midst of all these VVaves I stand Secure as if upon the Land CHAP. VII VVhat it is and how manifold that opposes Constancy they are external good and evil things Those evils are twofold Publick and Private those which are Publick seem the most grievous and dangerous WHen Langius had spoken these things vvith a Voice and Air more earnest than he used a spark of this desirable fire did seise on me also And my Father said I for I call you truly not feignedly so lead me wheresoever you please and instruct correct and direct me You have a patient prepared for any method of Operation vvhether you shall determine to make use of the Caustick or shall proceed to Amputation Both these reply'd Langius in as much as in some places the stubble of idle Opinions is to be set on sire and elsewhere the shrubs of Passions are to be grubb'd up by the very Roots But shall vve continue our vvalk or whether is it not better and most convenient for us to sit To sit reply'd I for I begin to be hot and that upon divers accounts So assoon as Langius had caus'd Chairs to be brought into the same Court and that vve vvere both sate turning himself towards me he again thus began Hitherto Lipsius I have been laying the Foundations vvhereupon I might safely erect my discourse Now if you vvill I shall draw a little nearer to you enquire out the causes of your Grief and as they say lay my Finger upon the very sore There are two things that lay Battery to this fort of Constancy vvithin us False Goods and false Ills. Both vvhich I thus define THINGS NOT WITHIN BUT ABOUT US and WHICH PROPERLY DO NEITHER DAMAGE NOR ADVANTAGE THIS OUR INWARD MAN THAT IS OUR SOUL And therefore I vvill not call them Good or Evil as if they were so absolutely and simply But only from Opinion and the common mistake of the Vulgar Amongst the First they Ranke Riches Honours Power Health long-Long-life Amongst the Last Poverty Infamy vvant of Power Diseases and Deaths and in a vvord vvhatsoever is accidental and external From these two stocks those four chief Affections grow up in us vvhich compass and perplex the vvhole life of Man Desire and Joy Fear and Grief The two former of these respect some imagined good and thence are bred the two last respect supposed evils Each of them do equally hurt and molest the Mind and unless care be taken to dethrone it though not after one and the same manner For vvhereas the repose and Constancy of the Mind is placed in a kind of even and equall ballance they force it from this poise the one by hoisting and the other by depressing it But these false goods together vvith the Elation of the Mind by them I shall purposely pass over as not concerning your Disease and hasten to those I call false evils The Brigade of vvhich is also twofold Publick and Private The Publick I thus define SUCH AS THE SENSE OF WHICH DOTH AT ONE AND THE SAME TIME EXTEND TO MANY The Private SUCH AS REACH BUT TO SINGLE PERSONS Amongst the former I reckon Warrs Pestilence Famine Tyranny Slaughter and such other things as spread abroad and do respect the community Amongst the latter I put Grief Poverty Disgrace Death and what ever is enclos'd within private vvalls and is the concernment of some particular person It is not upon any frivolous account that I thus distinguish Forasmuch as indeed that Man mourns otherwise and in a different Fashion vvho laments the Calamity of his Country the Exile and Destruction of many than he vvho only sighs for his own misfortunes Add to this that from each of these do arise different Distempers and if I mistake not the more grievous and durable from the former For most of us are concern'd in Publick Calamities vvhether it is that they rush upon us vvith an impetuous vehemence Or as it vvere in a form'd Battalia do overwhelm the Opposer or rather that they flatter us vvith a kind of Ambition that keeps us ignorant and insensible that through them a sickness is bred in our Minds For vvhoever he is that bows under a private Grief he must of necessity acknowledge his vice and vveakness although he amend it not for vvhat excuse hath he But he vvho falls under this other so farr is he many times from the acknowledgement of his fall and fault that he often makes it his boast and esteems it a praise-worthy thing For it is styl'd Piety and Commiseration and there vvants but little that this publick Feaver is not consecrated not only amongst the Virtues but the very Deities themselves The Poets and Oratours do everyvvhere extoll and inculcate the fervent Love of our Country Nor do I my self desire altogether to erase it but to temper and moderate it this is all that I contend for For assuredly it is a very vice a Disease the very fall of the Mind and the casting of it down from