take notice once for all That the objects that the senses represent to mens phansies or imaginations are not always really good nor really evil because the judgments of men are oftentimes deluded by the senses who varnish over the good with evil and the evil with good and that is the reason why this phrase of seeming good or seeming evil is used so often in these Discourses Thirdly The definition of passion according to Aristotle and the Bishop of Maâ—seilles Passions argues imperfection in the subject and a distemper in the sensitive power of the soul and here is the definition of the general words of Passions Passion is nothing but a motion of the sensitive appetite proceeding from the apprehension of a reall or seeming good or evil which begets an alteration in the body against the law of Nature Mens passions are born with them and therefore cannot be utterly extinguished neither by an habit of moral Vertue nor by Grace but their sury may be allaid and their distemper regulated they never arise but there is an apparent alteration of the body as it is noted in the desinition above related and this alteration proceeds after this maner the objects having been represented to the imagination by the senses if it conceives them to be good the concupiscible appetite doth intice men to prosecute these objects and having obtained their desire there proceeds from the injoyment of it a passion of joy and delight which dilates the blood with the vital spirits that reside in it to the extreamest part of the body and the heart being deprived of some of his natural heat makes an alteration in the body that is apparently seen in the face which hath by it a more pleasant aspect and a more ruddy complexion then ordinary but if this delight or joy be violent and come unexpectedly it makes a contrary alteration in the face for then it becomes pale and the body falls into a swound That mens passions cause varieties of changes and alterations in the body and sometimes deprives the party of life because the suddain violence of the passion hath driven all the blood and vital spirits from the heart and so for want of heat the life is extinguished Contrarily if the objects procure a passion of fear then the blood and the vital spirits resident in it with-draw from the extream parts of the body and ascend up to the heart to comsort the same and stir up the passion of undantedness to oppose this fear but in the mean time this irregular motion of the heart and the running of the blood causeth an apparent alteration in the body for the face and all the members of the body lose their natural complexion and become pale the knees feet and hands trembling as if the party had the dead-palsey Nay if this passion be violent and happen unexpectedly it will deprive the party of life for it will bring up such a superfluous current of blood and vital spirits about the heart that it will be smothered by it as it shall be proved by divers instances in convenient time and place But some will object How can the powers of the soul sympathize thus with the accidents that happen to the body I answer that it is by the communication that is between the Sensitive power of the soul and the organs of the body as it appears in the passions of Delight and Dolour for if a man injoy any pleasure the sensitive power of the soul hath her part of this delight likewise if his body be racked the sensitive power of his soul suffers her part of the torments for the body and the soul is but one individual the body without a soul being but a lump of clay the one being the matter and the other the form or the the body is the Bulk of the ship and the soul the Helm that guideth the same Fourthly That the heart is the seat of mens passions according to Aristotle in his Physiogn lib. 16. the passions of men are seated in the heart because it is the seat of the Sensitive power from which they are derived and this is the opinion of Aristotle and other ancient and modern Authors yet divers are of another judgment some would have the seat of them to be in the liver others in the gall others in the spleen but because the reasons arguments they use to prove their opinion have been confuted for erronious I will not trouble you with them specially sith our blessed Saviour doth confirm by these words d Matth. 7.21 that they are seated in the heart For from within out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders c. And these are the effects of mens passions nay And of Beau-Lieu in his Body of Philosophy pa. 722 723. daily experience confirms the point by the carriage of young children who are addicted to envy vindication wrath and divers other passions before they be able by their rational power to distinguish the good from the evil because the rational power that is seated in the Understanding doth increase by age but the Sensitive power is bred with us and therefore the heart is the true seat of the passions affections and inclinations of men As for the number of the passions of men it is uncertain for they may be multiplied by the limitation of their objects as the windes have been of late for at the first they were but four the East North West and South and then they were multiplied to eight and afterwards to sixteen and then to two and thirty and of late they have been multiplied to threescore and four as for the passions Aristotle was of opinion that there was but one general passion and that was Love Others said there were but two and they were Delight and Dolour others said there were but four and they were Ioy Sorrow Hope and Fear and this opinion was grounded