alwaies waited that Reason might make them serve his Designs Ours for the most part do surprize us and are so ready to be moving that the wisest men cannot keep back their first motions they are so given to disorder as the â—east occasion sets them on fire their sleep is so unquiet as the least matter will awaken them they are so given to war that upon the least provocation they take up Arms and make more spoil upon their own Territories then would an enemies army do Their disorder proceeds not so much from their Objects as from their humour and it fares with their storms as it doth with those who being at the bottom of the Sea mount up again by their proper motion But they caused no tempests in Iesus Christ or if sometimes their waves went high they were led on by Reason which alwaies kept the power to appease the trouble she had caused As their birth depended upon his Will so made they no Progress or advancement but by his permission and their moving proceeded alwaies from some reasonable cause Men betake themselves to things which merit not their Love and have oft times strong Passions for weak and woful Subjects Imprudency seeks them in Choler and not weighing the difference of faults they punish a word as rigorously as they do a Murderer their ambition is blind their desires unruly their sadness ridiculous and who shall compare all their Passions with the causes which produce them will find them all to be unjust A Consul made a slave be eaten by Lampreys for having broken a Glass A Princes anger caused a Town to be drowned in the bloud of its Inhabitants and to revenge an injury done to an Image of Brass or Marble made 7000 men the lively Image of God lose their lives Sorrow hath made Idols to comfort her Fathers not able to raise agaiâ— their dead Children have deified them through an excess of love and sorrow have built Temples unto them after they had taken them out of their Graves In fine all the motions of our souls are irrational we cannot measure or bound our joy nor our displeasures our hatred exceeds our injuries our love is more ardent than the subâ—ect which sets it on fire and we ground â—irm hopes upon perishable things But the Passions of the Son of God were so reguâ—ated as in their motions a man might observâ— the worth of the subject which caused â—hem to arise he was not angry save only â—o revenge the injuries done unto his father â—r punish the impieties of those who proâ—haned his Temple he had no affection â—â—ve for those that did deserve it if he saw â—o perfection in his friends he loved such â—s he would place there and loving them he â—ade them worthy of his love he never â—â—rrowed save upon great occasion and â—hough the cross was a sufficient object of â—rief I verily believe his soul was more â—arrowly touched with the horror of our â—s than with the shame or cruelty of his â—unishment Such regulated Passions ceaâ—d when he pleased and their continuâ—ce was no less subject to his Empire than was their Progress We are not masters of our Passions as in their birth they set at nought our advice they laugh at our Counsels during their course they never stay till they be weary and we owe not our quiet so much to their Obedience as to their Weakness When they are violent our care cannot overcome them and there are some of them so stifâ—necked as they will not die but together with us therefore we ought to suppress them in their birth and to advise with Reason whether it be to any purpose to draw Souldiers into the field who when they have their Weapons in their hands despise the Authority of their chief Commander The beginning of War depends oft times upon two Parties but the end thereof depends alwaies upon the victory and he is not easily brought to a peace when he finds his Advantage lies in the continuance of War All these rules prove false in the Passions of Iesus Christ. He did even exceed therein when the Subject did deserve it though they were chafed they becamâ— calm as soon as he would have them so tâ— be Their heat as it was reasonable so waâ— it as soon extinguished as kindled so as joy did immediately succeed sadness and onâ— might at the same time see pleasingness take the same place in his countenance which Choler had possest It is peradventure for this reason that Saint Ierome could not resolve to call the agitations of the soul of our Saviour Iesus Christ Passions believing that to name them as Criminals was to injure their innocence and that there was injustice in giving the same name to things the conditions whereof were so different But every one knows that qualities change not nature and that the Passions of the Son of God were not less natural for being more obedient than are ours In my opinion it is a new obligation which we have to his goodness that he hath not despised our weakness he will eternally reproach us if we desire not his glory since he coveted our welfare if we fight not against his enemies since he hath overcome ours if we shed not tears for injuries done unto him since he hath shed his blood for our sins And he will have just occasion to complain upon our Ingratitude if our Passions serve not â—o witness our Love to him since he hath â—mployed all his to assure us of his Charity The Second Treatise Of the disorder of Passions in Man The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the corruption of Nature by Sin THough there be many wonderful things in man which deserve consideration that his qualities witness unto us the greatness power of his Creator there is nothing more remarkable in him than his constitution for he is composed of a body and soul he in his person unites Heaven and Earth and being more monstrous than are the Centaures in the Fable he is both Angel and Beast as the power of God appeareth in the uniting of these two so different parties his wisdome is no less evidently seen in the good intelligence they hold for though they had contrary inclinations that the one should bow downward towards the earth whereof it was formed and that the other should raise it self up towards heaven from whence it had its original yet God did so well temper their desires and in the diversity of their conditions so streightly united their wills by original justice as the soul shared in all contentments of the body without any injury to her self and the body served to all the designs of the soul without doing any violence to its self In this happy estate the soul commanded with mildness the body obeyed with delight and whatsoever object presented it self these two parties did always agree But this happiness continued no longer than our first father was obedient to God
voluntarily condemned themselves to fearful punishments and who have esteemed all remedies pleasing which could cure so vexatious a malady Banishment is certainly one of the cruellest punishments which Justice hath invented to chastise the guilty it separates us from all we love and seems to be a long Death which leaves us a little life only to make us the more miserable Notwithstanding we have heard of a Mother who chose rather to suffer the rigor of this torment than the violence of Desire and who would accompany her son in his banishment that she might not be necessitated to lament his absence and wish for his return Thus Nature which saw that Desire was an affliction ordained Hope to sweeten it for whilst we are upon the earth we make no wishes whereof our mind doth not promise us the accomplishment these two motions of our soul are only divided in hell where divine Justice hath condemned her enemies to frame Desires void of hope and to languish after a happiness which can never befall them They long after the Summum bonum whatever hatred they conceived against that God which punisheth them they cease not notwithstanding to love him naturally and to wish they might enjoy him though they are not permitted to hope they shall This Desire is cause of all their sufferings and this languishment is a more insufferable torment than the scorching flames than the company of the Devils and than the eternity of their Prison could they be without Desire they should be without anguish and all those other pains which astonish vulgar souls would seem supportable to them were they not adjudged to wish a happiness which they cannot hope for But it is not in Hell only that this Passion is cruel she afflicteth all men upon earth and as she serveth divine Justice as a means wherewithal to punish the guilty she is serviceable unto mercy as an holy piece of cunning wherewithal to exercise the innocent for Gods goodness causeth them to consume in desires they are in a disquiet which cannot end but with their lives they strive to get free from their bodies they call in death into their succour and say with the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Justice employs Desires to revenge her self upon sinners and by a no less severe than rational guidance she gives them over to this Passion to torment them their desires tend only to afflict them and their soul frames unruly wishes which failing of effects leave them in a languishment which lasts as long as doth their life In fine Divinity knowing that this Passion is the cause of all our misfortunes hath thought that she could not describe Happiness better unto us than in teaching us it was the end of all Desires Philosophy would have said that it is the end of all our evils and the beginning of all our good that it makes us forget our miseries by the sweets of her delights but Divinity which very well knows that desires are the most violent punishments which we suffer here below is content to say that happiness was the period thereof that when we should begin to be happy we should cease to wish we must also confess that Desire fastens it self to all the other Passions of our soul and that it either furnisheth them with weapons wherewithal to fight or with strength to afflict us for those Passions which make most havock in our hearts would be either dead or languishing were they not animated with Desire Love is only cruel because it coveteth the presence of what it loveth Hatred gnaws not on our Bowels save only because it desireth revenge Ambition is only angersom because it aspires after Honour Avarice tortures the Avaritious only because it thirsts after riches and all Passions are only insupportable because they are accompanied by Desire which like a contagious Malady is shed abroad throughout all the affections of our Soul to make us miserable If it be thus cruel it is not much less shameful and we are obliged to confess that it is an evidence of our weakness and indigency for we never have recourse to wishes but when our power fails us our desires never do appear but when we cannot effect them they are marks of our impotency as well as of our love it teacheth Kings upon earth that their will