its seat But vvithall on the other side it is a very grievous Disease inasmuch as therein there is not a single Grief only but your own and anothers confounded and that other is also double respecting the Men or the Country That you may the better apprehend what I have more obscurely deliver'd take this instance You see your Belgia is at this time press'd vvith more than a single Calamity the Flames of this Civil vvar doth enwrap it on every side You see on all hands that Fields are vvasted and spoiled Towns are burnt and overturned men are taken and slain Vlatrons are defiled Virgins ravished and vvhatsoever in humanities use to accompany vvarr Is not here matter of Grief to you Grief indeed but a various and divided one if you consider it vvell inasmuch as at one and the same time you lament your self and your Countrymen and your Country besides In your self your losses in your Countrymen their various Fortune and Death in your Country the change and overthrow of its State Here you have cause to cry out O miserable man that I am there So many of my Countryment must stand The shock of Plagues brought by a hostile hand and lastly elsewhere My Father My Country So that he vvho is not affected vvith these things he on whom the vvedge and vveight of so many invading Evils can vvork nothing must certainly be either a very temperate and vvise person or exceedingly hard hearted CHAP. VIII Publick Evils oppos'd Three Affections restrain'd and of these First a certain Ambitious Simulation by which Men lament their own misfortunes as Publick Evils WHat think you Lipsius have I not seem'd sufficiently to prevaricate vvith my Constancy and to plead the Cause of your Grief Yet I have done but as couragious and brave Chieftains use I have dar'd out your vvhole Forces into the Field and now I mean to deal with them in a Skirmish first and then a joyned Battail In our Skirmish there are three
had fed vvith the Branches of the Lentisk Tree So I vvill administer to you Historical and pleasing things vvhich yet shall have a secret tincture of the juice of Wisdom What matter is it how vve cure our patient so vve make a perfect cure of it CHAP. XIX That publick Evils are not so great as they seem proved first by Reason That we fear the circumstance and dress of things rather than themselves MArch on then my Legion and before the rest let that cohort first advance vvith vvhich vve shall maintain that these publick evils are not grievous this shall be performed vvith the double vveapon of reason and comparison of reason First for if vve respect that all those evils which are either present or imminent are not really either great or grievous but are so only in appearance It is Opinion that heightens and aggravates our calamities and presents them to us in so tragical a garbe But if you are wise disperse this circumjected Cloud and examine things by a clearer light For instance you fear Poverty amongst these publick Evils Banishment Death All which notwithstanding if you look upon them vvith a perfect and setled Eye vvhat are they If you examine them by their own just vveights how light are they This Warr or Tyranny by multiplyed contributions vvill exhaust you vvhat then You shall be a poor Man Did not Nature it self bring you into the World so And vvill it not hurry you thence in the same manner But if the despised and infamous name of it displease you change it call your self free and delivered For Fortune if you know it not hath disburdened you and placed you in a securer station vvhere none shall exhaust you any more So that vvhat you esteemed a loss is no other than a remedy But say you I shall be an exile call it if you please a stranger If you change your affection you change your Country A vvise Man vvheresoever he is is but a sojourner a Fool is ever banished But I daily expect Death from the Tyrant As if you did not do the same from Nature But that is an infamous Death that comes by the Ax or Halter Fool nor that nor any other Death is infamous unless your life be so Recall to your thoughts all the excellent and more illustrious persons since the vvorld began and you shall find them snatched away by a violent and untimely Death Thus Lipsius you must examine for I have given you but a tast all those things vvhich have so frightfull an appearance you must look upon them naked and apart from those vizards and disguises vvhich opinion hath put upon them But alass poor creatures vve gaze only upon the vain outsides of things Nor do vve dread the things themselves so much as we do the circumstantial dresses of them If you put to Sea and it swell high your heart fails and you tremble at such a rate as if should you suffer Shipwrack you were to swallow it all vvhen