unto merit and when they were once divided sin seized upon the will and man operates by this mischeivous principle all his actions began to be criminall proposing no other end but himself unto himself he strayed from the latter from grace and looking upon the creature forbore looking upon the Creatout Let reason infuse what light it pleaseth into his understanding she cannot redresse it for she her self is blinde and as the will cannot love the Summum Bonum the understanding hath much ado to know supremam veritatem they each of them have received a mortall wound which cannot be cured unlesse by a Physician who was never sick the remedy must derive from Heaven and the same hand which had united grace and nature together in the first man must reconcile them in his off-spring and restore unto their will the Liberty which she had lost Till this deliverance come man is still a slave to sin wheresoever he goeth he carryeth his Tyrant a long with him and let him do what good action he pleaseth t is hard for him not to have therein some bad Intention To enlighten this imagination a little more we must remember that Gods design was not to make man meerly a rationall Creature he would have originall righteousnes to be his principall advantage this Divine quality joyned the soul to the body by cords as holy as pleasing she did accord so well with Nature as if she pertook not of her Essence she pertook of her perfection whatsoever proceeded from this principle was holy and whatsoever man did by the motion of grace deserved an everlasting recompence But when sin had banished Originall righteousnes and that man became a slave to his concupiscence he began to work by the motions thereof he suffered himself to be led away by her blinde impetuosity did cowardly obey her unjust Ordinances and till he be freed from this tyrant which possesseth him he undertakes almost nothing but by her Orders Thus the most part of his good works are sins and his actions proceeding from a bad principle must needs be faulty this misfortune is the spring head of all our mischief this disorder is the originall of all our servitude as long as we are slaves to sin we cannot recover our intire liberty and till the son of God doth infranchize us our inclinations are strong to evil But as the Nature of any thing is not better discovered then by the opposing unto it its contrary to know the wils servitude we must compare it with her first liberty and by the difference of originall righteousnesse and Christian grace Judge of the divers conditions of man in innocencie and in sin Man whilest innocent had the use of liberty but because the end that was proposed unto him was supernaturall he stood in need of Grace to elevate his will
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-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
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
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
vertue being solovely steals away the hearts of her Enemies and makes her self be admired even by those that persecute her the lascivious praise her whil'st they make war against her they wish that such women as they have corrupted were chast and that such as commit Adultery with them would be true unto them We must not therefore wonder if the Romans were ravished with her beauty that they have praised her and that there hath been some Commanders who amidst the licenciousness of war have supprest their Passions that they might purchase the glorious Title of Temperate they thought that to overcome pain they must overcome pleasure that before they fight for their Country they must fight for reason that it was not to be hoped for that he who could not resist a womans beauty could defend himself against a souldiers valour They perswaded themselves that temperance was the first step to fortitude and that one judged of the victory which a Commander might get over his Enemy by what he had won over his sensuality Thus great men did study this vertue early she was their first Apprentisage and when the bloud which boiles in the veines kindled in them unclean desires they quenched the fire thereof by the help of temperance One of the Scipioes won more glory by vanquishing his love than by quelling the pride of Carthage he purchased more credit in Spain by his Continency then by his valour and the quitting of a famous beauty and free gift of her to her sweet-heart got him a whole Province he won many Battels by defending himself from a Maide And his enemies were perswaded that their Souldiers could not overcome him whom their Yeomen could not corrupt this combat is heightened above his victories his valour is never spoken of without mention made of his continencie and as oft as men talk of the taking of Carthage they adde thereunto the restitution of this Princesse All the Circumstances of this action are so remarkable as they are not to be omitted without injury to this gallant man He commanded a victorious army to which the laws of war made all things lawfull which were not by them forbidden he had tane a Town by assault the resistance whereof had stirr'd up his anger 't was thought that to astonish all Spain he would have made it a cruell example and that the bloud of the inhabitants should have been that wherewith he would have quenched the flames which devoured their houses that he would have made victimes of all the Prisoners and that if the Womens lives were preserved it should onely be to bereave them of their Honours In this belief they present him with a glorious beauty whose misfortune it was to be immured within that fatall Town she was unfortunate enough to move pitty but too fair not to provoke love The Souldiers were perswaded that their General would suffer himself to be vanquished in his victory and that he would become his captives captive they expected to have seen him once overcome whom they had alwaies seen victorious Though they had his continencie in great esteem they did think it was not proof good enough against so exquisite a beauty and they could not imagine that a man who was yet in the prime of his youth should have power to withstand the Allurements of so fair a Maide who had nothing but her tears to defend her self withall The truth is his eyes thought to have betrayed his heart and he found how difficult a thing it is to behold a rare beauty and not love it his passion would have perswaded him that without injuring his greatness he might become his captives captive he had examples enough to excuse his fault flattery would have authorized it and if he would have listned to his Domesticks he had neer triumphed over his love Amidst this his trouble he endeavoured to comfort her who caused his pain and would give security to her who intrench upon his liberty He understood by her that though her fortune had made her a Prisoner she was by birth a Princesse that her Parents had promised her to a young Prince and that her Fate had cast her into the hands of her enemies the knowledge of these particulars and that his Prisoner was of so high a rank was enough to make Scipio resolve to give her her Liberty he made her Father and her husband be sought for who came upon his word into Carthage every one looked for an event answerable to the passion which gave it life some think he will demand her in marriage others that he will inquire into her birth and see whether without offending the Glory of the Scipioes he may take his prisoner to be his wife some fear least he will begin his Marriage by Murther and secure his sute by his rivalls death few believe that he will betray his love and by one and the same act of Justice restore a daughter to her Father and a Mistris to her servant this mean while when he knew that this Princesse was no lesse Nobly born then beautifull that her Father was Governour of a Province and that her servant did Command an Army he presently delivered her into their hands and would no longer suffer his eyes to behold a beauty which might invite him to do an unjust act and to Crown this Noble Action he gave her the money which was brought him for her ransom as part of her portion to the end that all Spain might know that Scipio knew aswell how to Triumph over Avarice as over Love I foresee I cannot condemn this Action without under-going the jealousie of such as favour the party of the Infidels that I shall draw either publique envie or publique hatred upon me if I shall question whether so glorious a victory deserve the name of vertue or no and that men will think my love to Saint Austine hath made me forgoe the love of truth yet according to his principles we must confesse that this vertue is a sin that not deriving from charity it proceeded from self love that Scipio did but â—ence himself from one by an other and that his keeping himself from Incontinencie proceeded from vain glory Infidels are slaves to the Devil their will is in his hands and as long as this cruell Tyrant doth possesse them he permits them not to do any one good Action out of a good motive he may suffer them to resist the violence of Love or the fury of Avarice but he corrupts their intentions and never with draws them from one evil but he ingageth them in another they shun an ill step to fall into a precipice and their will is so subject unto his as after long deliberation they alwaies put on the worst resolution This unjust Sovereign fits himself to their inclinations that he may undo them he adviseth them onely to such things as he knows doth please them and when he gives any counsel he alwaies
