be freed from the Tyranny thereof The seventh Discourse That self-love is nothing else but Concupiscence Though Divines have given as many names to Concupiscence as she hath committed sins and that every one paints her out as he finds her in another or according to his own experience yet they all agree that her most celebrated name and that which best expresseth her nature is self-love For as Charity comprehends all vertues self-love comprehends all vices as Charity unites us to God and loseth us from our selves her Enemy self-love severs us from God and fasteneth us to our selves As Charity hath no greater a passion for any thing then to love God and make him be beloved by all others self-love produceth no more violent desire in man then to love himself and to obliege all other men to love him To comprehend these truths you must know that Charity according to S. Pauls words and S. Augustines Comment composeth all vertues to be perfect It sufficeth to be charitable one vertue is sufficient in Christs school to acquire all others she believeth all things saith that great Apostle and so hath the merit of Faith she waits for the accōplishment of Gods promises so possesseth the certainty of hope she suffers all injuries as well as Patience doth she withstands sorrow with as much courage as doth fortitude and this Famous Doctor of the Gentiles who perfectly knew the Inclinations of charity gives her all the Advantage which belongs to all the vertues so as according to his principles the loue of God is only Requisite to become highly vertuous Saint Augustine who learnt nothing but in S. Pauls school mixeth all vertues with Charity and as if he wold reduce al things to an unity he teacheth us that the only vertue on earth is to love him who is perfectly lovely For love hath several names according to his severall imployments he changeth qualities though not Nature and continuing stil the same presents himself unto us under divers forms and shapes Temperance is a faithful love which wholly gives herself over to what she loveth not permitting Voluptuousnesse to divide them Fortitude is a generous love which with delight overcomes all the difficulties which can be met withal for her well beloved sake Justice is an uncorrupt love which instructeth how to reign in obedience which submitting herself to God as to her sovereign commands over all creatures as over her slaves In fine wisdome is an illuminated love which happily discerning between the wayes which may estrange her from God and those which may fasten her to him chooseth the former and rejects the other or to expresse the same truth in other tearms Love is termed wisedome when he keeps himself from straying and hath right to what he loves he is called fortitude when he fights against such sorrows as would astonish him Temperance when he despiseth such pleasures as would corrupt him Justice when to consecrate his liberty to God he disdains to serue the Creature so may we say that self-self-love which is Charities mortall Enemy comprehends all vices and that it only changeth countenance when it appears under the form either of Pride Colour or Envy it is unjust in it's Ambition prepares for Combat when irritated for vengeance when offended when unjust it bereaves it's Neighbour of his goods and good name and when Intemperate it engageth it self in unlawfull delights The great Apostle when he numbers up all faults puts it in the first rank and teacheth us that there is no sin which is not a sort of self-self-love disguised And Saint Augustine who hath drawn all his Doctrine from Saint Pauls words instructeth the whole Church that the faults which wee detest are not so much the effects as the proprieties of self love In effect is not Avarice an unjust love of riches is not Pride an unjust love of Honours is not opiniatrecie a furious love to be always victorious is not colour a detestable love of revenge And to conclude all in a few words are not all sins as many different loves which changing rather countenance then humour agree all in a designe of fastning themselves to objects which they like and of keeping a loofe off from such as they like not There is also the second opposition of the love of God and the love of our selves for charity hath no nobler imployment then to free us from all things to unite us to God she endeavours to perswade us that to love our selves well we must hate our selves that to have a care of our selves we must forget our selves and if we would finde out our happinesse we must seek for it from without our selves men wonder that the law of God which commands us to love our Neighbour doth not command us to love our selves and that it only mentions the love we owe unto our selves when it recommends unto us the love which we owe unto our Neighbours but to boot that this love was imprinted in the foundation of our wills by the hands of Natures selfe and that it was more then needed to command us a thing to which we had so great an inclination man loved himselfe sufficiently in loving of God and God had sufficiently provided for mans happinesse in ordaining man to love him above all things The love of God is mans true happinesse we are rich when we possesse it and poore when we lose it let our designes be waited upon by whatsoever good successe let the world promise us what ever good event what ever favour Fortune affordeth us all riches which consists not in the possessions of the Summum bonum is but a meer reall poverty for as Augustine saith God is so good as all men that leave him are miserable and man is so noble as whatsoever is not God cannot render him happy t is charities chiefest designe to fasten man to God so straightly As that nothing may seperate him from God and to in lighten his soule with so much love as that she may exstinguish selfe love or turn it into a holy hatred of himselfe This Divine vertue can mount no higher so glorious a Metamorphosis is the utmost of her power and God can demand nothing more of those that love him when that they may love him perfectly they arrive at the height of hating themselves Self love takes a clean opposite way from that of charity and by direct contrary traces endeavours to estrange man from God and to fasten him to himselfe or to the Creature it effaceth as much as it is able the inclination which his soule hath for the Summum Bonum if it cannot stifle it it diverts it and seeing that the heart of man cannot be without imployment it lays before him the beauty of the Creatures to divert him from those of the Creatour being accompanied with blindnesse and pride it easily abuseth the soule which it possesseth and figuring out the perfections thereof more glorious
then they are it makes her her own Idolater it raiseth her incensibly up to the height of impiety and by different steps mounts it even to the hatred of God for as the faithful man is perfect when he loves God even to the pitch of hating himself the sinner even hath the measure of his sin filled up when he loves himselfe even to the degree of hating God This passion reignes not much save in the souls of the damned one must be wholly possest by sin to conceive this designe and I know not whether there be any so sinful soule on Earth as can have so damnable a recentment Hell is the abode of these wicked ones and I firmly believe that as their hatred of God is the sow lest of there sins so is it the cruellest of their punishments yet can they not hate this Summum Bonum with there whole heart the foundation of their being is possest by the love of God they love him naturally whom they hate willingly they are divided between love and hatred there will is parted by these two contrary motions and for all they can do to stifle this naturall Inclination they cannot hinder their best part from languishing and sighing after God they afflict themselves that nature fights against there will and that her unalterable laws forceth them to love the author of their everlasting punishment But to reassume the threed of our discourse the last opposition of selfe love and charity is that the latter hath no more violent desire then to purchase lovers to God almighty to enlarge the bounds of his Empire and to disperce the holy flames of his Divine love into all hearts for a heart that is inflamed with this sacred fire knowing very well that it cannot love God according to his lovelinesse wisheth that all the parts of its body were changed into hearts and tongues to praise and love the only object of its love But as she sees her wishes are uselesse she endeavours to increase the number of Divine lovers to the end that making amends for her indigency they may love him with all their might whom she cannot sufficiently love Self love in opposition to this which obligeth man to make a god of himselfe inspires him with a desire to make himselfe be beloved of all the world Instructed by so good a master he imployeth all his cunning to rob himself of his liberties he discovers all his perfections to purchase lovers he proposeth himselfe unto himselfe as an Idoll to be adored and believeth that the truest and most legitimate happinesse on earth is to have slaves who are fairly forced to love him When Kings are arrived at this height of of injustice and Impiety men thinke them happy and the Politicks which labours to decypher a good Sovereigne is never better content then when she hath raised in them this violent desire of enjoyning their Subjects good will T is herein that she distinguisheth Kings from Tyrants and that she opposeth unjust Sovereignes to Legitimate Monarchies but we are taught by Christian Religion that blame may be incurred as well by making ones self be beloved as in making him be feared For though she honours Kings and condemnes Tyrants though she approve of Moderate Government and detests ruling by rigour yet doth she equally blame those who intrench upon Gods rights and who proposing themselves to their Subjects as their final end will possesse all their affections love appertaines aswell to God only as glory of all offerings he is best pleased with that of the heart and he loves much better to rule over men by the way of mildnesse then of rigour insomuch as Kings who would make themselves be beloved as Gods are not much lesse faulty then those who would make themselves be dreaded as Tyrants they are both of them guilty of Treason against the Diety and pretend to honours which are only reserved for God Lucifer never purposed to establish his greatnesse by violence he made more use of his beauty then of his power to Corrupt the inferiour Angels and if his Empire be terminated in rigour it began in clemency A legitimate Sovereigne straies as well from his duty in seeking after the love as after the fear of his Subjects and though one of these two ways be more innocent then the other in the sight of men it is not much lesse faulty in the sight of God it is not permitted in our Religion for a man to make himselfe be beloved t is a presumption to endeavour those liberties which pertain only to God to deboysh his subjects is to divide his Empire hee will have all his slaves to love him and according to Saint Austines maximes we owe all our love to God the Prince is bound to fasten his subjects to their Creator to make him reign in his kingdome and to receive no homage from his people save only for that he is the Image of God t is therefore the most dangerous impression that self-love can make in men when it perswades them that they deserve the love of the whole world and that they ought to imploy all their might to augment the number of their Lovers yet every one is possest with this passion and I see none who do not by severall ways aspire to this tyranny Men discover the perfection of their minds to make themselves admired women make the most they can of their bodily beauty to make them be adored but the one and the other of them will have their malady turn contagious and spread abroad the poyson of self-love which hath infected them into the souls of all those that come neer them The eighth Discourse That Concupiscence or Self-love divides it self into the love of Pleasure of Honour and of Knowledge MAns losse doth so sute with his greatnesse that to understand the one wel the other must necessarily be comprized and we must know what advantages he did possess in his Innocency that we may not be ignorant of such miseries as he undergoes by sin Originall righteousnesse which united him to God made him find innocent delights pure and certain knowledge and elevated honours of which ours are but the shadows in the Possession of the Summum Bonum when he lost Grace he therewith all lost all these glorious Privileges which were the dependances thereof his Pleasures were turned into Punishments his light into darkness and his glory into infamy the misery into which he saw himself faln did irritate his desire and the remembrance of his past felicity made him seek for that in the Creature which he had lost in his Creator Self-love which succeeded the love to God spread it self abroad into three as impure rivolets as was the spring head from whence they did derive the first was call'd the love of Pleasure the second the love of light or novelty and the third the love of greatnesse or of glory these three generall causes of all our disorders are the fatall
vertue being solovely steals away the hearts of her Enemies and makes her self be admired even by those that persecute her the lascivious praise her whil'st they make war against her they wish that such women as they have corrupted were chast and that such as commit Adultery with them would be true unto them We must not therefore wonder if the Romans were ravished with her beauty that they have praised her and that there hath been some Commanders who amidst the licenciousness of war have supprest their Passions that they might purchase the glorious Title of Temperate they thought that to overcome pain they must overcome pleasure that before they fight for their Country they must fight for reason that it was not to be hoped for that he who could not resist a womans beauty could defend himself against a souldiers valour They perswaded themselves that temperance was the first step to fortitude and that one judged of the victory which a Commander might get over his Enemy by what he had won over his sensuality Thus great men did study this vertue early she was their first Apprentisage and when the bloud which boiles in the veines kindled in them unclean desires they quenched the fire thereof by the help of temperance One of the Scipioes won more glory by vanquishing his love than by quelling the pride of Carthage he purchased more credit in Spain by his Continency then by his valour and the quitting of a famous beauty and free gift of her to her sweet-heart got him a whole Province he won many Battels by defending himself from a Maide And his enemies were perswaded that their Souldiers could not overcome him whom their Yeomen could not corrupt this combat is heightened above his victories his valour is never spoken of without mention made of his continencie and as oft as men talk of the taking of Carthage they adde thereunto the restitution of this Princesse All the Circumstances of this action are so remarkable as they are not to be omitted without injury to this gallant man He commanded a victorious army to which the laws of war made all things lawfull which were not by them forbidden he had tane a Town by assault the resistance whereof had stirr'd up his anger 't was thought that to astonish all Spain he would have made it a cruell example and that the bloud of the inhabitants should have been that wherewith he would have quenched the flames which devoured their houses that he would have made victimes of all the Prisoners and that if the Womens lives were preserved it should onely be to bereave them of their Honours In this belief they present him with a glorious beauty whose misfortune it was to be immured within that fatall Town she was unfortunate enough to move pitty but too fair not to provoke love The Souldiers were perswaded that their General would suffer himself to be vanquished in his victory and that he would become his captives captive they expected to have seen him once overcome whom they had alwaies seen victorious Though they had his continencie in great esteem they did think it was not proof good enough against so exquisite a beauty and they could not imagine that a man who was yet in the prime of his youth should have power to withstand the Allurements of so fair a Maide who had nothing but her tears to defend her self withall The truth is his eyes thought to have betrayed his heart and he found how difficult