love too much he being infinitely worthy of our highest Affection yet 't were our Happiness if we could dilate our Hearts and Souls wider to be more capable of this Passion for the most incomparable deserving Object of it The love we bear the Creatures is always restless and never perfect because attended with so many uncertainties Those whom we love most may or hate us or be treacherous to us but admitting they were all that we can desire they should be yet alas they are mortal and that Fidelity which they protested to us cannot exempt them from the Law of Nature As they were born so they must dye By consequence then where the Creature is the Object of our Love we cannot but be unhappy Fixing then our Love upon God can only secure our Felicity We are certain he will love us as long as we love him since he even lov'd us before the infiniteness of his Goodness and the immutability of his Nature may arm us against all Apprehensions He deserves the most to be belov'd since his Love to us can't change but with our Love to him and whenever we by transgression dissolve this union he is ready and willing to pardon us upon our Repentance and take us into favour again Friendship is one of the principal effects of Love between Man and Man even Barbarians esteem it and Nature could not subsist without it To banish it the World were to subvert Governments overthrow Cities and turn the Condition of Man into that of Beasts to live wild in the Desarts 't is the Band of humane Society and the greatest moral Contentment we find here on Earth However if it have its Charms it is not without its Cruelties too For as Nature has made nothing without some Blemish so there is no Pleasure so entire but has some Stings Absence is a short Death and Death an everlasting absence We are vulnerable in the Person of our Friend and often more sensible of his Miseries than of our own what Misfortunes fall upon him are by so much the more insupportable to us as the Person was esteemed Who loses a Friend loses the better half of himself surviving that part only to be the more sensible of his Misery Friendship between different Sexes as it is not to be contracted but with danger so 't is much better to avoid it For tho' there is no distinction of Sexes in the Soul yet such an amity cannot be without Scandal tho' it might be peradventure without a Crime The World is grown too corrupt and a strict familiarity between Man and Woman cannot be long entertain'd without sensible peril to both Nature will be mixing certain motions with those of Friendship which cannot but have fatal consequences When Man shall be an Angel he shall be permitted to converse with Woman For till he is divested of his Body he will not be without a Criminal desire Therefore we must resolve never to approach too near these glittering Stars whose malignant Influences ruin our Innocence and whose Rays do not so much enlighten as they burn We must not only love our Friends but Neighbours Every thing that is Man has a right to our Affections But the consummation of this Passion is when setting aside those base ignoble Considerations of Profit or Pleasure we arrive to that glorious pitch as to love even our very Enemies This is a real proof of the verity and ardour of our Affection and if it is not advanc'd so far it can't but be imperfect and so forfeit all its pretensions to the reward of a Virtue 'T is intolerable to see with what Idolatry the Miser beholds his Bags and how much Love he bestows upon a Metal that can make as few returns to his Affection as it is insensible of it With what extravagancy some admire a Flower which fades even whilst they smell it and which is irreparably lost if they crop it Others more Brutes than the very Dogs they follow postpone every thing to a Kennel of Hounds 'T is a shame for a rational Creature to place so much fondness on one that is insensible There is I know a feeble shadow of Fidelity in Dogs and of Love in Horses but as they are irrational they are not properly Objects of our Love we may esteem them answerable to the service we draw from them but more is unpardonable 'T is highly absurd indeed if we reflect seriously on it that that Noble Passion which was given us to constitute our Felicity should be so misplac'd as only to argue the highest Folly in us that can well be and that one Heart should love God and a Beast at the same time Of the Nature and Properties of Hatred ONE would think there were nothing in Nature more contrary to Man than Hatred is and since he derives his Name from Humanity he should never be reconcil'd to a Passion that breaths forth nothing but Blood and Cruelty However this is as much a part of his Essence as Love it self is And if he has occasion for Love to unite him to those things he desires he stands in no less need of Hatred to preserve him from those that might annoy him The whole Universe subsisteth but by the contrariety of the Elements If the Waters coolness did not allay the violence of the Fire the whole World had been long since in Cinders So is it with the lesser World of Man's Body did not the radical Moisture temper the natural Heat he would perish immediately without redress Hatred is as necessary a Passion as Love and we might justly accuse Nature of Cruelty or Neglect if having given us a propensity to Good she had not also taught us to hate and avoid what we thought not so Hatred is in its birth no more than an aversion to any thing that displeases us 't is an Antipathy of the Appetite or the impression that a disagreeable Object makes on the inferior part of the Soul It has this property in common with Love that it often prevents our Reason and is establish'd in our Will without asking advice of our Judgments And it has likewise this property different from Love that we perceive it even in its conception proceeding from an Object that wounds us she makes us suffer from her very birth and is not sooner establish'd in our Breast but she turns our Tormentor One moment only is enough to produce her and if she be not curb'd immediatly she casts Fire and Flame through all the Faculties of the Soul and like that active Element converts all it meets with to its Nourishment Her greatest Evil is that she dies not so soon as Love doth when once it hath taken root it laughs at all attempts of repressing it Philosophy that boasts such mighty Victories over the Passions could never cure this Frenzy I wonder not that Hatred when inveterate should make some Parents oblige their Children to a perpetual enmity with their Enemies and so expire cursing them if
