purity suffered some change thereby to revenge the outrages done to God amidst somany disorders nothing so much afflicted man as his domestick evills he defended himself frō wild beasts by force he gain'd the rest by wiles he saved himself from the Injuries of the Aire by Cloaths and houses He by his labour overcame the sterility of the earth he opposed dikes to the fury of the sea and if he could not calme the waves thereof he found means to overcome her stormes and to triumph over her tempests he invented Arts to allay the miseries of his life after having fenced himself from necessity he sought out pleasure he would occasion his happinesse from his losse as it were thereby to upbraid Gods Justice he changed one part of his paines into pleasures but he could not reform the disorders neither of soul nor body for all he could doe he could find no salve for the sicknesse of his soul and though his haughtines made him hope for help from Phylosophy he could never reconcile himself either to God or himself After having lost the knowledge of the true God he framed Idols to himself weary of having adored the workmanship of his hands he adored the workmanship of his fancy after having offered Incense to all Creatures he became his own Idolater and forgetting the shame of his birth the miseries of his life and the rigour of death he would have Temples and Altars When his madnesse would allow of any intermissions he acknowledged the the danger of his disease and forct thereunto by pain and shame he sought for remedies but self-love wherwith he was blinded rendered all his cares uselesse through a capricheousnesse which cannot be conceived he cherished the evils which afflicted him and preserving the desires which he had in his Innocency he would find the accomplishment thereof in his guiltinesse he was perswaded that he should find in himself what he had lost in God and that assisted by a vain Phylosophy he should make himself fortunate in the midst of his misfortunes Nothing did more crosse his Cure then this insolent belief and nothing did more offend the Grace of Jesus Christ then his confiding in his own reason and Liberty God permitted him to lament a long time to the end that he might be sensible at leasure of his maladie and Divine goodness deferr'd his deliverance only to make him confesse his faultiness he in vain laboured all that he could before he would be brought to cōfess his misery he sought for help from Nature before he would implore ayd from Grace he sought out all the means he thought fitting to Cure himself of so vexatious a Malady and had it not been for despair he had never found out the way to health but when he saw that Conquerors for all their power could not deliver him that Phylosophers could not by all their reasons Comfort him and that Orators could not lessen his evills by their words he betooke himself to God and the misery he indured made him know that nothing but the hand that had hurt him could heal him The third Discourse Of what kinde the first Sinne which ADAM committed was THe two first sins of the World are the most unknown and Divines which agree in so many differing subjects have not as yet been able to agree in this They know that the Angels and man are become Criminall but they know not what the nature of their fault is They know that both of them have violated the laws of God and that over-weaning their own perfections they have not sufficiently prized the perfections of their Creator they very well know that neither of them have preserved their Innocency and that weaknesse which is inseparable from the Creature hath been the cause of their Fall but they know not what name to give to this sinne nor under what degree to rank this crime which hath caused so much Mischeife Some think that the offence Committed by the Angel was so Generall as in the extent thereof it includes all other offences that he flew from God by all the wayes it was possible for him to estrange himself from him that using the utmost ofhis power he grew guilty ofall the wickednesse which so enlightned a spirit was capable of whence it is that the holy Scriptures to teach us the truth thereof terms his fault somtimes Murther sometimes Adultery sometimes Rebellion though man be not so Active as the Angel and that his soul confined within his body be slower in her operations yet there have been some Divines who hath given the same Judgment of both their sins and who have perswaded themselves that Adam by one only offence became guilty of all sins that the law which was proposed unto him conteining in it an Abridgment of all Laws he could not violate it without violating all the rest that his disobedience under one only name Comprehended all sins and that by one only attempt he Committed Adultery by failing in his fidelity to God Theft by taking a fruit which did not belong unto him Sacrilege by abusing his wil which was cōsecrated to God Paracide by occasioning death unto his soul and unto the souls of all his Children Though this be a strange opinion yet the worthinesse of the Author makes me put a valuation upon it for it is S. Augustine yet in the rigour of reason it is hard to conceive that manssoul had so much of sight as that in one sole action it committed so many sins These sins which are imputed to man are rather the effects then parts of his disobedience and if I may be permitted to speak my sense after the Chiefe of all Divines I should conceive that S Augustines design was rather to satisfie his eloquence then the truth and that making use of a figure which is so frequent amongst Orators he would aggravate Adams sin to make us detest it Some others have been of opinion that Pride was the sin of the Angel and of man that these two Noble Creatures puft up with their own perfections aspired after Divinity and that vain glory which is alwayes accompanied by blindnes had perswaded them that being already immortall they might easily make themselves Gods But I cannot think that such a thought could fall into the mind either of the Angell or of man they were induced with too much knowledge not to know that the Creature cannot equall the Creator in Majestie that the degrees of their separation are infinite and that wishes are never made for things absolutely impossible how could that desire of making himself God ever enter into the imagination of an Angell Since Theologie confesseth that they could never suspect the Mystery of the Incarnation and that without being enlightned by Glory or by Faith they never could have thought that God could make himself man or man become God other Divines have therefore rather chosen to believe that the Mysterie of the Incarnation was the occasion of
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
mean expression of his truth and but a false beame of his beauty To know him perfectly we must raise our selves above his workmanship to conceive his greatnesse we must rather oppose it to the creature then cōpare it there with all but concupiscence is the Lively Image of sin we see all the Linaments of the father in the Daughters face and she doth nothing wherein a man may not discerne the motions of the father I know that all our punishments are the pictures of our sins and God would have our Chastizement to be the Image of our offences but to take it aright every punishment expresseth but one only quality of sin the Heat which accompanieth fears represents only it 's immoderate heat to us blindness discovers only it's Ignorance The palsie which takes from us the use of our members figures onely out unto us it 's incapabilty of doing good deafness declares only it's obstinacy unto us and death it self which is sins most rigorous punishment represents to us only the death of the soul and the losse of Grace But Concupiscence is a finisht picture which hath all the Colours and Linaments of sin she hath all its wicked Inclinations is Capable of all its Impressions accomplisheth all it's Designes and this unfortutunate Father can undertake nothing which his daughter is not ready to Execute But one only name not being sufficient to expresse all the wickednesse thereof the Fathers have been fain to invent divers names to decypher out unto us the different effects of a Cause which is as fruitfull as fatall Saint Augustine according to Saint Paul terms her the Law and Counsellor of sin Reason was mans Counsellor and in the state of innocency he undertooke nothing but by her advice when sin had weakned Reason and that the darknesse thereof had Clouded the the luster of it's Eternall light God gave him the written Law for a Counsellor and Ingraved those truths in Marble which he had formerly ingraven in his heart Great men formed no designe before they had Consulted with this visible Law and David with all his illuminations protests that the law of God was the best part of his Councell it was the morall Phylosophers wherin the learn'd vertue it was his Politicks and were he either to Conduct his subjects or to fight his enemies he learnt the knowledge both of peace and war in the mysteries of the Law but the sinner hath no other law then Concupiscence he is advised by one that is blind and unfaithfull he executes nothing without her orders he is brought to this extremity That his Counsellor is Pensioner to his Enemies Reasons self is a slave to this perfidious Officer she sees only through her eys and after having well debated a businesse she forsakes better advice to follow the pernicious Counsell of one that is blind who is absolutely the Devils Purchase and who holds Continuall Intelligence with sin When he is weary of perswading us he Chides us when we have received his advice he signifies his Commands unto us and having deceived us as a perfidious Counsellor he torments us as a merciless Tyrant Counsellours never work upon us but by their Reasons they never make use of violence to oblige us to receive their advice and they oftentimes foregoe their own opinions to receive ours if they think them better but Concupiscence is a furious Officer who makes use of Force