a thing it is to behold a rare beauty and not love it his passion would have perswaded him that without injuring his greatness he might become his captives captive he had examples enough to excuse his fault flattery would have authorized it and if he would have listned to his Domesticks he had neer triumphed over his love Amidst this his trouble he endeavoured to comfort her who caused his pain and would give security to her who intrench upon his liberty He understood by her that though her fortune had made her a Prisoner she was by birth a Princesse that her Parents had promised her to a young Prince and that her Fate had cast her into the hands of her enemies the knowledge of these particulars and that his Prisoner was of so high a rank was enough to make Scipio resolve to give her her Liberty he made her Father and her husband be sought for who came upon his word into Carthage every one looked for an event answerable to the passion which gave it life some think he will demand her in marriage others that he will inquire into her birth and see whether without offending the Glory of the Scipioes he may take his prisoner to be his wife some fear least he will begin his Marriage by Murther and secure his sute by his rivalls death few believe that he will betray his love and by one and the same act of Justice restore a daughter to her Father and a Mistris to her servant this mean while when he knew that this Princesse was no lesse Nobly born then beautifull that her Father was Governour of a Province and that her servant did Command an Army he presently delivered her into their hands and would no longer suffer his eyes to behold a beauty which might invite him to do an unjust act and to Crown this Noble Action he gave her the money which was brought him for her ransom as part of her portion to the end that all Spain might know that Scipio knew aswell how to Triumph over Avarice as over Love I foresee I cannot condemn this Action without under-going the jealousie of such as favour the party of the Infidels that I shall draw either publique envie or publique hatred upon me if I shall question whether so glorious a victory deserve the name of vertue or no and that men will think my love to Saint Austine hath made me forgoe the love of truth yet according to his principles we must confesse that this vertue is a sin that not deriving from charity it proceeded from self love that Scipio did but â—ence himself from one by an other and that his keeping himself from Incontinencie proceeded from vain glory Infidels are slaves to the Devil their will is in his hands and as long as this cruell Tyrant doth possesse them he permits them not to do any one good Action out of a good motive he may suffer them to resist the violence of Love or the fury of Avarice but he corrupts their intentions and never with draws them from one evil but he ingageth them in another they shun an ill step to fall into a precipice and their will is so subject unto his as after long deliberation they alwaies put on the worst resolution This unjust Sovereign fits himself to their inclinations that he may undo them he adviseth them onely to such things as he knows doth please them and when he gives any counsel he alwaies
it is a part of our selves In fine no reason can justifie despair the number of our enemies the evils of the present life the Good of the Future the cruelty of sicknesses rigour of servitude sweetnesse of liberty strength of Temptations nor the very fear of sin are not considerations sufficient to make us hasten our death 't is alwaies poornesse of spirit not to be able to suffer the evil which we will shun by Homicide Pride hath lesse part in this crime then weaknesse and whatsoever praise the desperate man expects for his attempt wise men will alwaies beleeve that if he had courage enough to bear the miseries of life he would never have had recourse to so cowardly a remedy Al the Fortitude of Philosophers is then but meer cowardise those wounds which despair impatience have made them give themselves deserve more blame then they have received praise a man cannot approve of their fault without becoming guilty thereof and when Seneca imploys his weak reasons to excuse Catoes murther he lets us see that he knew not wherein greatnesse of courage consisted since he made it consist in an action which is more familiar to women then men to slaves then to free persons and to weak than to strong spirits The eigth Discourse That Friendship without Grace is alwaies interessed IF the vertue of Pagans have her stains we must not wonder if their Friendship have her defaults sin hath corrupted the best things and her malice hath left almost nothing in man which doth not deserve reproach or punishment since a sinner is upon bad termes with God he cannot be upon good terms with himself nor with his Neighbour If he love himself t is in excesse and if he love another t is for interest his will being in the power of his enemie he can hardly make good use of it whatsoever he does he is in danger of sinning his love is not much more Innocent than is his hatred and be it that he loves his friends or hates his enemies t is with so little justice as he stands alwaies in need of pardon profane Philosophie prefers Friendship before vertue she gives her such praises as taste of Flattery and if we will beleeve her reasons she will perswade us that the joynt uniting of Hearts is the greatest contentment which man can partake of on Earth 'T is the knot of Society without which States cannot be preserved nor Families maintained Nature made this project in production of woman whom she drew from the rib of man to the end that the resemblance and equality which she placed between them might oblige them to love one another she renews this in brothers who proceed from the same Originall and who are shaped in the same womb to the end that all things may invite them to love Vertue endeavours to make this good more universal and seeing that nature did not give all men brethren she would give them Friends repair their losse with usury For though brothers proceed from the same stem they are not alwayes of the same Humour they differ often more in their Inclinations then in their Countenances but say there were any thing of resemblance in their humours the dividing of Estates divides hearts and Interest which hath to do every where doth many times ruine their best intelligence But Friendship more powerfull than Nature makes a paâ—ty between those whom she will unite the unity of hearts is that which makes all things common and the words Thine and Mine which sets division between Brethren cannot do the like between Friends Nature leaves us no choise in her alliances we are engaged before we be capable of choise and she oft-times makes us love a Monster because he is our Brother but friendship gives us a freedome of choise she permits us to take the best and we are onely to blame our own folly if in the liberty she leaves us we make choise of one for a friend who deserves not our affection Our Brethren are the workmanship of nature she did not advise with us when she gave them life and not having the care of producing them we delight not in preserving them But our friends are the children of our will we formed them when we chose them we think our selves concernedin their losse because we have laboured in the acquiring of them And as Mothers expose themselves for their Children because they are their workmanship so men expose themselves for their friends because they are their Productions But not to spend more time in observing the advantages which friendship hath over and above nature we must confesse there is nothing in the world which ought not to give place to friendship Law which preserves Estates which punisheth vice defends vertue is not equall to her neither for antiquity nor power Punishments nor rewards were never ordained ' till friendship began to coole whil'st she continued in full vigour the use of lawes was uselesse and the Politiques do confesse that States are better governed by good Intelligence amongst Subjects than by Ordinances of Princes the latter reforme onely the mouth or the hand impede onely bad actions or insolent speeches but the former reformes the heart and gliding into the will guides desires and regulates thoughts The Law ends differences but friendship reconciles enemies the law inhibits injuries but friendship adviseth good offices In fine the law is requifite to the commencement or initiation of a good man but friendship is required to his accomplishment and by her advice renders him perfect She is also of use to all sorts of Conditions and that man liues not that needs not a friend A friend is needfull to old men to assist them to young men to guide them to the miserable to comfort them to the ignorant to instruct them and to Kings themselves to increase their felicity For though their condition seem to be raised above that of all other men and that amidst the abundance of riches and honours wherewith they are environed there remains nothing for them to wish for yet ought they to make friends and endeavour a delight which agrees as well with Greatnesse as with Innocence Friendship is the best of all exteriour Goods and 't were unjust that Kings who possesse whatsoever else is of good should not possesse this Friendship obligeth us rather to give than to receive and Kings are in a condition wherein liberality is their principall vertue In fine happy Princes ought not to be solitary and I know not whether any one of them would accept of their felicity at the rate of living solitarily Therefore greatnesse doth not forbid friendship to Soveraignes that which seems to keep them aloofe off from this vertue draws them nearer to it and their power is never more pleasing than when imployed in succouring the miserable or in making men happy Neither do we see any Prince who hath not his Favourite The proudest Monarches
his mother had brought him into the world After this crowd of reasons and authorities I know not what can be said against the belief of originall sin who can deny an evill of whose effects all men have a fellow-feeling Since all Phylosophers before they knew what name to give it knew the nature thereof and all the complaints they have made of our miseries in their Writings are so many testimonies born by them to the truth of our Religion The second Discourse What the state of man was before Sinne. THough there be nothing more opposite to the state of sin then the state of innocency there is not any thing notwithstanding which better discovers unto us the disorders thereof and it seems to be a true looking glasse wherein we may see all the other deformities To know the greatnesse of mans miserie wee must know the height of his happinesse and to know with what weight he fel we must know the height of his dignity Man was created with originall righteousnesse his Divineâ— Quality made a part of his being and seemed to be the last of his differences Reason and Grace were not as yet divided and man finding his perfection in their good Intelligence was at once both Innocent and rationall Since sin hath bereâ—t him of this priviledge he seems to be but half himself though he hath not changed Nature he hath changed condition though he be yet free he hath lesse power in his own person then in the world And when he compares himself with himself hardly can he know himself In the state of innocency nothing was wanting to his perfection nor felicity and whilst he preserved originall righteousness he might boast to have possessed the spring-head of all that was good T was this that united him to God and which submitting him to his Creator submitted all Creatures unto him t was this that accorded the soul with the body and which pacifying the differences which Nature hath plac'd between two such contrary parties made them find their happinesse in agrement this it was in fine which displaying certain beams of light about his Countenance kept wild beasts in obedience and respect In this happy condition man was only for God he found his happinesse in his duty he obeyed with delight and as Grace made up the perfection of his being it was not much lesse naturall for him to love God then to love himself he did both these Actions by one and the same Principle The love of himself differed not from the love of God and the operations of Nature and of Grace were so happily intermingled that in satisfying his Necessities he acquitted himself of his duty and did as many holy Actions as naturall and rationall ones He sought God and found him in all things much more happy then wee he was not bound to seperate himself from himself that he might unite himself to his Creator Godlinesse was practised without pain Vertue was exercised without violence and that which costs us now so much trouble cost him nothing but desires there needed no combates to carry away victory nor was there any need to call in vertue to keepe passions within their limits Obedience was easie to them nor is Rebellion so naturall unto them now as was then submission This Grace which bound the soule unto the body with bonds as strong as pleasing united the senses to the Spirit and assubjected the passions to reason Morality was a Naturall science or if it were infused t was togetther with the soul and every one would have been eased of the Pain of acquiring it all men were born wise Nature would have served them for a Mistris and they would have been so knowing even from their births as they would not have needed either Counsell or Instruction Originall righteousnesse govern'd their understanding guided their wills enriched their memories and after having done such wonders in their souls it wrought as many Prodigies in their bodies for it accorded the elements whereof they were Composed it hindred the waters from undertaking any thing against the fire tempered their qualities appeased their differences and did so firmly unite them as nothing could sever them Man knew only the name of death and he had this of comfort that he knew it was the Punishment of a fault from which if he would he might defend himself All nourishments were to pure that there was nothing superfluous in them Naturall heat was so vigorous as it converted all into the substance of the body was in all other respects so temperate as it was not prejudiciall to the radicall moisture Man felt nothing incommodious Prudence was so familiar to him as he prevented hunger and Thirst before they could cause him any trouble in his person and in his State he enjoyed a peacefull quiet and he was upon good Terms with himself and with his subjects because he was the like with his Sovereign he waited for his reward without anxiety and grounding himself upon the truth of his Creators promises he hoped for happinesse without disquiet Death was not the way to life there needed no descending to the earth to mount up to the heavens the soul fore-went not the body to enjoy her God and these two parts never having had any variance were joyntly to tast the same felicity But when the Devill had cozened the woman and that the woman had seduced the man he fell from this happy condition and losing Grace which caused all his good he fell into the depth ofall evills He received a wound which hecould never yet be cured of he saw himself bereft of his best part and could not conceive how being no longer righteous he continued to be rationall and left us in doubt whether he was yet man being no longer Innocent His Illuminations forsooke him together with Grace self-love came in the place of Charity He who before sought nothing but God began now to seek himself And he who grounded his happinesse upon his obedience would build his felicity upon Rebellion as soon as his soul rebell'd against God his body rebell'd against his soul these two parts changed their love to hatred and those who lived in so tranquill a peace declared open war one against another the senses which were guided by the understanding favoured the bodies revolt and the passions which were subject to reason contemned her Empire to inslave themselves to the Tyranny of Opinion If man were divided in his person he was not more fortunate in his condition wherein he underwent a Generall Rebellion the Beasts lost their respects they all became Savage and violence or Art is required to the taming of some of them the Elements began to mutiny following their own inclinations they broke the peace which they had sworn unto in behalf of man whilst Innocent the Seasons grew unseasonable to hasten the death of man grown guilty the very heavens alter'd their Influences and losing their
