disobedient or unfaithfull to him whence proceeds this disorder if not from his sin whence proceeds so universall a rebellion if not from his disobedience and why should he have lost his authority in the world if he had not lost his innocency which was the foundation thereof I very well know that Phylosophers who knew not the state of sin endeavour to excuse this insurrection alledging it is naturall but who sees not the excusing of man is to blame God and that to leave innocency to the Creature is to bereave God of his Providence The Elements began not to prosecute man till he became criminall and God is so good and just as he would not have made him subject to these sufferings had he not found him guilty His Sovereignty never gives against his justice he makes such moderate use of his power as he never injures his Providence what ever power he may justly challenge over the Creature he condemns it not till it hath offended who will not then term this unruliness of the seasons a punishment who will not esteem the earths sterility the like who will not believe but that the Pestilences and Earth-quakes Deluges and Punishments by fire are the just rewards of sin more ancient then all these disorders we must also avow that the wisest Phylosophers have acknowledged that there was one cause of all these disorders and though they neither knew the wickednesse nor the name thereof they have known it by its effects Aristotle who may be termed the Genius of Nature who loved her so passionately took such pains to study her and so carefully considered her hath guest at the cause of all the disorders which he observed in her workmanship He wonders that man cannot tame his passions that being victorious every where else he is conquered by himself and that the soul hath not strength nor dexterity to triumph over her body he cannot comprehend how the noblest workmanship of Nature should be a Monster that the senses should be unfaithfull and passions disobedient and that reason which is her light should be obfuscated with so many darknesses he cannot conceive that man being free should be a slave to so many masters that being furnisht w th knowledg he should be ingaged in errours and that being assisted by so many vertues he should be withstood by so many vices had he durst have condemned the Diety he would have found fault with the workmanship thereof wavering between Religion and impiety he admires what he knows not he suspects what he cannot discover he guesses at what he cannot finde and amidst these doubts he confesseth that there is some hidden cause which hath produced these disorders what could a Phylosopher say more who had only been instructed â—n the School of Nature what could a man imagine who never having been enlighted by the beams of Faith was equally ignorant of Adams innocency and guilt if he be ignorant of the name of concupiscence doth not he acknowledge the nature thereof and if he know not the cause of originall sin hath he not observed the effects thereof Cicero who is no less a Phylosopher in his Academick discourses then Orator in his Orations complains that Nature is mans Stepdame that she hath bin negligent in the Master-piece of her workmanship and that as envying his happiness shee hath given him a body exposed to the injury of the Aire to the malice of Maladies and to the Insolencies of Fortune that shee hath lodged an unhappy soule over-born with pains abashed by fear faint in labour and unruly in her delights in so frail a body which hath made Saint Augustine confess that this great Phylosopher had the Cognizance of sin though he knew not its name and that he acknowledged the effects of a Cause which he could not discover Thus reason without faith seems to have found out originall sin And Phylosophy which makes Nature a Diety hath been enforced to accuse the disorderliness thereof and to impute unto her the faults whereof the first man was Author Seneca in whose person was united the pride of a Stoick and vain-glory of a Spaniard and who confesseth no weakness save such as he can neither excuse nor conceal after having pleaded in the behalf of Nature is obliged to forsake her he acknowledgeth in a thousand parts of his Writings that sin is naturall unto us and that Phylosophy is not sufficient to save us from a Monster which constitutes a part of ourselves I know that he varies in his opinions that Pride makes him revoke such Confessions as truth hath extorted from out of his mouth and pen that he complains that we live not as we were born that we do not preserve those advantages that Nature hath given us and that seduced by errour or corrupted by example We commmit errours which she detests but he quickly alters his minde and being prest by his own conscience hee avows that vertue is a stranger vice naturall to us hee confesseth that the first men were not more innocent then we save only in that they were more ignorant that they had not as yet opened the bowels of the earth to enrich themselves with her spoyls nor kill'd beasts to satisfie their appetites but that they even then had the principles of all these crimes in their souls and that there is great difference between a man who hath not the knowledge of evill and him who hath not a desire thereunto Had this Phylosopher read our Histories and had hee learnt from Moses what past in the beginning of the World he had plainly seen that vice comes not by degrees as doth vertue and that corrupted Nature is a Mistris good enough to teach us what is ill in giving us life Murther was Cain's Aprentisage and the Impieties which wee detest have dishonoured the first ages as well as they do ours since man was irregular he became capable of all vice and since hee lost Originall Justice hee is faln into all sort of disorders We polish sins we invent them not we commit them with more pompe not with more wickedness we only add ornament thereunto And in a word wee are not more faulty then our fore-fathers but more industrious In fine if it be lawfull to make use of Fables to strengthen Truth and to beat down lies by Poets who are the Authors thereof I see not a better draught of a man born in sin then that which is represented to us by the Tragoedian in his Thebais For Oedipus recounting the Story of his Misfortunes complains that his death preceded his birth that his sin preceded his reason that nature feared him before she had brought him into the world that by a strange prodigie he had committed sins before he knew what sin was that the Heavens whose decrees are so just had declared him criminall before he was indued with reason and that his father being a servant to divine justice had punisht him as soon as
framed a method to acquire Vertue and proposing no other helps to their Disciples then Reason and Liberty they upheld them in their Vain glory and did not assist them in their Weaknesse These two Idols seemed powerfull enough to overcome all their Enemies and not knowing that Reason was Blind and Liberty a Captive they impudently affirmed that there were no Inclinations so Bad nor Habits so Obstinate as might not be overcome by this weak assistance they boasted that their felicity depended upon their Owne proper Power that they might be happy in Despight of Heaven and that though their happinesse were not of so long Durance yet was it of the same Tranquillity as that of God Amongst so many Impieties and Blasphemies which Pride extorted from out their mouthes they 〈◊〉 not sometime to betray their owne cause and publquely to acknowledge their owne Misery For Nature which cannot lye long made them find her disorders and forced them to confesse that Faults were learnt without Teachers that we are Borne out of Order and that wee have much Stronger inclinations to Vice then to Vertue Their Sect was borne down when the Pelagians raised up their heresie upon its ruines and when undertaking to defend Corrupted Nature they declared warre against the Grace of Iesus Christ they made all our Disorders to passe for Natural Effects they laught at Originall Sin and maintained that Man had no Other offâ—nces then what he committed by his Own proper Will they thought all our Bad inclinatâ—ons sufficiently recompenced by Liberty and confiding strangely in their Owne Strength they would not be beholden to Grace to withstand Vice nor to defend Vertue Though St. Austin by his Learning and Humility hath triumphed over this proud and learned heresie yet hath it out-lived that defeat and found partakers after his Death we run into the errours thereof at unawares we speak the Language of the Pelagians not having their Beliefe and attributing more to Liberty or Free-will then to Grace we will be Our Selves the Authors of our Salvation To remedy this evill which appears much more in our Actions then in our Words I thought it became me to represent the deplorable Condition whereinto Sinne had reduced Nature and to make it evident in this worke that there is no faculty of our Soules nor part of our Bodies which is not out of order The profit will not be small if we can tell how to husband it well for to bâ—ot that our Misery will cause confusion in us by reason of our Sinne and make us abborre it 't will lessen the haughty Confidence which we have in our Free-will and make us acknowledge the Need we have to be assisted by Crace the being sensible of our Malady will be a Disposition to our Cure and the weight of our Irons may serve to heighten our Saviours Merits The high opinion we have of our Owne strength is injurious to His Glory and those good inclinations of Nature which we call Seeds of Vertue doe not seem to lessen Adams sin save so farre as to set a greater value upon the Grace of Iesus Christ but the perfect knowledge of our Misery cannot but produce good effâ—cts and when we shall be fully perswaded that we can doe nothing that is pleasing to God without his Son's help we will endeavour to obtain that assistance by our Prayers and to procure it by our Teares Following this designe I shall then make it appeare that there is an Originall sinne which is the fruitfull Spring-head of all our Misfortunes and penetrating to within the Soule of Man I will shew that her principall faculties retaine no longer their first Purity nor their ancâ—ent Vigour and that all the Vertues which are the Workmanship thereof are accompanied with so many Defâ—cts as that they doe not deserve the glorious Name which they beare From thence I shall descend to mans Body the Constitution and Miseries whereof I will examine Then quitting Man I shall consider all the Obiects which doe environ him and which may cause Love or Hatred in him And concluding finally by the Disorders which are in the World I will shew that the Parts wherof it is Composed have been out of Order only since Sinne I 'le prove that Deluges and Devastations by Fire are punishments which Divine Iustice hath invented to punish Guilty man withall and will make it clearly appeare as I hope that there were no Monsters nor Poysons in the State of Innocency I have in all this my worke endeavour'd to mingle Eloquence with Doctrine and knowing that I was to be accountable tâ— All the World I have sometimes suffer'd my thoughts to flie a Lower pitch that they might be the more intelligible I have been of opinion that Descriptions did not injure Argumentations and in writing like a Christian Philosopher I might bâ— permittâ—ed to play the Oratour If any man shall thinke me too Copious I am of His opinion but to boot that this fault wants neither Example nor Excuse I have striven to use no manner of Enlargement but what would bring with it some New Light to the Vnderstanding and which might serve for Ornament to the Truth if not for her Defence A Table of the severall Treaties and Discourses handled in this Book The first Treatise Of Originall Sin and the effects thereof Discourse 1 THat Faith acknowledgeth Originall sin That Nature hath a feeling thereof and that Philosophy suspects it Page 1 2 What the state of Man was before sin p 8 3 Of what kind the first sin which Adam committed was p. 12 4 How Adam sin did communicate it selfe to those that are descended from him p. 16 5 Of the nature of Concupiscence p. 20 6 The pursute of the same subject and divers descriptions of Concupiscence p. 26 7 That Selfe-love is nothing else but Concupiscence p. 28 8 That Concupiscence or Selfe-love divides it selfe into the love of Pleasure of Honour and of Knowledge p. 33 9 Wherefore Concupiscence remaines iâ— Man after Baptisme p. 38 10 That Gods Iustice hath permitted that man should be divided within himselfe for the punâ—shment of his sin p. 42 The second Treatise Of the corruption of the Soule by Sin Discourse 1 OF the Souls Excellencâ— and of the miseries which she hath contracted by sin p. 47 2 That the sonle is become a slave unto the body by reason of sin p. 55 3 Of the weaknesse which humane understanding hath contracted by sinne p. 61 4 That there is no error into which human understanding hath not plunged it selfe since the state of sin p. 68 5 That Reason in Man is become blinde and a slave since sin p. 77 6 That Memory hath lost her vigor by the meanes of sin and that she agrees not very well with Iudgement p. 80 7 That Concupiscence is neither a good Iudge nor faithfull witnesse since sin p. 86 8 Of the unrulinesse of the will and of its inclination to
unto us by as many Paradoxes as the instructions are which she giveth us And knowing that her words serves for laws unto her Children she is pleased to tell us that Adam's sin is ours That the miseries which we undergoe are the punishments of his disobedience That Divine Justice hath condemned us in Him That our misfortune and His sinne did precede our Birth And that contrary to all the Laws of Morality we be guilty before we are reasonable Faith perswades us to these Truths and without troubling our selves to seek Proofs to strengthen them we in all humility believe what we cannot evidently know But because Phylosophy is a Rebel to Faith and that she is more swayd by reason then by the Authority of the Church I will convince her by reason and make her confess that we could not be irregular if we were not guilty All Phylosophers confess That man is Composed of a body soul And that when Divine Providence did first forme him she mingled Beast with Angell and that she gathered Heaven and Earth together to finish her Noblest piece of workmanship If Passion have not prevail'd over reason in these great men they must confess that when God did this his Chiefest work he did so well accord the two Parts which went to the Composition thereof as that the body obey'd the soul the Angell comanded over the Beast They must acknowledge that God observ'd the same Order in the Composing of man as he did in the making of the world and that as he submitted the Earth to the Influences of the Heavens he did likewise assubject Passion to reason and the Appetite to the will And since they observe this decent order to be no longer kept they ought necessarily to infer that sin is the cause thereof And that man hath lost these advantages only because he hath not preserved his Innocency For what likelyhood is there that two Parts joyned together should not indure one another that they should mutually love and hate each other that the flesh should wage war with the soul which gives it life and that the soule should complain of the others insolency which serves her as an Officer or Abetter whence is it that our inclinations are out of Order before we have acquired any bad Habits that our faults precede evill examples that we know what evill is not having learned it and that the soul follows the inclinations of her body before she hath tasted the delights thereof whence is it that sin is naturall to us that in us it preceeds the use of reason that notwithstanding all its deformities it becomes pleasing and that vertue with all her comlinesse seem austere unto us Certainly he who shall conceive aright the reason thereof will be obliged either to blame Divine Providence or els to condemne the sinfulness of the first man who losing originall Justice deprived all his Children thereof And who making us inherit his disorders made us criminall before rationall The Morall Vertues which Phylosophers boast so much off doe authorize the beleife of originall sin For though they perswade themselves that man by the assistance thereof may overcome sin and that God did not Compose him of two rebellious Parts save only to increase his merit and to leave unto him the glory of finishing it yet the use of vertue doth sufficiently prove his irregularity and it is sufficient to acknowledge that he was born guilty since we know he is obliged to become vertuous For vertue is not a production of Nature but an invention of Art she is not infused but acquired and the Pains she causeth fully equall the Pleasures which she promiseth She presupposeth that man is out of order since she hath a design to reforme him and that he is sick since she endeavours to cure him All her exercises are so many Combats all her enemies are born in the very Place where she sets upon them and the industry she is forced to make use off to drive them thence doth sufficiently witness that they govern there before her in effect man is weak before he hath acquired fortitude he is foolish before wise and ere temperate unchast his vertues are proofs of his vices his last victories are signes of his former defeats and the succour which he is enforced to seek for from without himselfe is a witness of his disorder and weakness This it was that made St Augustine say that continency is as well a witness as an enemy of concupiscence that althose glorious habits which fight against our sins do manifest them If vertue make us suspect our misery the Creatures revolt makes us know our sinfulness and he who shall consider that man is in the world as in an enemies Country will have no great difficulty to judge that he is Criminall Reason unasisted by Faith is sufficient to make us Comprehend that man is the Image of God 〈◊〉 That he is his Lieutenant upon Earth That all Creatures owe him homage and that he ought to Reigne in the World either as a visible Angell or as a Mortall God The Place he beares in the Universe challengeth this Advantage and reason which raiseth him above Beasts gives him the Sovereignty over them since all things are made for his use all must be submitted to his will And since he must Reign with God in Heaven he must begin to Reign for him upon the Earth This notwithstanding all Creatures make war upon him they deal with him rather as with a Tyrant then Lawfull Sovereign They obey him not but by Force And it is easie to be seen That having lost the right that he had over them he cōands them now only by violence if he draw any service from beasts it s after having been either their Slave or their Tyrant If the earth be fruitfull it s after having been watered with his sweat and rent in peeces by the Plough If the Sea bear his vessels t is not without threatning them with shipwrack If Aire contribute to his respiration it suffers also corruptions whereby to forme contagions and sicknesses If the winde fils his sails it also raiseth Tempests and drownes his vessels If fire serve him in all his Arts it mingles it self with Thunder and taketh revenge for all the Injuries it hath received from him This generall insurrection is a token and punishment of his offence had he preserved his integrity he had never lost his Authority and had he not falne from his innocency he had never forgon his Throne Phylosophy as haughty as she is cannot deny but that man is the prey of wild beasts and the victime of their fury that he is exposed to the rigour of the Aire and to the unseasonableness of the weather she must confess that he hath no subject which is not rebellious that there is no place within his Territories which is not his enemy and there is no part of his body which is not either
