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
heaven was offended at him that the anger thereof was not to be appeased but by a general satisfaction chose the plague before either war or famin out of a beliefe that this scourge might aswell light on him as on the meanest of his subjects In effect it spares no man neither youth nor age can allay the rigour nor stop the progresse thereof it mows down more souldiers then war doth it cuts off more Commanders then the sword it boasts of ending the differences between Kings and of making them make peace by taking from them the means of making war There have been some so contagious plagues as have dispeopled the greatest part of the world the seas did not stop their Conquests and this vast element which serves for a stop to the ambition of Conquerours could not dissipate the fury thereof the winds served them for post-horses and they crost the seas to carry infection into the utmost parts of the world without either oares or fails the number of the dead was so great as the earth was not able to cover them nor yet the forrests to bury them Physicians died together with the sick Children dropt down after their fathers and lost their lives in doing them their last duties A man need onely to consider the horrour of this malady to acknowledge that it is one of the punishments of sin during the time of innocence the air was not corrupted the earth brought forth no fruits which could breed bad humours death did not reign where there was no guilty persons Heaven which breeds contagion by it's mortall influences did not punish those which it had not as yet condemned our sins must have provoked it to have made it our enemy we must have lost our innocency to incurre the dis-favour thereof and sin must have wounded our soul before the plague had seized on our bodies One may say that the same thing which causeth contagion on the land causeth tempests at sea that it conspires together with sin to undo man that it unpeoples the earth to people hell and that it holds Intelligence with the winds to sink ships Some Philosophers have been of opinion that the sea did not belong to the Empire of man that this element was reserved for fishes as the air for birds that it was an usurpation to sail thereon to cut through the waves thereof to discover it's champians and to penetrate the depths thereof that Nature which punisheth all injustice had raised up storms and formed rocks to revenge his Tyranny but certainly reason binds us to believe that there was nothing in the world which was not put under â—he power of man that his authority had no other bounds then those of Nature and that God who had placed him in the world to admire his works had left to him aswell the disposall of the sea as of the land but when through rebellion he became gnilty of high treason his Empire was divided his subjects contemned his power and every part of his estate brought forth Monsters to destroy him The sea is so fruitfull herein as the most of her productions are monstruous every fish is an enemy to man they are not to be tamed by art and violence bereaves them rather of their life then of their fury It seems that being by divine Justice imployed against men in the deluge they retain yet some remembrance of that first imployment and that they think to revenge God as oft as they punish us they by their strength overturn great ships they leap into lesser vessels to assail us they make storms in the midst of calms being living rocks do oft-times cause the skilfullest Marriners run shipwrack This great danger is accompanied by the like of Tempests which seem to enrage the Sea onely that she may drown the Land or bury mankind in her waves This disorder is good for nothing but to undo us prophane Philosophy findes no other cause for it the more it considers the strange effects thereof the more is it obliged to adore Gods Justice and to condemne mans sin The winde purifies the aire and disperseth the clouds the rain waters the earth and vapours which are the originall of Aire make the fields fruitfull fire doth not much consume the wealth of nature it betakes it selfe to buildings and punisheth our vanity in destroying our workmanship The plague it selfe which violating all the Laws of Nature sweeps away the Son together with the Father and buries in the same grave the Physician and the Patient doth oft-times by the havock which it makes prevent the cruelty of war and kils men to hinder them from committing parricide for when it sees the earth groan underneath the burthen of her children that she can no longer nourish those which she hath brought forth that the scarcity of victuals makes people take up armes and prepare for war to free themselves from famine it dispeoples Towns dis-burthens the fields and bereaves men of their lives only to preserve their innocence but Tempests are only fit to punish either our avarice or our ambition the Seas rage is only usefull to make us know our offences the deeps which open themselves beneath ships the mountains of water which raise themselves above the Sailes the lightnings which mingle themselves amongst the waves and threaten us at the same time both which being drown'd and burnt are formed by the hand of Nature only to make us die with more of pomp and more of horrour And certainly it was very just that the Theater of our Ambition should be the like of our punishment that the windes which we make slaves to our avarice should become the Ministers of Gods anger that those Spirits which put life into our ships should inanimate storms and that they which fill our Sailes should make our designes give against the rocks for it must be confest we are more insolent in our abusing this Element then the rest that we do more unjustly imploy the windes then all other things in the world Nature hath produced them for our service they are of use to us even in rebellion whereinto sin hath thrown us and we cannot sufficiently praise providence which hath drawn them out of her Treasures to fit them to our needs they purge the aire by fanning iâ— and trouble the repose thereof onely to preserve it's purity they gather vapours together and then scatter them abroad they separate rain by dividing the clouds and if they hide the heavens from the earth 't is to adorn her with flowers and enrich her with fruit they entertain commerce amongst nations they make that common to the whole world which nature had appropriated to some one province they help us to go round the world and husbanded by our dexterity they discover unto us all the beauties thereof without their assistance we could not know the customes of Forraigners we should be ignorant of what is done underneath our feet
HENRICUS Dom CARY Baro de LeppingtoÌ„ Com de MONMOVTH Prae nob Ord Baln EQVES W. Marshall fecit Man become Guilty OR THE CORRUPTION OF NATVRE BY SINNE According to St. AUGUSTINES sense Written originally in French By Iohn-Francis Senault And put into ENGLISH By the Right honble HENRY Earle of Monmouth LONDON Printed for William Leake and are to be sold at his Shop at the signe of the Crown in Fleetstreet betwixt the two Temple Gates 1650. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE FRANCES Countesse of Rutland wife to IOHN Earle of RUTLAND Madam GIve me leave I beseech you to present you with this Copy of a Master-piece drawn in its Originall by as rare a hand as I have met withall the which I am the rather encouraged to doe for that I have experienced your Goodnesse to be such as may make me presume upon your Pardoning such Faults as your Iudicious eye shall observe therein especially since they are committed by so Profest and so Obliged a Servant of your Ladiships and further for that All that have the Honor to know you know you to have Piety enough to practice what is therein prescribed as allowed of and to shun the Contrary both which you will finde Rarely drawn to the life by the Authour though perhaps but Slubberd over by the Copyer in almost every Chapter of this book Loyaltie enough not to transgresse the boundaries therein praescribed to due Allegeance and to detest the severall Revolts you shall finde mentioned therein Iudgement enough to discern and I hope to approve of the Eloquence Philosophy History and Divinity which you shall see therein Handsomely and Methodically interwoven to which if you will adde Charity enough a vertue so Eminent in your Ladiship as it is not to be Doubted of to pardon the faults escaped in the Presse I shall thread it to the rest of my Obligations since though they cannot in a Direct line be imputed to Me yet by Reflection as not having had a sufficient Care to peruse the Proofes they may seem to have an Influence upon Me to which I must plead my not being in Town whilest the Presse went and that I have made an Amends by printing an Errata which I shall desire whosoever buyes this book to see bound up with it for his better satisfaction Madam When to this Goodnes Piety Loyalty Iudgement and Charity the Honour shall be added which you derive from that Noble Stock whence you are Immediately descended and that which you atcheive from that Antient Stock of Honour into which you are so happily Engrafted I hope that my Choise of Dedication will by all men be approved of and I shall think my Labour very well Bestowed and Highly Recompenced if your Ladiship shall please to peruse this Rough-hewn Coppy at such Leasure-houres as I pend it and if you shall find anything therein which may make you thinke your Time that meane while not Mis-spent or which may sometimes bring the Humblest of your Servants into your Thoughts He shall have obtained the Height of his Ambition who is Madam Whatsoever your Ladiship shall