sinfull because the father which unites her to the flesh as a secondary cause Communicates unto her his disorder not giving her a remedy for it powers his poyson into her and doth not present her with an Antidote makes her Inherit Adams sin and doth Communicate unto her the Grace of Jesus Christ. This it is which Saint Augustine insinuates unto us in other Termes when he says that the Contagion of the body passeth into the soul that the close Cōmerce that is between them makes their miseries cōmon between them and that without extraordinary helps an Innocent soul cannot be lodg'd in a guilty body the purest Liquours are tainted in musty vessels corrupted Air poysons those who breath therein and infected houses give the Plague to those that live in them Thus doth concupiscence glide from the body into the soul and this wicked Host gives death to her that gives him life If these reasons do not content the reader let him know that I glory to be ignorant of what Saint Augustine understood not that I should shew my self too rash if I should think to give an entire light to the obscurest part of Divinity and that I should be unfaithfull if I should pretend to make a truth evident by reason which is only known by Faith The fifth Discourse Of the Nature of Concupiscence CHristian Religion may truly boast that all her Maxims are Paradoxes which agreeing with truth give against humane reason for she proposeth nothing which is not as strange as true and which causeth not as much astonishment as light in the soul he who would prove this truth must make an Induction of all our Mysteries and represent all the wonders which she comprehends but without straying from my subject it will suffice to say that Originall sin is one of her strangest Paradoxes and that if much of reason be required to prove it no less of faith is requisite to believe it for what more prodigious is there then that the sin of one man should be the sin of all men that a Fathers Rebellion should ingage all his Children in disobedience that his malody should be Contagious that he should be the murtherer of all men before he be their Father and that unfortunately he be the cause of their death many ages before they be born Thus is this misfortune more generall then the deluge which drowned the world more universall then the fire which shall consume it and War and Pestilence which doth so easily enlarge themselves are not so Contagious Evills as is this sin If it be wonderfull by reason of it's Effusion it is no less miraculous through it's other qualities for we are taught by Divinity that it is voluntary in the Father and naturall in the Children that that which was only a fault in Adam is both a sin and a punishment in those that descend from him that we contract by birth what he willingly committed and that that which was free in it's beginning should become necessary in the progress thereof He might have kept from disobedience And we can neither shun the punishment nor the fault we are surprized by this misfortune in our Conception we are slaves before we have the use of Liberty and we have already offended God before we knew him we are rather the objects of his anger then of his mercy but that which is more deplorable we are so corrupted from the moment of our Birth as that we oppose our selves to his will If he favour us in our Baptisme the first use we make of Reason is for the most part engaged in Errour we follow the Inclinations of our first father and his sin makes such powerfull Impressions upon our souls as we sin in our first thoughts we for the most part make use of our liberty only to estrange our selves from God we have a secret opposition to his ordinance we are so inclosed within our selves as we can love nothing but for our own interests which is the Rule of our actions and we neither love nor desire any thing save what is either usefull or pleasing to us Such is the corruption of our nature as there is almost nothing in it which is not repugnant to the laws of God It is so misled by sin as all the Inclinations thereof are perverted In this unfortunate Condition man can neither know nor doe good he is inslaved not having so much as the desire of Liberty though he groan under the weight of his Irons he is affraid of being freed from them and though his Imprisonment be painfull yet is not he weary thereof he delights in doing evill and findes difficulty to do what is good the great inclination he hath to sin doth not excuse his offence And he ceaseth not to be guilty though he cannot shun sin in generall to fill up the measure of so many Evils he is blind and insensible he sees not the Evils that environ and threaten him he is full of wounds and hath no feeling of them believing himself to be whole he seeks not for help through proud blindness he despiseth the Physician that would restore him to health Every man that comes into this world is in this miserable q condition and we are guilty of all these Crimes And charged with all these punishments before we be regenerated in Baptisme after this Sacrament we become Innocent but cease not to be miserable sin forsakes us but punishment waits upon us and though we be no more guilty we are notwithstanding out of order our Fathers sin forgoes us but Concupiscence remains This monster is not much lesse savage then is the Cause which produced it It follows the Inclinations thereof and if it be not altogether so wicked it is at least full out as irregular it is much more opinionated then the father that begot it our life is to short to cut it off it 's an enemy not to be overcome wounds give it new life it gathers strength by skars and it must cost us our life to be the death thereof Our first Divines which were the Apostles have given it the very name of sin and as if t were more fatall then it's Father they term it the strength and law thereof it is not content to perswade us to the Crime but endeavours to enforce us thereunto it mingles force with perswasion and when it thinks the way by solicitation to be to mild it hath Recourse to violence and Tyranny it grows the more furious by opposition it 's stomack is set on edge by Inhibition it never becomes more insolent then when Laws are prescribed unto it To Expresse the Nature thereof to the life we must represent a Tyrant who being born of sin will enlarge his Fathers Empire make al mankind his slaves it establisheth it's throne in our souls darkens our understanding infuseth wickednesse into our wils and fils our memories with the remembrance of all unjust acts It abuseth all
consists in the difficulty which accompanieth her she would not be beautifull were she not difficult and seeing that humane mindes betake themselves onely to what is painfull she endeavours to heighten her desert by Labour she decks her self with thornes in stead of flowers covers her self with dust in stead of sweet powders drops sweat and bloud in stead of perfumes and promiseth such as court her nothing but disasters and ill luck she is lodged upon a hill which is smooth slippery and steep on all sides where a man cannot come at her without danger of falling into a precipice though she promise honour to such as love her she suffers them oft times to be confounded and judgeth onely of their love by misprising glory or pleasure Shee invites them by her discourse but endues them not with strength she perswades their understandings but doth not raise up their wills and like the Law of Moses she may well have some light but no heat This is the cause why her pertakers have faln into despair and after having a long time served this rigorous Mistris they have been forced to accuse her of ingratitude and to blame her cruelty but what could they hope for from an idol which being the workmanship of their mindes had no other perfections than what it had borrowed from their praises which was onely vigorous in their writings only beautiful in their Panegyricks and which was not generous save in their actions Thus had Cato recourse to despaire finding no relief in vertue and Brutus acknowledged when he died that she could not assist such as served her that she dazled mens eyes by a false light and that she was but a vain idol which forsook her followers at a pinch not being able to warrant them from the outrages of Fortune We may truly affirm there have been two sorts of idolaters in the world the one worshipped the workmanship of their own hands and by an Immense folly put their hope in images which they themselves were Authors off though they cannot understand them they serve them with respect though they cannot defend them they fly to them for protection and dread their anger The other adore the workmanship of their minds and form unto themselves Noble Ideas which they fall in love with the more beautifull the idols were the greater impression did they make upon their wils and the more eloquent they were in describing them the more superstitious were they in honouring of them This errour blinded all Philosophers vertue which is but a habit which we acquire that we may do Good was the only Divinity which these hood winckt people worshipped and not considering that there is nothing in the soul of man which merits a Supreme Honour they bore respect to the good inclinations thereof when they were governed by the rules of morality this superstition cost the Apostles much more pain than the superstition of the people they had more ado to convert Philosophers than Tyrants and experience taught them that reason was more opinionated than force Two ages were sufficient to overthrow all idols of brasse and marble and though their adorers used cruelty to defend them martyrs through their patience triumphed over them But all the Reign of Jesus Christ hath not sufficed to destroy the idols of the minde The Doctors of the Church have in their writings set upon them but have not been able to bear them down and there be yet some libertines amongst the Children of the Church that do adore them They are not so much attracted by the grace of the Son of God as by the vertue of the Pagans good Nature appears more considerable to them than godlinesse and they more esteem Seneca's or Aristotles morals than those of Saint Paul or of Saint Austine his disciple yet the Vertue which these Philosophers taught in their Schooles had her esteem heightened onely by reason of her difficulty and was admired by her partakers onely through a vain beauty which did dazle them But Christian vertue is at once both beautifull easie you need but love her to acquire her to possess her cost us nothing but desires and the Holy Ghost who sheds her in our souls endues us with strength to overcome the difficulties which accompany her therefore is it that vertue in Christians did oft times fore-run reason they were wise before the years of wisdom and the Agnesses who had Jesus Christ onely for their Master were vertuous before rationall Grace fupplyed their weaknesse torments excited their courage they were constant not having read the death of Socrates the life of their spouse made up all their morality and his maximes confirmed by his examples inspired them with more of Constancie than was requisit to triumph over the cruelty of Tyrants and to confound the vertue of Philosophers But truly I do not wonder that the vertue of Pagans was so weak since they were divided and that reason which did guide them could never reconcile them for though they be said to have one the same father and that they are so straitely united together that a man cannot possesse one of them without possessing all the rest yet experience teacheth us that they have differences which Philosophy hath not yet been able to terminate Though they conspire together to make a man happy they trouble his quiet by their division and make so cruel war one upon another as to have peace in his soul he is obliged to drive out one of the parties from thence Mercy and Justice cannot lodge together in one Heart their Interests are so different as they are not to be accorded A man must renounce mildnes if he will be severe and severity if he will be mercifull Morality hath not yet found out a secret to reconcile these two vertues nor to unite them together thereby to make an accomplish't Prince Wisdom and simplicity hold no better intelligence the one is always diffident that she may be secure she oft-times hastens her misfortune whilest she thinks to avoide it she had rather do ill than suffer ill and her humour is so given to guile as the best part of her being is made up of dissimulations simplicity walks in a clean other track for she findes her assurance in her goodnesse she fears no outrage because she beleeves no injustice she had rather be unfortunate than blamefull and she is of so good an inclination as she resolves rather to receive an injury than to do one If wisdom be not upon good termes with simplicity she is not upon much better terms with valour Nature must do a miracle to make them both meete in one Subject they require different tempers and the aversion is such as morality cannot accord them wise and cautious men are always fearfull and valiant men are alwayes rash wisdom is of a cold constitution and doth not ingage her self in any perill till she see a wicket whereby to get out Valour is hot and firie
much the more dangerous by how much it is the more concealed and the vanity which in-animates their vertue is so much the more difficult to cure for that it is more subtill and more nice for though they make no accompt of Honour and that they seem to despise Glory and that satisfied with the merit of Vertue they seek not after the reputation which doth accompany her yet are they drunk with the esteem of themselves and are their own Idolaters The lesse praises they receive the more they think they deserve and who could read their hearts would find nothing there but proud insolent thoughts they tye themselves up to reason and despise Divinity they think themselves wise and better than Gods and not knowing that the Angels were Rebels they become guilty of their faults for as Saint Augustine says very well all men who stop at the Creature and do not raise themselves up to the Creator are criminall He trifles with those things which he ought to make use of he makes that his onely end which is but onely a means to arrive at it and reversing all the laws of Nature he will find in himself the happinesse which is onely to be found in God Thus are these Philosophers proud even when they contest against vain glory they trample upon ordinary Pride by a more subtill Pride they despise not riches save onely that they adore vertue they loosen themselves from the world onely that they may fasten themselves to their own persons and they make war against their bodies onely that they may make love unto their minds They are not Epicureans but Stoicks they neither love Pleasure nor Glory yet cease not to be slaves to both of them self-self-love is their voluptuousnesse and the satisfaction which they receive from their vertue is their vain glory they behold not one another without admirations and if they appear modest in their writings their designs are full of Pride Doubtlesly they are proud since they take Pleasure in themselves and they are not aware that this Complacency is a proof of their Folly since as Saint Augustine saith every man is a fool who delighteth in himself and he alone is wise who pleaseth God To conclude this discourse by a reason of Saint Pauls y of which Saint Augustine shall be the Interpreter the delight which we have in our selves is aswell a sin as the pleasure we take in others This great Apostle doth equally condemn these two disorders he will not have us to delight in our advantages the satisfaction which we take in our selves is a science or young shoot of self-love and if we be forbidden to love our selves we are not permitted to esteem our selves Saint Peter all whose words are Oracles Places complacency amongst the number of sins and condemning those who raise themselves above their deserts he condemnes those also who take pleasure in their Vertues and Saint Augustine discovering the intention of these great Apostles teacheth us that there are two sorts of Temptations the one exterior which being easily discovered are not hard to overcome the other interior and which lying in the bosome of our souls are as hard to cure as to know Of this sort is their Temptation who not requiring the praises which they deserve or who rejecting such praises as are given them cease not notwithstanding to be displeasing to God because being filled with a vain glory so much the more dangerous as the more subtill they delight in themselves and do not raise themselves up to the Summum Bonum which is the fruitfull