exceeds their power and that they would do many things which they cannot I know that desires inheartens them to proud undertakings where difficulty is always mixt with glory I know they excite their courage and that they produce that general heat without which nothing of gallantry is either undertaken or effected but they likewise teach them that there is none but God alone who is able to do what he will that maketh not fruitless wishes and that it appertains to him to change when he pleaseth desires into effects he rather wills than wishes and doth rather resolve events than desire them but amongst Princes their impotency hinders oft-times the execution of their desires they are enforced to make Vows and to implore aid from Heaven when they fail of help on earth poor Alexander seeing his dear Ephestion die could not witness his love unto him but by his desires He who distributed the Crowns of Kings that he had conquered and who made Soveraigns Slaves could not restore health unto his Favourite the vows which he offered up to heaven for his amendment were as much evidences of his impotency as of his sorrow and taught the whole world that Princes wishes witness their weakness They are also publick marks in all men of hidden poverty for every soul that desires is necessitous the soul that desires forgoes her self to seek out in another what she finds missing in her she discovers her misery by making her desires known and teaches the whole world that the felicity which she possesseth is but in appearance since it satisfieth not all her desires Great Tertullian hath therefore worthily exprest the nature of this Passion when he says it is the glory of the thing desired and the shame of him that doth desire for a thing must be lovely to kindle our desires it must have charms which may draw us and perfections which may stay us but for certain likewise the will that doth desire must be indigent and must stand in need of somewhat which makes it seek out a remedy Desire then is the honour of beauty and the shame of the unchaste it is the glory of Riches and the Avaritious mans infamy the praise of dignity and the Ambitious mans blame and as oft as Princes are prone to this Passion it gives us to know that their fortune hath more of glittering in it than of real truth that she gives not all the contentments she promiseth since they are constrained to descend from their Thrones to quit their Palaces and by shameful prosecution to seek out a forreign good which they have
the Theatre where two so violent motions were formed should enjoy Peace amidst War In fine Fear and Audacity ended their differences in thy Person thou didst suffer these two affections to possess thy Heart without dividing it whilst thou wert in thine Agony in the Garden thou gavest confidence to thine Apostles and when the thought of death made such havock in thy Soul thou didst encourage Martyrs to the Combat thou preparest Crowns for their Victories and procuring them strength by thy weaknesses thou ordainest them to be the Champions of thy Church Militant But whatever help they received from thy Grace their Victories were never like thine they found more obedience in the World than in themselves and have confessed it cost them less to overcome wild Beasts than to vanquish their own Passions Famous Martyrs have been known who having overcome Lyons could not quell their own choler and have suffered themselves to be born away with Impatience after they had endured Tortures Their Combats were not always followed with good Success they were oft-times in one and the same day both Conquered and Conquerors They gave way to Voluptuousness after they had triumphed over Grief and having had courage enough to be Martyrs they wanted resolution to be continent How often have they wisht for Death that they might be freed from these domestick enemies and to that end sighed and made vows When thy Providence gave them over to their own weakness they despaired of their Salvation finding no support save in thy Goodness they begun all their wrestlings by Prayer and professed that to overcome their Passions they must be animated by thy Spirit and assisted by thy Power Thou art the sole Conqueror that wert never worsted in this War thy Affections never betrayd thy Reason and thy power hath been as absolute in thy Person as in thy Kingdom These Passions of our Soul changed nature in thine by the use thou madest of them they became Virtues Thou conceivedst no love which did not turn it self into Charity thou didst excite no Choler that was not just indignation and thou feltest no pity but it was transformed into Mercy All that in our Nature is Humane was Divine in thine and the unconfused Mixture of two Natures whereof thou art composed made thy passions to be rather Miracles than Virtues Thy Anger served as an Officer to thy Fathers Iustice thy Compassion was the Interpreter of His Mercy and thy Love an earnest of His Good will How happy was that distressed man that drew tears from thine eyes how rich was that poor one whose wants thou didst bewail how puissant was the oppressed whose interests thou maintainedst how innocent was that Offender whose Conversion was wrought by thy Tears and how glorious was the infamous Sinner to whom thou witnessedst thy Love by thy Complaints and Sighs Heaven had a regard to all the motions of thy Soul the eternal Father never denied any thing to thy Tears and his Thunder-bolts never failed to fall upon their heads on whom thy just Anger called for punishment Thy Passions were the Organs of thy Divinity thy Sighs were no less powerful than thy Words and without using either Prayers or Vows the Desires were sufficient to make known thy Will What Admiration did these Motions of thy Soul cause in the Seraphim with what astonishment were those pure Intelligences strucken when they considered that God taking our nature upon him took part of her feelings and no part of her weaknesses That he wept with the wretched without interessing his happiness That he was Angry at those that were injured without troubling his Quiet That with the needy he formed desires without loss of his Abundance And that with Lovers he felt the flames of Love without enduring their Disturbances What a miracle was it to see that Anger should be kindled in thy Soul without trouble thereunto That Pity should wound thy Heart without weakning it That it should be enflamed with Love yet not consumed That it should be eaten up with Sorrow yet not disquieted What can I do less in honour of so many Wonders than to consecrate our Passions unto thee What less submission can I make to thy adored Power than loudly to avouch that there is none but thou who can teach us the use of these Motions And that it appertains only to thy Wisdom to change our Anger into Indignation our Pity into Mercy and our Love into Charity Indeed it is thou alone who canst rule our passions thou art he only who workest our good out of our Evil and of Poysons composest Antidotes Thou knowest men by their Inclinations thou seest without studying them the motions of their hearts and making benefit thereof dost wisely conduct them to thy end Thou employest Fear to take off a covetous man from those perishable Riches which possess him thou makest a holy use of Despair to withdraw from the World a Courtier whose youth had been mis-imployed in the service of some Prince thou makest an admirable use of Disdain to extinguish there with a lovers flames who is enslave by a proud beauty thou employest Choler to disabuse a Souldier whom a dissembling General feeds with vain hopes thou makest excellent use of Grief to cure a sick man who sought for his Souls happiness in his Bodies health and lost the remembrance of Heaven by being to strongly fastened to the Earth In fine thou makest Chains of all our Passions to unite our Wills to thine thou minglest Grace with Nature and makest Angels by the same disorders as they would have been made Devils Sin is the Theatre of thy Power as well as Nothing thou makest thy greatest Works issue out of two Subjects whereof the one is Barren the other Rebellious Out of Nothing thou drawest Existence and out of Sin thou extractest Grace thou findest every thing in its contrary and by an effectual violence which can proceed only from an infinite Power thou compellest Nothing to produce men and sin to make Saints But after these two Miracles which are thy Master-pieces we see not any thing more wonderful than the use which thou art able to make of our Passions for the changing of our Wills thou makest that serve thy designes which did serve thine enemies thou savest men by those Weaknesses which would have been their undoing and bestowing on them a little Divine Love thou turnest all their Passions into Virtues For when once Charity begins to reign in their souls they fear nothing but sin they wish for nothing but Grace Thou art the end of their Desires as thou art the object of their Love They change Condition without changing Nature though they have Passions they commit no more Offences and losing neither Hope nor Despair neither Audacity nor Fear neither Love nor Hatred they are free from all the mischiefs which accompany these Passions when they are Faulty But certainly if thy Mercy appear in well husbanding the inclinations of thy Friends to their
