Evill p. 91 9 That the will to be able to doe good must be set free from the servitude of sin by the grace of Iesus Christ. p. 97 10 That evill habits bereave the will of her liberty by ingaging her in Evill p. 103 The third Treatise Of the corruption of the Vertues Discourse 1 APaneggrick of Morall Vertue p. 109 2 That Morall Vertue hath her faults p. 115 3 That vain glory is the soule of the Vertue of Infidels p 122 4 That the Vertue of Infidels cannot be true p 128 5 That Wisdome without Grace is blinde weak and malignant p. 134 6 That there is no true Temperance nor Iustice amongst the Pagans p. 140 7 That the Fortitude of the Pagans is but weaknes or vanity p. 149 8 That friendship without grace is alwayes interested p. 156 9 That the uncertainty and obscurity of Knowledge derives from siâ—ne p. â—65 10 That Eloquence is an enemy to Reason Truth and Religion p â—73 The fourth Treatise Of the corruption of Mans Body by sin Discourse 1 OF the Excellencies of Mans Body p. 182 2 Of the Miseries of the Body in generall p. 190 3 Of the Infidelity of the Senses p. 195 4 That the Passions are fickle or wilde p. 201 5 That the health of Man is prejudiced by sicknesse p. 207 6 〈◊〉 the Bodies beauty is become perishable and criminall p. 214 7 That the life of man is short and miserable p. 225 8 That Death is the punishment of sin p. 231 9 What advantages we may draw from Death by meanes of Grace p. 237 10 That Sleep is a punishment of sin as well as the Image of Death and that it bereaves us of Reason as Dreames doe of Rest. p. 243 The fifth Treatise Of the corruption of all exterior Goods called by the name of FORTUNE Discourse 1 THat we must feare what we desire and desire what we feare p. 249 2 That Honour is no longer the recâ—mpence of Vertue p. 255 3 That Greatnesse iâ— attended by Slaveâ—y and Vanity p. 261 4 That the Birth and Cruelty of Waâ—re derives from sin p. 270 5 That Riches render mâ—n poore and sinfull p. 278 6 That since the losse of Innocency poverty is glorious p. 284 7 That aparrell is a mark of sin p. 290 8 That the shame which 〈◊〉 Nakednesse is a punishment for our offence p. 296 9 That Buildâ—ngs are the work of necessity pleasure or vain glory 302 10 That the greatest part of our pasâ—mes are occasions of sin p. 3â— The sixth and last Treatise Of the Corruption of all Creatures Discourse 1 OF the beauty greatnesse and duration of the world p. 319 2 That all creatures have lost some of their perfections p. 328 3 That the Sunne hath lost much of his light and vertue through sin p. 335 4 That there is no creature which men have not adored p. 341 5 That all creatures do either tempt or persecute man p. 348 6 That it is more secure to sequester a mans self from the creatures than to make use of them p. 355 7 That Deluges and Earth-quakes are the punishments of the world become corrupted p. 361 8 That Thunder Plagues and Tempests are the effects of sin p. 368 9 That Monsters and poysons are the workmanship of sin p. 377 10 That God will consume the world corrupted by sin that he may make a new world p. Of the Corruption of Nature by SINNE The First Treatise Of Originall Sin and the Effects thereof The First Discourse That Faith acknowledgeth Originall Sin That Nature hath a feeling thereof and That Phylosophie suspects it THough mans misery witnesse his sin and that to believe he is guilty sufficeth to prove his misery yet is there no one Truth in Christian Religion more strongly withstood by prophanePhylosophers then is this shee cannot allow of a chastisement which punisheth the father in his children neither can shee conceive a sin which precedes our reason as well as our birth Shee appeals from so rigorous a decree and thinks to defend Gods cause in pleading ours Shee attributes all our disorders to our constitution she imputes our errours to our education and the greatest part of our irregularities to the bad employing of our time She opposeth experience by arguing and what ever misery shee makes tryall of shee will not acknowledge the cause shee thinks a man may herein defend himselfe by reason and that there being no sin which is naturall neither is there any which may not be amended by will alone shee makes use of the examples of Socrates Aristides and Cato shee opposeth these Sages to our Saints and pretends that the works of Nature yield not to those of Grace Briefly shee corrupteth the purity of our beliefe by the subtilty of her reasoning and whereas Christians ought to convert all Phylosophers some Christians are perverted by Phylosophers We confesse Originall sinne because we dare not deny it We avow that it hath bereft us of Grace but assure our selves that it hath left us an entire Liberty We confesse it hath robb'd us of our innocencie but maintain that we may recover our innocencie by the means of reason and that if we cannot merit heaven we may at least secure our selves from hell We admire the famous Actions of Infidels our eyes are dazl'd with the lustre they receive from the writings of Phylosophers we side at unawares with Nature against Grace and through an inconsiderate zeale We will have their delusive vertues rewarded with a true happinesse Yet notwithstanding to believe original sin is one of the prime Articles of our Faith if Adam were not guilty Jesus Christ was not necessary and if Humane nature be yet in her first purity it 's in vain that we seek a Saviour Hence it is that the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth so often in his Epistles oppose sin to grace servitude to freedome and Adam to Jesus Christ he is pleased to represent unto us the disorders of Nature to make us admire the effects of Grace and he glories in his Infirmities the more to heighthen the advantages of RedemptioÌ„ He teacheth us that we are conceived in sin and that at our first enterance into the world we are the objects of Gods wrath He shews us that Adams sin is shed abroad throughout mankind That his Malady is become a contagion and that all the Children that do descend from this unfortunate Father are Criminall and Miserable The Prophets agree with the Apostles and this truth is not much less Evident in the Old Testament then in the New The most patient most afflicted of al men coÌ„plaines of the misfortunes of his birth and makes such just imprecations against the moment wherin he was conceived as we may easily conceive he thought it not void of fault David confesseth he was conceived in sin and that though he were born in lawfull Matrimony his birth ceaseth not to be shamefully sinfull The Church confirmes this truth
unto us by as many Paradoxes as the instructions are which she giveth us And knowing that her words serves for laws unto her Children she is pleased to tell us that Adam's sin is ours That the miseries which we undergoe are the punishments of his disobedience That Divine Justice hath condemned us in Him That our misfortune and His sinne did precede our Birth And that contrary to all the Laws of Morality we be guilty before we are reasonable Faith perswades us to these Truths and without troubling our selves to seek Proofs to strengthen them we in all humility believe what we cannot evidently know But because Phylosophy is a Rebel to Faith and that she is more swayd by reason then by the Authority of the Church I will convince her by reason and make her confess that we could not be irregular if we were not guilty All Phylosophers confess That man is Composed of a body soul And that when Divine Providence did first forme him she mingled Beast with Angell and that she gathered Heaven and Earth together to finish her Noblest piece of workmanship If Passion have not prevail'd over reason in these great men they must confess that when God did this his Chiefest work he did so well accord the two Parts which went to the Composition thereof as that the body obey'd the soul the Angell comanded over the Beast They must acknowledge that God observ'd the same Order in the Composing of man as he did in the making of the world and that as he submitted the Earth to the Influences of the Heavens he did likewise assubject Passion to reason and the Appetite to the will And since they observe this decent order to be no longer kept they ought necessarily to infer that sin is the cause thereof And that man hath lost these advantages only because he hath not preserved his Innocency For what likelyhood is there that two Parts joyned together should not indure one another that they should mutually love and hate each other that the flesh should wage war with the soul which gives it life and that the soule should complain of the others insolency which serves her as an Officer or Abetter whence is it that our inclinations are out of Order before we have acquired any bad Habits that our faults precede evill examples that we know what evill is not having learned it and that the soul follows the inclinations of her body before she hath tasted the delights thereof whence is it that sin is naturall to us that in us it preceeds the use of reason that notwithstanding all its deformities it becomes pleasing and that vertue with all her comlinesse seem austere unto us Certainly he who shall conceive aright the reason thereof will be obliged either to blame Divine Providence or els to condemne the sinfulness of the first man who losing originall Justice deprived all his Children thereof And who making us inherit his disorders made us criminall before rationall The Morall Vertues which Phylosophers boast so much off doe authorize the beleife of originall sin For though they perswade themselves that man by the assistance thereof may overcome sin and that God did not Compose him of two rebellious Parts save only to increase his merit and to leave unto him the glory of finishing it yet the use of vertue doth sufficiently prove his irregularity and it is sufficient to acknowledge that he was born guilty since we know he is obliged to become vertuous For vertue is not a production of Nature but an invention of Art she is not infused but acquired and the Pains she causeth fully equall the Pleasures which she promiseth She presupposeth that man is out of order since she hath a design to reforme him and that he is sick since she endeavours to cure him All her exercises are so many Combats all her enemies are born in the very Place where she sets upon them and the industry she is forced to make use off to drive them thence doth sufficiently witness that they govern there before her in effect man is weak before he hath acquired fortitude he is foolish before wise and ere temperate unchast his vertues are proofs of his vices his last victories are signes of his former defeats and the succour which he is enforced to seek for from without himselfe is a witness of his disorder and weakness This it was that made St Augustine say that continency is as well a witness as an enemy of concupiscence that althose glorious habits which fight against our sins do manifest them If vertue make us suspect our misery the Creatures revolt makes us know our sinfulness and he who shall consider that man is in the world as in an enemies Country will have no great difficulty to judge that he is Criminall Reason unasisted by Faith is sufficient to make us Comprehend that man is the Image of God 〈◊〉 That he is his Lieutenant upon Earth That all Creatures owe him homage and that he ought to Reigne in the World either as a visible Angell or as a Mortall God The Place he beares in the Universe challengeth this Advantage and reason which raiseth him above Beasts gives him the Sovereignty over them since all things are made for his use all must be submitted to his will And since he must Reign with God in Heaven he must begin to Reign for him upon the Earth This notwithstanding all Creatures make war upon him they deal with him rather as with a Tyrant then Lawfull Sovereign They obey him not but by Force And it is easie to be seen That having lost the right that he had over them he cōands them now only by violence if he draw any service from beasts it s after having been either their Slave or their Tyrant If the earth be fruitfull it s after having been watered with his sweat and rent in peeces by the Plough If the Sea bear his vessels t is not without threatning them with shipwrack If Aire contribute to his respiration it suffers also corruptions whereby to forme contagions and sicknesses If the winde fils his sails it also raiseth Tempests and drownes his vessels If fire serve him in all his Arts it mingles it self with Thunder and taketh revenge for all the Injuries it hath received from him This generall insurrection is a token and punishment of his offence had he preserved his integrity he had never lost his Authority and had he not falne from his innocency he had never forgon his Throne Phylosophy as haughty as she is cannot deny but that man is the prey of wild beasts and the victime of their fury that he is exposed to the rigour of the Aire and to the unseasonableness of the weather she must confess that he hath no subject which is not rebellious that there is no place within his Territories which is not his enemy and there is no part of his body which is not either