Fountain-head of all true vertues This is the fault whereof prophane Philosophers were guilty the vain glory which blindes the Socratesses the Catoes this is the nice Temptations which undid all the excellent wits of Rome and Athens The rest which were so very fine were contented with the peoples applause and demanded no other recompence for their vertues than triumphs and victories and certeinly those could not complain of Gods Justice since he hath changed their desires into effects and proportioning their recompences to their Actions hath crowned their fallacious vertues with a vain Honour since he hath paid their Labours with so many conquests and hath submitted so many people to men that are Ambitious of Command and glory The fourth Discourse That the vertue of Infidels cannot be True VErtue is so beautifull as her very shaddow is delightfull vices have some sort of comelinesse when they borrow her accoutrements and we cannot forbear praising such errours as appear in her likely-hood We approve of prodigality in Princes because it counterfeits liberality We admire boldnesse in Souldiers because it hath an air of valour and courage We adore ambition in conquerours because it borders upon Generosity This errour would be excusable did it not advance further but there are some men who preferring appearances before truths value a glorious vice at a higher rate than a neglected vertue Socrates his conference with his friends seems of a more lofty style to them than doth S. Pauls last words and this Philosophers discoveries prevailes more with them than the examples of our Martyrs Hence it is that Christians admire the vertues of Infidels that not content to make their Apologies they make Panegyricks in their behalf and praise men on earth whom God punisheth in hell Saint Austine not being able to endure this injustice which had its birth with the Pelagian Heresie opposeth it in a thousand parts of his writings and contradicting the reasons which it proffers in ' its defence Makes Christians confesse that the greatest part of infidels vertues are but glorious vices as I am of his opinion I will march under his colours and I will make use of his weapons to preserve the advantages of the Graces of Jesus Christ and to take away the vanity of corrupted Nature But to proceed by degrees we must presuppose with S. Austine that no action can be holy which proceeds not from Faith according to this holy Fathers sense a man must be faithful if he will please God and the soul which is not enlightened by the Divine light cannot acquire any Christian vertues that which hath no regard to the Summum Bonum cannot be good in this sense and where supreme tatis cognitio is wanting no Divine vertue can be practised Either Grace or corrupted Nature are the Originals of our actions whatsover proceeds from the former is sacred whatsoever derives from the second is prophane a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor can a bad one bring forth good Since humane Nature hath lost her Innocence and her Inclinations are corrupted unlesse she be amended by Grace she remains always bâ—assed towards the earth she must be raised up by faith if she will look up to heaven though she see â—er disorder she cannot amend it and though she be conscious of her evill she cannot hate it she wants both light and
and their servitude was not the sweeter for being somewhat the more Glorious The one lived according to the flesh the other according to the soul but neither the one nor the other lived according to Jesus Christ. The Epicuraeans confined themselves within their body the Stoicks within their soul but neither did the one nor the other of them forgoe themselves to fasten to the Summum Bonum Then to be vertuous it is not sufficient to love Morall vertue she cannot be mans finall end sinâ— is onely created for God nor can she be a means to acquire it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love is her originall To â—et her forth to the life we must say that in this sence she is a disguised sin which fights against apparent mischiefs by Hidden ones which hurts us to heal us and which never closeth up slight wounds without making deeper and more dangerous ones This ought not to seem strange to those who will consider that there be women who are chast because they will be unchast who grant nothing to their husbands that they may give all to their Adulterers Thus did the Infidels in their Combats they opposed one sin to another they surpast Incontinancy by vain glory and freed themselves from injustice by Ambition Those past for the best whose faults were most usefull to the State men judged of vertues by their effects as they oft-times do of counsels by their events and not considering their original or their motives they were thought vertuous who were honourable in the Common-wealth They praised Fabriciâ— his poverty because it was a means why Luxury did not corrupt the most illustrious Families of Rome They valued Scipioes continencie because there by the insolencie of the Souldiers was supprest and they excused Catoes severity because it preserved the Senates freedom but all these false vertues were true faults the very best of them was worth nothing the beautifullest of them had their defaults and oft-times those which we praise most deserve most blame It is not impossible but that Camillus his ambition was more violent than that of Cateline it may be Pompey was not more innocent than Caesar who can tell but that he might have prevened his Father in Laws fault had he thought he might have gained as much honour by the oppression of the Repulique as by her defence It may be Scipio was no lesse vain than was Marius and if he used it more modestly 't was onely for that he fashioned to himself a more noble Idea of glory In fine they were all faulty And as S. Austine says Catiline was more wicked than Fabricius but both of them were to blame both of them shall be punished in Hell but Fabricius not so much as Catiline not for that he was better but for that he was lesse â—cked not for that he was more solidly vertuous but for that he came somewhat neerer True vertue From all this discourse we must infer that S. Austine doth not acknowledge any morall vertues which are not Christian that wisdom and Fortitude are but weaknesse and blindnesse if they be not founded upon faith that he who is not upon good terms with himself cannot be upon good terms with his neighbours that the wife who is faithlesse to God cannot be faithfull to her husband and that the body cannot be chast when the soul is the Devils strumpet Let us conclude this discourse with those gallant words of S. Ierome which will be the lesse subject to suspition for that he seems to reverence the vertues of the Pagans and that he is pleased to write their Panegyricke to encourage the Faithfull by their example The just man lives by Faith saith the holy Scripture and we say that the Chaste and courageous man lives by Faith Let us apply these words to all the vertues let us make weapons there-out to beat the mis-beleevers Hereticks withall to the end that they may learn that there is no living well out of Jesus Christ without whom innocency is guilty and vertue vitious After this Testimony we may long dispute the truth of this Doctrine and what is establisht by the Authority of two of the wisest Fathers of the Church may be believed without Errour taught without scandall and defended without any scruple The fift Discourse That Wisdom without Grace is blinde weak and Malignant IF the Pagans did beleeve that the vertues were Dieties we must not wonder if they yeelded the same Honour to Wisdom since according to the judgement of Philosophers she is their Sovereign T is she which doth indeed conduct them in their employments redresse them in their errours and assists them at their needs she wakes for the safety of the State and whereas other vertues have but particular uses this hath generall occupations which concern the Common good When she goes to the Composition of an upright man she is called morality when to the making of a Father to a family O economie and when she makes a State Minister or a Prince she assumes a more Lofty name and is called Policy but she is the soul of all those Sciences which have no other light than what she affords them and which differ within themselves onely by the diversity of their objects she is as necessary in war as in Peace and the Generalls of Armies are more to be commended for their wisedom than for their valour In fine she is the Chain which links all vertues together which do disband as soon as she gives over guiding them For Fortitude without wisdome is but meer rashnesse Justice which is not accompanied with discretion doth easily degenerate into severity even Temporance it self when it gives over being guided by her becomes either too remiss or too rigorous So as a man must be wise to be vertuous and the shortest way to come by all vertues is to get wisedome Amongst many Employments which are given her the chiefest are to consult and to deliberate to Judge and resolve to conduct and to execute When she hath done her utmost diligence she leaves the successe to Fortune and confesseth by this her submission that she holds of a Sovereign Power which disposeth absolutely of all worldly affairs Amongst so many advantages which so Eminent a vertue doth enjoy it is not hard to observe her defaults and to make Politicians who do adore her confesse that since Originall sin she is become blind weak and malignant Light seems to fall to wisdomes share and that leaving Stability to Justice Rigour to Fortitude and Mildnesse to Temperance she reserves Perspicuity to her selfe to dissipate those darknesses which do obscure worldly things yet is she unfortunate in this very point and of all Sciences which meddle with prediction she is the most uncertain in her conjectures Astrologie which seems to be wholly composed of Doubts and Errours boasts her selfe of having constant Principles and to extract the good fortune or bad fortune of men from the Conjunction
of the world grow weary of commanding they finde more content in a friend than in a slave and how brutish soever their nature be they are well content to have one to whom they may un-bosome themselves Tiberius loved Sejanus and had not this Favourite become his Rivall it may be he never had decreed his death Nero could not fence himselfe from friendship the sweetnesse of this vertue vanquisht that Monsters cruelty and whil'st he quencht the flames of Rome by the bloud of Christians he had some Confidents whom he called friends This Infidell Prince whose subjects were all slaves and in whose Empire the desire of liberty was a fault wanted not Favourites whom he loved he plays with those he ought to destroy he makes those the objects of his love who ought to be the objects of his fury a certain Captive had power over the Tyrant and under the assurance of friendship gave lawes to him who gave lawes to the greatest part of the world Though these reasons do mightily inhance the merit of Friendship yet must we conclude in Saint Austines Principles That the Friendship of Pagans is defective and doth not deserve the praises that are given it For if we take Aristotle for our Arbitratour friendship ought to be established upon selfe-love and to love his Neighbour well a man must love himselfe well He who prefers the pleasures of the body before those of the mind who hazards his honour to preserve his riches and who injures his conscience to encrease his reputation cannot be a good friend to others because he is his own Enemy and who wants vertue cannot have friendship Morall Philosophy with all her precepts cannot reforme a disorder which since the losse of originall righteousnesse makes up one part of our selves the unrighteousnesse thereof hath past into our nature and as we cannot without grace be upon good termes with our selfe neither can we without her be upon good termes with others We either give them too much or not enough we cannot keep that just measure which makes friendship reasonable we turne a vertue into a passion or to speak trulier we make an innocent action criminall and the same selfe-love which puts us on ill termes with our selves puts us upon the like with our Neighbours we love his errours whil'st we think to love his perfections we excuse his sins in stead of condemning them and we oft-times become guilty of his faults for having approved them Blosius confesseth he would have burnt Iupiters Temple if Gracchus had commanded him so to do he thought Justice ought to give place to friendship that his friend should be dearer to him than his God and that whatsoever he did through affection could not render him faulty It may be 't was for this cause that Aristotle blaming friendship whil'st he thought to praise her said that her perfection consisted in her excesse and that far differing from common vertues which do consist in mediocrity she was never more admirable than when most excessive That a man might give too much but not love too much that one might have too much courage but not too much love that a man might be too wise but not too loving yet this excesse is vitious and experience teacheth us that Common-wealths have no more dangerous Enemies than those who are ready to do or suffer any thing for their friends Therefore 't is that the same Philosopher prescribing bounds to friendship did publickly professe that truth was dearer to him than Plato that when he could not accord these two he forewent his friend to maintain his Mistresse Hence it is that Polititians calling in Religion to the succour of Morality have affirmed that affection ought to give way to Piety and that she ceased to be just when she prophaned altars Those notwithstanding that are of this opinion have not forborne to set a value upon faulty friendship and Antiquity doth hardly reverence any friends whose friendships hath not been prejudiciall either to the State or to Religion Pilades and Orestes were of intelligence onely to revenge themselves Theseus and Pirithoiis kept friendship onely to satisfie their unchaste desires Lentulus and Cethegus were faithfull to Catiline onely that they might be perfidious to their Countrey But what else could one expect than faults from those who had no piety what friendship could one hope from those who wanted the first of vertues how could they have bin faithfull to their friends since they were unfaithful to their Gods if they have loved any one even till death it hath been out of vain glory and if they loved them whil'st they were alive t' has been for Interest the sinner for the most part loves none but himselfe and though this irregulate love be both his fault and his punishment yet he therein findes his delight and his glory nothing can divert him from his own Interest when he thinks to free himselfe from himselfe he fasteneth himselfe closer to himselfe and if he love his friends 't is that he may love himselfe in more places than one and in more persons if he part with his heart 't is that he may receive it back again with the like of others his love is but usury wherein he hazards little to gain much 't is an invention of self-love which seeks to satisfie it selfe in others 't is a trick of humane pride which makes man abase himselfe onely that he may grow the greater which adviseth him to engage his liberty onely that he may bereave others of theirs and which makes him make friends onely that he may have slaves or such as love him What glorious name soever one attributes to friendship she hath no other designes than these when she is led on by self-self-love and whatsoever language the Infidels have held these have been their onely motives when they have lost either life or liberty for their friends if they were silent amidst tortures and if the cruelty thereof could not compell them to discover their associates 't was either for that they valued friendship more than life or that they thought treachery worse than death if they would not out-live their friends 't was to free themselves from sorrow and solitarinesse and if for their delivery they exposed themselves to Tyrants 't was for that their words bound them to it and that they thought they should be no losers in an occasion wherein though with losse of life they won honour And to say truth Aristotle hath well observed that he who dyes for his friend loves himself better then his friend and that in an Action which seems to violate Nature he doth nothing which self-self-love may not advise him to since that by suffering death he labours after glory and that by erecting a sacrifice unto his love he buildes a Trophy to his Memory The example of Damon and Pythias may confirm this Truth They had been brought up in Pythagoras his school the conformity of