when Fortitude displayes it's beauties These Stars are eclipsed when the other Sun appears and people cease from looking upon Justice in Princes prudence in Politicians and Temperance in Philosophers when they consider the courage of the unfortunately Innocent Though this Illustrious Vertue be sincere and that the pain wherewith she is assailed make her unquiet yet hath she allurements which win her more admirers than the other have lovers There are but few that look after her but all admire her and that because persecution must precede courage every one is content to reverence a vertue which must cost so dear to come by she in-nobles such as possesse her she comforts the condition of slaves heightens the Majesty of Soveraignes augments the beauty of women and of all the ornaments which adorne either the minde or the body there is none more Majesticall than Fortitude if we will believe Philosophers there is nothing on earth more worthy of Gods looking on than a man who withstands sorrow and misfortune he despiseth all that Glory which dazels us the pride of our Houses is the mark at which his Thunder-bolts are aimed the Magnificence of our Palaces are but the Spoiles of Quarries or of Forrests those Pyramides which adde to the wonders of the world are but heaps of stones torne from out the bowels of the earth these Armies which make whole Provinces to groan either by reason of their numbers or their disorders these great bodies which pour forth bloud from out al their veines to re-fill those rivers which they have drained are but swarmes of Bees which decide their differences by fighting and God looks upon the Glory of Kings as wise men do upon a Stage-Play but he delights to look upon a noble minded man who grapples with sorrow who sees his riches borne away without any agitation of spirit and who in losse of honour life or liberty preserves his courage If the earth produce nothing which may make God stay to look upon it and if generous actions merit not that God should busie himselfe about them yet must we confesse that they are approved of by all people and that men do more admire a Philosopher who suffers death patiently than a Monarch who governs his State with Justice He through his constancy triumphs over whatsoever the world hath of most furious since he overcomes pain he may well vanquish pleasure since he despiseth death he may laugh at fortune and since he fears not the threats of Kings he may well enough sence himselfe against their promises he tramples under foot all those pleasures which we seek after and all the pains and sorrows which we apprehend the greatnesse of the danger incourageth him to battell the more difficulty he foresees the more glory he hopes for he values not that much which cost him but little he tries himselfe when fortune spares him and to keep himselfe in breath he makes Enemies when he meeteth with none Past ages have produced men who have not changed countenance amidst Tortures their Executioners could not wrest moans from out their monthes nor make them confesse so much as by a sigh the pains which they indured there have been some who to triumph over Tyrants have laughed amidst their punishments such hath been their constancy as that Joy did not abandon them even in that condition their courage seemed to make them insensible and that by being accustomed to torments they were grown familiar to them Thus did Scevola defie Tarquin the proud his whole hand mist him and his burning hand struck him with astonishment hee escaped the Princes anger by preventing it he pierc't his heart whose body he could not hurt and Tarquin judging of the Fortitude of all Romans by that of Scevola he feared to have those men for his Enemies who feared not the fire But not to adde to this discourse by examples it may suffice to listen unto the reason of Philosophers and to acknowledge with them what advantages Fortitude hath over all other vertues Man began to be unhappy when once he became criminall his subjects became his enemies the Elements declared war against him and those elements which went to his composure divided themselves that they might alter his temper and shorten his life Pain and pleasure agreed together for his undoing life and death were reconciled to make him suffer Morall Philosophy found out vertues to succour him and every one of these faithfull Allies undertook to defeat an Enemy wisdome undertook to prevent far distant mischiefes and by her addresse to avoid them Justice looks upon her to end al the differences which self-love and Interest should breed amongst men Temperance charged her selfe with ruling voluptuousnesse and with hindring such pleasing Enemies from seducing reason and Fortitude as most couragious of all the rest undertook to fight against pain and to overcome death This cruell Enemy to Man-kind defying the power thereof took a hundred shapes upon him to astonish the others constancy he called in Tortures and sicknesse to his aid he invented Gallowses and Wheeles he extended Racks incensed Lions and Bears armed the Elements to satisfie his cruelty and made torments and punishments of whatsoever nature had produced for our use All these vertues were siezed on by astonishment when they saw so many Monsters conspire mans ruine wisdome confessed she wanted addresse to mollifie them Justice profest she had not sufficient Authority to suppresse them and Temperance protested she wanted vigour to restrain them Onely Fortitude promised to withstand them and though she saw her selfe forsaken by her Sisters she resolved to charge upon them wisdome offered her her light Justice her severity and Temperance her moderation With these weak Forces she enters the pitcht Field where she had for assistance hope and boldnesse The former inhartned her by her promises the second promised â—lesse but performed more for she discovered unto her the weakness of her Enemies and taught her on what part she might assail them Fortitude thus assisted ingaged her selfe upon all occasions she received as many blows as she gave she mingled her bloud with the bloud of her enemies she past all her life in this exercise if she took any ease after a fight 't was onely to prepare her self against those that were to ensue By all this discourse 't is easily seen that the designes of Fortitude are much greater than those of all the other vertues that it is not without reason that they yield the Honour to her since they dare not appear upon such occasions of Combates as she doth and bears away the victory Though Fortitude be thus beautifull in Idea yet is she but weake amongst the Pagans and covers true blemishes under deceitfull appearances for as in them she cannot have charity for her originall she derives oft-times from self-love and inherits all her Fathers weaknesses it is her own Glory she must seek since she is ignorant of Gods Glory it is anger