sinfull because the father which unites her to the flesh as a secondary cause Communicates unto her his disorder not giving her a remedy for it powers his poyson into her and doth not present her with an Antidote makes her Inherit Adams sin and doth Communicate unto her the Grace of Jesus Christ. This it is which Saint Augustine insinuates unto us in other Termes when he says that the Contagion of the body passeth into the soul that the close Cōmerce that is between them makes their miseries cōmon between them and that without extraordinary helps an Innocent soul cannot be lodg'd in a guilty body the purest Liquours are tainted in musty vessels corrupted Air poysons those who breath therein and infected houses give the Plague to those that live in them Thus doth concupiscence glide from the body into the soul and this wicked Host gives death to her that gives him life If these reasons do not content the reader let him know that I glory to be ignorant of what Saint Augustine understood not that I should shew my self too rash if I should think to give an entire light to the obscurest part of Divinity and that I should be unfaithfull if I should pretend to make a truth evident by reason which is only known by Faith The fifth Discourse Of the Nature of Concupiscence CHristian Religion may truly boast that all her Maxims are Paradoxes which agreeing with truth give against humane reason for she proposeth nothing which is not as strange as true and which causeth not as much astonishment as light in the soul he who would prove this truth must make an Induction of all our Mysteries and represent all the wonders which she comprehends but without straying from my subject it will suffice to say that Originall sin is one of her strangest Paradoxes and that if much of reason be required to prove it no less of faith is requisite to believe it for what more prodigious is there then that the sin of one man should be the sin of all men that a Fathers Rebellion should ingage all his Children in disobedience that his malody should be Contagious that he should be the murtherer of all men before he be their Father and that unfortunately he be the cause of their death many ages before they be born Thus is this misfortune more generall then the deluge which drowned the world more universall then the fire which shall consume it and War and Pestilence which doth so easily enlarge themselves are not so Contagious Evills as is this sin If it be wonderfull by reason of it's Effusion it is no less miraculous through it's other qualities for we are taught by Divinity that it is voluntary in the Father and naturall in the Children that that which was only a fault in Adam is both a sin and a punishment in those that descend from him that we contract by birth what he willingly committed and that that which was free in it's beginning should become necessary in the progress thereof He might have kept from disobedience And we can neither shun the punishment nor the fault we are surprized by this misfortune in our Conception we are slaves before we have the use of Liberty and we have already offended God before we knew him we are rather the objects of his anger then of his mercy but that which is more deplorable we are so corrupted from the moment of our Birth as that we oppose our selves to his will If he favour us in our Baptisme the first use we make of Reason is for the most part engaged in Errour we follow the Inclinations of our first father and his sin makes such powerfull Impressions upon our souls as we sin in our first thoughts we for the most part make use of our liberty only to estrange our selves from God we have a secret opposition to his ordinance we are so inclosed within our selves as we can love nothing but for our own interests which is the Rule of our actions and we neither love nor desire any thing save what is either usefull or pleasing to us Such is the corruption of our nature as there is almost nothing in it which is not repugnant to the laws of God It is so misled by sin as all the Inclinations thereof are perverted In this unfortunate Condition man can neither know nor doe good he is inslaved not having so much as the desire of Liberty though he groan under the weight of his Irons he is affraid of being freed from them and though his Imprisonment be painfull yet is not he weary thereof he delights in doing evill and findes difficulty to do what is good the great inclination he hath to sin doth not excuse his offence And he ceaseth not to be guilty though he cannot shun sin in generall to fill up the measure of so many Evils he is blind and insensible he sees not the Evils that environ and threaten him he is full of wounds and hath no feeling of them believing himself to be whole he seeks not for help through proud blindness he despiseth the Physician that would restore him to health Every man that comes into this world is in this miserable q condition and we are guilty of all these Crimes And charged with all these punishments before we be regenerated in Baptisme after this Sacrament we become Innocent but cease not to be miserable sin forsakes us but punishment waits upon us and though we be no more guilty we are notwithstanding out of order our Fathers sin forgoes us but Concupiscence remains This monster is not much lesse savage then is the Cause which produced it It follows the Inclinations thereof and if it be not altogether so wicked it is at least full out as irregular it is much more opinionated then the father that begot it our life is to short to cut it off it 's an enemy not to be overcome wounds give it new life it gathers strength by skars and it must cost us our life to be the death thereof Our first Divines which were the Apostles have given it the very name of sin and as if t were more fatall then it's Father they term it the strength and law thereof it is not content to perswade us to the Crime but endeavours to enforce us thereunto it mingles force with perswasion and when it thinks the way by solicitation to be to mild it hath Recourse to violence and Tyranny it grows the more furious by opposition it 's stomack is set on edge by Inhibition it never becomes more insolent then when Laws are prescribed unto it To Expresse the Nature thereof to the life we must represent a Tyrant who being born of sin will enlarge his Fathers Empire make al mankind his slaves it establisheth it's throne in our souls darkens our understanding infuseth wickednesse into our wils and fils our memories with the remembrance of all unjust acts It abuseth all
David murmured inwardly seeing the prosperity of sinners Iob complain'd that the good fortune of the wicked was so constant as it accompanied them even to death and Saint Augustine who seems to have sought into all the secrets of Divine justice confesseth that it is no lesse difficult to accord the Power of Grace with mans Liberty then Divine justice with the Prosperity of the wicked This is the scandall of silly souls the wicked mans despair and the rock whereon all those run ship wrack who are not soundly grounded in the Faith of Jesus Christ yet this great Doctor avoucheth two or three maximes which may pacifie the mind of man and which prove cleerly enough that there is no sinner who is not miserable To understand his Doctrine we must know that Punishment and reward go to the making up of one part of the worlds beauty and that as Vertue deserves some Pay sin likewise deserves some Punishment It would be unreasonable if the just man should not be recompenced and Irregular if the guilty should not be punished Divine justice is answerable to these two sorts of men and as the great Tertullian says she is no lesse obliged to Erect Heaven for the good then to make Hell for the wicked that Divine perfection which maintains the order of the world never overthrows this Vertue receiveth always her reward and vice is never exempt from Punishment they do not only follow but accompany one another and as the Epicurians did not believe that delight could be seperated from vertue Saint Augustine did not believe that Punishment could be parted from sin This effect is always found with it's cause and man can no sooner Commit an offence but he presently becomes sensible of the Punishment There is an Eternall law which will have good men happy and the wicked miserable it neither defers reward nor Punishment and without putting off the Punishment to Hell or the reward to Heaven it confers them both on earrh God hath made some laws which alters with the times though he be in himself always the same yet he accommodates himself somtimes to his handy-worke and oft times repeals the Decrees which he hath pronounced but the law which regards vertue and vice is immutable and the ugliness of an offence never goeth without the beauty of Punishment nor doth sin ever enter into a soul but it brings it's reward with it Though this maxime may appear strange yet hath it been approved of by prophane Phylosophy and Seneca acknowledged that man who had sinned could not keep unpunished that his Crime was his Torment and that without having recourse to the revengfull furies he bore about with him his hangman and his sin They therefore deceive themselves who believe that there be any guilty unpunished because they are honoured for though men through base flattery confound vice with vertue though they put a value upon what they ought to dis-esteeme though they raise Altars to those that merit the Gallows though the Heavens seem to favour their designs that Fortune fore-running their desires mounts them upon Thrones and put Crowns upon their Heads yet are they unhappy if wicked and amongst this imaginarie felicity which provokes our Envy they suffer Pains which would move our Compassion if they were as evident as true for if they should suffer no other Torment then to be upon ill Tearms with God are they not sufficiently Miserable and say they should undergo no other losse then that of his Grace should they not be rigorously enough punisht banisht People will admit of no Consolation because they are far distant from their Country though they enjoy their estate though they live under a Temperate Climate though they converse with fair conditioned men they think themselves unhappy in that they breath not the Air of their own Countrey Favourites will not out-live their Masters favours the Magnificence of their Palaces the number of their meniall servants the greatnesse of their offices cannot charme their sorrow they are pleased with nothing because their Prince is offended all their contentments cannot countervail the losse of his Favour and his wrath is a Punishment which all the reasons of Phylosophy cannot sweeten if experience teacheth us that banishment and losse of Favour are Punishments shall we doubt whether he that is not upon good Terms with God be upon bad terms with himselfe or no and can we think him happy who through his own default hath lost the well spring of true Happinesse the sinner then is miserable and if men esteeme them happy amongst so many sufferings It is for that they do not know wherein happinesse consists I looked upon the prosperity of the wicked saith Saint Augustine with indignation I could not tollerate that good luck should accompany them in their ways I could have wished that Divine Justice would have made an example of them and that it would have abased their Pride thereby to appease the murmuring of the Innocent but I did unjustly accuse Divine Providence for it never leaves sinners unpunished and if such as are blind think wicked men happy t is because they know not what happinesse is As mans wickednesse draws on Gods justice and as we conclude he is miserable because sinfull we ought also to argue that he is sinfull because miserable for God is not severe without reason our faults do always precede his Punishments and he took not upon him to be a revenger before we became faulty It is our offences that provoke his justice and he had never let his thunder have fallen on our heads if we had not neglected his Commandements T is one of Saint Augustines Arguments which convinceth the most opinioned and obligeth them to confess that since there is no Injustice in God man must needs be Criminall because miserable for God afflicteh nothing that is Innocent nor ruines not his workmanship without a cause he should injure his own goodnes should his justice punish a man that were not guilty Phylosophers agree in this truth the light of reason hath made us know that Punishment presupposeth sin the Ignorance of our Miseries hath perswaded them that man was punisht on earth for sins that he had committed in heaven that his body was his souls prison and that she was deteined there to expiate the faults which she only had committed Though these be not so pure truths but that they have an intermixture of Errour yet they teach us that sin precedes Punishment and that mans misery doth assuredly witness his offence For what likely-hood is there that Divine Providence would have condemned man to so much misery without a fault wherefore should the body rebell against the soul whereunto it is united Wherefore should man be composed of Parts which cannot agree and why should the workmanship of God be out of order were it not corrupred by the sin of man We must have offended this judge before he have condemned us