different parts the bodies pain is the Souls punishment their good and their bad are common between them the more noble suffers with the more ignoble and by a strange misfortune the soul which needs no nourishment fears famine she who is spirituall fears pain and she who is immortall apprehends death she is afflicted with whatsoever hurts the body and as if her love had changed her Essence she seems to be become Corporeall By a sequell as shamefull as necessary she takes her part of all the bodies pleasures she shapes desires unnecessitated she follows the inclmations of its senses and forgoing truth and vertue wherein all her innocent delights ought to consist she rellisheth the flowers with the smelling she tastes meat with the Pallate she hears Musick with the ears and seeth the diversity of colours with the eyes Being thus become sensuall she is not to be loosened from the body she forgets her naturall advantages by neglecting them she forgoes commerce with spirits to treat with beasts the fear she hath of death makes her doubt her immortallity the love she hath to pleasure makes her despise vertue and to engage her selfe too far in her slaves interest she learns new crimes whereof she was before innocent For although the soule be not impeaceable and that her will be not so constant in what is good but that she may be unfortunately parted from it yet is she not capable of all sorts of crimes she may be seduced by falshood blown up by vaine glory abased by sadnesse and gnawn by envy but she should be exempt from such sins as she is perswaded unto by the senses if she were dis-ingaged from the body Meer spirits are not scorcht with unchaste flames divels are not unchaste save onely for that they counsell us to impurity They are pleased with this vice onely because Jesus Christ is thereby injured and our soules would finde no trouble in being chaste did they not love unchaste bodies drunkennesse the vapours whereof cloud reason is not so much a sin of the soule as of the body did not the soule swim in the bloud the body would never be drown'd in wine and the greatest drunkard of the world would forgoe his love to this sin if death had un-robd him of his body a man must partake much more of a beast than of an Angel if he fall into this disorder and men who make more use of their soules then of their bodies are not much subject to this infamous Irregularity Gluttony which may be termed the sister or the mother of drunkennesse lodgeth neither in the will nor in the understanding it makes it's abode in the body the pallate which tastes viands the stomack which disgests them are it 's faithfull officers if it make any use of the understanding 't is for the service of the belly and if it reason at any time 't is but to finde out new sauces which may awaken appetite Covetousnesse though it contest with ambition and be insatiable is rather a sin of the senses than of the soule for this illustrious Captive makes not so many wishes for her selfe as for the body which she inanimates Glory and vertue are the onely objects of her desires when she labours to get riches or to seek out pleasure she fits her selfe to the humour of her slave and acts more through complacency than inclination or necessity 't is the body which needs the light of the constellations to light it the fruites of the earth to nourish it the skins of beasts to cloth it and all the beauties of nature for it's diversion All Artslabour onely for the service thereof though they be the work of the understanding they be the bodies servants and set those aside which have affinity with sciences all the rest labour onely to entertain the senses some cut out clothes to cover us others raise houses for us to lodge in some till the earth to nourish us others seek for pearl in the bottome of the sea and diamonds in the bowels of the earth for our adornment if the soule become ingenious in inventing things which are superfluous and of no use she is there unto sollicited by reason of the bodies need and she forgoes all these cares as soon as she is got out of prison The Rebell Angels never fought to divide the riches of the earth the division of Provinces or Kingdoms did never move ambition in them the beauty of women never caused in them loose desires nor did ever any of those sins which arise from flesh bloud tempt those haughty spirits The greatest part of our excesse derives from the body if we were parted from it we should either become innocent or if in that condition we should have either ambition or avarice their motive and object would be altered The greatest Conquerours have no motions which are not common to them with Lions Lovers jealousie is not more noble then is that of Buls and the husbandry of the Avaritious is not more just then is that of Owles and Ants if men be more to blame then beasts 't is because their soule complies with their bodies and that she makes use of her advantages to supply her slaves necessities But the mischiefe takes it's originall from the body and as the woman tempted man after she had been seduced by the devill the flesh tempts the spirit after having been sollicited by objects which flatter the senses I very well know that in the State of Innocency the soule was first guilty and that the body being subject to reason could not excite the first seditions it was obedient to it's Sovereign and as long as the soule was subject to God the body was subject to the soule but when once the soule rebell'd against her God her body scorn'd to be commanded by her And as mans fault had been a revolt his punishment was a rebellion also All our mischief ariseth from the bad intelligence which is held between the two parts whereof we are composed he who could appease their differences might remedy our sins and if the body did no longer rebell against the soule we should have reason to hope that the soule would no longer rebell against God To understand this truth which seems at first to gain-say the rules of humane reasons you must know that Generation is the way by which Adams sin is transmitted into our soules should not inherit the bodies sin nor misery From this impure and fruitfull spring-head do all our mis-fortunes derive the blindnesse which cloudes our understanding draws it's obscurity from the body falshood and vanity enter our soules by the gate of our senses and if sins end in the will they begin in the imagination Love glides into the heart by the eyes he who could be blinde might easily be chaste if calumny be formed in the heart it is dealt abroad by the tongue and what in the thought was but the malady of one particular
man becomes by discourse the contagion of a whole Town Conceptions are spread abroad by words and faults are multiplied by communication if those who are dumb conceive envie they cannot shew it by detraction and if they expresse it by signes 't is either the hands or eyes which makes them guilty our soule is not infected with falshood or heresie save by our most refined sense these two poisons are taken in by the care not by the mouth And as faith and truth enter the soule by hearing their mortall enemies make their passage by the same way a man must stop his eares and shut his eyes if he will keep his heart pure It were to be wisht that men were blinde that so they might not see the beauty which inchants them that women were deafe that they might not hear the praises which seduce them In fine the world abuseth us onely by our senses it 's pernicious Maximes get into our soules by our eares the vanities thereof corrupt our wills by our eyes and all those objects whose different beauties do be witch us make no impression in our soule but by our body We should be invulnerable were we spirituall and of a thousand temptations which we have we should hardly be troubled with one were we not engaged in Materia To compleat our mis-fortune we love our enemy the bad offices he doth us cannot diminish our love All the Maximes of Religion cannot perswade us to revenge and though this motion of the minde be so pleasing to the injured it seems severe unto us when we are invited to punish our body Our passion for this unfaithfull one is not extinguished by death The damned preserves it amidst the flames though they know their pains shall be increased by the resurrection of their body they cannot chuse but desire it In hell hope triumphs over fear and pain and this cruell enemy hath so many charmes as though he be reduced to dust yet doth he cause love in the soule which did inanimate him The remembrance of the injuries which the soule hath received from the body and the fear of pain which she expects from thence is not able to stifle this desire She hopes for the day of Judgement where she must be condemned though she know her punishment will be increased by her re-union with her body she cannot but desire it with impatience and places the delay thereof in the number of her sufferings So as we are bound to conclude that if the body be the cause of sin during life it will be the punishment thereof after death and that if it hath made the soule guilty upon earth 't will make her unhappy in hell The third Discourse Of the Infidelity of the Senses NAture being so intermingled with sin as that the one is the production of God the other the work of man the praises which we give to the former are always mingled with Invectives made against the latter and we cannot value the beauty of nature unlesse we blame the out-rages which she hath received from sin the figure of mans body is an evident signe of his Makers wisdome The Lineaments of his face bindes us to admire the power of the hand which hath formed them and the disposall of the parts thereof draw no lesse praises from our mouthes than the like of the universe But the disorder which we see in mans Temperature the opposition of those Elements which go to his composure and that generall revolt which hath shed it self throughout all his members obligeth us to detest sin which is the cause thereof We must argue in the same sort concerning our senses and confesse that as their use deserves estimation their irregularity deserves blame They are admirable in their structure and were they not common to us with beasts we might be permitted to glory in them The operation of the noblest of them is so subtill as that the soule as divine as she is can hardly comprehend it she admireth these Master-pieces of nature though she have so great a share in their miracles yet knows she not how they are done and thinks strange that she should contribute to wonders which she cannot conceive For the soule inanimates the senses and this spirituall forme is a created Divinity which sees by the eyes heares by the eares and expresseth it selfe by the mouth But if the senses have their perfections they have also their defects and if the soule receive any service by them she is by them likewise much injured They are the gates of falshood and errour vanity slides into our soules by their means they are exposed to illusions the objects wherewith they are pleased corrupt them and being once corrupted by delight they make no true reports unto the soule Nature hath endowed us with them that we might know God by things visible and to raise us up to consider the beauty of the Creatour by the like of his works these deceitfull Guides do notwithstanding abuse us and sollicited either by delight or interest make Idols unto themselves of all the creatures and lead us to adore sensible and perishable Gods Saint Augustine confesseth that he never went astray in his beliefe save when he would follow them and that he never engaged himselfe in errour save when he gave beliefe to their advise he sought out God with his eyes he would have touched him with his hands and thought to have found him in the world whom he carried about with him in his heart He gave commission to all his senses to finde him out but these ignorant messengers could learn him nothing and he found not his God because he knew not how rightly to seek for him Their ignorance would be excusable were it not accompanied with injustice but these evill Counsellours grow insolent in chiding us after they have abused us and make violence succeed superchery they tyrannize over our souls after having seduced them and make the Sovereign take laws from his slaves According to the Government of the Universe Inferiour things are alwas subject to their superiour as the earth is lesse noble than the Heavens it is also lower it receives their influences thereof with respect and all the fruit it beareth raise themselves up towards the stars to witnesse that it's fruitfulnesse derives from their Influences In Civill Government women are subject unto their husbands and slaves obey their Masters in Politique the people hold of their Sovereign and the Kings will is the Subjects laws but in man this order is reverst by an irregularity which can be nothing but the punishment of sin his soule depends upon his body and in her noblest operations she is obliged to be advised by the senses Her condition is so unhappy as she seems almost enforced to believe the ignorant to follow the blinde and to obey Rebels A man would blame a State where fools should command over wise men where children should prescribe laws to the Ancient
harder to be repaired than those which they commit upon the constitution whole mouthes are required to their reparation after p the fever hath left them the colour in the cheek is not so soon re-gained as health And women as if they did prefer pleasure before profit are sorry to see themselves sooner well than fair nothing can consolate them for the losse of a thing held so precious but the knowledge that it was natures pleasure it should not be permanent For her rarest workmanships are of least durance there is no beauty constant save that of the stars and yet they may complain that the cloudes darken them by night and the sun by day The rain-bow is the most beautifull of all Meteors it shames the Art of painting be it either for lustre or for the mixture of colours it 's figure is so perfect as the compasse cannot imitate it the greatnesse thereof is so vast as it incompasseth halfe the world the waters whereof it is composed nourish hope in the husbandman it causeth fruitfulnesse in fields and warns men to shun the storms which it threatens 'T is a pledge of the peace which heaven hath made with earth and though it presage rain to men in generall yet doth it assure the faithfull that the world shall never be drowned again yet so rare a marvaile lasts but a few moments One and the same hour sees the beginning and the end thereof the Sun seems to have made it only to please itselfe in the un-making thereof The rose amongst flowers is like the rain-bow amongst Meteors her vermillion out-vies all the beauty of the world Her odour naturally as it is disputes for precedency with the most pleasing perfumes that Art can compose the placing of her leaves puts painters who would imitate her to their wits ends yet too boot that she is environed with prickles and that she seems to share more in the curse of the earth than other flowers her life lasts but for a few days the Sun which gave her life gives her death and that fire which enlivens her purple is extinguished as soon as lighted Neither is the beauty of women of long durance that lustre which bewitcheth men is lost in a few years and they are unjust in wishing that men should be constant in their love since the object which gives it birth is so subject to alteration But this fault in beauty were excusable since it cures the malady which it caused were it not accompanied with another which can admit of no excuse neither deserves any pardon For beauty is become an enemy to chastity and since the soule and body are at ods these two qualities have much adoe to agree Fair women are seldome chaste nature since corrupted is turned hypocrite beauty is no longer a mark of goodnesse she forgoes the soule as soon as she appears upon the body and as if perfection were no longer to be found upon earth a woman ceaseth oft-times to be chaste when she begins to be lovely That Father in Ovid did witnesse this very well who being desired by his daughter that he would give her leave to consecrate her virginity to Diana reply'd that her beauty gain-said her designe that she was too fair to be chaste and that though she should have resolution enough to keep her vow she had too many lovers to preserve her chastity 't is very hard for a woman who delights in causing love in others not to share therein her selfe and that a woman