must be set free from the servitude of sin by the Grace of Iesus Christ. THe Passion which all men have for the preservation of their Liberty is no weak proof of the Excellency thereof there be but few who do not prefer it before life and do not rather love an honourable death then a shamefull servitude all revolts have had no other pretexts and Conquerors have only been odious because they have intrencht upon the Publique Liberty we suspect their Vertues because they bear with them some shadow of Tyranny and men have hardly believed that they were very just who would Command over free people yet man hath no advantage which he oftner loseth then his Liberty he becomes a slave without a Master and finds servitude as well in a Republique as in a Monarchy he hath not the use of this perfection till a long time after he be be born he lives when he is not at liberty and he who ought to command the whole world begins his life in slavery Nature gives him Kings in his Parents and if death take them away the laws appoint him Tutors which supply the place of Masters in his minority he is a slave and wanting wisedome to govern himself he is not suffered to dispose of himself the better part of his life is spent in servitude and unlesse he have permission from the Prince he must be 25 years old before he can dispose of his goods When this age puts him in possession of his principall advantage enemies arise who clap Irons upon him for the passions are Imperious Mistresses who intrench upon our Liberty and which making use either of fair or foul means makes man do a thousand things unworthy of his condition he sometimes breaks his Chains but forgeth new ones himself and he thinks he is free because he is the Author of his own servitude If he calm his passions and amidst their quiet recover his Liberty he cannot defend himself from a pleasing Enemy which deprives him of the use thereof for sleep which preserves our life bereaves us of our Liberty his poppies which sweeten our vexations and inchant our sorrows take from us the disposall of our will We are not at Liberty when we sleep and as the good actions which we do in that estate cannot expect recompence so neither ought our bad ones to fear punishment Thus Liberty is a Treasure which we are oft robbed of t is a Good which we are not always Masters of and if rest be reasons Grave t is also Liberties Sepulchre t is true that it restores us what it had taken from us and the same awaking which delivers us from death frees us from servitude but we make tryall of a Tyrant who treateth us much more rigorously then doth sleep for when sin hath possest it self of our Liberty it never makes restitution Our slavery ends not with our lives we are born dye slaves thereunto There is nothing but the Grace of Jesus Christ which can free us from the Tyranny thereof It enters into our soulby our body and gives us death wheÌ„ our Parents give us life and penetrating even into our will sets there the Characters of its usurpation and of our servitude Reason is too weak a succour to defend us against so powerfuâ—l an Enemy and Prophane Phylosophy is not a sufficient remedy to cure us of so dangerousa Malady Wee cannot drive away sin but by help from Heaven nor can we recover perfect Liberty but by the servitude of Jesus Christ we may well shun one fault by another but hardly can we do anything which is solidly vertuous without our Saviours assistance we defend our selves from intemperance only through vain glory if we be chast t is because we are proud but in the one and the other of these Actions we are slaves to sin To understand this truth which is Saint Austins very Doctrine we must know that in our belief Piety was never parted from Morality and that to be vertuous a man must always have been Faithfull The will was created together with grace they both contributed unto merit and when they were once divided sin seized upon the will and man operates by this mischeivous principle all his actions began to be criminall proposing no other end but himself unto himself he strayed from the latter from grace and looking upon the creature forbore looking upon the Creatout Let reason infuse what light it pleaseth into his understanding she cannot redresse it for she her self is blinde and as the will cannot love the Summum Bonum the understanding hath much ado to know supremam veritatem they each of them have received a mortall wound which cannot be cured unlesse by a Physician who was never sick the remedy must derive from Heaven and the same hand which had united grace and nature together in the first man must reconcile them in his off-spring and restore unto their will the Liberty which she had lost Till this deliverance come man is still a slave to sin wheresoever he goeth he carryeth his Tyrant a long with him and let him do what good action he pleaseth t is hard for him not to have therein some bad Intention To enlighten this imagination a little more we must remember that Gods design was not to make man meerly a rationall Creature he would have originall righteousnes to be his principall advantage this Divine quality joyned the soul to the body by cords as holy as pleasing she did accord so well with Nature as if she pertook not of her Essence she pertook of her perfection whatsoever proceeded from this principle was holy and whatsoever man did by the motion of grace deserved an everlasting recompence But when sin had banished Originall righteousnes and that man became a slave to his concupiscence he began to work by the motions thereof he suffered himself to be led away by her blinde impetuosity did cowardly obey her unjust Ordinances and till he be freed from this tyrant which possesseth him he undertakes almost nothing but by her Orders Thus the most part of his good works are sins and his actions proceeding from a bad principle must needs be faulty this misfortune is the spring head of all our mischief this disorder is the originall of all our servitude as long as we are slaves to sin we cannot recover our intire liberty and till the son of God doth infranchize us our inclinations are strong to evil But as the Nature of any thing is not better discovered then by the opposing unto it its contrary to know the wils servitude we must compare it with her first liberty and by the difference of originall righteousnesse and Christian grace Judge of the divers conditions of man in innocencie and in sin Man whilest innocent had the use of liberty but because the end that was proposed unto him was supernaturall he stood in need of Grace to elevate his will
change of air is a remedy for incurable evils and when Physicians cannot cure a stubborn sicknesse either by diet or letting blood they cure it by waters or by travelling There is no disaster so generall as doth assail the whole world at once Thunder frightens more then it hurts the plague whose mischiefs are so great may well dispeople towns but doth not throw down the houses though tempests do shatter ships yet some do escape their fury but the earth quake doth inclose whatsoever it overthroweth it openeth the earth wide as it swalloweth down whole towns it wageth not war with some few houses onely but with whole provinces it leaveth nothing behind it which can inform posterity of it's outrages more insolent then fire which spares rocks more cruell then the Conquerour who spares wals more greedy then the sea which vomiteth up shipwracks it swalloweth and devoureth whatsoever it overturneth Whatever stedfastnesse the places have wherein we live we cannot say they are exempt from this so dreadfull accident what hath befaln some parts of the earth may befall all the rest those which never were yet agitated are not unmoveable their condition is not better though they have been preserved from this disorder they ought to apprehend it because they have escaped it and those parts which have undergone it ought to fear it the lesse because nature hath consumed the forces thereof in shaking them Self-love doth abuse us if we perswade our selves that there are some parts of the world which are exempt from this mischief they are subject to the same laws nature cannot defend her workmanship against the justice of her Sovereign what happens not at one time may happen at another as in great towns one house fals after another so in the world doth earth-quakes succeed and France will one day suffer what Italie hath suffered the bravest parts of the world have not been able to secure themselves from it those which have been most populous and most abounding in fruit have been most subject thereunto and Asia whose beauty may make Europe jealous hath often been the Theater of famous Earth-quakes she lost twelve towns in one day Achaia and Macedonia have been sensible of this disorder and the most delightfull parts of Italie have seen their wals thrown down and their houses swallowed up amidst their greatest felicity Destiny seems to make the circuit of the world it sets upon those parts which it hath a long time spared and teacheth all sorts of people that no force can resist it's fury The Sea is subject to it's Empire and Marriners confesse that those storms are most dangerous which are occasioned by earth-quakes the Ocean is astonished when the element which serves it for it's basis will forego it it grows incensed and breaks it's bounds when the earth sinks under it's waters and goes to seck out another bed when that which nature hath given it appears willing to be it's Sepulchre In fine this misfortune is common to all kingdomes since man became criminall all parts of the earth are become moveable the parts thereof do dis-unite themselves since the division of the body from the soul and stedfastnesse must no longer be looked for in the world since innocency is banished thence by injustice This disorder is the punishment of our sin and reason together with faith doth sufficiently perswade us that the universe would never have been agitated with these furious accidents during the estate of originall righteousnesse Wherefore should Gods anger have armed the elements against his faithfull subjects wherefore should it have overthrown all his works to destroy innocent men why should it have overwhelm'd the inhabitants of the earth with the ruines thereof if they had not been sinfull why should it have buried those in the bowels of the earth who were not to die Let us then conclude that Earth-quakes are the effects of sinne and let us also make it appear that Deluges are also the just Rewards thereof We are bound by the holy Scripture to believe that that dreadfull disorder was not so much the effect of Nature as of Divine Justice that it was to punish mans insolency that the floâ—ds forsook their channels and that the world would never have been drowned had it not been infected with mans sin Nature could not have furnished waters enough to cover the mountains had not Gods anger imprinted in her a new fertility she could not have wrought so powerfully towards her own ruine unlesse he whose motions make her inclinations encourage her against her self all the Seas put together could not have covered the face of the whole world though their banks should have been broken down and that they should have been set at Liberty by the hand which holds them in they would not have had waves enough to have overflowed all the earth if those rains which made the waters swell came not from out the bosome of the clouds a Sovereign power formed the vapours which did produce them The same Justice which shall burn the world did drown it and let Philosophers say what they list that prodigious accident was not a meer effect of nature Nature is not powerfull enough to destroy what she hath not made that hand onely by which she is guided can disorder her those great disorders which draw along with them her generall ruine could have no other cause but the will of God Philosophy hath not been able to find out a cause for it she speaks of the deluge as of a fable and hath rather chosen to give all antiquity the lye then to betray her own ratiocination To say truth he that knows not sin cannot comprehend this disorder of nature to the belief thereof a presupposition is requisite that man is guilty that God is angry with him and that he will make use of his absolute power to punish him All other reason is too weak to prove so strange an accident though the world subsist by change and that the elements whereof it is composed are onely preserved by their opposing one another yet do not their combats tend to the ruine of nature the peace of the Universe is entertained by their divisions they sacrifice themselves for the publique good and violate their particular inclinations to prevent a generall disorder Fire descends to assist nature when she is set upon water mounts aloft to supply the place of vacuum which is the common enemy to all elements the earth opens her bowels and loosens her self from her foundations to suppresse the disorders which sin hath caused in the world but it is not to be comprehended how all the parts of the world should conspire natures ruine nor by what secret veins the sea could issue forth so much water as could drown her the sea even when incensed useth violence upon her self not to overflow the earth it remembers what order it received from God in the beginning it useth violence upon it self