his mother had brought him into the world After this crowd of reasons and authorities I know not what can be said against the belief of originall sin who can deny an evill of whose effects all men have a fellow-feeling Since all Phylosophers before they knew what name to give it knew the nature thereof and all the complaints they have made of our miseries in their Writings are so many testimonies born by them to the truth of our Religion The second Discourse What the state of man was before Sinne. THough there be nothing more opposite to the state of sin then the state of innocency there is not any thing notwithstanding which better discovers unto us the disorders thereof and it seems to be a true looking glasse wherein we may see all the other deformities To know the greatnesse of mans miserie wee must know the height of his happinesse and to know with what weight he fel we must know the height of his dignity Man was created with originall righteousnesse his Divineâ— Quality made a part of his being and seemed to be the last of his differences Reason and Grace were not as yet divided and man finding his perfection in their good Intelligence was at once both Innocent and rationall Since sin hath bereâ—t him of this priviledge he seems to be but half himself though he hath not changed Nature he hath changed condition though he be yet free he hath lesse power in his own person then in the world And when he compares himself with himself hardly can he know himself In the state of innocency nothing was wanting to his perfection nor felicity and whilst he preserved originall righteousness he might boast to have possessed the spring-head of all that was good T was this that united him to God and which submitting him to his Creator submitted all Creatures unto him t was this that accorded the soul with the body and which pacifying the differences which Nature hath plac'd between two such contrary parties made them find their happinesse in agrement this it was in fine which displaying certain beams of light about his Countenance kept wild beasts in obedience and respect In this happy condition man was only for God he found his happinesse in his duty he obeyed with delight and as Grace made up the perfection of his being it was not much lesse naturall for him to love God then to love himself he did both these Actions by one and the same Principle The love of himself differed not from the love of God and the operations of Nature and of Grace were so happily intermingled that in satisfying his Necessities he acquitted himself of his duty and did as many holy Actions as naturall and rationall ones He sought God and found him in all things much more happy then wee he was not bound to seperate himself from himself that he might unite himself to his Creator Godlinesse was practised without pain Vertue was exercised without violence and that which costs us now so much trouble cost him nothing but desires there needed no combates to carry away victory nor was there any need to call in vertue to keepe passions within their limits Obedience was easie to them nor is Rebellion so naturall unto them now as was then submission This Grace which bound the soule unto the body with bonds as strong as pleasing united the senses to the Spirit and assubjected the passions to reason Morality was a Naturall science or if it were infused t was togetther with the soul and every one would have been eased of the Pain of acquiring it all men were born wise Nature would have served them for a Mistris and they would have been so knowing even from their births as they would not have needed either Counsell or Instruction Originall righteousnesse govern'd their understanding guided their wills enriched their memories and after having done such wonders in their souls it wrought as many Prodigies in their bodies for it accorded the elements whereof they were Composed it hindred the waters from undertaking any thing against the fire tempered their qualities appeased their differences and did so firmly unite them as nothing could sever them Man knew only the name of death and he had this of comfort that he knew it was the Punishment of a fault from which if he would he might defend himself All nourishments were to pure that there was nothing superfluous in them Naturall heat was so vigorous as it converted all into the substance of the body was in all other respects so temperate as it was not prejudiciall to the radicall moisture Man felt nothing incommodious Prudence was so familiar to him as he prevented hunger and Thirst before they could cause him any trouble in his person and in his State he enjoyed a peacefull quiet and he was upon good Terms with himself and with his subjects because he was the like with his Sovereign he waited for his reward without anxiety and grounding himself upon the truth of his Creators promises he hoped for happinesse without disquiet Death was not the way to life there needed no descending to the earth to mount up to the heavens the soul fore-went not the body to enjoy her God and these two parts never having had any variance were joyntly to tast the same felicity But when the Devill had cozened the woman and that the woman had seduced the man he fell from this happy condition and losing Grace which caused all his good he fell into the depth ofall evills He received a wound which hecould never yet be cured of he saw himself bereft of his best part and could not conceive how being no longer righteous he continued to be rationall and left us in doubt whether he was yet man being no longer Innocent His Illuminations forsooke him together with Grace self-love came in the place of Charity He who before sought nothing but God began now to seek himself And he who grounded his happinesse upon his obedience would build his felicity upon Rebellion as soon as his soul rebell'd against God his body rebell'd against his soul these two parts changed their love to hatred and those who lived in so tranquill a peace declared open war one against another the senses which were guided by the understanding favoured the bodies revolt and the passions which were subject to reason contemned her Empire to inslave themselves to the Tyranny of Opinion If man were divided in his person he was not more fortunate in his condition wherein he underwent a Generall Rebellion the Beasts lost their respects they all became Savage and violence or Art is required to the taming of some of them the Elements began to mutiny following their own inclinations they broke the peace which they had sworn unto in behalf of man whilst Innocent the Seasons grew unseasonable to hasten the death of man grown guilty the very heavens alter'd their Influences and losing their
their maladies may become ours but being bound by faith to believe that the soul is the workmanship of God that she is not drawn from forth the matter of the body though she be inclosed therein and that she is a pure spirit though she doth inanimate her body It is almost impossible to make us discerne how shee becomes criminall when she is thereinto infused she is altogether pure whilst in her Authors hands and she becomes not guilty till she becomes the bodies forme I very well know that she is infused as soon as created and that the same hand which hath extracted her out of nothing hath bound and fastened her to the body but I know not why the father who contributes nothing to her production should contribute to her pollution and wherefore since he gives not life unto her hee should make her inherit his sin Divines are much perplexed with this difficulty and touching the resolution thereof Saint Austin hath oft-times doubted whether the soul were not produced by generation as wel as the body all his reasons seem to be grounded upon this belief he wil have it that the body doth infect the soul and generation is as it were the channell of sin which hath corrupted us He grounds three principles which do produce three severall effects in man God which hath created him his father who hath begot him and sin which hath sullyed him The soul was from God the body proceeds from the begetting Father and the impurity derives from sin he admirably describes the Nature of concupiscence and he is never more learned nor more eloquent then when he sets forth what havock she hath made in our souls he teacheth us that every sin is a particuler concupiscence and that instructed by our own Misery we call Avarice the concupiscence of riches Pride the concupiscence of glory and unchastity the concupiscence of voluptuousnesse he concludes by convincing reasons and which receive no reply that it was necessary that man being guilty should beget sinfull Children and that it was not just that the Children should be more innocent then their Fathers he perswades us effectually that Christians not being regenerate but by the spirit cannot communicate grace to those that descend from them by the way of generation which rests yet in Impurity but truly he doth not sufficiently prove that the soul should become guilty for being engaged in the body nor that to make up one Composition with it she should contract a sin whereof she her self is not capable for though concupiscence reign in the body to speak properly it is not a sin till it pass into the soul Irregularity is the matter thereof but her aversion from God is her Forme and it is impossible to Comprehend that the soul for being infused into a wretched body should become Criminall whence then proceeds this Originall sin by what waies doth it slide into our souls by what Channels doth it shed it self into the handy work of God and how comes it that the Chief workmanship of his hands becomes guilty assoon it is engaged in the body Theologie hath been forced to Imagine a secret Treaty between God and Adam by the which God having made Adam head of all men he had given him grace for all his Posterity and that by the same law that all his Children should share in his sin that this Treaty whereby Gods Justice is not injured discovers unto us the greatnesse of his Sovereignty that it is not strange a Prince should put into the hands of his Subjects the fate of all them that should descend from them that in all the best regulated States the Children share in their Parents evils that receiving the glory of all their best Actions they should likewise pertake of the Pain and Infamy of their offences that so the privation of Grace in men is the punishment of Adams fault that by a necessary consequence the aversion of our will derives from the losse of Innocency Some building upon some Passages in S. Paul would perswade us that all men were included in Adam that there will was united to his that his fault was their sin and that therefore there was no inconvenience that those that lived in him should share in his guilt some others differing but a little from the former have represented us with two universall men whereof one is the 〈◊〉 of sin the other of Grace We are united to the former by Generation and become sinners like him by regeneration we are fastned to the other and become just as he is Thus sin disperseth it selfe as well as Grace unrighteousness is communicated as well as Innocency and we contract sin without a wil thereunto as we receive grace in Baptisme without deserving it All these opinions which I embrace and honour doth sufficiently explain how Adams sin is ours but they do not cleerly enough declare how we do contract it they teach us that we are sinners but do not discover unto us by what means we become so wherefore re-assuming Saint Augustines Principles me thinks a man may say that Adams sin is the sin of all men that that which was voluntary in him is naturall in them that it passeth from the father to those that descend from him as Maladies do which are hereditary in Families or as the Ethiopians which is seen in his Childrens faces To Comprehend this truth it is not necessary to Imagine a Treaty between God and Adam whereby the fathers fault and Punishment becomes the sons but it sufficeth to know that being faln from the State of Innocency and having lost originall righteousnesse he cannot longer transmit it into his Progeny that by necessary consequence he makes them share in a Malady which he could not cure himself of and that he communicates his sin unto them in communicating his concupiscence T is enough for them to be guilty that they are descended from him and without seeking for causes further off it sufficeth to prove their guilt that they are a part of him t would be a Prodigie if a sinfull Father should beget Children void of sin and we were to wonder if nature not being re-establisht in her former Purity her productions should not be Corrupt The difficulty is to know how the soul which issues pure and spotlesse from out the hands of God contracts sin when she is infused into the body To this I answer that her streight union with the body is one cause of her fin that she sullyes her self by Informing it that she receives death by giving it life that wanting original righteousnesse whereby to preserve her self from the contagion occasioned by the first mans sin she is no sooner made companion to the body but she becomes Criminall Thus is she unpleasing to God because she is not in Grace with him she is not in Grace with him because Adam hath lost Gods grace both for himself and his Children and she is
sinfull because the father which unites her to the flesh as a secondary cause Communicates unto her his disorder not giving her a remedy for it powers his poyson into her and doth not present her with an Antidote makes her Inherit Adams sin and doth Communicate unto her the Grace of Jesus Christ. This it is which Saint Augustine insinuates unto us in other Termes when he says that the Contagion of the body passeth into the soul that the close Cōmerce that is between them makes their miseries cōmon between them and that without extraordinary helps an Innocent soul cannot be lodg'd in a guilty body the purest Liquours are tainted in musty vessels corrupted Air poysons those who breath therein and infected houses give the Plague to those that live in them Thus doth concupiscence glide from the body into the soul and this wicked Host gives death to her that gives him life If these reasons do not content the reader let him know that I glory to be ignorant of what Saint Augustine understood not that I should shew my self too rash if I should think to give an entire light to the obscurest part of Divinity and that I should be unfaithfull if I should pretend to make a truth evident by reason which is only known by Faith The fifth Discourse Of the Nature of Concupiscence CHristian Religion may truly boast that all her Maxims are Paradoxes which agreeing with truth give against humane reason for she proposeth nothing which is not as strange as true and which causeth not as much astonishment as light in the soul he who would prove this truth must make an Induction of all our Mysteries and represent all the wonders which she comprehends but without straying from my subject it will suffice to say that Originall sin is one of her strangest Paradoxes and that if much of reason be required to prove it no less of faith is requisite to believe it for what more prodigious is there then that the sin of one man should be the sin of all men that a Fathers Rebellion should ingage all his Children in disobedience that his malody should be Contagious that he should be the murtherer of all men before he be their Father and that unfortunately he be the cause of their death many ages before they be born Thus is this misfortune more generall then the deluge which drowned the world more universall then the fire which shall consume it and War and Pestilence which doth so easily enlarge themselves are not so Contagious Evills as is this sin If it be wonderfull by reason of it's Effusion it is no less miraculous through it's other qualities for we are taught by Divinity that it is voluntary in the Father and naturall in the Children that that which was only a fault in Adam is both a sin and a punishment in those that descend from him that we contract by birth what he willingly committed and that that which was free in it's beginning should become necessary in the progress thereof He might have kept from disobedience And we can neither shun the punishment nor the fault we are surprized by this misfortune in our Conception we are slaves before we have the use of Liberty and we have already offended God before we knew him we are rather the objects of his anger then of his mercy but that which is more deplorable we are so corrupted from the moment of our Birth as that we oppose our selves to his will If he favour us in our Baptisme the first use we make of Reason is for the most part engaged in Errour we follow the Inclinations of our first father and his sin makes such powerfull Impressions upon our souls as we sin in our first thoughts we for the most part make use of our liberty only to estrange our selves from God we have a secret opposition to his ordinance we are so inclosed within our selves as we can love nothing but for our own interests which is the Rule of our actions and we neither love nor desire any thing save what is either usefull or pleasing to us Such is the corruption of our nature as there is almost nothing in it which is not repugnant to the laws of God It is so misled by sin as all the Inclinations thereof are perverted In this unfortunate Condition man can neither know nor doe good he is inslaved not having so much as the desire of Liberty though he groan under the weight of his Irons he is affraid of being freed from them and though his Imprisonment be painfull yet is not he weary thereof he delights in doing evill and findes difficulty to do what is good the great inclination he hath to sin doth not excuse his offence And he ceaseth not to be guilty though he cannot shun sin in generall to fill up the measure of so many Evils he is blind and insensible he sees not the Evils that environ and threaten him he is full of wounds and hath no feeling of them believing himself to be whole he seeks not for help through proud blindness he despiseth the Physician that would restore him to health Every man that comes into this world is in this miserable q condition and we are guilty of all these Crimes And charged with all these punishments before we be regenerated in Baptisme after this Sacrament we become Innocent but cease not to be miserable sin forsakes us but punishment waits upon us and though we be no more guilty we are notwithstanding out of order our Fathers sin forgoes us but Concupiscence remains This monster is not much lesse savage then is the Cause which produced it It follows the Inclinations thereof and if it be not altogether so wicked it is at least full out as irregular it is much more opinionated then the father that begot it our life is to short to cut it off it 's an enemy not to be overcome wounds give it new life it gathers strength by skars and it must cost us our life to be the death thereof Our first Divines which were the Apostles have given it the very name of sin and as if t were more fatall then it's Father they term it the strength and law thereof it is not content to perswade us to the Crime but endeavours to enforce us thereunto it mingles force with perswasion and when it thinks the way by solicitation to be to mild it hath Recourse to violence and Tyranny it grows the more furious by opposition it 's stomack is set on edge by Inhibition it never becomes more insolent then when Laws are prescribed unto it To Expresse the Nature thereof to the life we must represent a Tyrant who being born of sin will enlarge his Fathers Empire make al mankind his slaves it establisheth it's throne in our souls darkens our understanding infuseth wickednesse into our wils and fils our memories with the remembrance of all unjust acts It abuseth all
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