upon reason for whatsoever men act or undertake they delight grieve fear or hope That there is eleven general passions But Beau-lieu and the Bishop of Marseilles maintain there are eleven general passions but Senault a modern Author hath made them up twelve to make the passions of the Irascible appetite equall with those of the Concupiscible appetite and so hath brought in remisness which in the two former Authors opinions nor in mine can be no general passion because it is mixt or composed of Love and Compassion and these are the eleven general passions and the six of the Concupiscible appetite shall have the precedency First Love Secondly Hatred Thirdly Desire Fourthly Flight or Eschewing Fifthly Ioy. Sixthly Dolour or Sorrow and these are the five of the Irascible appetite First Fear Secondly Vndauntedness or Boldness Thirdly Hope Fourthly Despair Fifthly Wrath or Choler And here followeth their definition according to Beau-Lieu The definition of these eleven passions according to Beau-Lieu pag. 723. which I conceive to be the best First
Christians have with their gracious God by contemplation meditation or fervent prayers The first is a sudden and violent motion of the heart that causeth a great alteration in the body The definition of Joy See Theuphrast Boju in his Commentaties upon Aristotle Phys fol. 727. proceeding in the opinion of the Moralists from the possession or fight of some object much desired which is really good or reputed to be so by the imagination of men yet it will appear by the proprieties and effects of it that it doth not always come from the possession or injoyment of a beloved object or from an imaginary good but sometimes from relations scurrilous speeches ridiculous postures and deformedobjects for Joy is as I have said before an affection of the minde and is rather infused in the Heart by the Eye and by the Ear then by any of the other three Senses for those are more proper to the passion of Volupty of which Delight or Delectation is a branch however it is the fifth passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and proceeds from divers causes as it will appear in the next Discourse Secondly The causes of worldly joy are either Publick or Private the Publick proceed commonly from the immediate hand of God or from his favor or by his permission and of these I shall speak in the first place first It was a great cause of publick joy proceeding from the immediate hand of God to the people of Israel presently after their coming out of Egypt to see the sea go back Exod. 14.21 to 31. and make a free passage for their host to pass through the midst of it and when they were all safe come to dry land to see the rowling waves of the sea to turn back and overwhelm Pharoah and all his Army secondly It was a cause of publick Joy when it pleased the Lord to deliver the people of the Iews from that bloody decree obtained by Haman from the great King Ahasuerus against the whole Nation of the Iews Esther 3.4 The causes of publick joy that were scattered through the one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of the said Kings Dominions for which admirable deliverance the people of Israel made the 15th and 16th day of the moneth Adar days of Thanksgiving and of Feasting and Rejoycing from one generation to the other which were called the days of Purim See the Spanish and Turkish History thirdly It was the cause of publick joy to the Venetians and to all Christendom when God was pleased to give unto the Christian Fleet such a memorable victory over the Turkish Navy at the Battel of Lepantho for which after thanks given to God many days of Feasting and Rejoycing were kept at Venice and other parts of Christendom fourthly See Speed in the life of King James It was an incredible cause of publick joy for England when the Lord was pleased to deliver this Nation from the devillish plot of the Gunpouder Treason for which miraculous deliverance after hearty thanks given to God great Feasting Bond-fires and other expressions of joy were made in London and through the whole Land 1. It was a cause of private joy to the old Patriarch Jacob to hear by the report of his sons that his beloved son Joseph Gen. 45.26 who he thought had been devoured by wild beasts was chief Governor of Egypt and the next man in honor to the King 2. It was a cause of private joy for old Iesse The causes of private joy 1 Sam. 16.12 to see his youngest son David from a Shepherd to be promoted to be King of all Israel and specially to be reputed by God himself to be a man after his own heart 3. It was a cause of private joy for old Mordecay to see his Neece Esther Esther 2.16 from a Captive to be exalted to be the wife of the great King Ahasuerus and the greatest Queen in the world 4. It was a cause of incomprehensible joy to the Virgin Mary and to all mankinde to hear the blessed and glad tidings that the Angel Gabriel brought her from the Lord saying Behold Luke 1.26.46 thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David whereupon the Virgin Mary transported with joy and ravished in spirit sung some dayes after this excellent Song My soul doth magnify the Lord beginning at the fourty sixt Verse of the first Chap. of St. Luke Here was a true and real Cause of Spiritual Joy not onely for the Virgin Mary but also for all the Elected of God who by free grace have part in the merits of Christ By these Instances it appears that these causes of joy did proceed from the seeing and hearing which are the two Senses most proper to the passion of Joy There are divers other Causes of worldly joy which are not so