please to Create him MONMOUTH THE AUTHOURS PREFACE PRide hath made so powerfull an impression in the soule of man as that all the paines he suffers are not able to efface it He is proud amidst his Misfortunes and though he have lost all those Advantages which caused Vaine-glory in him yet ceaseth he not to be vaine-glorious amidst his Miseries He is still flattered in his Exile with those promises which the Devill made him in Paradise though he be slave to as many Masters as he hath Passions yet he aspires to the Worlds Soveraignty though his Doubts doe sufficiently prove his Ignorance yet doth he pretend to the Knowledge of Good and Evill and though all the Sicknesses which assaile him teach him that he is Mortall yet doth he promise to himselfe Immortality But that which is more insupportable and which renders his fault more insolent is that he hopes to arrive at all this happinesse by his Owne Strength he thinks nothing impossible to a creaure that is Free and Rationall that his Good depends upon his Will and that without any other help then what he drawes from Nature he may acquit himselfe of his Losses and Recover his Innocence This Errour being the Outmost of all our evils Religion labours only how to dis-abuse us therein and all her Commandements and Advices tend only to make us Sensible of our misfortune The Sacrifices teach us that we have deserved Death the Law teacheth us that we are Blind and the Difficulty we find in Keeping it doth prove our Want of Power Grace doth yet more strongly insinuate this truth unto us sh uâ—dertakes not to cure us till she hath perswaded us that we are Sick and the First thing which she makes us acknowledge is our Ignorance and Weaknesse Nature as proud as she is agrees in this point with Grace her Disorders are so many Instructions which will not suffer us to doubt of our Miseries the Vnfaithfulnesse of our Senses our Passions revolt and the Fighting of those Elements which environ us and whereof we are Composed are Proofes which will convince the most Opinionated It must also be confest that the Wisest Philosophers have acknowledged that there was a Hidden Cause of all these Disorders and being prest by their Consciences they have confest that since Nature deales more hardly with Vs than with her Other Children some secret fault must of necessity have been which hath incensed her against us The Platonists imagined that our soules were infused in o our Bodies only to Expiate those sins on Earth which they had committed in Heaven the Academicks did not differ much from their opinion and though in their complaints they did sometime lose that Respect which they ought to God yet did they confesse that our Faults did precede our Miseries and that the Heavens were too Iust to punâ—h the Innocent Only the Stoicks whose whole Philosophy is enlivened with Vain-glory did beleeve that if man were irregular 't was only because he Would be so and that as his Liberty had been the sole Cause of his Mischiefe it mâ—ght also be the sole Remedy thereof they imagined that if he would take Nature and Reason for his guides he might get againe into the path of Vertue from whence he had Strayed and that in so good a Schoole he might easily reforme his Disorders and recover his Innocence Peligianisme may be said to have had its Originall risâ— with this proud Sect and that diverse ages before Pelagius his birth Zeno and â—eneca had tane upon them the Defence of Corrupted Nature for they allotted all her disorders to mans Constitution and Education noâ— knowing any other sinnes save such as be meerly Voluntary they were ignorant of that sinne which we inheâ— from our Ancestors and which preceding our Birth makes us Criminâ—ll ere we be Rationall they taught precepts to shun Sin hâ—y
his mother had brought him into the world After this crowd of reasons and authorities I know not what can be said against the belief of originall sin who can deny an evill of whose effects all men have a fellow-feeling Since all Phylosophers before they knew what name to give it knew the nature thereof and all the complaints they have made of our miseries in their Writings are so many testimonies born by them to the truth of our Religion The second Discourse What the state of man was before Sinne. THough there be nothing more opposite to the state of sin then the state of innocency there is not any thing notwithstanding which better discovers unto us the disorders thereof and it seems to be a true looking glasse wherein we may see all the other deformities To know the greatnesse of mans miserie wee must know the height of his happinesse and to know with what weight he fel we must know the height of his dignity Man was created with originall righteousnesse his Divineâ— Quality made a part of his being and seemed to be the last of his differences Reason and Grace were not as yet divided and man finding his perfection in their good Intelligence was at once both Innocent and rationall Since sin hath bereâ—t him of this priviledge he seems to be but half himself though he hath not changed Nature he hath changed condition though he be yet free he hath lesse power in his own person then in the world And when he compares himself with himself hardly can he know himself In the state of innocency nothing was wanting to his perfection nor felicity and whilst he preserved originall righteousness he might boast to have possessed the spring-head of all that was good T was this that united him to God and which submitting him to his Creator submitted all Creatures unto him t was this that accorded the soul with the body and which pacifying the differences which Nature hath plac'd between two such contrary parties made them find their happinesse in agrement this it was in fine which displaying certain beams of light about his Countenance kept wild beasts in obedience and respect In this happy condition man was only for God he found his happinesse in his duty he obeyed with delight and as Grace made up the perfection of his being it was not much lesse naturall for him to love God then to love himself he did both these Actions by one and the same Principle The love of himself differed not from the love of God and the operations of Nature and of Grace were so happily intermingled that in satisfying his Necessities he acquitted himself of his duty and did as many holy Actions as naturall and rationall ones He sought God and found him in all things much more happy then wee he was not bound to seperate himself from himself that he might unite himself to his Creator Godlinesse was practised without pain Vertue was exercised without violence and that which costs us now so much trouble cost him nothing but desires there needed no combates to carry away victory nor was there any need to call in vertue to keepe passions within their limits Obedience was easie to them nor is Rebellion so naturall unto them now as was then submission This Grace which bound the soule unto the body with bonds as strong as pleasing united the senses to the Spirit and assubjected the passions to reason Morality was a Naturall science or if it were infused t was togetther with the soul and every one would have been eased of the Pain of acquiring it all men were born wise Nature would have served them for a Mistris and they would have been so knowing even from their births as they would not have needed either Counsell or Instruction Originall righteousnesse govern'd their understanding guided their wills enriched their memories and after having done such wonders in their souls it wrought as many Prodigies in their bodies for it accorded the elements whereof they were Composed it hindred the waters from undertaking any thing against the fire tempered their qualities appeased their differences and did so firmly unite them as nothing could sever them Man knew only the name of death and he had this of comfort that he knew it was the Punishment of a fault from which if he would he might defend himself All nourishments were to pure that there was nothing superfluous in them Naturall heat was so vigorous as it converted all into the substance of the body was in all other respects so temperate as it was not prejudiciall to the radicall moisture Man felt nothing incommodious Prudence was so familiar to him as he prevented hunger and Thirst before they could cause him any trouble in his person and in his State he enjoyed a peacefull quiet and he was upon good Terms with himself and with his subjects because he was the like with his Sovereign he waited for his reward without anxiety and grounding himself upon the truth of his Creators promises he hoped for happinesse without disquiet Death was not the way to life there needed no descending to the earth to mount up to the heavens the soul fore-went not the body to enjoy her God and these two parts never having had any variance were joyntly to tast the same felicity But when the Devill had cozened the woman and that the woman had seduced the man he fell from this happy condition and losing Grace which caused all his good he fell into the depth ofall evills He received a wound which hecould never yet be cured of he saw himself bereft of his best part and could not conceive how being no longer righteous he continued to be rationall and left us in doubt whether he was yet man being no longer Innocent His Illuminations forsooke him together with Grace self-love came in the place of Charity He who before sought nothing but God began now to seek himself And he who grounded his happinesse upon his obedience would build his felicity upon Rebellion as soon as his soul rebell'd against God his body rebell'd against his soul these two parts changed their love to hatred and those who lived in so tranquill a peace declared open war one against another the senses which were guided by the understanding favoured the bodies revolt and the passions which were subject to reason contemned her Empire to inslave themselves to the Tyranny of Opinion If man were divided in his person he was not more fortunate in his condition wherein he underwent a Generall Rebellion the Beasts lost their respects they all became Savage and violence or Art is required to the taming of some of them the Elements began to mutiny following their own inclinations they broke the peace which they had sworn unto in behalf of man whilst Innocent the Seasons grew unseasonable to hasten the death of man grown guilty the very heavens alter'd their Influences and losing their