when Perswasion will not prevail This Tyrant is more insuportable then those who formerly comanded in Greece whō the Orators of that Country have charg'd with so many just opprobries For these Enemies to mankind exercised their cruelty only upon the body and assubjected to their power only the leastpart of man Whosoever valued not theirown lives might make himself Master of theirs and who feared not death might deride their violence but this Tyrant whereof I speak exerciseth his fury upon the spirits he blots out the remembrance of all vertue from out his memory he darkens the understandingwith his mysts oppresseth the will by his violence and leaveth only a languishing liberty in the souls which he possesseth This Monster which had only the faces of men were not alwaies in the Company of their subjects their absence was a truce of servitude some private Closets were to be found where one might tast the sweet of liberty A man might meet with a freind before whom he might lay his heart open and though freindship had been banished from off the heart Compassion would have made it revive for his Consolation T was in these private Conferences that the death of Tyrants was Conspired the parties safety joyned to the desire of liberty caused the Conception of the designes and the desires of glory put it in execution But Concupiscence never parts from sinners this Tyrant keeps his Court in the midst of their wills he hath raised a throne in their hearts He finds so much of obedience and weaknesse in his slaves as he knows they cannot shake of the yoke of his Tyranny without forreign Ayd these publike plagues could not make themselves be beloved in their states though they left some shadows of Liberty they could not win their subjects Hearts there faults were always repaid with publike Hatred and the Necessity they had to make themselves feared was not the least punishment of their Injustice they grew weary of being the Horror of their people and if they could have made themselves be beloved they would have ceased making themselves feared but their subjects were so Incenst against them as to keep them in respect t was necessary to keep them in awe and since they could not purchase their love to resolve to merit their Hatred but though Concupiscence be the cruellest of all Tyrants yet hath she found the secret of making her self be beloved all her subjects reserues their Loyalty even in persecution they are pleased with the pains they undergoe Torments are not able to make them wish for liberty let them be neuer so ill dealt with all by their unjust Sovereign they never blame his cruelty And though they be the most unfortunate slaves of all the world they cease not to be the faithfullest lovers In fine to put an end to this discourse These Tyrants do not allways vex their subjects with angersome Commands all there decrees are not unjust their polluted mouthes have sometimes pronounced Oracles and the Graecian Phylosophers have registred their words who had bereft them of their liberty the Dionsii made laws which the Politicians reverenced their Ordinances were able to instruct legitimate Princes and they have uttered maximes which may serve us for instructions But all the commands made by Concupiscence are unjust all her orders are sin one cannot obey her without blame and to speak in Saint Augustines language a man cannot follow the motions of Concupiscence without contesting against the motions of grace nor can a man live at full liberty unlesse he
Impression in our souls Pride is so well engraven therein as we in our sad Condition continue the coveting after all those greatnesses which we did possess whilest innocent We perswade our selves that we are Princes because our Father was so We will have Nature to obey us because she bore respect to his will and we think that all honours are due to us because he enjoyed them in the Earthly Paradice Death which is the reward of sin cannot be the cure thereof the Creatures revolt cannot perswade us that we have lost the Empire of the world and the sicknesses which do alter our Tempers cannot teach us that the Elements are our enemies but Concupiscence teacheth us humility this insolent Mistris teacheth us obedience and her frequent rebellions makes us know that we are no longer Masters of our selves by two contrary Motions she inspires us with Pride and teacheth us modesty she fils us with courage and makes us know our weaknesse she incites us against Heaven and obligeth us to implore the assistance thereof In fine she wounds and cures us at the same time and like to those prepared poysons whereof Medicines are made she is the antidote of al our evils For who is so proud a Prince as doth not humble himself when hee sees he is less absolute in his person then his state that his Passions are more rebellious then his subjects that there goes more to tame them then to reduce Rebels to obedience and that though reason super-intend in his soul she hath irrationall subjects who despise her Authority Saint Augustine confesseth that this Punishment is as shamefull as cruell and of as many Irregularities as sin hath produced in men hee findes none more infamous then Concupiscence She makes us also see the unfortunate state of our condemnaâ—n and even in the State of Grace she presents unto us the Condition of sin for we are divided between Adam and Jesus Christ we belong to two Masters we are the Members of two opposite Commanders and we the Children of two Fathers that war one against the other Wee holâ— still with Adam according to the flesh wee follow his Inclinations and in Christian Religion we forbeare not to obâ—y his will his sin hath made such an Impression in our soul as we continue to bear about with us all the marks of his Rebellion and unlesse we contend against our senses we find by experience that our desires are the Pictures of his All our sins are so many undertakings against the Authority of God we will be Independent in our Government we will tast delights unmingled with bitternesse and have knowledge â—exempt from errour we still seek after the effects of those abusive promises which the wicked Fiend made unto us and pretend in the depth of our Miseries to arrive at the height of greatnesse from whence we are faln thus doth Adams sin triumph yet in our souls and this Father which is dead so many ages ago lives yet in his Children T is true that according to the spirit we belong to the only Son of God his Grace is shed abroad throughout our hearts we work by his Motions if we be inanimated by his spirit and we desire to kill Adam that Jesus Christ may live in his place but this is but a languishing life we are but imperfect works Grace meets always with contradictions in her designs and the soul being engaged in the bodies rebellion hath very much ado to submit her self to the Spirit of God We wait for the day of resurrection to the end that Jesus Christ may be the Father both of our body and soul and that the two parts whereof we are Composed may submit themselves to his will We wish that death may bereave us of all that Adam gave us and to the end that Jesus Christ may reign absolutely in our Soul we desire that our soul may be loosened from the sinfull body which she inanimates from thence derive the opposite motions which divide the greatest Saints from thence arise those contrary desires which divide their wils from thence finally proceeds those differing inclinations which do so diversly agitate them and which teach them that though they be Subjects to the Empire of Grace they are not notwithstanding freed from the Tyranny of sin t is true that they Comfort themselves amidst their misfortune When they consider that they are not made guilty by the motions of Concupiscence save when they are voluntary and that Baptisme which hath left them languishing hath not left them Criminall for our revolts are not always sins if our will approve not of them they are rather Subjects of Glory then Confusion The disorders of our Passions become not offences save when they draw along our consent as long as the soul opposeth the disorders of the senses she is innocent and as long as she surpasseth Sorrow and Anger if she do not triumph she is at least victorious He who looks Pale and sigheth is not always overborn with Feare or Sorrow he whose colour riseth when he is offended is not always overcome by choller These Passions must be voluntary to be Criminall and to be really tearmed sins they must pass from the body to the soul he who trembleth is not affraid if he will not Commit some base act he who weeps is not sad if he will wipe away his tears he who finds Anger to arise in him is not irritated if he endeavour to quench his flames and amidst all these Passions a man may boast that he is void of fear Grief and Anger if his will goe not along with their motions by all this discourse a man may easily gather that Concupiscence may be made good use of by the Faithfull and that if of her own Inclination she be the root of all vice when conducted by Grace she may become the seed of all vertues The tenth Discourse That Gods Iustice hath permitted that Man should be divided within himself for the punishment of his sin THe Phylosopher Seneca being desirous to make it known that Destiny hath no share in the Worlds Government and that whatsoever accidents befall us in the Course of our life are guided by a Sovereign Providence vaunted that he had undertaken a work which was not difficult since hee therein pleaded Gods cause and that he had the honour to defend it Me thinks I may begin this Discourse in his words and boast together with him that the businesse I undertake is not very hard since I plead in the behalfe of the Justice of God and that I go about to free it from the out-rages which it receives from so many foul mouthes which accuse Gods Justice for leaving so many wicked men unpunished I very well know that the unfortunate Innocent have complained of these and that without dis-regard to the respect which is due to the Justice of God they have often desired that God would be more speedy in his Punishments