ever they should hearken to a reconciliation since it is so impetuous in its motions that it makes a Man despise his own life to prosecute his Revenge nay dye with Joy and Consolation if he can but crush his Enemy with his own Fall From hence we may learn the violence of Hatred that there is no Torment but it despises no Crime so enormous but it resolves on it presently to farther its furious Instigations If the Properties of this Passion are so very strange its Effects are fatal She is the occasion of all the Tragical Actions which swell up History and indeed he who follows her counsel is capable of committing any thing This Hellish Passion taught us that Man could dye in the Flower of his Age without any Distemper and that a Brother was not always safe in the company of his Brother She gave us first the Cursed Instructions of mixing Poison with Drink and murthering People under the colour of Hospitality 'T was she and not Avarice tore up the bowels of the Earth to furnish Instruments for her Cruelty She teaches us to kill Man decently and makes us approve of a Parricide if it be but according to Art In a word after she has pronounc'd most bloody Sentences as a Judge she will her self have the pleasure of executing them as a Hang-man The Good Use of Hatred ALL the Works of Nature are perfect and cannot without Jnjustice become Objects of our Hatred Another likes what I do not and what displeases my sight gratifies his smell And what Nature has produc'd of most unacceptable aspect is a foil to the most charming and illustrates the variety of the Created Beings All such things then must be exempted from the violence of this Passion Sin only can be its proper and legitimate Object and that with this reservation too that our own Offences be rather made so than those of our Neighbour We know not so well the Circumstances of his Transgression as our own We are not Judges over him therefore must not exercise our hatred with his failings It s greatest edge must be against our selves and there it can never prove excessive when we justifie God's Goodness by our implacable hatred of iniquity 'T is an act of Justice to abominate sin And David thought he shewed his Love to God when he demonstrated his hatred to his Enemies and therefore ceased praising him to curse the wicked and ungodly To make our Hatred meritorious as was that of the Royal Prophet it must have those two Conditions with it which his had That is we must hate Sin but not Nature We must detest the work of the Creature but cherish and admire that of God Thus by the assistance of Grace Hatred becomes a Virtue and assistant both to Justice and Charity But she is practised much more securely against our own Imperfections than those of our Neighbours Self-love here will tye up our hands that we shall never exceed in it what holy Fury soever our Love to God might inspire us with yet that natural inclination we have to our selves would hinder us from proceeding without any dangerous severity The hating our selves is one of the Foundations of Christ's Gospel We must deny our selves and follow him if we will be his Disciples Love and Hatred are taught in his School after an extraordinary manner For we are to give all our Love to our Neighbour and to reserve the same degree of Hatred for our selves This Command is more rigorous in appearance than effect For under the severity which it seems to carry along with it there is conceal'd the sweetness of Love for by a happy destiny attending this prosecution of Hatred we love our selves so much the more really by how much we hate our selves for sin This Doctrine of our Saviour extends to the Spirit as well as the Flesh and enjoyns us not only Mortification to repress the sawcy motions of the Body but Self-denial thereby submitting our very Will to that of God Our Hatred cannot be perfect if it reach no farthet than the Body alone for it must equally act against every disorder that is caus'd by sin And as Nature has lost her Original Purity so both the parts whereof she consisteth are become criminal The inclinations of the Soul are not more innocent than those of the Body they have both their imperfections and are both corrupted What thick Clouds of Error and Ignorance obfuscate our Understanding With what labour do we learn and how easily is it all forgotten our Memory which passes for a Miracle in Nature treasures up Idea's that are false as well as what are not so She is treacherous and leaves us at a pinch furnishing us rather with futilous unnecessary things than what are of moment to us Perfectly to practise this great Doctrine of Jesus Christ we must denounce War against both Soul and Body and Combate the Darkness of our Understanding the Weakness of our Memory the Malice of our Will the Error of our Imagination and the Perfidiousness of our Senses together with the Rebellion of every Member of our Body These ill Qualities which deface the Image of the Creator in the Creature are the proper Objects of all our Hatred we may abhor them with Innocence and punish them without Injustice In a word we must detest and abominate every thing that Sin produces and which Grace cannot suffer Of the Nature and Properties of Desire DEsire is the Motion of the Soul towards a good which it loveth but is not yet in possession of from this Definition we may gather its first and chiefest Property which is Inequitude There can be no real Contentment where this Passion is conceived Some have voluntarily condemned themselves to horrours and miseries thinking every Remedy pleasant that cur'd so intollerable a Malady Seneca tells us of a Woman who followed her Son into Banishment chusing rather the Torments of Exile than those of regretting her Son's Absence and desiring his Return But Nature who designed this Passion for a Plague hath given us Hope for to mitigate the Horrours which its Motions create for 't is the wretchedness of the damned to desire without Hope of ever obtaining and to languish after a Felicity which 't is impossible for them to possess This Torment alone is far more insupportable to them than the scorching of the inquenchable Flames or the Company of Devils nay more sensible than the very Eternity of their Damnation it self But 't is not in Hell alone that this Passion exerts it self in the Rigours of its Cruelty she afflicts Man here upon Earth and she is a Minister of Divine Justice she is also by a Holy Artifice subservient to Mercy The Innocent and Godly desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ This Passion gives Life and Motion to all the others in our Soul Hatred only tortures us because it desires Revenge Ambition because it thirsts after Honours Avarice because it longeth after Gold and all
suspended during his Agony for it was not without Cause that he cry'd My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Soul is much more happy than the Body by this Union for by the very Reflection on a past Misery she creates to her self new Pains whereof the Body feels no part and so of but one only Evil she makes a double Martyrdom The effect of this melancholy Passion are very strange for when Sorrow is not extreme she is ingenious and renders Man Eloquent without the benefit of Rhetorick to hear their pathetick Expressions that multitude of Sighs that so easily second the energy of their lugubrous Discourses one would think that the greatest horrours and anguish of Nature were infinitely less than what they groan under But when she is extreme she stupifies hardly leaving Man the use of any Sense and who was so florid in describing a small Evil confesses by his silence that this is without comparison greater since it is unutterable Curae leves loquuntur magnae stupent This mighty alteration gave occasion to the Poets to feign that it Converted some into Rocks others into Stones The good use of Sorrow VVE must not wonder if the Stoicks condemn a Passion when they do not approve even of the very Virtues she produces placing their Wisemen in such a State of Felicity that no humane cause could ever interrupt In the plundering of a City or the destruction of their Country they were still as unmov'd as Jupiter would be at the dissolution of the Universe and if they granted a Sigh to a deceased Parent or shed a Tear with the reflection of their Countries Ruin yet this was without ever Affecting the Soul whose Felicity consisting in its self it could not be mov'd by any external Cause But sure the pomp of these haughty Expressions could be only