harder to be repaired than those which they commit upon the constitution whole mouthes are required to their reparation after p the fever hath left them the colour in the cheek is not so soon re-gained as health And women as if they did prefer pleasure before profit are sorry to see themselves sooner well than fair nothing can consolate them for the losse of a thing held so precious but the knowledge that it was natures pleasure it should not be permanent For her rarest workmanships are of least durance there is no beauty constant save that of the stars and yet they may complain that the cloudes darken them by night and the sun by day The rain-bow is the most beautifull of all Meteors it shames the Art of painting be it either for lustre or for the mixture of colours it 's figure is so perfect as the compasse cannot imitate it the greatnesse thereof is so vast as it incompasseth halfe the world the waters whereof it is composed nourish hope in the husbandman it causeth fruitfulnesse in fields and warns men to shun the storms which it threatens 'T is a pledge of the peace which heaven hath made with earth and though it presage rain to men in generall yet doth it assure the faithfull that the world shall never be drowned again yet so rare a marvaile lasts but a few moments One and the same hour sees the beginning and the end thereof the Sun seems to have made it only to please itselfe in the un-making thereof The rose amongst flowers is like the rain-bow amongst Meteors her vermillion out-vies all the beauty of the world Her odour naturally as it is disputes for precedency with the most pleasing perfumes that Art can compose the placing of her leaves puts painters who would imitate her to their wits ends yet too boot that she is environed with prickles and that she seems to share more in the curse of the earth than other flowers her life lasts but for a few days the Sun which gave her life gives her death and that fire which enlivens her purple is extinguished as soon as lighted Neither is the beauty of women of long durance that lustre which bewitcheth men is lost in a few years and they are unjust in wishing that men should be constant in their love since the object which gives it birth is so subject to alteration But this fault in beauty were excusable since it cures the malady which it caused were it not accompanied with another which can admit of no excuse neither deserves any pardon For beauty is become an enemy to chastity and since the soule and body are at ods these two qualities have much adoe to agree Fair women are seldome chaste nature since corrupted is turned hypocrite beauty is no longer a mark of goodnesse she forgoes the soule as soon as she appears upon the body and as if perfection were no longer to be found upon earth a woman ceaseth oft-times to be chaste when she begins to be lovely That Father in Ovid did witnesse this very well who being desired by his daughter that he would give her leave to consecrate her virginity to Diana reply'd that her beauty gain-said her designe that she was too fair to be chaste and that though she should have resolution enough to keep her vow she had too many lovers to preserve her chastity 't is very hard for a woman who delights in causing love in others not to share therein her selfe and that a woman of an excellent beauty should be ice since she gives fire to so many flames she cannot resolve to hate all those that love her she cannot be perswaded that those who honour her should undoe her what advise soever her directour gives her she cannot believe that those who are her slaves should be her enemies nor that those that praise her beauty would wound her honour She thinks that beauty of no power which hath no Martyrs she believes she cannot judge of her own charmes but by her servants sighes that she is ignorant of her own conquests if she learn them not from their mouthes and that there is yet somwhat wanting to her Triumph if those who have experience of her cruelty do not implore her mercy Flattered by these false perswasions she exposeth her selfe to danger and out of hope of obtaining new victories she engageth her selfe in fresh combates if she be not seduced by vanity she is misled by pitty and believes that those who behave themselves so handsomly in their complaints suffer reall pains compassion makes her throw open the doores to love and under pretence of easing anothers malady she forgets her duty and betrayes her honour If she preserves her chastity amidst so many rocks which threaten her shipwrack she runs great hazard of loosing her humility her lovers Panegyricks make her think better of her selfe and those praises which men rob God of to give her perswade her that she is somwhat of divine Those who cannot corrupt her by their idle discourse seduce her by their adorations not being able to make her unchaste they make her proud not being able to bereave her of her chastity they take from her her modesty and bring her into a sad condition wherein pride is as it were necessary to her for defence of her honesty She likes not of common homage she thinks her selfe injured if men use not blasphemy to heighten her beauty and unlesse upon cold bloud men say what enamour'd Poets use to do in raptures she thinks her selfe slighted her lovers extravagancies are her Panegyricks she thinks not that they love unlesse they lose their reason nor doth she judge their passion to be extream unlesse they commit a thousand follies She judges of her power by her injustice if she doth not engage those who serve her in hard and ridiculous enterprises she doubts of their fidelity and because love is a kind of madnesse she will have all her lovers to be either mad or out of their wits 'T is not enough for a man to lose his liberty in her service unlesse he lose his judgment also more cruell then Tyrants and more absolute then Kings she will have her slaves to be her Martyrs that they kisse their fetters love their sufferings and listen with respect to their doom of death Thus Pride springs from beauty fair women grow proud and their insolence grows to that height as to ravish men from God to commit that execrable attempt on earth which Lucifer did in Heaven and to make all creatures adore rhem The first Christian women who very well knew the misfortune which accompanied this advantage did gallantly despise it they were ashamed to be handsome they neglected what our women so much value they thought it a fault to heighten a perfection which produceth lewd desires the purest amongst them wisht that old age might free them of this domestick enemy the most zealous did set upon
same countreys that which had divided them from others united them together and they imagined that 't was the will of heaven they should live under the same climate since it had given them the same language Men were not made the wiser by this memorable example there were some who joyning industry to vain glory endevoured to imitate the works of God and to make in this lower world an Epitome of the Universe This was a more refined pride and seemed more praise-worthy then the other since 't was more ingenious for Princes who built Tombs or Palaces had no hand in the work more then the bare desire the Architectours conceived the design the earth furnished the materials the people were at the expense and the handycrafts men contributed their labour thus was the glory divided and those bare away the most who certeinly deserved the least But when industry joyned with vain glory honour was no more divided he who laid the project employed no other hands then his own to effect the work Thus did ingenious Archimedes enclose whole Nature in a vessel of Chrystall he observed all the motions of the heavens in a brittle Globe and if he could not infuse influences into the stars which he there engraved he gave them at least light and beauty whosoever was in the midst of this in-animated Sphere saw the Sun arise above his head and the stars set underneath his feet this transparent globe did at one and the same time shew all the secrets of Nature and looking upwards or downwards one might there observe all the rarities of both the Hemispheres A certein Poet admiring the excellency of this work thought he could cause Jealousie in his Iupiter and in this belief made it be told him in his language that the hand of a man had equal'd Gods hand and that if it had as much strength as it had compendious adresse it might have formed a second Uuiverse But notwithstanding what the Poets say this Master-piece of workmanship did not survive it's author the same age saw the beginning and end thereof the ransacking of a Town put a period to this little world when Siracusa was taken by the Romanes Archimedes was there slain and his work destroyed Those proud Mausolaea which promised immortality to their builders are reduced to ashes as well as the bodies which they did inclose we do not know the places where