Nature ordained pleasure in all actions these two Virtues which go to the composure of a chaste and continent man would be likewise of no use Clemency sweetens Choler and did not this Passion animate Princes to revenge the virtue whereby it is moderated would not deserve praise But if Passions be so much befriended by so many several virtues they are not thereof unthankful for when instructed in their whole they repay them with use and serve them faithfully The best part of Circumspection is composed of Fear which though it be accused to seek out the evil before it happen it prepares us either quietly to undergo it or happily to evade it Hope is serviceable to Fortitude and 't is she that by her Promises doth encourage us to the undertaking of gallant Actions Boldness is Valour 's faithful Companion and all great Conquerors owe the glory of their Generosity to this Passion Choler maintains Justice and animates Judges to punish the Guilty Briefly there is no Passion which is not serviceable to Virtue when they are governed by Reason and those who have so cried them down make us see they never knew their use nor worth The SECOND DISCOURSE What the Nature of Passions is and in what Faculty of the Soul they reside GODS Greatness is so elevated as Man cannot attain to the Knowledge thereof without abasing it and his Unity is so simple as it is not to be conceived unless divided Philosophers gave him different Names to express the diversity of his Perfections and by calling him sometimes Destiny sometimes Nature sometimes Providence they introduced a plurality of Gods and made all men Idolaters The Soul being the Image of God the same Philosophers did likewise divide it and not being able to comprehend the simplicity of its Essence they believed it was corporeal They imagined it had parts as well â—s the Body and though they were more subtle they were not less veritable They multiplied the Cause with its Effects and â—aking her divers Faculties for different Naâ—ures they contrary to the Law of Reason gave divers forms to the same composure But Truth which together with Faith came down upon earth teacheth us that the Soul is but one in its Essence and that it hath undergone several Names only to express the variety of its operations for when it gives life unto the body and when by natural heat which proceeds from the heart as from its Center it preserveth all the â—arts thereof it is called Form when it discerns colours by the Eye and distinguisheth of sound by the Ear Sense When she raiâ—eth her self a little higher and by discoursing infers one Truth by another she is called Understanding When she preserves her thoughts to employ them about her own affairs or that she draws from forth her treasury the Riches which â—she had lock'd therein men stile her Memory when she loveth that which pleaseth her or hates that which nauseates her she is termed Will but all her several Faculties which differing in their employments do notwithstanding agree in their substance make but one Soul and are like so many Rivulets derived from the same Spring-Head Prophane Philosophy arriving at length to the knowledge of this truth makes use of divers comparisons to express her Now she represents the Soul in the Body as an Intelligence in the Heavens the virtue whereof is displayed through all the Spheres thereof Anon they figure her out unto us as a Pilot who guides his Vessel sometimes as a King who governs his State But Christian Philosophy hath been more fortunate when coming even to the original of the soul it hath made us know what effects she produceth in the Body by the very same which God produceth in the world For though this infinite essence depends not upon the world which he hath created and that without interessing his might he may undo his own workmanship yet is he shed abroad in all the parts thereof there is no intermedium which he fills not up He applies himself to all Creatures in their operations and without dividing his unity or weakning his power he gives light with the Sun he burneth with the fire he he refresheth with the water and he brings forth fruit with the trees He is as great on earth as he is in Heaven though his effects do differ his power is alwaies equal and the stars which shine above our heads cost him no more than the grass which we tread under our feet So is the soul dispersed in the body and penetrates all the parts thereof It is as noble in the hand as in the heart and though applying her self to the disposition of the Organs she speaks by the Mouth seeth by the Eyes and heareth by the Ears yet is she but one Spirit in her Essence and in her differing Functions her Unity is not divided nor her Power weakned 'T is true that not finding the same dispositions in every part of the Body she produceth not the same Effects and in this point this Illustrious Captive is infinitely inferiour to God for as he is infinite and was able to make all things out of nothing he can likewise make all things out of every Creature and without any respect to their Inclinations make them serve his Will. So we see he hath used the Fire to sweeten the pains of his Servants that he hath used the Light to blind his Enemies that he hath made the Flouds turn back to give passage to his Friends and that he hath made the Earth open to swallow those that rebell against him But the Soul whose power is limited cannot operate without dependance upon the Organs and though she be spiritual in her Nature yet is she corporeal in her Operations This is that which hath made the Philosophers consider her in three several estates which are so different the one from the other that if in the first she approach near the Dignity of the Angels in the second she is in no better condition than the Beast of the Field and in the last she differs not much from the Nature of Plants for in this acceptation she hath no other employment than to nourish the Body she is in to digest Food to convert it into Bloud and by a strange Metamorphosis to make one and the same Matter thicken into Flesh stiffen into Nerves harden into Bones extend into Branches and lengthen into Grisles she augments her Parts by nourishing them she in time perfects her Workmanship and by her pains brings it to its just Greatness Solicited by Providence she takes care to maintain the World she thinks how to restore what she hath received and to preserve her species produceth the like In this acception her workmanship is not more noble than that of Plants which nourish themselves by the Influences of Heaven grow up by the heat of the Sun and get root downward by their Succors and Moisture In the second estate she becomes sensible and
and that all the assistance that man can hope for from Grace is so handsomly to manage Passions as that they may defend virtue and oppugn vice The FOURTH DISCOURSE That opinions and the senses do cause the disorder of our Passions THough sin be the original of all our mischief and that all the miseries we undergo are the punishments for our faults we seem to take pleasure in increasing them by our evil guidance and that we invent every day new penalties to which divine Justice had not condemned us we are not contented to know our Passions are revolted and that without the assistance of Grace Reason cannot regulate them we nourish their disorder and to make them the more insolent we admit of Opinions which raise them up at their pleasure For of a thousand Passions which are raised in our soul there are not any two that take truth for their guide and the evil which they apprehend or the good which they desire appear rather so to be than that they are so indeed To mend this disorder we must take cognizance of opinion mark her birth and progress Opinion is not so much a judgment of the understanding as of the Imaginations whereby she doth either approve of or condemn things which the senses represent unto her This is the most usual evil of our Life and if it were as constant as it is common our condition would be very sad but it changeth at every moment that which is the cause of its birth causeth likewise the death thereof And Imagination forsakes it with as much ease as she gave it entertainment It taketh its rise from our senses and from the reports of the world so as it is no marvel if the best grounded opinion cannot subsist long since the foundations thereof are so bad for our senses are liars and like inchanted glasses they present disguised Objects unto us Their Reports are seldom uninteressed and as they fasten themselves to objects they endeavour to engage Imagination When I consider the soul as a Prisoner in the body I bewail her condition and I wonder not if she so oft takes falshood for truth because it entereth by the gate of the senses this divine Spirit is inclosed in the body not having any other cognizance save what she borroweth either from the Eyes or the Ears thereof and these two senses which by nature seem so particularly appropriated to knowledge are such deceivers as their devices are for the most part but impostures blindness is to be preferred before their false Lights and they had better leave us in our ignorance than help us to such malignant and so doubtful knowledge They consider only the appearances of things they stop at accidents their weakness cannot penetrate into substances they are like the Sun and as they take all their light from him they endeavour to imitate him in their actions Every one thinks that this goodly Planet is extreamly useful to us when it comes about our Horizon and that it affords those beauties to nature which darkness had bereft it of But the Platonicks have found that the advantage we receive thereby equals not the prejudice it bringeth along with it for when it discovers the earth unto us it hides the Heavens from us when it exposeth Lilies and Roses to our sight it hinders us from seeing the Stars and takes from us the sight of the most beautiful part of the world So the senses take from us the cognizance of divine things to furnish us with the like of what is humane They make us only see the appearances of objects and hide their truth from us We remain ignorant under these bad Masters and our Imagination being informed but by their reports we can only conceive false opinions I find therefore that Nature is more severe unto us than is Religion and that it is much more difficult to be rational than to believe aright for though the truths which Religion proposeth unto us are of so high a nature as our understanding cannot comprehend them though she demand of us a blind obedience and that to believe her mysteries we must subdue our Reason and give the Lie to all our Senses yet this commandment is not injurious If she take from us our liberty she preserves our honour she frees our understanding from the tyranny of our senses she submits it to the legitimate Empire of the supream Intelligence which she illustrates unto us by her light she takes us from earth that she may raise us up to Heaven and takes not from us the use of Reason save only to make us acquire the merit of Faith But Nature ingaging our soul in our body makes her a slave to our senses and obligeth her in her noblest operations to consult with those that are blind and to draw her light from out their darkness Hence it is that all our knowledge is full of errour and that truth is never without falshood that opinions are uncertain and that our Passions which obey them are always out of order The worlds report is no surer a Guide and those who listen thereunto are likely never to enjoy true rest for this rumour is nothing else but the opinion of the people which is not the truer for being the more common That which seemeth to authorize it doth condemn it and nothing ought to make it more suspected than the great number of its partakers The nature of man is not so well regulated as that the best things be those that please most people ill opinions as well as good ones ground themselves upon the number of their approvers and when we would side with any opinions we ought not to number but to weigh the Votes The common people who gape after liberty delight to live in servitude never make use of Judgment and in worldly affairs which of all others ought to be the most free they are rather led by Example than by Reason they follow those who go before and not examining their Opinions they embrace they defend them for after having recived them they desire to divulge them as in factions they endeavour to engage others on their Party and to make their malady prove contagious In so much as Seneca's Maxime proves true That man is not only failing to himself but unto others and that he communicates his errors to all those that come nigh him When our Imagination is filled with ill Opinions she exciteth a thousand disorders in the inferior part of our soul and raiseth up Passions according to her pleasure for being blind they cannot discern whether the good or bad which is proposed to them be only likely or true and abused by the Imagination whose Empire they reverence they either draw nearer unto or fly further from objects their blindness serves them for excuse and they lay their faults upon that hath deceived them But to prevent this disorder the understanding must keep it self in its authority it must assubject Imagination to its