of the Truth T is true that the understanding examines their reports but what judgement can one expect from one that is ignorant what decree can a blinde Judge pronounce who is instructed only by corrupted witnesses who sees not that this manner of proceeding is too severe not to be a punishment and who will not confess that man is faulty since he is so unhappy Those who undertake to defend him say that the Understanding knows the Truth by instinct that it is knowing without Art and that as little Birds know their Dams by the voice the understanding discerns Truth from Falshood and by a naturall judgement embraceth the one and rejectes the other but to boot that it is a kind of Infamy to treat man as you would do beasts and to give him an instinct who ought to have reason doe we not every day see that he is deceived in his discoveries that the chiefest of Phylosophers hath been forced to confess that there were more glorious falshoods then truths and more dark and obscure truths then falshoods Hath not errour more that side with her then her Enemy Doth not the number of those that are deceived exceed the number of the wise and was it not requisite that God should endue us with the light of Faith to free us from Imposturisme and Superstition I could excuse the Ignorance of Humane understanding were it not accompanied with disquiet but it can never be at rest all objects which present themselves awaken it and by a presumptuous vanity it will make its weakness pass for a mark of its greatness it boasts that the noblest parts of the world are always in motion that if the earth be fixt t is because it is heavy that the heavens move over the heads only because they are light but its restlesness is a proof of its inconstancie were it more firm it would be more staid and had it not lost the highest Truth it would not go inquest after the shadow thereof its disquiet is both the token and punishment of its sin it can finde no rest because it seeks not for in God it is sentenced to eternall errour because it strayed from its principall object and its perpetuall motion is not so much a witness of its vivacity as misery it alters only because t is poore its indigence is the cause of its agitation and seduced by vain hope it still seeks after the the knowledge of good and evill which its enemy did promise it in Paradise being more inconstant then Protheus in the Fable it disguizeth it self in a thousand shapes by a dexterity which is injurious to it it adapts it self to all things that it would know and receiveth the Impression of all the objects which it considereth when it cannot arrive at their greatness it abaseth them when it cannot descend to their lowliness it raiseth them up and thus abusing it self it never arrives at the exact knowledge of Truth it values things that are common because it ennobleth them it inspireth high affairs because it undervalueth them not considering that there is injustice in this way of proceeding it obligeth the will to follow it's opinions and enforceth this blind Queen to love what it puts an esteem upon and to hate what it despiseth All this while it so badly judgeth the things which present themselves before it's eyes as it always prefers Novelty before Greatnesse and Raritie before Excellence the Sun seems not to be so pleasing unto it in his Lustre as in his obscurity he appears not so beautifull unto it in his rising as in his Eclipse and by an inexcusable piece of Capriciousness it doth not so much admire his beauty as his blemishes Though he rise in Glory though he equally dispence his heat and light though he go round the seasons ripen the fruits of the earth and enrich Nature by his labours our understanding values him not but if he grow dim at noon-day if he step in the midst of his carreer if the Moon hide him from the earth and if he who gives life to all things begin himself to faint the understanding wonders thereat and prefers an irregularity before Common Miracles it is not more equitable in it's other judgments it 's undervaluation is not better grounded then it's esteem and it is easie to observe that so capricious a Judge is corrupted But is it not a convincing proofe of this that it can do nothing of Great without being agitated that it draws its Force from its vexation and that it dares under take nothing of difficulty till it bee out of it's ordinary seat Poets droop when not enraged wisedome is an enemy to their work they must lose their wits to get heat and to learn the language of the Gods they must forget to speak like men The greatest men have vegaries which deserve the name of Folly the Gallantest actions of antiquity are out of the common roade and conquerors are only famous because they were irrational had Alexander measured his forces with his designs he had never conquered Asia and had Caesar well considered the difficult of hâ—s enterprize he had never assailed the Romane Republique the understandings Noblest salleys are extravagant it's Boutadoes are better then it's argumentations and man is become so unfortunate since his fall that if he will undertake any thing memorable he must forsake reason In fine Folly is so naturall unto him as the greatest understandings are the most irregular there is not any in the world without some mixture of Folly wise men and fools are made of the same Temper and that malancholly which effects the rarest things is the same with that which doth the greatest extravagancies who sees not that mans understanding is corrupted since his perfection consists in his disorder and who will â—ot judge so miserable a Creature to be faulty since his noblest faculties cannot act unlesse they be Irregular But religion will furnish us with better reasons of his weaknesse then Nature can And we shall find as many reasons of Humiliation in grace as in sin All our remedies reproach 〈◊〉 maladies all the favours which we receive from heaven witnesse our misery and one need but consider the manner of Gods treating with men to know that man is Criminall Faith doth not so much raise his understanding as she doth abase it she obligeth it to believe what it cannot comprehend she mingles obscurity with all her lights she seperates certainly from what is apparent she commands man to lose his life in mainteinance of his beliefe and seems to have a design to make him irrationall that he may become believing He is not more advantaged by revelations or extasies then by Faith all of them discover unto him his weaknesse and teach him that to understand the things which are of God he must raise himself above himself Propâ—cie is a kind of madnesse and extasie is an alienation of the understanding the
the servant and the Sovereign upon the same Throne Is not Plato a pleasant Dreamer who tasts more of the Poet then of the Phylosopher we reverence his Disciples only because they endevour to heighten themselves by straying out of the way if we put a valuation upon them t is because they have taken a more obstruce path then others and that quitting reason and judgment which are mens guides they would raise themselves up even unto the height of Celestiall intelligences but into what errours have they head-long fallen what Fables have they mingled with their superstititions what reasons have they invented to excuse unchâ—st lâ—ve what cunning have they made use of to establish it's Empire and with what impiety have they gone about to perswade us that God lay hidden in his Creatures and that whosoever loved beauty in women or goodnesse in men loved the Images and shadows of the Diety The Academicks appeared to be a little more rationall the best Ancient wits have sided with them or been their Disciples Cicero and Virgil the râ—rest Ornaments of the Romane Republique followed their Maximes they were not so proud as the Stoicks nor so poorly minded as the Epicurians yet they held Paradoxes which justled Truth as well as reason they allowed of sin under the name of vertue and when they wanted Patience or strength to keep back grief or sorrow they betook themselves to despair In fine all these Phylosophers pertook of of the sins of the people they were not lesse Idolaters though they had greater Lights and making policy of Religion they worshipped the Gods of their Wives and Children they in their writings made Panygericks to the Divine Essence and in their Towns they erected Temples to evill spirits they were Christians in their speeches but Infidels in their Actions they had good conceptions but committed bad deeds they knew God because they could not be ignorant of him and they offended him because they had not the courage to serve him My last proof wherewithall to confound the pride of humane understanding and to make it confesse that it is guilty since ignorant I will borrow from Religion the Scripture and Divinity teacheth us that man bears the Character of God being formed after his Image he cannot see himself without discerning his Author this first glimpse of light cannot be defaced all the darknesse of errour cannot obscure it and when man consults with his conscience or reason he is by them instructed that there can be but one God Without the help of Phylosophers or Instructers he knows this Truth and when he suffers Nature to speak through his mouth upon this subject she pronounceth Oracles and utters no falshoods thus when the Pagans were surprized with any danger and that instinct did in them prevene reasoning they implor'd the succour of the true God they spake the language of Christians not thinking of it and condemned the worshipping of Images of which the soul of their Religion was Composed The first Fathers of the Church opposed them with this reason Tertullian delights to let them see that they were only Idolaters then when they use violence to Nature and that they stifled her resentments to follow those of superstition but when they suffered themselves to be led on by opinion or example there was no Errour which they did not embrace nor no so infamous creature to which they did not with their mouthes make vows and offer Incense with their hands The Egyptians who vaunted themselves to be the Fathers of all Sciences worshipped Onions good store of Gods grew in gardens Labourers might boast that in manuring of the Earth they gave their Princes Gods and that their Canonizing did not so much depend upon the Peoples consent as upon husbandry and Labour The Romans whom time ought to have polished and Phylosophy civilized made Gods of all things War and Peace had Temples in their Republique all the passions were there adored the most infamous ones were there sacrificed unto and these People ow'd all their glory to their valour forbore not to offer sacrifices to Fear and shame the ignorance of Physitians and the weaknesse of those that were sick procured the like honour to Agues the fits whereof redoubled fits and intermissions were the mysteries which made it be adored In fine their Canonizing became so common as the wiser sort did despise it and seeing that Insecta had their Altars they thought it to be more honourable to be man then God These reasons may suffice to beat down the Pride of humane