purity suffered some change thereby to revenge the outrages done to God amidst somany disorders nothing so much afflicted man as his domestick evills he defended himself frō wild beasts by force he gain'd the rest by wiles he saved himself from the Injuries of the Aire by Cloaths and houses He by his labour overcame the sterility of the earth he opposed dikes to the fury of the sea and if he could not calme the waves thereof he found means to overcome her stormes and to triumph over her tempests he invented Arts to allay the miseries of his life after having fenced himself from necessity he sought out pleasure he would occasion his happinesse from his losse as it were thereby to upbraid Gods Justice he changed one part of his paines into pleasures but he could not reform the disorders neither of soul nor body for all he could doe he could find no salve for the sicknesse of his soul and though his haughtines made him hope for help from Phylosophy he could never reconcile himself either to God or himself After having lost the knowledge of the true God he framed Idols to himself weary of having adored the workmanship of his hands he adored the workmanship of his fancy after having offered Incense to all Creatures he became his own Idolater and forgetting the shame of his birth the miseries of his life and the rigour of death he would have Temples and Altars When his madnesse would allow of any intermissions he acknowledged the the danger of his disease and forct thereunto by pain and shame he sought for remedies but self-love wherwith he was blinded rendered all his cares uselesse through a capricheousnesse which cannot be conceived he cherished the evils which afflicted him and preserving the desires which he had in his Innocency he would find the accomplishment thereof in his guiltinesse he was perswaded that he should find in himself what he had lost in God and that assisted by a vain Phylosophy he should make himself fortunate in the midst of his misfortunes Nothing did more crosse his Cure then this insolent belief and nothing did more offend the Grace of Jesus Christ then his confiding in his own reason and Liberty God permitted him to lament a long time to the end that he might be sensible at leasure of his maladie and Divine goodness deferr'd his deliverance only to make him confesse his faultiness he in vain laboured all that he could before he would be brought to cōfess his misery he sought for help from Nature before he would implore ayd from Grace he sought out all the means he thought fitting to Cure himself of so vexatious a Malady and had it not been for despair he had never found out the way to health but when he saw that Conquerors for all their power could not deliver him that Phylosophers could not by all their reasons Comfort him and that Orators could not lessen his evills by their words he betooke himself to God and the misery he indured made him know that nothing but the hand that had hurt him could heal him The third Discourse Of what kinde the first Sinne which ADAM committed was THe two first sins of the World are the most unknown and Divines which agree in so many differing subjects have not as yet been able to agree in this They know that the Angels and man are become Criminall but they know not what the nature of their fault is They know that both of them have violated the laws of God and that over-weaning their own perfections they have not sufficiently prized the perfections of their Creator they very well know that neither of them have preserved their Innocency and that weaknesse which is inseparable from the Creature hath been the cause of their Fall but they know not what name to give to this sinne nor under what degree to rank this crime which hath caused so much Mischeife Some think that the offence Committed by the Angel was so Generall as in the extent thereof it includes all other offences that he flew from God by all the wayes it was possible for him to estrange himself from him that using the utmost ofhis power he grew guilty ofall the wickednesse which so enlightned a spirit was capable of whence it is that the holy Scriptures to teach us the truth thereof terms his fault somtimes Murther sometimes Adultery sometimes Rebellion though man be not so Active as the Angel and that his soul confined within his body be slower in her operations yet there have been some Divines who hath given the same Judgment of both their sins and who have perswaded themselves that Adam by one only offence became guilty of all sins that the law which was proposed unto him conteining in it an Abridgment of all Laws he could not violate it without violating all the rest that his disobedience under one only name Comprehended all sins and that by one only attempt he Committed Adultery by failing in his fidelity to God Theft by taking a fruit which did not belong unto him Sacrilege by abusing his wil which was cōsecrated to God Paracide by occasioning death unto his soul and unto the souls of all his Children Though this be a strange opinion yet the worthinesse of the Author makes me put a valuation upon it for it is S. Augustine yet in the rigour of reason it is hard to conceive that manssoul had so much of sight as that in one sole action it committed so many sins These sins which are imputed to man are rather the effects then parts of his disobedience and if I may be permitted to speak my sense after the Chiefe of all Divines I should conceive that S Augustines design was rather to satisfie his eloquence then the truth and that making use of a figure which is so frequent amongst Orators he would aggravate Adams sin to make us detest it Some others have been of opinion that Pride was the sin of the Angel and of man that these two Noble Creatures puft up with their own perfections aspired after Divinity and that vain glory which is alwayes accompanied by blindnes had perswaded them that being already immortall they might easily make themselves Gods But I cannot think that such a thought could fall into the mind either of the Angell or of man they were induced with too much knowledge not to know that the Creature cannot equall the Creator in Majestie that the degrees of their separation are infinite and that wishes are never made for things absolutely impossible how could that desire of making himself God ever enter into the imagination of an Angell Since Theologie confesseth that they could never suspect the Mystery of the Incarnation and that without being enlightned by Glory or by Faith they never could have thought that God could make himself man or man become God other Divines have therefore rather chosen to believe that the Mysterie of the Incarnation was the occasion of
heart unto the Devill he indiscreetly suffered the immoderate desire of knowing all things to enter there Pride or the Ambition of Command is the last and most dangerous effect of Concupisceuce Flattery whose cheife imployment is to praise sin confounds this Passion with vertue and makes all glorious faults lawful to Conquerors She builds the glory of the Alexanders upon the sin of Maligne spirits and she will perswade Princes of the world that the furious desire which changed Angels into Devils can turn men into Gods but our Religion teacheth us that there is no more insolent Passion then this and that all other sins are the ushers in of Pride In effect if other sins do busie the mind this possesseth it if others fly from God to shun his justice this draws neer unto him to set upon his greatnesse if others leave us when we grow old this accompanieth us even unto death and if the rest chance sometimes to be the sin of the Elect this is almost always the Reprobates fault it will supply Gods place whatsoever name is given to the Impiety thereof it 's design in making it self be either loved or feared is to govern over men either by force or fair means and to commit a rape upon that Glory which belongs only to him who is the beginning and end of all things this Passion dies not with men they preserve the sense thereof after death and their care of having their Prayers recorded in History their Statutes erected in publique Places and stately Monuments in Churches are assured proofs that their Ambition ends not with their lives this disorder can only proceed from the first man who not being able to permit that even God should be his Sovereign unjustly pretended to Independency and endeavouring Sovereignty by Rebellion reaped thereby nothing but a shamefull servitude all these irregularities which derive from self-love as from their spring-head and all our fins which burst out from thence like rivers the Devil who very wel knows how to tēpt man makes no use of any other means then these to seduce him he beats us with our own weapons and he loseth the hope of overcomming man when man keeps himself from delight Curiosity and Ambition he raised all these batteries against the first man and judging of their Power by their good success he made use thereof against Jesus Christ in the Desert but seeing that his soul was sufficient proof against all his on-set she resolved to set upon him by sorrow and gr◠whom he could not seduce by delights The ninth Discourse Wherefore Concupiscence remains in Man after Baptisme WE are taught by Divinity that nothing but the Power of God can make all things out of nothing nothing but his Providence can draw good out of evill and make a mans fault to amend his life Naturall Phylosophy cannot comprehend the former of these wonders and morall Phylosopy cannot comprehend the second Nature worketh nothing without materials her workmanships are rather alterations then productions shee may well change one thing into another but she cannot make a new thing and there is so little proportion between nothing and subsistancy as Aristotle chose rather to believe that the World was eternall then that God created it of Nothing This great Genjus found it lesse inconvenient to acknowledge numberless causes then to confess one only the power thereof was unlimited and morall Phylosophy which is not greatly more enlightned then naturall Phylophy findes such opposition between good and evill as shee would rather think to draw light out of darkness and beauty out of deformity then Vertue out of Vice but Religion which adores in God Almighty a Power which hath no bounds and an unclouded Providence confesseth also that the one may have framed the World out of nothing and that the other may have extracted Grace out of sin in effect the work of our Redemption is the sequell of ou◠loss And if Adams sin be not the cause it is at least the occasion of our salvation the same sin which hath drawn reproches from forth our mouth hath return'd prayses for it And the Church calleth that sin fortunate which hath merited so excellent a Redeemer Concupiscence being the daughter of sin we must not wonder if divine Providence hath made it serviceable to her designes and if she employ her Enemy to execute her will for though this guilty habit be past as it were into nature and that it makes sin so hard to be overcome yet did God leave it in the souls of his faithfull Ones to exercise their vertue to allay their Pride and to make them have their Remembrance of their misfortune always before them During the happy estate of their Innocencie Vertue was so naturall to man as it met with no Resistance Man took delight in doing what was good and the greatness of Merit was not measured by the difficulty of the work his passions were obedient to reason his senses were faithfull to his soule and his body had no other motions then those of the soule the practise of Piety was not as yet become a Combate Continencie and Fortitude were not enforced to give battaile to bear away the victory and these two Noble Habits were given man rather for his ornament then for his defence so we must confess that if he had more quiet then we hee had less glory and that if he tasted more delight he could not hope for so great reward for all our life is spent in Exercise and fighting all our vertues are austeer they are always environed with Enemies they cannot go out of their ordinary tracks without falling into a Precepice and they are Reduced to the Necessity of Continuall fighting unlesse they will be defeated but of all the Enemies that sets upon them they are most vext with Concupiscence and yet win most glory thereby for she is so opinionated as 〈◊〉 cannot be overcome Grace which triumphs over all our Evill complains of being resisted by this although it lose it's vigour it loseth not it's courage and though the Saints do still weaken it yet they cannot stifle it they must dye to defeat it and it must cost them their life to get the full victory yet is this the field wherein they purchase all their Bayes t is the matter of their fights and Triumphs and their vertues would languish in Idleness did not this domestick Enemy keep them in breath To say truth they run much danger but gain much Glory the same subject which causeth their Pain heighthens their courage and increaseth their merit If Concupiscence be of use to vertue she is no lesse fatall to sin for though she be her Daughter she is likewise oft her Murtherer and of all the remedies which Grace hath ordained to cure us of Pride there is none more safe then that of this disorder We are naturally Proud and Miserable and it is hard to say whether Pride or misery makes the greater