body composed only of Light and Heat But Christian Religion teacheth us that she is a spirit created by God in time infused into a body to inanimate it the spring head of Motion and Life and that in her noblest operations she stands in need of her salves Organes to operate withall Light is in some sort naturall to her in her understanding she comprehends the Principles of all Sciences her will hath in it the seed of all vertue the senses are so many Messengers which informe her with whatsoever passeth in the world and by their faithfull reports teach her those truths which she was ignorant of t is true that there are some truths which are rather infused into her then acquired by her and which Nature hath so powerfully imprinted in her Essence as Errours self cannot deface them she without an Instructer knows there is but one God she preserves this belief in the midst of Superstition in this point she is Christian even when Infidell whilst she offers Incense to her Idols she trusts in him who seeth all things and after having invoked Saturn and Iupiter she implores ayd from him whom her Conscience tels her is the true Creator of Heaven and Earth she is ignorant of the fall of Devils and by the hatred which she bears unto them makes it appear that she is not ignorant of their guile whilst she is possessed with these Tyrants she ceaseth not to think upon her lawfull Sovereign and sin which hath not been able to destroy her Nature c could not deface her knowledge nor her love she loves God though she offends him all the tyes she hath to these perishable things are the remainders of that Naturall Inclination and because every Creature is an Image of it's Creator she cannot see them without being in some sort transported the shadow of God awakens her flame but having neither light nor heat enough to raise her self up to him she remains engaged on the earth and by a strange blindnesse she forgets the Summum Bonum to fasten her self to his Picture she presageth her misfortune before she hath any knowledge thereof she prophesieth it before she disputes and when she first enters into the world she witnesseth by her tears that she hath some sense of her miseries as soon as she hath by her cryes saluted the Sun she teacheth those that understand her that she very well knows the earth is the seat of misery and that one cannot live long there without suffering much sorrow When age indues her with the use of Reason she doth not lose the use of Prophecie her dreams serves for presages The Heavens whilst she is at rest advertize her of her disasters and the Angels treating with her in a condition wherein she cannot treat with men acquaints her with the good and bad successes of her enterprizes she makes out salleys which cause men to believe that though she be fastened to the body yet she is not a Prisoner for when she pleaseth she abandons the senses and collects her self that she may be the lesse interrupted in her Meditations she seeks for knowledge in the Center of her essence and as if she did complain of the sights Infidelity or the ears sloath she endeavours to learn at home within her selfe what she cannot find out in the world in effect she would be very ignorant if she knew nothing but what she learns from her Officers for as they are but the Organes of the body they can only observe the qualities of the objects and can only inform their Sovereign of the lustre of Colours the diversity of sounds and of the varities of smels but when she withdraws within her self she knows subsistances she treats with spirits and raising her self-above all things created she forms unto herself certain Ideas of a Divinity Nay she is an Image thereof and it seems God took pleasure to draw his own Picture in the soul of man and to make us admire in this chief work of his power the unity of his Nature and the Plurality of his Persons for though this spirit be engaged In Materia and that it works differently according to the severall Organes of the body that it digests meat by naturall heat converts it into bloud by means of the Liver distributes it into all parts by the veins and by a miraculons Metamorphosis gives a hundred severall shapes to the same food yet is it not divided and representing the unconceivable unity of God it is Tota in Toto Tota inqualibet parte Thus the soul conteins that which seems to inclose her she lends her hoast house room she upholds her house she inanimates her Sepulchre and this Created Divinity is so great as she Circumscribes the Temple wherein she makes her residence This admirable unity agrees with a Trinity of powers which makes the soul an excellent Image of God for she hath an active understanding which conceives all things a happy memory which records them and an absolute will which disposeth of them she knew the highest of our miseries by reflecting on her self before Faith had revealed unto her the procession of the Divine persons Nature had given her some glimmering thereof by studying what she found to be in her self she learnt what was in God and seeing that she conceived a word in her understanding and a love in her will she had no trouble to comprehend that the father begot a Sonne and that the Sonne together with the Father produced a Holy Ghost Plato who had read no other book then that of his own soul guest at these Truths Trismegistus who had only learn'd these lights out of the bosome of Nature had some weak knowledge of the mysteries and we are bound to confess that neither the one nor the other would ever have known the Divine Originall had they not seriously considered the copy As the soul is the shadow of the divine Essence it shares in part of his highest perfections her light is not obscured by her Prison the body which is formed but of earth doth not derogate from her Nobility nor Power and death which threatens the House wherein she lives injures not her Immortality she is knowing in the midst of obscurity Absolute amidst the revolt of her Subjects Immortall in the bosome of death it self the senses which endeavour to seduce her by their unfaithfull reports cannot abuse her and let them use what foul play they please she hath always light enough to discover their Imposture she corrects their errours and when she will make use of her own rights she finds Counsellors in the Basâ— of her being who convince these faithless Officers of fals-hood she finds oft times lesse resistance in her body then in her self one only Act of her will makes the eyes open the arms be lifted up and the legs go these parts are so obedient to her commands as they never resist when in health their Rebellion ariseth
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
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
effects of Concupiscence they divide man now become guilty and though they agree in the bereaving him of his liberty yet they share in the division of his person Voluptuousnesse or the love of pleasure resides in the senses and reigns in all the parts of the body which are capable of delight the soul engageth her self in the eyes and ears to tast the contentments which these two senses can wish for she renounceth spirituall delights to seek out such as are sensuall and as if she were now no longer a pure spirit she longs after nothing but bodily delights Necessity is no longer the rule of her desires she betakes her self no more to objects for that they are necessary but for that they are pleasing Temperance useth her utmost endeavour to withstand this irregularity she endeavours to passe by all voluptuousnesse without any stay and to make use of such remedies as Nature hath ordained for the cure of our maladies without the engagement of her affâ—ctions but Concupiscence overthrows all her designes and by the absolute power whereby she governs in the soul she solicits her to tast all the pleasures of our senses The soul being faln from her first greatnesse seems then to cease being spirituall that she may become Corporall that she partake no longer in the felicity of Angels and that she no longer pleased with any delights save such as are sensuall and impure This is the first contestation which those faithfull ones resent who will overcome Concupiscence and t is the frequentest piece of Art which the Devil makes use of to destroy men the souls alliance with the body favours his design and makes his on-sets more dangerous mens weakness facilitates their undoing and there are very few who are able to overcome an enemy which is pleasing to them If they were to chuse the Combat they would rather charge grief then pleasure and by their sighing under the burthen of their Irons one may easily judge that they are only slaves to pleasures because they want courage to despise it This Temptation is so much more dangerous then others as it is more naturall To vanquish it a man must have no more a body and changing condition with Angels hee must become a pure spirit but to boot with our loving this part of our selves the occasions of Combats are so frequent as we are oft in one and the same day both Conquerours and conquered the subjects of vain glory are not so common if we be blinded by our imaginarie greatnesse we are humbled by our reall miseries and we must have forgotten the shame of our birth if we glory in any thing during our life Though the desire of knowledge awakens our curiosity and that the very ignorance whereinto we are plunged obligeth us to seek out a diversion in the knowledge of worldly things yet the difficulties which accompanies Science makes us lose our longing after it We love rather to be kept in ignorance then to be freed therof by study we cannot resolve upon the getting of a fleece where the Pains exceeds the Glory and where the Reward equals not the Labour but Voluptuousnesse is as easie as delightfull it presents it self unsought for and is received without difficulty if we must fight for it t is when Jealousie or Ambition makes themselves of the Partie and that they Corrupt the sweetnesse of our delights by the