to suppresse one Passion by another and to oppose hope to fear choller to remissnesse and sorrow to joy This remedy proved worse than the disease it increased the number of the Rebels whom it would have lessened weakened reasons authority whichit would have established All these different means unprofitably employed are sufficient proofs of our passions Malignity and after all the means used by Philosophy it must be confest that the motions of our Soul are disordered by sin that to make vertues of them their nature must be almost totally altered and that unassisted by Grace they are more dangerous mischiefs than either Pestilence or Famine One of them is sufficient to destroy a whole Province a Monarchs anger is the ruin of a State and that which causeth suites at Law between particular men kindles War between Princes Ambition hath changed the face of the world a hundred times the Deluge hath not made such waste therein as hath the pride and vain glory of Conquerors the marks of their gâ—eatnes are for the most part fatall they build Towns upon the ruines of such as they have beaten down their conquests do oft times begin with violence and injustice vertue hath seldom been the reward of their victory he who hath been most fool-hardy hath oft-times been most fortunate the whole world dreaded Alexanders ambition one only man hath or caused fear in all men The desire of glory made him swim in his Enemies blood this passion was augmented by good successe victory ingaged him in new Battails the more fortunate he was the more was he insolent had not death stopt the course of his conquests he would have made all Nature groan Asia Europe and Affrica would have had but one and the same Tyrant and his Subjects ruine would have been the onely proof of his authority Adams fault never appeared more than in Alexander we should not beleeve that our father aspired to make himself God if this his Son had not imitated him and we should hardly beleeve that man in the state of innocency had any proud desires had not this Prince had insolent thoughts in the state of sin The world seemed too little to his ambition his Vanity thought Usurpation lawfull and he was so blinded with passion as that he thought it no the every to plunder a kingdom or Murther to Defeate an Army By all this discourse t is easie to inferre that the passions are rebels which are partiall in their siding with sin and which are never so much assubjected to the Soul but that they are alwaies ready to obviate her Power and ruine her authority They are like the Praetorian Souldiers who made merry with their Princes heads who made and unmade their Sovereignes onely in reference to their own interest who gave the Empire to those who offered most for it and who made no election which began not with murther for these heady giddy Subjects have no other motion than either their own pleasure or proffit they obey not reason save onely when they like her commands and to reap any profit by them they must be won either by threates or promises they help us onely in hurting us they do rather occasion the exercising our vertue then assist the practice thereof and as if they were of the devils humour they advance our wellfare only in labouring our losse their assistance is almost alwayes pernitious they must be used as the Poets say Aeolus used the windes threates must be used with the orders which we give them They are like those horses in the chariot of the sun in Ovid they must be be roughly dealt withall before they reduced and their Nature must be changed ere their violence be overcome Anger turnes to fury when not moderated desire and hope go astray when not regulated Audacity grows rash when not held in and sorrow turns to despaire when not sweetened so as all passions instruct us that Nature is corrupted by sin and that to assubject them to reason a Man must guide himself by the motions of Grace The fifth Discourse That the health of Man is prejudiced by sicknesse AMongst a thousand differences which distinguish Christian Grace from originall righteousnesse one of the chiefest is that the former sanctifies the Souls onely and the other did sanctifie the whole man and wrought admirable effects in his body For in the profession of Christianity the senses are yet Subject to the Illusions of the Devil objects do yet move the passions and reason is oft surprised by their motions The Sacraments do not warrant us from death and the remedies which Jesus Christ hath left unto his Church do not cure our sicknesses But in the state of innocency originall righteousnes was a plentifull spring-head which dispersed abroad its rivulets into both the parts which go to the composure of man For it brought fidelity to the senses obedience to the passions and peace to the Elements hence it was that man preserving his advantages was exempt from sicknesse and death The seasons not being yet irregular nothing could alter his temper and his humours being uncorrupted nothing could have prejudiced his health But with the losse of his innocency he lost all his priviledges and he was no sooner sinfull but he began to be sick This is so constant a truth as that mans life is nothing but a long sicknesse which never ends but in death he is born in sorrow aswell as in sin his entrance into the world is no lesse painfull then shamefull if this monster like the viper rip up the bowells of his Mother he himself feels a part of the pain which he makes her suffer and he runs as much danger as she who brings him into the world Therefore t is that Saint Austin sayes handsomly that to be born is to begin to suffer and that to live in the body is to begin to be sick The disorder of seasons is sufficient to corrupt the best constitutions and the Alterations which happen in the world make such impressions in the Body as trouble the temper thereof Though Nature be a wise Mother that she prepare us for the Summers heat by the moderate warmth of the spring and that she fits us for the winters cold by the moistnesse of Autumn yet is the body of man so weak as notwithstanding all these precautions she cannot free it from incommodity Physicians themselves observe that every season brings with it its maladie and that ruling over such humours as accord with them they never suffer us to enjoy perfect health The Elements agree not better than do the seasons there is alwayes some one of them which predominates to the prejudice of the rest they commit outrages each upon other and as bloud and choller discharge themselves when over heated flegme and Melancholly do the like when they are corrupted their good intelligence is fatall to man this calm threatens him with a terrible storm and he is never nearer sicknesse
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
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
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
his mother had brought him into the world After this crowd of reasons and authorities I know not what can be said against the belief of originall sin who can deny an evill of whose effects all men have a fellow-feeling Since all Phylosophers before they knew what name to give it knew the nature thereof and all the complaints they have made of our miseries in their Writings are so many testimonies born by them to the truth of our Religion The second Discourse What the state of man was before Sinne. THough there be nothing more opposite to the state of sin then the state of innocency there is not any thing notwithstanding which better discovers unto us the disorders thereof and it seems to be a true looking glasse wherein we may see all the other deformities To know the greatnesse of mans miserie wee must know the height of his happinesse and to know with what weight he fel we must know the height of his dignity Man was created with originall righteousnesse his Divineâ— Quality made a part of his being and seemed to be the last of his differences Reason and Grace were not as yet divided and man finding his perfection in their good Intelligence was at once both Innocent and rationall Since sin hath bereâ—t him of this priviledge he seems to be but half himself though he hath not changed Nature he hath changed condition though he be yet free he hath lesse power in his own person then in the world And when he compares himself with himself hardly can he know himself In the state of innocency nothing was wanting to his perfection nor felicity and whilst he preserved originall righteousness he might boast to have possessed the spring-head of all that was good T was this that united him to God and which submitting him to his Creator submitted all Creatures unto him t was this that accorded the soul with the body and which pacifying the differences which Nature hath plac'd between two such contrary parties made them find their happinesse in agrement this it was in fine which displaying certain beams of light about his Countenance kept wild beasts in obedience and respect In this happy condition man was only for God he found his happinesse in his duty he obeyed with delight and as Grace made up the perfection of his being it was not much lesse naturall for him to love God then to love himself he did both these Actions by one and the same Principle The love of himself differed not from the love of God and the operations of Nature and of Grace were so happily intermingled that in satisfying his Necessities he acquitted himself of his duty and did as many holy Actions as naturall and rationall ones He sought God and found him in all things much more happy then wee he was not bound to seperate himself from himself that he might unite himself to his Creator Godlinesse was practised without pain Vertue was exercised without violence and that which costs us now so much trouble cost him nothing but desires there needed no combates to carry away victory nor was there any need to call in vertue to keepe passions within their limits Obedience was easie to them nor is Rebellion so naturall unto them now as was