his justice never punisheth the Innocent and his goodnesse would not permit us to be miserable if we were not guilty but we must also confesse that his justice would have been remisse had he not punisht sin Adams Rebellion deserved that all men should be punisht for it his sufferings were to be hereditarie and there had been some sort of Inconvenience that a guilty Father should have produced innocent Children we inherit his punishment and his sin and receiving our being from him it was reason we should partake of the Miseries which do accompany it In Point of high Treason the Children are punisht for the Fathers fault When a Princes Anger breaks out upon great personages that are guilty it fals likewise upon their Families to have any relation to them sufficeth to be guilty Crime is contracted by Allyance and though the misfortune may exceed the sin there is always reason enough for the punishment throughout all the Judaicke Law the Children beare the punishment of their fore-fathers sins God requires it to the fourth Generation as a Child is a part of his father we presume he hath drawn along with him Part of his sin and that he cannot inherit his being without inheriting his offence also Gods greatnesse merits this rigour and offences cōmitted against so high a Majesty cannot be sufficiently punished Our Complaints proceed from our Ignorance we defend our own cause only because we know not his Sanctity whom we have offended if we had a little light we would prevent Gods decrees and we should find that Hell is to small a punishment for such as rebell against him In whatsoever sort it be that we have contracted sin it deserveth Punishment we cannot be blamelesse since we proceed from a guilty father and since the bodies maladies are hereditary we must not wonder if those of the soul be contagious there is no difference between Adams sin and ours save only that his is voluntary and ours Naturall that he is more guilty then unfortunate we more unfortunate then guilty that he hath done the mischiefe and we have received it that he hath committed a fault and we bear the Punishmnnt that his disorder is become our Nature that his Rebellion engageth us in disobedience and that as the tree is lost in it's root we are infected in our beginning and corrupted in our father After all these reasous there is no more reason of complaint Miserable man instead of accusing Gods Justice must implore his mercy and must find out that innocency in Iesus Christ which he hath lost in Adam to the end that as naturall generation hath been the cause of his misery Spirituall generation may be the cause of his happinesse and that he may there partake of grace without any other merits then those of the Sonne of God as he hath received condemnation without any other fault then that of Adam OE THE CORRUPTION OF the Soul by SINNE The Second Treatise The First Discourse Of the Souls Excellencie and of the miseries which shee hath contracted by Sinne. THe Church hath oft times seen the Truth of her belief gain-said by contrary Heresies neither hath she almost at any time explained the mysteries of faith but that she hath seen new Sects arise which by different ways have endeavoured to bereave her of her Purity and to engage her in Errour when she explained her self upon the mysterie of the Trinity and that she had taught her Children to adore the plurality of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence she was opposed by two contrary Heresies the one of which confounded the Persons the other divide the Nature when to declare unto us the Oeconomy of the Incarnation she hath taught us that Man-God did unite in the unity of his Person the Divine Nature with the humane there arose Heretiques who desirous to destroy one another quitted the Catholicks opinions and perswaded themselves either that there was but one Nature or two Persons in Iesus Christ when finally the same Church distinguishing between the purity and the corruption of nature taught us that the one was the worke of GOD the other the worke of sinne two Heresies sprung up which withstood this truth with different weapons for the one confounded the corruption of Nature with her Essence and Imagined that there was a bad Principium of which all things visible were the work the other by a clean contrary tract would excuse the disorders of sin by the goodnesse of Nature and perswade us that mans Irregularities were nether the effects nor the punishment of his Rebellion it approoved of Concupiscence and placed it in the Terrestiall Paradice before the Serpent had seduced the first woman it made merry with Original righteousnes and bereft her of the Power of composing the differences of the soul and body it approved of all those revolts which we look upon as the cursed consequences of sin and imployed it's reason to perswade Catholicks that they were rather the effects of our Constitution then the Punishments of our disobedience it maintained together with Phylosophy whose arms it borrowed to fight against Religion that death was rather a law then a punishment and that even in the state of Innocency a man could not have fenced himself against death The Churches belief being equally distant from these two Errours and since she doth as constantly confesse the goodnesse of nature as her corruption I have thought good throughout all this work to mingle Invectives with Panygericks and to observe as well the Advantages which man receives from God as the miseries which he contracts by sin I therefore think my self obliged to set forth the beauties of the soul before I describe her blemishes and to paint forth on the same Table her perfections and her defaults The souls Originall contributes to her greatnesse and though she be brought Ex Nihilo t is no small miracle that Divine Power hath been able to draw so excellent a thing from so barren a subject Phylosophers who never knew the truth without the mixture of falshood and who have always in Religion mingled Fables with History Imagined that soul made a part of the Divine substance that she was a slip of his being that after having inlivened the body which served her for a sepulchre or prison she should be happily re-united to her Principium Some others more modest believe that she drew her birth from Heaven and that preserving the memory of her dear Country she could ill bear with the length of her exile Some others lesse elevated have perswaded thēselves that she was form'd of earth and that being more extenuated not more noble then the body she had the same Element for her Originall the Pythagorians composed her of Numbers and would have harmony to be her Essence as that which maketh Peace in the world and accordeth the Elements some dotards have drawn her from the Atoms of the Sun and gave her a
body composed only of Light and Heat But Christian Religion teacheth us that she is a spirit created by God in time infused into a body to inanimate it the spring head of Motion and Life and that in her noblest operations she stands in need of her salves Organes to operate withall Light is in some sort naturall to her in her understanding she comprehends the Principles of all Sciences her will hath in it the seed of all vertue the senses are so many Messengers which informe her with whatsoever passeth in the world and by their faithfull reports teach her those truths which she was ignorant of t is true that there are some truths which are rather infused into her then acquired by her and which Nature hath so powerfully imprinted in her Essence as Errours self cannot deface them she without an Instructer knows there is but one God she preserves this belief in the midst of Superstition in this point she is Christian even when Infidell whilst she offers Incense to her Idols she trusts in him who seeth all things and after having invoked Saturn and Iupiter she implores ayd from him whom her Conscience tels her is the true Creator of Heaven and Earth she is ignorant of the fall of Devils and by the hatred which she bears unto them makes it appear that she is not ignorant of their guile whilst she is possessed with these Tyrants she ceaseth not to think upon her lawfull Sovereign and sin which hath not been able to destroy her Nature c could not deface her knowledge nor her love she loves God though she offends him all the tyes she hath to these perishable things are the remainders of that Naturall Inclination and because every Creature is an Image of it's Creator she cannot see them without being in some sort transported the shadow of God awakens her flame but having neither light nor heat enough to raise her self up to him she remains engaged on the earth and by a strange blindnesse she forgets the Summum Bonum to fasten her self to his Picture she presageth her misfortune before she hath any knowledge thereof she prophesieth it before she disputes and when she first enters into the world she witnesseth by her tears that she hath some sense of her miseries as soon as she hath by her cryes saluted the Sun she teacheth those that understand her that she very well knows the earth is the seat of misery and that one cannot live long there without suffering much sorrow When age indues her with the use of Reason she doth not lose the use of Prophecie her dreams serves for presages The Heavens whilst she is at rest advertize her of her disasters and the Angels treating with her in a condition wherein she cannot treat with men acquaints her with the good and bad successes of her enterprizes she makes out salleys which cause men to believe that though she be fastened to the body yet she is not a Prisoner for when she pleaseth she abandons the senses and collects her self that she may be the lesse interrupted in her Meditations she seeks for knowledge in the Center of her essence and as if she did complain of the sights Infidelity or the ears sloath she endeavours to learn at home within her selfe what she cannot find out in the world in effect she would be very ignorant if she knew nothing but what she learns from her Officers for as they are but the Organes of the body they can only observe the qualities of the objects and can only inform their Sovereign of the lustre of Colours the diversity of sounds and of the varities of smels but when she withdraws within her self she knows subsistances she treats with spirits and raising her self-above all things created she forms unto herself certain Ideas of a Divinity Nay she is an Image thereof and it seems God took pleasure to draw his own Picture in the soul of man and to make us admire in this chief work of his power the unity of his Nature and the Plurality of his Persons for though this spirit be engaged In Materia and that it works differently according to the severall Organes of the body that it digests meat by naturall heat converts it into bloud by means of the Liver distributes it into all parts by the veins and by a miraculons Metamorphosis gives a hundred severall shapes to the same food yet is it not divided and representing the unconceivable unity of God