of an excellent beauty should be ice since she gives fire to so many flames she cannot resolve to hate all those that love her she cannot be perswaded that those who honour her should undoe her what advise soever her directour gives her she cannot believe that those who are her slaves should be her enemies nor that those that praise her beauty would wound her honour She thinks that beauty of no power which hath no Martyrs she believes she cannot judge of her own charmes but by her servants sighes that she is ignorant of her own conquests if she learn them not from their mouthes and that there is yet somwhat wanting to her Triumph if those who have experience of her cruelty do not implore her mercy Flattered by these false perswasions she exposeth her selfe to danger and out of hope of obtaining new victories she engageth her selfe in fresh combates if she be not seduced by vanity she is misled by pitty and believes that those who behave themselves so handsomly in their complaints suffer reall pains compassion makes her throw open the doores to love and under pretence of easing anothers malady she forgets her duty and betrayes her honour If she preserves her chastity amidst so many rocks which threaten her shipwrack she runs great hazard of loosing her humility her lovers Panegyricks make her think better of her selfe and those praises which men rob God of to give her perswade her that she is somwhat of divine Those who cannot corrupt her by their idle discourse seduce her by their adorations not being able to make her unchaste they make her proud not being able to bereave her of her chastity they take from her her modesty and bring her into a sad condition wherein pride is as it were necessary to her for defence of her honesty She likes not of common homage she thinks her selfe injured if men use not blasphemy to heighten her beauty and unlesse upon cold bloud men say what enamour'd Poets use to do in raptures she thinks her selfe slighted her lovers extravagancies are her Panegyricks she thinks not that they love unlesse they lose their reason nor doth she judge their passion to be extream unlesse they commit a thousand follies She judges of her power by her injustice if she doth not engage those who serve her in hard and ridiculous enterprises she doubts of their fidelity and because love is a kind of madnesse she will have all her lovers to be either mad or out of their wits 'T is not enough for a man to lose his liberty in her service unlesse he lose his judgment also more cruell then Tyrants and more absolute then Kings she will have her slaves to be her Martyrs that they kisse their fetters love their sufferings and listen with respect to their doom of death Thus Pride springs from beauty fair women grow proud and their insolence grows to that height as to ravish men from God to commit that execrable attempt on earth which Lucifer did in Heaven and to make all creatures adore rhem The first Christian women who very well knew the misfortune which accompanied this advantage did gallantly despise it they were ashamed to be handsome they neglected what our women so much value they thought it a fault to heighten a perfection which produceth lewd desires the purest amongst them wisht that old age might free them of this domestick enemy the most zealous did set upon
who are always ready to die and who placing their happinesse in the resemblance or imitation of Jesus Christ desire to lose their lives a thousand times amidst tortures to repair his charity by their love and to suffer for his glory what he hath undergone for their salvation The tenth Discourse That sleep is a punishment of sin as the image of death and that it bereaves us of reason as dreames do of rest THose who think sleep the most harmlesse part of life wil never be perswaded that it hath drawn some evill qualities from Adams sin for it seems to reduce men to the conditions of Children and that bereaving them of the use of reason it takes from them that unfortunate power which they by their offences abuse The guiltiest actions become innocent during sleep those vapours which do stupifie the senses excuse the sins of those that sleep and as their Vertues are not rewarded neither are their offences punished Murthers are committed without effusion of blood revenge is taken upon enemies without injustice and another mans goods are without violence tane away whilst sleep doth lull the senses The soul is not guilty of the faults which her body commits and though she gives it life and motion she hath not liberty enough to give it the guidance thereof Imagination is the sole faculty which doth in-animate it and this confused faculty not being guided by reason commits evil unpunished and pleads blindnesse for the excuse of it's errour Yet is it certain that in the condition wherein we are sleep is a punishment of sin and had man never sinned he had never proved those disquiets wherewith he is agitated during his rest Nature would have born a respect to her Sovereigns sleep the elements which formed his body would not have troubled his rest and vapours would have been so mild as stupefying all the senses they would have left the soul at liberty In this happy condition man might well have refreshed himself by sleep his eyes would have been closed against the light and his other senses would have dispensed with their ordinary functions But the soul would have retired to within her self and acting according to the manner of Angels she would have known Truth without the interposition of the Organs her rest would rather have bn an extasie then sleep and man might have said that his heart waked whilst his body took it's resti I have much ado to believe that man was reduced to the condition of beasts before he had sinned and that he should have undergone the punishment of an offence which he had not as yet committed If there have been some Saints whom sleep did not deprive of the use of reason and who loved God even whilst they slept I think it not strange that the heavens should have granted this favour to our first father in his innocency that he entertein'd himself with Angels whilest he could not entertain himself with men St. Iohn the Baptist adored the Son of God in the chast womb of the Virgin the obscurity of his Prison could not hinder the light of heaven from enlightning his understanding that stupefaction which continues nine moneths with other children hindred not him from instructing Elizabeth by his motions and from letting her know that the mother which she saw was a Virgin and that the child which she saw not was God The better part of Divines do not question but that the Virgin did enjoy this priviledge all her life and that her soul whilest her body rested was wholly busied in considering the wonders of her son she loved him as well sleeping as waking Sleep did not interrupt her love Sleep which makes us beasts made her an Angel and her soul had this advantage in the night season that it did act without any dependency upon her bodie rest did not bereave her of half her life as it doth us were she asleep or were she awake she did equally apply her self to God her sleep was more operative then all our watchings when her mouth was shut her spirit supplied her silence and she praised God with her heart not being able to do it with her tongue Imagine that Adams sleep did somewhat resemble that of the Virgins that he ceased not to reason when he could not speak that his noblest part slept not whilest his other did that his souls eyes were open when his bodily eyes were shut and that his soul exercising those species which she by the senses had received considered the works of God for why should we beleive that Adam should suffer that out-rage in the state of innocency which the Saints had much ado to tolerate in the state of sin Sleep which is the rest of their body is the punishment of their soul they are afflicted that their will should be rendered so long useless they conjure their tutelâ—ry â—els to wake whilest they sleep and to love in their behalf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goodnesse which cannot be loved according to its worth they look upon their bed as upon their grave they think to die as oft as they fall a sleep and they murmure that their soule which is immortall should be constrained to suffer such a kinde of death I pardon them these their complaints for 't is true that sleep is the shame of our nature and that the qualities wherewithall it is accompanied teach us that it is become criminall it reduceth men to the condition of beasts it takes from them their noblest priviledges and inhibits them the use of all the senses which may be serviceable to the soul. This punishment seems to be more injurious than death whose image it is for death loosens the soule from the body raiseth her to the condition of Angels and withdraws her from a prison which though she delighted in ceased not to be fatall to her but sleep stupifies the senses sets upon such parts of the body as the soule makes most claim to disperseth it's vapours into the eyes and ears and reduceth man into a condition wherein he can neither speak nor think The heart during sleep is in a perpetuall motion naturall heat disgests meat the liver converts it into bloud and distributes it abroad amongst the veines every part turnes it into it's own substance and by a continuall miracle one and the same nourishment doth extend it selfe into nerves thickens into flesh and hardens into bone Nature repaires these ruines which watchings had made in the body she leaves nothing uselesse in this condition and her diligence extends even to our haire which grows whil'st we Sleep But the noblest of our senses are a sleep our eyes serve no more for guides nor the ears for intelligencers the tongue to which motion is so naturall is no more the soules interpreter imaginations selfe doth only furnish her with confused species and the soul in this disorder is inforced to remain idle and unusefull Passions be they never so
fine earth is the place of desert and heaven the abode of recompence God hath reserved unto himself the care of dispensing glory to those that serve him 't is he who will make the Saints Panygericks and who will crown their vertues let us not intrench upon his rights let us give all glory to him since he is the fountain thereof and let us confesse that man would never have been ambitious if he had always continued innocent The third Discourse That greatnesse is attended by flavery and vanity THough sin hath corrupted mans nature though it have bereft him of those glorious advantages which made him walk hand in hand with Angels and hath reduced him to a condition wherein he is equally grieved with shame and misery yet hath it not been able to blot out of his soul the memory of his greatnesse For though the world be a place of banishment though all Creatures war against him and that the seasons are become irregular onely to make him suffer he notwithstanding seeks for Paradice upon the earth and amidst all his mischiefs he continues a desire of happinesse Though ignorance be the punishment of his sin though his blindnesse continue all his life time and that the darknesse which clouds his understanding suffers him not to discern between vice vertues yet he thirsts after truth he seeks her amidst falshood and oft-times fights to find her out though since the losse of his innocency he be become slave to his passions and that to obey such insolent Masters he be enforced to forego his liberty he ceaseth not to love command and to pretend to the Empire of the whole world he endevours to recover by injustice what he hath lost by Vanity and not able to come by royalty he with open face aspires to Tyranny The Devil who cannot efface his desires which are as the remainder of innocency is content to corrupt them and to propose unto him false objects to divert him from true ones To say truth man takes no longer pleasure in any thing save in criminall delights the inclination which he hath for the Summum Bonum serves onely to keep the further from it and for not taking his aim aright he strays from his end whilest he thinks to draw neer it the love which he bears to knowledge is but a meer curiosity he loves truth like a whore not like a legitimate wife he seeks her out onely to passe away his time as oft as she blames his disorders he turns his love into hatred and becomes her persecutor whose servant he was His passion for Sovereignty is not more lawfull though he desire a Good which he hath possessed 't is upon such conditions as make his desire unjust He wisheth for an independant Crown whith may hold of no body he will be absolute in his estate and since he is become the Devils slave he will be no longer Gods subject his ambition will not suffer him to acknowledge his legitimate Sovereign and his basenesse forceth him to tolerate a Tyrant he would think he should injure his liberty should he assubject it to the will of his Creator and thinks not that he wrongs his nobility when he submits himself to an usurper he feeds himself with vain authority and false greatnesse he thinks himself not forced because he follows his own inclinations and because his Master keeps him tied up with Chains of Gold he cannot think he is a slave This errour slides the easilyer into the souls of Kings for that seeing so many subjects obey them they cannot perswade themselves that servitude can meet with so many marks of liberty These crowned heads can hardly believe that their will which is the living law of their Empire is made a Captive that they who are their subjects destiny should hold of an invisible Tyrant and that they who passe for the Gods of the world should be the Devils slaves the submission which they finde in their Dominions makes them believe they are absolute the blinde respect which is rendred to their degree makes them forget the miseries of their birth flattery insinuates her selfe easily into them unlesse they be armed with reason to withstand her and these pleasing falshoods banish away truth In so high a pitch of fortune where nothing is wanting to compleat the felicity of their senses their soule is weakned and being charmed by false praises they believe what they desire They imagine that death dares not assaile a Monarch which the world stands in awe of and whom fortune reverenceth They make a God-head of their greatnesse they despise such honours as are not divine and though sicknesses which advertise them of their weaknesse assure them of their deaths they hope for an un-exampled miracle and perswade themselves that immortality is a favour wherewith heaven will honour their merit The guards which watch about their Palaces might easily cure them of this errour did not flattery which makes them as stupid as insolent bereave them both of their judgement and modesty the conspiracies which are made against their persons the parties which are packt in their Territories the cunning which is used to corrupt their subjects loyalty are reasons good enough to abate their pride and to destroy that foolish confidence which feeds their vanity But without going so far for remedies for their evils their onely greatnesse is able to cure them when if they would consider the condition whereinto sin hath reduced Monarchs they would confesse that the power which waites upon them is but weak and dangerous full of anxiety and mixt with servitude Though God will suffer us to share with him in his perfections though he permit that our vertues be a shadow of his divine attributes that our condition be such as we may imitate them and though a man be not rationall unlesse he endeavour to expresse in his soule an image of divinity yet amongst that number of perfections which we adore in God some seem to be advantagious to us other some prejudiciall It is lawfull for all men to aspire to holinesse and let us give what ever reins we please to this passion it can never be criminall Every one may safely imitate mercy when according to Gods example our benefits extend unto the good and to the evill to Turks and Christians and when without making any distinction of persons we do equally oblige the innocent and the faulty a vertue is not to be blamed which hath God for it's example in the religion which we professe a man cannot have too much charity the perfection whereof consists in excesse and he who is most charitable is undoubtedly the most perfect Christian. But there are some other attributes in God which one nor can nor ought to imitate save with an humble reservednesse it is dangerous to wish for knowledge and as our first father lost himselfe onely out of a desire of being too knowing the desire thereof is oft-times sinfull