alone hath as many Passions as have all Beasts put together 'T is therefore that Philosophers propound them unto us for examples and that the Stoicks after having raised our nature to such a height of greatness are obliged to reduce us to the condition of Beasts and to place the happiness and rest of their wiseman in a strange kind of stupidity This sense differs not much from that of the proud Spirits which being desirous to sit on the Throne of God demanded leave of Jesus Christ to withdraw themselves into the bodies of Swine and that not being able to reign with the persons of the Deity they were contented to live with infamous Beasts So our proud Stoicks after having raised their wise-man even unto Heaven and given him Titles unto which the accursed Angels in their rebellion durst never pretend they brought him down to the condition of Beasts and not able to make him insensible they endeavoured to make him stupid They accuse Reason to be the cause of all disorders they complain of the disadvantages we have by Nature and would lose both Memory and Wisdom that they might neither foresee the evils that are to come nor muse of those that are past This folly is the punishment of their vanity Divine Justice hath permitted that understanding which had been their Idol should become their torment and that they should every where divulge That since they could not live like Gods they were resolved to live like Beasts But not immediating their despair we are only to implore aid from Heaven and acknowledging the weakness of Reason seek out another light to conduct us and borrow new forces to vanquish our Passions This is that which Christian Religion hath taught us and that which we shall examine in the pursuit of this work The Third Treatise Of the Government of Passions The FIRST DISCOURSE That there is nothing more glorious nor more hard to come by than the Government of Passions NAture by a wise providence hath united Difficulty with Glory and lest Glorious things might become too common her pleasure is they should be hardly come by There is nothing of greater lustre amongst men than the valour of Conquerors all Orators would have been mute had not battels bin fought and victories bin had But to acquire this title of honour a man must despise death forgo pleasures overcome troubles and oftentimes purchase Glory by the loss of his own life After the valour of Conquerors there is nothing more illustrious than the eloquence of Orators she ruleth States without violence she governs people without weapons she works upon their wills with sweetness she fights and obtains Victories without blood-shed but to arrive at this great height one must overcome a thousand difficulties accord Art and Nature together conceive strong thoughts express them in good words study the humour of the People learn the secret of forcing their liberties and of winning their affections This truth appeareth evidently in the Subject we treat of and every one confesseth there is nothing harder nor yet more honourable than for a man to overcome his Passions For to boot that we are not assisted by any others in this conflict that fortune which rules as chief in all other combats cannot favour us in this that men partake not of glory with us and that we do at once the office of a common Souldier and of a Commander there is this of anger and some difficulty in it that we fight against a part of our selves that our forces are divided and that nothing encourageth us in this war but duty and integrity Upon other occasions men are spurred on by honour and envy Oft times choler when it hath to do with virtue makes up the greatest part of our valour hope and boldness assist us and their forces being united it is almost impossible to be overcome But when we assail our Passions our Troops are weakned by division we operate but by one part of our selves let virtue or worth animate our Courage with the best reason she can our love to our enemies makes us faint-hearted and we are afraid of a victory which must cost us the loss of our delights For though our Passions be irregular and that they trouble our quiet these cease not to make up a part of our soul though their insolency dislike us we cannot resolve to tear out our bowels unless we be assisted by Grace self-love doth betray us and we spare rebels because they are our Allies But that which augments the difficulty and which makes the victory more uncertain is the power of our enemies for though they held no intelligence with our soul though they should not by their cunning divide her forces and though she should set upon them with all her might they are of such a nature as they may be weakned and yet not overcome they may be worsted yet not routed for they are so streightly joined with us as they cannot be parted from us Their life is bound up with ours and by a strange fate they cannot die unless we die with them So as this victory is never entire and these Rebels are never so much quelled but that upon the first occasion they will frame a new Army and give us battel again They are Hydra's which thrust up as many heads as are cut off they are so many Antaeusses who gather strength from their weakness and who rise up the stronger after they have been beaten down all the advantage which one can expect upon such unruly subjects is to clap irons upon their hands and feet and leave them no more power than what is requisite for the service of Reason We must treat them as we do Gally-slaves who draw alwaies their iron Chains after them and who have only the use of their arms to row or if you will deal with them more favourably you must be well assured of their fidelity and remember a Maxim which â— approve not of save in this case that reconciled enemies ought alwaies to be had in suspition If the difficulty which accompanieth this combate astonish us the glory which ensues thereupon ought to encourage us for the Heavens behold nothing of more Illustrious nor doth the Earth bear any thing of more glorious than a man who commands his Passions No Crown is sufficient to adorn his head all praises come short of his merit nothing but Eternity can recompense so exalted a Virtue the very shadows thereof are pleasing and the truth thereof is so beautiful that men adore the semblance We do not revernce Socrates nor Cato but for that they had some tincture thereof nor do we place them in the number of the Sages save for that they have triumphed over our weakest Passions The glory of these great men is purer than that of Alexander or Pompey their Victory never made Widow or Orphan their Conquests have not laid Kingdoms waste their Combates have neither caused the shedding of bloud nor of tears and
Clitemnestra till he had made him be made away who defended her Chastity by the sweetness of his Harp and who overthrew all the designs of this unchaste lover by the sweet accents of his voice History which is more to be believed than fables teacheth us that a player upon the Flute wrought so powerfully upon the mind of Alexander that when he founded with a loftier tone than ordinary he made this Conqueror besides himself and did so encourage him to the Combate as he would call for his Arms to set upon his Enemie but when he played in a softer tone Alexander's fury grew more calm as if it had been but a false Allarm he resumed his former countenance and was wholly intent upon him who did enchant his ears the holy Scripture the words whereof are Oracles assures us that David with his harp appeas'd the evil spirit in Saul which lost his power when the humours which he had stirred up were allayed by harmony But Musick hath now no more such virtue she who formerly did dispossess people possessed with evil spirits doth now give them over to the Devil or if she produce not so bad effects she awakens our Passions and by a strange but true misfortune she increaseth the malady which she intended to cure I very well know that the Musick used in Churches holds intelligence with Piety and that by a sweet violence it frees our souls from our bodies and raiseth them up to Heaven but truly I suspect all other sorts of Musick though some will have them pass for harmless I esteem them dangerous or useless and I should willingly say with Seneca to Musitians that instead of teaching us how to tune a Lute or to govern our Voice they ought to teach us how to regulate our Passions that instead of flattering our Senses they would work upon our hearts and inspire our souls with the detestation of Vice and love of Virtue Poetry which we may stile the Daughter of Musick did in former times imitate her Mother and employed all her comeliness in encouraging men to glorious Enterprizes she sung the victories of Conquerors and by praising their Valour made their Souldiers valiant her very forgeries were useful the revengeful Furies which she introduced in her works infused fear into the wicked and kept people in their duty the pleasing number and cadence of her Verse was able to sweeten the most savage humors and she abused us not when she would perswade us that her Orpheus tamed Lions made Trees to walk forced Rocks to listen unto him and to follow him since he produced all these effects in the heart of man and that he banished from thence Choler and Stupidity But this brave Art never appeared more glorious than when it got upon the Theater and when infused with a new fury it represented the punishment of the faulty the direful death of tyrants and the ill success of injustice or impiety For it infused fear into Princes it astonished Subjects and by sad examples taught the one Respect the other Clemency and to both of them Justice and Religion Then all Comedies were as so many instructions one looked upon the places where they were acted as upon the Academies of Philosophers and Auditors never departed with the dislike of Virtue But men who corrupt the best things did at last abuse Poetry and did