it is Tota in Toto Tota inqualibet parte Thus the soul conteins that which seems to inclose her she lends her hoast house room she upholds her house she inanimates her Sepulchre and this Created Divinity is so great as she Circumscribes the Temple wherein she makes her residence This admirable unity agrees with a Trinity of powers which makes the soul an excellent Image of God for she hath an active understanding which conceives all things a happy memory which records them and an absolute will which disposeth of them she knew the highest of our miseries by reflecting on her self before Faith had revealed unto her the procession of the Divine persons Nature had given her some glimmering thereof by studying what she found to be in her self she learnt what was in God and seeing that she conceived a word in her understanding and a love in her will she had no trouble to comprehend that the father begot a Sonne and that the Sonne together with the Father produced a Holy Ghost Plato who had read no other book then that of his own soul guest at these Truths Trismegistus who had only learn'd these lights out of the bosome of Nature had some weak knowledge of the mysteries and we are bound to confess that neither the one nor the other would ever have known the Divine Originall had they not seriously considered the copy As the soul is the shadow of the divine Essence it shares in part of his highest perfections her light is not obscured by her Prison the body which is formed but of earth doth not derogate from her Nobility nor Power and death which threatens the House wherein she lives injures not her Immortality she is knowing in the midst of obscurity Absolute amidst the revolt of her Subjects Immortall in the bosome of death it self the senses which endeavour to seduce her by their unfaithfull reports cannot abuse her and let them use what foul play they please she hath always light enough to discover their Imposture she corrects their errours and when she will make use of her own rights she finds Counsellors in the Basâ— of her being who convince these faithless Officers of fals-hood she finds oft times lesse resistance in her body then in her self one only Act of her will makes the eyes open the arms be lifted up and the legs go these parts are so obedient to her commands as they never resist when in health their Rebellion ariseth
and sustein his weaknesse He could not unite himself to God without her assistance and whatever of Noble he had received from Nature Grace was necessary for him to fix himself to this Summum Bonum but not being as yet hurt by sin this aide did sufficiently fortifie him this grace without giving him remedies did only furnish him with strength to love and know Primam veritatem This grace was assubjected to his liberty as he might use it so also might he abuse it so as his happinesse depended on his will but since sin wounded his soul since maladie is joyned to weaknesse since irregularity is glided into Nature and that the will which was only weak is become sick a grace was requisite which might rather be a remedie then a help and which should pertake more of Medicine then of nourishment In innocencie 't was sufficient to raise man but in sin he must be cured in innocencie there needed no more but to sustein his Liberty but in sin it must be healed in innocencie 't was enough to lead man the way but in sin he must be put again into the right way In the State of innocencie he needed only to be succoured but in the State of sin the chains which keeps him from operating must be untied and broken A man to whom Nature hath given good eyes cannot see without light but if the Sun lighten him he discerns objects and not demanding other help he sees all the beauties which this constellation can discover unto him but if a defluxion weaken his eyes the light of the Sun offends him if the spot be already formed the ocuâ—t must use his industry to take it away and to restore him to his sight must cure his Maladie In the State where into sin hath reduced us Adams grace would be of no use to us all those glorious advantages which our Father possest in the Stâ—te of innocency could not deliver us his Grace was succour to a man in health but ours is Medicine for a sick man Originall righteousnes indued him with strength Christian righteousnes gives us life originall righteousnes heightned his will and Christian Grace frees ours Adam was vigorous and we languish he was free and we are slaves for the tyrant which doth possesse us keeps us inchained he hath made chains of our affections and as to make a Captive walk you must break the Irons wherewith his feet are fettered so to make a sinner operate the cords must be broken wherewith his will is inthralled After having discovered the nature of his sicknes we must finde out the cause and seek by what excesse he hath faln into this Misfortune Physicians oft-times judge of the quality of sicknes by its originall and the disorder from whence it arose makes them finde out a cure for it Man lost his liberty only for loving it too much he is become a slave only because he would be too free and he hurld himself into a miserable servitude only for that he desired to shun a Glorious one In grace aswell as in policie servitude is joyned to liberty and to be a true freeman a man must be a voluntary slave In kingdoms we finde our liberty in our obedience and our submission to our Soveraignes will is the rice of our felicity those who think to better their condition by revolting are oft undone by their rebellion and fal from their legitimate greatnesses for having sought after unjust ones so in the kingdom of God mans glory consists in obedience his liberty depends on his submission and that he may command overall Creatures he must obey his Creatour This glorious servitude was the originall of all his greatnesse he reigned in the world by serving God he found perfect Liberty in his faithfull submission and whilst that his will was subject to the will of God he met with no revolts neither in his person or in his dominions but when abused by the Devil and egg'd on by a vain desire of reigning by himself he would shake of his first Sovereignes yoke he lost his liberty by desiring to increase it thinking to make himself Master he became a slave he forged out chaines of iron to himself out of a desire to break silken cords and lost the command he had in the world by forgoing the respect he owed to his Creatour It was very fitting doubtles that he should be thus treated the heinousnes of his crime did wel deserve this severe punishment for what could a Rebel expect but a shamefull servitude what ought a perfidious man to expect but sedition in his State and what could a guilty person look for but to have his passions revolt and to lose his Liberty Unhappy Adam What didst thou want in that happy condition whereinto thy Sovereign had raised thee what just wishes could thy soul make which it might not have accomplished in obedience All Creatures adored thee the beams of thy countenance infused both fear and love into them God made himself visible in thy person Angels treated familiarly with thee they assumed bodies to satisfie thy senses these pure spirits became sensible that they might be pleasing to thy eyes they left Heaven to converse with thee on earth and they begana commerce here below which they were to continue in glory the earth reverenced thy footsteps the sea bore respect to thy words all the Elements did adore thy power and savage Beasts which persecute us changed their fury into fear when they came nigh thee mightest not thou have bounded thy desires in so happy a condition and without listning to the Devil who envied thy happinesse was it not sufficient for thee to have the beasts for thy slaves the Elements for thy subjects Angels for thy companions and only God for thy Sovereign Pride was thy fault misery was thy punishment Liberty was thy desire and servitude thy reward Thou wouldst reign Independant thou livest now under tyranny thy punishment is the Picture of thine offence thy childrens misfortune upbraids thee with the quality of thy crime they are slaves only because thou wert a Rebel they grown under their Irons only because thou couldst not live under thy Sovereignes Laws T is true that their imprudency excuseth thy impiety for they love thy chains they glory in their servitude they follow thy evil examples uncompelled they delight to est range themselves from God they commit wickednesse with cherfulnesse their servitude is voluntary because they are pleased with it since they will wear their chaines it shews they are delighted in them and to the end it may be known they offend Heaven willingly they adde voluntary faults to that naturall sin which they are guilty of in their birth The tenth Discourse That evill Habits bereave the will of her Liberty by ingaging her in Evill THough corrupted Nature may be termed a bad Habit and and that all men who descend from Adam have a naturall
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-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
ridiculous Pagan did one might read in the forehead the hearts most secret thoughts If Physiognomie be a Science she hath no certainty but what she draws from the connexion which nature hath placed between the soule and the body all her observations are grounded upon the noblest part of the body if all be true that is said of her as soon as she sees the face she knows the humour and without or Charmes or Magick she knows their intentions whose Lineaments she observes Though I dare not acknowledge all this and that I have much a do to believe that a Physiognomist can discover the designes of a wise Minister of State by looking him in the face and that without racking a malefactour he may read his fault in his eyes it sufficeth me to know that this Science is grounded upon the commerce between the soule and the body and that she draws her conjectures from the straight union that is between them As the Soule doth not forme any designe wherein the body is not a complice so doth she taste no contentment wherein the body doth not share a part if she enjoy the beauties of nature 't is by the Senses if she see the Azure of the Skie the light of the stars if she discover the extent of Fields the fertility of vallies if she hear the fall of Rivers the musick of Birds if she judge of the Glosse or Sent of Lillies or Roses 't is by the benefit either of the sight hearing or smelling It seems the world was made for the bodies diversion and that all those pleasing parts which go to the composure thereof have onely been made to delight the senses the Sun is of no use to the glorified Spirits and all the brightnesse of that goodly Constellation cannot light the Angels those noble Intelligences have a spirituall world wherewith they are possest and ravisht they finde their happinesse in God and all that we wonder at in the world affords them no delight Materia is requisite to tasting the pleasures of sensible nature such contentments presuppose a low condition and it is common with Beasts to partake of such diversions 'T is notwithstanding one of the bodies least advantages that the world should be made for it's use and that this chiefe piece of Gods workmanship is destined either for it's service or it's delight Jesus Christ followed his Fathers steps and when he came upon earth he would have the body to be the object of his mercy and of his power though he laboured for the conversion of sinners his greatest miracles were wrought for the healing of the sick and the body being mans weakest part he thought he was to treat it with most mildnesse and to furnish it with as many remedies as sin hath procured it maladies Somtimes he clensed it of the leprosie and restored to it 's former purity somtimes he freed it from blindnesse and restored unto it the noblest of it's senses somtimes cured it of the Palsey and restored it to the use of it's Members somtimes he withdrew it from the Grave and re-united it to it's soule contrary to the hope of nature somtimes he freed it from the Tyranny of Devils and re-establisht it in it's former freedoms Neither did he neglect it in the institution of the Sacraments for though they were chiefly ordained for the soules sanctification and that these admirable Channels poure grace into the soule yet are they applied upon the body before they produce their effects in the will and they respect joyntly the two parts which go to mans composure The body is washt in water to the end that the soule may be purified the body is marked with the Figure