then submission This Grace which bound the soule unto the body with bonds as strong as pleasing united the senses to the Spirit and assubjected the passions to reason Morality was a Naturall science or if it were infused t was togetther with the soul and every one would have been eased of the Pain of acquiring it all men were born wise Nature would have served them for a Mistris and they would have been so knowing even from their births as they would not have needed either Counsell or Instruction Originall righteousnesse govern'd their understanding guided their wills enriched their memories and after having done such wonders in their souls it wrought as many Prodigies in their bodies for it accorded the elements whereof they were Composed it hindred the waters from undertaking any thing against the fire tempered their qualities appeased their differences and did so firmly unite them as nothing could sever them Man knew only the name of death and he had this of comfort that he knew it was the Punishment of a fault from which if he would he might defend himself All nourishments were to pure that there was nothing superfluous in them Naturall heat was so vigorous as it converted all into the substance of the body was in all other respects so temperate as it was not prejudiciall to the radicall moisture Man felt nothing incommodious Prudence was so familiar to him as he prevented hunger and Thirst before they could cause him any trouble in his person and in his State he enjoyed a peacefull quiet and he was upon good Terms with himself and with his subjects because he was the like with his Sovereign he waited for his reward without anxiety and grounding himself upon the truth of his Creators promises he hoped for happinesse without disquiet Death was not the way to life there needed no descending to the earth to mount up to the heavens the soul fore-went not the body to enjoy her God and these two parts never having had any variance were joyntly to tast the same felicity But when the Devill had cozened the woman and that the woman had seduced the man he fell from this happy condition and losing Grace which caused all his good he fell into the depth ofall evills He received a wound which hecould never yet be cured of he saw himself bereft of his best part and could not conceive how being no longer righteous he continued to be rationall and left us in doubt whether he was yet man being no longer Innocent His Illuminations forsooke him together with Grace self-love came in the place of Charity He who before sought nothing but God began now to seek himself And he who grounded his happinesse upon his obedience would build his felicity upon Rebellion as soon as his soul rebell'd against God his body rebell'd against his soul these two parts changed their love to hatred and those who lived in so tranquill a peace declared open war one against another the senses which were guided by the understanding favoured the bodies revolt and the passions which were subject to reason contemned her Empire to inslave themselves to the Tyranny of Opinion If man were divided in his person he was not more fortunate in his condition wherein he underwent a Generall Rebellion the Beasts lost their respects they all became Savage and violence or Art is required to the taming of some of them the Elements began to mutiny following their own inclinations they broke the peace which they had sworn unto in behalf of man whilst Innocent the Seasons grew unseasonable to hasten the death of man grown guilty the very heavens alter'd their Influences and losing their
body composed only of Light and Heat But Christian Religion teacheth us that she is a spirit created by God in time infused into a body to inanimate it the spring head of Motion and Life and that in her noblest operations she stands in need of her salves Organes to operate withall Light is in some sort naturall to her in her understanding she comprehends the Principles of all Sciences her will hath in it the seed of all vertue the senses are so many Messengers which informe her with whatsoever passeth in the world and by their faithfull reports teach her those truths which she was ignorant of t is true that there are some truths which are rather infused into her then acquired by her and which Nature hath so powerfully imprinted in her Essence as Errours self cannot deface them she without an Instructer knows there is but one God she preserves this belief in the midst of Superstition in this point she is Christian even when Infidell whilst she offers Incense to her Idols she trusts in him who seeth all things and after having invoked Saturn and Iupiter she implores ayd from him whom her Conscience tels her is the true Creator of Heaven and Earth she is ignorant of the fall of Devils and by the hatred which she bears unto them makes it appear that she is not ignorant of their guile whilst she is possessed with these Tyrants she ceaseth not to think upon her lawfull Sovereign and sin which hath not been able to destroy her Nature c could not deface her knowledge nor her love she loves God though she offends him all the tyes she hath to these perishable things are the remainders of that Naturall Inclination and because every Creature is an Image of it's Creator she cannot see them without being in some sort transported the shadow of God awakens her flame but having neither light nor heat enough to raise her self up to him she remains engaged on the earth and by a strange blindnesse she forgets the Summum Bonum to fasten her self to his Picture she presageth her misfortune before she hath any knowledge thereof she prophesieth it before she disputes and when she first enters into the world she witnesseth by her tears that she hath some sense of her miseries as soon as she hath by her cryes saluted the Sun she teacheth those that understand her that she very well knows the earth is the seat of misery and that one cannot live long there without suffering much sorrow When age indues her with the use of Reason she doth not lose the use of Prophecie her dreams serves for presages The Heavens whilst she is at rest advertize her of her disasters and the Angels treating with her in a condition wherein she cannot treat with men acquaints her with the good and bad successes of her enterprizes she makes out salleys which cause men to believe that though she be fastened to the body yet she is not a Prisoner for when she pleaseth she abandons the senses and collects her self that she may be the lesse interrupted in her Meditations she seeks for knowledge in the Center of her essence and as if she did complain of the sights Infidelity or the ears sloath she endeavours to learn at home within her selfe what she cannot find out in the world in effect she would be very ignorant if she knew nothing but what she learns from her Officers for as they are but the Organes of the body they can only observe the qualities of the objects and can only inform their Sovereign of the lustre of Colours the diversity of sounds and of the varities of smels but when she withdraws within her self she knows subsistances she treats with spirits and raising her self-above all things created she forms unto herself certain Ideas of a Divinity Nay she is an Image thereof and it seems God took pleasure to draw his own Picture in the soul of man and to make us admire in this chief work of his power the unity of his Nature and the Plurality of his Persons for though this spirit be engaged In Materia and that it works differently according to the severall Organes of the body that it digests meat by naturall heat converts it into bloud by means of the Liver distributes it into all parts by the veins and by a miraculons Metamorphosis gives a hundred severall shapes to the same food yet is it not divided and representing the unconceivable unity of God it is Tota in Toto Tota inqualibet parte Thus the soul conteins that which seems to inclose her she lends her hoast house room she upholds her house she inanimates her Sepulchre and this Created Divinity is so great as she Circumscribes the Temple wherein she makes her residence This admirable unity agrees with a Trinity of powers which makes the soul an excellent Image of God for she hath an active understanding which conceives all things a happy memory which records them and an absolute will which disposeth of them she knew the highest of our miseries by reflecting on her self before Faith had revealed unto her the procession of the Divine persons Nature had given her some glimmering thereof by studying what she found to be in her self she learnt what was in God and seeing that she conceived a word in her understanding and a love in her will she had no trouble to comprehend that the father begot a Sonne and that the Sonne together with the Father