to preserve the Soul in her Sovereignty and perswade us not to be so far overwhelm'd with the pain of the Body as to dethrone the Mind and of the Malady of the Slave make the Misery of the Sovereign which the better to effect she us'd the policy of the Orators who by their Hyperboles perswade us of Verities and prove all things possible to animate us to some that are difficult Therefore that the Soul might not sink under the weakness of the Body but be establish'd in her Empire they have made use of Terms somewhat more Eloquent than true Sorrow is so reasonable a Passion that there are some Junctures wherein it were Impiety not to be afflicted and we must not only bewail our own Sins but our Neighbours Miseries We stand indebted to this Passion for our Innocence because our conversion to Grace is perfected in our sorrow for Sin and the Justice of God satisfied with the sincerity of our Tears In other Circumstances she works not so miraculously If our Afflictions comfort the Living they do not raise the Dead and if they assure the Wretched of our Affection they deliver them not from the anguish of their Torments But the sadness of Repentance is of another nature those grievous Sighs which oppress Sin save the Sinner these Tears wash away the Crime and sanctifie the Criminal Sorrow alone for having offended becomes here a compleat satisfaction And as God knoweth that it lies not in our power to alter any thing which has already hapned so he graciously accepts of our Repentance for having transgressed And as he sees the bottom of our Hearts so when our Tears are unfeigned he never refuses them his Pardon Were it not for this Passion there could be no Salvation since there can be no Repentance without Sorrow we will therefore be vehement in the defence of a Passion from which we receive such considerable Advantages And tho' Princes thinking this too austere a Passion to have admittance into their Courts by Musick Balls Dancings Plays and many other Divertisements seek to keep it from an Entrance yet before the Tribunal of God this Passion has more Credit than all the others united in one She can boast that she works the strange Metamorphosis in Grace of making Saints of Sinners and of the Children of Disobedience Darkness and Perdition she makes Children of Light Brothers with the Son of God and Heirs of everlasting Felicities and of a Crown and Kingdom which can know no end The Conclusion FRom all these Discourses 't is easie to judge that there is no Passion in our Souls which may not be advantageously managed by Reason as well as Grace For to summ up all what has been said in the whole Work Love may be chang'd into a holy Amity and Hatred may be brought to a just Indignation Desires moderated are so many good Assistants to acquire Virtue Eschewing is the proper security of Chastity Hope animates us to brave and generous Undertakings and our Despair turns us from rash ones Fear is serviceable to Prudence and Boldness to Valour As brutish as Anger seems she sides with Justice Joy is an innocent Antepast of Felicity Grief a short pain that frees us from Eternal Torments So that our Salvation depends only upon the good use of our Passions and Virtue it self only subsisteth by the good employment of the Motions of our Soul FINIS INDEX PART I. OF the Number of our Passions 14 Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 17 If there were any Passions in Jesus Christ and wherein they differ'd from ours 19 Of the disorderliness of Man's Pass 22 Nature alone cannot regulate our Passions 24 Of the necessity of Grace to govern the Passions 26 Our Senses are chiefly the Causes of the disorders of our Passions 28 There is more irregularity in the Passions of Man than in those of Beasts 29 As there is nothing more difficult so there is nothing more glorious than the Government of the Passions 32 No Slavery is so miserable as that of being over-power'd by our Passions 37 To govern our Passions we must first moderate them 41 Reason alone is able to restrain the Passions 46 By what means we may moderate our Passions 50 Our Passions are really in themselves so many Seeds of Virtue 53 There is no Passion which may not be chang'd into a Virtue 58 The Government of our Passions is the business of Virtue 62 PART II. OF Love 66 Of the good use of Love 68 Of the nature and properties of Hatred 73 The good use of Hatred 76 Of the nature and properties of Desire 80 Of the good use of Desire 83 Of the nature propert of Eschewing 86 Of Hope 88 Of the good use of Hope 91 Of Despair 93 Of Boldness 96 Of the good use of Boldness 100 Of Fear 102 Of the good use of Fear 105 Of Anger 106 The good use of Anger 109 Of Pleasure 112 Of the good use of Pleasure 115 Of Sorrow 117 The good use of Sorrow 119 The Conclusion 122 BOOKS Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard CApt.
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PASSIONS According to the RULES OF Reason and Religion VIZ. Love Hatred Desire Eschewing Hope Despair Fear Anger Delight Sorrow c. Sapiens uno minor est Jove Horat. London Printed for J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. To the Right Honourable John Earl of Marleborough Baron Churchill of Aymouth and Sandridge Governour to His Highness the Duke of Gloucester and one of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord A Soldier cannot lay the Endeavours of his Pen any where so properly as at your Lorships Feet We have seen you in Flanders as great as at Kensington You were the Delight of our own Troops and the Terrour of our Enemies the mighty Darling of Mars and Minerva In Your Lordship alone we found all those fatal Contrarieties reconcil'd The Captain was a Courtier the Courtier a Man of Honour the Man of Honour preferr'd But not to be tedious where the most that can be said will be too little Your Lordship was all that Man cou'd wish or Man cou'd be The brightest Planet of the Creation has been Eclips'd But Europe's Genius alas cou'd not long support your Retirement For tho' his present Majesty t is true cou'd manage an Army without a Marlborough yet there was another task more difficult and out of his Sphere too I mean that glorious Imployment Your Lordship possesses at St. James's The Education of so Great so Young so Hopeful a Prince adds not more to your Grandeur than it subtracts from your Tranquility For the Charge of so inestimable a Jewel cannot but make Your Lordship very solicitous The Early dawning of his Infant Years gave us all assurances he would be something extraordinary Every day shews us more and more the collected Endowments of all his Royal Predecessors And if the rest of those who are about His Highness's Person could come any thing near Your Lordship in Care or Capacity He cannot possibly be otherwise than as Wise as Tiberius as Victorious as Alexander as Valiant as Julius and as happy as Augustus But I rob my Prince and the Publick too by the length of this Dedication Wherefore my Lord I humbly crave Pardon for the Liberty I have taken so publickly to profess my Self My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient and most Entirely Devoted Servant W. AYLOFFE The Government of the Passions The Introduction REason is that Emanation from the Divinity which if it be not the sole end of our being yet is one difference between us and the rest of the Creation Those who first studied the improving it were justly called Wise Men for as they excelled in knowledge and understanding they seem'd the better Copies of their great Original We may indeed