understanding and to make it confesse that Errour is very naturall unto it since that not being able to comprehend the unity of God it could not know the most glorious Truth of all others The fifth Discourse That reason in Man is become blinde and a slave since sinne PHylosophy being the Daughter of reason we must not wonder if she defend her mothers interest and if she employ all her cunning in excusing her faults who gave her life for presently after our losse reason invented Phylosophy and built this stately Edifice upon the ruines of innocency she drew her chiefe advantages from the light which God had infused into the soul of Adam she did imbellish it with the most precious remainders of originall righteousnesse and taught her all those gallant Maximes which she had learnt from Angels in the earthly Paradise In fine Reason did deck Phylosophy in so becomming an array as she became In-amâ—r'd of her beauty she made thereof a false Diety and whilst the blind people offered Incense to the workmanship of their own hands the haughty Phylosophers adored the workmanship of their own heads and raised Phylosophy above Religion This daughter was not ungratefull and to acknowledge the favours which she had received from her Mother she gave her all the praises which her vanity could not aspire unto she made her to be mans Summum Bonum the guide of his life the Mistrâ—s of all the vertues and Queen of passions she intrencht upon the rights of Grace and Faith to make her more Illustrioâ—s and endevoured to perswade her Disciples that to be rationall was sufficient to be happy All Phylosophers have used this Language their writings are Panygericks of reason and to heâ—r them speak you would think this Idoll were the only Diety that is to be adored Senâ—ca is never lesse rationall then when he defends reasons side the justice of his cause makes him insolent to preâ—erve his parties advantages he assâ—ils Religion and to heighten mans dignity he abusetâ— Gods Majesty he will have his wise man to be as content as his Iupiter that their happiness is equall though their condition be different and that nothing in the world can addâ—â—nto their facility T is true that these Blasphemies are intermingled with some rationall Praises for he is not deceived when he says that reason is mans proper good that all these are
win Credit by their dangerous leaps memory amuseth her self in reteining things which have no coÌ„nexion and to repeat things in order which have no order in themselves and astonisheth simple people by these vanities which they term her Master-Pieces When all this is done that ancient Writer had reason to say that memory was only usefull to three sorts of people to those who did negotiate who to the end they may not be surprized are obliged to have always all their affairs present to those who speak much for it is memory that furnisheth them with acceptable things which serve for recreation to the Company and to those that use to lye for that to shan the shame which accompanieth that sin they must remember their falshoods on the contrary the default of memory may be of use to us and as wee profit by our losses wee may draw from thence three advantages The first is not to lye lest we be surprized in that sin The second not to speak much but to keep silence out of a happy necessity The third to love our enemies and to practise the excellentest vertue of Christianity by a noble forgetfulnesse of injuries The seventh Discourse That Conscience is neither a good Iudge nor faithfull witnesse since sin THose who pretend that nature is not corrupted by sin and that she remains still in her prrimitive purity have no better proof thereof then what conscience doth furnish them withall for conscience takes alwayes Gods part and never absolveth the guilty 〈◊〉 she is so just as that she condemns her self in her own cause no reasons can justifie us before her Tribunall and let us use what art we please it is impossible to make her approve of our Misdemeanors Phylosophers have also acknowledged that she was both our witnesse Judge and executioner and that such secret sins as are left unpunished by mans justice receive their whole payment from conscience she her self is worth a thousand witnesses Nothing can be hid from her eyes which are never shut she is an ever-waking Dragon and hath such qualities as will not suffer her either to be abased or surprized Witnesses that they may not be accepted against ought to have three conditions The first to be well informed therefore those who have seen are to be prefer'd before those that have heard for the eye is more certain then the eare The second that they speak truth and that they say nothing which they do not think The third that they be rationall and do so calm their passions that neither hatred nor love nor hope nor feare may ever make them disguise the truth Conscience hath all these three qualities for she is well instructed of the fact and nothing passeth in our hearts which she hath not perfect knowledge of she knoweth our most secret thoughts she seeâ—h the end of our intentions and not stopping at our words knoweth the secret motions of our souls It is easiy to cozen men who ground their judgments only upon the change of our countenances they are abused by dissimulation and he that can but counterfeit may easily cozen them but Conscience is our best Counsell nothing is done whereof she is not aware she assists in all our Resolutions and this Sun which never sets doth by her light dissipate all the darknesse of our hearts Hence it is that she is true in all her depositions for she speaks things as she sees them she cannot be deceived nor can she lye disguises are so contrary to her Nature as she ceaseth to be her self when she bâ—gins to feign Her Essence consists of Truth and though she may fall into errour the cannot fall into a lye In fine she is so rationall as she is not to be troubled or seduced by passion she is a derivative of that primitive reason which we adore in God a copy of that Divine Originall a beam of that Sun which is never Eclipsed and they are so streightly joyned together as Saint Augustine doth mix their lights and makes but one Deposition of the Testimony of God and of conscience How miserable are they who set at naught so faithfull a witnesse for what satisfaction can those men have who want the Peace of Conscience to what purpose doth Publique applause serve when secret approach gives it the lye what advantage can they pretend too from the peoples approbation if they condemn themselves And what Happiness can they enjoy if whilst others praise their false Vertues they be inforced to blame their reall sins This Faithfull witnesse is a severe Judge which can neither be bribed by presents nor frightned by threats and who being allwayes Innocent never spare the guilty All his decrees are just and though the guilty be his Allyes he forbears not to condemn them Whatsoever favour they may obtein from other Judges they can never be absolved by this and whilst their Mouth pleads for them their consciences condemns them And truly we ought to thank Divine Providence for having given us this uncorruptible Judge to keep sinners within the bounds of duty for there are faults which escape the rigour of the Law and which being unknown are unpunished there are sins which being glorious ones are rewarded there be some who being Authorized despise correction so as our condition had been very deplorable if Conscience had not tane the place of Laws and if she had not condemned that which men dare not blame nor cannot Punish In fine this Judge becomes an executioner and after having denounced judgment he himself doth execute it he believes that if it be glorious to condemn sin it s no dishonour to punish it whatsoever tends to the defence of vertue and pulling down of vice seems glorious unto him and the names of Judge and Executioner are equally honourable to him True it is that he useth not this rigour till he imploy'd his harmlesse cunning to frighten the faulty For Conscience is a bridle which holds men within their duty before sin but when once they began to despise her Counsell she became their Punishment and being no longer able to keep back sin she endeavours to punishit T is a revengefull fury which never suffers the wicked to rest in quiet she assails them in towns and in deserts she declares war unto them in the midst of their palaces where danger can get no entrance thither she sends fear into whatsoever Sanctuary sinners retire themselves she makes them feel the smart of their offences when they see any punishments they apprehend what they themselves have deserved as oft as they feel the earth-quake under their feet or the thunder roar above their heads they imagine justice is armed to punish them In fine all their sweets are mingled with some sowres they can take delight in nothing remorse of conscience troubles their contentments they tremble amidst their Armies they are afflicted in publick rejoycings they languish in their best health are poor amidst
her she boasts that no power equals hers and that without use of fire or sword she hath the power of perswading the opinioned of reducing Rebels and of obliging wicked men to side with vertue She thinks her profession no lesse illustrious than that of Arms that Demosthenes and Cicero may waigh in the scales with Alexander and Caesar and that if there were one Hercules who by his valour overcame monsters there was another who prevailed over men by reason she imagines she may be serviceable to Religion that Christ himself in the plainnesse of his discourse did not neglect adornments that after having astonished sinners by his Miracles he convinced them by his words and that the people being overcome by the Power of his Doctrine confest that no man ever spoke like him In fine if she expresse her self by the mouthes of her Orators we are bound to beleeve that whatsoever is atributed to Philosophie or to Justice is onely the work of Eloquence For they say that 't was she that withdrew men from deserts who reduced them too within Towns who prescribed laws unto them who kept innocence from calumnie and oppression and who changed Tyrannies into lawful Kingly Government To hear them speak you would think that vertue were banisht from off the earth had not Eloquence taken her into her protection and that there should be no longer peace in Kingdoms did not she by her dexterity appease seditions But without listning any longer to her unjust praises I pretend to make her partakers confesse that since she became a slave to sin she injures by one and the same excesse Truth Reason and Religion 'T is hard to say whether Cunning be the father of Eloquence or Eloquence be the mother of cunning but 't is easily to discerne that each of them assist other in the bearing down of truth Both of them being ingenious in extremity they dissemble their meanings and hide their hatred under the appearance of love they speak on their enemies behalfe and the one of them seems to employ his wiles the other her Figures and Tropes onely to make truth appear the more pleasing yet under pretence of serving her they injure her and under colour of establishing her power they destroy her Empire For this vertue worth adoration despiseth deckings she knows her beauty is never more ravishing than when most neglected she rejects borrowed lustre and paint being a kin to falshood she approves not of the use thereof She suspects any thing that may deceive her language is plain her apparell modest and were it not for fear of those unchaste ones who prophane even holy things with their looks she would throw away the vaile that covers her and shew her selfe stark naked to 〈◊〉 her lovers As all her glory consists in her naked plainnesse so doth also her strength the very sight of her is sufficient to make her be beloved she very well knows that they that know her cannot oppose her nor yet defend themselves from her She hath no greater passion than sweetly to insinuate her selfe into mens mindes and by her light to dissipate the obscurity of falshood she very well knows that men do naturally reverence her and that unlesse they be foolish they be never unfaithfull to her Therefore no humane help is of use to her and this powerfull Princesse needs no souldiers to re-possesse her selfe of her State nor to reduce her Rebels to obedience Her very sight is sufficient to make her be obey'd her presence stifles rebellion and as soon as she appears she awakens respect and love in her Subjects hearts But