their foundations were laid and of all the marble and porphiry which went to their composure nothing but smoak and dust remains of all the stately buildings which vanity hath produced none but the Pyramides of Egypt have triumphed over time Those mighty masses of stone remain yet intire the Theaters the Amphitheaters of Rome which were built so many ages after these miracles of Memphis are now nothing but ruines regarded for their Antiquity those proud portals and stately Theaters for which Romes greatnesse after she hath been so oft demolisht is still admited are onely receptacles for owles and nests for serpents And those Temples wherein heretofore so many Gods were lodged serve now onely to raise Romes wals But the Pyramides of Egypt stand yet firm upon their foundations Thunder bears respect unto them the injuries of time spares them and as if Nature knew that they were built by the labour of Gods people that they are the workmanship of their hands and that the Coement which fastens the stones together was steeped in their tears she preserves this work as a mark of their servitude and as an eternall monument of their glorious deliverance None of the other buildings could defend themselves against the elements if the sword have-spared them fire hath consumed them if water have not overthrown their foundations it hath undermined their tops and if rust have not spoyled them Time which consumes all things hath devoured them It is not fitting that the workmanship of men should be more lasting then that of God since Nature perisheth in any one of her parts that she preserves not her productions but by their losse there is no reason why edifices should be eternall since the world for being infected with sin was drowned by an universall deluge and shall be consumed by a generall fire 't is not fit that our Palaces which are but the inventions of pleasure or vanity should be of a bettercondition and man must learn by the ruine of his workmanships that guilty hands can make nothing which deserves not to be destroyed either by sword or fire The tenth Discourse That the greatest part of our pestimes are occasions of sin THough man had remained in the state of innocency he would have stood in need of some diversion or pastime his constitution which placeth him beneath that of Angels requires that his labours should be intermitted by some honest recreation and his mixture of soul and body doth not permit him to be always busied Nature which serves him for a rule endevâ—s some relaxation in her labours the earth rests in the winter season she sometimes sports her self for recreation and amongst her serious works doth some ridiculous ones which are her â—ions or extravagancies The sea is calm after a storm the winds wâ— with she was agitated leave her in quiet and those spirits which appear enemies to rest are lulled asleep in the bowels of the earth Though labour be naturall to man it needs relaxation his spirit is too weak to be always busied it is not of the nature of rivers or of the heavens which find their rest in motion as sleep repairs the bodies strength so doth recreation repair the like of the soul and change of exercise is to her a kind of recreation But in the state of innocency man found his delight in his duty he unwearied himself in considering Gods wonderfull works and natures beauties which had charms enough to recreate him had not power enough to seduce or corrupt him whilst he saw the stars he adored him who had given them their light and influences whilest he beheld the flowers he admired him who had made them so beautifull and delicate whilst he considered the earths fertility and the diversity of her productions hee bethought himselfe how so many miracles cost God onely the speaking of a word and how the nothing out of which they were produced did contribute nothing unto them but a blind obedience When he heard the comfort of birds or the noyse of the waters he rowsed up his soul to his Creator and 〈◊〉 he had understood the language of those creatures he sung his prayses who had made them speak In fine man was religious in all his recreations whilst he did divert himself he did actions of piety and Nature being mingled with Grace whilst he did unbend his cogitations he did some homage to his God But when sin had once corrupted his inclinations he served his recreation from his duty and took delight in nothing but offence All the remedies which
body Nature which hath made him so vast hath made him so dull that he needs another fish to guide him he would fall foul upon the sands did not his faithfull Officer keep him aloofe from the shore and this inanimated Rock would bruise himself against the earth did not this guide advertise him of his danger to recompence his guide for so good an office he lends him his throat for a place of retreat and this living gulf serves for a Sanctuary to this faithfull guide The Dolphin is the Sovereign of the Sea he carries the Ensignes of his power in the noblest part of his body and Nature which hath given him dexterity to command hath placed a Crown upon his head to put a difference between him and his subjects he naturally loves man and as if he knew that he likewise were a Sovereign he helps him at the sea who commands upon earth he is delighted with musick though he be dumb he is not deafe and the love he bears to musick hath made him oft-times assist Musicians in shipwrack The earth is no lesse peopled then is the sea this fruitfull mother is never weary of bringing forth children nor of nourishing them all the parts thereof are fertill Desarts which produce Monsters produce food likewise to nourish them Forrests serve for retreats to wilde beasts the fields receive such as are necessary for mans entertainment and Towns afford shelter to such as we have reclaimed made tame either for our service or pastime every species is preserved by multiplying it selfe Nature repaires the havock made by death And notwithstanding the cruelty which men use towards those harmlesse beasts their number is not diminished Excesse in feasting cannot drain either the earth or sea these two Elements abound more in fruitfulnesse then we do in gluttonies and notwithstanding any debauches made yet at any time in any Countrey the fields were never depopulated Though man be the Sovereign of all the world he is much more absolute in the earth than either in the water or aire He rules over fishes and birds only by art and since they dwell in Elements which are not conformable to his nature he must use violence upon himself before he can fight against them He gets oâ— shipboard trusts himself to the perfidiousnesse of the sea to surprize fish He cannot come up to birds because of their swiftnesse his minde could never yet raise his earthly body to pursue them in the aire He sends bullets where he himself cannot go and putting division between these innocent creatures either by industry or deceit he makes the Gerfaulcon flie at the Heron. But he can do what he will with beasts he sets upon the fiercest of them in their Forts their dens nor thickets cannot defend them from his violence He reclaimes some to make use of them he strips others to clothe himselfe and cuts the throats of others to feed on This absolute power impedes not the beasts from having Sovereigns amongst themselves The Lion hath won this honour by his strength and courage all other beasts bear him respect at his roaring all his subjects tremble nor are Kings more re-doubted in their Kingdomes then is this noble Animall in Forrests Thus all things in the world are wisely ordered every Element acknowledgeth it's Sovereign every species hath it's laws and had not man disordered this great Republique all the parts thereof would yet enjoy peace and tranquility Yet they agree in what is requisite for the worlds preservation though their inclinations be contrary they keep fair quarter in their quarrels do not forgoe all sense of love when they exercise their hatred Fire agrees with water to compose all bodies and aire mingles it self with earth to give life and breath to all creatures Every Element useth force upon it's inclinations to agree with it's Enemy In birds the earth becomes light in beasts the aire waxeth heavy in fishes fire grows cold and water hardens in rocks if at any time they fall foul 't is always out of some good designe and divine providence by which they are governed gives them not freedom to wage war save for her glory and our advantage The obedience which they owe to God exceeds their own aversions and the Commandements which he gave them when he made them of nothing keeps them yet within their duties they do not make use of their advantages which one of them hath over the other and knowing very well that the worlds welfare depends on their agreements they appease their hatred to cause it 's quiet The fire invirons all the other Elements without consuming them it is content to burn such exhalations as come near it and to set such Comets on fire as do presage alteration in States or the death of Kings The aire doth inclose all sensible creatures the humidity thereof doth temper the fires heat and the earths drinesse Waters make no advantage of the scituation which Nature hath given it though it be liquid and raised above the earth it doth not passe his bounds the word of God gives it it's limits he who raised it up retains it and he teacheth us by this miracle that there needs no more to drown the world then to leave the sea at liberty The earth hath it's foundations laid upon the ayr this Element wherewith it is environed supports it The worlds Basis hath no other stay then the weight thereof that which ought to beat it down susteins it and it keeps equally distant from all the parts of heauen onely because it is the heaviest of all bodies But that which astonisheth all Philosophers and fils the wisest pates in the world with admiration is to see that the world which is but a point should be the center of the Universe and that all Creatures labour onely to adorn or to inrich it The heavens roul incessantly about this hillock of sand to beautifie the fields thereof The Sun inlightens it and cherisheth it with his beams this glorious constellation hath no other care then to make it fertill and if he be in perpetuall motion 't is that he may adorn it with flowers load it with fruits and enrich it with metals the Air forms no clouds nor rain save onely to water it And whole nature is busied in nothing but how she may oblige the least part of the Universe 'T is truth the earth doth thankfully acknowledge all these favours for as she owes all her productions to the Suns favourable aspect she in token of thankfullnesse thrusts all her fruits up towards him opens all her flowers when he riseth shuts them up when he sets and as if she were onely adorned to please him she hides all her beauties when he keeps far from her Though all these considerations make the worlds beauty sufficiently appear that it's creation is the most considerable part of it's excellency And he who knows not what means God used to produce it