form to our selves som Principles of Moral Philosophy because its Object is the Work of Man But it was a bold attempt of Reason and somewhat more curious than cautious more daring than advised to pry into the Eternal Wisdom of the Almighty St. Austin's defining the World to be a great Theatre where the Art of him that made it shone forth on all hands was more pious than exact The greater effects of God's Wisdom and Power are concealed from our Eyes and utterly impossible for us to comprehend Those many wonderful Springs by which every part of this glorious Machine is moved are all behind the Scenes and past our finding out we see no more than the Dial Plate of the Clock as it were and nothing at all of the movement Matter is we know not what this Globe is suspended we know not how and the whole Universe is we know not where Might not the World be rather thought a wonderful Riddle of the Infinite Wisdom of God to employ our admiration but punish if not prevent our Curiosity The causes of all things are so abstruse and our Capacities so shallow that not only the Astronomers but other Natural Philosophers too may find all their Principles vain and that Man is equally ignorant of the Grass that grows in the Fields and of the Sun that moves in the Firmament of a Fly a Pismire and his own Person Every thing is so uncertain in the Systems of Natural Philosophy that our greatest prudence is not to meddle with it at all but humbly admire what whilst we are here below we can never understand Aristotle himself that had the profoundest Capacity of any Man if he knows any thing at all now sees a great many mistakes in his Books of the Heavens of Meteors and the Soul c. For experience and the benefit of new invented Instruments have taught us a great many absurdities in his Works and hereafter we may come to find that we are not far from being altogether in the dark For Man's Reason is not so universal but that she is limited in most Subjects Pythagoras though he learnt much Natural Philosophy from the Aegyptians yet he was more curious of Morality and found out a method of improving that even whilst he investigated Nature Socrates was a great and good Man and reduc'd it to Principles Zeno affected a Gravity in all the Air of his Philosophy and that supercilious Sect when they thought as others did could not be brought to omit the haughtiness of their stile In other Points they sought by a captious Dialectick to conceal the defects in their Doctrines to be Sophisters where they could not be solid the better to varnish the falshoods of their Philosophy they thought to out-vy the Modesty and Patience of the Primitive Christians but acting by a different Principle their Virtue was frequently overthrown and in short most of their Virtues were but a Policy whereby they conceal'd their Ignorance and Vice and impos'd upon the unthinking part of Mankind The whole Study of Philosophy is charming and every part of that body has its beauties as well as its benefits Ethicks I confess has the least lustre and if its utility did not enhance its worth Socrates had walk'd by himself and no body been in the Porch with Zeno. However Epicurus would have been crowded for where Sensuality is the great Principle of a Sect of Philosophers the School will never be empty if Paris be Judge and fair Helen the Bribe Venus may be sure of the Cause 'T is true our dispute is somewhat unequal and the Enemies we are to engage with in this Intestine Warfare are not only powerful but dishonourable St. Paul seem'd to mention his Victory at Ephesus with disdain since he fought with Beasts and what alas are all our Passions but such To triumph over Avarice is not a subject to boast of since daily experience informs us it is its own punishment and we are as anxious in concerning as we were in acquiring nay the horrours wherewith we apprehend a loss and the eager desires of gaining more are two such tormentors as make the covetous Man suffer more than one Hell What glory is it to be not prodigal since what
observ'd of St. Austin touching the insolence of the Stoicks that they only differed from other Philosophers in an affected Arrogancy of terms and that although their expressions were more haughty yet were their sentiments no sublimer than those of other Sects In effect they blame not so much the Passions as their Excesses and if they vainly boasted some fond desire of smothering them yet they never had any hopes of effecting it It seems much less difficult to govern the Passions than the Senses for Love and Fear are sooner brought to reason than Hunger or Thirst so that in as much as we can command our Senses we may by reason subject our Passions likewise and render our desires and fears as virtuous as we make our fastings and watchings religious acts Reason is the great propriety of Man all other qualifications are but exotick and adventitious he loseth them without impoverishing himself and provided he be rational he can always stile himself Man This must be the great source of our felicity and by managing the motions of the inferiour part of the Soul we shall learn how all the Passions may serve to our advantage Fear proves our security and Hope animates us to generous Enterprizes by so much the more glorious as they seem to be environed with difficulties In short the Passions are not so predominant but that they may be subjugated by reason Virtue would want employ if she had not Passions to vanquish or at least to regulate Fortitude bridles in Fear Modesty measures our Desires Temperance represses the violent instigations of Voluptuousness Clemency moderates the efervescency of Choler and if it were not for this Princes would neither be merciful nor just If the Passions receive such great advantages from the assistance of Virtue after some training in her School they repay her richly and serve her as faithfully Fear is the greatest part of Prudence and tho' some tax her with anticipating Evils yet she doth not so much forestall dangers to make them more afflicting but by considering them at a distance she teaches us how we may happily avoid them or patiently undergo them Boldness attends Valour and the most illustrious Conquerors owe their Lawrels to the generosity of this Passion Choler supports Justice animating Magistrates to the punishment of Criminals so that there is not any one Passion but what is subservient to Virtue when it is guided by reason and those who have vented so much of their malicious Eloquence in crying down the Passions have only shewed they were ignorant both as to their use and merit We may define Passion then to be a motion of the sensitive Appetite occasioned by imagination of a real or an apparent good or evil In its birth it hath no other malignity than what it contracts from the Corruption of Humane Nature But when the understanding begins to be obfuscated with the fuliginous Clouds of their Vapours or else vanquish'd with the softer blandishments of their solicitations and so perverts the Will then and only then their motions turn rebellious and who was but irregular before is now become entirely criminal for as the impulses of the inferiour part of the Soul are no ways free of themselves they cannot be vicious but when they are voluntary These Passions we shall endeavour to bring under the Government of Reason and by the assistance of Grace happily transmute them into so many Virtues 'T is not enough here to know the Cause of our Malady unless we are instructed in the Cure too For these are distempers which charm and