unjustly submit her unto their Passions who had reformed them by her advice This innocent art which had always courted virtue is become a slave to vice and wanton people have prophaned all her chaste decencies making them serve uncleanness Since these unhappy days Poetry was cried down throughout the world Philosophers who had always been the Poets Friends became their enemies and employed all their credit to get them banish'd In effect they corrupted all men and fearing lest their Verses were not of power enough to authorize obsceneness they erected Altars thereunto and by the Incest of their Gods they excused the Adulteries of men I am not ignorant that true Religion hath reformed Poetry that it hath done its utmost to restore her to her former use and ancient beauty I know very well that our Poets are chaste in their Writings and that Comedies though they be licentious mount not the Stage but only to condemn Vice the very rules imposed upon them will not suffer them to be obscene and by a happy necessity it behoves that those who infuse a soul into the Scene take part always with Virtue yet it unfortunately falls out the which I rather attribute to the disorder of Nature than to the like oâ— Poetry that Chastity appears not so beautiful in Verse as does uncleanness and thaâ— the obedience of the Passions seems not so pleasing as their rebellion Men betake themselves more usually to violent affections than to such as are answerable to Reason And as the Poets do express them with greater eloquence their auditors listeâ— unto them with more delight In fine let what care soever will be had Comedies are only Schools of Virtue for such gallant men as can discern between appearances and truth and who abhor Vice even then when it comes presented in Virtues Ornaments But if you will examine the Common people they will confess that Stage-Poetry doth strangely move them and that it imprints in their souls the feelings of those personages which they represent Rhetorick is somewhat more happy in her designs than is Poetry and let men object what fault they will to Orators I find them more blameless than Poets For as their chief end is to preserve the truth they are enforced to employ all their cunning to beat down such Passions as are contrary thereunto and in discharging themselves of their duty they play the part of the Physitian curing their auditors of all their maladies If their Choler be too much irritated they appease it If their Courage be too much supprest they raise it up they make Love exceed Hatred Piety Revenge and repressing one motion by another they draw a calm from out a storm This employment is so fixt to the condition of Orators as they do therein only differ from Philosophers for these have no other design save only to convince the understanding they propound naked Truths unto it and knowing that it cannot behold them without reverence they take more care how to discover than to adorn them But Orators who will work upon the soul by the senses cloath their good Reasons in handsom Language tickling the Ear that they may touch the Heart and using Tropes and figurative Speeches to move affection They set upon the two parts whereof man is composed they make use of the weakest to subdue the stronger and as the Devil undid man by the means of the Woman they gain Reason by the means of Passion By this harmless cunning they formed Towns governed Common-wealths and for a long time commanded Monarchies for they studied their inclinations and did so handsomly handle them as
and contentedly forgo them But the chief use we ought to make of so noble a Passion is thereby to raise us up to God and to make thereof a glorious chain to fasten us inseparably to him as he is the only object of Love he is also the only object of desires they miss of their end when they keep aloof from him they lose themselves when they seek not him and they stop in the midst of their course when they come not full home to him He is the Spring-head of all perfections and as they are without mixture of default there is nothing in them which is not perfectly wishable we see some creatures which have certain charms which make them be desired but then they have imperfections to make them be undervalued the Sun is so full of glory and beauty as it hath made Idolaters one part of the world doth yet worship it and Christian Religion which is spread over the whole earth hath not been able to dis-deceive all Infidels yet hath its weaknesses which teacheth Philosophers that it is but a creature the light thereof is bounded and cannot at one and the same time enlighten the two halves of the world it suffers Eclipses nor can it shun them it grows faint and sees it self obscured by a constellation not so great nor glorious as it self it hath benign influences it hath also malignant ones if it concur with the birth of man it doth the like to his death if it be the father of flowers it is also their Paricide if the brightness thereof serve to light us it doth also dazle us if the heat thereof warm Europe it scorcheth Africa so as the noblest of all constellations hath its defaults and if it cause desire in us it is also cause of aversions under-valuations but God hath nothing that is not lovely innumerable numbers of Angels see all his perfections and are destin'd to honor them they have immortal lovers which adore them from the beginning of the world men who know them desire them and wish death unto themselves that they may enjoy them this Summum bonum is that which we ought to seek after for him it is that our wishes were given us our heart is sinful when it divides its love and gives but one part thereof to him that deserves the whole Gods abundance and mans indigence are the first links of alliance which we contract with him He is all and we are nothing He is a depth of mercy and we are a depth of misery He hath infinite perfections and we faults without number He possesseth no greatness which is not to be wisht for we suffer no want which obliges us not to make wishes He is all desirable and we are all desire and to express our nature aright it will suffice to say that we are only a meer capacity of good there is no part of our Body nor faculty of our Soul which doth not oblige us to seek him we make Inrodes in the world by our desires we wander in our affections but after having considered the beauty of Heaven and the riches of the Earth we are constrained to return again unto our selves to fix our selves on him who is the ground-work of our being and to confess that none but God alone is able to fill the capacity of our heart Let us draw these advantages from our misery and let us rejoyce that Nature hath endowed us with so many desires since they have wings which raise us up to God and chains which fasten us to him Upon all other occasions desires are useless and after having made us Long a long time they furnish us not with what they made us hope for they torment us whilst they possess us and when despair causes them to die they leave us only shame and sorrow for having listned to so evil Councellors I know very well that they awaken the Soul and that they endue it with vigor to compass the good which it wishes for but the good success of our undertakings depends not upon their efficacy and should the things that we love cost us nothing but desires all ambitious men would be Kings all covetous men rich and we should hear no Lovers complain of the rigors of their Mistresses or of their infidelity women would take their Husbands from their Graves Mothers would cure their sick children and captives would regain their liberty we should do as many Miracles as make wishes and all mischief would be banish'd from off the earth since men can wish but experience shews us they are for the most part impotent and that their accomplishment depends upon the supream providence which at its pleasure can turn them into effects those that concern our souls health are never useless fervency in wishing is sufficient to make a man good our conversion depends only upon our will our desire animated by Grace blots out all our sins and though God be so great he hath only cost them wishes that possess him this Passion dilates our soul and makes us capable of the good we wish for she extends our heart and prepares us to receive the happiness which she procures us In fine she gets audience of God makes her self be understood without speaking and she hath such power in heaven as nothing is denied to her demands she glorified Jesus Christ and the Saints Christ takes from them the most ancient of his Names and before he was known by that of Saviour of the world he was already known by that of the desired of all the people His Prophets honoured him with this title before he was born He who shewed us the time of his coming took his title from his wishes and merited to be called the man of Desires His Vows did advance the Mystery of the Incarnation the like of the Virgin did obtain the accomplishment thereof ours will taste the effect thereof if they grow not weary in begging them at Gods hands The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of the good evil use of Eschewing NAture would have failed us at our need if having endued us with Love to good things she had not furnished us with desire to seek after them These good things which now are cause of our happiness would cause all our punishments if being permitted to love them we should be forbidden to wish for them the Summum bonum would only serve to make us miserable and the virtue which it hath to attract hearts would contribute to our misery if we wanted a capacity of atchieving it We should have equal reason to complain of her charity if having imprinted in our hearts the hatred of evil she had not likewise engraven therein that Passion which we call Shunning or Eschewing to make us keep aloof from it for we should see our enemy and not have the power to defend our selves from him we should have an aversion from vice yet should be enforced to