vain-Glory of their designes and moreover Nature having mingled delight with all her remedies we must always stand upon our guard that we build not our felicity one things which she gives us only for our Consolation It is hard to discern whether we eat more out of Pleasure or necessity a man must be very moderate to seek for nothing more in sleep then the refreshing of the body and the repairing of our forces we must have already made many a Combat to effect nothing more in Marriage then the preservation of our Families thus do great Saints confess t is easier to bereave ones self of Pleasures then to regulate them and that there goes more of worth to moderate these pleasing Enemies then to stifle them t is easier to fast then to feed sparingly of dainty viands and the good use of riches is more rare then voluntary Poverty Mans mind is busied with Curiosity or the love of Novelty which is so much the more dangerous by how much it appears more lawfull knowledge which is not the least part of our Advantages takes the freedome to perswade us that there is nothing more Noble then Cognizance of Nature she thinks to offer up an acceptable sacrifice to God when she losing our senses from delight that she may engage in the search of Truth so fair a pretext serves for excuse to her Injustice and because knowledge is the souls Ornament she will have all things allowed thereunto no bounds being prescribed to her desires not laws unto her sury From the secrets of Nature she easily passeth to Impiety for she consults with the Stars that she may know what 's to come and if their Aspects or Conjunctions do not sufficiently instruct her she raiseth up Spirits treats with Devils and of an uselesse Science frames a dangerous superstition The Amphitheaters of past ages the Circi and the Arenae are the inventions of this desire of Novelty Dauncing and other Sports are not so much the occupations of the Idle as the diversions of the Curious t is the desire of seeing somewhat of new which draws us forth with multitudes into the fields and all these fashions which we invent are rather signes of our Curiosity then of our vanity This Passion is much more violent then that of voluptuousnesse for the latter is easily contenten and destroying her self by enjoying her own delights turns often to be her punishments but the other is never contented remedies imbitter her violence and the earth is not able to satisfie her with Novelties the Passion of the flesh extends it self only to pleasures as soon as an object ceaseth to be pleasing she scorns to pursue it and the voluptuous have this advantage as that they see all their desires confined with the limits of delights but the Curious mingle Pain with Pleasure and agree these two contraries together to entertain their restlesnesse they try poysons under pretence of composing Antidotes they dissect the dead under colour of curing those that live they teare up the bowels of the earth to learne secrets thereout and goe down to the depths of the Sea to know the wonders thereof There is nothing which may not be come at by the fury of so Irregular a Passion which hath nothing of equitable in her disorder save that she is the Eternall Punishment of those that love her Innocency and sin may have been the originall thereof Innocency because whilst in that condition man knew all that with justice he could wish for Sin because he would know more then he ought and that discovering his
rather from Infirmity then malice if her subjects forget their duty they are never the first Authors of disorder the tongues diligence in expressing her thoughts exceedeth belief the eyes makes prodigious hast to bring her news and the ears as lazie as they are are wonderfully faithfull in informing her of what they understand the hands invent a thousand means to content her the five branches whereof they are Composed are the mothers of all Arts and they are so affectionate to their Sovereign as she hath no sooner design'd any thing but these industrious officers do forth-with faithfully execute it Nature would be jealous of their labours did she not know that their Power is boūded and that for all they can do to imitate her they can neither give life nor motion to their workmanship in fine the soul which governs them so dexterously and which seems to foregoe all the other parts of the body to inanimate them loseth half her Power when she hath no hands and this high and mighty Sovereign seems to execute her greatest designs by the means of these faithfull confederates As she is absolute in her servitude she is immortall in her grave and all the atteints which sicknesse gives her cannot trouble her rest if she apprehend Pain t is because the body that she inanimates resents it if she fear death t is because it destroys her Mansion and if she seem to be moved or affraid t is because she loves the slave that would foregoe her the knowledge she hath of her own Immortality makes her rest quiet she takes delight in entertaining her self with thought of the life which must succeed this life she sees far into ages that are to come she ordains things which must not be accomplished till after her departure she is very jealous of her honour and knowing very well that death which will destroy her body shall not ruine her she endeavours to do Actions for which she shall suffer no reproach in the other world her cares which extend themselves beyond the precincts of time are proofs of her Immortality and the Paision she hath for Glory witnesseth that she is not ignorant of the happinesse which is prepared for her in Heaven when the moment wherein she is to make her entrance thereinto approacheth and that she is ready to be divorced from her body she operates with a new strength she sees things with more light all her words are Oracles it seems that freeing her self from Materia she becomes a pure spirit and that having no further Commerce with men she treats invisibly with Angels her last endevours are usually the greatest she gathers strength out of her bodies weaknesse and death destroys her Prison only to set her at liberty she beginsto tast the sweet of Heaven and she looks upon parting from the earth as upon the end of her servitude I should be too tedious if I would perticularize in all the souls advantages the rest of this discourse must be imployed in shewing what out rages she receiveth from sin for as soon as she took up her lodging she became slave to the body she lost her Power when she lost her Innocence when she ceased to obey she ceased to command and as if obedience had been the foundation of all her greatnesse rebellion was the cause of her miseries of all the cognizances whichwere together with Grace infused into her none remain'd in her but doubts and jealousies which makes her as oft embrace fals-hood as truth though she know God she adores the workmanship of his hands her enlightnings detein her not from engaging her self in errour and the great Inclination which she hath for the Summum Bonum doth not estrange her from the love of perishable things she is the Image of God and ceaseth to resemble him she expresseth his greatnesse and doth no longer imitate his vertues she conserves the Trinity of her power in the unity of her essence yet cannot conceive one God in three Persons she makes and Idol unto her self of every Creature all that pleaseth her seem Gods unto her her Interest is the soul of her Religion her love ariseth from fear she adores whatsoever she fears and unlesse the God which she serveth had thunders wherewithall to punish her she would have no victimes to load his Altars withall Her Punishment is the Picture of her offence she meets with rebellion in her slave the conspiracy of all the parts of her body is generall her senses do seduce her Her Passions do torment her her Imagination troubles her and her subjects do despise her she sees her self obliged to encourage their disorders to give life to Rebels which justle her Authority to nourish up monsters which rend her in peices and to arme souldiers which plunder her estate but nothing ads more unto her Pain then the love which she bears her enemy for though he prosecute her she cannot resolve to hate him dares not make War against him without assistance from heaven this Traitor is so full of cunning as he makes himself be beloved by her whom he abuseth she is sensible of all the evils that he endures and as if her pain arose from her love she never ceased to suffer since she began to love him she apprehends her slaves miseries more then her own she fears death more then sin she is more affraid of ruine then of falshood and as if this inclination had changed her Nature she desires no other good nor dreads no other evill then what is sensible Musick charms her discontents Pictures serve her for a diversion she is pleased with smels and the greatest part of her delights consists in what contents her senses by a sequell as shamefull as necessary she is burnt by Feavers pained by the Gout weakened by sicknesse and whatsoever hurteth her body abaseth her courage After the Injuries which she hath received from this domestick enemy It is hard to judge which of the two hath juster cause of complaint for each of them seem to be equally guilty and that the one and the other of them are the mutuall cause of their displeafures In Adam sin arose from the soul but in his Children it draws it's birth from the flesh and in the most part of their errours t is the senses which seduce them Pleasures which corrupt them sorrows which keep them love and passions which tyrannize over them Thus our misfortunes drive equally from these two and if the soul made our first father guilty It is the body which makes his Children unfortunate yet must we avow that the soul is the greater Delinquent in us as well as in him for if she have no freedom to defend her self against Originall sin and if necessity may excuse a misfortune which is not voluntary she is more guilty then the body because she commits so many faults with delight stays not for being solicitated by the senses and that by a blind Impetuosity