produced a Holy Ghost Plato who had read no other book then that of his own soul guest at these Truths Trismegistus who had only learn'd these lights out of the bosome of Nature had some weak knowledge of the mysteries and we are bound to confess that neither the one nor the other would ever have known the Divine Originall had they not seriously considered the copy As the soul is the shadow of the divine Essence it shares in part of his highest perfections her light is not obscured by her Prison the body which is formed but of earth doth not derogate from her Nobility nor Power and death which threatens the House wherein she lives injures not her Immortality she is knowing in the midst of obscurity Absolute amidst the revolt of her Subjects Immortall in the bosome of death it self the senses which endeavour to seduce her by their unfaithfull reports cannot abuse her and let them use what foul play they please she hath always light enough to discover their Imposture she corrects their errours and when she will make use of her own rights she finds Counsellors in the Basâ— of her being who convince these faithless Officers of fals-hood she finds oft times lesse resistance in her body then in her self one only Act of her will makes the eyes open the arms be lifted up and the legs go these parts are so obedient to her commands as they never resist when in health their Rebellion ariseth
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
considers not danger so much as glory the one of these startles at all things the other wonders at nothing the one and the other of them hath their advantage and their defaults but there is so great an opposition between them as one and the same man cannot Possesse them both Thus perfection is an Idea which a man may easily conceive but never acquire Morality is an Art which hath more of light than of force and which very well knows the desert of vertues but cannot appease their differences 'T is mans advantage that the vices cannot be reconciled that these monsters who have the same designe cannot make the same Army and that Nature to weaken them hath divided them to say truth profusion and avarice cannot lodge together in the same breast and though the one of them proceed from the other they wage war one upon another which ends onely in death Audacity and Cowardise are incompatible and though Fortitude be their Common enemy they cannot joyn together to charge upon it Indulgencie and cruelty are two faults equally pernicious to Monarchies and 't is hard to say whether it be the greater misfortune to live under a Prince who punisheth all or under one who punisheth none Licentiousnes countenanceth sin and when Law are violated no punishment inflicted no honest man can live securely Cruelty sets al the world together by the ears as her injustice makes no distinction of persons she doth astonish as well the innocent as the guilty but Nature doth not suffer these two extreams to lodge together this wise Mother not being able to impede their birth thought to oblige us by hindring their society I acknowledge we are obliged to her fore-sight and that our misfortune had been much greater if these two enemies of our quiet could have kept good Intelligence but it must also be confest that she was wanting either in Power or in wil when she 〈◊〉 permitted that the vertues should war one upon another and that the good Habits which she had opposed to bad ones cannot joyn their forces in our assistance This is also an effect of Original sin and I am confident this division was not amongst them in the State of innocency that justice was not an enemy to Mercy that wisdom warred not against simplicity and that all these Sisters lodg'd peaceably together in the heart of Man Christian Grace which repairs the miseries of sin with use hath pacified the difference between the vertues they fight altogether joyntly under the banner of charity this vertue which they acknowledge for their Sovereign quieteth all their quarrels she takes from justice what it hath of rigour to agree it with mercy she takes from mercy what it hath of remisnesse to reconcile it with justice She unites the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the Dove she stifles particular interests to favour the publique good and bindes them so close together that they forgoe their own inclinations to assume the inclinations of their Soveraign Hence it is that Christians are wise without malice and simple without ignorance that they are generous without boldnesse and advised without Cowardlinesse that they are just without rigour and mercifull with indulgencie they have the perfections of Philosophers and want their Errours they tast their pleasures not their miseries and Possessing Charity they enjoy all the other vertues which hold in Fee of her Crown The third Discourse That Vain Glory is the soul of the Vertue of Infidels T Is a strange yet a true thing that the pride of Man was twin in birth to his misery and that he began to be proud assoon as he was miserable Amidst his greatnesse he was humble whilest he commanded over all Creatures he obeyed God and his Empier was grounded upon his submission but when his disobedience had caused his unhappinesse ambition seized him and forgetting that he was a slave to the Devil he pretended to the Sovereignty of the whole world To effect this his design he tryed many meanes as unjust as shamefull for through a high piece of folly he would shake off the yoke of obedience which he owed to God live in a sinfull Liberty and follow no Laws but those of his will Having laid the first ground work of his Rebellion he endeavored to frame it into a Tyranny and having shaken off his Sovereign he strove to get Subjects He used Art to make himself be beloved and violence to cause himself to be feared he made his equals his slaves under pretence of preserving or defending them he opprest their Liberty and turned his false protection into a true Tyranny hence did proceed the first usurpations which getting authority in process of time became at last legitimate for pride was the originall thereof and the desire of government took away the equality which nature had placed amongst men Those who liked not this way took another road being possest by vain glory they endeavored to practice vertue that they might win glory and studied to do gallant Actions onely that they might be praised Their way of Command was not so rigorous but it was not much lesse haughty than the other for they pretended to rise by merit and mildly to enforce men to submit themselves to their guidance whatsoever they did by this motive could not be innocent and whatsoever vertue they exercised by this principle had onely a deceitfull appearance of vertue Vain Glory was the soul of all their designes did they defend their Country did they conduct their Subjects did they fight their Enemies 't was rather out of the love of Glory than of Justice Let them be as carefull as they pleased to hide their intentions they were always clearly discerned by their actions or their words their thoughts might be discovered without Tortures and whilst the name of Justice was in their mouthes nothing but vain glory was observed to be in their hearts they did publiquely affirm that to make a kingdom happy a Philosopher must either be the King or the King a Philosopher they boasted that they had withdrawn men from out of Forrests that they had inclosed them within Towns and by giving them Laws they had taught them Civility They governed a while with mildnes but when one went about to blame their government or to reform it they had recourse to violence and the same vain Glory which made them assume the Scepter to command obliged them to take up Arms to defend it Thus did Philosophers become Tyrants and Pride which had used cunning to establish her self used Force to perserve her self This truth appeared in the greatest part of Monarchies but shone the clearest in the Roman Common-wealth and we may affirm the more she affected vertue the more was she Subject to vain Glory for those who shall examine her proceedings may observe that all her most Glorious Actions had no other motive than a desire of preserving her liberty of