alass one or two Sextaries would be sufficient If there be a sudden Earth-quake what a cry and vvhat fears it raises You apprehend immediately that the vvhole City or house at least vvill fall upon you Not considering how sufficient any single stone is to perform the vvork of Death 'T is thus in all these calamities in vvhich it is the noise and vain image of things that chiefly affrights us See that Guard these Swords And what can that Guard or those Swords do They vvill kill And vvhat is that being kill'd 'T is only a single Death and lest that name should affright you It is the departure of the Soul from the Body All those military troops All those threatning Swords shall perform no more than vvhat one Feaver one Grapestone or one Insect can do But this is the harsher vvay of dying Rather it is much the milder for that Feaver vvhich you vvould preferr does often torture a Man for a year together but these dispatch him vvith a blow in an instant Socrates therefore said vvell vvho vvas vvont to call all these things by no other name than that of Goblins and Vizzards vvhich if you put on you will fright the children but if you take them off again and appear vvith your own face they 'l come again to you and embrace you 'T is the very same vvith these evils vvhose Vizzards if you pluck off and behold them apart from their disguises you vvill confess you vvere scared vvith a childish fear As Hail falling upon a house dashes it self in pieces So if these calamities light upon a constant Mind they do not break it but themselves CHAP. XX. A Second proof by way of Comparison But first the Calamities of the Belgians and of the Age heightned That common Opinion refuted And proved that the Nature of Man is prone to aggravate our own Afflictions I Did not expect so serious a discourse from Langius and therefore interrupting him vvhether go you said I was this it you promised I expected the sweet and delicious vvines of History and you bring me such harsh and unpleasant ones as scarce all the stores of Wisdom vvill afford their like Suppose you that you are speaking to some Thales 'T is to Lipsius a Man and that of the middle rank vvho desires remedies that are somewhat more humane than these Langius vvith a mild countenance and tone I acknowledge said he you justly blame me For vvhile I followed that pure ray of reason I perceive I am got out of the common Road and unawares again fallen into the path of Wisdom But I return now to vvalk vvith you in a vvay that is better known since the austerity of that wine doth displease you I shall quallify and allay it vvith the sweets of examples I come now to comparison and I vvill clearly shew you that in all these calamities vvhich every vvay surround us there is nothing great or grievous if you compare them with those in times past For those of old vvere greater by many degrees and more truly to be lamented I replyed vvith a gesture that discovered something of impatience Will you averre this said I and hope you to perswade Me to believe what you have said Never Langius so long as I am Master of my reason for vvhat former age if you rightly consider it vvas ever so calamitous as this of ours or vvhat after one shall be What Nation What Country ever endured So heavy miscries and manifold Grievous or to be suffered or be told As vve Belgians do at this day You see vve are involved in a Warr not in a forreign one only but a civil and that in the very bowels of us For there are not only parties amongst us but O my Country vvhat hand shall preserve thee a subdivision of those parties Add to this the Pestilence add Famine add Taxes Rapines Slaughters and the height of all the Tyranny and Oppression not of our Bodies only but our Souls too
affirm had its birth in such Gardens as these vvhich are intended for the Mind not the Body to recreate that not to dissolve and soften this and for a safe retreat both from Company and Cares Is company troublesome Here you shall be vvith your self Have employments exhausted your Spirits Here they shall be repayr'd vvhere the Mind shall be refresh'd vvith its proper food of quiet and vvhere from this purer air you shall have as it were the inspiration of a new life If you look therefore upon the ancient Sages they dwelt in Gardens or upon the more learned and improved Spirits of our times they delight in Gardens And in those for the most part are those divine pieces compos'd vvhich are the wonder of Mankind and vvhich no Age or successions of time shall ever abolish To this green Lycaeum do we stand indebted for so many Lectures upon Nature To this shady Academy vve owe those discourses about manners and from the apartments of these Gardens are those abundant springs of Wisdom diffus'd