the Roman power had purchased since her ambition gave place to her avarice Notwithstanding all this this Philosopher found a cure for his malady where it was thought he should have increas'd it he grew to know the vanity of riches in the midst of their triumph for reflecting upon all that he had seen and finding that thosâ— things were no less useless than deceitful he generously despised them this pomâ— saith he could endure but some few hours one afternoon hath seen the beginning and the end thereof and though the Chariot that carried all this treasure marcht but softly they were quickly gone what likelâ—hood is then that that which could not entertain us one whole day should possess uâ— all our life-time and that we should suffeâ— long punishment for a thing which is noâ— able to give a long contentment Thus diâ— this Philosopher learn Virtue where others reaped nothing but Vanity and as oft as any object presented it self before his eyes the appearance whereof might deceive him he would say What dost thou admire O my soul that which thou seest is a triumphant pomp where we see things but are not suffer'd to possess them and where whilst we are therewithal delighted they pass away and vanish If riches not being a real good cannot be the object of our hope whatsoever else the world promiseth us cannot satisfie it since they are not far enough off For this Passion looks far into what is to come she neglects present things and longs after what is absent and builds her felicity upon a happiness which is not as yet come It seems she would teach us that the world is not her resting place and that all those contentments which smooth our Senses and which charm our eyes or ears are not those which she seeks after She raiseth her self up to Heaven and pretending to Eternity she thinks not that absent which is closed up in the un-intermitted course of Time she by a generosity which cannot sufficiently be praised doth undervalue all those greatnesses of which imagination may form an Idea and aspires only to that supream happiness which eye hath not seen neither ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man Those then injure her who force her to fasten her self to all that we esteem good and to languish for Objects which have not any one of those conditions that hers ought to have For to boot that her object ought to be absent it must be difficult and such as may cause trouble to those that will seek after it This Epithete will cause an error to arise in most minds and men finding difficulties in the pursuit of such things as they wish for will imagine that they deserve to be hoped for the Covetous man who crosseth the Seas who goes to discover unknown Lands and to seek out new maladies under new Climates will perswade himself that riches are very well worth the wishing since they are so hard to come by the Ambitious man who enjoys not one hour of content and who finds a thousand real Hells in the imaginary Paradise which he frames unto himself will think that Honour is the only object of Hope But Philosophy pretends to fix difficulty to greatness she confounds the name of difficult with that of noble and generous she blames all those that labour after an infamous good and who forgetting the nobleness of their birth have desires only after such things as are despicable Hope is too couragious to value smoak or dirt and she pities all those mean Souls which take such might pains to compass riches or honours 'T is true they cause trouble enough to those who seek after them but they are not the more to be wished for for their difficulty the pain which they are accompanied with makes them not the more glorious they resemble the punishment of the guilty which cease not to be infamous though severe In fine all that the most part of men desire is not Hopes end because it is for the most part impossible For though this passion be bold yet is she wise she measures her strength and though she engage her self in glorious enterprizes she will have some assurance of success she aspires only to what she may obtain and she quits the pursuit as soon as she finds they surpass her power she loves to be esteemed Reserved rather than Rash and to confess her impotency rather than to shew her vanity Notwithstanding all those that hope exceed these bounds and bereaving this Passion of her natural wisdom they raise their desires beyond their merits and do oft-times labour after things equally unjust and impossible a slave in Irons promiseth himself liberty a guilty person under the Hangmans hand hopes yet for pardon a man that is banisht from the Court pretends yet to government and you shall hardly find any so miserable who do not indiscreetly feed themselves with some imaginary happiness they perswade themselves that the heavens will do miracles for their sakes and that they will change the order of the Universe to fulfil their desires But of all these mad mad men there are none more to be pitied than old men who seeing death already pourtray'd in their faces do yet promise unto themselves a long life they lose every day the use of some part of their body they see not but by art they hear not without difficulty they walk not without pain and in every thing that they do they have new proofs of their weakness yet they hope to live and because our forefathers lived many ages they believe that in having a care of themselves they may fence themselves against death and after so many sins that they have committed taste a favour which hath not been granted save to such as had not as yet lost all Innocence A man must renounce his judgment to conceive so irrational a thought and not know the grievances which do inseparably accompany old age for all sorts of death are mingled with some hope a Feaver leaves us after a certain number of Fits their heats lessen as they increased the Sea throws on shore those whom it had swallowed up and a storm hurles ships into the Haven and a Souldier struck with pity gives life to his conquer'd Enemy but he whom old age leads to death hath no more reason to hope he is incapable of pardon and Kings who prolong the lives of such as are condemn'd cannot do the like to old men their death is with less pain but it is more certain and as they ought not to fear death so they ought not to hope for life But we have sufficiently consider'd the outrages done unto Hope let us see the good offices that may be done unto her employing her according to her own inclinations and our need The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Hope CHristian Religion is wholly built upon Hope and as she neglects present happiness we must not wonder if she
long after a felicity to come she confesseth she is not of this world and she thinks it not strange if shâ— be persecuted in an enemies Countrey she knows very well that she is called from this miserable world to another more happy and that having nothing to possess on earth she ought to hope for all in heaven All Christians who are instructed in her School do with a holy impatience expect the happy day wherein the Son of God will punish his enemies and crown his Subjects They think themselves already saved because they are so in hope and amongst so many evils that afflict them they solace themselves in this virtue which promiseth much but gives more for it never confounded any body and though she suffer such as lay claim to her to be persecuted she inspires them with so much courage as that far from resenting their sorrows they cast the happiness of Angels amidst their punishments and laugh at the cruelty of Tyrants and Hang-men let whatsoever accidents befall them they are always secure and knowing that Jesus Christ is the foundation of their Hope they look upon all the changes of the earth with calmness of mind But whatsoever advantage Christians may draw from the virtue we must confess that she hath nothing to do with that Passion which considers the time to come and which seeks out a good which is possible and difficult for the one is a Christian Virtue which resides in the Will and the other is a Passion which resides in the sensitive appetite the one is a meer effect of Nature the other is the pure work of Grace the one by its one strength can extend but to some ages the other by its proper vigor mounts even to eternity the one in brief makes not good all that it promiseth and failing in her word leaves her lovers in confusion and sorrow but the other is so faithful in her promises as those who have sought under her banners confess that her recompenses surpass all their services yet in these their differences nothing hinders them from agreeing the best use of humane Hope is to assubject it to divine Hope and to make it aspire by her assistance to the Possession of eternal happiness for though Passion know no eternity and that being engaged in the body she raiseth her self not much higher than the Senses she hath yet some inclination to follow after Grace and to suffer her self to be guided by her motions as she obeys Reason she may obey Godliness as she is useful to Moral Virtue she may be useful to Christian Virtue and if it be not to give her too much advantage I should think that as she inter meddles with Patience and Fortitude to frame Moral habits she may do the like with Hope and Charity to form super-natural habits But without engaging my self in a School-dispute it shall suffice me to say that if all our Passions may be sanctified by Grace Hope being of no worse condition than the rest may pretend unto the same favour and contribute to all the good works of a Christian. Neither do I doubt but that the Saints have made good use thereof and that enlightned by Faith they have placed all that hope in Jesus Christ which they placed in their Kings or in their gods whilst they lived in Paganism I doubt not but that this generous Passion which encouraged them in dangers for the glory of their Princes did animate them amidst flames for the quarrel of the Son of God and I am firmly of opinion that as by her own forces she made them good souldiers so assisted from above she made them couragious Martyrs for Nature is the ground-work of Grace and as Faith presupposeth Reason the fortitude of a Martyr did presuppose the hope of a man and it behoved that Passion should work in the hearts of those generous Champions whâ—st Grace wrought in their Wills God makes daily use of the mouths of his Prophets to explain his Mysteries when he discovers to them secrets to come he makes use of their words to declare them unto his people and he accords Nature with Grace in them to execute his Designes I therefore think that the best use a man can make of Hope is to assubject it to three Christian virtues which may make good use of her heat the first is that which bears her name and which by a harmless piece of cunning loosens her from the earth and gives her desires for heaven for though humane Hope be so generous yet cannot she pretend to the happiness of eternity and though in the souls of Alexander and Caesar she aspired to divine honours it hath not proceeded so much from any motion of her own as from the like of vain-glory but when she is instructed by faith when she knows that God hath chosen us to be his children and that Jesus Christ hath made us his brethren that we may be coheirs with him she wisheth with Humility for what the others wisht for out of Ambition The second Virtue which she may be serviceable unto is Patience which in all the evils she undergoes hath no other comfort than what Hope furnisheth her withal for while she fights with grief and pain she would be a thousand times opprest by their violence did not this glorious Passion point out unto her the Rewards which are prepared for her and if she did not sweeten the present evil by future happiness which Hope promiseth her To understand this you must know that Patience is a Virtue as mild as close she hath nothing of lustre and though she undertake great matters she spares Pomp and the Theater darkness and the desarts are pleasing unto her and she is content to fight in his prefence by whom she expects to be crown'd neither is she any ways given to use violence and though her enemies be so powerful she defends her self by suffering and makes us win the victory by the loss of our lives she hardly takes the liberty to complain and she shews so little feeling of outrages done unto her or of her sufferings as those who do not know her accuse her of stupidity So great a coldness ought to be animated by the heat of Hope and so mild a virtue requires the assistance of an active Passion During all her displeasures the recompenses which are promised her do only possess her and in the sorrows which she suffers she raiseth her self up to heaven upon the wings of Hope and with the eye of Faith seeth the happiness which is prepared for her But the chief use which we ought to make of this Pashon is when Fortitude grapples with grief and when she sets upon these dreadful enemies which endeavour to triumph over her Courage For there is this difference between Patience and Fortitude the first is content to suffer the second will be doing the one out of modesty hides her self the other out of generosity shews it self the one