of the Crosse to the end that the soule may be fortified the body receives the unction to the end that the soule may be consecrated the body receives the imposition of hands to the end that the soule may receive Grace and the body eates the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus to the end that the soule may be thereby nourished Thus doth not religion destroy nature and in her highest mysteries the provides for the soules safety by means of the body This maxime is so true as that all Divinity confesseth that the soule can no longer merit when she is once parted from the body whil'st they are together in company their grace may be augmented and whatsoever vertues they have acquired they may yet acquire more but when once death hath divided them and that the body losing 't's lustre is reduced either to ashes or to wormes the soule can no longer increase her merit and in that condition she is onely capable of punishment or of reward Having so many obligations to her body she cannot forget them nay even in the state of Glory where all her designes ought to be satisfied she wisheth to be re-united to her body as that wherein her intire felicity consisteth For though she reign with Angels that she behold the divine Essence and that she enjoy a happinesse to which even wishes cannot adde yet hath hath she a passion for her body and all the good she doth possesse cannot take from her the desire nor memory thereof though she hath made triall of it's revolts though this friendly enemy hath oft-times persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the Tyranny thereof yet doth she languish after it and contrary to their humour who have recovered liberty yet she longs for that which did engage her in servitude Though the body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in it's Enemies and though it cause horrour in those to whom it was so lovely she forbeares not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with Impatience that her body may partake of the blisse which she enjoyes And 't is not without much justice that she beares so much love to her body since she owes the greatest part of her advantages unto it and that she hath hardly any vertue or light which she hath not acquired by the assistance of the senses The soule is ignorant when first infused into the body the knowledge which the Platonists attribute unto her is but a meer capacity of apprehending If she will be intrusted she must be advised either by her eyes or by her eares she must consult with these Masters if she will free her selfe from ignorance How noble soever she be by birth she hath but weak conjectures of truth if these faithfull officers should faile her and should she be ingaged in a body which should have no use of senses she would be plunged in eternall darknesse Sight and hearing are the Organs destined to knowledge and he who is borne deafe and blinde is destined to live and die ignorant As the soule receives these advantages by the body so doth she distribute them by the bodies assistance and doth not expresse her thoughts but by the mouth of her Interpreter she gives with the tongue
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
philosophy can quiet in age Avarice waites close upon it let such handsome gamesters say what they please who do but bite upon the bridle when they loose and who bear their bad fortune with a good grace all men play to win This exercise is a kind of Traffique 't is a generall usury wherein every one glories 't is their clearest incomb who can joyn sleight of hand to good fortune and who can lead fortune as they list They are lesse egg'd on by pleasure then by profit and if they will acknowledge their owne weaknesse they must confesse that those who are most liberall are avaritious at play Anger governs there yet more absolutely then doth avarice a man cannot have ill luck without some commotion his pulse beats high when the dice do not favour him an unlooked for chance puts him in disorder if his ill luck prove constant his fury turns to impiety and after having imprecated the gain he vomits forth blasphemies against heaven Ambition takes her place between avarice and anger for though play makes all men equall though the freedom of play forbids ceremony though it be lawfull in play for every man to defend his own liberty and that therein the servant may argue with his Master yet vain-glory hath a share therein men think winning an advantage and that he that wins is either more dexterous or more fortunate and as if fortune ought to be more just in play than in battels men complain that she favours the weakest or the worst side In fine sorrow succeeds all other passions in this exercise for if the losse be great 't is always accompanied with sorrow Shame and repentance set on those that loose the one siezeth on the heart the other on their countenance they are displeased with all things not knowing to whom to break themselves they betake themselves to every body and are bound to confesse that contrary to their intention they finde pain and repentance where they sought for pleasure and recreation The second disorder of play is that it alienates men from their duty and hinders them from doing what they ought or from attending their affairs All worldly things are so linkt together as an evill seldome comes alone one mis-fortune always produceth another and it is almost impossible that a malady doth not oft-times become a contagion Great winds cause great droughts and whil'st the aire is agitated with these exhalations the earth is noâ— watered with rain Droughts cause dearths and all the husbandmans labour cannot defend us from famine Dearths cause the plague for when necessity makes all things food and that without considering what is good or what is bad men fall to whatsoever they meet withall mens temper must be corrupted and the body which is nourished with unwholesome food must needs gather ill humours Thus in a Kingdom one disorder is always cause of another Indulgency of Princes leaves faults unpunished impunity causeth licentiousnesse licentiousnesse ushers in murder and murder causeth war in the midst of peace Particular families being little States and Oeconomy being the picture of policy one disorder never happens there alone the Masters fault is always followed by the confusion of all the Domestiques Excesse in gaming is an infallible proofe of this truth for those who passionately love this pastime give over the thought of businesse neglect the government of their house lose all their relations of Father Master or husband and by one and the same fault injure their children wives and servants They lose all they have in a short time they morgage their lands contract debts and are constrained to keep out of company because they cannot appear abroad in their former gallantry If the wives will not shut themselves up with their husbands they must make friends and must ingage their conscience and betray their honour to continue their ordinary expence and porte But if this misfortune which is but too ordinary should not happen Gamesters must confesse that this exercise bereaves them of all their time which is a disorder no lesse considerable then all the rest For Time is the most pretious thing that is our salvation depends upon the moments thereof eternitie must be his reward or punishment and we shall be happy or miserable according to the good or bad use we make of time which is the measure of merit the rule of good or bad actions and these daies which we are so prodigall of are the bounds which divine Justice hath prescribed to our labours When the soul forgoes the body and passeth from time to eternity 't is no more in her power to acquire vertue or â—hstand vice she carries nothing into the other world but what she hath gathered here good desires are of no advantage to her if they have not bin fore-gone by good effects nor can all the ages to come profit her if she have not imploy'd past moments wel Yet experience teacheth us that gamesters never count their years a man must be very eloqueÌ„t to perswade them that hours are more precious then pistols and that it is easier to pay their debts then to recover the weeks which they have lost Time advanceth always and never returns it is as hard to recall time past as to stop the present When the Sun which is the rule of times motions stood still in the midst of his career to obey a mans word the present time ceased not to roul on though it had lost it's guide when the same constellation returned towards the east to assure a great Prince that his death was deferred the time past did not retreat back with it and divine Providence which changed the course of the Sun would not alter the nature of time Yet all such as play are prodigall thereof they are shamefully profuse of a thing the sparing whereof is honourable they think they give their friends nothing when they bestow but whole days upon them and because the losse thereof is common they think it not considerable their life is iesse deer unto them then their pleasure and they prove that passion blinds them since under pretence of pastime these shorten their life and hasten their death But though they be guilty of so many faults they still alledge vain excuses and use false reason to defend their bad cause they say that a man cannot be allways busied that the weaknesse of his spirit and the misery of his condition considered recreation is requisite for him I confesse that this excuse hath some colour of truth and that men who are most serious need some relaxations in their businesses but they must not make a trade of their recreation nor must they contrary to the laws of Nature imploy those hours in pleasure which are destined for labour as those men are to be blamed who turn their Physick into food and who to purge away some ill humours forego their usuall meat and take nothing but medicines So are
our senses and to content our minds The curious discover therein every day new beauties to satisfie themselves 't is a book which never wearies those that read it Every creature is a character which represents some one of it's Authors perfections and Infidels instructed in this school have framed unto themselves noble Ideas of the divine Essence In effect the spaciousnesse of the Heavens which serves for bounds to nature and which inclose all the works thereof in their extent do point out unto us Gods immensity who comprehends whatsoever he produceth and incloseth within his essence whatsoever he by his power doth draw from thence The earths solidity which serves for center to all the world and which grounded upon it's own weight cannot be shaken by storms nor winds is an Embleme of Gods stability who causeth all the alterations in the world without any change in himself and who by an unalterable act of his will rules all the adventures of our life The Suns light is a shadow of his and the prodigious activity of this glorious constellation which produceth metals in the bowels of the earth flowers and fruits in the fields clouds and meteors in the air and which by it's influences doth rule over all the productions of nature is the picture of that infinite power which shed abroad in all his creatures doth act with them and accommodate it self to their inclinations The incensed sea big with storms the waves whereof rise up unto the heavens and descend unto the depths her fury which threatens ships with wracking and the neighbouring fields with deluge is a fearfull draught of Gods anger who prepares torments for sinners and makes himself be dreaded by rebels who would not love his goodnesse In fine every creature is a looking-glasse wherein a man see the Lineaments of his Creator and where with but a grain of grace all rationall men may become faithfull So prodigious is the mightinesse of this work as 6000 years have not been sufficient to discover it avarice nor ambition have not been able to finde out the ends thereof there are yet whole Countries whether by reason of the extreamity of cold and the Seas vast extent no man ever yet came There are unknown desarts which mans curiosity hath not been able to penetrate and the Sun enlightens some part of the earth whereon no Conquerour ever yet set his foot Those who have gone round the world have not discovered it's profundity and though they be vainly perswaded that there is nothing so great which their understanding cannot comprehend yet are they bound to confesse that there be havens whereinto they never put and savage people whose language nor manners they understand not There is none but God alone who knows