vvhich we drink of and vvhich vvith their fertill inundations have enrich'd the World For the Mind doth raise and advance it self to higher and greater things vvhen free and at large it beholds its own Heaven then vvhen 't is cloyster'd up within the Prison of a House or City Here O ye Poets frame an everlasting and immortal Verse here let the learned meditate and write here O ye Philosophers dispute of Tranquility of Constancy of Life and Death See Lipsius the true end and use of Gardens it is rest secession meditation reading vvriting and yet all these by way of recreation only and divertisement As Painters vvho by long poring have vvearied and dimm'd their sight call it off to certain glasses and green objects thereby to quicken and refresh it so do vve the Mind when it either straggles or is tyred And why should I conceal my Custome from you Do you see that Arbour set out vvith Topiary vvork 'T is the place I have consecrated to the Muses It is my School of Wisdom There I either satisfie my Mind with serious and retir'd reading or improve it vvith the Seeds of profitable Meditation And as arms are lay'd up in a Magazene So do I from them store up precepts in my Mind vvhich are alwayes ready by me against every battery and impression of Fortune As oft as I enter there I forthwith command all base and servile cares to absent themselves and asmuch as I may vvith an elevated Mind I despise the studies of the prophane vulgar and this great vanity in the affairs of Men. Yes I seem to my self to be wholly divested of humanity and to be transported into Heaven it self in the fiery Chariot of Wisdome Do you think it there troubles me what the French or Spaniard are designing Who keeps or loses the Scepter of Belgia That the Tyrant of Asia now threatens us by Land or by Sea Or to conclude What Plots that King is forging in his brains That in the North and frozen Climate raigns none of all these I vvill assure you Securely fortify'd against all that is external I retreat within my self free from all sorts of cares except this one how I may subject this broken and subdued Mind of mine to Right Reason and to God And all other humane things to my Mind that vvhensoever that fatal day shall come that must put a period to my Life I may receive it vvith a compos'd and unsadded countenance and may so depart out of this life not as he that is forc'd into exile but as one that is set at liberty These are my musings in my Gardens Lipsius and these the fruits which so long as I am my self I shall not vvillingly exchange for all the Persian and the Indian treasures CHAP. IV. An exhortation to VVisdom thereby a Man may attain to Constancy An admonition to Youth to conjoyn the more serious studies of Philosophy to the more pleasant and liberal ones LAngius had finish'd and I confess seriously that this last generous and constant speech of his had cast me into some amazement vvhich vvhen I had recovered O happy Man said I both in your business and retirements O that more than humane life vvhich I have met with in a Man Would to God I vvere able in any Measure to imitate and to creep along after these footsteps though it vvere at a considerable distance Langius as reprehending me imitate sayes he Yes excell You have right here not only to follow but to lead the vvay For in this Path of Constancy and Vertue Lipsius vve have made but a small a very small progress As yet vve are not comparable to the more Heroick and excellent Persons though possibly a little more assured than the utterly enfeebled and debauched sort But you vvhose Youthfull inclinations are Generous and Lofty prepare your self and agreeable to my instructions assay that path which doth directly lead to firmness and Constancy The vvay I speak of is Wisdom whose smooth and even path I beseech and advise you no longer to decline Hath learning and the Nine Goddesses hitherto delighted you I approve it For I know the Mind ought first to be subacted and prepar'd with this more pleasing and external knowledge as being before unfit to have divine Seeds intrusted vvith it But vvithall I approve not that you should so farr dote upon this as to make it both the beginning and end of your studies These are to be our rudiments but not our vvork our vvay but not our Goale In a feast I suppose you vvould not feed only upon Quelk-choses or Junkets but would gratifie your stomach vvith something that is more solid In this publick banquet of Learning why do you not the same Why add you not the firmer food of Philosophy to those delicious Viands of Oratours and Poets For mistake me not I vvould not that the one should be deserted but that the other should be superadded and that those looser and by themselves more fluid Nymphs