Conquerors which bereaves the Incontinent of their Voluptuosness cannot robâ— Philosophers of their Science But let her pretend what advantage she can over her Rivals mans Felicity cannot consist therein For to boot that she is mixt with ignorance that her lights are mingled with obscurities that there is more of doubt than of certainty more of errour than of truth in her she is oftentimes either unprofitable or faulty in the most part of her imployments for as S. Bernard says some study out of a delight to be knowing and this is a frivolous curiosity others that men may know that they are knowing and this is a shameful Vain-glory Others out of a desire to sell their knowledge and this is a Sordid Commerce 'T is true there are some that study that they may edifie and this is a laudable Charity and others study to edifie themselves and this is a discreet point of wisdom Of all these there are only the two last who do not abuse Knowledg since they procure her only to employ her in the service of virtue but in this very occasion she hath her troubles and her defects and if she be not accompanied with Humility she puffes us up with Vain-glory and Self-love After all we must acknowledg with the wise man that 't is a troublesome occupation which God hath given men for their punishment and that it is rather an effect of his Justice than a mark of his Love If the use of all these pleasures be not innocent that of Riches is more Faulty for let us give them what praises we please they are enemies to Virtue and if they be serviceable to magnificence and liberality they are prejudicial to Continence and Justice all vices employ them to satisfie their unjust desires and he that would take them from Avarice Pride and Obscenity would reduce them to a happy incapacity of doing harm The greatest Philosophers have likewise acknowledged that they were the Ruine of Families and loss of Estates that the despising of them was safer than their Possession and that from the time they enter into a house they drive thence all virtue they irritate our desires awaken our hopes encrease our fears and oblige us to confess that there is more anxiety in keepingâ— them than in acquiring of them In fiâ—e Rich men are of so unhappy a condition that if they will therein taste any delight they must imitate the condition of pooâ— men and seek for that in poverty which they could not find out in abundance But where then will you place Pleasure if it be neither to be found in Voluptuousness nor in Glory And where will you lodgâ— her if she agree not well neither with knowledg nor riches I confess there are Rational Delights Lawful Honours Modest Sciences and Innocent Riches but certainly the common use thereof is out of order and by a just judgment of God every one finds his Trouble where he seeks his Felicity The Incontinent are sad amidst their Contentments Jealousie and Suspition revenge violated Chastity and Diseases make them pay use for their infamous pleasures the Ambitious are the Victimes of Vanity they have this of evil in their best Fortune that they are tormented with a twofold Envy for they cannot endure their Equals and their Inferiours cannot abide them They despise Honours as soon as they enjoy them and valuing none but such as they have not â— they mingle disquiet with enjoying and molest â—n Assured Happiness with desire of an Uncertain Contentment the learned are not much more Happy they are tormented with the Passions which lost the first man The Fathers fault is made the Childrens punishment and the same knowledg which thrust him out of Paradise persecutes them in the world they consume all their days in learning things either Ridiculous or Unprofitable They fight for defaced Letters and the Inscription of Tombes which is also the reward of Conquerors causeth almost all the Dispute of Criticks they boast themselves that 't is by these glorious Paths that men mount up to Heaven they seek for Immortality and they treat with the dead that they may reign with the Gods they know how to Speak not how to live they are Learned and not Virtuous and through a strange blindness they see not that their knowledge being Proud is as Boundless as Ambition and that her desires being irregular she is as Inperate as Voluptuousness The Avaritious are in pain for all their Riches they possess them they do not enjoy them they worship their wealth and dare not touch it they teach us that they are slaves thereunto not masters thereof and their only contentment lies iâ— hindering others from enjoying them But left it be objected that I discover an eviâ— without applying the remedy I intend iâ— my next Discourse to defend innocent and Lawful Pleasures The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Pleasure THose who condemn Pleasure must consequently condemn Nature and accuse her of having committed faults in all her works for this wise mother hath dispersed delight throughout all our actions and by an admirable piece of wisdom hath order'd that as those which are most necessary were the meanest they should be the most pleasing and certainly had she not found out this innocent Slight the world would have perish'd long ago and men who are the noblest part thereof neglecting their own preservation would have left it for a prey to wild Beasts for who would trouble himself with Eating were he not invited thereunto as well by Delight as by Necessity who would ever endure that sleep should benum his senses take from him the use of Reason and make him change life with the shadow of death did not the sweetness of her poppies make this remedy as charming as it is shameful as Pleasure is profitable to the body it is no less necessary for the mind which as ambitious as it is would never undertake the atchievement of Virtues and the defeat of Vices were not the Glory mingled with Joy and did not these two make up the recompense of her Labours who would toyl to overcome shameful and sinful pleasures were they not thereunto incited by innocent delights Who would dare to assail Death and to fight with a Monster which triumpheth over both the victorious and the vanquished were not his constancy animated by the contentment which the victory promiseth him Who were able to overcome the difficulties which accompany all Sciences were they not seasoned with Sweetness and who would ever contrive any famous design were he not thereunto invited by the hope of Pleasure But though Nature hath shed it abroad in all actions whether necessary or difficult she will have it be rather a help than a motive to us and that it serve us rather for a refreshing then for a recompense she will have us to look upon it as an Assistance which she hath given us whereby to acquire Virtue and that we use it
or after death spring up again But pleasures are sought for with pain and we are oft-times enforced to pay more for them than they are worth Sorrows are sometimes entirely pure and touch us to the quick as they make us incapable of consolation but pleasures are never without some mixture of Sorrow They are always dipt in bitterness and as we see no Roâ—es which are not environed with Prickles we taste no Delights which are not accompanied with Torments but that which makes the misery of our condition evidently appear is that we are much more sensible of Pain than of Pleasure for a slight Malady troubleth all our most solid contentments a Fever is able to make Conquerors forget their Victories and to blot out of their minds all the pomp of their Triumphs Yet is it the truest of all our Passions and if we believe Aristotle it makes the greatest alterations in our Souls the rest subsist only by our imagination and were it not for the intelligence we hold with this Faculty they would make no impression upon our Senses Desires and Hopes are but deceitful good things and he very well knew their nature who termed them the Dreams of Waking men Love and Hatred are the diversions of idle souls Fear is but a shadow and it is hard for the Effect to be true when the Cause is imaginary Boldness and Choler form Monsters to themselves that they may defeat them and we must not wonder if they so easily ingage themselves in the Combat since their enemies weakness assures them of the victory but grief is a real evil which sets upon the Soul and Body both at once and makes two wounds at one blow I know there are some sorrows that wound only the mind and exercise all their might upon the noblest part of man but if they be violent they work upon the body and by a secret contagion the pains of the Mistress become the diseases of the Slave the Chains that bind them together are so streight that all their good and bad estate is shared between them a contented Soul cures her body and a sick body afflicts its soul this noble Captive patiently endures all other incommodities which befall her and provided that her prison be exempted from pain she finds reasons enough to chear up her self with She despises the loss of Riches and bounding her Desires she finds contentment in Poverty she neglects Honour and knowing that it only depends upon Opinion she will not ground her happiness upon so frail a good she passeth by Pleasures and the shame which accompanies them lesseneth the sorrow which their loss brings her as she is not tied to these adventious goods she easily forgoes them