well grounded as these but are most vain and ridiculous and they are these following The joy of private and worldly men suits with their inclinations first The Ambitious will rejoyce in the increase of their honors secondly The Covetous men in the abundance of their riches thirdly The causes of private mens joy The Voluptuous men will rejoyce in the injoyment of their pleasures fourthly The Merchants and Trades-men in the increase of their Trade fifthly The Lawyers in the multiplicity of their Clients and in the discord of their neighbors sixthly The prophane and Libertine in all manner of ridiculous Sports scurrilous Songs lewd Musick Dancing Valting and in lascivious Pictures and Postures and in Chambering Gluttony and Drunkenness and these are the common and ordinary causes of the joy of worldly men Let the Reader judg then whether carnal joy be not meer vanity and vexation of Spirit for the great vanity of it moved Solomon to say I said of laughter Eccles 2.2 it is mad and of mirth what doth it and the very truth is that men transported with immoderate joy are like fools and mad men Thirdly The proprieties of worldly joy are these first Worldly joy is of hot temper secondly It is of a dilative or spreading quality and these two proprieties are the cause that sudden joy doth bereave men of life for when some beloved object or glad tidings are unexpectedly represented to the eyes or ears of men this causeth a violent alteration in all the parts of the body but specially in the heart by means of the hot and dilative quality of this passion of Joy because the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it are with great violence driven from the inward parts to the extremity of the members of the body The proprieties of worldly joy whereby mens hearts are deprived of their natural heat and of their vital spirits and so fall into a swoon
or if this motion be over-fierce and violent it doth extinguish their life as the snuff of a Candle goeth out when it hath no more tallow to sustain its light Now the heart who is the efficient cause of life being thus deprived of heat loseth its motion upon which depends the life of men for the beating of the heart gives life and motion to all the members of the body and is congealed and frozen to death by this sudden motion and privation as water is congealed into Ice by a great frost and this may be confirmed by another violent action of men of which many are yet living that were eye-witnesses to it Two English Foot-men running a race for a great wager from London to Kingston did by their swift and violent running so drive their blood and vital spirits from the heart to the extreamest parts of their bodies that their faces looked as black as their hats one of them obtained the victory and out-ran the other about twenty yards and being joyful of his gain and honor presumed over-much of his strength and did not use the means to preserve himself as the other did who was much more distempered then he whereby his blood and vital spirits in stead of returning to the heart were congealed in the extream parts of his body by taking cold which did deprive him of life within few hours after but the other putting on his apparel and covering himself with a warm cloak prayed two of his fellows to walk him up and down till his blood and vital spirits were setled again about his heart A remarkable Relation and by this means he was as well the next morning as ever he was before now the motion of the blood being more violent by the inward distemper of the fiery passion of Joy then it can be by the motion of a long-continued race it must by consequence be more dangerous and mortal then the other thirdly As the immoderate Joy hath dangerous proprieties the moderate joy hath many good for moderate joy preserves and increaseth the health of the body fourthly It giveth a seemly and loving aspect and a fresh colour to the face fifthly It makes mens company and conversation more pleasant and acceptable to all other men sixthly It makes men more chearful in their particular and general calling and pass their days through this vale of Tears with more alacrity and content Fourthly The effects of immoderate Joy would be incredible The effects of immoderate joy See Livius in his third Decade li. 3. if they had not been recorded by approved and faithful Authors first A Roman Lady saith Livius died with joy at the sight of her son whom she conceived to have been slain at the battell of Cannae secondly The Author of the Turkish History Records See the Turkish History in the life of Achmath that Sinna Basha had but one son of great valour who was taken prisoner in a sea fight by a Venetian Galley whereupon tidings were brought to Sinna his father that he had been slain in that fight because he had been wounded but by the care of the Captain of the Galley who hoped to receive a great ransom for him he did recover and his wounds were cured and it hapned some days after before the Venetian Galley could carry him to shore that it was taken at sea by Cicala Basha a great friend of the above-said Sinnae who finding this prisoner of note in the Venetian Galley was exceedingly joyful as knowing how grateful a present it would be to his friend and therefore after he had apparelled him with rich vestures he sent him in a well-appointed Galley and with an honorable train to his father Sinna that had lately been made grand Visier by Achmath Emperor of the Turks who was then at Caffa upon the black sea but this yong man was no sooner come into his sight but Sinna transported with joy fell dead at his sons feet