if the malice of the Age were such as should make her seek for partners to defend her certainly she would never implore aid from Orators They are too full of Quircks to please her and she loves plain dealing too well to approve of their cunning All the Tropes and Figures which they make use of in their discourses are but so many disguised falshoods they cannot speak without lying and all the inventions which they borrow from Rhetorick are but undertakings against truth But least I may be accused of falling into an errour which I finde fault with I will examine the figures and make such as make use of them confesse that they are onely to be termed pleasing falshoods The Metaphora which is so frequent with them and wherewithall they heighten their style to raise up the meannesse of their cogitations is it not an Imposture and doth not Eloquence abuse her Auditors when she will perswade them that the fields are thirsty that the drops of deware pearles flowers in medowes are stars and the murmuring of waters musick if thus much license be to be allowed who cannot say that little birds are Angels of the Forrests that Whales are living rocks or ships with soules that the Sea is a moving earth and fountain water liquid Christall who can imagine that truth needs such cunning to defend her selfe that men are onely wrought upon by such raving and that a man cannot please unlesse he be ridiculous Ironia is no truer and if it deserve any pardon 't is because 't is lesse serious for it disguiseth not it's falshood but openly protests against being believed it gives it selfe the lye by it's accent terms not a man innocent save onely that he may be thought guilty 't would think it selfe too silly should it call all things by their names and would not think it selfe sufficintly bitter should it not know how to cover a reall reproach under a false praise Are not Allegories impertinent when to un-weary mens minds they abuse them and say one thing when they think another they will perswade us that a Ship is a Common-wealth Tempests the State-affairs wherewith it is troubled and Mariners the lead men that govern it May not a man with the same affrontednesse affirme that open Countries are Kingdoms that the Mountains are their Kings little hills their Magistrates and Vallies their Subjects must not a man have lost his wits to have made use of these figures and had not one better hold his peace than speak a language which the common sort of people understand not and which wise men despise but an Hyperbole is the more unsufferable for it's insolency and seeming seriousnesse Common expressions seem poor to it it cannot endure any thing that is ordinary but affects extravagancy to hide it's basenesse it heightens nothing with 〈◊〉 exaggeration tells no truth un-mingled with falshood and by aâ—just punishment looseth credit through coveting too much beliefe 'T will make snow black to make a womans face seem fair tarnish the verdue of the rose to exalt the freshnesse of her complexition and darken the Sun to give lustre to her eyes This figure is not to be excused but by acknowledging that it is conscious of it's own rashnesse that it dares more than it hopes for that it is of the humour of those who
lie often and who think themselves happy enough if they can but perswade the Auditours to believe part of what they say An Antithesis is not so bold as an Hyperbole though more affected all it 's cunning is but a continuall play or Maigame it opposeth the subjects which it treats of 〈◊〉 because it knows not how to enlarge them it hopâ—s always because it can neither run nor walk softly it leanes upon all it meets withall because it cannot sustain it selfe and 't is seldome ingenious save onely for it's sterility sake In fine that may be said of all figures which Seneca saies of an Hyperbole they lead us to truth by falshood they cousen us to please us and to instruct us do seduce us If this cunning be blamelesse I know no couzenage which may not admit of excuse men will kill men to make them live will put out their eyes to clear their sight and will throw them into slavery to set them at liberty There have been some who would have had painting inhibited because it abuseth the senses and because by the rules of the Opticks it extends open Countries the end whereof we cannot arrive unto sinks valleys so as we cannot discover their bottome and raiseth up Mountains to the height whereof we cannot attain But eloquence being more deceitfull deserves a greater punishment and she should as well be forbidden comming within the barand Pulpit as painting was forbidden the Court of Arropagus Since she heightens mean things enlargeth what hath no substance and to make her power be admired makes Faustina a Lucretia Tiberius an Augustus and Fredigonda a Clotilda It must then be confest that eloquence is the workman-ship of sin that men have sought out these figures onely to disguise falshood and they began not to be eloquent till they began to be sinfull Innocencie would not peradventure have spoken this language and if we meet with some such like Oratory somtimes in the holy Scripture I imagine it is that the Scripture may accommodate it selfe to our custome and to imitate the goodnesse of God who puts on our passions when he will treat with us If truth complain of Rhetorick reason hath as much cause so to do and who shall consider what ill offices she hath received from her will finde that she should never implore her aid for though this Sovereign be not always at peace within her Territories and that her Subjects do somtimes despise her authority Eloquence is not sincere enough to re-invest her in her power and it oft-times falls out that whil'st she thinks to stifle disorder she augments it For Reason hath nothing to fear in her Empire but the errour of her understanding the obstinacy of the will the revolt of passions and the unfaithfulnesse of the senses let her prevent these disorders and she may be sure to raign peaceably For what concernes the understanding it needs no Rhetorick to perswade it itcareth not for ornaments truth is as pleasing to it in the mouth of a Philosopher as of an Oratour the lesse truth is expatiated the more force doth the understanding finde in her and the lesse she hath of Art the more doth it reverence her power As for the will it is so free as nothing can force it grace alone hath power to ravish 〈◊〉 and only God can sway it without using violence The passions must be calm'd by dexterity he is a wise Pilot who can saile long upon their Sea without suffering shipwrack And as for the senses they must be won by fair means and they must be loosened from objects to be submitted to reason Eloquence boasts that in this point she hath great advantage over Philosophers the Cadence of her periods smooths the senses she imitates musick and makes use of the voice of Oratours to inchant the ears the gesture of their bodies their studied actions and all those graces which accompany Pronunciation steal away the heart by the eyes and work wonders upon the will Figures raise passions draw tears encourageth Auditours to choler and put weapons into their hands to revenge themselves of their Enemies But I finde that all the means which Eloquence attempts are extreamly dangerous and that the remedies which she applies are worse than the malady which she would cure For thinking to flatter the senses she engageth them in voluptuousnesse whil'st she would divert them from she accustometh them to delight and though her designe be innocent yet ceaseth it not to produce ill effects For as oft as a pleasing Oratour defends an ill cause and that he imployes all his good parts in favour of injustice the senses which seek onely after content suffer themselves to be borne away by his cunning and making interressed reports to the understanding they engage it in their revolt Thus is a pleasing falshood better entertained than truth and vertue is lesse valued than vice if she appeare more austere Eloquence is not more fortunate in taming passions then in charming senses for though she be acquainted with the secret of kindling and allaying choller of setting love and hatred on fire of abusing hope and sweetning despair yet hath she this of misfortune that as she laies one passion asleep she awakens another and be it for want of dexterity or for her diffidence of her own strength she never sets upon vengeance unlesse she be assisted by ambition she meddles not with love without exciting hatred and quels not hope without raising fear Thus she hurts us to cure us and her remedies are worse than our diseases She imitates those bad Physicians who debauch the stomack to refresh the bowels and who undo one part to preserve another for not weighing the danger she oft-times awakens cruelty in a Tyrant to encourage him against an Enemy she excites ambition in a Conquerour to incline him to clemency and hazards a whole Kingdome to save a guilty person Men blamea Prince who to revenge himselfe of his Subjects puts weapons into the Rebels hands and and who under colour of stifling a commencing sedition strengthens a party which justles out his Authority yet this is the order observed by Eloquence in her Orations and expearience teacheth us that to overcome a passon which opposeth her designes she will not fear to awaken another which will entrench upon the publique Liberty Cicero flatters Cesars vain glory to obtain Marcellus his pardon he propounds glory to him to divert him from rigour yet sees not that to extinguish the fire of his choller he kindles the life of his ambition which was to set his Countrey on fire Who will not then confesse that eloquence is an enemy to reason that she dis-joynts an Empire in stead of setling it and that she addes to the number of passions under pretence of apeasing them Her other designes are not more just and she deals not more mildly with liberty than with reason for though she always vaunt to take her side and to
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
thunder should never roar over our heads and though the sea should never exceed her bounds the elements which we bear about us would notwithstanding condemne us to death Death is so a punishment as it is also a consequence of our constitution Whatsoever is composed of contrarieties can not subsist without miracle and when the contrary parties do no longer agree their division must be the ruine of what they compose Mans immortality in the state of innocency was not an effect of nature he lost this priviledge as soon as he lost his righteousnesse and experience taught him that nature without grace could not keep him from death He should then be unjust if he should complain of a mis-fortune which is in some sort naturall unto him and he might justly be accused of too much nicety if he should not patiently endure a punishment which he could not escape without a kind of Miracle But I dare adde that death is rather a favour than a punishment and that in the estate whereinto sin hath reduced man it is not so much a mark of justice as of mercy the evils which we undergo considered to live eternally would be eternall misery earth would become hell and the continuance of our torments would make us wish death which is not dreadfull save to those abused soules which think themselves happy The miserable desire it and as death to one who lives contentedly is a punishment so is life to him who lives discontentedly Cain desired to die had not the heavens prolonged his life to punish his parricide he had prevented Lamechs cruelty and after having been his brothers murtherer he would have been his own hangman Poets who cloke truths under fables have not without reason fained nature to have invented death to oblige her children for seeing that their offence had incensed heaven that their life became a misery that fortune intrencht upon their goods calumny upon their innocency and sicknesse upon their health that the fever burnt up their entrails by unsupportable heat that the gout stung their nerves and that they lived not but in fear and sorrow she broke the cords wherewith the soul was fastned to the body and ended their lives to shorten their miseries To leave fables to Infidels is it not a constant truth amongst Christians that life would be an eternall punishment did not death come in to the succour of old age to deliver us from it and that we should pray to go out of the world if we were condemned to live there after we had lost the use of our members by the palsey and were grown blinde and deaf Hell is onely