considers their honour or desire he is content that they may practise one vertue so as they mix a vice with it he cares not though they overcome love so as they give way to vain glory as learned Tertullian saith he cares not much whether he dam men by debauchery or by incontinencie Thus I doubt not but that 't was ambition which kept Scipio chast that it was the sweetnesse of glory which charmed the like of Pleasure and that in so difficult an Action 't was reputation which he proposed unto himself for recompence All Conquerours were of his Humour they left the Pillage of the enemy to their Souldiers they parted the Provinces which they won amongst their Domesticks they made their slaves Sovereigns and of all the advantages which they got by their victories they only reserved glory to themselves This man feared to lose his reputation by losing his Liberty he was ashamed to suffer himself to be taken by his Captive and he would leave no shamefull marks of his defeats where he had left such glorious proofs of his victories Vain glory was the soul of his vertue his pride increased whilest his incontinencie decreased and Scipio was a slave to ambition whilest he commanded over uncleannesse That which hath been said of the continencie of this Generall of an Army may be affirmed of Lucretia's Chastity with this of difference that hers being accompanyed with Murder can admit of no excuse nor ought in any wise to be praised For though her death seem to be generous and that the Romans who look upon her as the beginning of their liberty would have it to passe for the Noblest sacrifice which was ever offered up to chastitie yet did it deserve punishment in a State well policed And they might have revenged themselves of living Lucretia upon the body of Lucretia being dead They would disguise the crime and make it seem a vertue not considering the unjustnesse thereof they looked onely upon the publique interest and since this Murther had driven the Tarquins from Rome they had ground enough to make thereon a Panegyricke they therefore place Lucretia in the head or first file of all Chaste Women they blame Fortune for having immurde so stout a soul in so weak a body they excuse the sin by the effects thereof and cannot blame a murder which was the rise of the Roman Common-wealth They justifie her Chastity by her death they excuse her death by her Chastity and maintain that as she preserved her Chastity in a forced Adultery she did not violate Justice in a voluntary self-Murther But truely I finde that Saint Austine hath so justly blamed her as that she is not justly to be defended and that he hath made a Dilemma to which the subâ—llest Philosophers cannot answer Whence it is saith he that he who hath committed the sin is not as severely punished as she that suffered it or on whom it was committed the one did lose his Country the other lost her life If you exempt her from the unchastnesse because she was violated how will you exempt her from injustice since she was the death of an Innocent your Roman Laws Pappâ—al to you which will not have the guilty to be condemned unheard what would you say if the crime were in a mooted case put to you and what sentence would you give if it were made evident unto you that she that suffered death was not guilty but Innocent would you not severely punish such a piece of injustice yet this is Lucretias case cruell Lucretia hath kill'd chast Lucretia whom Tarquin had violated but not corrupted Give judgement according to Evidence and if you think you cannot punish her because she is dead praise her not because she was a Murderess For if to excuse her Murther you wrong her chastity and if you think she kill her self to expiate the pleasure she conceived in thà t sin 't is not Tarquin that is onely guilty Lucretia was as faulty as he take-heed what judgement you give upon this occasion these faults are so linkt together as they are not to be parted by taking from the Adultery you adde to the Murther and by excusing the Murther you aggravate the Adultery you can finde no out-let from this Labyrinth and you know not how to answer to this Dilemma which I propose unto you If she were unchast why do you praise her And if she were chast why did she kill her self If you would rather acquit her of Adultery than of Murther confesse at least that it was not so much the love of Chastity as the apprehension of dishonour which made her take up a dagger This Roman Lady and consequently haughty was more carefull of preserving her glory than her Innocencie she feared least she might be thought guilty of some fault if she should out-live the out-rage that was done her and thought she might be judged to be confederate with Tarquin should she not take vengeance on her self Christian Women who have had the like misfortune have not imitated her despaire they have not punisht the faults of others in themselves nor committed Homicide to revenge a Rape The witnesse of their Conscience was the glory of their Chastity and it sufficed them that God who is the searcher of hearts knew their Intentions and shutting up all their vertue in their obedience they went not about to violate Gods Laws to save themselves from the calumnie of men Thus are all the vertues of the Pagans nothing but Pride their Justice be it either slack or severe is interessed Their Continency is vain glorious and their courage hath in it more of despaire then of Fortitude The seventh Discourse That the Fortitude of Pagans is but weaknesse or vanity Though all Vertues be delightfull and that they have sufficent charmes to make them appear amiable even to their Enemies g we must confesse that Fortitude bears most of lustre with it and that severity which doth accompany it doth not detract any thing from it's beauty Justice is reverenced even by her persecutours Tyrants are affraid of her shadow and after having bootlesly imployed violence for their defence they have been fain to have recourse to Justice for their preservation wisdome is adored by all Politicians a man must have lost his wits not to value her if she be not esteemed by fools she is admired by wisemen all sorts of people confesse that she is as necessary for the Government of private Houses as of States All parts of Morality take her for their Guide and without the assistance of this Vertue they can neither make an honest man a States-man nor a Father of a Family Temperance is beloved by all men her Enemies respect her in those that love her they confesse that pleasures can neither be innocent nor yet delightfull when she is absent and that pleasure without temperance is the punishment of the unchast But certainly all the Vertues hide their heads
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
and there is no knowledge so certain which admits not of doubts none so profitable which is not discommodious nor none so good which is not bad True knowledge ought to have two qualities Evidence and Certainty the first without the second occasioneth Opinion the second without the first produceth Faith Therfore 't is that all Sciences boast to possesse these two advantages and employ all their power to perswade us that they are evident and assured but the means they make use of to prove this contradicts their design and makes their doubts and obscurities equally appear For they draw their light either from Time Authority or Experience Time is the father of truth but is also oft-times the murtherer thereof according to the Rabbines 't is the witnesse of all things but it suffers corruption and the depositions thereof are as obscure as doubtfull all knowing men complain that life is short the way to knowledge long and that it were requisite to spend whole Ages in the School of Time to become learned 'T is only permitted to Damons who are ancient as the world to profit under a Master that discovers his secrets only to such as through their own industry observe them Authority is grounded upon the worth of those who have gone before us their antiquity gives them credit we think them abler than our selves onely because they are older and we dare nor oppose their opinions because they are no longer able to defend them they onely rule because they live no longer and if they beare away the victory 't is because they are without the danger of the fight Their Maximes serves us for Oracles their wills serve us for laws and they may say as Kings This is our Pleasure Death which destroyes the power of Soveraigns establisheth the Tyranny of Philosophers and these men who live no longer have yet credit enough to triumph over our liberty Yet is their antiquity a proofe of their ignorance since they have seen lesse then we they should in reason know lesse and since they lived in the first Ages they could not have made sufficient observations to discern the truth That which we call the worlds Antiquity was but it's Infancy men not being able to advantage themselves by the labour of their Ancestours did live in profound ignorance and left the glory of finding out truth to the care of those that should succeed them Experience is grounded upon the Senses and hath all her good from their reports but all men know these Messengers are unfaithfull that they are corrupted by objects that the soule which is by them advised is oft-times deceived and that nature hath given her an inward light to free her selfe from their Superchery they mistake themselves daily in their