she willingly embraceth whatsoever is pleasing unto her she ads voluntary sins to sins of Nature and will have that of her faults some be the effects of her misfortune and others of her lewdness In fine it seems that those that follow her motions endevour to exceed the sin of their birth by the sins of their life and as if they thought it an offence to be more innocent then their Father they strive to be more faulty then hee who committed all the sins in the world when he made all that descended from him Criminall The second Discourse That the soul is become slave unto the body by reason of sin THough the soul be the noblest part of man yet is she not void of fault and for any excessive praise that Prophane Phylosophy may give her she hath naturall weaknesses which do accompany her even in Innocency Adams soul was engaged in his body and in her Noblest operations she needed the Organes thereof to expresse her thoughts or execute her designs though she were pleased with this dependancy she ceased not to be servile and whosoever should reduce an Angel to this condition should take from him his glory and his liberty she could not quit her body to go to Heaven whethersoever her love did carry her she must carry her host with her and rather then to forego this pleasing Prison she did prorogue the accomplishment of her desire Ignorance was in some sort naturall unto her and though knowledge was infused into the soul of Adam together with Grace we are not sure that he could have transmitted it unto his off-spring had not the way of learning it been painfull it would have at least been tedious and if labour had not been requisite time would at least have been required to the acquiring thereof though the Organes of the body had been well disposed there would have been a difference in their temper and all souls would not have had the same advantages of Grace which was their last perfection would never have raised them into the rank of Angels and whatsoever communication men might have had with those happy spirits they could never have arrived at their Hierarchy Though we are hereby taught that the soul had her weaknesses in the state of Innocency yet being Naturall they were not painful and though they were faults yet were they not punishments for in this condition man knew nothing which pained him he was satisfied with his Advantages and was not lesse happy though no Angell his nature being the meer work of God had no defaults that which seem'd humble ceased not to be glorious and the tye which the soul had to the body was not a servitude though a necessity she was well pleased with her abode and though she were of a more elevated Condition then was her body the service she had from thence made her love her Quarter the Chains wherewith they were united were so strong as nothing but sin could breake them their Inclinations in the difference of their Nature were so conformable as whatsoever pleased the one did not dislike the other the body by an admirable prodigie heighthned it's self into the souls Employments without violence and the soul deigned to submit her self to the necessities of the body without injury to her self she found no difficulty in all she did and if the body were not serviceable to her in her more noble works yet did it not resist her therein their contentments were Common and as the soul was not subject to sorrow neither did the body feel any pain This happy Condition lasted no longer then the time of Innocency when man once lost his righteousnesse he lost his happinesse and when he became Criminall he became miserable the soul went less in her greatnesses and this living Image of the Divine Essence saw her self brought to such misery as may better be exprest by tears then words nothing remain'd intire in man and the outrages of sin dispersed themselves into all the parts of the body the understanding was darkned the memory weakned and the will depraved In all the faculties of the soul the soul received some prejudice in her very Essence and evill found her out in such a condition wherein as being Forma corporis she was engaged in the Materia thereof for since her offence she her self as it were obliged to love a cruell Tyrant to bear with an irreconcileable Enemy to serve a rebellious slave and to make up all her misfortunes reduced to that necessity as she is not able without sorrow to forego the Cause of all her disasters To conceive her corruption we must of necessity comprehend her purity and observe the Effects which Originall righteousnesse wrought in the soul the first was that notwithstanding her being engaged in a body she ceased not to be spirituall her Functions made her not Animale and though united to the body by Grace yet was she not thereby a Prisoner she communicated her perfections to it and shared not in it's defects she was free though bound her body was her Temple not her Prison and the love she bore unto it did not injure her liberty but as soon as sin had insinuated it self into the ground work of her Essence she changed condition the chain of love which tyed her to her body was turned to a servile ord which bound her to her slave her charity was turned into self-love she forgot her greatnesse and that she might interest her self in all the desires of her body she lost all the qualities of her spirit sensible things became her diversions she delighted in nothing but the voluptuousnesse of the senses if she had changed nature by changing condition she ccased to love the Summum Bonum and began to idolize her body she fore-went her noble desires for such as were infamous and confining all her wishes either to the affairs or pleasures of her body she loved nothing but what was earthly and sensible They say that in the state of glory the bodies of the blessed will become spirituall and that losing all the feelings of their Materia they shall only have the inclinations of the spirit that they shall follow their soul without trouble and by an unconceiveable agility they shall fly faster then the winds or lightening that they shall pierce the most solid things and that being more subtill then flames of fire they shall penetrate even the substance of the Heavens they shall shine with glory and being more radiant then the Sun they shall fill all parts with light but in the state of sin the soul assumed the qualities of the body her love engaged her further in the Materia then Nature had done she made her Prison more streight and more obscure she lost the lights she was infused withall that she might see no longer but through the senses and her Compliance with her slave did so alter her Inclinations as reflecting upon her self she had much ado
strangers to him and that nought ought to be esteemed in man save what one cannot give him the riches which he possesseth are not his the beauty of his Palaces great revenues number of his slaves or vassals and the glory of his Apparell are advantages which he may lose when fortune shall cease to favour him To know his happinesse he must know his desert and to know if he be fortunate he must inquire whether he be rationall or no reason is the most ancient and most illustrious of all his Qualities he cannot lose it without changing Nature and if he do not preserve this priviledge there is no creature in the world which is not richer then he for if he think to ground his happiness either one strength or courage there is neither Tyger nor Lion which will not dispute the business with him if he will boast of his height Trees are higher and much more streight and if he glory in his beauty I know not whether Peacocks in the glory of their Plumes will give way to him or no if he take Pride in his voice he will be enforced to confesse that Dogs have it more shrill then he Bulls more strong Nightingales more sweet and pleasing If he boast of his Activity Horses and Harts wil shame him and unlesse he place his greatness in his reason he must confess that Nature hath not dealt so favourably with him as with beasts Indeed it is Mans Glory and chiefest difference t is that which gives him the Command over all Creatures and which makes him be the Image of God and if a body would know his greatness we must not ask whether he be Lord of large Territories whether he command over many People whether he distributes justice in a Throne of Gold whether he lye in a bed of Ivory or whether or no he drink in a glass of Christall but whether his reason be not a slave to his Passions and whether or no his noblest part hath preserved its authority this weak reasoning hath prevailed so far with men as that there are many in Christendome which love much better to be reasonable then faithfull and who take more care to inform their judgments then their belief they content themselves with the name of Phylosophers not pretending to the quality of Christians and so long as they as-subject the body to the soul they do not greatly care whether they submit their soul to God or no. Notwwithstanding all this reason wants not her weaknesses being blind she needs a guide and to the end that she wander not out of the way she must be led by Faith sin put out her eys when she became slave thereunto if she stumble upon the Truths t is by hap-hazard and she ought rather to praise her Fortune for it then her fore-sight This Enemy took from her both her Light and Strength together she gives way to the weakest on-sets the least resistance astonisheth her and as soon as the Passions or senses give against her designs shee changeth them as much out of weaknesse as Complacency servitâ—de insues her defeat for when she hath once given way to the violence of Passions these Rebels grow upon her and take her weaknesses for a sign of their Power Factioâ—s People being for the most part insolent these force their Sovereign to defend their side they make use of their Credit to authorize their revolt and abuse even the name of reason thereby to destroy her Empire This is a prevailing Mischief in most men who in their greatest undertakings consult only with their one inclinations They act either through ambition or love their motive is eiâ—her Pleasure or Glory and the Passion which possesseth them is always the Primum Mobile which hurries about all the faculties of their soul. Reason hath no other employment then to seek out pretences to excuse their designs and this Sovereign is reduced to the necessity of favouring the disorders of these her â—ebellious slaves if she sometimes defend her self against ambition or love t is that she may be overcome by Grief by an erronious piece of Prudence she foresees her mischief before it happen and by an angersome remembrance she afflicts her self when it is gone One and the same evill make her three times miserable and she employes all the differences of times to increase her dislikes she dreads them before their birth rescents them during their life and remembers them when they are dead for experience teacheth us that reason which ought to appease our evils doth irritate them and that after having well discust the matter we are forced to have recourse to ignorant mens remedie and to cure that with time which we could not cure by Phylosophy She is not much more lucky in the guidance of our actions then in the curing of our Maladies for though she boast her self to be the soul of Policy and to furnish Morality with all those brave Maximes which makes Families fortunate she is so little equall as what she approves of in one countrey she condemns in another Laws which are the meer work of reason differ more then Climates What is permitted in Affrica is forbidden in Europe what is accounted a vertue in France is a vice in Germany Every Nation hath it's severall Customes and oft times in the same State and under the same King every Province hath it's peculiar Fashions Reason puts her self into a hundred severall shapes to defend them and when shee confers them together shee doth like those wicked Judges who make both Parties hope for Profit in the cause that they may prolong their processe she is ingenuous enough to make doubts but not wise enough to resolve and after having examined all opinions she is obliged to forsake the Phylosophers Part and to embrace the opinion of the Pyrrhonians What esteem can one put upon so fickle a Mistris what belief can one have of so unconstant a Sovereign which fits her self to the honour of her subjects which changeth with the Climates which sides with the Heavens that cover her and with the earth which bears her what likely-hood is there of being guided by her advice since she hath none that is setled and since that she is so inconstant in her resolutions as the last do always like her best To boot that this good is so frail and that sin hath brought it into such a condition as we seem to enjoy but the appearance thereof rather then the thing it self there are moreover a thousand other accidents which may bereave us of it for of as many things as we have in our disposall there is not any one that we oftner lose then reason Our Infancy inhibits us the use thereof during our first years We are Masters of this Treasure but cannot make use of it this Sun is so weak at it's first rising as it cannot disperse abroad it's beams this fountain is so small in it's spring head as it cannot
Truth represents the lives of great ones without falshood and as it doth not excuse their vices neither doth it flatter their vertues it is a much better judge of their actions then the present time it is not abused by fear nor hope it freely instructeth us and as long as it can fence it self against forgetfulnesse we may build upon it's fidelity Though these great advantages of memory deserve rather Panygericks then reproach yet hath she faults enough and a man need be no great Divine to observe what ill offices originall sin hath done her for to boot that shee is extream weak that age doth diminish her that the best things escape her that she is dazled with those that glitter most she is oft times of so little efficacy as the more she labours the lesse progresse she maketh She is imbroiled when prest with too much hast she must be alowed time respite to find what she looks for the desire she hath to give us satisfaction troubles her and she fals into a confusion of which nothing but rest can acquit her Time which doth instruct her makes her ignorant that which heapeth up all Treasures dissipates them and raiseth up an enemy against her against whom she hath much ado to defend her self For forgetfulnesse reigns in it's Empire it effaceth those species which do enrich her puts her whole State in disorder and as an insolent Conqueror slights all the Towns that she hath taken and leaves no mark thereof to her Posterity this victorious enemy overthrows all the works of the understanding and leaves no foot-steps thereof in memory we are left nothing but sorrow for not having reteined what we had gotten and the being fallen into a misery which is so much more grievous for that it succedeth so happie a fortune yet nothing is more naturall to memory then forgetfulness she learneth sciences with difficulty preserves them with care and easily forgets them she grows rusty when un-exercised and weary if two much exercised Labour and Idlenesse do corrupt her and one knows not what art to make use of to entertain any thing of so nice a Nature Ignorance and sin were born at the same time as soon as the one made himself Master of the will the other seized one the understanding and if mans first sin were disobedience Ignorance was his first Punishment this Malady was not without remedy and knowledge would have made us amends for all our damages had not forgetfulnesse assisted Ignorance But to what purpose do we spend whole nights at our studies to what end do we gather up the opinions of Phylosophers and observe all the delightfull varieties of History since this monster renders our labours uselesse since it dissipates the Treasures which we had gathered reduceth old men to the condition of Children and ads the shame of ignorance to the other miseries of their age they dare not offer at any thing for fear of being mistaken they forget the names of their Domesticks this faithlesse Companion puts a thousand affronts upon them if they engage themselves in a long discourse they lose thēselves If they wil relate their Travels they cannot cal to mind the names of Town or Rivers when they have most to discourse of they are inforced to be silent the Step-mother Nature takes delight in lessening their memory when she perfecteth their judgment and takes from them the remembrance of what is past when she gives them a fore-sight into things to come Man seems to be become a Monster since he became Criminall the parts whereof he is Composed cannot accord together and the advantages which ought to make him perfect destroy each other the body and the soul suffer a division which last as long as doth their life the understanding and the senses have always some difference to determine Reason and the Passions do never hold so good Intelligence but that one may perceive in their profoundest Peace some Face of War I confesse the Domestick discentions are angersome and that man is a miserable Creature since he cannot live in Peace he neverthelesse takes it patiently when he considers that these parties are of a different Nature and he wonders not that they be not upon good terms since the one are common to us with beasts the other common to us with Angels but he hath reason to complain when he considers this rent passeth even into his soul that her her faculties are at variance and that the solidity of judgment cannot agree with the fidelity of memory these two advantages are incompatible and nature must do a miracle to joyn them perfectly well together in one and the same person she inricheth memory at the cost of judgment she restores to judgment what she takes from memory and leaves man the displeasure of knowing that there are perfections of the mind which he cannot equally enjoy Who would believe that God would have left that blemish in his workmanship had he not been thereunto obliged by our offences who can perswade himself that he would have envied us these Qualities if our fault had not deserved such a punishment and who will not confesse that in the state of innocency Memory and judgment were at peace together thereby to make man perfect To so many reasons which necessarily conclude our soulss corruption must be added that Memory is never more faithfull to will then when she puts it in mind of injuries she easily forgets all the favours which she hath received she is ashamed to remember them banisheth the thought thereof as a reproach of indigencie but she ingraves injuries in indelable characters she renews thē every day lest they be forgotten and she is never more happy then when shee is offended there hath been means found out to strenghthen the weak nesse of memory there is an Art taught how to keep her from going astray or being mistaken Invention supplies the Temper and we obtein that by labour or industry which Nature hath refused us but there is no secret yet found to make us forget injuries the remembrance thereof is everlasting and though our Religion promise Heaven to those that do forgive so high a reward cannot efface out of their minds the resentment of an affront In fine memory is so corrupted by sin as it is only usefull as far as it may be hurtfull to us She is busied about present things and cannot think upon futurity she represents unto us all earthly vanities under such pleasing forms as do seduce us and paint out unto us the joys of Heaven so wretchedly as it is easily seen she hath no design to make us wish for them she is never more languishing then when she labours in the behalf of vertue nor more vigorous then when imployed about vice If she strive to out-do her self tis in things of no use her chiefest works serves but to amuse us and as Tumblers delight people by their tricks of activity and