more cruell than earth for that death is banisht thence if the pains of the damned could have an end they should losâ— the greatest part of their rigour and those miserable ones would finde some ease in their sufferings if after many ages they were assured to die nothing makes them despair but that eternity of their punishment and nothing doth so much comfort men as the shortnesse of their tortures Tyrants who unjustly endeavour to imitate God in justice complain that death freed their enemies from their indignation and that by assisting the miserable it hindred their designes for they very well knew that he knows not how to revenge himselfe of his enemy who puts him suddainly to death and that those who will taste the pleasure of revenge never condemne a guilty man to die till he be re-possessed of their favour In fine there are few who owe not thanks to death Those who fear him in prosperity invoke him in adversity those who shun him in opulency seek him out in poverty and those who list not to know his name in health call upon him in sicknesse He is the onely cure of the incurable the assured succour of the afflicted the desire and hope of the miserable and of as many as implore his succour there are none more obliged unto him than those whose miseries and desires he preveneth Though these thoughts may seem uncouth to those who love life they cease not to be approved of by Christianity and to passe for truth amongst the faithfull If death be rigorous because he is the punishment of sin he is pleasing because he is the childe of the Crosse he hath changed nature since he was consecrated in the Person of Jesus Christ he hath forgone those dreadfull names which caused terrour to assume those pleasing ones which bring consolation He is onely asleep which charms our disquiets a passage which leads us unto life a happy shipwrack which throws us into the haven an enemy which takes us out of prison a Tyrant which breaks our chains and a son of sin which furnisheth us with weapons wherewithall to fight with and to overcome his Father In the state of innocency death was a punishment wherewith divine Justice did threaten man in the state of sin it was a chastisement wherewith she did punish the faulty and in the state of grace 't is a sacrifice which she requires at our hands and whereby she is appeased Formerly to astonish man he was told if thou sinnest thou shalt die and now to fortifie him in persecution it is said unto him if thou dost not die thou shalt sin death which was a punishment is become a victime and the sinners chastisement is become the merit of the just The Son of God hath thus instructed us by his example when he would fight with sin he took up no other arms than death he thought the victory would be more honourable wherein he should employ the son against the father and where he should make use of the effect to destroy the cause this is that which the great Apostle teacheth us in these words where he saith that the Son of God hath overcome sin by sin and that in the punishment of our offence he hath found a remedy to cure us Fictitious Hercules vaunts himselfe amongst the Poets to have overcome Monsters by other Monsters to have made himselfe weapons by their spoils and to have ended his last labours by the help of what he had purchased in the former This fable of Hercules is become a truth in Jesus Christ and the Gospell obligeth us to acknowledge that in the death of God which falshood had found out in the life of man For he by dying hath satisfied his Father he hath destroyed sin by it's Son he hath saved the sinner by his punishment Religion bindes us to confesse that death is the rise of our happinesse that it is the Christians vow that without being miserable they rejoyce in being mottall and that they should want somewhat of their glory if since Jesus Christ did lose his life upon the Crosse they were to ascend to Heaven without dying they live with pain they die with pleasure and to describe a true Christian according to Tertullians language we must say that they are a sort of men
fine earth is the place of desert and heaven the abode of recompence God hath reserved unto himself the care of dispensing glory to those that serve him 't is he who will make the Saints Panygericks and who will crown their vertues let us not intrench upon his rights let us give all glory to him since he is the fountain thereof and let us confesse that man would never have been ambitious if he had always continued innocent The third Discourse That greatnesse is attended by flavery and vanity THough sin hath corrupted mans nature though it have bereft him of those glorious advantages which made him walk hand in hand with Angels and hath reduced him to a condition wherein he is equally grieved with shame and misery yet hath it not been able to blot out of his soul the memory of his greatnesse For though the world be a place of banishment though all Creatures war against him and that the seasons are become irregular onely to make him suffer he notwithstanding seeks for Paradice upon the earth and amidst all his mischiefs he continues a desire of happinesse Though ignorance be the punishment of his sin though his blindnesse continue all his life time and that the darknesse which clouds his understanding suffers him not to discern between vice vertues yet he thirsts after truth he seeks her amidst falshood and oft-times fights to find her out though since the losse of his innocency he be become slave to his passions and that to obey such insolent Masters he be enforced to forego his liberty he ceaseth not to love command and to pretend to the Empire of the whole world he endevours to recover by injustice what he hath lost by Vanity and not able to come by royalty he with open face aspires to Tyranny The Devil who cannot efface his desires which are as the remainder of innocency is content to corrupt them and to propose unto him false objects to divert him from true ones To say truth man takes no longer pleasure in any thing save in criminall delights the inclination which he hath for the Summum Bonum serves onely to keep the further from it and for not taking his aim aright he strays from his end whilest he thinks to draw neer it the love which he bears to knowledge is but a meer curiosity he loves truth like a whore not like a legitimate wife he seeks her out onely to passe away his time as oft as she blames his disorders he turns his love into hatred and becomes her persecutor whose servant he was His passion for Sovereignty is not more lawfull though he desire a Good which he hath possessed 't is upon such conditions as make his desire unjust He wisheth for an independant Crown whith may hold of no body he will be absolute in his estate and since he is become the Devils slave he will be no longer Gods subject his ambition will not suffer him to acknowledge his legitimate Sovereign and his basenesse forceth him to tolerate a Tyrant he would think he should injure his liberty should he assubject it to the will of his Creator and thinks not that he wrongs his nobility when he submits himself to an usurper he feeds himself with vain authority and false greatnesse he thinks himself not forced because he follows his own inclinations and because his Master keeps him tied up with Chains of Gold he cannot think he is a slave This errour slides the easilyer into the souls of Kings for that seeing so many subjects obey them they cannot perswade themselves that servitude can meet with so many marks of liberty These crowned heads can hardly believe that their will which is the living law of their Empire is made a Captive that they who are their subjects destiny should hold of an invisible Tyrant and that they who passe for the Gods of the world should be the Devils slaves the submission which they finde in their Dominions makes them believe they are absolute the blinde respect which is rendred to their degree makes them forget the miseries of their birth flattery insinuates her selfe easily into them unlesse they be armed with reason to withstand her and these pleasing falshoods banish away truth In so high a pitch of fortune where nothing is wanting to compleat the felicity of their senses their soule is weakned and being charmed by false praises they believe what they desire They imagine that death dares not assaile a Monarch which the world stands in awe of and whom fortune reverenceth They make a God-head of their greatnesse they despise such honours as are not divine and though sicknesses which advertise them of their weaknesse assure them of their deaths they hope for an un-exampled miracle and perswade themselves that immortality is a favour wherewith heaven will honour their merit The guards which watch about their Palaces might easily cure them of this errour did not flattery which makes them as stupid as insolent bereave them both of their judgement and modesty the conspiracies which are made against their persons the parties which are packt in their Territories the cunning which is used to corrupt their subjects loyalty are reasons good enough to abate their pride and to destroy that foolish confidence which feeds their vanity But without going so far for remedies for their evils their onely greatnesse is able to cure them when if they would consider the condition whereinto sin hath reduced Monarchs they would confesse that the power which waites upon them is but weak and dangerous full of anxiety and mixt with servitude Though God will suffer us to share with him in his perfections though he permit that our vertues be a shadow of his divine attributes that our condition be such as we may imitate them and though a man be not rationall unlesse he endeavour to expresse in his soule an image of divinity yet amongst that number of perfections which we adore in God some seem to be advantagious to us other some prejudiciall It is lawfull for all men to aspire to holinesse and let us give what ever reins we please to this passion it can never be criminall Every one may safely imitate mercy when according to Gods example our benefits extend unto the good and to the evill to Turks and Christians and when without making any distinction of persons we do equally oblige the innocent and the faulty a vertue is not to be blamed which hath God for it's example in the religion which we professe a man cannot have too much charity the perfection whereof consists in excesse and he who is most charitable is undoubtedly the most perfect Christian. But there are some other attributes in God which one nor can nor ought to imitate save with an humble reservednesse it is dangerous to wish for knowledge and as our first father lost himselfe onely out of a desire of being too knowing the desire thereof is oft-times sinfull