whereby it appears that he who had the power to bear with admirable constancy the tidings of the death of his onely son had not the power to moderate the joy that he did receive by his unexpected return thirdly Theophrastus Boujou records the names and means of a dozen more at least who have died suddenly by the violent distemper of immoderate joy some by honors received others for seeing their mortal enemy ly wallowing in his own blood See Boujou in his Commentary upon Aristotle lib. 19. ca. 39. fol. 835. ready to give up the Ghost and others by looking upon Pictures which by their ugly features inforced them to such an immoderate laughter as it did deprive them of life others for being victorious in the Olympian Sports and others in the field as it is recorded of Epamonides and of the Duke of Roan who died rather for joy of two great victories obtained against their enemies in two pitcht battels then by their wounds Fifthly The bad and good use of this passion of Joy doth onely consist in the not regulating or in the regulating of it for if Joy be let in to the soul by degrees the sting and venom of it is changed into an Antidote and doth rather comfort Nature then destroy it for as it is dangerous to open the Floud-gates of a river suddenly The bad and good use of worldly joy and all at once for fear the violence of the water break down the banks and pull up the foundation of the sluce even so it is dangerous to let in into the soul all at once the swift currant of good or evil tidings therefore if Cicala Basha had only at the first sent word to the Visier Sinna that he had happily rescued his son and that as soon as his wounds should be cured he would send him back unto him in an honorable condition this had undoubtedly prevented the death of this old man but the sudden and unexpected sight of his son whom he thought to have been dead caused so violent a perturbation in his minde and so great an alteration in the vital faculties of his body that his natural strength being then in his declining age was overcome with it and his life utterly extinguished as the light of a candle is by a violent blast of winde But the Duke of Medina Coeli who was General for Philip the second King of Spain See the Spanish History in Philip the seconds life of the invincible Armado as they termed it that came against England in the Year 1588. did deal more prudently with his Prince for his ship being the first that arrived into Spain after the utter rout of this great Navy he sent a discreet Messenger unto him to inform him that some part of his Navy had miscarried by foul weather and that himself had been driven back by a storm and eight days after he sent another messenger to the King informing him of the particulars and some days after came in person to give him
drinking of it become worse then bruit Beasts because they deprive themselves of Judgment and Reason The Viper is naturally rank poyson and yet the Mithridate and other Antidotes against venoms are composed of it even so this passion of Fear is much abused and made worse then it is although it proceed from an evil spring I mean the weakness and infirmity of men yet God is pleased to make good use of it to convert sinners and to make them prosecute with greater fervency then they would otherwise do the ways of Righteousness Divers conceive Fear to be a Feminine passion and unworthy to be harbored in a Masculine Brest yet it maketh the proudest of men to be cautious and circumspect in their undertakings and clips the wings of their vain hopes and ambitious designes Tacitus saith See Tasitus in the life of Nero. That it serves as a curb to the licentious will of Princes and of all others that are in power and authority and for instance saith That as long as Agrippina the mother of the Emperor Nero lived of whom he stood in fear his actions were not so exorbitantly wicked as after her death but he having like a graceless son deprived her of life took free liberty to commit the greatest impieties that his heart could imagine And Joash King of Juda did the like for as long as Jehojada the high Priest lived whom he feared he seemed to love the Lord but soon after his death he gave himself over to Idolatry and cruelty for like an ungrateful wretch he caused Zechariah 2 Chro. 24.17 22. the son of Jehojada to be slain because he onely delivered unto him the message he had received from the Lord. Divers prefer Love before Fear but there cannot be any true Love without Fear Others say it is better to be feared then beloved but it is better to be equally loved and feared for men without Love endevor to be rid of the object of their Fears But if men be beloved and feared this composure keeps off all danger and begets security and obedience Neither can there be any filial obedience without Love for the obedience that proceeds from Fear is not free Prov. 1.7 and 20.2 but forced The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg And the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul How much more should men be afraid to provoke Gods wrath by their sins and yet that is one of their least fears for they fear those things which they should not fear and fear not to sin which they should most fear But sith the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and of all saving knowledg which knowledg doth teach men to be afraid of sin which is the greatest evil Give me leave to inlarge my discourse upon these ensuing particulars that you may know to fear nothing but sin 1. On the definition of Fear 2. On the Nature of it 3. On the causes and remedies of mens fears 