the greatnesse of his work every age discovers unto us our ignorance And though the earth be but a point yet doth it consist of so many parts as we may with reason doubt if what we know not thereof do not exceed for bulk and beauty it 's known parts That new world which our fore-fathers knew not is richer and of larger extent then ours It is so ravishing as it makes whole Nations quit their own Countries to conquer it the wealth thereof gives the law to all Europe the latter Kings of Spain have made more conquests with the gold thereof then all their Predâ—ssours have fought battels with the iron of their Mines Their overcoming of this part of the world hath made them overcome the rest their victories depend only upon it And did not the Indians dig up the entrails of Perve the Spaniards would not trouble the Peace of Europe 'T is true that these Provinces are so far distant from the Center of their State and the Sea which brings them the wealth thereof is so treacherous as they run hazard of being undone as oft as the Indian Fleet is in danger of shipwrack And Polititians are of opinion that so great a body the parts whereof are divided by so many seas can be of no long durance it only appertains to God to govern in a State the Provinces whereof though never so far distant are yet always united to their Sovereign and which though scituated in different Climates are still enlightened by the same Sun The beautifulnesse of this Kingdom is answerable to it's greatnesse nothing is therein to be seen which hurts the senses all the pieces whereof it is composed are pleasing their difference makes a part of it's beauty and the wit of man which is naturally criticall can finde nothing in this work to be found fault with Every part is so well placed as they are not to be altered without some disorder The Elements are lodged according to their deserts the earth as the heaviest makes the lowest story the fire as the lightest is nearest heaven the aire and water whose qualities have some resemblance are seated above the earth and beneath the fire The noblest of these Elements is the most barren it is so active as it will not permit any creatures to live in it The Salamander doth for a while resist it's heat and till his moisture which doth preserve him be dried up he delights in the fire but if he tarry long there his pleasure turns to pain and he there findes his death The aire whose purity comes nearest that of the fire is the abode of birds they cut this liquid Element with their wings they make new paths in those spacious Champians they therein breath with freedom and till man found out the art to kill them with his arrows they laughed at his Empire Their wings are oares which guide through this sea their taile is their rudder and when the storm is so great as they fear being born away by the fury thereof they take up stones in their feet and defend themselves against the Tempest Though they live at liberty they acknowledge a King which title the eagle hath won be it whether for that she flies highest or for that he can look fixedly on the Sun or for that he defends his subjects from birds of prey which appear to be the Tyrants of this part of the world The Sea abounds more in fishes then the aire doth in birds Their number is as prodigious as their shapes the species is there by miracle preserved and Naturalists who boast to know all things know not in what part of the fish her fecundity doth lie The Elements which give them their life being almost always in agitation war is there more frequent then peace and the abode of these Monsters is the picture of a State divided by Civill war Right consists there either in force or fraud the greater eat up the lesse and if the weak ones want nimblenesse to defend themselves they become a prey to the more puissant The Whale which doth for greatnesse equall mountains doth not govern in this Empire this great Colossus wants spirit to inanimate his
Interest be the Rule of Superstition there is nothing in Nature more usefull for us then the Stars they are placed in the highest and most beautifull part of the world they seem to rule over us and that their favourable or maligne influences goes to the making of us fortunate or unfortunate We hardly partake of making any sensible favour but by their interposition and prophane men call them the arbitratours of chance and the dispensors of good and evil Though we be free they pretend to a certain power over our wils by the means of our inclinations a man must withstand stifly to resist their impressions and as most men act more by instinct then by reason we must not wonder if forming our temper and our humours they govern our designes and guide our motions Hence it is that all men have reverenced them that this hath been the commonest Superstition that the best wits who would not bow to men have prostrated themselves before the Stars and that the Sun hath passed amongst very Philosophers for the visible God of the world To say truth we owe all things to his heat and light his course governs our seasons his influences distribute forth fruitfulnesse through all the parts of the Universe Nature would be barren were it not for his beams and should this glorious constellation cease looking on her she would neither conceive nor produce his Eclipses though but of a small durance put her in disorder and the earth cannot want his heat without witnessing her sorrow by sterility if he be a long time hidden from us by clouds the yeares are unfruitfull and the Labourers pains are uselesse if he do not favour them by his aspect It must be granted that he who should consult with nothing but his own sense would acknowledge no other divinity but the Sun his very beauty parted from his advantage seems to exact some respect from all men his worth is not sufficiently known if he be valued onely for his effects Though he were barren he would not cease to be wonderfull and if the ripening of fruits and government of the seasons did not depend upon his heat and course his very light would suffice Seneca to adore him but God being jealous of his glory and not desirous that the supremest honours should be rendered to his works he hath revenged himself upon them for our sins he hath disordered them to punish us he hath tane from them their advantages to disabuse us and he hath order'd that the noblest creatures should have their blemishes to the end that their beauty might not make us Idolaters he took from them a part of their perfections when sin bereft us of our innocency and foreseeing that we should through blindnesse fall into errour he would not that their Lustre should serve us either for occasion or excuse he mingled death with life in the Suns beams he parted his light from his heat and did not permit them to joyn always together in acting equally the lightsomest places are not the hottest and those Countries wherein the Sun makes the longest days enjoy not the most pleasing Summers He for our punishment doth corrupt what for our service he had produced and as his influences do cause our health so do they our sicknesse likewise if he dissolve vapours into rain he makes them break forth in thunder if he ripen fruit he dries up flowers if he form meteors he sets Comets on fire if he make the dew fall so doth he also the Sercine or Mildew and if he deserve praise for the good he bringeth us he merits also blame for the evil which he sendeth us The fifth Discourse That all Creatures do either tempt or persecute us SInce Tyranny in Princes causeth rebellion in their subjects we must not wonder if the creatures do disobey man who treateth them with so much rigour and violating the laws of Justice imployes them in his offences against their common Sovereign For there is nothing in the world which hath escaped his fury the most innocent creatures in his hands are become criminall he makes them serve his unjust designes and not considering that he hath received them from Gods liberality he abuseth them contrary to his Glory Whatsoever presents it self before his eyes doth either flatter his ambition or his avarice that which in the state of innocency would have excited devotion in his soul causeth impiety therein now he turns all things to his advantage or to his honour and seeks for nothing in the use of nature but his pleasure or his profit He corrupts his Judges with gold he tames his enemies with the sword he kindles his concupiscence with wine and this furious Tyrant abuseth all things to undo himself his malice reacheth even to the most innocent Creatures making them confederates in his crime by an ingenious cruelty for he finds out the means how to make the chastest serve his unchastity he assubjects the noblest to his Ambition and imploys the holiest in his Impiety There is nothing that appears to be more cleeer then Chrystall if we will believe Philosophers 't is a water congeal'd by cold light is so inamor'd thereof as it cannot see it without penetration their imbraces are so chast as that their purity is not therein concerned their union is so streight as it is hard to say whether the Chrystall be changed into light or the light into Chrystall Chrystall becomes lightfull without softning it's hardnesse Light becomes solid without losse of Lustre or brightnesse their qualities are confounded without alteration of their nature and their marriage is so exact that they possesse in common all the advantages which nature hath given them in particular yet impurity makes chrystall serve it's infamous designes in looking glasses a woman growes in love with herselfe by seeing of her face she turns the fable of Narcissus into a truth she consumes in desires before her Idoll and after being sufficiently in love with her selfe she perswades her selfe she is able to make all men in love with her upon this assurance she undertakes the conquests of all hearts she joynes art to beauty to purchase her selfe lovers and she hazards her honour to encrease her Empire Who would have believed that impurity could have corrupted so pure a thing that the flames of love should be kindled in ice that chrystall intermixt with light should carry both smoak and flame into the heart of one and the same woman Looking Glasses were at first invented to the end that men seeing their defaults might amend them many advantages were made of this innocent art this faithfull Councellour gave good advice his dumb answers were speaking oracles and whosoever would listen unto them could not chuse but put on good resolutions A handsome woman learnt by her looking glasse that she was to shun dishonour that to become accomplisht she was to joyn vertue to beauty and not to be an hypocrite she was to be
in it's greatest storms not to out-passe it's bounds it takes nothing in one place which it repayes not in another it restores to Swethland what it hath taken from Holland and foregoes our coasts when it intrencheth upon our neighbours if the ebbing flowing thereof be sometimes irregular they never move to such a height as to threaten the whole world it's inroads are rather for pastime then mischief and should it have tane that liberty in the state of innocency man who very well knew the nature thereof would neither have been surprised nor astonished thereat But if it now spread it self over the fields if it cover the highest steeples with it's waves if it turn populous towns into lakes or ponds if it bear it's Empire beyond it's bounds and if breaking the banks which are made to oppose it's fury it threaten us again with an universall Deluge it follows rather the motions of Divine Justice then it 's own and this prodigie is rather an effect of Gods anger then of Nature Thus ought we to argue of that generall inundation which destroyed the whole world two thousand years after it was first made the cause came from heaven the decree was pronounced by Gods own mouth the execution thereof was given to the evil spirits the Elements received a new commission to obey their new order The earth furnisht part of the vapours which were to drown her the vapours distil'd down in rain rivers being swoln with such fall of rain broke their banks the sea not able to contain so many flouds forewent its bounds Towns were changed into ponds their streets were turned into rivolets their inhabitants quitted their houses the wals whereof were undermined by waters and equally fearing two contrary evils they know not whether they were to perish by the fall or by the drowning of their houses Torrents were seen every where which charged with booty did at the same time carry down the seilings of palaces and