had forsaken their heart their souls descended into hell to end their combate there and fury passing from their bodies to their funerall Pile divided the flames which consumed them This fiction of the Poets is a truth amongst Christians amongst whom there are brothers found whose hatred is immortall who preserve their animosity after the losse of their lives who leave it for an inheritance to their successours who charge their children to revenge their injuries and who shewing a face of war in time of peace do meditate murther when they cannot commit it I wonder not that the same thoughts which did possesse them in their life possesse them likewise in their death and that those who delighted in nothing but bloud did dream on nought but cruelties since an ill habit is an invisible chain which keeps the will captive and will not suffer it to abhor a crime which hath alway been pleasing to it But I cannot well comprehend how sin should so far corrupt man as to perswade him that murther was honourable that there was glory in committing it pleasure in beholding it and that the cruellest action that may be could purchase glory or cause content All Paganisme took pleasure to see the Gladiators fight the effusion of mans bloud was one of their most pleasing spectacles and Rome had much a do to forgo this cruell pastime after she had embraced the Christian Religion people ran to publick places to see men fight they were taught to kill one another handsomly and with a good grace publick schools were erected to teach this bloudy exercise there were Masters who taught how to observe method in murthering who led their disciples into their Arenae or Theators for fencing and who trying their dexterity themselves incouraged them to fight by example he was most praised who shed most bloud and a man sorely wounded who had killed many men was led about in triumph Sin must needs reign in their hearts since it had driven thence all sense of humanity and that making man-slaughter a vertue it had perswaded them that glory consisted in injustice and pleasure in cruelty this madnesse grew in time to so great a height as to make killing more easie and the sport more pleasing men were to fight stark naked with offensive weapons but none defensive Obscenity was joyned to cruelty to the end that one might content two passions with one and the same spectacle and that the sight of a dying wretch might make them love his murtherer yet these combates are but the shadows of war the Gladiators fury is but the souldiers entrance Companies were fill'd up which these people nurst up in bloud and when recruits were to be had those were sought for in the Arenae who had made themselves famous by the death of their Companions And certainly duels which serve for pastime to our nobility are neither more just nor yet lesse cruell so brutish a passion cannot be but in mindes where sin doth Tyrannize a man must renounce both reason and Grace to obey so blind a fury and one must cease to be either rationall or faithfull if he believe that a Gentlemans Glory consists in Murther yet this errour is become a custome Gentlemen love rather to lose their heads upon a scaffold and dye by the hands of a hangman then to be failing in an occasion where they know their conscience is in an ill condition and that they are in danger of losing both soul and body fear of shame hath more power over them then fear of Hell they chuse rather to incurre Gods anger and their Princes then the peoples reproach and by a foolish extravagancy they hazard their soul to preserve their honour As this blind Passion differs not much from that which animates Conquerors to war so doth she likewise proceed from the same principle the one and the other proceed from sin which having put us at ods with our selves puts us likewise at ods with our neighbours and perswades us that all means are lawfull whereby we may acquire honour Upon this false belief we engage our selves in combats we violate the holy laws of nature we fly upon our neighbours and allyes and not considering that the world is a Common-wealth that all kingdomes are the provinces all people the subjects thereof that charity is the law thereof the Holy Ghost the heart and Jesus Christ the head we use such cruelties one towards another as do well witnesse that sin hath corrupted our nature and that the Devil doth possesse our will He who doth not acknowledge the truth and doth not confesse that this irregularity is the punishment of our sin is yet more miserable then they who indure it and complain thereof for the other grounds his glory upon his injustice onely because he hath lost the use of reason and thinks himself onely happy because he is become stupid War is then one of the most fatall effects of sin and one of the severest chastizements of divine Justice it is onely excusable when necessary and yet it were better sometimes to follow the counsell of the Gospell and to lose somewhat of that which by right apperteins unto us then to defend it by so cruell a way for if he whose every word is an oracle recommends peace to us dying how can we resolve to wage war if he command us to forget injuries how can we commit outrages and homicide Let us then conclude that man is sufficiently sinfull since war is his exercise since his glory consists in cruelty since combats are his noblest imployments since he delights in Murther since he esteems a pitcht battle more innocent then a single Duell onely because it is more bloudy since he thinks man-slaughter a sin when it is particular and a vertue when generall and when by an injustice which cannot be sufficiently blamed the sinner finds his impunity onely in the excesse of his sin The fifth Discourse That Riches render men poor and sinfull THough it be hard to say which is the severest punishment man hath suffered since his losse of innocency and that servitude and death are pains equally insupportable to those who love their liberty as their life yet me thinks there is a third more rigorous which all men do resent yet not any one complains off And this is nothing else but the calling to mind the possession of all those good things which we have lost together with our innocency a desire of them remains in us which vertues self cannot efface we sigh when we want them and we never are so sensible of our misery as when we are assailed by pain infamy or poverty Yet are their remedies new diseases and we never do so well know our own weaknesse as when we abound in pleasures honours and riches This is so true a Maxime as that all Christian Religion makes profession of either really foregoing all those advantages which men enjoyed during the state of innocency or else
change of air is a remedy for incurable evils and when Physicians cannot cure a stubborn sicknesse either by diet or letting blood they cure it by waters or by travelling There is no disaster so generall as doth assail the whole world at once Thunder frightens more then it hurts the plague whose mischiefs are so great may well dispeople towns but doth not throw down the houses though tempests do shatter ships yet some do escape their fury but the earth quake doth inclose whatsoever it overthroweth it openeth the earth wide as it swalloweth down whole towns it wageth not war with some few houses onely but with whole provinces it leaveth nothing behind it which can inform posterity of it's outrages more insolent then fire which spares rocks more cruell then the Conquerour who spares wals more greedy then the sea which vomiteth up shipwracks it swalloweth and devoureth whatsoever it overturneth Whatever stedfastnesse the places have wherein we live we cannot say they are exempt from this so dreadfull accident what hath befaln some parts of the earth may befall all the rest those which never were yet agitated are not unmoveable their condition is not better though they have been preserved from this disorder they ought to apprehend it because they have escaped it and those parts which have undergone it ought to fear it the lesse because nature hath consumed the forces thereof in shaking them Self-love doth abuse us if we perswade our selves that there are some parts of the world which are exempt from this mischief they are subject to the same laws nature cannot defend her workmanship against the justice of her Sovereign what happens not at one time may happen at another as in great towns one house fals after another so in the world doth earth-quakes succeed and France will one day suffer what Italie hath suffered the bravest parts of the world have not been able to secure themselves from it those which have been most populous and most abounding in fruit have been most subject thereunto and Asia whose beauty may make Europe jealous hath often been the Theater of famous Earth-quakes she lost twelve towns in one day Achaia and Macedonia have been sensible of this disorder and the most delightfull parts of Italie have seen their wals thrown down and their houses swallowed up amidst their greatest felicity Destiny seems to make the circuit of the world it sets upon those parts which it hath a long time spared and teacheth all sorts of people that no force can resist it's fury The Sea is subject to it's Empire and Marriners confesse that those storms are most dangerous which are occasioned by earth-quakes the Ocean is astonished when the element which serves it for it's basis will forego it it grows incensed and breaks it's bounds when the earth sinks under it's waters and goes to seck out another bed when that which nature hath given it appears willing to be it's Sepulchre In fine this misfortune is common to all kingdomes since man became criminall all parts of the earth are become moveable the parts thereof do dis-unite themselves since the division of the body from the soul and stedfastnesse must no longer be looked for in the world since innocency is banished thence by injustice This disorder is the punishment of our sin and reason together with faith doth sufficiently perswade us that the universe would never have been agitated with these furious accidents during the estate of originall righteousnesse Wherefore should Gods anger have armed the elements against his faithfull subjects wherefore should it have overthrown all his works to destroy innocent men why should it have overwhelm'd the inhabitants of the earth with the ruines thereof if they had not been sinfull why should it have buried those in the bowels of the earth who were not to die Let us then conclude that Earth-quakes are the effects of sinne and let us also make it appear that Deluges are also the just Rewards thereof We are bound by the holy Scripture to believe that that dreadfull disorder was not so much the effect of Nature as of Divine Justice that it was to punish mans insolency that the floâ—ds forsook their channels and that the world would never have been drowned had it not been infected with mans sin Nature could not have furnished waters enough to cover the mountains had not Gods anger imprinted in her a new fertility she could not have wrought so powerfully towards her own ruine unlesse he whose motions make her inclinations encourage her against her self all the Seas put together could not have covered the face of the whole world though their banks should have been broken down and that they should have been set at Liberty by the hand which holds them in they would not have had waves enough to have overflowed all the earth if those rains which made the waters swell came not from out the bosome of the clouds a Sovereign power formed the vapours which did produce them The same Justice which shall burn the world did drown it and let Philosophers say what they list that prodigious accident was not a meer effect of nature Nature is not powerfull enough to destroy what she hath not made that hand onely by which she is guided can disorder her those great disorders which draw along with them her generall ruine could have no other cause but the will of God Philosophy hath not been able to find out a cause for it she speaks of the deluge as of a fable and hath rather chosen to give all antiquity the lye then to betray her own ratiocination To say truth he that knows not sin cannot comprehend this disorder of nature to the belief thereof a presupposition is requisite that man is guilty that God is angry with him and that he will make use of his absolute power to punish him All other reason is too weak to prove so strange an accident though the world subsist by change and that the elements whereof it is composed are onely preserved by their opposing one another yet do not their combats tend to the ruine of nature the peace of the Universe is entertained by their divisions they sacrifice themselves for the publique good and violate their particular inclinations to prevent a generall disorder Fire descends to assist nature when she is set upon water mounts aloft to supply the place of vacuum which is the common enemy to all elements the earth opens her bowels and loosens her self from her foundations to suppresse the disorders which sin hath caused in the world but it is not to be comprehended how all the parts of the world should conspire natures ruine nor by what secret veins the sea could issue forth so much water as could drown her the sea even when incensed useth violence upon her self not to overflow the earth it remembers what order it received from God in the beginning it useth violence upon it self