4. On the evil and good Effects of Fear 5. On the Spirtiual use of Fear The Moralists do vary in opinion Boujou in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phâ—s lib. 16. cap. 6. concerning the definition of this Passion of Fear Fear saith one is a passion and apprehension of an evil that is to come but near at hand and looked for and unlikely to be avoided Fear saith another The Bishop of Marseille p. 408. is nothing else but a Grief and Dolor of the soul apprehending an evil at hand in which men see little probability it can be eschewed although it aims at the annihilation of their Being or to some dismal disgrace that threatneth their life or estate Yet it will appear by the nature the proprieties and effects of Fear that men are rather transported with Fears of imaginary Evils then of real and that mens fears do but rarely proceed from the annihilation of their Being However it is the fourth passion incident to the irrascible Appetite and the opposite and great Antagonist to the noble passion of Undantedness Secondly The nature of Fear is different from the nature of Joy for Joy dilates the blood and the vital spirits residing in it from the heart to the utmost parts of the body contrarily Fear withdraws the blood from the extreams of the body to the heart because Fear is a cold passion and the heart finding this cold to oppress it withdraws and calls as it were the blood and vital spirits from the further parts of the body to his ayd that by their natural heat he may be revived and cherished And that is the reason why divers men and women have been deprived of life by a sudden fear or fright because this cold passion congealeth the blood about the heart as a great frost congealeth water into Ice but if the Fear be not so violent yet it produceth a great alteration in the body for mens and womens faces will become as white as a cloth and sometimes all their members will tremble as a leaf and the motion proceeding from this alteration is so swift and forcible that women great with-childe miscarry by it nay it doth oftentimes turn the childe in their womb which depriveth the mother and the childe of life But Fear and Dolor have a great resemblance one with the other for they have both this withdrawing quality and are both of an extream cold and dry nature and therefore Fear and Sorrow are compared to the Winter Season and Joy and Delectation to the Spring and Summer in which the vegetative Creatures sprought and spring out their branches leaves flowers and fruits but in Winter time they withdraw their sap which is their life into their Roots as Fear and Sorrow doth draw the blood and vital spirits about the heart that is the essential cause and motion of mens lives Having both one and the same end the vegetatives to preserve themselves from the Frost and Snow and the heart to warm and cherish it self against these cold and frosty passions of Fear and Sorrow Thirdly The causes of mens fears are many and of several natures and by consequence their remedies must be proportionable unto them I will therefore speak first of the causes and to every cause apply the remedy but as I have said a little before mens fears do oftner proceed from imaginary evils then from the real and the worst propriety of this passion of Fear is That it anticipates and creates Fears in the Minde the real effects of which evils oftentimes are not like to trouble such as apprehend them nor their childrens children which kinde of Fear proceeds from a distrust of Gods providence and therefore as odious to God as any other kinde of Fear as it shall be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this passion First Worldly men Fear to loose their honors and dignities Secondly Their treasures and riches Thirdly
inlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the Definition of this Passion 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. On the evil and good Effects of it 5. On the Spiritual Use of it First This Passion hath several names some call it Confidence and have good reason for it because it is its unseperable companion others call it Audacity but this terme doth blemish the true Nature of it The definition of the passion of Undantedness for audacious and presumptuous men are held to be under one and the same predicament other call it boldness but this word is often taken for Impudency but the French call it Hardiesse which doth express most properly the nature of it which is Undantedness in the English Tongue And here is the definition of it according to the judgment of the best Moralists Boujou fol. 7 23. Vndantedness saith one is an affection and assurance to eschew an evil and to overcome all the difficulties of it Vndantedness The Bishop of Marseilles in pag. 401. saith another is a Passion of the soul which strengtheneth the same and makes it confident it can overcome the most difficult evils that can befall it in this life and doth also incourage it to prosecute the good that is most difficult to obtain And to this last definition I assent as concerning the same the best of the two for it doth truely express the nature of this passion which is the third passion incident to the Irascible Appetite 2. The Causes of it are many but they may be reduced to these six the two first are Natural the two middlemost accidental and the two last supernatural The first natural cause of undantedness is a hot and moist temper of the body The first Natural cause may be a moist and hot temper of the body for the Naturalists have observed that all such as are of that constitution of body have ordinarily an undanted