and the seeking after it always dangerous Beauty is one of the excellentest perfections which religion acknowledgeth in God 't is the chiefe object of our beatitude and were not God as beautifull as he is good he would not be the desire and the happinesse of all rationall creatures yet we cannot seek after the possession of this advantage without danger in women pride accompanies beauty chastity and she are not upon good tearms and 't is a kinde of prodigy when a woman is as chaste as fair Greatnesse and power are two of Gods Attributes which merit equall honour each of them inspires fear into the soule of the creature if they be ravisht with his goodnesse his Majesty astonisheth them and if his beauty oblige them to love him his power enforceth them to reverence him Thus dividing themselves between respect and love they love him as their Father and adore him as their Sovereign yet this perfection which preserves the honour of God amongst men cannot without danger be wished for who prescribes not bounds to the desire thereof falls easily into errour and he who pretends to his greatnesse who hath no equall cannot avoid his just anger Lucifers undoing was for that he would reign in heaven if pride was his sin greatnesse was the object thereof and if that glorious Angell be now a devill 't is because his ambition made him wish himselfe a God The cause of his disaster is oft-times the cause of ours that which drove him from heaven banisht Adam out of Paradise this children of the unfortunate father mistaking his fault bear his punishment and finde by experience that of all worldly conditions the most glorious is most dangerous and the most absolute is most faulty It is more safe to obey than to command and let Kings be never so godly in their Thrones they run more hazard in their welfare then their subjects do the higher they be raised up by greatnesse the more are they threatened by vanity that which draws them neerer God keeps them the farther from him and the same Majesty which makes them his images makes them oft-times his enemies This condition placeth Kings upon the brink of a precipice the higher it is the more dangerous is it and like the highest mountains is always exposed to storms so great is the danger which doth accompany it as it may be doubted whether a Scepter be not aswell the punishment of Gods justice as the favour of his mercy The first King of Israel was a reprobate his election which was somewhat miraculous freed him not from sin neither could the prayers of a Prophet appease Gods anger his fault at first was but impatience and in the progresse thereof but a slight enterprize upon the priestly office The presence of his enemies whereby he was obliged to fight might serve him for an excuse and the laws of war which will have a man make use of advantages was a reason of state which might have sheltred him in the opinion of Polititians Yet this fault which had so fair an appearance was punished by the routing of his army he found death when he sought for glory and the same mountain which was the pitcht field wherein he set upon his enemies was the scaffold whereon he was punished by Divine Justice Poets who never read our scripture judged aright that Crowns were not always set upon the most innocent heads and that kingdoms were oftner the punishment of sin than the reward of vertue Iocasta made use of this reason to divert Polinices from the war which he undertook against Eteocles she assured him that without troubling himself with fighting he should be sufficiently revenged of a reigning brother for that a kingdome was a severe punishment and that of all his ancestors there was not any Sovereign who had not been unfortunate Though this Maxime be not always true in Christianity and that there have been Kings whose Thrones have served them for steps to mount up to heaven by 't is alwaies very dangerous to be raised to a condition which permits them to doe what they please and with not bereaving them of their passions unrulinesse affords them means of satisfying them For in this supream authority which hath no arbitrator nor censurer they can do what they will their power meets with no resistance all their councellors are their slaves and either flatttery or fear makes all men praise their injustice or bear with their violence if they be unchast 't is not safe to be chast in their dominions All women are not couragious enough to expose their lives to save their honour those who have worth enough to resist the vain discourses of men have not strength sufficient to withstand a Princes promises and there are but very few who will not hazard their chastity to triumph over the liberty of a Monarch If they be greedy they will find a thousand pretences to enrich themselves at their subjects costs and to fill their cofers with the spoyles of Orphans and Widows If they be cruell they will find fitting Ministers for their fury glorious names are given unto their faults all their revenges passe for acts of justice they are termed the Fathers of the people when they wash their hands in their subjects bloud their anger is animated by servile praise and their cruelty incouraged by approbation so as Kings have no greater enemies to their welfare then this uncurbed licentiousnesse which accompanieth their greatnesse and that absolute power which furnisheth them with means to execute all their designs But say they were lesse irregular and grant that reason assisted by Grace should keep them from abusing their Sovereign Authority they would not be exempt from fears and dangers For as they are the heads of their People they are answerable for their faults they commit all the evil which they do not hinder those publike disorders wherewith all the world is scandalized are the particular sins of Sovereigns When they examine their conscience they are bound to renew their state to consider whether justice be exercised in all their hightribunals whether the governors of Provinces do not abuse their power whether the nobility in the Countrey do not trample upon the poor sort of countrey people and whether the Judges suffer themselves not to be terrified by threats or corrupted by promises they ought to accuse themselves of all such faults as grow insolent thorow impunity and make their kingdomes disorders the chief article of their confession How great is this obligation how dangerous is this condition and what hazard is there in making good a dignity wherein Innocency becomes guilty where though exempt from sin one is not exempt from fear and where to acquit himself of his duty a man must to the quality of an honest upright man adde the quality of a good Sovereign In the state of innocency the world had had no kings or kings would have had no trouble for passion
they likewise who leave serious exercises to use such onely as are of no use and who think they live in a world onely to please themselves and not to take pains Some others say that it is better to play then to deprave that lesse evill is committed in Academies then in company keeping and that those who are busied about play trouble themselves not with their neighbours faults That in this corrupted age wherein the severest vertue becomes the subject of Calumny it were to be wished that all the world would be silent that men were dumb and women deaf to the end that detraction and idle talk were banisht from off the earth That gaming is fortunate in producingthese two effects and that it doth so powerfully possesse those who practise it that they have no use of their tongue to talk idlely or deprave nor yet of their ears to listen to such things That of two necessary evils a man must shun the most dangerous and that recreation be it of never so little use will always be innocent enough if it can hinder revile and unchastity They must be but weak men that are satisfied with this bad excuse For 't is not permitted in our religion to cure one evil by another Morall Philosophy and Physick do differ in their cures the latter hurts to heal and imploys instruments and fire to dry up an Ulcer but the other doth not allow that a man commit one fault to forego another and knowing them all to be averse to vertue whose party she mainteins she equally condemns them Saint Paul never advised us to use play so to keep men from slandering and this great Apostle who loved chastity so well never thought that an excesse in recreation might serve him for an excuse Though Idlenesse do cause love all exercises do not extinguish it this passion hath her imployments as well as others after having cōsumed it self away in sighs it is wel pleased to take some recreation of as many pastimes as it chuseth there are not many wherein it delighteth more then in play it makes use as of an occasion thereof to see entertain what it loveth It useth such freedom as that pastime affordeth it It teacheth slaves to act two parts at once and to hazard their money and their liberty upon the same chance or card that Poet who was so justly banisht to Pontus Euximus for having taught the Romane Ladies how to make love recommends play unto them as a pastime which serves to their design he will have all maidens know how to play and that by a double traffick they win their Lovers hearts and money The Privatives which accompany this pastime are fitter to kindle flames of love then to extinguish them This passion is entertained by the presence of such objects as do arise she expresseth her self by looks and sighs she furnisheth Lovers with a thousand ways to seduce those who will listen to them growing learned in so good a school they quit their losses and oft-time of servants become Masters But if all these sufficient reasons cannot disabuse those women who love play and if they think it be a buckler for their chastity we wil give them leave to play provided they will give us leave to believe that this exercise is a cure for their incontinency that the use thereof is permitted them onely to free them from love and that knowing their frailty they are allowed this pastime to secure their reputation which would be in hazard of shipwrack if they should be idle or solitary Yet if they will listen to our religion this wise tutouresse wil furnish them with better means how to assist chastity when it is assailed Her enemy dares not pursue her in prison those places of dread infuse horrour into him and being guilty she fears all places where guilty people are punished she apprehends hospitals and her delicate disposition cannot endure those houses where the eyes see nothing but objects of pitty where the eares hear nothing but complaints where the nose smels nothing but evill odours and where all the senses find nothing but subjects of mortification Penance is a better cure for love then play and if women who seek to succour their weaknesse by this diversion had kept their bodies under by fasting and penance they would confesse that suffering is a friend to chastity and that the fire which doth consume them is the just punishment of their infamous delights The earth is an abode of penance wee should not seek for pastimes since we were driven out of paradise guilty men dream of nothing but death after once they are condemned The sorrow for their fault and the apprehension of their punishment will not permit them to take any pastime he would redouble their pain who should propose pastimes unto them the most ingenious Tyrants never inhibited complaints to such as were to be punished Yet it seems the Devil deals so rigorously with us as he bindes us to recreate our selves after condemnation and engageth us in debaucheries to take from us the occasion of bewailing our sins If we take any recreation let us not forget our misfortune let us mingle tears with our delights let us take our pastimes as sick men take potions let necessity which ought to be the rule thereof be our excuse and let us not allow our selves longer relaxation then is necessary to support the miseries of our life Let us wish for that glorious condition where Saints find their recreation in their duties where the same object which doth ravish them doth recreate them and where by an admirable encounter all the faculties of the soul are always imployed yet are never weary nor weakened OF THE CORRUPTION OF ALL CREATVRES The Sixth and last Treatise The First Discourse Of the Beauty Greatnesse and Duration of the WORLD THough the world lost it's first purity when man lost his innocence there remains yet therein enough of beauty to oblige such as do consider it to make it's Panegyricks sin could not so much efface all it's perfections but that those which it yet hath caused admiration in Philosophers and force Infidels to adore his hand who made it It resembles their famous beauties to which age or sicknesse have yet left features enough to make their beholders judg that 't was not without reason that they were adored in their youth Thoug it be disordered in some of it's parts though the elements whereof it is composed do divide it though the seasons which maintain the variety thereof cause it's confusion though Monsters which heighten the works thereof dishonour it and though beasts which have antidotes in them have also poysons yet is it easie to observe the worlds advantages amidst it's defaults and to acknowledge that if Divine Justice have put it out of order to punish us Providence had ordeined it for our habitation and had placed nothing in so vast a palace which was not sufficient to ravish
body Nature which hath made him so vast hath made him so dull that he needs another fish to guide him he would fall foul upon the sands did not his faithfull Officer keep him aloofe from the shore and this inanimated Rock would bruise himself against the earth did not this guide advertise him of his danger to recompence his guide for so good an office he lends him his throat for a place of retreat and this living gulf serves for a Sanctuary to this faithfull guide The Dolphin is the Sovereign of the Sea he carries the Ensignes of his power in the noblest part of his body and Nature which hath given him dexterity to command hath placed a Crown upon his head to put a difference between him and his subjects he naturally loves man and as if he knew that he likewise were a Sovereign he helps him at the sea who commands upon earth he is delighted with musick though he be dumb he is not deafe and the love he bears to musick hath made him oft-times assist Musicians in shipwrack The earth is no lesse peopled then is the sea this fruitfull mother is never weary of bringing forth children nor of nourishing them all the parts thereof are fertill Desarts which produce Monsters produce food likewise to nourish them Forrests serve for retreats to wilde beasts the fields receive such as are necessary for mans entertainment and Towns afford shelter to such as we have reclaimed made tame either for our service or pastime every species is preserved by multiplying it selfe Nature repaires the havock made by death And notwithstanding the cruelty which men use towards those harmlesse beasts their number is not diminished Excesse in feasting cannot drain either the earth or sea these two Elements abound more in fruitfulnesse then we do in gluttonies and notwithstanding any debauches made yet at any time in any Countrey the fields were never depopulated Though man be the Sovereign of all the world he is much more absolute in the earth than either in the water or aire He rules over fishes and birds only by art and since they dwell in Elements which are not conformable to his nature he must use violence upon himself before he can fight against them He gets oâ— shipboard trusts himself to the perfidiousnesse of the sea to surprize fish He cannot come up to birds because of their swiftnesse his minde could never yet raise his earthly body to pursue them in the aire He sends bullets where he himself cannot go and putting division between these innocent creatures either by industry or deceit he makes the Gerfaulcon flie at the Heron. But he can do what he will with beasts he sets upon the fiercest of them in their Forts their dens nor thickets cannot defend them from his violence He reclaimes some to make use of them he strips others to clothe himselfe and cuts the throats of others to feed on This absolute power impedes not the beasts from having Sovereigns amongst themselves The Lion hath won this honour by his strength and courage all other beasts bear him respect at his roaring all his subjects tremble nor are Kings more re-doubted in their Kingdomes then is this noble Animall in Forrests Thus all things in the world are wisely ordered every Element acknowledgeth it's Sovereign