which must give her heat revenge which must provoke her and vain glory which must in-animate her since 't is not Faith that doth assist her All these passions mixt together make up the greatest part of her greatnesse and when one shall examine her intentions or motives he shall finde that her noblest exploits are but magnificall sins All those men who in ancient times have been esteemed couragious have contemned onely pain to purchase Glory they have given their life for a little smoak and in so unjust a battering have sufficiently shewn that their Fortitude was not reall since she wanted Justice and wisdome In effect their most glorious Actions have their defaults their valour is nothing but despair and all that the Roman Eloquence calls courage is but Pusillanimity Certainly Cato was the wise man of Rome he held there the same Rank which Socrates did amongst the Athenians his death goes for the chiefest testimony of his courage and Historians never speak thereof without highly praising it he had fruitlesly endeavoured to appease the Civill Wars he sided which the Common-wealth whilest every one took part either with Caesar or Pompey he remained free whilest every one had chosen a Master he assisted the dying Common-wealth with his counsell and his weapons he opposed his courage to Fortune and if this blinde hus-wife could have seen his merit she would have been inamored thereof After having given all these Testmonies of his affection to his Country what lesse could he do then secure his own Liberty by his death and dip that Innocent sword in his bloud which the civil wars could not defile he therefore considerately prepares himself for this blow he dissembles his design to couzen his friends he spent the night either in reading or taking rest he encourageth himself to die by the thought of Immortality when he was well perswaded he would go see what he had beleeved and by a generous blow free his soul from the prison of her body his hand did not serve his courage faithfully his Friends who came into his succour bound up his wounds and endeavoured to alter his designe he seemed to approve of their reasons so to free himself from their Importunities but when he was alone he tore off his apparel opened his wounds and ended that with his hands which he had begun with his sword Fortune would prolong his death to try his constancie and this Tragedy seemed so pleasing to him as he endeavoured to spin it out that he might the longer taste the pleasure thereof Seneca complaines that Eloquence is not happy enough to make Panegyrickes upon this death He prefers it before all the battels of Conquerours he calls all the Gods to witnesse it he leaves us in doubt whether Cato be not more Glorious then his Iupiter he is troubled that his age knew him not Complains that the Common wealth which should have raised him above Caesar and Pompey hath placed him beneath Vatimus and Clodius and to erect a stately Trophye to this vanquisher of fear and Death he sayes that Cato and Liberty died both on a day and were buried in one and the same Tombe Yet a man need not to be much enlightened to observe the defaults of a so well disguised death for if Cato be to be praised for having killed himself all those that did survive him deserve to be blamed 'T was weaknesse in Cicero to have recourse to Caesars clemencie 't was either Folly or Fearfulnesse in him not to despair of the Republiques well-fare and yet to reserve himself to raise her up after her Fall But not to make use of so weak a reason to condemn him who sees not that pride had a greater share in this Action than Courage Who does not think that Cato was prouder than Caesar and that it was not integrity but want of Courage which put the Poneyard in his hand Who knows not that it was rather weaknesse than Constancie that made him die had he had courage enough to have under-gone adversity he would never have had recourse to despair he wanted patience in his misfortune and if he could have endured Caesars victories he had not Committed self-Murther For if he thought it shame to beg his life of his enemies wherefore did he Counsell his Son to do it If he thought death so glorious wherefore did he disswade his friends from it If he thought the Common-wealth might be restored by their Counsels wherefore did he deny her his and if he advised every one to seek for mercy from the Conquerour wherefore did he by his errour prevent it What ever mischief threatens us we must never flie to despair though the decree be pronounced the Scaffold set up and that all things assure us we must die we must not play the Hangmans part nor hasten our death to free us from misery This is to make our selves Ministers of our enemies cruelty to excuse their fault by preventing it and to commit Parricide to exempt them from man slaughter Socrates who was not better instructed than Cato was more generous because more Patient he might have freed himself from Poyson by a sword and by fasting five or six dayes have acquitted himself from his Enemies violence yet he spent a whole Month in Prison he affordeth death leisure to imploy all its horrours to try his constancie he thought he was to give way to the Laws of his Country and not to refuse his last instructions to his friends they intreating for them If this Pagan Philosopher thought he ought not to attempt any thing against his own life because he was in the hands of justice no man can with reason make himself away for from the first moment of his birth he is subject to the Laws of God and unless he will do an unjust act he must waite till he that put him into the world take him from thence to hasten our death is to intrench upon his rights to kill our selves is to overthrow his workmanship and to bereave him of the least of his Subjects is to attempt against his Sovereignty In this case we have lesse power over our selves than over others for we may kill an enemy in our own defence but it is not lawfull to shun his fury by preventing it We must wait till the same Judge which hath pronounced the decree of our Death make it be executed and it belongs to one and the same Power either to shew favour or Justice to the guilty All those stately words which flatter our vain Glory and do incourage our despair do not excuse our fault when we attempt upon our owne lives Nature teacheth us sufficiently by those tacite instructions which she giveth us that if it be treacherie to abandon a place which a Prince hath committed to our charge 't is perfidiousnesse to forgo the body which God hath given us the guidance of and which he hath joyned so straightly to our soul as that
what she hath received by the eare and as she is rich onely by means of the senses so is she by them onely liberall She observes the different qualities of objects by the eyes she judgeth of the diversity of sounds by the eares she comprehends mens intentions by their discourse she makes hers known by the tongue and this miraculous part of the body frames words which draw her thoughts unto the life If those who are absent cannot understand her she hath recourse to the hand which draws her dictates upon paper and which makes that appear to the eyes which the tongue could not make the eares comprehend Thus the soule acts onely by the body and all Sciences by which we are either instructed or perswaded are as well the work of the senses as of the soule Vertue it selfe owes her birth to the meanest part of man and were he not made of flesh and bloud he could offer no sacrifice to God neither could he satisfie divine Justice by his repentance The purity which equals him with Angls is not wholly spirituall if be borne in heaven 't is bred upon earth and if it begin in the soul it ends in the body Fasting and silence keep the flesh under to purifie the soule and if man had not a tongue and mouth he could neither praise God in silence nor honour him by self-affliction Martyrdom which is the utmost of charity and the highest degree of perfection is consummated onely in the flesh meer spirits cannot be a prey to wilde beasts and a soule which hath put off her body cannot overcome Tyrants nor triumph over Executioners Mortallity is requisite to Martyrdom and if the Angels be somwhat more than we men because they cannot die they are in some sort lesse because they cannot suffer death is the triall of our love and as oft as we lose our lives in Christs quarrell we strike terrour into devils and fill Angels with admiration In fine the honour which God receives on earth proceeds from the body 'T is the body which is his Priest and Victime 't is the body which bears his imprinted characters in it's face 't is the body which commands on earth and which playing the part of Gods Lieutenant findes obedience amongst the Elements and mildnesse amongst savage beasts 'T is the body which fights for the Glory of the Son of God and which defends his Interest to the face of Tyrants and which sings his praises amidst the Flames 'T is the body which being made by his hands and in-livened by his breath hath the honour to be his workmanship and his Temple 'T is the body which is the object of his love and of his care which seeth the Sun surround the world to lighten it fruits bud to nourish it flowers spring up to recreate it and whole nature labours for it's pleasure or service In fine 't is the body which is offered up upon Altars which fights in persecutions which praiseth God in prosperity which blesseth him in afflictions which honours him in death which in the Grave expects his promises which will rise again at the end of the World and which will reign for ever in Heaven The second Discourse Of the miseries of the Body in Generall THe evils which we receive from the body are so great as that al Philosophy is nothing but an invective against this enemy of our repose If we beleeve the Platonists t is a prison wherein the Soul is inclosed to expiate the sins which she hath committed in Heaven If we will listen to the Academicks t is a grave wherein the Soul is buried and where being more dead than alive she cannot make use of all those perfections which she hath received from Nature If we trust the Stoicks t is a disobedient slave which opposeth it self to all the souls desires and which being born to obey hath no so great passion as to command t is a subject which aspires to Tyranny and which forceth its legitimate sovereign to forgo both honour and vertue and to embrace voluptuousnesse If we will give ear to the Peripateticks who come neerest the truth t is the least part of Man which being given him to serve the soul crosseth all her designs and hinders the execution of her noblest enterprises Hence it is that all Philosophers do what in them lieth to have no commerce with the body and wish for death or old age to the end that the one may weaken this Domestick enemy and that the other may free them from it Christian Religion which marcheth in the midst of errours with assurance confesseth that the body is as well the workmanship of God as the soul is and though it be not altogether so noble it ceaseth not to be destined to the same happinesse But as slaves are punisht for their masters and as children sometimes bear the punishment of their fathers sins the body hath been punisht for the soul and from the time it became confederate in her crime it partook in her punishment Though the soul be the more guilty the body is the more unfortunate and of the two parts which go to the composure of man the most innocent seems to be the most miserable For to boote that it is subject to pain by reason of the elements bad intelligence that it undergoes sicknesses whereby the health thereof is prejudiced that it cannot be cured but by troublesome remedies that the fear of death be a punishment which lasts as long as its life it is notwithstanding occasion of the most sins whereof the soul is guilty and this Sovereign thinketh she should be innocent if she were not fastened to so guilty a Party To disintangle all these things we must know that when the soul lost her priviledges the body lost likewise its advantages for the same grace wâ— made the soul pleasing to God made the body subject to the soul the same innocencie which preserved the sovereign from sin warranted the slave from death But when once man became guilty he became unfortunate and when once he lost originall righteousnesse he therewith lost all the dependencies thereupon Errour and blindness slid into the understanding malice glided into the will and by a consequence which Divine Justice made necessary illusion crept into the senses sicknesse altered mans temper pain disquieted his rest and death sho tened his life These punishments are so irksome as each of them deserves a discourse and not to enter upon a subject which I should handle more at large it shall suffice me for the present to make it manifest that though the body be the Souls slave since sin it is become her Tyrant and that it neither tastes of contentment nor suffers sorrow wherein it shares not with her Pain is a sensible evill and were not the Soul ingaged in the body she without the least commotion would behold the most grievous punishments but nature having composed man of these two
different parts the bodies pain is the Souls punishment their good and their bad are common between them the more noble suffers with the more ignoble and by a strange misfortune the soul which needs no nourishment fears famine she who is spirituall fears pain and she who is immortall apprehends death she is afflicted with whatsoever hurts the body and as if her love had changed her Essence she seems to be become Corporeall By a sequell as shamefull as necessary she takes her part of all the bodies pleasures she shapes desires unnecessitated she follows the inclmations of its senses and forgoing truth and vertue wherein all her innocent delights ought to consist she rellisheth the flowers with the smelling she tastes meat with the Pallate she hears Musick with the ears and seeth the diversity of colours with the eyes Being thus become sensuall she is not to be loosened from the body she forgets her naturall advantages by neglecting them she forgoes commerce with spirits to treat with beasts the fear she hath of death makes her doubt her immortallity the love she hath to pleasure makes her despise vertue and to engage her selfe too far in her slaves interest she learns new crimes whereof she was before innocent For although the soule be not impeaceable and that her will be not so constant in what is good but that she may be unfortunately parted from it yet is she not capable of all sorts of crimes she may be seduced by falshood blown up by vaine glory abased by sadnesse and gnawn by envy but she should be exempt from such sins as she is perswaded unto by the senses if she were dis-ingaged from the body Meer spirits are not scorcht with unchaste flames divels are not unchaste save onely for that they counsell us to impurity They are pleased with this vice onely because Jesus Christ is thereby injured and our soules would finde no trouble in being chaste did they not love unchaste bodies drunkennesse the vapours whereof cloud reason is not so much a sin of the soule as of the body did not the soule swim in the bloud the body would never be drown'd in wine and the greatest drunkard of the world would forgoe his love to this sin if death had un-robd him of his body a man must partake much more of a beast than of an Angel if he fall into this disorder and men who make more use of their soules then of their bodies are not much subject to this infamous Irregularity Gluttony which may be termed the sister or the mother of drunkennesse lodgeth neither in the will nor in the understanding it makes it's abode in the body the pallate which tastes viands the stomack which disgests them are it 's faithfull officers if it make any use of the understanding 't is for the service of the belly and if it reason at any time 't is but to finde out new sauces which may awaken appetite Covetousnesse though it contest with ambition and be insatiable is rather a sin of the senses than of the soule for this illustrious Captive makes not so many wishes for her selfe as for the body which she inanimates Glory and vertue are the onely objects of her desires when she labours to get riches or to seek out pleasure she fits her selfe to the humour of her slave and acts more through complacency than inclination or necessity 't is the body which needs the light of the constellations to light it the fruites of the earth to nourish it the skins of beasts to cloth it and all the beauties of nature for it's diversion All Artslabour onely for the service thereof though they be the work of the understanding they be the bodies servants and set those aside which have affinity with sciences all the rest labour onely to entertain the senses some cut out clothes to cover us others raise houses for us to lodge in some till the earth to nourish us others seek for pearl in the bottome of the sea and diamonds in the bowels of the earth for our adornment if the soule become ingenious in inventing things which are superfluous and of no use she is there unto sollicited by reason of the bodies need and she forgoes all these cares as soon as she is got out of prison The Rebell Angels never fought to divide the riches of the earth the division of Provinces or Kingdoms did never move ambition in them the beauty of women never caused in them loose desires nor did ever any of those sins which arise from flesh bloud tempt those haughty spirits The greatest part of our excesse derives from the body if we were parted from it we should either become innocent or if in that condition we should have either ambition or avarice their motive and object would be altered The greatest Conquerours have no motions which are not common to them with Lions Lovers jealousie is not more noble then is that of Buls and the husbandry of the Avaritious is not more just then is that of Owles and Ants if men be more to blame then beasts 't is because their soule complies with their bodies and that she makes use of her advantages to supply her slaves necessities But the mischiefe takes it's originall from the body and as the woman tempted man after she had been seduced by the devill the flesh tempts the spirit after having been sollicited by objects which flatter the senses I very well know that in the State of Innocency the soule was first guilty and that the body being subject to reason could not excite the first seditions it was obedient to it's Sovereign and as long as the soule was subject to God the body was subject to the soule but when once the soule rebell'd against her God her body scorn'd to be commanded by her And as mans fault had been a revolt his punishment was a rebellion also All our mischief ariseth from the bad intelligence which is held between the two parts whereof we are composed he who could appease their differences might remedy our sins and if the body did no longer rebell against the soule we should have reason to hope that the soule would no longer rebell against God To understand this truth which seems at first to gain-say the rules of humane reasons you must know that Generation is the way by which Adams sin is transmitted into our soules should not inherit the bodies sin nor misery From this impure and fruitfull spring-head do all our mis-fortunes derive the blindnesse which cloudes our understanding draws it's obscurity from the body falshood and vanity enter our soules by the gate of our senses and if sins end in the will they begin in the imagination Love glides into the heart by the eyes he who could be blinde might easily be chaste if calumny be formed in the heart it is dealt abroad by the tongue and what in the thought was but the malady of one particular