the Patient frequently fears nothing more than recovery We cannot destroy our Passions without making a rupture in the Oeconomy of our Nature yet we may draw great Service from them more than barely as some fancied by trying our Courage in repelling their too rapid violence or our constancy in supporting them patiently I hope to demonstrate that as Providence did work our Salvation out of our ruine so we may gather our tranquility and happiness out of that very mighty disorder which our Passions occasion in us Of the Number of our Passions SOme have made the Passions as 't were to flow from two different Springs which they term the Concupiscible and the Irascible Apetite Supposing that such contrary Motions could not be effected by one and the same Power or part of the Soul Yet with their leave I should rather follow the Opinion of St. Austin not believing that a diversity of Sentiments presupposes a diversity of Faculties too since one Man frequently desires Things contrary in themselves yet he conserves the unity of his Person in the variety of his Desires The Holy Father had a severe Tryal of this in his Conversion his Soul was distracted with differing Sentiments and the good Saint wonder'd that having but one Will he should be capable of forming such very opposite Resolutions so that the Passions may possibly flow all from the same individual Source since the Soul is not either divided or multiplied by its various Faculties preserving the unity of its Essence even in the multitude of its Operations The Philosophers themselves are divided in their Opinions concerning the Number of the Passions yet I can't but side with St. Austin in this particular likewise and hold that Love is the only Passion which agitates us For as the same vast Body of Water generally termed the Sea has distinct Names in every respective Part of the World through which it passes or as the Heaven 's made a different Divinity of each Attribute and Perfection of God so the various Effects of this one Passion has been the great occasion of Man's judging that there were many of several Natures supposing that it changed its Condition as often as it changed its Conduct Thus Reason confirms our Belief that there 's but one only Passion and what others have thought to be such were but only so many Properties of this one Desiring and Shunning Hope and Fear are the Motions of Love by which it seeks what pleases and flies what is disagreeable to it 'T is but a very frivolous Objection to this Hyyothesis That Love must of Consequence transform it self into its Contrary which is Hatred for even that very Motion of Love is reconcilable with Reason and Experience since one Cause produces contrary Effects the Sun melts wax and hardens Clay Justice punishes Crimes and rewards Virtue or if we may presume to fly a step higher God only hates sin because he loves himself Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 'T IS so long a Tract of Time since Man lost his Innocence that we at present have but a faint Idea of what it was nay did not the Justice of God punish the Crimes of the Father in the Person of the Son peradventure we should hardly regret the loss as irreparable as it is Every one discribes the State of Innocence according to his own Imagination yet doubtless as the Earth brought
Command they were in the blessed State of Original Justice they are all turned Mutinous and their detested Rebellion is to be asswaged rather by Art than Force They rise with so much Rage and Impetuosity that their very Natural Motions are violent like fine pampered Horses full of Fire but not of Force or like the horrid Ocean generally tempestuous and never very calm but precursorily to a dreadful Storm To effect this great Work of Moderating our Passions we must follow the Methods of Nature and Art Though she composes all Bodies of the four Elements yet she first tempers them according to their respective Qualities so that they may the better operate in the Production of that particular Body she designs to form Art has found out the secret of reconciling Black with White so that from these two Colours Painters have composed all the rest Lyons have been made to draw Triumphant Chariots and as if they had forgot their Royalty and Courage have patiently suffer'd the lash from a Slave Elephants have carried Castles into Battle and have been unconcern'd whilst ten Thousands of Deaths flew momently about them Thus Reason must imitate Nature if she designs to reap any Advantage from such furious Beasts as our Passions are Let us consider how many sad Troubles the rebelling of our Passions have caus'd in us 'T is one act of Prudence to draw benefit from our Misfortunes and grow wise at our own expence the most just Anger will fly out to an excess if we have not a great precaution and what was innocent in its birth will grow criminal in its progress and for want of mature deliberation thinking to punish a slight Injury we commit a gross Enormity Fear often surprizes us and drives us into a real danger to avoid an imaginary one The second precaution is to oblige our Reason to keep a strict Guard over all those Subjects that may probably excite our Passions watching their motions will secure us from surprizes Dangers that are foreseen are not so astonishing when they arrive The cautious Pilot who sees a Storm gathering in the Sky or makes hast into Harbour or to avoid Ship-wreck puts out again to Sea to be at once out of danger of the Rocks or the Flats 'T is want of consideration only that makes us so very frequently prevented by the rising of our Passions we might avoid it if we would be at the pains to foresee it so that in reality we owe all our great Overthrows to our neglect alone For if our Reason foresaw the dangers as she easily may 't was no difficult matter so to prepare our Senses that our Passions should hardly disturb the tranquillity of our mind The third precaution is to study the nature of every respective Passion which will highly conduce to the moderating them Some must be used with severity others must be flatter'd to be brought under reason others again must be deceiv'd and tho' Virtue is too generous in her self yet she is oblig'd to accommodate her self to our weaknesses and employ cunning where force will have no effect Love is of this nature and to bring it off from an unlawful object we must propose to it a legitimate one and since we cannot banish it from our Heart we must by an innocent Cheat fix it upon a lawful object Anger is also of the same Constitution to go to oppose it were to make it more furious Fear and Grief are of a contrary complexion to yield to them were to encrease their impetuosity these must be forc'd down and mal-treated to be moderated Thus may we with care and industry so find out the qualities of the Passions that we may daily oppose fit Remedies to them in their birth and not let them mount to such a prodigious height as that they over-top our Reason and become vitious but keep them in such a subordination as that they may be assistant to Virtue in all her designs Reason alone is able to restrain the Passions THO' the notions of the sensitive Appetite seem so many Monsters and Tyrants yet we must be so just to confess that as Art prepares Poysons and makes them so Medicinal that some Maladies can't be cur'd without So Reason and Care may bridle in our Passions and of insolent Masters make serviceable and faithful Slaves And tho' Sin has made them irregular and disorderly yet Reason can always manage them so as