in it's greatest storms not to out-passe it's bounds it takes nothing in one place which it repayes not in another it restores to Swethland what it hath taken from Holland and foregoes our coasts when it intrencheth upon our neighbours if the ebbing flowing thereof be sometimes irregular they never move to such a height as to threaten the whole world it's inroads are rather for pastime then mischief and should it have tane that liberty in the state of innocency man who very well knew the nature thereof would neither have been surprised nor astonished thereat But if it now spread it self over the fields if it cover the highest steeples with it's waves if it turn populous towns into lakes or ponds if it bear it's Empire beyond it's bounds and if breaking the banks which are made to oppose it's fury it threaten us again with an universall Deluge it follows rather the motions of Divine Justice then it 's own and this prodigie is rather an effect of Gods anger then of Nature Thus ought we to argue of that generall inundation which destroyed the whole world two thousand years after it was first made the cause came from heaven the decree was pronounced by Gods own mouth the execution thereof was given to the evil spirits the Elements received a new commission to obey their new order The earth furnisht part of the vapours which were to drown her the vapours distil'd down in rain rivers being swoln with such fall of rain broke their banks the sea not able to contain so many flouds forewent its bounds Towns were changed into ponds their streets were turned into rivolets their inhabitants quitted their houses the wals whereof were undermined by waters and equally fearing two contrary evils they know not whether they were to perish by the fall or by the drowning of their houses Torrents were seen every where which charged with booty did at the same time carry down the seilings of palaces and trees out of gardens all rivers lost their names and channels the Rhine was confounded with Rome Euphrates and Ganges were mingled together all those great rivers which had won fame by reason of the towns which they watered found their losse in their greatnesse and ruined themselves that they might ruine the whole world the tops of mountains made Islands in this wast Ocean which being by little and little quite effaced left the world at last drowned in waters there was then but one onely Element seen Whole Nature became a Sea in the which the winds guided a vessell which carried in it the worlds onely hope and which preserved eight people amidst this deluge which were to re-people the world It is very likely that so great a spoil was not made without Thunder and that to make this punishment the more dreadfull the Sun hid his face that the day gave place to night that the world was covered with darknesse and the Lightening was the torches which did attend the funerall pomp whilst any mountains were yet uncovered with water the remainders of man-kind were fixed there in this extremity no comfort but astonishment remained fear was changed into stupidity and the wonder which they conceived at this so hideous an accident did so possesse their spirits as they saw the sea without fear had not feeling of the mischief and perished without complaining Who will not confesse that so strange an accident could be no naturall effect who will not judge by the greatnesse thereof that it was a miracle of divine Justice who will not confesse that these disorders which tend to the ruine of man-kind are the punishments of sin and that nature would never have conceived so much indignation against her own children had she not believed to revenge their father by their death and to repair his honour by their punishment The eighth Discourse That Thunder Plagues and Tempest are the effects of Sinne. WHen I consider the worlds condition since sin me thinks I see a combat between self-love and divine Justice and that these two parties do with equall courage endevour to win the victory Divine Justice disorders the seasons to punish sinfull man altereth the nature of the elements robs the earth of flowers and covers it over with thorns makes the winters longer and Summers shorter and mingling the saddest of our seasons with all the other makes snow be seen in the spring and thick fogs in Autumn arms savage beasts with new fury draws them out of their forrests to set on sinners in towns destroyes her own workmanship ruines the beauties of the world to take revenge of the Lord thereof and raiseth up as many enemies against him since his sin as he had Subjects during his innocency Self-love imploys all it's industry to to repair these disorders and by tricks which seem to augment it's sin withstands all the designs of Divine Justice it cultivates the earth and by it's labour makes her fruitfull it ingrafts roses upon thorns and indevours to make the place of it's exile a stately palace it hath had such good successe in it's enterprizes as the sinfull world comes not far short of the world when innocent did our first father live again and partake of our contentments he would not so much lament the losse of the earthly paradise but blaming the tears which his banishment drew from him he would passe his time merrily away with his children in so pleasing an abodâ— In effect all things are refined by time solitary places are inhabited forrests which infused horrour into those who saw them furnish hunters with pastime the barren sands are sowed upon vines are planted upon rocks Marish grounds are dried that they may be plough'd up and provinces are now fuller of palaces then formerly they were of cottages Islands are no longer un-inhabited and those famous rocks which made the Pylots tremble now bear high Towers for Land-marks unto them and Towns to receive them all the parts of the world are peopled nor are there any desarts which have not some Inhabitants and houses But let self-love use all the cunning that it can there are some mischiefs which wee cannot shâ— and there are some disorders in the world which will oblige us to confesse that the wisedome of man cannot defend it self against Gods anger Thunder is of this sort and one must have lost his reason not to fear a cause which produceth such strange effects All Poets have armed the hands of God therewithall and nature which is the Mistresse of Infidels hath taught them that he makes use thereof to punish offenders the lightenings which fore-run it the noyse which doth accompany it and the prodigies which follow after are undeniable proofs of this truth Let Philosophy defend her self against it by her vain reasons let her oppose her pride to our feaâ— let her destroy religion by her libertinisme she cannot keep reasonable men from redoubting thun-Thunder and from confessing by the fear
which siezeth them that without the reading of Genesis they know the whole story of our mis-fortune To say truth who would not fear a punishment against which Nature affords no temedy who will not dread a disaster which sets upon Princes in their Palaces and upon Conquerours amidst their Armies the statelinesse thereof is able to frighten even Philosophers and though they say this be not the greatest danger though the most specious yet they look pale when the Thunder roars over their heads and that the Ecchoes which answer to the voice thereof makes the ground quake under their feet Then their constancy forsakes them and nature which forceth them to speak truth makes them make vows and repent them of their insolence The haughtiest of all the Stoicks hath been inforc't to confesse that there was somwhat of divine in Thunder that it was not the meer workmanship of nature and that the flames and water whereof it is composed made but the least part of it's power It is truth that pride hath made him speak another language and that after having with reason admired Thunder he hath the impudency to laugh at it he believed that since the claps thereof were not certain they were not darted out from a divine hand and that since it spared the guilty and struck the innocent it was guided by fortune not by providence Then destroying religion under a pretence of establishing it he adds that Polititians had wisely handled this accident to keep people within their duties that it was requisite that where the faulty take so great a freedom there should be an inevitable punishment and against which the power of Kings should be of no use that to intimidate men who could not beperswaded to innocency but by fear it behooved to place a revengefull hand over their heads which should always be armed with Thunder But let this proud Philosopher say what he please all men will not alter their beliefe upon so weak reasons Thunder cannot be mistaken when it falls upon the ground it is not necessary that he who darteth it forth should measure his strokes since whosoever he hits is sinfull The Decree of our death is pronounced before we are born it little imports whether the execution thereof be left to thunder or deluge and whether the sea or the earth serve as a Minister to Gods Justice if he spares sinners in this world 't is that he may punish them the more severely in the other world if he snew favour unto sinners 't is either to recompence their good deeds or the good deeds of their Ancestors and if he punish the innocent 't is either to exercise their patience or to increase their merit But certainly of all the punishments which he makes use of to make himselfe be feared there is none more strange then Thunder the effects thereof are miraculous it plays so many severall ways as it is easily seen that he who guides it is Natures Master it melts the money of the avaritious without breaking the cofer wherein it is lockt it breaks the sword without hurting the Scabbard wherein it is it melts the iron ends of Pikes without burning the wood whereinto they are ingraffed it consumes the Cask without shedding the wine but what is yet most miraculous it kils a child in the mothers belly without hurting the mother and of a living cradle makes her an animated Sepulchre Is it not easie to judge by all these effects that so prodigious a cause would have been uselesse in the state of Innocency for what need was there to govern them by fear who suffered themselves to be charmed by love why should the Thunder have roared over the heads of the innocent wherefore should God have armed himself not having as yet any enemies and to what end should he have vented his fury upon the tops of mountains since if he punish insensible creatures 't is to astonish those who are rationall In this sort of punishment there is also observed a certain malignity which witnesseth that it is the work of God for it corrupts what ever it toucheth it imprints evill qualities in the body that it burneth and wine which is the best Antidote turns to poison if it be struck with Thunder it leaves an ill odour where ere it goes and it cannot be a meer effect of nature since it destroys all the works thereof We are bound to be of the same beliefe touching the plague and to confesse that this sad sicknesse which hath so often unpeopled the world hath no other father then sin Tertullian who isas full of mad whâ—sics as of errours thought that the plague was a providence of nature which to case the earth which was not able to support her children bereft her of some of them and that like those Gardiners who use to prune such Trees as bear more fruit then they can nourish she lessens the number of men and reduceth them to a condition of not being burthensome to their common Mother Though I confesse that divine mercy doth oft-times turn our punishments into favours and that it may aswell turn the plague to a remedy as death to a sacrifice yet I look upon it as one of the strangest Punishments ordained by divine justice to punish men withall I must in reason confesse that it is a generall corruption of nature that it assails all the parts thereof and that it disperseth venom into all the elements to cause death to the sinfull it infecteth the air which we draw in with our breath it gets into our bowels with the meat which we eat it makes the earth barren by it's bad influences and passing from men to beasts commits as much havock in the fields as in towns this malady surpasseth the Physicians skill it laughs at all antidotes it is not to be shun'd but by flight and it is sometimes so universall as men meet with it in the very places which they have chosen for their Sanctuary Wee bear the seed thereof along with us which it in time hatches forth and shews it self as fire doth when we think it is extinguisht It is the most perverse and least respectful punishment of all those that befall sinfull man for 't is a rebell to all remedies it turns antidotes into venome and when it doth reign absolutely any where it is fed with whatsoever is given to allay it it assails Monarchs amidst their armies the Lawrels which fence their heads from Thunder cannot keep them from the contagion thereof and that Sanctity which receives respect from other diseases cannot stop it's progresse The most August and holiest of all our Kings died of this disease in Africa his valour and his piety which had freed him out of prison could not deliver him from his sicknesse but after having triumphed over vice and infidelity a period was put to all his conquests by a contagious death The holiest of all the Kings of Iudah knowing that