torments Uncleannesse lights her Torches at the eyes to consume the heart she would be weak were she not assisted by these faithfull officers she undertakes nothing but by their looks and before she imployes the hand to write or the mouth to speak she hath already made use of the eyes to expresse her designes In fine the eye is so guilty as the wise Man findes nothing more pernitious he wisheth to be blinde that he might purchase innocencie and he leaves in dispute whether Pestilence and War or the sight be cause of greater Mischief As hearing contends with it for worth so may it do for wickednesse and it must be granted that the good and bad which we receive thereby are equally considerabâ—e t is the sense which is most peculiar to the understanding and which Nature and Religion seems to have addicted to the knowledge of the Highest Truthes Nature makes use thereof to learn sciences she knows generall things onely by the ears and those who are deaf remain Ignorant much longer than those that are blinde Religion makes use of it to insinuate faith into the soul of all our senses t is the only one which is faithfull to her all the rest withstand faith and meet with difficulties which offend them Hearing is more credulous and more rationall its affinity with the understanding makes it capable of the wonders of Christianity and the great Apostle confesseth that Faith enters the Soul by the ears Passions themselves are obedient to it and these unruly Subjects which countenance the Empire of reason obey the Empire of the care t is by it that Commanders incourage their Souldiers to Battle t is by it that Orators oppease incensed people t is by it that Philosophers perswade their Disciples t is by it that Polititians instruct Princes and make Conquerours undertake gallant actions eloquence which works such wonders in the world owes all her might to hearing she languisheth upon paper when by the eyes she glides into the Soul she looseth half her force but she bereaves us of our liberty where she insinuates her self by the ears and a man must be either stupid or opinionated if he resist reasons which are pleasingly conveyed into the understanding by handsome discourse For all the praises are given to a sense so requisite to science and Religion it ceaseth not to have it's faults and to bear the characters of sin It is a slave to superstition and errour it makes hereticks as well as true believers and 't is the part by which the Serpents perswasions entred our first mothers soule The poison which is poured in by the eare is much more dangerous than that which is taken in by the mouth and the soule is more easily corrupted by hearing than by seeing All vertues are endangered when set upon in this place and there is not one of them which is not extreamly threatned when the vice which is it's enemy will make it come forth by the part by which it entred 't is by it that idle discourse undertakes chastity 't is by it that errour triumphs over truth 't is by it that calumny oppresseth innocency 't is by it that blasphemy doth spread abroad it's contagion 't is in fine by it that the devill drives out Jesus Christ and possesseth himselfe of the Throne which he had raised up in our hearts So as 't is not without good reason that the wise man counselleth us to hedge in our eares with thornes and carefully to lock up a gate by which falshood heresie and impiety do confusedly get into our soules And 't is not without cause that we declare that if the whole body be infected by sin the eare is the part most dangerously corrupted The fourth Discourse That the Passions are fickle or wilde IF man were a meer spirit he should have no passions nor should his rest be ever troubled by these motions of the sensible soule Angels which have no commerce with flesh and bloud have one of these changes if they desire any thing that is good they languish not for it if they punish a fault they are not transported with choler and if they assist us in our misery they are not touched with compassion whence I conclude that passions proceed from the soules marriage with the body and that it is as naturall for a man to hope and feare to love and hate to rejoyce and to be sorry as to eate and drink or to wake and sleep Since nature doth nothing without a reason man reapes some advantage by his passions and meets with a thousand occasions wherein he may make good use of them Desire is the soules course and she seems to command this nimble heeled passion to put her in possession of what she loves Hope comes in to the succour of desire and promiseth her such good successe as she resolves to make her way through all difficulties which oppose her designes If hope meet with more opposition then she imagined she calls in courage to her aid which by her valour purchaseth her the enjoyment of what she had long wished for Such passions as are opposite to these serves the soule to keep aloofe from what she apprehends Fear is her flight she doth her utmost to keep her enemy off though she be timerous she mingleth her selfe with hope to effect her designes and imployes boldnesse to overcome such dangers as threaten her if her strength be too weak she falls insensibly into despair and giving way to griefe doth of necessity become unhappy Somtimes she assumes courage in her disasters sollicited by hatred animated by desire and incouraged by despair she gets the better of the enemy which possesseth her and findes by experience that somtimes to be happy a man must have been miserable These passions have so much affinity with vertue as let but never so little care be taken in husbanding them they may become vertuous Fear is serviceable to wisdome wise men are always timerous good successe always their apprehension and prosperity which makes others insolent makes Polititians modest The Tragedian makes Agamemnon from the ruine of Troy apprehend the like of Sparta his victory causeth his diffidency and the Poet who will make this Prince a perfect Polititian seems to have grafted his wisdome onely upon fear Audacity is a naturall fortitude a man must be couragious to be valiant this vertue is no lesse a work of nature than of morality and unlesse a mans constitution contribute towards his generosity Philosophy with all her counsell will hardly make him seek out an honourable death That which is said of Poets ought to be affirmed of all vertuous men as these cannot be famous in their profession unlesse they be borne of that heat which is the soule of Poesy these cannot be valiant unlesse they be born with that generous heat which desplseth dangers and which boasteth in the losse of life when glory is won thereby Anger doth somwhat
to suppresse one Passion by another and to oppose hope to fear choller to remissnesse and sorrow to joy This remedy proved worse than the disease it increased the number of the Rebels whom it would have lessened weakened reasons authority whichit would have established All these different means unprofitably employed are sufficient proofs of our passions Malignity and after all the means used by Philosophy it must be confest that the motions of our Soul are disordered by sin that to make vertues of them their nature must be almost totally altered and that unassisted by Grace they are more dangerous mischiefs than either Pestilence or Famine One of them is sufficient to destroy a whole Province a Monarchs anger is the ruin of a State and that which causeth suites at Law between particular men kindles War between Princes Ambition hath changed the face of the world a hundred times the Deluge hath not made such waste therein as hath the pride and vain glory of Conquerors the marks of their gâ—eatnes are for the most part fatall they build Towns upon the ruines of such as they have beaten down their conquests do oft times begin with violence and injustice vertue hath seldom been the reward of their victory he who hath been most fool-hardy hath oft-times been most fortunate the whole world dreaded Alexanders ambition one only man hath or caused fear in all men The desire of glory made him swim in his Enemies blood this passion was augmented by good successe victory ingaged him in new Battails the more fortunate he was the more was he insolent had not death stopt the course of his conquests he would have made all Nature groan Asia Europe and Affrica would have had but one and the same Tyrant and his Subjects ruine would have been the onely proof of his authority Adams fault never appeared more than in Alexander we should not beleeve that our father aspired to make himself God if this his Son had not imitated him and we should hardly beleeve that man in the state of innocency had any proud desires had not this Prince had insolent thoughts in the state of sin The world seemed too little to his ambition his Vanity thought Usurpation lawfull and he was so blinded with passion as that he thought it no the every to plunder a kingdom or Murther to Defeate an Army By all this discourse t is easie to inferre that the passions are rebels which are partiall in their siding with sin and which are never so much assubjected to the Soul but that they are alwaies ready to obviate her Power and ruine her authority They are like the Praetorian Souldiers who made merry with their Princes heads who made and unmade their Sovereignes onely in reference to their own interest who gave the Empire to those who offered most for it and who made no election which began not with murther for these heady giddy Subjects have no other motion than either their own pleasure or proffit they obey not reason save onely when they like her commands and to reap any profit by them they must be won either by threates or promises they help us onely in hurting us they do rather occasion the exercising our vertue then assist the practice thereof and as if they were of the devils humour they advance our wellfare only in labouring our losse their assistance is almost alwayes pernitious they must be used as the Poets say Aeolus used the windes threates must be used with the orders which we give them They are like those horses in the chariot of the sun in Ovid they must be be roughly dealt withall before they reduced and their Nature must be changed ere their violence be overcome Anger turnes to fury when not moderated desire and hope go astray when not regulated Audacity grows rash when not held in and sorrow turns to despaire when not sweetened so as all passions instruct us that Nature is corrupted by sin and that to assubject them to reason a Man must guide himself by the motions of Grace The fifth Discourse That the health of Man is prejudiced by sicknesse AMongst a thousand differences which distinguish Christian Grace from originall righteousnesse one of the chiefest is that the former sanctifies the Souls onely and the other did sanctifie the whole man and wrought admirable effects in his body For in the profession of Christianity the senses are yet Subject to the Illusions of the Devil objects do yet move the passions and reason is oft surprised by their motions The Sacraments do not warrant us from death and the remedies which Jesus Christ hath left unto his Church do not cure our sicknesses But in the state of innocency originall righteousnes was a plentifull spring-head which dispersed abroad its rivulets into both the parts which go to the composure of man For it brought fidelity to the senses obedience to the passions and peace to the Elements hence it was that man preserving his advantages was exempt from sicknesse and death The seasons not being yet irregular nothing could alter his temper and his humours being uncorrupted nothing could have prejudiced his health But with the losse of his innocency he lost all his priviledges and he was no sooner sinfull but he began to be sick This is so constant a truth as that mans life is nothing but a long sicknesse which never ends but in death he is born in sorrow aswell as in sin his entrance into the world is no lesse painfull then shamefull if this monster like the viper rip up the bowells of his Mother he himself feels a part of the pain which he makes her suffer and he runs as much danger as she who brings him into the world Therefore t is that Saint Austin sayes handsomly that to be born is to begin to suffer and that to live in the body is to begin to be sick The disorder of seasons is sufficient to corrupt the best constitutions and the Alterations which happen in the world make such impressions in the Body as trouble the temper thereof Though Nature be a wise Mother that she prepare us for the Summers heat by the moderate warmth of the spring and that she fits us for the winters cold by the moistnesse of Autumn yet is the body of man so weak as notwithstanding all these precautions she cannot free it from incommodity Physicians themselves observe that every season brings with it its maladie and that ruling over such humours as accord with them they never suffer us to enjoy perfect health The Elements agree not better than do the seasons there is alwayes some one of them which predominates to the prejudice of the rest they commit outrages each upon other and as bloud and choller discharge themselves when over heated flegme and Melancholly do the like when they are corrupted their good intelligence is fatall to man this calm threatens him with a terrible storm and he is never nearer sicknesse
pass amongst them as deities and the lovers of beauty were the first Idolaters The command which she exerciseth over men is so powerfull and so pleasing as they are pleased with the losse of their liberty and contrary to the humour of slaves they love their Irons and cherish their prisons could Kings use this art to make themselues be obeyed they should never know what revolts were and all their subjects being their well-wishers they would be absolute without violence rich without imposts and saâ—e without Citadels Thus when the Sonne of God would reign amongst men he wonne their hearts rather by his comlinesse then by his power and he used clemency oftner then justice to reduce his Enemies to their duty consecrated beauty in his person when he took our Nature upon him though he assumed the pain of sin he would not assume the uglinesse thereof and as there was no ignorance in his soul so was there no deformity in his body There was but one Heretique who mis-interpreting the words of a Prophet imagined that Jesus Christ was deformed but tradition upheld by reason teacheth us that he was beautifull without art that the Holy Ghost who formed his body in the Virgins womb would have it adorned with comlinesse and that nothing might be wanting to his workmanship he exceeded men in this advantage as well as in all others His very Types in the old testament were all comely Solomon and David the one of which represented his victories the other his Triumphs were both of them famous for their beauty Nature seemed as if she would picture forth in them the Messias to satisfie the just desires of those who could not see him The Angels took upon them his visage when they treated with the Prophets whilest they spoke in his name they would appeare in his form Abraham saw him in that Glory wherein he appeared on Mount Tabor and numbred this vision amongst the chiefest favours he had received from Heaven Iacob had the honour to see him in the person of that Angell which wrestled with him before the break of day the three Children which were thrown into the fiery furnace saw him amidst the flames his presence freed them from fear they found paradise in the picture of Hell and that Angell which bore the visage of Jesus Christ broke their Irons in pieces preserved their vestures and punished their Enemies In fine Jesus Christ lost not his lovelinesse till he lost his life the Luster of his countenance was not effaced till by buffetting his face grew not pale till by stripes and he lost not that Majesty which infused respect into his Enemies till the bloud which distild from his wounds had made him an object of compassion and horrour In fine beauty is so amiable as her enemy is odious all the Monsters whereby the world receives dishonour are composed of uglinesse 'T is an effect of sin which corrupts the workmanship of God had there been no l sinner there had been no deformed Creature Grace and beauty were inseparable in the estate of originall righteousnesse Nothing was seen in the Terrestiall paradise which offended the eies all things were pleasing there because all things there were innocent There was no deformity known in the world till after sin Il-favourednesse is the daughter and the picture of sin and 't is a piece of injustice to hate the copy and to love the originall Albeit these reasons oblige us to reverence beauty where accompanied with Innocency yet have we as much and as just cause to fear her since she is mingled with impurity For sin hath left nothing in nature uncorrupted this Monster is pleased in setting upon the most Glorious works of nature and knowing that their chiefest ornament lay in their beauty hath pickt out her more perticularly to discharge it's fury upon There are none of nature works now which have not some notable defaults Did not love make men blind he could never make them in love did he not hide from them their imperfections whom they love he should not see so many souldiers fight under his colours and had he not taught women the secret how to imbellish themselves Impurity would have long since been banisht from off the earth The famousest beauties have their blemishes those who are not blind observe their defects had Helen of Greece lived in these our dayes the Poet who put such an esteem upon her would be found to be a lyer and a blind man but say that Nature should make a Master-piece indeed and that Paridoras fable should prove a true story her beauty would notwithstanding be contemptible since she could not grow old and keep it this advantage is so frail as it cannot long continue it is so soon gone as it rather seems a dream then a truth let women take what care they please to preserve it it will vanish from of their faces and when they shall see themselves in a glasse they will have much ado to perswade themselves that ever they were handsome All accidents have some power over beauty Time is as well her murtherer as her producer it effaceth all her glory tarnisheth her roses and Lillies and doth so alter the Godliest workmanship of nature as it maketh horrour and compassion arise in the same hearts which it had struck with love and envy 'T is not death but old age which triumphs over this perfection in women if they grow old they are sure to grow ugly the prolongation of their life diminisheth their beauty and they cannot live long but they must see that die which they loved dearer than their lives In the state of innocency old age would not have injured beauty the food which repaired nature maintained the good liking thereof men lived long and grew not old as death did not put a period to life neither did oldage weaken it the body was as strong at a hundred year old as at forty Beauty was then somwhat durable time bore respect to this quality and divine Justice which found no faults to punish did not punish women with the fear of old age or hard-favourednesse But now this fear is part of their punishment they are compelled to wish to die young if they will not dye ugly and thus divided in their apprehensions they desire to live yet fear to grow old Time is not beauties onely enemy the injuries which accompany it wage war against her and all the evils which we suffer through sin assaile this fraile perfection The mil-dew causeth defluxions which are prejudiciall to her the unseasonablenesse of seasons are averse unto her cold chils her and keeping back the bloud defaceth the vivacity of her complexion heat doth sun-burn her and that constellation which makes lillies white darkens the countenances of women Sicknesses do not so soon alter the temper as they do the tincture and the out-rages which they commit upon the welfare or good liking of the body are