every species hath it's laws and had not man disordered this great Republique all the parts thereof would yet enjoy peace and tranquility Yet they agree in what is requisite for the worlds preservation though their inclinations be contrary they keep fair quarter in their quarrels do not forgoe all sense of love when they exercise their hatred Fire agrees with water to compose all bodies and aire mingles it self with earth to give life and breath to all creatures Every Element useth force upon it's inclinations to agree with it's Enemy In birds the earth becomes light in beasts the aire waxeth heavy in fishes fire grows cold and water hardens in rocks if at any time they fall foul 't is always out of some good designe and divine providence by which they are governed gives them not freedom to wage war save for her glory and our advantage The obedience which they owe to God exceeds their own aversions and the Commandements which he gave them when he made them of nothing keeps them yet within their duties they do not make use of their advantages which one of them hath over the other and knowing very well that the worlds welfare depends on their agreements they appease their hatred to cause it 's quiet The fire invirons all the other Elements without consuming them it is content to burn such exhalations as come near it and to set such Comets on fire as do presage alteration in States or the death of Kings The aire doth inclose all sensible creatures the humidity thereof doth temper the fires heat and the earths drinesse Waters make no advantage of the scituation which Nature hath given it though it be liquid and raised above the earth it doth not passe his bounds the word of God gives it it's limits he who raised it up retains it and he teacheth us by this miracle that there needs no more to drown the world then to leave the sea at liberty The earth hath it's foundations laid upon the ayr this Element wherewith it is environed supports it The worlds Basis hath no other stay then the weight thereof that which ought to beat it down susteins it and it keeps equally distant from all the parts of heauen onely because it is the heaviest of all bodies But that which astonisheth all Philosophers and fils the wisest pates in the world with admiration is to see that the world which is but a point should be the center of the Universe and that all Creatures labour onely to adorn or to inrich it The heavens roul incessantly about this hillock of sand to beautifie the fields thereof The Sun inlightens it and cherisheth it with his beams this glorious constellation hath no other care then to make it fertill and if he be in perpetuall motion 't is that he may adorn it with flowers load it with fruits and enrich it with metals the Air forms no clouds nor rain save onely to water it And whole nature is busied in nothing but how she may oblige the least part of the Universe 'T is truth the earth doth thankfully acknowledge all these favours for as she owes all her productions to the Suns favourable aspect she in token of thankfullnesse thrusts all her fruits up towards him opens all her flowers when he riseth shuts them up when he sets and as if she were onely adorned to please him she hides all her beauties when he keeps far from her Though all these considerations make the worlds beauty sufficiently appear that it's creation is the most considerable part of it's excellency And he who knows not what means God used to produce it
and makes the fields barren he shakes the foundations of the earth he over-whelms men under the ruines of their houses and immolates victimes to his fury when he cannot win slaves to his ambition so as be it in prosperity or in adversity we are bound to confesse that by the good will of God the elements hold of the Devil and that the Creatures are corrupted by sin since they serve as Instruments to our enemy to sooth us into our concupiscence and to abase our courage The sixth Discourse That it is more secure to sequester a mans self from the Creatures then to make use of them A Man must be ignorant of all the Maximes of christianity if he know not that he is forbidden the love of the creature and that we cannot love them without betraying our dignities or forgetting our duty for nothing but God can lay lawfull claim to our affections he is the center of all love he is bereft of that love which is not given him and he is injured in the chiefest of all his qualities if one propose any other end unto himself then God himself we are born onely to serve and love him no other object is able to satisfie us and our heart is too great to be filled with a good which is not infinite We molest the order which God hath established in the world when by an unjust going lesse we raise the creatures above our selves He who abaseth himself through the meannesse of his spirit is not lesse guilty then he who through his ambition raiseth himself up and he gives against Gods Providence as well who obeys those creatures which are inferiour to him as he who would command over those which are his equals or Superiours Man hath received an unrepealable law which obligeth him to submit himself to God because he is his Sovereign and to raise himself above the other creatures because they are his Servants he treats upon equall terms with other men because they are his equals he bears respect unto the Angels without adoring them because they are his companions do in the difference of their natures aspire with man to one and the same end and seek out the same happinesse Whatsoever is not rationall is subject to the Empire of man and he is not vain glorious when he thinks the earth is fruitfull onely to afford him nourishment that the Sun rises onely to light him and that the flowers do display themselves onely for his recreation when he loves them out of an inclination or out of necessity he disturbs the order of God he submits himself to that which is below him he degenerates from his nobility and becomes a slave to his subjects for if he love a creature he must obey it he cānot give his love to it preserve his liberty Love is an imperious passion it assubjects all those souls which it possesseth it makes as many slaves as lovers and reduceth them to a condition wherein having no longer any will they are not Masters of their desires they look pale when in the presence of those that they adore they tremble when they come neer them and the Stars have not so much power over their bodies as those whom they love have absolute command over their souls the object of their love is the cause of all their motions if it be absent they consume away in desire and languish in vain hopes if it be threatened with any danger they quake for fear if it be set upon they pluck up their courage if it go far off without hopes of being soon seen again they fall into despair and if it be lost without hope of recovery they give themselves over to grief and sorrow Thus these slaves take upon them their Masters livery these Camelions change colour as oft as that which they love changes condition and betraying their own greatnesse they assubject themselves to creatures which ought to obey them I know very well that lovers indevour to throw of this yoke that they strive to free themselves from this Tyranny and that being weary of obeying they fain would command their turn about but all they can do is to no purpose and the unalterable laws of love force them fairly to submit to those subjects which are Masters of their liberty The ambitious man would fain be the Sovereign of honour but let him do what he can he still remains the slave thereof and whilst he leads on Troops and commands Armies he is shamefully enforced to obey ambition which tyrannizeth over him The Avaritious man would fain be Master of his riches what ever pleasure he takes in keeping them he would take more in spending them but he is as it were bound to adore them and to dedicate all his care and watching to the Devil which doth possesse him The lustfull man wisheth that he were his Mistresses Master and that he might prescribe laws to that proud beauty which domineers over him but his excesse of passion keeps him a servant still and the nature of love forceth him with content to renounce his liberty his slavery is a just punishment of his ambition and Heaven permits that he remain a slave to the Creature because he would have made himself Master thereof by unlawfull means This is the cause why he will not acknowledge any thing to be amisse in what he loves why he doth admire the perfections thereof and why he doth mingle his vices and vertues together for to give right judgment of any thing a superiority is required in the judgment giver Some advantage must be had over that whose weaknesses would be known and lovers being slaves to those they love their blindnesse lasts as long as doth their slavery by a no lesse necessary then unfortunate consequence they assume the qualities of that object which causeth their love they transform themselves into what they love and change nature as well as condition but that which is most unjust in this change is that these wretched creatures take unto themselves the worst of the qualities of what they love and cannot take the best and having a capability of becomming easily imperfect they can never become accomplisht a deformed man loseth not his deformity though he love an exquisite beauty an ignorant body grows not learned though he love a Philosopher an ambitious man mounts not the throne though he love a Sovereign and covetous men grow not rich though they court wealth but by a deplorable misfortune lovers share in the faults of that subject whence they derive their love they put on all the evill qualities thereof and having no design to imitate it they resemble it in loving it Ambitious men become as vain as the honour which they idolatrize greedy men are no lesse obdurate then is the metall which they adore and the lascivious are as base as is the pleasure which they so much cherish Love is the mixture of Lovers he mingleth their wils
in joyning them together he confounds their qualities in uniting their minds but when he grows irrationall he brings his punishment along with him and that he may punish those whom he hath ingaged in an unlawfull affection he permits them to communicate their defaults and forbids them to communicate their advantages Thus man cannot love the creatures unlesse losing the priviledges which nature hath given him he renounce his Greatnesse in loving his Slaves and as the Scripture sayes he become abominable in worshipping of Idols From this just punishment another doth derive which is not much lesse rigorous for Divine Justice which cannot let a fault passe unpunisht permits that men find their punishment in their love and that the object which ought to cause their good fortune cause their torment for though love boast of allaying pains and of making the wildest things that are loving yet doth he attribute unto himself a power which onely belongs to charity his deeds are not answerable to his words and when lovers abused by his promises have ingaged themselves on his side they find by experience that that which ought to cause their happpinesse is the originall of their punishment And that they cannot love the creature without becoming miserable There goes more care to the preserving of riches then to the getting of them t is more painfull to be rich then to become rich and that metall which seems to be the reward of the avaritious mans labour is onely the increase and the redoubling thereof he hath past the seas to find them out he hath dug into the bowels of the earth to seek for them he hath ingaged his freedome to become Master thereof yet is the keeping of them more vexatious then the acquiring he is more troubled in hiding them then in heaping of them together and he confesseth that riches threaten more mischief to him then poverty doth he runs more hazard in his own house then on the sea he fears Partners more then Pirats and is not so terrified with Tempests as with Suits at law The ambitious man findes his punishment in glory and honour this vain Idoll which occasioned his desires occasioneth his complaints he repents his having courted so ungratefull a Mistresse and knowing that she hath nothing wherewithall to reward those that serve her but wind and smoak he never esteems himself more unfortunate then when most honoured Thus it fares with whatsoever else we love Divine Justice doth minglegall with honey in them to wean us from them makes use of our delights to increase our annoyes the house which we have built for our diversion wil prove our anxiety yea even though it suit in all things with our desire 't wil cease to give content when it ceaseth to be new we will wonder that not having changed aspect it shall have lost what was pleasing in it and that contrary to our expectation it should become our punishment when it ought to be our delight Those pictures which we send for out of the warehouses of Italy which we have bought at so dear a rate which we have with such impatiency looked for and been so well pleased when they came cease to ravish our senses when they are once seated in the places appropriated for them they lose their value together with their novelty it must be the admi ration of those that never saw them that must make us esteem them and we must look upon them through other mens eyes if we will value them they serve us onely to incense us against a servant who hath not been carefull enough of them or to make us curse time which hath effaced their colours The pain which all these things cause in us and the undervaluation we have of them is not able to make us forbear loving them we are fastned to them without our knowledge we love them whilst we think not on it and because we forego the further desire of them when we are once possest thereof we think we cease to be kin thereunto An avaritious man who sees his cofers full who receives his rents duly every quarter and who never knew what belonged to being bankrout or unfortunate cannot believe that he loveth his riches so excessively the sorrow he feels by their losses must make him know the contentment he had in their possession he must judge of his ingagement by his grief love is better known by privation then by enjoyment and the irregularity of affection is not better discerned then by the absence of the object which did entertain it We are not troubled with the u losse of what we were not pleased with the possession we judge of the excesse of our love by the like of our sorrow and we are never so sensible of the love we bear to perishable things as by the sorrow we conceive for their losse we are sensible of our captivity after being set at liberty we consider the weight of our Irons when we are freed from them and we know we were miserable when we think our selves to be most happie To find a remedy for these evils Saint Augustine teacheth us that we must make use of the creatures without loving them and we must be very carefull lest whilst we touch them with our hands they corrupt our hearts He will have us to look upon them as slaves which ought to obey us not command us he will have us to love them as they are the pictures of God and as Lovers love their Mistresses pictures he will have us to esteem of them as the favours of our God and that considering his beauty in his images and his goodnesse in what representeth him we should neither love the one nor the other but meerly for his sake Did I not doubt lest men might think me too severe I would add that all these precautions were not sufficient and that the Son of God not content to have taught us that perishable things cannot beloved without danger he would tell us that they may be despised without vain glory for although his Commandements do onely forbid us any excesse in the use thereof his counsels do permit us to wean our selves from them and all christian vertues are so many holy pieces of cunning which teach us how to set by the creatures Fasting inâ—erdicts us the use of meats it raiseth man to the condition of Angels by cutting of such things as are necessary for the preservation of life it contents it self with bread and water nay there have been some Penitentiaries and Anchorets who have passed over whole weeks without eating any thing lest whilst they would feed their naturall heat they might increase the heat of their concupiscence Poverty is a generall foregoing of all worldly things those who make greatest profession thereof live in the world as in a desart whatsoever self-love judgeth necessary seems useles or superfluous to them the arts are not troubled with dressing nor with nourishing them they