spirit The Natural reason of it is that this hot and moist temper doth suppress the Melancholick humor and its evil proprieties and effects whereby the blood that is hot and airy an ful ofvital spirits and the bilia that is dry and fiery and the flegm that is cold and moist being thus mixt become of a dilative nature and by the motion of the heart spread themselves into all the utmost parts of the body and inableth the minde to undertake and the body to execute all maner of generous designs be they never so difflcult or perillous The second natural cause of Undantedness may be the largeness of the heart of men for it hath been observed by the Physitians when they have opened the bodies of valiant and undanted spirits that their hearts were larger then the hearts of ordinary men See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and King Xerxes King of Persia having caused the body of Leonidas King of Sparta to be opened partly out of admiration of his valour and in part out of curiosity The second natural cause of undantedness is the largeness of the harts of men to see whether the heart of such an undanted spirit was larger then the hearts of common men he found the same to be as big again and hairy all over a natural propriety incident to such as are of a hot and moist constitution of body to abound in hair The Natural reason why men with larger hearts then others should be addicted to Valour and Undantedness is this that the larger the heart is the morevital spirits it can contain which are the essential causes of Valour and Undantedness and therefore it may very well be that the largeness of the heart is a natural cause of Undantedness That tall and burly men are commonly less valorous then short and middle stastured men Divers men are of opinion that tall and burly bodied men are more addicted to Valour and Undantedness then short and middle-statur'd men but they are mistaken for tall men have smaller hearts then others and are also commonly more faint-hearted then other men and the Naturalists give this reason for it If their hearts say say were proportionable to their body they might have reason to be of that opinion but it is commonly smaller because Nature extended its vertue to the utmost parts deprives the inward parts of it Besides all the vitall spirits reside in the bloud and in the heart and by its motion they are dispersed through all the parts of the body Now the farther distant these parts are from the heart the longer time are the vital spirits a going to quicken and vivifie them and by consequence tall and burlybodied men are fuller of Flesh then of Spirits and less couragious then others It is true that they have a presuming undantedness because of their strength but what is done by strength proceeds from Strength and not from Valour which doth reside in the heart and in the minde and not in the arms and in the sinews And the most valorous and undanted spirits of this Age and of other Ages were for the most part short or at the most of a middle stature Leonidas See Plutarch in Peleopidas life and Peleopidas were but short men and Sir Francis Veere and Sir Francis Drake and the Marshal de Biron and the Marshal Gastion were all short men I conclude then that Valour and undantedness doth reside in the heart and minde and not in the strength of the body and that some of all statures may be valiant and undanted The first accidentall cause may be the innocency of men and the justice of their Cause for as Salomon saith Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a a Lyon and it is daily seen that three true men will overcome half a dozen of theeves And when men fight for the preservation of the Liberties of their native Countrey and the lives of their wives and children and all the means they have they fight commonly like Lyons The second accidentall cause of Undantedness may be The relations support or alliances that men have with potent and powerful Princes or States for the confidence they have to be backt and supported by them doth make them undertake with undanted courage difficult and perillous enterprises The two accinentall causes of the undantedness of men for Instance The Hollanders a small Commonwealth being at the first supported by Elizabeth Queen of England and afterwards by Henry the fourth King of France have for many years together undantedly waged war with the great King of Spain and likewise the Kingdom of Sweden a petty Kingdom in comparison of the Empire of Germany being supported by Lewis the 13th King of France hath with an undanted courage waged war many years with the House of Austria See the Histories of Germany England and France Thirdly The first supernatural cause of the undantedness of men may be their zeal to Religion for