who are always ready to die and who placing their happinesse in the resemblance or imitation of Jesus Christ desire to lose their lives a thousand times amidst tortures to repair his charity by their love and to suffer for his glory what he hath undergone for their salvation The tenth Discourse That sleep is a punishment of sin as the image of death and that it bereaves us of reason as dreames do of rest THose who think sleep the most harmlesse part of life wil never be perswaded that it hath drawn some evill qualities from Adams sin for it seems to reduce men to the conditions of Children and that bereaving them of the use of reason it takes from them that unfortunate power which they by their offences abuse The guiltiest actions become innocent during sleep those vapours which do stupifie the senses excuse the sins of those that sleep and as their Vertues are not rewarded neither are their offences punished Murthers are committed without effusion of blood revenge is taken upon enemies without injustice and another mans goods are without violence tane away whilst sleep doth lull the senses The soul is not guilty of the faults which her body commits and though she gives it life and motion she hath not liberty enough to give it the guidance thereof Imagination is the sole faculty which doth in-animate it and this confused faculty not being guided by reason commits evil unpunished and pleads blindnesse for the excuse of it's errour Yet is it certain that in the condition wherein we are sleep is a punishment of sin and had man never sinned he had never proved those disquiets wherewith he is agitated during his rest Nature would have born a respect to her Sovereigns sleep the elements which formed his body would not have troubled his rest and vapours would have been so mild as stupefying all the senses they would have left the soul at liberty In this happy condition man might well have refreshed himself by sleep his eyes would have been closed against the light and his other senses would have dispensed with their ordinary functions But the soul would have retired to within her self and acting according to the manner of Angels she would have known Truth without the interposition of the Organs her rest would rather have bn an extasie then sleep and man might have said that his heart waked whilst his body took it's resti I have much ado to believe that man was reduced to the condition of beasts before he had sinned and that he should have undergone the punishment of an offence which he had not as yet committed If there have been some Saints whom sleep did not deprive of the use of reason and who loved God even whilst they slept I think it not strange that the heavens should have granted this favour to our first father in his innocency that he entertein'd himself with Angels whilest he could not entertain himself with men St. Iohn the Baptist adored the Son of God in the chast womb of the Virgin the obscurity of his Prison could not hinder the light of heaven from enlightning his understanding that stupefaction which continues nine moneths with other children hindred not him from instructing Elizabeth by his motions and from letting her know that the mother which she saw was a Virgin and that the child which she saw not was God The better part of Divines do not question but that the Virgin did enjoy this priviledge all her life and that her soul whilest her body rested was wholly busied in considering the wonders of her son she loved him as well sleeping as waking Sleep did not interrupt her love Sleep which makes us beasts made her an Angel and her soul had this advantage in the night season that it did act without any dependency upon her bodie rest did not bereave her of half her life as it doth us were she asleep or were she awake she did equally apply her self to God her sleep was more operative then all our watchings when her mouth was shut her spirit supplied her silence and she praised God with her heart not being able to do it with her tongue Imagine that Adams sleep did somewhat resemble that of the Virgins that he ceased not to reason when he could not speak that his noblest part slept not whilest his other did that his souls eyes were open when his bodily eyes were shut and that his soul exercising those species which she by the senses had received considered the works of God for why should we beleive that Adam should suffer that out-rage in the state of innocency which the Saints had much ado to tolerate in the state of sin Sleep which is the rest of their body is the punishment of their soul they are afflicted that their will should be rendered so long useless they conjure their tutelâ—ry â—els to wake whilest they sleep and to love in their behalf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goodnesse which cannot be loved according to its worth they look upon their bed as upon their grave they think to die as oft as they fall a sleep and they murmure that their soule which is immortall should be constrained to suffer such a kinde of death I pardon them these their complaints for 't is true that sleep is the shame of our nature and that the qualities wherewithall it is accompanied teach us that it is become criminall it reduceth men to the condition of beasts it takes from them their noblest priviledges and inhibits them the use of all the senses which may be serviceable to the soul. This punishment seems to be more injurious than death whose image it is for death loosens the soule from the body raiseth her to the condition of Angels and withdraws her from a prison which though she delighted in ceased not to be fatall to her but sleep stupifies the senses sets upon such parts of the body as the soule makes most claim to disperseth it's vapours into the eyes and ears and reduceth man into a condition wherein he can neither speak nor think The heart during sleep is in a perpetuall motion naturall heat disgests meat the liver converts it into bloud and distributes it abroad amongst the veines every part turnes it into it's own substance and by a continuall miracle one and the same nourishment doth extend it selfe into nerves thickens into flesh and hardens into bone Nature repaires these ruines which watchings had made in the body she leaves nothing uselesse in this condition and her diligence extends even to our haire which grows whil'st we Sleep But the noblest of our senses are a sleep our eyes serve no more for guides nor the ears for intelligencers the tongue to which motion is so naturall is no more the soules interpreter imaginations selfe doth only furnish her with confused species and the soul in this disorder is inforced to remain idle and unusefull Passions be they never so
Masters and rather Tutours than Sovereigns they are Pilots which ought to avoid storms Chieftains which ought to fight Suns which ought to dissipate darknesse and dispence abroad heat and light they are Fathers which ought to govern their Kingdoms as their Families and their subjects as their children whatsoever exceeds this power leans towards injustice and all Princes who mind more their own renown then their peoples good deserve rather the name of Conquerors then Sovereigns good Kings serve those over whom they command they do not mount their thrones so much to cause fear as to purchase love and if they will perform their duties they must not reign over their subjects out of an ambitious desire of commanding over them but out of a charitable desire of being advantagious to them If they have any other motive for what they do they fall into another sort of servitude and becomming Tyrants to their people they become slaves to their passions for as just men are free amidst fetters wicked men are slaves though on throns and these who are so famously faulty have as many Masters which command them as they possesse passions Thus greatnesse be it lawfull or unlawfull is always waited on by servitude and the greatest Monarchies of the world cannot shun the losse of their liberty whether the end of their labours be the good of their Territories or their own renown It is true that their conditions are as different as their designs for some find their own welfare to consist in that of their subjects and others find their losse in that of their state the one acquires honour by dispising it others lose it by seeking after it the one establisheth his authority by foregoing it and the other destroy it whilst they would establish it but they all learn by experience that since the sin of Adam there is no liberty without servitude nor Greatnesse without dependency The fourth Discourse That the birth and cruelty of War derives from sin WAr is of as long a standing in the world as sin this daughter was born together with her Father and contrary to the laws of Nature she punisheth him that begot her for as soon as man was fallen from innocency and that originall righteousnesse which composed the differences of the soul and body had forsaken him these two parties declare war against one another the slave rebel'd against his Sovereign and became a rebell himself to punish his Sovereigns rebellion hee undertook to reduce reason under his laws and to submit the inclinations of the understanding to the motions of Concupiscence This intestine war caused forreign discords when man became once divided in his person divisions arose in his state and at the same time that his soul and body gave over their good intelligence all his subjects revolted every element set upon him to revenge it self and the conspiracy was so generall as this unfortunate Sovereign saw not any one part of his state wherein he had not enemies to fight withall and rebels to subdue Before that Heaven afforded him some means to reduce them to their duties he suffered unexpressible misery and to draw an Idea of his disaster we must set forth a man exposed to the rigour of the air without cloaths one persecuted by the elements who had no house one starved with hunger who could not cultivate the earth one fought withall by his passions who had no vertues to discover them one composed of disagreeing parts who had no power to rereconcile them such a one was Adam when he was driven out of the earthly Paradise all his subjects became his enemies every element to offend him grew unruly the seasons mingled themselves disorderly to punish him and beasts which were not as then wild changed their Nature to persecute him This unfortunate Sovereign was fain to arm himself in his own defence necessity taught him to cut out cloaths to save himself from the cold to build Cabins wherein he might keep dry notwithstanding the injuriousnesse of the weather to plough the earth to overcome her sterility to make arrows or spread nets to take birds and tame savage beasts he taught the horse to manage and forced the noblest of creatures to endure the bit and spur he brought oxen under the yoake forced buls to change their fury into friendship and to forego the forrest to live in pastures he wisely mixed art with force and that he might lessen the number of his enemies he endevoured to divide them he made use of those that he had reclaimed against those which did resist him and by an admirable address he chased stags with horses pursued wolves with dogs and flew at partridges with Faulcons and Goss haulks Thus did this Sovereign beat back force by violence and reduced his subjects to their duty by the aid of necessity This war was just because necessary selfe preservation was his excuse and if the beasts were not too blame in setting upon a man who had revolted against God man was not unjust in defending himself against those subjects which would have oppressed him Nature taught him that he might commit murther without committing sin and that in the state of sin he might slay the innocent to feed himself This permission did notwithstanding inspire cruelty insensibly into him by killing beasts he learnt to kill men these his first Trials made him Master of his art so as passing through all the degrees of injustice after having committed murther he committed parricide For when he saw that the death of one man had drawn upon him the hatred of all those that belonged unto him he sought for some to side with him he engaged all his friends in his quarrell then did men forge weapons to undo themselves they who had only pursued their subjects pursued those that were like themselves And arrows which were only dipt in the bloud of beasts were stained with mans bloud the Chieftaines of parties chose out pitcht fields to end their differences they encouraged their souldiers to the combate they made them hope for the spoil of the enemy and perswaded them that revenge and murther were glorious actions This cruell opinion spread it selfe over the whole world the trade of war grew honourable and the name of murtherer was changed into that of souldier ambition increasing with time every one thought that greatnesse consisted in injustice that he who had committed most murthers was most couragious and that he who had overcome most Nations plundered most Towns and over-run most Provinces was the most famous Conquerour When once this errour grew to be a maxime all disorderly unquiet spirits entrencht upon their neighbours every Prince would enlarge his bounds men began to place right in might to confound usurpation with possession and to think that every thing belonged to him that could make himselfe Master thereof War was made upon forreign Nations no other pretext but ambition was sought for and all
lesse troubled to see their honour steined then their gown To disabuse these weak women they must be made know that luxury in apparell deserves to be despised by men and to be punished by God Cloaths have two uses which are equally lawfull the first is to cover our nakednesse and to hide our body which began to be shamefull when it ceased to be innocent Adam could not endure himself when he had lost originall righteousnesse and the shame which infused upon his sin made him seek out leaves to hide that from his eyes which did displease his soul he was afraid of himself when he saw his body did no longer obey reason he was afraid to offend nature by his nakednesse not having as yet seen any other monster then himself he withdrew himself into a wood and not being able to shun himself he endevoured to cover himself God himself who was indulgent to him in his sin cut out his first sute and to free him from shame which was not his least severe punishment he clothed him with the skin of beasts The second use of Apparell is to shelter us from the injury of seasons and to free our bodies from the rigour of the Elements for man had no sooner violated Gods Commandements but all the creatures rebelled against him beasts began to grow savage and retired themselves into the woods that they might no longer treat with a rebell those which are now reclaimed owe their mildnesse to our cunning and stay not with us but because we have drawn them from the Forrests if they obey us 't is out of hope of some advantage and our rebellion having freed them from their oath of Allegiance which they had taken in Paradise we must feed them if we will have any service from them Those which do reserve their naturall fiercenesse submit not un-inforced to our will they must be made to suffer before they be tamed and our power being Tyrannicall their obedience is constrained They are slaves which serve but by force and who to free themselves from their servitude attempt somtimes upon our lives At the same time when the beasts fore-went their mildnesse the Elements changed their qualities those four bodies whereof all other bodies are composed declared war one against another to afflict us and breaking the bonds which nature had prescribed them intrencht one upon another to the end their division might be our punishment They did that to punish us which greatest enemies use to revenge themselves they endangered their own losse out of a desire to destroy us The earth which had served us for a nurse became barren to make us perish by famine she grew hard under our feet to weary us forgoing her flowers where with she adorned her selfe to appear more pleasing to us she loaded her selfe with thorns to prick us she opened her bowels to bury us and she who grounded upon her own proper weight was always immoveable quaked under our feet to work our astonishment The Sea which judged aright that our ambition avarice would not be contented with the Empire of the earth hid rocks underneath her waves troubled her calmnesse with storms call in winds to her aid to undo us and advancing her waters into the fields came to set upon us amidst our own Territories the aire which seemed not able to hurt us save by denying us respiration corrupted her naturall purenesse to make us sickly lent her bosome to the Tempests became the receptacle of haile and snow and being serviceable to Gods Justice became the Magazine of his Thunder and Lightnings sent Pestilences into the world turned a simple sicknesse into a contagion and carrying corruption through all parts did oft-times change the earth into a fatall sepulcher Fire being the most active of all the Elements did us more harm then all the rest for this body which seems to be but a pure spirit and by which the Angels themselves did not disdain to be called crept into the Thunder and agreeing with it's enemy formed storms wherein the waters mingled with flames of fire seem to conspire mans death and the worlds over-throw contrary to it's nature which seeks out high places it descends and gliding into the entrails of the earth excites earthquakes consumes mountains and devours whole Towns to revenge it it selfe for the wrongs which we make it suffer by making it a slave to all Arts it burns those who come nigh it it consumes what is given it and not interessing it selfe with mens designes it oft-times mars their workmanship But man was not so sensible of all these persecutions as of that of the Sun for this glorious constellation drew up malignant vapours spred abroad mortall influences disordered the course of the seasons parted the Spring from the Autumne which were all one in the state of innocency stript the Trees of their leaves in winter withered the flowers in Summer and bereft the earth of her ornaments and riches Amidst so many disorders man was bound to make him clothes and to rob his subjects that he might defend himselfe against his enemies He hunted wilde beasts clothed himselfe with their skins he who had aspired to make himselfe a God was brought to a condition of decking himsefe with the hides of Animals and learnt to his cost that no apparell is proofe for all seasons but that of Innocency Thus his being necessitated to cloth himselfe is a mark of his offence let him do what he can to turn this punishment into bravery he is bound to confesse that he covers his body only to fence himselfe from pain and shame had he preserved the respect which he ought to God his body would not have rebelled against his soul and had not this particular revolt been followed by a generall rebellion he needed not have been obliged to seek for Arms to defend himselfe against his subjects He sees then his fault in his apparell they are sensible tokens of his disobedience and would he govern himself by reason he should chastize his body as oft as he puts on his cloths and yet we seem to have a design to out-brave divine justice and to laugh at it's decrees to glory in it's punishments and to make that serve for our glory which ought to serve for our confusion for there is hardly any one who doth not some ways advantage himself by his apparell who doth not heighten himself by the Lustre of gold or pearl and who turns not the shamefull marks of his undoing into stately Trophies of his victory Adam was never so ashamed as when he was forced to cloth himself the skins he wore were the apparell of a penitent before that vanity had found out a means to imbellish them they drew tears from his eyes and sighs from his mouth He never clothed himself but he bewailed his innocency and when cold weather made him put on more cloths he considered how the irregulariry of the seasons was the