banks did not the hand of God prescibe limits to it's fury All the art of man hath not as yet been able to calme the fiercenesse thereof the most expert Pilots tremble as oft as it is incensed and knowing that no force can withstand it's rage they betake themselves to vowes to appease it The aire seems to hold intelligence with it to make war upon us it gives free scope to the North windes which march furiously through her Champians and bring tempests and shipwracks with them After having revenged themselves on men at sea they set upon them on land and sowing cotagions in Countries they change the best peopled Cities into dreadfull Desarts thus the purest of all Elements assumes impurity mens bodies are infected by the corruption thereof it poysoneth whatsoever it doth penetrate and the lungs which draw it in corrupt the heart and brain The fire being much more active then the air commits more havock if it's consuming flames be not universall as are contagions their fury is more suddain and the evils caused thereby find lesse remedie It mixeth with Thunder to punish us it descends contrary to it's nature to pursue us it flashes out in lightening to affrighten us and changeth it self into a thousand severall shapes to undo us It shuts it self up in the bowels of the earth that it may break forth with the greater violence it strives not so much within this prison to recover it's liberty as to punish our offences it makes it's way through the tops of mountains and shoures down Sulphur and Flames upon the plains from off those high places It seems it knows very well that divine Justice hath chose it to be the Minister of her vengeance and that the spoyles it commits on earth serve onely to shew us what Rigour it will inflict upon the Guilty in Hell Thus all things are changed in the world the Elements have neither the same use nor the same inclinations that which was serviceable to man in innocency persecutes him being become guilty Whole Nature is a scaffold where the Creatures act the part of executioners and revenge themselves on man for the injuries he hath done them For to boot that they are forced to share in his faults they know very well that they are fallen from their first nobility that they have not all those advantages which they had in the state of innocency and that they have lost some of their naturall qualities The Sun gives not so much light as he did before the sin of Adam his influences are neither so pure nor yet so puissant he who did dispense nothing but heat and light wonders to see himself send forth sicknesses and death The Stars have no longer those favourable aspects which made fruits and flowers to grow in all seasons of the year their efficacy is weakened and the vigour which appeared in all their effects now languisheth But the earth being a neerer neighbour to man then the Heavens it is more changed all the parts thereof are barren if they be not manured the curse which it received by reason of our sin hath made it lose it's fruitfulnesse it is all brisled with thorns or covered with Thistles it refuseth to feed it's children since they are become sinfull and by an innocent parricide it attempts their lives who have lost originall righteousnesse The fruits which it bears proceed rather from our industry then it 's fertility if it assist us at our need 't is with an ill will and it 's being bound to serve the sinful is a part of it's misery if this be not true I know what that great Apostle mean't when by an admirable Prosopopeia he makes whole Nature to speak and groan when affording words unto her sorrow he makes her wish our change and her deliverance for when he says the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God doth he not witnesse that they hope for some advantage by our felicity and when he says that the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly doth he not insinuate that they are corrupted by sin when he adds that the creature it self shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption doth he not make it evident that Jesus Christ will satisfie their desires and that he will restore unto them what we have unjustly bereft them off I am not ignorant that some Interpreters not sufficiently weighing the intention nor words of Saint Paul do wrest this text and understand it to be meant of man but the Apostles ensuing discourse makes it appear that he speaks of all creatures and that the corruption which they complain of is not that which they have received from nature but that which they have attracted from our sin The corn cannot complain of it's putrifaction because it is the cause of it's increase but it hath some reason to complain that it's vigour is diminished and that abusing the Labourers hope it doth not repay his pains with usury The earth doth not complain of it's being placed in the nethermost story of the earth that it serves for basis to all the other elements but it complains with reason that it hath lost it's fertility and that it is adjudg'd to bring up thorns in stead of roses The Air complains not of being subject to these changes which make up a part of it's nature but it complains and that justly that for the punishment of our offence it hath lost it's purity that it is the seat of storms the abode of thunder and that fatall place wherein Famine and Contagions are formed and to passe from the elements into the heavens The Sun doth not complain of his being in a perpetuall motion that he carries light to all the parts of the world and that he doth differently disperse his heat throughout all the climates of the earth but he hath cause to complain that he hath lost his former Lustre that his influences are mortall that his aspects are maligne and that his presence wherein mans happinesse did consist doth now cause fears and sicknesses in him To this misfortune from whence the creatures just complaints proceed we may adde the Devils Tyranny which doth torment them for after once this proud Fiend had overcome our first father he enter'd upon his rights he got a power over the elements and he had permission to make use of them to solicit men to sin from hence proceeds that Praise worthy custome of the faithfull of blessing the fruits of the earth to free them from the fury of wicked spirits and hence doth the use of exorcisme proceed which makes it appear that all creatures are slaves to those who have been our undoing But it is harder to explain this corruption then to prove it and the manner how it is made is as hard to conceive as anger some to tolerate Yet me thinks a man may say that divine Justice hath changed the
her self after the pains which those wonders have occasioned her which she hath continued since the beginning of the world she goes astray for sports sake and for her pastime commits faults yea her disorders are oft-times usefull to us she produceth Monsters to fore-shew things to come and goes out of her ordinary course to advertize us of Gods anger Thus we may observe that in all ages the birth of Monsters have been followed with some disasters and the worlds irregularity hath presaged the like in kingdomes All the predictions of Pagans were grounded upon these prodigies they studied the guidance of Empires in that of nature and judged of the ones disorder by the others debaucheries When Caesar and Pompey fought in the Pharsalian fields and that the Romane Common wealth was upon the point of being changed into a Monarchie beasts were the interpretors of nature the Elements violated their qualities it rained bloud and a generall confusion did foretell the alteration of that state As famous Princes have had new constellations which have discovered them Tyrants have had Monsters to proclaim them and the Births of the one and of the other have had these Fortunate or Unfortunate Predictions Poysons are not so mischievous but that some good use may be made of them when they are prepared by physick good medicines are made of them there are some sicknesses which cannot be cured but by corrected poyson the greatest part of those drugs which we make use of to assist nature when she is weakened by sicknesse partake more of poison then of nourishment and onely help the naturall heat by provoking it and by contesting with it If they be contrary to our constitutions they are good for and do preserve some