was the Master-piece of all Gods works and to whom he had given an unlimited prerogative over the beast of the field the fowl of the air and the fishes of the sea did by his disobedience become inferior to the most despised creatures under the Sun and by his sin all his posterity that lived under the state of Nature are more miserable and fuller of vanity then any of the unreasonable creatures for ever since they have been an object of c Heraclitus sorrow to some or a subject of d Democritus derision to others But because the vanity and misery of their lives will best appear first by their Conception secondly by their Infancie thirdly by their adolescency fourthly by their virility fifthly by their declination sixthly by their decrepit age I will will speak of them in order For the first concerning their conception e Psal 51.5 Behold saith the Prophet David I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me it proceeds from a carnall delight which God hath been pleased for the increase and the preservation of mankinde to give to the act of generation for if in lieu of delight this act had been accompanied with dolour the world had been before this time deprived of reasonable creatures because of the antipathy there is between Nature and Dolour but between Nature and Delight there is a loving simpathy which begetteth a desire in the Males and Females of conjunction for to increase or preserve their kinde Now if this conjunction be not according to the Commandment of God by adhering every man to his wife and every wife to her husband this Delight becoms a Lust and by consequence a sin odious to God and men But suppose it be by the undefiled bed of Matrimony yet their conception according to the Naturalists that have dived into the secrets of Nature is strange and homely for six dayes after the conjunction say they of the husband and the wife the seed of them both is by the naturall heat of the womb turned into a kinde of milk which is inclosed within a skin much like to the skin of an Egg and nine dayes after it becomes blood having within it three small bladders the one containing the substance of the heart the second containing the substance of the brain and the third containing the substance of the liver and then after twelve days it becomes flesh and then by the admirable work of God the members are formed and by degrees the veins sinews and nerves are strengthened and within eighteen days more it pleaseth God to infuse into it a living soul and so the childe having life draws his food by his Navel and by it increaseth daily in strength and this food is no other dainties then the menstruall blood of his mother held to be the most polluted excrement of Nature now after it hath been imprisoned nine moneths in this obscure prison and fed seven months and an half with this lothsome food nature growing strong it breaketh by strugling the skin of the bladder above spoken of and feeling the air endeavors to come forth so by his pangs groans and struggling and the violent travel of his mother it is produced to the light many miscarrying at their birth by divers accidents and others in their mothers womb some by the fright of their mothers others by some rub on her sides or by the loathsom sent of the snuff of a candle besides their mother is subject to swoundings longings during her childe-bearing and their longings and fond desires are most commonly for fruits or for strange and unsavory meats which being debarred causeth oftentimes the mother and the childe to miscarry together The consideration of these things should humble the proudest man upon earth and make him acknowledg ingenuously that of all other creatures under the Sun his conception and birth are the most miserable For the second Concerning the Infancie of men it begins at their birth and continues till they be fifteen years of age the two first years of it is nothing but impotencie and weak imbecillity to himself and charge trouble and vexation to his Parents and whereas other creatures by the benefit of Nature can stand upon their legs and seek after their food man the Lord Paramont of them all is swadled in clouts and not able to help himself the yong Chickins as soon as they are hatched can run after their Dam to seek for food and have that sagacity to hide themselves under her wings at the fluttering of the Kite the Lambs Calves and yong Colts stand suddenly upon their legs to seek their Dams teats but man would perish if his mother by her naturall affection did not bring the nipple of her breast to his mouth and rock him upon her knees and for the three or four years of this infancy he must be carefully tended for fear he should like f Josephus in his Antiquities Moses put burning coles into his mouth in stead of food or kill himself with a knife or some sharp edged tool and in the fifth and sixth year of his age care must be taken that Horses Carts or Coaches run not over him in the streets and at seven years of his age he must be carefully brought up to learning according to his birth or degree either at the Grammar School or to learn to Write Cypher or to keep Accompts that he may be inabled at fifteen years of age to be sent to the University or placed with merchants or Trades-men that by a lawfull calling he may live like a man for the time to come Now for as much as it is the fittest time for the education of children from seven years of age to fifteen Parents must be carefull in that time if they intend to have any comfort of them to bring them up in the true fear of God to break them of their Will and make them attain to an habit of Piety and morall Vertue for Education goes beyond Nature and a yong twig will bend any way but an old standard will rather break then bow and therefore Salomon saith g Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it and in the 22. Vers he saith h Pro. 22.15 Folly is naturally bound in the heart of a childe but the rod of correction will drive it far from him and correction to wilfull children is as usefull to them as their meat and drink Withhold not i Pro. 23.13 correction from the childe saith Salomon for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell By these Precepts of the Prince of Wisdom it is apparent that the onely way to have comfort of our children is to correct them when they are yong and the onely reason why this age doth abound more then the former in rebellious children is the indulgency of the