and when Fortune hath robbed her of them she thinks her self more at Liberty and thinks her self not the poorer but when the body is assaulted and that it suffers either excessive heat or the injuries of the Season or the rage of Sickness she is constrained to sigh with it and the Cords which fasten them together make their miseries common she apprehends Death though she be Immortal she fears wounds though she be Invulnerable and she resents all the evils suffer'd by the prison which she gives life to though she be Spiritual The Stoicks Philosophy which valueth not a glorious enterprize unless it be impossible would have inderdicted the commerce between the Soul and the Body and in a strange madness hath endeavour'd to separate two parts whereof one and the same whole are compounded she forbad her Disciples the use of Tears and breaking the holiest of all Friendships she would have the Soul to be insensible of the Bodies sufferings and that whilst the Body was burning in the midst of flames the Soul should mount up to Heaven there to contemplate the Beauty of Virtue or the wonders of Nature This Barbarous Philosophy had some Admirers but she never had any true Disciples her Counsels made them despair all that would follow her Maxims suffer'd themselves to be miss-led by Vanity and could not fence themselves against Grief Since the Soul hath contracted so straight a society with the Body she must suffer with it and since she is shed abroad into all the parts thereof she must complain with the mouth weep with the eyes and sigh with the heart-Mercy was never forbidden but by tyrants and this Virtue will be praised as long as there be any that are miserable yet the evils which afflict her are strangers to her and those whom she assists are for the most part to her unknown wherefore then shall we blame the Soul if she have compassion on her own body Wherefore shall we accuse her of Abjectness if she share in the sorrows that assail it and which not being able to hurt her in her own substance set upon her in her Mansion-house and revenge themselves on her in that thing which of all the world she loves best For while she is in the body she seems to renounce her Nobility and that ceasing to be a pure spirit she interesses her self in all the Delights and all the Vexations of her Hoste his health causeth contentment in her and his sickness is grievous to her the most worthy part suffers in the less worthy and by a troublesom necessity the Soul is unhappy in the miseries of her body They say that Magick is so powerful that it hath found out a secret how to torment men in their absence and to make them feel in their own persons all the cruelties which she exerciseth upon their Images these miserable men burn with fire which toucheth nothing but their Picture they feel blows which they do not receive and the distance of place cannot free them from the fury of their enemies Love which is as powerful and not much less cruel than Magick doth this Miracle every day when it joyns two souls together it finds a way to make their sufferings common men cannot offend the one but the other resents it each of them suffers as well in the body which it loves as in that which it inanimates Since Love and Magick work these wonders we must not marvel if Nature having fastned the Soul to the Body do make the miseries common and if by one only wo she makes two Parties miserable the participation of each others Good and Bad is a consequence of their Marriage and the Heavens must do a miracle to give them a Dispensation from this necessity The joy of Martyrs was no meer effect of Reason when they tasted any pleasure amidst their Torments it must needs be Grace that sweetned the rigour thereof and he that in the fiery Furnace changed Flames into pleasing gales of Wind must have turned their Torments into Delights or if he did them not this favour he did them a greater and by making the Soul not sensible of the Bodies sufferings he taught the whole world that he was the Soveraign Lord of Nature
begins to have inclinations and notions she sees Objects by the Sense which their reports make unto the Imagination this trusts them or commits them to memory which obligeth her self carefully to keep them and faithfully to represent them From the Lights of the Soul arise her desires and from her knowledge her love or hatred she betakes her self to that which is agreeable unto her shuns that which likes her not and according to the divers qualities of good or evil which present themselves she excites differing motions which are called Passions In this degree she hath nothing of more lofty than the Beasts which discover Objects by Sense which receive the sorts thereof in their Imagination and preserve them in their Memory In the third estate she quits the Body and coming to her self she entertains her self with more Truths she treats with Angels and mounting by degrees even to Divinity it self she knows perfections and admireth greatness she reasons upon such subjects as present themselves she examines their qualities that she may conceive their essence she confers the present with what is past and from the one and the other of them draws Conjectures for what is to come The Faculty which doth all these wonders is termed Understanding Imagination â—nd Sense acknowledge her for their Mistress but she is not so absolute but that â—he dependeth upon a Soveraign and takes â—he Law from one that is blind whom she serves for a guide This which is called Will and which hath no other Object than good to follow it and evil to shun it â—s so absolute as Heaven it self bears a respect unto her freedom for it never useth violence when it hath to do therewithal â—it husbandeth the consentment thereof with address And its efficacious graces which never fail in producing their Effects may well undertake to convert but not to force Will. Heavens Orders are alwaies observed within its Empire the Subjects thereof may well be froward never rebellious and when it commands absolutely 't is alwaies obeyed True it is that motions or agitations are formed in the second acception of the soul which exercise her power for though they hold of her they forbear not to pretend to some sort of Liberty they are rather her Citizens than her Slaves and she is rather their Judge than their Soveraign These Passions arising from the Senses side alwaies with them whenever Imagination presents them to the Understanding he pleads in their behalf by means of so good an Advocate they corrupt their Master and win all their Causes The Understanding listens unto them weigheth their Reasons considereth their Inclinations and lest he may grieve them oft-times gives Sentence to their Advantage he betrayes the Will whereof he is the Chief Officer he couzens his Blind Queen and disguising the Truth makes unfaithful Reports unto her that he may draw unjust Commandments from her when she hath declared her self Passions become Crimes their Sedition begins to make head and man who before was but unruly becomes wholly Criminal for as the Motions of this inferiour part of the Soul are not free they never begin to be vitious but when they become voluntary As long as they are awakened by Objects solicited by the Senses and protected by Imaginations self they have no other Craft than what they draw from corrupted Nature But when the Understanding overshadowed by their obscurity or won by their solicitations perverts the Will and obliges this Soveraign to take upon her the interest of her Slaves she makes them guilty of her sin she changes their motions into rebellion and of the insurrection of a Beast makes the fault of a man It is true that when the understanding keeps within the bounds of duty and is faithful to the Will he suppresses their seditions and reduceth these Mutineers to obedience she husbandeth their humours so well as taking from them all their unruliness he makes rare and excellent virtues of them In this estate they are subservient to Reason and defend the party which they were resolved to fight against The good or the evil that may be drawn from them binds us to consider their nature to observe their proprieties and to discover their original to the end that arriving at the exact knowledge of them we may make use of them in our affairs Passion then is nothing else but a moâ—ion of the Sensitive Appetite caused by the Imagination of an appearing or veritable good or evil which changeth the Body against the Laws of Nature I term it motion because it hath a respect to good or evil as the Objects thereof and suffers it self to be born away by the qualities which she observes therein this motion is caused by the Imagination which being fill'd with sorts of things which she hath received from all the senses sollicits passions to discover unto her the beauties or deformities of such Objects as may move her The sensitive appetite is so partial to her as it sooths her in all her inclinations let her be never so little agitated she draws after her all other passions she raiseth tempests as winds do waves and the Soul would be at quiet in her interiour part were she not moved by this power but she bears so great a sway in this Empire as she there doth what she pleaseth Nor is it requisite that the good or evil which she represents to the appetite be true which relyeth on her fidelity and believes her councils without examining them having no other light but what is borrowed from her he follows hoodwink'd all the Objects which she proposeth and let them be but cloathed with any appearance of good or evil he impetuously either rejects or embraceth them He behaves himself so vigorously as he alwaies causeth alteration in the Body for besides that his motions are violent and that they do hardly deserve the name of Passions when they are moderated they have such access unto the Senses and the Senses have so much of communication with the Body as it is impossible but that their Disorders should cause an alteration therein In brief Passion is against the Law of Nature because she sets upon the heart which cannot be hurt without resentment of all the parts of the Body for they are Looking-glasses wherein one sees all the Motions of him that animates them And as Physitians judge of his Constitution by the beating of his Pulse and Arteries one may judge of the Passions wherewith â—e is transported by the colour of his face by the flame which sparkles in his eyes by the shaking of his Joynts and by all such other signs as appear in the Body when the Heart is agitated Now these are the Passions which we â—ndertake to reclaim and bring under the Empire of Reason and by the assistance of â—race to change them into Virtues â—ome have been satisfied with describing â—hem unto us not shewing how to regulate â—hem and have employed their eloquence â—nly in making us know our Miseries