and sustein his weaknesse He could not unite himself to God without her assistance and whatever of Noble he had received from Nature Grace was necessary for him to fix himself to this Summum Bonum but not being as yet hurt by sin this aide did sufficiently fortifie him this grace without giving him remedies did only furnish him with strength to love and know Primam veritatem This grace was assubjected to his liberty as he might use it so also might he abuse it so as his happinesse depended on his will but since sin wounded his soul since maladie is joyned to weaknesse since irregularity is glided into Nature and that the will which was only weak is become sick a grace was requisite which might rather be a remedie then a help and which should pertake more of Medicine then of nourishment In innocencie 't was sufficient to raise man but in sin he must be cured in innocencie there needed no more but to sustein his Liberty but in sin it must be healed in innocencie 't was enough to lead man the way but in sin he must be put again into the right way In the State of innocencie he needed only to be succoured but in the State of sin the chains which keeps him from operating must be untied and broken A man to whom Nature hath given good eyes cannot see without light but if the Sun lighten him he discerns objects and not demanding other help he sees all the beauties which this constellation can discover unto him but if a defluxion weaken his eyes the light of the Sun offends him if the spot be already formed the ocuâ—t must use his industry to take it away and to restore him to his sight must cure his Maladie In the State where into sin hath reduced us Adams grace would be of no use to us all those glorious advantages which our Father possest in the Stâ—te of innocency could not deliver us his Grace was succour to a man in health but ours is Medicine for a sick man Originall righteousnes indued him with strength Christian righteousnes gives us life originall righteousnes heightned his will and Christian Grace frees ours Adam was vigorous and we languish he was free and we are slaves for the tyrant which doth possesse us keeps us inchained he hath made chains of our affections and as to make a Captive walk you must break the Irons wherewith his feet are fettered so to make a sinner operate the cords must be broken wherewith his will is inthralled After having discovered the nature of his sicknes we must finde out the cause and seek by what excesse he hath faln into this Misfortune Physicians oft-times judge of the quality of sicknes by its originall and the disorder from whence it arose makes them finde out a cure for it Man lost his liberty only for loving it too much he is become a slave only because he would be too free and he hurld himself into a miserable servitude only for that he desired to shun a Glorious one In grace aswell as in policie servitude is joyned to liberty and to be a true freeman a man must be a voluntary slave In kingdoms we finde our liberty in our obedience and our submission to our Soveraignes will is the rice of our felicity those who think to better their condition by revolting are oft undone by their rebellion and fal from their legitimate greatnesses for having sought after unjust ones so in the kingdom of God mans glory consists in obedience his liberty depends on his submission and that he may command overall Creatures he must obey his Creatour This glorious servitude was the originall of all his greatnesse he reigned in the world by serving God he found perfect Liberty in his faithfull submission and whilst that his will was subject to the will of God he met with no revolts neither in his person or in his dominions but when abused by the Devil and egg'd on by a vain desire of reigning by himself he would shake of his first Sovereignes yoke he lost his liberty by desiring to increase it thinking to make himself Master he became a slave he forged out chaines of iron to himself out of a desire to break silken cords and lost the command he had in the world by forgoing the respect he owed to his Creatour It was very fitting doubtles that he should be thus treated the heinousnes of his crime did wel deserve this severe punishment for what could a Rebel expect but a shamefull servitude what ought a perfidious man to expect but sedition in his State and what could a guilty person look for but to have his passions revolt and to lose his Liberty Unhappy Adam What didst thou want in that happy condition whereinto thy Sovereign had raised thee what just wishes could thy soul make which it might not have accomplished in obedience All Creatures adored thee the beams of thy countenance infused both fear and love into them God made himself visible in thy person Angels treated familiarly with thee they assumed bodies to satisfie thy senses these pure spirits became sensible that they might be pleasing to thy eyes they left Heaven to converse with thee on earth and they begana commerce here below which they were to continue in glory the earth reverenced thy footsteps the sea bore respect to thy words all the Elements did adore thy power and savage Beasts which persecute us changed their fury into fear when they came nigh thee mightest not thou have bounded thy desires in so happy a condition and without listning to the Devil who envied thy happinesse was it not sufficient for thee to have the beasts for thy slaves the Elements for thy subjects Angels for thy companions and only God for thy Sovereign Pride was thy fault misery was thy punishment Liberty was thy desire and servitude thy reward Thou wouldst reign Independant thou livest now under tyranny thy punishment is the Picture of thine offence thy childrens misfortune upbraids thee with the quality of thy crime they are slaves only because thou wert a Rebel they grown under their Irons only because thou couldst not live under thy Sovereignes Laws T is true that their imprudency excuseth thy impiety for they love thy chains they glory in their servitude they follow thy evil examples uncompelled they delight to est range themselves from God they commit wickednesse with cherfulnesse their servitude is voluntary because they are pleased with it since they will wear their chaines it shews they are delighted in them and to the end it may be known they offend Heaven willingly they adde voluntary faults to that naturall sin which they are guilty of in their birth The tenth Discourse That evill Habits bereave the will of her Liberty by ingaging her in Evill THough corrupted Nature may be termed a bad Habit and and that all men who descend from Adam have a naturall
vertue is a solid good who ever possesseth her may vaunt to have in her immortall riches true Honours and innocent delights T is the way which Nature teacheth us to mount to Heaven by the means which she furnisheth us with all to make our selves like God without sin and of so many things which we seek after there is none but Vertue which can procure us that happinesse We ought not to hope for riches since God hath nothing but himself and that he hath not made the world so much for his use as for his Glory we ought not to wait for reputation since he is unknown since the greatest part of praises that are given him are blasphemies and that the Libertines do unpunisht condemn his providence T is not in fine in the Number of our Followers that our Felicity consists since God lived without Subjects before he made the world and that of as many happy spirits that do wait upon him there was not any one neer him before the Creation of the Universe His Glory wholly consists in his own greatnesse and without heightening himself by the Splendor of his workmanship or number of his slaves he finds his happinesse in his Essence Thus Vertue is the proper good of man he is rich enough if he be vertuous he despiseth the praises of the world and finds himself satisfied with the Testimony of his Conscience he seeks for no other pleasure than what he finds in doing his duty and as God would not cease to be happy though he should ruin the world the wise man would not cease to be content if though he lost his family he preserved his vertue he needs not care for his body though it be the Organe of his soul and without drawing any advantage either from his strength or comlinesse he onely values that Good which neither fortune nor death can bereave him of T is an errour to imagine that the bodies beauty contributes to that of the soul and that Vertue appears the more pleasing for being lodged in a handsome personage as a great man may come forth of a little village so a great spirit may proceed from a deformed body and Nature oft-times fastens il-favour'dnesse to Vertue to teach us that we ought to love her onely for herself for he is unjust who considers the ornaments which do imbellish her and who not regarding the excellencies which she keeps inclosed within her self amuseth himself in considering the Pomp which doth environ her This great Princesse is so high spirited as she cannot tolerate a rivall she is angry when she is sought after for the pleasure which doth accompanie her and likes not such lovers as only serve her that they may by her reap profit or Glory She will be her self the recompence of their labours and though she promiseth them innocent contentments and true riches she will be the onely motive of their search Her beauty well deserves this respect and he is yet ignorant of her worth who loves her onely out of Interest We must never ask what she promiseth us since she gives us her self We must not looke upon her hands but upon her countenance nor must we consider her favours but her desert she is lovely enough though she appear without ornaments glorious enough though without a Train sufficiently magnificent though without splendor and liberall enough though she promise us nothing when she cals us If there go courage to fighting under her Banners there goes glory to dye in her quarrell and as souldiers love that Prince for whom they will powre out their bloud