trees out of gardens all rivers lost their names and channels the Rhine was confounded with Rome Euphrates and Ganges were mingled together all those great rivers which had won fame by reason of the towns which they watered found their losse in their greatnesse and ruined themselves that they might ruine the whole world the tops of mountains made Islands in this wast Ocean which being by little and little quite effaced left the world at last drowned in waters there was then but one onely Element seen Whole Nature became a Sea in the which the winds guided a vessell which carried in it the worlds onely hope and which preserved eight people amidst this deluge which were to re-people the world It is very likely that so great a spoil was not made without Thunder and that to make this punishment the more dreadfull the Sun hid his face that the day gave place to night that the world was covered with darknesse and the Lightening was the torches which did attend the funerall pomp whilst any mountains were yet uncovered with water the remainders of man-kind were fixed there in this extremity no comfort but astonishment remained fear was changed into stupidity and the wonder which they conceived at this so hideous an accident did so possesse their spirits as they saw the sea without fear had not feeling of the mischief and perished without complaining Who will not confesse that so strange an accident could be no naturall effect who will not judge by the greatnesse thereof that it was a miracle of divine Justice who will not confesse that these disorders which tend to the ruine of man-kind are the punishments of sin and that nature would never have conceived so much indignation against her own children had she not believed to revenge their father by their death and to repair his honour by their punishment The eighth Discourse That Thunder Plagues and Tempest are the effects of Sinne. WHen I consider the worlds condition since sin me thinks I see a combat between self-love and divine Justice and that these two parties do with equall courage endevour to win the victory Divine Justice disorders the seasons to punish sinfull man altereth the nature of the elements robs the earth of flowers and covers it over with thorns makes the winters longer and Summers shorter and mingling the saddest of our seasons with all the other makes snow be seen in the spring and thick fogs in Autumn arms savage beasts with new fury draws them out of their forrests to set on sinners in towns destroyes her own workmanship ruines the beauties of the world to take revenge of the Lord thereof and raiseth up as many enemies against him since his sin as he had Subjects during his innocency Self-love imploys all it's industry to to repair these disorders and by tricks which seem to augment it's sin withstands all the designs of Divine Justice it cultivates the earth and by it's labour makes her fruitfull it ingrafts roses upon thorns and indevours to make the place of it's exile a stately palace it hath had such good successe in it's enterprizes as the sinfull world comes not far short of the world when innocent did our first father live again and partake of our contentments he would not so much lament the losse of the earthly paradise but blaming the tears which his banishment drew from him he would passe his time merrily away with his children in so pleasing an abodâ— In effect all things are refined by time solitary places are inhabited forrests which infused horrour into those who saw them furnish hunters with pastime the barren sands are sowed upon vines are planted upon rocks Marish grounds are dried that they may be plough'd up and provinces are now fuller of palaces then formerly they were of cottages Islands are no longer un-inhabited and those famous rocks which made the Pylots tremble now bear high Towers for Land-marks unto them and Towns to receive them all the parts of the world are peopled nor are there any desarts which have not some Inhabitants and houses But let self-love use all the cunning that it can there are some mischiefs which wee cannot shâ— and there are some disorders in the world which will oblige us to confesse that the wisedome of man cannot defend it self against Gods anger Thunder is of this sort and one must have lost his reason not to fear a cause which produceth such strange effects All Poets have armed the hands of God therewithall and nature which is the Mistresse of Infidels hath taught them that he makes use thereof to punish offenders the lightenings which fore-run it the noyse which doth accompany it and the prodigies which follow after are undeniable proofs of this truth Let Philosophy defend her self against it by her vain reasons let her oppose her pride to our feaâ— let her destroy religion by her libertinisme she cannot keep reasonable men from redoubting thun-Thunder and from confessing by the fear
which siezeth them that without the reading of Genesis they know the whole story of our mis-fortune To say truth who would not fear a punishment against which Nature affords no temedy who will not dread a disaster which sets upon Princes in their Palaces and upon Conquerours amidst their Armies the statelinesse thereof is able to frighten even Philosophers and though they say this be not the greatest danger though the most specious yet they look pale when the Thunder roars over their heads and that the Ecchoes which answer to the voice thereof makes the ground quake under their feet Then their constancy forsakes them and nature which forceth them to speak truth makes them make vows and repent them of their insolence The haughtiest of all the Stoicks hath been inforc't to confesse that there was somwhat of divine in Thunder that it was not the meer workmanship of nature and that the flames and water whereof it is composed made but the least part of it's power It is truth that pride hath made him speak another language and that after having with reason admired Thunder he hath the impudency to laugh at it he believed that since the claps thereof were not certain they were not darted out from a divine hand and that since it spared the guilty and struck the innocent it was guided by fortune not by providence Then destroying religion under a pretence of establishing it he adds that Polititians had wisely handled this accident to keep people within their duties that it was requisite that where the faulty take so great a freedom there should be an inevitable punishment and against which the power of Kings should be of no use that to intimidate men who could not beperswaded to innocency but by fear it behooved to place a revengefull hand over their heads which should always be armed with Thunder But let this proud Philosopher say what he please all men will not alter their beliefe upon so weak reasons Thunder cannot be mistaken when it falls upon the ground it is not necessary that he who darteth it forth should measure his strokes since whosoever he hits is sinfull The Decree of our death is pronounced before we are born it little imports whether the execution thereof be left to thunder or deluge and whether the sea or the earth serve as a Minister to Gods Justice if he spares sinners in this world 't is that he may punish them the more severely in the other world if he snew favour unto sinners 't is either to recompence their good deeds or the good deeds of their Ancestors and if he punish the innocent 't is either to exercise their patience or to increase their merit But certainly of all the punishments which he makes use of to make himselfe be feared there is none more strange then Thunder the effects thereof are miraculous it plays so many severall ways as it is easily seen that he who guides it is Natures Master it melts the money of the avaritious without breaking the cofer wherein it is lockt it breaks the sword without hurting the Scabbard wherein it is it melts the iron ends of Pikes without burning the wood whereinto they are ingraffed it consumes the Cask without shedding the wine but what is yet most miraculous it kils a child in the mothers belly without hurting the mother and of a living cradle makes her an animated Sepulchre Is it not easie to judge by all these effects that so prodigious a cause would have been uselesse in the state of Innocency for what need was there to govern them by fear who suffered themselves to be charmed by love why should the Thunder have roared over the heads of the innocent wherefore should God have armed himself not having as yet any enemies and to what end should he have vented his fury upon the tops of mountains since if he punish insensible creatures 't is to astonish those who are rationall In this sort of punishment there is also observed a certain malignity which witnesseth that it is the work of God for it corrupts what ever it toucheth it imprints evill qualities in the body that it burneth and wine which is the best Antidote turns to poison if it be struck with Thunder it leaves an ill odour where ere it goes and it cannot be a meer effect of nature since it destroys all the works thereof We are bound to be of the same beliefe touching the plague and to confesse that this sad sicknesse which hath so often unpeopled the world hath no other father then sin Tertullian who isas full of mad whâ—sics as of errours thought that the plague was a providence of nature which to case the earth which was not able to support her children bereft her of some of them and that like those Gardiners who use to prune such Trees as bear more fruit then they can nourish she lessens the number of men and reduceth them to a condition of not being burthensome to their common Mother Though I confesse that divine mercy doth oft-times turn our punishments into favours and that it may aswell turn the plague to a remedy as death to a sacrifice yet I look upon it as one of the strangest Punishments ordained by divine justice to punish men withall I must in reason confesse that it is a generall corruption of nature that it assails all the parts thereof and that it disperseth venom into all the elements to cause death to the sinfull it infecteth the air which we draw in with our breath it gets into our bowels with the meat which we eat it makes the earth barren by it's bad influences and passing from men to beasts commits as much havock in the fields as in towns this malady surpasseth the Physicians skill it laughs at all antidotes it is not to be shun'd but by flight and it is sometimes so universall as men meet with it in the very places which they have chosen for their Sanctuary Wee bear the seed thereof along with us which it in time hatches forth and shews it self as fire doth when we think it is extinguisht It is the most perverse and least respectful punishment of all those that befall sinfull man for 't is a rebell to all remedies it turns antidotes into venome and when it doth reign absolutely any where it is fed with whatsoever is given to allay it it assails Monarchs amidst their armies the Lawrels which fence their heads from Thunder cannot keep them from the contagion thereof and that Sanctity which receives respect from other diseases cannot stop it's progresse The most August and holiest of all our Kings died of this disease in Africa his valour and his piety which had freed him out of prison could not deliver him from his sicknesse but after having triumphed over vice and infidelity a period was put to all his conquests by a contagious death The holiest of all the Kings of Iudah knowing that