to draw both Benefit and Glory from their Service Considering them in their Infancy they are tractable and may be easily curb'd which made the Platonists call them Affections as unwilling to give a Criminal Appellation to what as yet was not so But if we stay too long we shall find their fatal strength encreasing so fast that we shall no longer be able to restrain its impetuosity and of simple Affections they turn guilty Passions Yet even under this Circumstance too they may be manag'd for their irregularity proceeds from their abuse and errour and they could hardly be impeach'd of a Crime if they were not mistaken in their Object Nature has not lost so much by the Fall but that she retains still and ever must that grand Principle of loving what is good and fearing what is prejudicial to her Did not our Senses make so many false reports to our Imagination we should be freed from many perils which we daily fall into The Devil knowing we are not as yet so deprav'd as to love Ill for its own sake deludes our Senses with an appearance of Good under which he conceals the Evil he tempts us to so that we fatally love what we should abhor and detest what we ought really to love This is the Artifice of the Devil alone and our Passions are only criminal because they are deceiv'd would we take away that unhappy Gloss which is put upon things and shew them in genuine Colours our Senses would not so blindly incline to them nor they give such powerful occasions to our Passions of raising such commotions in us Open but their eyes and they will soon leave the meer apparent good to cleave to what is really so For tho' our Passions have lost considerably of their primitive Innocence yet they have still good Sentiments and in most of their motions there is much more of mistake than of premeditated malice If we consider them in that effervency and extream violence when their fumes begin to obfusque the understanding there is no remedy but patience we must wait till the ebullition is over Reason can do no good here 't is now too late for any advice waiting too long has brought all to a desperate State We must leave it to Time to asswage this Tempest which when it shall happen and by the intermission of this raging Storm Reason begins to have some force then must we by a severe Penance and unfeigned Sorrow seek a redress of our so turbulent Ills from him alone who was offended thereby and by humbling our selves
have inherent in it the principles and fundaments of Truth and the Will also seems to be endowed with the Seeds of Virtue which want more of manuring than sowing The Infancy of all our Passions represents them to us as so many budding Virtues and a little care will make them perfectly such What is Fear but a natural Prudence prompting us to avoid a danger that threatens us Or what is Choler but a species of Justice that arms us against our Enemies and by a legitimate fury repels force with force What is Desire but a separating us to unite us to what we think better a sort of elevating us from Earth to Heaven Where is the mighty difference between Sorrow and Repentance but that one is the pure product of Nature the other the effect of Grace Both of them be wail an evil nay sometimes they mingle their Tears to deplore the same Iniquity There is none of our Passions but may be made Virtues for since they incline to good and abhor evil there wants only Conduct and Management to make them change their Condition A just Object of our Love will make all the other Passions innocuous And correspondent to the governing of that 't will produce Prudence Temperance Fortitude and Justice Were it not then barbarous even to endeavour the stifling those Passions which have so great an affinity with Virtue or were it not high Ingratitude not to acknowledge those mighty advantages we have received from Nature or is it not Injustice to give such infamous denominations to so innocent Subjects who by our own prudent Conduct might be easily brought to merit a much less inglorious Character We will state it then as an indubitable Aphorism That the Passions are seeds of Virtue and that their grand Employ is to fight under her Banners and revenge all her Quarrels As the negligence of the Prince is generally the occasion of the Revolting of his Subjects so 't is the weakness of our Reason only that gives birth to the disorders of our Passions the Soul is more to blame than the Body and the Prince than the People Doth not our Fear hold an advantageous intelligence with our Enemies and by observing all their motions know how to give us such a faithful information as may prevent our overthrow We owe indeed most of our Miseries to our having neglected her Advices Doth not Hope embolden us and give us Courage to undertake Enterprizes as difficult as they are glorious How weak and languid would our Virtues be not to say imperfect if they were abandoned by Passions How often has the fear of Ignominy ☞ retain'd Soldiers from a shameful flight and the bare apprehension of a scandal alone has preserv'd Women in that Virtue and Pudicity which opportunity had almost triumph'd over Nature has made nothing in vain and since she has given us hopes and fears let us employ them in propagating Virtue and expugnating Vice There is no Passion which may not be changed into a Virtue IN the preceding Discourse having shewn that the Passions are so many Seeds of Virtue from whence we may expect most happy and advantageous productions we shall here go a step higher and teach Christians the grand Secret of changing them into absolute Virtues This operation is difficult but however not impossible And Nature will assist us with Instructions how to divest them of all their savage and monstrous qualities This prudent Mother of all things doth not use so much violence as industry when she sets about any notable Metamorphosis She consults the respective qualifications of each she rarifies Air only into Fire and consolidates the Earth too from Minerals and that Gold which we so much esteem is the product of a whole Age's industry Our Morals must imitate Nature and consider and weigh the several Properties of each Passion that we may thereby the more easily change it into a Virtue which is no ways Heterogeneous Prodigality draws nearer Liberality than Avarice doth and a rash Man may sooner be brought to be Couragious than one who is a natural Coward In like manner is it with our Passions some have more Reference to one particular Virtue than another and the just Application facilitates their Reduction Take away that Panick Terror which ordinarily accompanies Fear and it becomes Prudence Hope that by a happy Anticipation enjoys that Bliss which is as yet locked up in the Womb of Futurity may be converted into Assurance Anger which arms us to revenge Injuries is not so far from Justice but they may be reconciled since the Purport of both is to punish Crimes If we love only what is amiable and hate what is really odious these are not so much Passions as Virtues and merit rather to be applauded than stigmatized Sorrow and Despair Jealousie and Envy I must confess have a terrible Aspect and seem rather so many Executioners of Divine Justice than Adjutants of Virtue But our Reason must pull off this frightful Masque and make them appear in less inglorious Forms A moderated Envy becomes a virtuous Emulation and Jealousie when not extream may assume the Character of Zeal Sorrow has so many Commendations in the very Holy Scriptures themselves that plainly shew that if she be not a Virtue