and glory in the hurts they receive in his service Wise men love that Vertue for which they lose their lives and Glory in the outrages which they receive in her defence their minds are not altereed by ill successe when their souls issue forth by their wounds they by their mouth publish her praises and having been her servants they rejoyce to be her Martyrs Her beauty doth well deserve this Fidelity for in whatsoeve condition we shall consider her she is so full of allurements as he who hath a heart must love her How Generous is she when undet the name of Fortitude she despiseth whatsoever causeth Fear in man when without pale looks she assails death provokes pain and wins the victory over all those angersome accidents which intrench upon mans Liberty how sacred is she when under the name of friendship she in sinuates her self into their hearts and inspires them with such courage as they can neither be astonished with threats nor corrupted with bribes burn us cry they when inanimated by this vertue invents new Torments we will never betray our friends the more Pain shall endevour to wrest our thougts from us the more carefull will we be to conceal them and to deserve the names of Faithfull though it cost us our lives How delightfull is she when under the name of Temperance she commands over all sensualities chaseth away such as are Impudent moderates those which are irregular when she fits our desires to our need and foregoing all superfluous things contents her self with necessaries How sweet is she when under the name of humanity she becomes affable to all the world when she forbids us to raise our selves above our equals commands us not to be severe to our Inferiours when she perswades us that another mans mischeif can never redound to our advantage and that we receive Glory by what is advantagious to our Neighbour How full of charms is she when under the name of Clemency she Pardon 's the guilty spares anothers Bloud as her own when she converts the Criminall by her mildnesse and by her goodnesse comforts the miserable wee must also confesse she is as well the ornament of our body as of our soul and that there are no charms like those which we borrow from Vertue See you not what life Fortitude puts into our eyes what Majesty wisedom makes appear in our behaviour with what sweetnesse Modesty doth season our words what a pleasing blush shamefac'tnesse drives into our forehead and what a Serenity a good conscience causeth in our countenances Truly if women knew how much vertue doth inhaunce beauty they would be vertuous that they might be baeutifull and without corrupting Nature by Paint they mould make use of no other red than that of shamefac'tnesse of no other white than that of Innocency of no other Majesty than that of Justice of no other sweetnesse than that of Clemency nor of no other pomp than that of modesty but the mischief is we are more carefull in acquiring Glory than vertue and labour more to make our name famous than our souls innocent we despise the testimony of our Conscience and seek for the peoples approbation and preferring appearances before Truth we do not greatly care to be vertuous so as we may have the reputation of being so One cannot notwithstanding merit this glorious
shun an ill step or two she falls into a precipice This misfortune may be observed upon a thousand occasions but particularly in what concerns the body of man for some seeing the unrulinesse thereof could not beleeve that it was the workmanship of God and falling insensibly into an Errour perswaded themselves that the Devil was the author thereof some others thinking to withstand this heresie fall into another and considering the beauties of the body thought that it still retained its first purity that the faults thereof were perfections and that all the motions thereof might be represt by free-will without grace The Catholick truth walks in the midst between these two errours condemning the Manichees she acknowledgeth that mans body is made by God enlivened by his breath and fastened to the soul by invisible chaines to make one and the same whole condemning the Pelagians she confesseth that mans body hath lost its innocencie that sin reigns in the members thereof that it infecteth the soul which inanimates it and that the well fare thereof which begins in Baptisme will not be accomplisht till the last generall resurrection Thus God is the Author thereof and 't is a marke of ' its Goodnesse Jesus Christ is the redeemer thereof and 't is a mark of it's corruption I therefore am obliged to part this subject into two discourses the first of which shall contain the bodyes plea the other its condemnation Though the body be the least part of man and that it be Common to him with beasts yet hath it advantages which make it sufficiently known that it is destin'd to be the organ of an immortall soul. For the members thereof are so artificially formed as we cannot judge whether they be more usefull or more pleasing their number causeth no confusion their difference augments their beauty and their proportion gives the last touch to the work which they all together make up All of them have their particular employments they mutually assist one another without intrenching one upon another they hold such intelligence as their good and bad is common the tongue serves for interpreter to the whole body the eyes serve it for a guide the hands for its servants the ears for informers and the leggs for supporters Some of them are in perpetuall motion and never rest Action is their life and rest their death whilest the eyes are lull'd asleep the ears closed up and whilest the feet and hands lie fallow the heart is always in action it seems that nature intended to make it her chief piece of workmanship and that she employ'd all her industry to render it admirable 'T is the first part of man that lives and the last that dies it is so little as 't will not suffice to give a Kite a meal and yet so great as the whole world cannot satisfie it nothing but his immensity that made it can fill the infinite capacity thereof All passions derive from it as from their spring-head 't is this that causeth love and hatred 't is this that shuns what it hates for fear and draws neer to what it loves through desire 'T is lodged like a King in the midst of its subjects it gives its orders without departing from its Throne its motions are the rules of our health and assoon as it is assailed we are sick it s least hurts are mortall Nature which knows the worth and the weaknesse thereof hath endued all its subjects with a secret inclination to expose themselves for its defence the hands put by the blows that are made at it and knowing that their welfare consists in the preservation thereof they hazard themselves to save it from danger To reward this their service this Sovereigne is so vigilant as he never takes rest he labours alwayes for the weal-publick and whilest the senses are asleep he is busied in moving the Arteries in forming the Spirits and in distributing them about all the parts of the Body The Braines finish this work and giving it its last perfection dispose it to the noblest operations of the soul. This work ceaseth not though men sleep though the Soul take some refreshment these two parts of the Body are always in action and when they cease to move they cease to live All these live in so full a peace as the difference of their temper is not able to disturbe it Cold accords there with heat moystnesse is there no longer an enemy to drynesse and the elements which cannot tolerate one another in the World conspire together in man for his bodies preservation If any disorder happen it is occasioned by forreign heat the naturall Subjects never trouble the States tranquility they are so straightly joyn'd by their Interests as nothing can befall the one which the other doth not resent the pain of one part is the sicknesse of the whole body and if the foot be hurt the tongue complains the heart sighes the eyes weep the head bowes to consider the evill and the armes extend themselves to apply remedy If their love be so rare their obedience is no lesse remarkable for they force their own inclinations to observe the orders of the will and their fidelity is so ready as the command is no sooner impos'd then obey'd at their Soveraigns bare motion the hands strive to be acting the tongue explains his intentions the eyes expresse his thoughts and the eares execute his designs The will findes out so much submission in the faculties of the soule as in the parts of the body she is oft-times divided by her desires and opposed by her own inclinations sheis a rebell to her selfe cannot comprehend how one and the same object can cause horrour and love in her at the same time but she never commands her body without being obey'd and unlesse passions make a mutiny in it or that it be disorder'd by sicknesse it fulfils her orders with as much readinesse as faithfulnesse She likewise undertakes nothing without the assistance of this faithfull companion she stands in need of his aid in her noblest operations and though she be a meer spirit she can neither discourse nor reason but by the interposition of the body if she will forme thoughts she must consult with the imagination and if she will explain them she is forced to make use either of tongue or hand she hath no strong agitations which appear not in the eyes and when she is disquieted by any violent passion 't is soon seen in the face A man must be very vigilant to hinder the commerce between the body and the soule the rules of discretion and all art of policy which re-commends dissimulation to Soveraigns cannot keep their countenances from discovering their designes nor their eyes from betraying their wills the soule conceales nothing from this her faithfull confident he that could well study the changes which appear in the face might infallibly know the alterations of the minde and without needing to wish as that