their handcherchiefs in great assemblies 't is uncivill to be vailed at a mask or a play and they are ashamed to appear modest where men use all their art to make them unchast Thus great meetings are nothing but publick prostitutions innocency is there destroyed by bringing nakednesse in fashion and men lend weapons to the Devil to undo the subjects of Jesus Christ. The ninth Discourse That Buildings are the work of Necessity Pleasure or Vainglory THough we do not know all mans advantages in the state of innocency and that that happy condition be not much lamented because 't is not much known yet we very well know it was exempt from pain as well as from sin and that man saw nothing neither in his person nor in his state which caused either pain or shame in him The body was subject to the soul and the senses which so often break loose that they may fix themselves to objects without reasons permission did nothing but by her order and this Sovereign was so absolute as her subjects had no other inclinations but what were hers The world was as much at quiet as man was and the elements w th by their contesting molest him held so good intelligence as the one never intrencht upon the rights of the other men neither feared the overflowings of rivers earthquakes nor fires the earth was a temple and a palace Religion did so well agree with nature as the same place served man to do his homage to God in and to disport himself in he saw his Creator in every Creature they were images which painted forth unto him the perfection of him that made them when he beheld them for his pastime his pleasure was not to be parted from his piety and contenting his curiosity he satisfied his duty This Temple was also his palace he could wish for nothing neither for pastime nor yet for profit which was not in this stately habitation The heavens served him for a canopie and the irregularity of the seasons had not yet obliged him to deprive himself by buildings of the sight of the most beautifull part of the world the Sun was his torch and when this glorious constellation withdrew himself to give light to the other half of the earth the stars stepping into his place afforded light enough not to leave men in darknesse grasse mingled with flowers served him for his bed Trees lent him their shade and holes which nature had hollowed in rocks served him for Chambers and Closets Gates were needlesse when there was no fear of theeves and windows would have been uselesse when people apprehended neither winde nor rain Nature had so well provided for all things as arts were superfluous and her workmanship was so exact as mans industry could adde nothing thereunto all the fields were gardens all Forrests Parks all dens Palaces and though the floud hath changed the face of the world it's out-rages could not efface the beauty thereof There be Forrests yet thick enough to shelter us Champions of extent enough to weary our eyes Vallies delightfull enough for diversion to them and Cavernes rich enough to satisfie them the pillars which sustain these forrests are the models of our Columnes the brooks which water these Champions have furnisht us with the invention of water-pipes the concavity of Trees hung in the aire hath taught our Architechts to vault buildings their proportions have caused Symmetry and the Caverns in mountains are the originall of our houses 'T is true that where sin had corrupted man and disordered nature we were forced to raise buildings to save our selves from the injury of weather and not being secure in a condition where we saw so many subjects revolted we were necessitated to build Citadels to keep us from being surprized by them But necessiy not being so ingenious as self-love she was contented with providing remedies for the most pressing evils and did not seek so much for accommodation as for preservation The first houses were but one story high the earth afforded the materials and Thatch was the covering man finding nothing delightfull in so sad an abode wisht for an earthly Paradise and never thought of his former condition without being sorry for his disobedience which had banished him from thence he never betook himselfe to this prison but either when the nights obscurity or the weather made him seek for Covert he looked upon it as upon his grave and living in so unpleasing an abode he did by degrees prepare himselfe for death but when self-love grew weary of suffering the punishment of it's sin and when justling divine Justice it would finde out a Paradise in this world it inuented Architecture and taught man how to change his prison into a Palace under the conduct of so good a Master he raised stately Palaces he sought for stone in the bowels of the earth he polisht them with tools he ranked them with Symmetry and placing one of them on the top of another he made his exile glorious and his prison pleasing Those who will excuse this disorder say that 't is a work worthy the wisdom of man that he is not forbidden to defend himselfe from natures out-rages that it is to imitate God and that every building is an image of the world and an Epitome of the Universe that time is requisite to bring things to perfection that the first men were not lesse vain but lesse industrious that if Adam had been a good Architectour he would not have left his children so long in Dens and Cabins that houses were the beginning of Towns that men were never civilized till they lived within the circuit of wals and that whil'st they lay in Forrests their lives were rather bestiall then rationall But let vanity make what excuses she pleaseth it is not to be denied but that buildings as well as apparell do prove our guilt and that the excesse and pomp which are used therein are marks of our ambition for houses are built either out of Necessity Pleasure or Vain-glory and men seek for nothing therein but the preservation of their life the satisfaction of their senses or the honour of their name Our first fathers built only to shun the persecution of the Elements they were contented with a house which saved them from storms and provided that it would afford them shade against the Sun and covering against the cold they were well apayed Architecture was not yet become an art every man was his own Architect after having cut out his clothes he made himselfe a house and seeking only how to fence himselfe against the incommodities of life he sought for neither delight nor vain-glory in buildings two Trees joyned together did oft-times make a house the entrance into a rock would with small cost lodge a whole family and the thickets which now serve for a retreat for wilde beasts served to lodge men in Nature was indulgent to these innocent malefactours seeing they bare
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
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
consists in the difficulty which accompanieth her she would not be beautifull were she not difficult and seeing that humane mindes betake themselves onely to what is painfull she endeavours to heighten her desert by Labour she decks her self with thornes in stead of flowers covers her self with dust in stead of sweet powders drops sweat and bloud in stead of perfumes and promiseth such as court her nothing but disasters and ill luck she is lodged upon a hill which is smooth slippery and steep on all sides where a man cannot come at her without danger of falling into a precipice though she promise honour to such as love her she suffers them oft times to be confounded and judgeth onely of their love by misprising glory or pleasure Shee invites them by her discourse but endues them not with strength she perswades their understandings but doth not raise up their wills and like the Law of Moses she may well have some light but no heat This is the cause why her pertakers have faln into despair and after having a long time served this rigorous Mistris they have been forced to accuse her of ingratitude and to blame her cruelty but what could they hope for from an idol which being the workmanship of their mindes had no other perfections than what it had borrowed from their praises which was onely vigorous in their writings only beautiful in their Panegyricks and which was not generous save in their actions Thus had Cato recourse to despaire finding no relief in vertue and Brutus acknowledged when he died that she could not assist such as served her that she dazled mens eyes by a false light and that she was but a vain idol which forsook her followers at a pinch not being able to warrant them from the outrages of Fortune We may truly affirm there have been two sorts of idolaters in the world the one worshipped the workmanship of their own hands and by an Immense folly put their hope in images which they themselves were Authors off though they cannot understand them they serve them with respect though they cannot defend them they fly to them for protection and dread their anger The other adore the workmanship of their minds and form unto themselves Noble Ideas which they fall in love with the more beautifull the idols were the greater impression did they make upon their wils and the more eloquent they were in describing them the more superstitious were they in honouring of them This errour blinded all Philosophers vertue which is but a habit which we acquire that we may do Good was the only Divinity which these hood winckt people worshipped and not considering that there is nothing in the soul of man which merits a Supreme Honour they bore respect to the good inclinations thereof when they were governed by the rules of morality this superstition cost the Apostles much more pain than the superstition of the people they had more ado to convert Philosophers than Tyrants and experience taught them that reason was more opinionated than force Two ages were sufficient to overthrow all idols of brasse and marble and though their adorers used cruelty to defend them martyrs through their patience triumphed over them But all the Reign of Jesus Christ hath not sufficed to destroy the idols of the minde The Doctors of the Church have in their writings set upon them but have not been able to bear them down and there be yet some libertines amongst the Children of the Church that do adore them They are not so much attracted by the grace of the Son of God as by the vertue of the Pagans good Nature appears more considerable to them than godlinesse and they more esteem Seneca's or Aristotles morals than those of Saint Paul or of Saint Austine his disciple yet the Vertue which these Philosophers taught in their Schooles had her esteem heightened onely by reason of her difficulty and was admired by her partakers onely through a vain beauty which did dazle them But Christian vertue is at once both beautifull easie you need but love her to acquire her to possess her cost us nothing but desires and the Holy Ghost who sheds her in our souls endues us with strength to overcome the difficulties which accompany her therefore is it that vertue in Christians did oft times fore-run reason they were wise before the years of wisdom and the Agnesses who had Jesus Christ onely for their Master were vertuous before rationall Grace fupplyed their weaknesse torments excited their courage they were constant not having read the death of Socrates the life of their spouse made up all their morality and his maximes confirmed by his examples inspired them with more of Constancie than was requisit to triumph over the cruelty of Tyrants and to confound the vertue of Philosophers But truly I do not wonder that the vertue of Pagans was so weak since they were divided and that reason which did guide them could never reconcile them for though they be said to have one the same father and that they are so straitely united together that a man cannot possesse one of them without possessing all the rest yet experience teacheth us that they have differences which Philosophy hath not yet been able to terminate Though they conspire together to make a man happy they trouble his quiet by their division and make so cruel war one upon another as to have peace in his soul he is obliged to drive out one of the parties from thence Mercy and Justice cannot lodge together in one Heart their Interests are so different as they are not to be accorded A man must renounce mildnes if he will be severe and severity if he will be mercifull Morality hath not yet found out a secret to reconcile these two vertues nor to unite them together thereby to make an accomplish't Prince Wisdom and simplicity hold no better intelligence the one is always diffident that she may be secure she oft-times hastens her misfortune whilest she thinks to avoide it she had rather do ill than suffer ill and her humour is so given to guile as the best part of her being is made up of dissimulations simplicity walks in a clean other track for she findes her assurance in her goodnesse she fears no outrage because she beleeves no injustice she had rather be unfortunate than blamefull and she is of so good an inclination as she resolves rather to receive an injury than to do one If wisdom be not upon good termes with simplicity she is not upon much better terms with valour Nature must do a miracle to make them both meete in one Subject they require different tempers and the aversion is such as morality cannot accord them wise and cautious men are always fearfull and valiant men are alwayes rash wisdom is of a cold constitution and doth not ingage her self in any perill till she see a wicket whereby to get out Valour is hot and firie
when Fortitude displayes it's beauties These Stars are eclipsed when the other Sun appears and people cease from looking upon Justice in Princes prudence in Politicians and Temperance in Philosophers when they consider the courage of the unfortunately Innocent Though this Illustrious Vertue be sincere and that the pain wherewith she is assailed make her unquiet yet hath she allurements which win her more admirers than the other have lovers There are but few that look after her but all admire her and that because persecution must precede courage every one is content to reverence a vertue which must cost so dear to come by she in-nobles such as possesse her she comforts the condition of slaves heightens the Majesty of Soveraignes augments the beauty of women and of all the ornaments which adorne either the minde or the body there is none more Majesticall than Fortitude if we will believe Philosophers there is nothing on earth more worthy of Gods looking on than a man who withstands sorrow and misfortune he despiseth all that Glory which dazels us the pride of our Houses is the mark at which his Thunder-bolts are aimed the Magnificence of our Palaces are but the Spoiles of Quarries or of Forrests those Pyramides which adde to the wonders of the world are but heaps of stones torne from out the bowels of the earth these Armies which make whole Provinces to groan either by reason of their numbers or their disorders these great bodies which pour forth bloud from out al their veines to re-fill those rivers which they have drained are but swarmes of Bees which decide their differences by fighting and God looks upon the Glory of Kings as wise men do upon a Stage-Play but he delights to look upon a noble minded man who grapples with sorrow who sees his riches borne away without any agitation of spirit and who in losse of honour life or liberty preserves his courage If the earth produce nothing which may make God stay to look upon it and if generous actions merit not that God should busie himselfe about them yet must we confesse that they are approved of by all people and that men do more admire a Philosopher who suffers death patiently than a Monarch who governs his State with Justice He through his constancy triumphs over whatsoever the world hath of most furious since he overcomes pain he may well vanquish pleasure since he despiseth death he may laugh at fortune and since he fears not the threats of Kings he may well enough sence himselfe against their promises he tramples under foot all those pleasures which we seek after and all the pains and sorrows which we apprehend the greatnesse of the danger incourageth him to battell the more difficulty he foresees the more glory he hopes for he values not that much which cost him but little he tries himselfe when fortune spares him and to keep himselfe in breath he makes Enemies when he meeteth with none Past ages have produced men who have not changed countenance amidst Tortures their Executioners could not wrest moans from out their monthes nor make them confesse so much as by a sigh the pains which they indured there have been some who to triumph over Tyrants have laughed amidst their punishments such hath been their constancy as that Joy did not abandon them even in that condition their courage seemed to make them insensible and that by being accustomed to torments they were grown familiar to them Thus did Scevola defie Tarquin the proud his whole hand mist him and his burning hand struck him with astonishment hee escaped the Princes anger by preventing it he pierc't his heart whose body he could not hurt and Tarquin judging of the Fortitude of all Romans by that of Scevola he feared to have those men for his Enemies who feared not the fire But not to adde to this discourse by examples it may suffice to listen unto the reason of Philosophers and to acknowledge with them what advantages Fortitude hath over all other vertues Man began to be unhappy when once he became criminall his subjects became his enemies the Elements declared war against him and those elements which went to his composure divided themselves that they might alter his temper and shorten his life Pain and pleasure agreed together for his undoing life and death were reconciled to make him suffer Morall Philosophy found out vertues to succour him and every one of these faithfull Allies undertook to defeat an Enemy wisdome undertook to prevent far distant mischiefes and by her addresse to avoid them Justice looks upon her to end al the differences which self-love and Interest should breed amongst men Temperance charged her selfe with ruling voluptuousnesse and with hindring such pleasing Enemies from seducing reason and Fortitude as most couragious of all the rest undertook to fight against pain and to overcome death This cruell Enemy to Man-kind defying the power thereof took a hundred shapes upon him to astonish the others constancy he called in Tortures and sicknesse to his aid he invented Gallowses and Wheeles he extended Racks incensed Lions and Bears armed the Elements to satisfie his cruelty and made torments and punishments of whatsoever nature had produced for our use All these vertues were siezed on by astonishment when they saw so many Monsters conspire mans ruine wisdome confessed she wanted addresse to mollifie them Justice profest she had not sufficient Authority to suppresse them and Temperance protested she wanted vigour to restrain them Onely Fortitude promised to withstand them and though she saw her selfe forsaken by her Sisters she resolved to charge upon them wisdome offered her her light Justice her severity and Temperance her moderation With these weak Forces she enters the pitcht Field where she had for assistance hope and boldnesse The former inhartned her by her promises the second promised â—lesse but performed more for she discovered unto her the weakness of her Enemies and taught her on what part she might assail them Fortitude thus assisted ingaged her selfe upon all occasions she received as many blows as she gave she mingled her bloud with the bloud of her enemies she past all her life in this exercise if she took any ease after a fight 't was onely to prepare her self against those that were to ensue By all this discourse 't is easily seen that the designes of Fortitude are much greater than those of all the other vertues that it is not without reason that they yield the Honour to her since they dare not appear upon such occasions of Combates as she doth and bears away the victory Though Fortitude be thus beautifull in Idea yet is she but weake amongst the Pagans and covers true blemishes under deceitfull appearances for as in them she cannot have charity for her originall she derives oft-times from self-love and inherits all her Fathers weaknesses it is her own Glory she must seek since she is ignorant of Gods Glory it is anger