creatures and if they be averse to man they are favourable to the asp and viper their venom is not to be taken from them without taking away their lives the Antidotes which preserve us kill them and as if they imprinted their qualities in us when they sting us their stingings are not to be cured but by their poison Who knows not the vertue of venomous plants is ignorant of the half of Nature she subsists by contrariety and as she indues her works with differing qualities she must preserve them by contrary remedies that which is hurtfull for some is good for other some and amongst the infinite number of creatures whose Constitutions are so different there is nothing which is absolutely bad or unusefull These are the usuall reasons which Philosophy makes use of to defend her errour in maintaining Natures part but being prest by truth she must confesse that these Monsters are the products of sin and that the earth never bore them till since it was covered with Thorns the motions thereof were too regulaâ— in the state of innocency to commit any faults the heavens were too favourable to it in their aspects to corrupt it's workmanship this charitable Mother would rather have been barren then fruitfull in Monsters and all her children were so beautifull as she was not bound to make any ilfavoured to set the others off she hath placed variety enough in her productions without being forced to transgress that she might vary them though she be not always serious she had never been debauched and before she was corrupted she would not have found her diversion in her disorder Who knows not that Monsters are the errours of Nature that she had no design in making them that she is sorry she hath produced them that she treats them as illegitimate children that she shortens their life to efface her own shame that repenting her of her fault she speedily corrects it and re-assumes her ordinary Tract which she went not out of but only for want of heed or being surprized 'T is chance and sin that produceth Monsters they are not born but by unlawfull coupling they are always barren to the end they may have no posterity their Species is never preserved and let men who delight in Natures debaucheries use their utmost skill they could never perpetuate Monsters nor make them generate We behold them with horrour the delight which they cause in us is mingled with aversion if their novelty do delight us their strange shape doth displease us and after having for a while admired them we are scandalized and nauseated with them These just resentments are infallible proofs that sin is the father of all Monsters and that as we detest the father so do we his children But that which confirms our belief therein the more is the rarity of them amongst beasts and their frequency amongst men for these innocent creatures being only so far guilty of our sins as they are subject to our power they do not stray so often as we in their productions there is but one part in the world where they commit these faults and set aside Affrica where Monsters are common Europe and Asia do scarce produce two in one age but men are irregular in all places the greatest part of their productions are monstruous all their children bear the marks of their debauchery and the punishment of their sin we see the mothers wishes stampt on their childrens faces some tokens of their parents incontinency are seen in the bodies of these Innocents and generation is so corrupted amongst men as they cause either horrour or pity in Natures self some of them cannot stand upright by reason of the weaknesse of their legs and are enforced to seek for help for their infirmities unlesse they will make their house their perpetuall prison some carry mountains on their backs and makes some that see them doubt whether not having the shape of men they be endued with the judgement and reason or no some are so deformed in their faces as one would rather take them for Munkeys than for the Images of God others speak with such confusion and with so much difficulty as Parrots may teach them our language some are born blinde and are condemned to darknesse all their life time others cannot explain themselves and their tongues not being able to speak cannot be the Interpreters of their thoughts others cannot understand those pleasing discourses which fill the souls of those that listen thereunto with the light of truth they rather guesse at our intentions then understand them to make them capable of them we must speak unto them with our hands and make them understand that by the eyes which cannot be infused into them by the eares In fine the greatest part of men are Monsters Nature mistakes her selfe oftner in them then in beasts and be it that their intemperance causeth these disorders be it that these irregularities are produced by the imagination which is more quick in them be it that their Temper which is more refined is more easily altered we see that most children inherit their Parents defects as well as their sins and that they are not born monstrous till they be born
sinfull If Monsters be the productions of sin poisons are likewise the workmanship thereof though they seem naturall to some creatures I conceive they did not make any part of their Essence till after they had served the Devill for an Organ to deceive our first mother all insects which bear in them any poison are kinds of Serpents God curseth them to revenge us they creep upon their bellies in memory of the fault which our Enemies committed by their interposition they feed upon the earth for the punishment of a sin whereof they were but innocent Complices as their sight causeth horrour in us so doth ours cause fear in them the heavens have put a secret enmity between them and us if their venom be fatall to us our spittle is mortall to them and if they with their teeth give us incurable wounds we with our feet give them mortall Catches The same justice which would condemne them to all these punishments confin'd their venom to some parts of their bodies to make them more odious she would have their very looks to be contagious to make us shun them and instructing us by sensible things she secretly imprinted in our hearts a hatred against the Devill whose image they are she teacheth us by this example that we cannot hold innocent commerce with one that is sinfull that that proud fiend which could inspire us with nothing but pride that there was more danger in communing with him than in treating with aspes and vipers And certainly venom must needs be a punishment of sin since all sorcerers make use thereof in their charmes and in all the mischiefe that they do imploy those poisons which hature hath produced to undo us these things seem to be abandoned to their fury that they have some jurisdiction over them and that they are permitted to assaile their Enemies with these weapons In effect all the harme they do to men is by this mingling of poisons the words which they use are of no efficacy they cannot hurt us by their curses 't is a trick of the Devill whom his weaknesse will imitate the power of God and perswade us that words uttered by those whom he imploys change nature and work miracles We are taught by reason and by faith that only God can act by speaking and produce things by his will The Angels which are the noblest Subjects of his Empire can alter nothing in the world but by the mediation of the Elements they are forced to employ their qualities to bring to passe their own designes and to make use of their heat or of their cold to hasten Winter or retard Summer they assume bodies in the clouds to make themselves visible they speak by the means of the aire to make themselves be understood and make use of vapours to form storms and Thunder but the devils who are rebels to Gods Kingdom having no designes but what are pernitious they employ venom to execute them they gather up the foam of Dragons and Serpents slaver and compose drinks of all these differing poisons they mingle a thousand deaths together to revenge themselves of their Enemies but say they did not make use of these things to satisfie their fury is it not sufficient to know that these things are averse unto us as to judge that they have been altered by divine Justice for our punishment or does not the knowledge of their being altered by divine Justice for our punishment suffice to ascertain us of their aversion to us In Gods first designe all creatures were tied to serve man they were to contribute either to his pastime or to his profit they had no other end but his pleasure or his advantage and had they been able to expresse their meanings they would have witnessed that their being in the world was only to follow his inclinations What place should poisons have held then in this world how could they have been serviceable to man in the state of innocency could he have taken any satisfaction in the sight of creatures whose qualities were fatall to him could he have treated with the Basilisk whose looks cause death could he have approached Serpents which poison the aire with their breath could he have communed with him who was the cause of his undoing had he suspected either his breath or his looks and ought we to imagine that there was any creatures which could offend man in a time when not having committed any fault he was not to fear any punishment what delight could he have taken in the company of those beasts which are fatall to all other beasts what sport could he have taken in Monsters which carry death in their eyes or mouth and from whence a man must fence himself as well as against the plague or war But it may be objected Originall righteousnesse served him for a safe-gard he saw the danger with delight