own operations if we will believe these blinde guides we shall be always engaged in errour The Sun appears greater at his rising than at Noon-day the Heavens seem to meet with the earth at the Levell of the Horizon and men think a long walk narrower in the extremities thereof than in the middle Wherefore the wisest Philosophers knowing the vanity of the Senses have confest the like of Sciences and being pressed by Truth it selfe have been forc't to acknowledge that that there was nothing certain in them but their uncertainty nor any thing evident but their obscurity The modestest among them have boasted to know nothing but that they knew nothing and to have learnt by their study that mans greatest knowledge was but a Depth of ignorance The uncertainty thereof is accompanied with uselessenesse and let her promise what she pleaseth she teacheth us things which are rather curious than profitable Science is not vain onely because she is proud but because she is given to lying for she makes those that court her hope for miracles and to hear her servants or her slaves speak you would think that were a remedy for all evils and a means to come by all vertues but if we will examine all the miseries of men we shall not finde any one that may be lessened by knowledge Sin hath reduced them to a condition wherein both good and bad are equally dangerous to them some apprehend death which threatens them some complain of poverty wherewith they are afflicted some are slaves to their riches and wonders that plenty should bereave them of liberty this man dreads ill fortune that man is glutted with good some are persecuted on earth some punisht from heaven All these stand in need of help in their differing conditions and are in danger of shipwrack unlesse they be assisted by a favourable and gracious hand Knowledge boasted that she would succour them and men abused by her promises sided with her under this confidence but after they had listned to her instructions they found she abounded more in light then in heat and more in vanity then in power To say truth she busieth her selfe in enlightning the understanding not being able to heat the will and in stead of instructing things usefull she is content to vent curiosities Not being able to accord the Elements within our bodies nor yet the passions in our soules she busieth her selfe in sorting voices and in forming an agreeable harmony out of differing Tones not being able to withstand vices nor irregular inclinations she undertakes to fight against wilde-beasts or enemies to get the victory where the danger exceeds the honour and to bear away Triumph where injustice and fortune have a greater share then courage or wisdome When she saw she could not observe the wonders of nature she appli'd her selfe to consider the Debauchments and passing by her goodliest operations either in silence or oblivion she entertained men with her disorders onely or with her diversions For all Sciences which are now in request and wherein great men do glory teach nothing but ridiculous things and fill their disciples mindes with naught but smoak winde Were it not better that Astrology should teach us the way to heaven than uselesly to teach us the Number of the Stars the Influence of Planets and Motions of the Sphears Were it not to be wisht that Arithmetick which teacheth to calculate immense summes should teach us to bound our own desires and not to set by riches were it not to be desired that the Mathematicks in stead of instructing us how to besiege Towns and not to defend them should shew us how to preserve our own liberty and how to keep us from the Tyranny of sin If in fine Sciences were rationall would they not rather endeavour to make men Vertuous than Knowing and if they were not slaves to Curiosity would they not labour more to regulate the will than to satisfie the understanding and yet the chiefest of Philosophers after having in all his writings made the Panegyrick of knowledge after having offer'd Incense to this Idol and after having purchased her as many Adorers as he had Disciples confesseth that she is of no use to
than when in perfectest health besides these incommodities which spring from his temper there are others which proceed from indigencie and which oblige him every day to seek for cure he is dayly tormented with hunger and thirst and these are so pressing maladies as he cannot defer their remedies without hazarding his life Naturall heat commits spoil in the body which ought to be repaired The fire which inanimates us consumes us and if it be not furnisht with nourishment to entertain it it dischargeth it's fury upon the radicall moisture which preserves us 'T is a lamp that goes out when left without oyle and a man is so corrupted since sin as that which we call life is but a long death and that which is termed health is but a continuall sicknesse Nature is become our punishment every part of our body is bound by the Justice of God to punish us so as not needing executioners for the satisfaction thereof it findes enough in our selves to revenge itselfe of us The sicknesses wherewith we are afflicted arise from the mixture of the Elements though the seasons were not unseasonable and though the heavens should have no bad influences we should not cease to suffer our bodily temper suffers for the irregularity of our soules and there are some evils turned into nature insomuch as we cannot live without them Thirst is as usuall as hunger this malady though it be violent ceaseth not to be naturall those who are never troubled therewithall passe either for Angels or for Monsters History ranks it in the number of Prodigies and men are more astonished to see a man that did never drink than to see a man that did never laugh yet this so common punishment is so cruell as in five or six days it destroys the strongest men and makes the most couragious accept of dishonourable conditions Places which can defend themselves against force cannot defend themselves against thirst and the fire which consumes the entrails is of more efficacy than that which blows up walls and bulwarks Watching is not much lesse unsupportable than thirst Tyrants have put malefactors to death by keeping them from sleep Man must have recourse to sleep to refresh himselfe and must seek to preserve his life in the image of death If he neglect this remedy he languisheth away and his very soule which delights in motion hath need of this rest to re-assume it's vigour But all these evills are but pastimes or sports in comparison of these which are occasioned by our debaucheries The stone and gout are punishments which may almost vye with those of the damned they sieze on the most sensible parts of the body had they not their intermissions they would cast men into despair and to free themselves from it the lawes of the Ancients ought to be revived which permitted the miserable to die All the parts of the body hath maladies which assail them there is not any one which hath not some peculiar torments The eye which is one of the least though not of least importancy is subject to above an hundred severall diseases the nerves which give them motion and through which they receive light are as capable of obstruction as those by which the armes and legs are moved the smaller they be the more susceptible they are of pain and by how much the parts of the body are the most noble they seem to be the more painfull The least hurt in the heart is mortall and the throne wherein the soule resides is so fraile as a very vapour is capable to crack it In fine the best Physician who knew not that a man was sinfull wondred he should be so miserable and considering his miseries confest he was wholly a disease The soule which is the bodies guest is also it 's executioner the ones agitations trouble the others humours great men have little health the great designes which purchases them so much glory leaves them but little quiet Violent agitations alter the constitutions more than the countenance more men dye of anger and griefe than by the hands of the hangman lovers and ambitious men are always in a Fever the fire which inflames them consumes them and the Physician who deals with their body cannot cure their sicknesse till Philosophy which guides their mindes hath allayed their passions The soules delights are the bodies punishments and the same meditation which enlightens the understanding and heats the will disorders the temper and alters the constitution thus the whole life of man is nothing but a vexatious sicknesse his noblest operations serve him for punishments and he cannot purchase knowledge but by the losse of his health If the maladies be vexatious the remedies are not more pleasing Physick teacheth that the remedies which she furnisheth us withall are but prepared venomes she cannot drive out