should be tempered and mixed vvith this as I may call it severer Bacchus Penelope's Suitors in Homer are justly laughed at vvho deserting the Mistress fell to courting the Maids Take heed you do not the same that despising the great and excellent Princess you should remain enamour'd of her handmaids It is a desirable purchase to attain the praise of a learned Man that of a vvise Man is beyond it but that of a good Man surpasses all Hereafter let us aim at these and by all our labours endeavour not only to know but to be vvise and do How vaine's that knowledge where No VVisdome doth appear sayes that old and true Verse How many are there in this our Assembly of the Muses vvho dishonour both themselves and the very name of Learning Some in that they are even covered with the black spots of detestable impieties and the most because they are vain light Meteours only and of no worthy designment
or Executioner Dispatch lead him off say you scourge him cover his face and hang him up For it is my vvill it should be so O impudence But God vvills it otherwise vvho you ought to know sees more clearly into these matters and punishes for other ends The heats of passion and a certain desire of Revenge transport us from all vvhich God is most remotely distant and intends the vvarning and correction of others For he best knowes to vvhom and vvhen these things may be useful The choice of times is of great moment and for vvant of a due and seasonable administration the safest medicines do oftentimes prove fatal to us He took away Caligula in the first setting out of his Tyranny He suffered Nero to run on longer and Tiberius beyond either and this no doubt for the good of those very Men vvho then also complain'd Our vicious and uncorrected manners do often stand in need of a lasting and continued scourge though vve vvould have it straight remov'd and thrown into the Fire This is one cause of the forbearance of God vvhich respect us the other respects himself To vvhom it seems natural to proceed on to his Revenge vvith a slow pace and to recompence the delay of his punishment vvith the vveignt of it Synecius said vvell the Divine inquisition moves on slowly and by degrees And so did the Ancients vvho from this property of his feign'd God to have feet of Wool So that although you are passionately hasty of Revenge you cannot yet accuse this delay since it is so only a respite of punishment that it may be also an encrease Tell me vvere you present at a Tragedy vvould you stomach it that the Atreus there or the Thyestes in the first or second act should in a glorious garbe and vvith a stately tread pass through the Scenes That they should rule there threaten and command all I suppose you would not for you know that felicity is but short-liv'd And expect that all this grandeur should finish in a fatal Catastrophe In this Play and Fable of the World vvhy are you more offended vvith God than you vvould be vvith any Poet That wicked Man flourishes and that Tyrant lives happy Be it so but think vvithall that this is but the first Act And before possess your self inwardly vvith this that tears and sorrows press on hard to overtake those joyes This Scene shall shortly flow vvith blood and then those robes of Gold and Purple shall be rowled up and down and trampled in it For that great Master of ours is a good Poet and vvill not rashly exceed the Lawes of his Tragedy Do vve not vvillingly bear with Discords in Musick for some time because vve know that the last closures vvill end in comfort Do so here But you vvill say those miserable Creatures that have suffered under this Tyranny do not alwayes see the punishment What wonder is it For the Play is oftentimes somewhat long and they are not able to sit it out in this Theatre But others see it and fear because they see that though in this severe Court of Judicatory some Men are reprieved yet they are not pardoned And though the day of execution is prolonged yet it is not forgot Wherefore Lipsius remember this that vvicked Men are sometimes forborne but never acquited Nor is there any Man that entertains a crime into his brest but vvho also hath a Nemesis at his back for that Goddess is in pursuit of him and as I may say vvith Euripides VVith silent unsuspected pace She doth the guilty Sinner trace And though he strive with utmost hast To scape she seiseth him at last CHAP. XIV That there are divers sorts of punishments some occult and internal which accompany the crime it self and which the wicked never escape That such are more grievous than any external ones WHich notwithstanding that you may more clearly apprehend and that I may once lead you into the height of this cause You must know that Divine punishments are threefold Internal