ridiculous Pagan did one might read in the forehead the hearts most secret thoughts If Physiognomie be a Science she hath no certainty but what she draws from the connexion which nature hath placed between the soule and the body all her observations are grounded upon the noblest part of the body if all be true that is said of her as soon as she sees the face she knows the humour and without or Charmes or Magick she knows their intentions whose Lineaments she observes Though I dare not acknowledge all this and that I have much a do to believe that a Physiognomist can discover the designes of a wise Minister of State by looking him in the face and that without racking a malefactour he may read his fault in his eyes it sufficeth me to know that this Science is grounded upon the commerce between the soule and the body and that she draws her conjectures from the straight union that is between them As the Soule doth not forme any designe wherein the body is not a complice so doth she taste no contentment wherein the body doth not share a part if she enjoy the beauties of nature 't is by the Senses if she see the Azure of the Skie the light of the stars if she discover the extent of Fields the fertility of vallies if she hear the fall of Rivers the musick of Birds if she judge of the Glosse or Sent of Lillies or Roses 't is by the benefit either of the sight hearing or smelling It seems the world was made for the bodies diversion and that all those pleasing parts which go to the composure thereof have onely been made to delight the senses the Sun is of no use to the glorified Spirits and all the brightnesse of that goodly Constellation cannot light the Angels those noble Intelligences have a spirituall world wherewith they are possest and ravisht they finde their happinesse in God and all that we wonder at in the world affords them no delight Materia is requisite to tasting the pleasures of sensible nature such contentments presuppose a low condition and it is common with Beasts to partake of such diversions 'T is notwithstanding one of the bodies least advantages that the world should be made for it's use and that this chiefe piece of Gods workmanship is destined either for it's service or it's delight Jesus Christ followed his Fathers steps and when he came upon earth he would have the body to be the object of his mercy and of his power though he laboured for the conversion of sinners his greatest miracles were wrought for the healing of the sick and the body being mans weakest part he thought he was to treat it with most mildnesse and to furnish it with as many remedies as sin hath procured it maladies Somtimes he clensed it of the leprosie and restored to it 's former purity somtimes he freed it from blindnesse and restored unto it the noblest of it's senses somtimes cured it of the Palsey and restored it to the use of it's Members somtimes he withdrew it from the Grave and re-united it to it's soule contrary to the hope of nature somtimes he freed it from the Tyranny of Devils and re-establisht it in it's former freedoms Neither did he neglect it in the institution of the Sacraments for though they were chiefly ordained for the soules sanctification and that these admirable Channels poure grace into the soule yet are they applied upon the body before they produce their effects in the will and they respect joyntly the two parts which go to mans composure The body is washt in water to the end that the soule may be purified the body is marked with the Figure of the Crosse to the end that the soule may be fortified the body receives the unction to the end that the soule may be consecrated the body receives the imposition of hands to the end that the soule may receive Grace and the body eates the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus to the end that the soule may be thereby nourished Thus doth not religion destroy nature and in her highest mysteries the provides for the soules safety by means of the body This maxime is so true as that all Divinity confesseth that the soule can no longer merit when she is once parted from the body whil'st they are together in company their grace may be augmented and whatsoever vertues they have acquired they may yet acquire more but when once death hath divided them and that the body losing 't's lustre is reduced either to ashes or to wormes the soule can no longer increase her merit and in that condition she is onely capable of punishment or of reward Having so many obligations to her body she cannot forget them nay even in the state of Glory where all her designes ought to be satisfied she wisheth to be re-united to her body as that wherein her intire felicity consisteth For though she reign with Angels that she behold the divine Essence and that she enjoy a happinesse to which even wishes cannot adde yet hath hath she a passion for her body and all the good she doth possesse cannot take from her the desire nor memory thereof though she hath made triall of it's revolts though this friendly enemy hath oft-times persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the Tyranny thereof yet doth she languish after it and contrary to their humour who have recovered liberty yet she longs for that which did engage her in servitude Though the body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in it's Enemies and though it cause horrour in those to whom it was so lovely she forbeares not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with Impatience that her body may partake of the blisse which she enjoyes And 't is not without much justice that she beares so much love to her body since she owes the greatest part of her advantages unto it and that she hath hardly any vertue or light which she hath not acquired by the assistance of the senses The soule is ignorant when first infused into the body the knowledge which the Platonists attribute unto her is but a meer capacity of apprehending If she will be intrusted she must be advised either by her eyes or by her eares she must consult with these Masters if she will free her selfe from ignorance How noble soever she be by birth she hath but weak conjectures of truth if these faithfull officers should faile her and should she be ingaged in a body which should have no use of senses she would be plunged in eternall darknesse Sight and hearing are the Organs destined to knowledge and he who is borne deafe and blinde is destined to live and die ignorant As the soule receives these advantages by the body so doth she distribute them by the bodies assistance and doth not expresse her thoughts but by the mouth of her Interpreter she gives with the tongue
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
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
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
punishment of his sin His wife knew not as yet the art of trimming her self all her daughters eloquence could not perswade her that that which was a punishment of her disobedience should adde unto her beauty and comparing her innocency with all her other ornaments she could never think to gain by an exchange where for originall righteousnesse which she lost she got nothing but the slaver of worms or scum of fishes Let us use what art we can to lenifie our losse or to excuse our vanity we cannot deny but that our most gaudy apparell are the spoils of beasts and that we are very miserable since betraying our greatnesse we seek for ornaments in the bottome of the sea or in the bowels of the earth for what else is wooll but sheep fleeces what is silk whereof so many different silks are made but the drivell of worms and the sepulchre which those little animals make unto themselves when they die what is purple which had wont to be the badge of Sovereignty but the bloud of certain fishes what are Pearls but the warts of certain shel-fish and the thickest part of the fome of the sea which could not be turned into it's substance what are diamonds and rubies but water congealed within rocks what is gold which is made use of in so many prophane things which men disguise in so many shapes which is sought for with so much pain which is got with so much injustice and kept with so much care but the excrement of a barren soil to which the fire gives Lustre and our errour valuation what in fine is the linnen cloth with which we are covered all over and wherein the greatest part of our vanity consists but a kind of herb or grasse which we see grow up and die flourish in the fields and in a short time weather away which passeth through womens hands which is wetted with their spittle turned with the spindle strecht upon the loom wrought with the shittle whitened in the dew and at last cut into bands and handcherchiefs must not one have lost his judgment to glory in such trifles and if his ornament deserve any praise is it not rather due to those that made them then to those that wear them whosoever glories in a sute of apparell intrencheth upon his tailors right and who values himself the more for the stuffe he wears injures the worms that spun it or the workmen that wrought it Our glory ought to be in our selves and we ought never to ground our greatnesse upon a thing which we forego as oft as we put off our cloths A man must not adorn himself with that which he borrows from other creatures and to believe that all the spoils of nature can heighten his descent is to have too ill an opinion of himself But if the materials whereof our cloths be made be contemptible the cause why we wear them is criminall for those who may be said rather to set out then to cloth themselves and who joyn pleasures to necessity have for the most part but two designs which are equally unjust The first is to satisfie themselves and to entertein their self-love by the care they have of their body they will make an Idol of a slave adorn a guilty person who deserves death bring him with pomp to his punishment and disguise his misery to flatter his ambition they are like those captives who think the better of their Irons because they are guilded yet all their ornaments are but marks of their sin and mis-fortunes and as a foot-man who wears a