because the sight thereof caused no apprehension in him he was well pleased to to handle poyson the efficacy whereof was tane away by his innocency and to touch venome which had not power to hurt him Divine Providence which prescribed bounds to the raging of the sea gave laws to the malice of Serpents and the same power which hindered the Sun from burning men when he gave them light would not suffer the Basilisk to poyson them by his lookes but who perceives not how weak this answer is and how it compares Creatures which do no ways resemble one another the Elements hurt not us but onely through their disorders the seasons annoy us not but by their irregularities All things in their purity are usefull to us we dread not nature for them but her corruption and even in the very state of sin we make use of them without either fear or danger Owles onely complain of light Harmony is onely hated by Savage beasts a man must either be sick or mad to detest food which preserves life but every body apprehends poyson it must be corrected by art before the malignity thereof be tane away to make any use of it it must be destroy'd it is so dangerous as it oft-times kils those Physicians who prepare it The smell of poyson is as pernitious as the substance it poures forth it's malignity throughout all the Senses penetrates all the pores of the body and there are some so subtil poisons as even Iron is not solid enough to fence us from them Let us then conclude that the earth bore not those unlucky plants which seem to conspire mans ruine till that made barren by Gods Curse it was bound to turn it's roses into Thorns and it's fruits into poysons Sin was the occasion of this disorder Divine Justice the cause and the same power which caused the earth to open underneath the feet of Dathan and Abiram caused wolfes-bane and Hemlock to come out of her bowels to hasten his death who had lost his innocency The tenth and last Discourse That God will
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
body composed only of Light and Heat But Christian Religion teacheth us that she is a spirit created by God in time infused into a body to inanimate it the spring head of Motion and Life and that in her noblest operations she stands in need of her salves Organes to operate withall Light is in some sort naturall to her in her understanding she comprehends the Principles of all Sciences her will hath in it the seed of all vertue the senses are so many Messengers which informe her with whatsoever passeth in the world and by their faithfull reports teach her those truths which she was ignorant of t is true that there are some truths which are rather infused into her then acquired by her and which Nature hath so powerfully imprinted in her Essence as Errours self cannot deface them she without an Instructer knows there is but one God she preserves this belief in the midst of Superstition in this point she is Christian even when Infidell whilst she offers Incense to her Idols she trusts in him who seeth all things and after having invoked Saturn and Iupiter she implores ayd from him whom her Conscience tels her is the true Creator of Heaven and Earth she is ignorant of the fall of Devils and by the hatred which she bears unto them makes it appear that she is not ignorant of their guile whilst she is possessed with these Tyrants she ceaseth not to think upon her lawfull Sovereign and sin which hath not been able to destroy her Nature c could not deface her knowledge nor her love she loves God though she offends him all the tyes she hath to these perishable things are the remainders of that Naturall Inclination and because every Creature is an Image of it's Creator she cannot see them without being in some sort transported the shadow of God awakens her flame but having neither light nor heat enough to raise her self up to him she remains engaged on the earth and by a strange blindnesse she forgets the Summum Bonum to fasten her self to his Picture she presageth her misfortune before she hath any knowledge thereof she prophesieth it before she disputes and when she first enters into the world she witnesseth by her tears that she hath some sense of her miseries as soon as she hath by her cryes saluted the Sun she teacheth those that understand her that she very well knows the earth is the seat of misery and that one cannot live long there without suffering much sorrow When age indues her with the use of Reason she doth not lose the use of Prophecie her dreams serves for presages The Heavens whilst she is at rest advertize her of her disasters and the Angels treating with her in a condition wherein she cannot treat with men acquaints her with the good and bad successes of her enterprizes she makes out salleys which cause men to believe that though she be fastened to the body yet she is not a Prisoner for when she pleaseth she abandons the senses and collects her self that she may be the lesse interrupted in her Meditations she seeks for knowledge in the Center of her essence and as if she did complain of the sights Infidelity or the ears sloath she endeavours to learn at home within her selfe what she cannot find out in the world in effect she would be very ignorant if she knew nothing but what she learns from her Officers for as they are but the Organes of the body they can only observe the qualities of the objects and can only inform their Sovereign of the lustre of Colours the diversity of sounds and of the varities of smels but when she withdraws within her self she knows subsistances she treats with spirits and raising her self-above all things created she forms unto herself certain Ideas of a Divinity Nay she is an Image thereof and it seems God took pleasure to draw his own Picture in the soul of man and to make us admire in this chief work of his power the unity of his Nature and the Plurality of his Persons for though this spirit be engaged In Materia and that it works differently according to the severall Organes of the body that it digests meat by naturall heat converts it into bloud by means of the Liver distributes it into all parts by the veins and by a miraculons Metamorphosis gives a hundred severall shapes to the same food yet is it not divided and representing the unconceivable unity of God it is Tota in Toto Tota inqualibet parte Thus the soul conteins that which seems to inclose her she lends her hoast house room she upholds her house she inanimates her Sepulchre and this Created Divinity is so great as she Circumscribes the Temple wherein she makes her residence This admirable unity agrees with a Trinity of powers which makes the soul an excellent Image of God for she hath an active understanding which conceives all things a happy memory which records them and an absolute will which disposeth of them she knew the highest of our miseries by reflecting on her self before Faith had revealed unto her the procession of the Divine persons Nature had given her some glimmering thereof by studying what she found to be in her self she learnt what was in God and seeing that she conceived a word in her understanding and a love in her will she had no trouble to comprehend that the father begot a Sonne and that the Sonne together with the Father produced a Holy Ghost Plato who had read no other book then that of his own soul guest at these Truths Trismegistus who had only learn'd these lights out of the bosome of Nature had some weak knowledge of the mysteries and we are bound to confess that neither the one nor the other would ever have known the Divine Originall had they not seriously considered the copy As the soul is the shadow of the divine Essence it shares in part of his highest perfections her light is not obscured by her Prison the body which is formed but of earth doth not derogate from her Nobility nor Power and death which threatens the House wherein she lives injures not her Immortality she is knowing in the midst of obscurity Absolute amidst the revolt of her Subjects Immortall in the bosome of death it self the senses which endeavour to seduce her by their unfaithfull reports cannot abuse her and let them use what foul play they please she hath always light enough to discover their Imposture she corrects their errours and when she will make use of her own rights she finds Counsellors in the Basâ— of her being who convince these faithless Officers of fals-hood she finds oft times lesse resistance in her body then in her self one only Act of her will makes the eyes open the arms be lifted up and the legs go these parts are so obedient to her commands as they never resist when in health their Rebellion ariseth
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