she 's highly profitable to it She it is that raises us from Earth to Heaven and by despising the deluding flattering Blandishments of this Life makes us long for those of Eternity What can argue more the Praise and Power of this Passion than that it appeases even the Anger and Indignation of the Almighty and no sin was ever produced before she prepared the way How can we conclude to the Disadvantage of a Passion which has more Instances to highten its Merit than all the others put together Even our blessed Saviour was seen to weep but never known to smile Despair has nothing terrible but its Name for considering it Right it is a prudent Invention of Nature to cure some dangerous Maladies of the Mind We make a Virtue of Necessity and out of our Misfortunes gather our Security Despair makes us easie when Desire deceives us by its Promises the one flatters us the other disabuses us Despair by giving a new Force to our Courage has sometimes gained Victories for those who were vanquished just before and the utter Impossibility of retreating has occasioned an Overthrow to a conquering Army This Passion has such wonderful Efficacy that the most brave and circumspect Generals have always avoided the bringing their Enemies to this fatal Necessity and apprehended more the Ruins of an Army with this Passion alone than when it was entire and not as yet conquered The Poet Lucan had the same Sentiment of the wretched Remainders of the unfortunate proud Pompey's Army Spes una salutis Haec fuit afflictis nullam sperare salutem To conclude all with the Opinion of St. Austin Christians make a good use of their Passions when they employ them to the Glory of
Jesus Christ and the Salvation of their own Souls We have Reason to fear the just Judgments of God and the Miseries of Damnation Our Desire is just when its Object is those innumerable and infinite Pleasures which are at God's right-hand for ever more That Grief is but innocent which we feel for the Loss of our Liberty by our first Parent and when we deplore those many Infirmities our Nature is at present subject to thereby eagerly panting after the Liberty of the Children of Grace 'T is a holy Joy with which we expect the Felicities prepared for us and by a firm Hope taste already the Promises of our great Master Thus being sorrowful for him and rejoicing in good Works we convert our Passions into so many glorious and sanctified Virtues The Government of our Passions is the Business of Virtue THE Condition of Man is so very wretched by sin that even his Advantages themselves reproach him with his Misery And his greatest Excellencies shew him that he is Criminal The nobler Habits which embelish his Soul have only slavish Employs being engaged in Combats not only difficult but dishonourable For the most singular Virtues of Man have no other Occupation than waging War with Vice That very Prudence which is our Guide shews us that we wander not only in Darkness but in an Enemy's Country too Temperance points out to us the Disorder of our Constitution and teaches us that Voluptuousness only flatters us to our own Ruine Justice obliges us to confess that we are not absolute Masters of those Goods we are actually in Possession of but that as they belong to another Proprietor so we are but so many Stewards Although the Virtues have many Employments here below yet the most Necessary is the governing the Passions Nature seems to have given them a Being only to tame these savage and terrible Monsters Some by Cunning others by Force some by Menaces and others by Promises using several Mediums to accomplish one and the same Design Prudence enters not into the List but is rather Moderator or Superintendant giving all necessary Orders to suppress their Motion even in its Infancy thereby to prevent Danger Temperance indeed must struggle hard and that with Enemies which are so much the more formidable as they are agreeable and is forced to maintain the Heat of the Action against all those Passions which flatter our Senses Yet when she finds her Forces too few for such powerful Adversaries she calls in the Assistance of Pennance and Austerity and by so severe Virtues she triumphs at last over those dissolute Enemies Fortitude makes us bear up against all the Attacks of Sorrow But as the Number of Troops are never disadvantagious provided they are well disciplined so the Aggregation of Virtues must needs facilitate our Victory if we dispose them right If Temperance can't regulate our immoderate Desires we must have recourse to Humility and Modesty perswading us that the Glory of the World is not due to us if we are Criminal nor worthy of us if we are Innocent When Sorrow proves too powerful and obstinate we must call in the Assistance of Hope and take the sweetness of her Promises to animate us to a Conquest Thus Nature fortified with the Succors of Grace makes Man Victorious in all these so doubtful Combats And Virtue regulating the Motions of his Passions he cannot but enjoy a Tranquility of Mind not much inferior to what our wretched Father by his Transgression deprived us of The End of the First Part. Of Passions in Particular The Second Part. Of LOVE LOve has this Property of the Divinity that we all know that it is but none know what it is The Philosophers gave it several Names all Infamous not knowing how to grant a good One to a Passion so disorderly and as the Poets made him a God so the Platonists thought him a Demon. Aristotle himself who defined the Soul would not undertake to do the same by this Passion leaving Posterity to despair of ever arriving to the Knowledge of a thing whereof he was Ignorant But in pursuit of our former Hypothesis we shall still respect Love as the only Passion his different Motions being but so many Attributes which have occasion'd some to think they were other Passions In his Infancy indeed he bears the most glorious Title for the first inclination which is form'd in the Heart when a charming Object sweetly imposes upon our Will is term'd Love when we sally as it were out of our selves to be united to that Object 't is call'd Desire when he is grown more vigorous and promises himself success 't is Hope when he is animated against those difficulties which oppose his satisfaction 't is Choler but in every one of these States 't is Love too His first Condition is the Rule of all the rest for as he is more or less violent in his birth or to speak more properly under that circumstance wherein he still retains the softer appellation of Love so are the other degrees of his motion more or less rapid like the Heart he distributes life and heat to all the depending Members and he commands with so despotick an Authority that nothing on Earth can parallel it He makes Monarchs neglect their States and Generals forget the nicety of Punctilio's of Honour Emperors have been disobey'd but Love never and as the Moon is the occasion of the ebbing and flowing of Rivers so this powerful tender Passion Love causes all the tranquillity and distraction in our Soul Of the good use of Love WE must not so much consider the natural perfections of things as the good use which may be made of them Gold is but condens'd Clay tho' the covetous Man's God Yet when 't is employ'd to relieve the Needy to redeem the Bond-Slave to Cloath the Naked and succour the Orphans who could disapprove of it tho' when it serves only to corrupt Judgges pervert Justice debauch Women and oppress the Innocent there is no Body but must Love is the most holy of all our Passions and the greatest Favour Nature has conferr'd upon us 'T is as much a Duty as 't is a Delight 't is an abbreviation of Humane Felicity in a word 't is what the Divine Eloquence has thought fit to term the Law and the Prophets By this innocent Artifice we change Condition without changing of Nature and transform our selves into the things we love it makes even toils and hardships agreeable and finds a pleasure in attempting Difficulties which it cannot surmount 't is the most unallay'd and real satisfaction Man enjoys here below and a shadow of that supreme Felicity which the happy Angels taste above But Morality must prescribe us Rules by which we must govern it For an absolute freedom may not be indulg'd to a Passion which is by so much the more dangerous as 't is charming and agreeable There are three Objects of our Love God Man and irrational Creatures The first we cannot