sicknesses but by poisons and to cure those that are sick she must seek for Antidotes in the bowels of vipers She is so unfortunate in her cures as she cannot assaile the disease without hurting the party diseased nor can she strengthen the diseased party without augmenting the disease These two maximes which divide the school of physick are are equally dangerous for be it that you will drive away the disease by it's contrary or that you will cure nature by it's like you must either weaken the sick party whil'st you think to destroy his disease or else increase the disease whil'st you strengthen the party that is sick so as the remedies are as dangerous as displeasing and we hazard our life as oft as we endeavour to recover health Hence proceeds the aversions which sick people have to physick hence proceeds the Philosophers invectives against the fear of death and the desire of life which oblige us to endeavour remedies which are more cruell than the evills which they promise to cure For there is the difference between nature and physick the former remedies are pleasing the others nauseous Viands which satisfie our hunger are so conformable to our temperature as they expell the evill with delight and repaires the ruine thereof without pain Wine appeaseth thirst with so much contentment as that drunkards are delighted in the remedy and wish to be thirsty that they may have the contentment of being cured this sort of drink is so pleasing to them as not staying till they have need thereof they seek it out meerly for pleasures sake and violate the laws of nature which hath made it pleasing onely because 't is necessary Sleep charms our wearinesse with so much of content as though it be the picture of death no man doth abhor it the slothfull ground their felicity thereon and those who do most desire to live take delight in dying oft and long A man must be sick to have an aversion of these remedies and either our health is interessed or our taste depraved when meat displeaseth us but physick is so severe in her operations as she never undertakes
made the widowes of Carthage weep and the same successe which made them be reverenced made them be hated by their enemies Thus triumph is onely founded upon faults combates are not made without weapons nor are victories wonne without murther This notwithstanding is the glory of Princes and the mightinesse of Conquerours he who hath fought amongst Battails is most valiant he who hath plundered most Townes is most happy and he who hath ruin'd most Provinces is the most August this madnesse hath been common among Christian Princes the lawes forbid murther to particular men and ambition doth oft without reason permit Sovereigns to wage war 't is a piece of injustice to end a difference by a duell and 't is an heroick action to engage fifty thousand men in a Battail upon a triviall occasion faults are secure because they are accompanied with an absolute power and they are publickly praised because they are out of the reach of ordinary Justice There remains nothing to adde idolatry to cruelty but to render divine honour to these illustrious guilty ones and to raise up Altars to those who have ruin'd Kingdoms The example of Pagans may well authorize this impiety for they never granted Apotheosis or Canonization but to such as were famous for their faults The first man whom Italy placed in heaven did sprinkle the wals of Rome in it's rise with his brothers bloud And the first Prince to whom this Republique changed into a Kingdome did erect Altars had oppressed the liberty thereof since Augustus his death Apotheosis or Canonization was the recompence of mutther and incest to become God he must cease to be man and must forego all humane relations to acquire divine honour The Consul placed men in heaven whom they would have driven out of the Senate had they not lived under their Tyranny they appointed Priests to such as deserved Hangmen and Rome was so accustomed to flatter as she numbred those amongst her Gods which she had numbred amongst her Tyrants But grant that honour were justly distributed 't is notwithstanding so frail a good as men would never so passionately seek after it had not sin corrupted his nature and troubled his judgment For to boot that it is not within us and that it is impossible to be happy in a thing which we possesse not it depends upon the opinion of the vulgar who meddle as well in weighing the merit of men as the States-men doe This bad Judge is guided more by humour then by reason his Intetest is the rule of his Judgment and these base persons esteem nothing honourable but what is advantagious to them they change with every wind and as their minds are agitated with hatred love anger or pitty they praise and blame the same thing Thus Conquerors are bound to acknowledge that their reputation depends more upon fortune than victory and that to be glorious it is not sufficient for them to have overcome their enemies unlesse by a continuance of good fortune they win their subjects love I know 't is said that glory is never pure till after death that Kings must lose their lives to purchase esteem and that the Palmes and Lawrels of renowu serve onely to crown their sepulchres but I think there are few Conquerors that would purchase glory at so deer a rate and who would wish to die that they might receive a recompence which is not tasted but in life what are they the better for praises given them in Historie what redounds to them from a vain reputation which cannot get admittance into the other world and how are they advantaged either in heaven or in Hell by their sepulchres adornments Nothing is more famous in antiquity then Caesar he is almost as well known throughout the world as Jesus Christ. All Historians speak of him with Encomiums all Conquerors endevour to imitate him an action is not Glorious save when it doth conform with his Children are rather instructed in his life then in those of the Apostles or Martyrs and they know better what he hath done in Italy then what the Sonne of God did in Palestine his voyages are more admired than Saint Pauls and his Commentaries are read with more contentment then the Epistles of the great Apostle but what advantage reaps he by our praises in hell do's his renown lessen his torments is he lesse unfortunate for being more honoured or is he lesse tormented for being better known hath he any preferment in hell where all things are in confusion and disorder that ambitious humour which could neither suffer a superiour nor yet an equall is it satisfied with our Panegyricks and a soul which suffers so much punishment can it find any contentment in those praises ought we not rather to conclude that his shadow is praised and his person tormented that he is sensible of his pains but not of our praises and that he is well esteemed on on earth and tortered in hell Is not Alexander ill rewarded for all his labours and this lover of glory doth not he repent that he so long served this faithlesse Mistris he over-run the whole world he was troubled that his Conquests should find a stop where the Sun stayes his course he would have gone further then that glorious constellation and have carried his arms where the Sun did not carry his light he hath plaid the part both of a private souldier and of a Commander upon a thousand incounters and hath hazarded his Estate his Army and his Person a hundred times to win a little reputation yet what of all this remains to him in the grave doth his glory allay his sufferings do's the title of great take from him the name of unhappy do the Ghosts of his souldiers or of his enemies tremble at his presence and he who held all the earth in awe and silence is he any wayes delighted with his reputation or our astonishment his pomp was effaced by his death he ceased to be Alexander when he ceased to be man his body is reduced to dust his soul burns in hell and his name which is but a Fantasme receives the vain praises which are given it Let us conclude then that a man must be a fool to imagine that honour is the recompence of vertue and that man never sought after these imaginary contentments till after he had lost those which were solid and reall Mans honour consists in his duty of all the testimonies which he receives there are none but those of his conscience which can satisfie him knowing that vertue depends upon Grace he gives the glory to him who hath indued him with the strength he confesseth that God crowns his own gifts when he crowns our merits Vainglory was permitted to the Pagans who defied honour but she is forbidden Christians who hold ambition a crime she was permitted unto Pagans whose immortality consisted in renown but she is forbidden Christians whose felicity consists in beholding God In
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