gaudy livery makes but his misery more visible those who trim themselves the finest make but their shame more publick The art of trimming or adorning acknowledgeth no author but the Devil He who taught the curious the vertue of herbs to make their inchantments and the influences of the stars to order their Horiscopes by he who taught the avaritious the way to purifie the earth to make thereof the preciousest of metalls he who taught the ambitious the secret of intrenching upon the peoples liberty taught women to mingle colours to polish diamonds to calcive pearls to compose materials and to falsifie whole nature to inhaunce their beauty and to acquire reputation by the losse of their modesty ought not this masters condition infuse distrust into his disciples and if women had not as well lost their judgment as their modesty would they not believe that a sinfull Angell would tarnish their innocence that impure spirits would attempt their chastity and that rebellious slaves would endevour to make them lose their humility The second designe of those who delight in sumptuous apparell is to please those that look upon them to entangle souls in their nets to purchase lovers or slaves to govern by the pomp of their apparell as Monarchs do by the terrour of their Arms. This is the more usuall and the more dangerous motive the more usuall because vain glory seeks out a Theater because self-love as well as ambition will have spectatours To say truth women do not greatly care for dressing themselves when they are alone solitarinesse is an enemy to pomp a body is soon weary of linifying himselfe when he means not to appear the pain he findes in doing it makes him lose the pleasure of it and as Peacocks close up their plumes when no body beholds them women neglect their dressing when no body admires them They reserve their pearls and diamonds for great meetings Courts and Masks are the occasions whereupon they heighten their beauty and when they have neither witnesses to observe them nor servants to adore them selfe love is not of power enough to make them adorn themselves As this motive is the more usuall so is it the more sinfull for to boot that a woman that will cause love in another runs danger of being caught therewithall her selfe that it is hard to carry fire to ones neighbour without self-burning 't is assuredly to imitate the devill to serve for instruments to wicked spirits to lose the souls that Jesus Christ would save and to present poison or a poniard to mad men who would kill themselves Let women disguise their designes how artificially they please let them excuse their intentions by their pretences the endeavouring to seem pleasing to men is never blamelesse the desire of entangling them is always sinfull and the care they take in attiring themselves either to captivate them or to continue them captives is equally prejudiciall to their chastity Pomp and luxury in apparell savours of prostitution or vain glory both these faults are contrary to our religion The difference of condition is but a piece of cunning which self-love hath found out to authorize our disorders Our first condition is the condition of sinners we are sinners before we be Sovereigns our souls were sullied with Adams sin before our bodies were clad in purple and all the titles which flattery confers upon
same countreys that which had divided them from others united them together and they imagined that 't was the will of heaven they should live under the same climate since it had given them the same language Men were not made the wiser by this memorable example there were some who joyning industry to vain glory endevoured to imitate the works of God and to make in this lower world an Epitome of the Universe This was a more refined pride and seemed more praise-worthy then the other since 't was more ingenious for Princes who built Tombs or Palaces had no hand in the work more then the bare desire the Architectours conceived the design the earth furnished the materials the people were at the expense and the handycrafts men contributed their labour thus was the glory divided and those bare away the most who certeinly deserved the least But when industry joyned with vain glory honour was no more divided he who laid the project employed no other hands then his own to effect the work Thus did ingenious Archimedes enclose whole Nature in a vessel of Chrystall he observed all the motions of the heavens in a brittle Globe and if he could not infuse influences into the stars which he there engraved he gave them at least light and beauty whosoever was in the midst of this in-animated Sphere saw the Sun arise above his head and the stars set underneath his feet this transparent globe did at one and the same time shew all the secrets of Nature and looking upwards or downwards one might there observe all the rarities of both the Hemispheres A certein Poet admiring the excellency of this work thought he could cause Jealousie in his Iupiter and in this belief made it be told him in his language that the hand of a man had equal'd Gods hand and that if it had as much strength as it had compendious adresse it might have formed a second Uuiverse But notwithstanding what the Poets say this Master-piece of workmanship did not survive it's author the same age saw the beginning and end thereof the ransacking of a Town put a period to this little world when Siracusa was taken by the Romanes Archimedes was there slain and his work destroyed Those proud Mausolaea which promised immortality to their builders are reduced to ashes as well as the bodies which they did inclose we do not know the places where their foundations were laid and of all the marble and porphiry which went to their composure nothing but smoak and dust remains of all the stately buildings which vanity hath produced none but the Pyramides of Egypt have triumphed over time Those mighty masses of stone remain yet intire the Theaters the Amphitheaters of Rome which were built so many ages after these miracles of Memphis are now nothing but ruines regarded for their Antiquity those proud portals and stately Theaters for which Romes greatnesse after she hath been so oft demolisht is still admited are onely receptacles for owles and nests for serpents And those Temples wherein heretofore so many Gods were lodged serve now onely to raise Romes wals But the Pyramides of Egypt stand yet firm upon their foundations Thunder bears respect unto them the injuries of time spares them and as if Nature knew that they were built by the labour of Gods people that they are the workmanship of their hands and that the Coement which fastens the stones together was steeped in their tears she preserves this work as a mark of their servitude and as an eternall monument of their glorious deliverance None of the other buildings could defend themselves against the elements if the sword have-spared them fire hath consumed them if water have not overthrown their foundations it hath undermined their tops and if rust have not spoyled them Time which consumes all things hath devoured them It is not fitting that the workmanship of men should be more lasting then that of God since Nature perisheth in any one of her parts that she preserves not her productions but by their losse there is no reason why edifices should be eternall since the world for being infected with sin was drowned by an universall deluge and shall be consumed by a generall fire 't is not fit that our Palaces which are but the inventions of pleasure or vanity should be of a bettercondition and man must learn by the ruine of his workmanships that guilty hands can make nothing which deserves not to be destroyed either by sword or fire The tenth Discourse That the greatest part of our pestimes are occasions of sin THough man had remained in the state of innocency he would have stood in need of some diversion or pastime his constitution which placeth him beneath that of Angels requires that his labours should be intermitted by some honest recreation and his mixture of soul and body doth not permit him to be always busied Nature which serves him for a rule endevâ—s some relaxation in her labours the earth rests in the winter season she sometimes sports her self for recreation and amongst her serious works doth some ridiculous ones which are her â—ions or extravagancies The sea is calm after a storm the winds wâ— with she was agitated leave her in quiet and those spirits which appear enemies to rest are lulled asleep in the bowels of the earth Though labour be naturall to man it needs relaxation his spirit is too weak to be always busied it is not of the nature of rivers or of the heavens which find their rest in motion as sleep repairs the bodies strength so doth recreation repair the like of the soul and change of exercise is to her a kind of recreation But in the state of innocency man found his delight in his duty he unwearied himself in considering Gods wonderfull works and natures beauties which had charms enough to recreate him had not power enough to seduce or corrupt him whilst he saw the stars he adored him who had given them their light and influences whilest he beheld the flowers he admired him who had made them so beautifull and delicate whilst he considered the earths fertility and the diversity of her productions hee bethought himselfe how so many miracles cost God onely the speaking of a word and how the nothing out of which they were produced did contribute nothing unto them but a blind obedience When he heard the comfort of birds or the noyse of the waters he rowsed up his soul to his Creator and 〈◊〉 he had understood the language of those creatures he sung his prayses who had made them speak In fine man was religious in all his recreations whilst he did divert himself he did actions of piety and Nature being mingled with Grace whilst he did unbend his cogitations he did some homage to his God But when sin had once corrupted his inclinations he served his recreation from his duty and took delight in nothing but offence All the remedies which