Posthumous and External Those I call Internal vvhich are inflicted on the Soul vvhile it is yet in the Body such are Anxiety Penitence Fears and a thousand pangs and stings of Conscience Those are Posthumous vvhich are inflicted upon the same Soul but then vvhen it is freed and separate from the Body Such are those torments which even the Ancients most of them vvere of opinion did await the vvicked after Death The third sort are such as touch upon the Body or the things that belong to it as Poverty Banishment Pain Diseases Death All vvhich do sometimes by the just Judgment of God concurr against the Wicked but the two former alwayes To speak of internal punishments vvhere shall we find the Man so profusely and audaciously wicked that hath not sensibly felt in his Soul some of these sharp scourges and stripes either in the Commission of his crimes or at least after he hath acted them So true is that vvhich Plato said of old that punishment treads upon the heels of sin or as Hesiod more properly it is coeval and twinns with it The punishment of evil is not only ally'd to but is bred vvithin that evil nor is there any thing in this Life that can pretend to calmness and security besides innocence alone As the Roman custome did enforce the Malefactour to bear that Cross which vvas streight to bear him So hath God impos'd upon all wicked Men this Cross of Conscience on vvhich they shall begin to suffer before their further and vvorse sufferings do begin Do you suppose that only to be punishment which we can look upon and which this Body doth sensibly undergo No. All those external things do but lightly and for no long time touch upon us they are the internal that more exquisitely torment us As we judge them to be more desperately sick who languish away under an inward waste than those that are seised vvith some visible inflammation or preternatural heats though these last are more apparent So are vvicked Men under a more grievous punishment vvho vvith so low and indiscernible procedures are lead on to their eternal Death It used to be the cruel command of Caligula so strike as that he may feel he dyes the same befalls these Men vvhom their Conscience as an Executioner doth daily torture and even kill by these slow degrees of lesser and repeated stripes Nor let the splendour or the inlarged power and vvealth of those Men impose upon you Since they are no more happy and fortunate for these than they are healthful whose Gout or Feaver rests it self upon a purple Couch Do you see a beggarly Follow represent in some Play the person of a Prince all Pompous and brave You behold him yet vvithout envy for you know how under those golden Robes his Sores and Filth and Poverty lye hid Think the same of all those great and proud Tyrants In whose Minds if they lay open to us
should contract nothing of uncleaness If then all are in fault where are those guiltless people you speak of who have not deserved the punishments they undergo since it is most righteous that punishment should be the inseparable companion of unrighteousness But you vvill say it is the inequality of it that displeases me For vve see them heavily scourged that have but lightly offended vvhile those that are outragiously vvicked do continue and flourish in the height of all their grandeurs Would you then vvrest the ballance out of the hands of the Heavenly Justice and poise it vvith your own vveights agreeable to your own apprehensions For vvhat else can you mean by that bold pronouncing upon the equality or inequality of crimes otherwise than God hath done before you You are therefore here Lipsius to consider of two things First that a true estimation of the crimes of others neither can nor ought to be attempted by Man For how shall he do it that not so much as observes them And vvhich vvay shall he put an exact difference betwixt those things vvhich he hath not so much as seen For you will easily grant it me that it is the Mind that sins by the Body and senses indeed as its instruments but yet so as that the main business and vveight of the crime doth in the mean time depend upon it self This is so exactly true that if it appear any one hath unwillingly sinned he is clear of the sin And if this be so how is it possible I beseech you that you should throughly discern of Sin who are not able to reach to the residence and seat of it For so farr are you from seeing into the Heart and Soul of another that you cannot attain to the knowledge of your own It is therefore a wonderful vanity and no less a temerity to pretend to the Censure and Arbitration of such things as are neither fully seen nor to be seen neither known nor to be known Consider secondly that if what you say were true there were yet