her self after the pains which those wonders have occasioned her which she hath continued since the beginning of the world she goes astray for sports sake and for her pastime commits faults yea her disorders are oft-times usefull to us she produceth Monsters to fore-shew things to come and goes out of her ordinary course to advertize us of Gods anger Thus we may observe that in all ages the birth of Monsters have been followed with some disasters and the worlds irregularity hath presaged the like in kingdomes All the predictions of Pagans were grounded upon these prodigies they studied the guidance of Empires in that of nature and judged of the ones disorder by the others debaucheries When Caesar and Pompey fought in the Pharsalian fields and that the Romane Common wealth was upon the point of being changed into a Monarchie beasts were the interpretors of nature the Elements violated their qualities it rained bloud and a generall confusion did foretell the alteration of that state As famous Princes have had new constellations which have discovered them Tyrants have had Monsters to proclaim them and the Births of the one and of the other have had these Fortunate or Unfortunate Predictions Poysons are not so mischievous but that some good use may be made of them when they are prepared by physick good medicines are made of them there are some sicknesses which cannot be cured but by corrected poyson the greatest part of those drugs which we make use of to assist nature when she is weakened by sicknesse partake more of poison then of nourishment and onely help the naturall heat by provoking it and by contesting with it If they be contrary to our constitutions they are good for and do preserve some creatures and if they be averse to man they are favourable to the asp and viper their venom is not to be taken from them without taking away their lives the Antidotes which preserve us kill them and as if they imprinted their qualities in us when they sting us their stingings are not to be cured but by their poison Who knows not the vertue of venomous plants is ignorant of the half of Nature she subsists by contrariety and as she indues her works with differing qualities she must preserve them by contrary remedies that which is hurtfull for some is good for other some and amongst the infinite number of creatures whose Constitutions are so different there is nothing which is absolutely bad or unusefull These are the usuall reasons which Philosophy makes use of to defend her errour in maintaining Natures part but being prest by truth she must confesse that these Monsters are the products of sin and that the earth never bore them till since it was covered with Thorns the motions thereof were too regulaâ— in the state of innocency to commit any faults the heavens were too favourable to it in their aspects to corrupt it's workmanship this charitable Mother would rather have been barren then fruitfull in Monsters and all her children were so beautifull as she was not bound to make any ilfavoured to set the others off she hath placed variety enough in her productions without being forced to transgress that she might vary them though she be not always serious she had never been debauched and before she was corrupted she would not have found her diversion in her disorder Who knows not that Monsters are the errours of Nature that she had no design in making them that she is sorry she hath produced them that she treats them as illegitimate children that she shortens their life to efface her own shame that repenting her of her fault she speedily corrects it and re-assumes her ordinary Tract which she went not out of but only for want of heed or being surprized 'T is chance and sin that produceth Monsters they are not born but by unlawfull coupling they are always barren to the end they may have no posterity their Species is never preserved and let men who delight in Natures debaucheries use their utmost skill they could never perpetuate Monsters nor make them generate We behold them with horrour the delight which they cause in us is mingled with aversion if their novelty do delight us their strange shape doth displease us and after having for a while admired them we are scandalized and nauseated with them These just resentments are infallible proofs that sin is the father of all Monsters and that as we detest the father so do we his children But that which confirms our belief therein the more is the rarity of them amongst beasts and their frequency amongst men for these innocent creatures being only so far guilty of our sins as they are subject to our power they do not stray so often as we in their productions there is but one part in the world where they commit these faults and set aside Affrica where Monsters are common Europe and Asia do scarce produce two in one age but men are irregular in all places the greatest part of their productions are monstruous all their children bear the marks of their debauchery and the punishment of their sin we see the mothers wishes stampt on their childrens faces some tokens of their parents incontinency are seen in the bodies of these Innocents and generation is so corrupted amongst men as they cause either horrour or pity in Natures self some of them cannot stand upright by reason of the weaknesse of their legs and are enforced to seek for help for their infirmities unlesse they will make their house their perpetuall prison some carry mountains on their backs and makes some that see them doubt whether not having the shape of men they be endued with the judgement and reason or no some are so deformed in their faces as one would rather take them for Munkeys than for the Images of God others speak with such confusion and with so much difficulty as Parrots may teach them our language some are born blinde and are condemned to darknesse all their life time others cannot explain themselves and their tongues not being able to speak cannot be the Interpreters of their thoughts others cannot understand those pleasing discourses which fill the souls of those that listen thereunto with the light of truth they rather guesse at our intentions then understand them to make them capable of them we must speak unto them with our hands and make them understand that by the eyes which cannot be infused into them by the eares In fine the greatest part of men are Monsters Nature mistakes her selfe oftner in them then in beasts and be it that their intemperance causeth these disorders be it that these irregularities are produced by the imagination which is more quick in them be it that their Temper which is more refined is more easily altered we see that most children inherit their Parents defects as well as their sins and that they are not born monstrous till they be born
and as if they would side with guilty they obliged the innocent to reverence her They immolated Victimes to wisedome and to acknowledge the favours which they had received from her guidance they injured her through their superstition and adored her under the name of destiny and image of Fortune Philosophers excused their Idolatry by these bad reasons and would perswade Christians that that religion could not be vitious which did onely adore vertue blindnesse increasing with deceit they confounded vices with vertues and added to the number of their Gods to honour their Ancestors debaucheries They consecrated incontinency under the name of Venus they defied drunkennesse under the name of Bacchus they did authorize injustice and the licentiousnesse of war under the name of Mars and not dreaming that Gods could not be one anothers enemies they erected Altars to peace after having built others to Bellona when Impudency was arrived at it's height they adored vices without disguising them and calling them by their proper names they built Templâ—s to fear to fury and to envy The body being scandalized that the passions of the soule should be reverenced would have it's motions and disorders to receive the same honours Pallor or Palenes was deified to give it contentment Ignorance admiration made an Idol of the Ague til Physitians had learnt the course fits thereof ignorant and superstitious peopleimagined it deserved an Altar they adored this Divinity because they dreaded it They thought themselves miserable when they had got it and contrary to the humour of Adorers they sought for nothing more then that a God should keep far from them who had won himself credit only by the evils that he did WheÌ„ impiety had made these tryals she undertook to consecrate men and to build them Temples after having tane them out of their sepulchres Death which denounced their weaknesse and their sin could not alter the course of these unjust proceedings and all the miseries which they had in their life time endured could not extinguish them Interest and sorrow were the beginning of this superstition for subjects to consolate themselves for the losse of a Sovereign who by his labours had defended them and who had taught them the art of building houses or of husbanding land would eternize his memory by solemne sacrifices and lodged the same men in heaven whom they had buried in the earth They invented Apotheosis to ease their sorrow they thought that fire which reduced men into ashes could change them into spirits that that element which doth purifie all things had the vertue to in-noble Princes and take from them all the impurity which they had contracted in the world They thought that Religion knew how to convert men into Gods that the Senates decree was as powerfull as that of destiny and that Iupiter was bound to confirme in heaven what ever a Pope had concluded on earth By this means Apotheosis was oft-times the reward of hainous crimes Princes who were most faulty were most honoured men granted that to the power of Successours which ought to have been refused to the power of their Ancestours people were constrained to adore Tyrants whom they had detested to re-commend the welfare of the State to those who had been the undoing of it and to change their just imprecations into vowes as faint as unreasonable If great mens violence caused impiety in the meaner sort love ingaged Fathers in the Idolatry of their Children For to allay their sorrow for their death they made their pictures be drawn by skilful painters then adding their power to the workmans cunning they bound their eyes to behold these images with respect to offer up incense to young Princes whom death had swept away in the flower of their Age. Following the example of this unjust sorrow every Sonne would make a God of his father All those who bare any credit with the people made their Ancestours be adored and taking advantage of this false piety they perswaded weak mindes that they were descended from the Race of the Gods In fine the naturall inclination which men have to Religion caused Idolatry in the world for not being able to be without Gods they forged sensible deities unto themselves and wanting souls sufficiently elevated to conceive a true Idea of the divine essence they cut out Idols with their hands they through a fearfull blindnesse put their trust in Gods made of clay and wood and consulted with statutes which being deaf and dumb could neither hear nor answer them oft-times one and the same tree served to make Gods and ships both their destinies depended on the artificer their fortune consisted on his fancy and his hand destin'd the one to suffer shipwrack at sea the other to be worshipped on earth But that they might avoid the pain of making Gods they bethought themselves of chusing them and foregoing the care of forging or moulding them they reserved a power unto themselves to declare them they deified whole Nature of every of it's parts they made Gods Flowers were placed in the same rank with Stars these earthy Stars received divine honours they charmed men and purchased themselves adorers by their odour and beauty a man might croud a thousand divinities into one nosegay they joyned Superstition to Vanity women satisfied their devotions in dressing themselves the most vain amongst them was the godliest and those who wore garlands of Lillies and Roses might boast themselves to be in-animated Temples Fruits whereof flowers are but ornaments disputed this honor with them there were some men who preferring profit before beauty judged that Pomona did better deserve temples then Flora and that if every creature was a portion of divinity trees were more to be considered then plants since not being lesse lovely they were more usefull Men being phantasticall in their humours and nothing being so deformed in Nature which meets not with some admirours Onnions contended with flowers and whole Nations drew them out of their Gardens to place them upon Altars the Egyptians instituted ceremonies and Priests unto them these wise men who having confer'd with the Iâ—s mought have some cognizance of the truth ingaged themselves in this errour and becomming the talk of all people placed that in heaven which grew on earth profaned incense to perfume onnions By the same licence they worshipped what they feared Fear infused piety into these servile souls they offered sacâ—ifices to Serpents to be delivered from them and toallay their fury did immolate victimes to them the Devil delighted to see himself adored in a Monster which had served him for interpreter in the earthly paradise he would recompence it's fidelity with this honour and repair the losse which it had suffered upon his occasion by divine homage After this high extravagancy all Idolatry is excusable and we must not wonder if metals and stars have had their adorers since Serpents have had Priests and Altars for if