deteined in his body by art The least accidents do sever her from it a vapour doth suffocate her she is choaked with a little flegme and blood which is the seat of life is oft-time the cause of death whithersoever so miserable a creature doth convey himself she receives there new proofs of his weaknesse the change of climates troubles his health a new air incommodiates him cold water hurts his stomake the Sun which lights him scorcheth him and whatsoever is cause of good unto him is cause of Evil. In the State of innocencie grace linkt the Soul to the body death unseconded by sin could not break the chains the elements durst not assail him originall righteousnesse made them observe respect they appeased their differences lest they might trouble mans temper fire agreed with water to preserve his health there was as profound a peace in his person as in his state but since he forewent his duty grace abandoned his body to sin the elements had liberty given them to war one upon another man became the scene of their combates and after once he revolted from God he saw all creatures take up arms against him sorrow death set upon him he was sentenced to live in pain die in sorrow For the sweetest life bears it's punishment with it There is no rose which is not grafted upon a thousand thornes and how handsome soever the chains be which link the soule and body together they are both of them equally exposed to suffering The soule is more capable of sadnesse than of joy though she display her selfe to receive in pleasure yet doth she never taste it purely she weeps amidst her contentments she expresseth her joy by sighs and as if she were not accustomed to great happinesses she seems to suffer when she receives them Though she shut the doore upon sorrow yet suffers she her selfe to be easily siezed on by it though she resist it she cannot withstand it and as if nature had made her more sensible of misery than of happinesse a small displeasure is able to make her forget all her former contentments The body is not more fortunate than the soule for it hath not many parts which can tast delight but it hath not any one which is not capable of pain Pleasures do enter-shock and always leave some of our senses in languishment or need pains agree in their assailing us and though they should not come in a crowd one alone is sufficient to make it selfe be felt by all the parts of the body their straight union makes their mischiefes common and if the head suffer the tongue complains the eyes weep and the heart groanes Thus the happiest life is miserable and that moment passeth not wherein we are not inforced to bewail our innocency to condemn our sin Death comes in to the aid of pain and by an ingenious peece of cruelty agrees with life to augment our miserie For though they appear to be enemies they joyn in our punishment and joyn with Gods Justice to revenge God we live and die daily the change which makes us subsist is deaths taster this cruell one siezeth on us by degrees all the time we have lived is already gotten by him and the years which we hope to make use of are so many titles which he produceth against us As soon as we begin to live we begin to die Death shares with us in all the moments of our life it takes unto it selfe what is past because that is certain and leaves to us only what is to come because that is uncertain So as by a strange mis-fortune the increase of our life is the diminution thereof The farther we grow from our birth the nearer we grow to death our purchases are meer losses m and things are so disposed of since sin as we cannot count our years without either flattering our selves or lying T is perhaps for this reason that the Hebrew that holy language which the blessed shall make use of in heaven imployes but one and the same word to expresse both life and death with the difference of one only point to teach us that death and life are divided onely by that moment which unites them In effect life is nothing but a brittle chaine consisting of three links the past the present and the future the past is no more we retain but a weak remembrance of it all the vows we can make will not fetch it backe it is not void of doubt whether Gods absolute power which finds no resistance amongst his creatures can gather together the present with that which is past and unite these differences of times without destroying their essence The future time is not as yet hope which expects it cannot advance it and wisdom which hath an eye unto it cannot dissipate the obscurity thereof it is lesse at our disposall then the time that is past and for all the vain conjectures which we may flatter our selves withall we know not whether it shall come to us or we shall go to it the present time to say truth is in our power we are masters of it and it is the onely thing which we can say we possesse t is the onely part of our life which we are assured of and who promiseth himself more is either ignorant or impious But this present time is but a moment and this difference of time hath no parts time past time to come comprehend whole ages but the present consists but in an instant so as death and life differ only in a point these two which we judge so contrary are intertained by that moment which doth separate them Though I honour this imagination by reason of the gallantry therof and that respect which I bear to the Hebrew Tongue obliege me to reverence it yet me thinks it doth not sufficiently expresse the miseries of life whose alliance with death is neerer then is thereby represented death subsists only by life and life is only preserved by death they commence end together as soon as a man begins to live he begins to die nature which very well knows that two moments never subsist together Commands death to hurry away the one to leave to life the other that ensues As she doth with moments and houres so doth she with those years whereof the degrees of our life are composed She makes our infancie die to give life to our Boyish age she takes away a childe to substitute a man and robs us of our youth to make old age succeede Thus if we advance in life t is by the favour of death and we enjoy our last years by the losse of the former who will not praise death since it makes us live and who will not blame life since it makes us die who will not confesse that sin is very cruell since it accords these two enemies to our undoing and that for our punishment it hath turned a happy and immortall life into an
vanity and but few heads which do not bow under the weight of a Crown 'T is hard for a Prince to preserve his modesty amidst his honours and for him to remember that he is a man whil'st all his Subjects endeavour to perswade him that he is a God Great humility is requisite to him to defend himselfe from such pleasing slatteries and the inclination which by reason of originall sin he hath to vain glory being considered he hath much adoe to reject such hopes as Adam was abused withall even in the midst of his innocency T is much more hard to make use of pleasure than to make use of pain and more Philosophers are found to have been patient in afflictions then moderate in pleasures riches cause more disorder than poverty and were not men over-rul'd by opinion want would be more sufferable than aboundance Though we be not stoicks and though the fond imaginations of the haughty Philosophers did aswel give against reason as truth we forbear not to confesse with them that sorrow is to be preferred before joy and that it is better for a man to suffer pain then to tast pleasure All his advantages are pernitious to him the remainders of innocency ingage him in sin and he cannot follow Adams tract without falling into his precipice thus ought he to suspect all his desires and all his hopes the good whlch flatters him deceives him what pleaseth him is fatall to him and to expresse in a word the irregularity which sin hath placed in his nature we must affirm that he is bound to fear what he hopes and to hope what he fears For fear abuseth us aswell as hope and she is unjust and unfaithfull when she paints forth evill to us like a Monster it may suffice us to suffer it when it hath happened without anticipating it by our apprehension That wisedome which foresees an evil and cannot divert it serves but to hasten it and a man had better be surprized by a disaster then fear it long this is not withstanding the usuall effect of fear she fore-runs our misfortunes under pretence of freeing us from them she indiscreetly engageth us in them and through a vain desire of making us more happy she oft-times makes us more miserable 't is thought that she makes up a part of our wisedome that she fore-sees not an evil save onely to prevent it that unlesse it were for fear of poverty we should not heap up riches that 't is fear of war which makes us raise strong holds and that if it were not for fear of famine we should not cultirate the ground But certainly she is vain in her fore-light and whosoever gives himself over to be guided by sotimerous a passion cannot live happily we forestall sorrow before it's birth we go to find it out before it seeks us we are ingenious in multiplying our misfortunes we fear disasters which will never happen we become the Ministers of our own punishments and we invent torments with the cruelty of executioners never dream'd off we are more befriended by fortune than by wisedome nay even when she hath vowed our undoing she deals more gently with us then fear doth An evil finds us already sunk when it sets upon us our fear takes from it the half of it's victory it wonders that she who fights against it should fight under it's colours and that whil'st she would destroy it's power she establisheth its Empire for 't is true she paints forth evill more terrible than it is she adds somewhat to it's il-favourednesse she never represents it to the life she is of the humour of those who give out no news without either disguising or augmenting them she being by nature melancholly fancies ever dreadfull visions to her self the evill which is neerest seems alwaies most dangerous to her she attributes much to our body and not consulting with reason she apprehends all things that can give against the senses she is not astonished at that sin which onely hurts the soul but the Punishment thereof which takes down the body doth frighten her Yet this kind of punishment is usefull to Christians They are sooner saved by sufferings than by pleasures they must change their feeling as well as their condition and remembring that they are fallen from the happy state of innocency they must no longer pretend to their past felicity neither yet complain of their present misery Evils are no longer to be complained of since they are become necessary though the name of punishment which they bear with them make them anxious to our senses yet the name of cure should make them pleasing to the understanding there is not any one of them whereof a man may not make a glorious vertue if death do not make all men Martyrs he may make holy victimes of them T is a favour to die since God hath been pleased to become mortall the punishments of our sins are turned into remedies that which was infamous to us by Nature is in Grace honourable and we would not change condition with Angels since not being able to die like us they cannot sacrifice their lives to Jesus Christ the maladies which prepare us for death do exercise our patience The great Apo stle grounded his glory in his weaknesses and not considering the advantages which he had being Master of the Gentiles he onely valued his infirmities which made the power of his deliverer appear Poverty is no moâ—e the opprobrie of men but the glory of Christians the Sonne of God did consecrate it both in his birth and death it is turned into an eccellent vertue since he hath been pleased to practice it though Aâ—dams poverty proceeded from his guilt most Christians become poor thereby to become innocent profiting by their losse they satisfie their Judge his Justice and revenge themselves of their Enemies hatred Fasting is a vertue which we have learn't at our own cost the barrennesse of the earth hath taught us abstinency we make a sacrifice of the Monster hunger and in the punishment of our disobedience we find a fence for our chastity As evils are profitable to those that suffer them 't is in vain that we fear them As Goods are fatall to those that possesse them 't is without reason that we wish for them The world hath changed it's face since man hath changed his condition if he will not undo himself he must fear what he hoped for and hope for what he feared Hee ought to be dismayed at riches since they may corrupt him and comforted with poverty since it may convert him death ought to be more precious to him than life since it is a sacrifice and he is bound to prefer pain before pleasure since the crosse of Jesus Christ was the rise of his salvation The second Discourse That Honour is no longer the recompence of Vertue THose who will praise honour and perswade us that she is the reward of vertue say with
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
it is a part of our selves In fine no reason can justifie despair the number of our enemies the evils of the present life the Good of the Future the cruelty of sicknesses rigour of servitude sweetnesse of liberty strength of Temptations nor the very fear of sin are not considerations sufficient to make us hasten our death 't is alwaies poornesse of spirit not to be able to suffer the evil which we will shun by Homicide Pride hath lesse part in this crime then weaknesse and whatsoever praise the desperate man expects for his attempt wise men will alwaies beleeve that if he had courage enough to bear the miseries of life he would never have had recourse to so cowardly a remedy Al the Fortitude of Philosophers is then but meer cowardise those wounds which despair impatience have made them give themselves deserve more blame then they have received praise a man cannot approve of their fault without becoming guilty thereof and when Seneca imploys his weak reasons to excuse Catoes murther he lets us see that he knew not wherein greatnesse of courage consisted since he made it consist in an action which is more familiar to women then men to slaves then to free persons and to weak than to strong spirits The eigth Discourse That Friendship without Grace is alwaies interessed IF the vertue of Pagans have her stains we must not wonder if their Friendship have her defaults sin hath corrupted the best things and her malice hath left almost nothing in man which doth not deserve reproach or punishment since a sinner is upon bad termes with God he cannot be upon good terms with himself nor with his Neighbour If he love himself t is in excesse and if he love another t is for interest his will being in the power of his enemie he can hardly make good use of it whatsoever he does he is in danger of sinning his love is not much more Innocent than is his hatred and be it that he loves his friends or hates his enemies t is with so little justice as he stands alwaies in need of pardon profane Philosophie prefers Friendship before vertue she gives her such praises as taste of Flattery and if we will beleeve her reasons she will perswade us that the joynt uniting of Hearts is the greatest contentment which man can partake of on Earth 'T is the knot of Society without which States cannot be preserved nor Families maintained Nature made this project in production of woman whom she drew from the rib of man to the end that the resemblance and equality which she placed between them might oblige them to love one another she renews this in brothers who proceed from the same Originall and who are shaped in the same womb to the end that all things may invite them to love Vertue endeavours to make this good more universal and seeing that nature did not give all men brethren she would give them Friends repair their losse with usury For though brothers proceed from the same stem they are not alwayes of the same Humour they differ often more in their Inclinations then in their Countenances but say there were any thing of resemblance in their humours the dividing of Estates divides hearts and Interest which hath to do every where doth many times ruine their best intelligence But Friendship more powerfull than Nature makes a paâ—ty between those whom she will unite the unity of hearts is that which makes all things common and the words Thine and Mine which sets division between Brethren cannot do the like between Friends Nature leaves us no choise in her alliances we are engaged before we be capable of choise and she oft-times makes us love a Monster because he is our Brother but friendship gives us a freedome of choise she permits us to take the best and we are onely to blame our own folly if in the liberty she leaves us we make choise of one for a friend who deserves not our affection Our Brethren are the workmanship of nature she did not advise with us when she gave them life and not having the care of producing them we delight not in preserving them But our friends are the children of our will we formed them when we chose them we think our selves concernedin their losse because we have laboured in the acquiring of them And as Mothers expose themselves for their Children because they are their workmanship so men expose themselves for their friends because they are their Productions But not to spend more time in observing the advantages which friendship hath over and above nature we must confesse there is nothing in the world which ought not to give place to friendship Law which preserves Estates which punisheth vice defends vertue is not equall to her neither for antiquity nor power Punishments nor rewards were never ordained ' till friendship began to coole whil'st she continued in full vigour the use of lawes was uselesse and the Politiques do confesse that States are better governed by good Intelligence amongst Subjects than by Ordinances of Princes the latter reforme onely the mouth or the hand impede onely bad actions or insolent speeches but the former reformes the heart and gliding into the will guides desires and regulates thoughts The Law ends differences but friendship reconciles enemies the law inhibits injuries but friendship adviseth good offices In fine the law is requifite to the commencement or initiation of a good man but friendship is required to his accomplishment and by her advice renders him perfect She is also of use to all sorts of Conditions and that man liues not that needs not a friend A friend is needfull to old men to assist them to young men to guide them to the miserable to comfort them to the ignorant to instruct them and to Kings themselves to increase their felicity For though their condition seem to be raised above that of all other men and that amidst the abundance of riches and honours wherewith they are environed there remains nothing for them to wish for yet ought they to make friends and endeavour a delight which agrees as well with Greatnesse as with Innocence Friendship is the best of all exteriour Goods and 't were unjust that Kings who possesse whatsoever else is of good should not possesse this Friendship obligeth us rather to give than to receive and Kings are in a condition wherein liberality is their principall vertue In fine happy Princes ought not to be solitary and I know not whether any one of them would accept of their felicity at the rate of living solitarily Therefore greatnesse doth not forbid friendship to Soveraignes that which seems to keep them aloofe off from this vertue draws them nearer to it and their power is never more pleasing than when imployed in succouring the miserable or in making men happy Neither do we see any Prince who hath not his Favourite The proudest Monarches