neither Evil nor injustice done to them No Evil because it s done for their good who are presently punished even for smaller offences 'T is rather the love of God to them since that punishment vvhich is delayed is justly to be suspected as portending a heavier judgment is to come Neither is it unjust because as I said we have all deserved punishment Nor can the best of us pretend to so unblemished a purity but there vvill be found some such spots in it as are to be vvashed out as I may say vvith this salt water of Affliction Forbear therefore young-man this intricate pursuit of the respects and proportions of crimes And since thou art but an earthly and pedaneous judge leave it to God who from his higher tribunal vvill determine of it vvith greater equity and certainty 'T is he only that can distinguish of our deserts and 't is he alone vvho notwithstanding all artificial disguises can behold both vice and vertue in their proper countenances Who can impose upon him vvho equally searches into things internal and external that sees at once the Body and the Mind the Tongue and the Heart And to conclude those things that are open vvith those that are recluded and retyred Who doth not only most clearly behold our actions themselves but also their causes and the vvhole progress of them When Thales vvas ask'd vvhether a Man might hide his evil actions from God He answered truly no nor his evil thoughts neither Whereas on the contrary vve are here so benighted that vve do not only not see those close sins commited in the bosome and as they say vvithin the Buttons but scarcely those vvhich are open and dragged into the light For vve cannot behold the Crime it self and the vigour of it but some certain footsteps of it vvhen it is already committed and upon its departure They oftentimes are the best Men to us vvho are the worst in the sight of God as on the contrary they are reprobates in our esteem vvho are the choicest to him Forbear therefore if you are vvise to discourse or judge of persons that deserve or deserve not their punishments for such obscure causes as these are not to be decided by some light and superficial appearances CHAP. XVII The Third Objection that punishments are transferred answered That Men do the same why God doth so BUt you have cast another Cloud upon Justice vvhich I must disperse It is concerning substitutes For say you it is not so just that God should transferre punishments and 't is somewhat hard that posterity should rue the crimes of their Ancestours But vvhere is the wonder and strangeness of it I rather vvonder at these vvonderers that they can find a wonder in that which is every day done by themselves here on Earth Pray tell me do not those honours vvhich for his vertue a Prince hath conferred upon the Ancestours descend to his posterity Yes they do and so also do those mulcts and punishments vvhich are inflicted on him for his offences In attaindours for treason or rebellion it is manifest that these are guilty but others share in the punishment vvhich humane cruelty doth so farr enlarge as to make Lawes that follow the innocent Children vvith perpetual vvants such as make life a burthen and death a comfort Perverse Minds who will permit that to be lawful to a Prince or Magistrate which you forbid to God Who yet if you examine it rightly hath a juster reason for his severity For all of us in one have sinned and rebelled against this great King and through so many successive Generations that first blot hath been derived to the unhappy Children So that there is to God a continued twist and chain of Crimes For instance my Father or yours did not begin to sin but all the Fathers of our Fathers What vvonder then is it if he punish in their posterity not properly divers offences but such as by a kind of communion of seed have been still linked and coupled together and never discontinued But to omit these higher speculations and to deal with you in a more popular way of reasoning You must know this that God joynes those things vvhich vve through ignorance and unskilfulness use to sever and that he considers Families Cities and Kingdomes not as divided but as one Body and Nature The Family of the Scipio's or the Caesars is one thing to him Rome or Athens for the whole time of their duration were but one to him and so was the Roman Empire and that very justly for the Society of the same laws and priviledges is that bond vvhich unites these great bodyes and intitles them though in several ages to a communion in partaking of rewards and punishments Were then the Scipio's of old good That Heavenly judge vvill remember it to the advantage of their posterity Were they Evil It shall be hurtful to them Were the Belgians some years ago