IS true that our Passions are oftner criminal than virtuous and the disorder of our Nature since the Sin of our first Parent has occasioned their greatest inclinations to be towards Vice yet with some assistances we may bring them from it This glorious Passion made all the Martyrs despise their Torments and whilst their Bodies distill'd drop by drop from the glowing Grid Irons their Tongues reproach'd their Persecutors and prais'd their God Grace we must grant to be more strong than Nature yet she doth not refuse the assistance of Nature Virtue stands in need of the succours of our Passions and they on the other hand require Virtue to be their Guide To make then this Passion a Virtue we must see she is accompanied with Justice He that takes Arms to ruin his Country is rather Criminal than Courageous and tho' he dye with his Sword in his Hand in the thickest of his Enemies yet the illegitimateness of his intentions will take from him the Character of Glorious We must likewise try our Forces before we begin to attack our Enemy Virtue is not so rigid as to exact impossibilities of us she requires but what is in our power and would have us in all undertakings weigh whether the Medium we use is proportionable to the end we propose But a Christian's boldness must have two other Conditions which are Humility and Hatred of our selves for he who has not conquer'd his Inclination cant hope to triumph over Pleasuress and he who has not declar'd open Wa against his Body is in no good condirtion of doing it against the sorrow of his Mind Let us then make use of our Forces against our selves that we may the better succeed when we employ them against other Enemies and let us surmount the love of our selves if we would surmount the fear of Death Of Fear THere are some Passions whose Names belie their Nature and which are nothing less within than what they appear without Hope hath an agreeable Aspect yet she procures us as many Miseries as she promises us Advantages Fear is look'd upon as the basest of all the Passions and is thought to be the pure result of an ignoble Spirit But there is a great deal of Error and Injustice in this Sentiment for she is prudent in effect only descrying Evils to shew us how to avoid them and as Man is expos'd to many Multitudes of various Dangers that may overwhelm him this passion is continually upon guard prying even into futurity it self to discover a possible danger which being cautiously warded off secures our Felicity at the same time it prevents any Disaster Fear then is a natural prudence which delivers us from an Evil by the very Apprehension alone she gives us of it and is not less useful in the Church than in State The fear of eternal Punishments first made Man seek to appease the irritated Gods to build Temples erect Altars burn incense and Immolate Sacrifices And tho' Religion bids us love God for his own worthiness sake yet 't is highly to be presum'd that Fear has made the most of his Votaries nay sav'd more guilty Souls than Hope it self The fear of God says the Divine Text is the beginning of Wisdom that is in other words the supporter of Virtue and the foundation of Piety Vice would grow insolent and the Law of no use had not Nature plac'd this Passion in Man's Soul and made the most hardy Criminal apprehend Punishment And the Judge can give Sentence but upon what he knows yet this faithful Minister of God's Vengeance makes the Guilty tremble in the midst of their Friends and enjoy neither rest nor security either in Cities or Deserts This may serve for one Instance that our Nature is not entirely corrupted since she retains still in the midst of all those Imperfections which environ her an abhorrence and hatred of Sin as well as a fear and dread of Punishment Wheresoe'er we hide our selves the secret remorses of our Consciences go with us assuring us that there is a Divinity which sees the most secret transactions of our Lives and punishes them after our Death Of those many thousands of Christians who confess and acknowledge Christ there are but few that stand not more indebted to their Fear than their Love and endeavour to purchase Heaven only to secure them from Hell loving God's Mercy because they fear his Justice And 't is no small matter that this Passion by its motions should open a Door of Salvation to the ungodly and shew Sinners the way to Virtue If she is thus beneficial in Affairs of Religion she is no less in Affairs of State We live alas no longer in that happy Age when Friendship united Mankind and superseded Laws when Love banish'd Injustice from the face of the Earth No now our Love to our selves is establish'd in hating our Neighbour and we must restrain them by Fear whom we cannot win by Affection We erect Gibbets to terrify the Criminal and invent Tortures to render Death more horrid that so what was an indispensable Tribute of Nature should by this means become a Chastizement of Iniquity Nature has not given us this Passion to be a Torment to us but a Security for she considers only those Dangers that are avoidable If once she finds them inevitable she leaves off the intentions of strugling with them vain efforts are to be condemn'd in every thing so we must support what we cannot shun Who would not judge Fear to be the Guardian of our Repose who studies nothing but our security and only gives us an Alarm that we may prepare to oppose an Enemy who cometh to invade it But as there are some Accidents which our Prudence can't fore-see nor our Courage vanquish we must not be astonished if some others surprize Fear and get the better of a Passion after having triumph'd over two glorious Virtues Of the good use of Fear FEar hath this property of Prudence that it is most especially busied about things to come and when she has discover'd a Danger at a distance calls in all her Forces to combat it Courage and Conduct is not every Man's Lot and hardly any Man 's in perfection for one is the property of fiery vigorous Youth and the other the tedious Lessons of a long Experience acquir'd only in an Age wherein we are no longer fit for Action our selves and therefore only proper to give Advice As Fear is more considerate than generous so is she more proper to deliberate than engage She may be as successfully applied in Vertue as against Vice What is Shame but the fear of Infamy and this innocent Passion protects all the Virtues How many Men would be look'd upon under a less glorious Character were it not for the Instigations of this Passion owing their Innocence to their apprehension of Scandal acting not to satisfie their Duty but to save their Reputations If we would encourage this Passion in our Souls we should keep