their riches infamous amidst their honours whatsoever praises men give to their misdemeanours they tast not the sweets thereof and this domestick executioner turns all their pleasures into punishments In fine it seems he hath a design to oppose the injustice of Fortune and to rob the wicked of that glory which Fortune endevours to procure them for Fortune honours crimes recompenseth Murders Crownes Parricides and that she may weaken vertues Party prosecutes her followers but Conscience which hath no other interest then that of justice punisheth sin in the Throne and teacheth the guilty that greatnesse is but a weak defence against her just endeavours Thus faults never fail of punishment and though they be defended by violence disguised by cunning excused by reason or raised by falshood they always finde their Punishments in the depth of their conscience As she punisheth the wicked she rewardeth the good for if the cry of the publique do not praise them according to their desert they finde satisfaction in having done their duty and the approbation of this just Judge makes them more glorious then all the Panegyrick on earth in this it is that the happiness of the Innocent consists t is this that comforts them in their afflictions that incourageth them in their combates and which crowns them in their victories Their soul is a living Throne where Jesus Christ keeps his residence they famaliarly with him and receive on earth the assurance of that Happinesse which is promised them in heaven Though these reasons prove sufficiently that Conscience is the punishment of the wicked and the good mans recompence yet is it not hard to prove that she is misled by sin that this Counsellour is unfaithfull that this Witnesse is corrupted that this Judge is interessed and that this Executioner is backward and fearfull For what advice can Conscience give us since shee is blinde and that the same darkness which overshading the light of the understanding cloudes hers how can she divert us from sin since sin oft mixeÌ„th his uncomelinesse with the beauties of vertue and since there be whole intire Nations which approve of Incest and excuse Parricide How can she accuse us since she undertakes to defend us and that being â—educed by the senses she strives to make whatsoever is pleasing unto them lawfull we forme Consciences to our selves which destroy those that Nature hath given us We think that a crime is lawfull When it is either profitable or Honourable We think the laws unjust when they thwart our desires suites at Law hurt not charity because they have some colour of justice Duels are authorized because they preserve Honour drunkennesse is permitted because it is ordinary and Pollution shall be no more blamed because t is glorious Thus the Conscience which did accuse us doth excuse us and this witness being bribed by sin speaks only in its behalf If he be unfaithfull in his depositions he is as unjust in his decrees for being ill informed he cannot pronounce judgment aright and his instructions being false his decrees cannot be equitable he no longer condemns secret faults and because they are not scandalous he wil have them pass for innocent if he cannot authorize them he excuseth them and if he cannot absolve the guilty he signes their pardon if somtimes the heinousnes of their offence oblige him to condemn them he is slack in punishing them and his connivance adds to their licentiousnesse For though great crimes be accompanied with horrour and disquiet that those that are highly guilty are not indured and that being subservient to Divine Justice they be the Authors of their own punishment though the Neroes waken in a fright and that their Mothers Ghost assail them in the midst of their guards though the Domitians carry their executioners in their heart though the Heavens prolong their lives only to prolong their torments and that their cruell death be the least part of their punishment yet there be sinners who have not this remorse there are some that enjoy quiet after Parricide who peaceably usurped Kingdoms and who neither finde revolts in their States nor trouble in their persons T is true S. Austine was of opinion that this calme was more dangerous then a storm and that the reproch of Conscience was not so severe a punishment as her silence for when she galls us t is that she may heal us when she awakens us t is to give us advertisement of the dangers which threaten us her hurts are favors and her stings are the last that languishing nature can do but when she hath lost her feeling our hope of health is lost her stupidity presageth our misfortune and as the sick man who is become unsensible of his pains is abandoned by his Phisician the sinner who hath no longer sense of his sins is forsaken by Jesus Christ. Yet most men live in this deplorable condition their Consciences confederate with their Enemies holds Intelligence with the Devill to deceive them is silent that she may surprize them and refuseth to advise them only that she may continue them in their sins Nay oft times through a high piece of Insolence she furnisheth them with reasons to defend themselves for though it be easier to commit a fault then to excuse it she undertakes to make their Apologie and if the Crime bear with it any Glorious appearance she endevours to make its Panegyrick Thus she who ought to convert them ads pride to their other wickednesse and after having made them infamous sinners she endevoureth to turn them into proud Devils They then begin to glory in their sins the higher their offences are the prouder are they their successe in their first crimes engageth them in greater and as the Pleasure which accompanieth vertue doth encourage gallant men to glorious enterprizes the satisfaction which these men find in sin encourageth them to Sacrileges and Parricides The eighth Discourse Of the unrulinesse of the Will and of it's inclinations to evill WHatsoever advantages Humane understanding may pretend to have over the Faculties of the soul it must give place to the will and confesse that if he be the Counsellor she is his Mistris for though his advices bear great credit with his Sovereign yet is she so free as nothing can constrein her the reasons which convince the understanding do not force the will and after her officer is won shee can defend her self there is no insinuating into her favour but by sweetnesse her consent is only won by submission Constraint confirms her in her designs fear rather altereth her actions then her desires and violence which oft times makes the understanding say what it thinks not never makes the will pleased with what it is displeased she is free amidst Irons and whilst the other Faculties of the soul crouch under Force or sorrow she is still obstinate in her resolutions and is never more free then when she seems most constrained Her Empire is
as large as her liberty all the parts of man do naturally owe her obedience and even those which act out of necessity cease not to reverence her power She effaceth out of the memory those species which she hath been trusted with if you will except such Injuries and displeasures as are never to be forgotten the will to forget a thing is sufficient to think no more thereon She stops the understanding in all its operations after t is convinced by the Truth she suspends his judgment and by an absolute Authority keeps this Judge from pronouncing Judgment Though the imagination be not so indifferent and that her fickle humour makes her oft times start aside from her duty yet doth she allay her storms when her Sovereign speaks and if she have made any party in her heart she is the first that doth disâ—e them when the will commands The passions which are as rebellious as wild respect her authority and if their first motions be not submitted to her power t is because they are not capable of reason when their fury is over they return unto duty and wonne by love which is their Sovereigns only sonne they rank themselves under his Laws Though the sense do necessarily act and that they dispose of their objects in their operatâ—ons yet cease they not to pursue her order and to suspend their motions when that Queen commands the eyes close themselves to please her the â—ares become deafe to obey her nay those parts of the body which pretend to hold of her authority and to be led only by Nature do notwithstanding experience the greatnesse of her Power For though she cannot hinder naturall heat from digesting meat nor the Liver from sending bloud into veins yet she â—roubles all their workings and if Nature hold not Intelligence with her all her operations do but languish In fine the will is so considerable as man draws from thence his chief advantages a good wit may make his Company well liked of Imagination may make him a good Poet his hand may make him an industrious Artificer but t is only will that can make an honest man t is she that wins him the Title of vertues and Integrity which is the souls chief ornament is the pure work of this Noble Faculty Notwithstanding all this all Sciences busie themselves in ruling all the other powers of the soul not troubling themselves with the ruling of this Logick forms the understanding and teacheth us how to reason Rhetorike teacheth us the art of perswasion and furnisheth us with figures to set forth truth Astrologie contents our curiosity and raising us above the earth discovers unto us all that passeth in the Heavens Poetry heats our Imagination and burning it with a fire which doth not smoak makes it do things which triumph over death and time Mechaniek Arts make our hands cunning and teacheth them to imitate the rarest workmanships of Nature but the will is only formed by morality yet is she so free as nothing can inforce her Vertue hath not charmes enough to endue her with love and all the recompences which she can promise are not powerfull enough to bereave her of her Liberty Grace must come into the succour of Vertue Morality must be assisted by Religion to gain upon the will for since she is become criminall nothing can bend her she is the wâ—rse through her advantages her greatnesse makes her a slave her Power makes her insolent and her Liberty renders her a captive she is brought into a condition wherein whatsoever heightens her merit contributes to her misery and she is so ill dealt with by sin as she cannot recover her former perfect Liberty but by servitude but to the end you may not think I exaggerate her loss in the describing it I will shew her unto you in her greatest advantages and will demonstrate that since Adams sin all her perfections are prejudiciall to her As will is the Soveraign in man she respects the universall good and whilest the other faculties are only busied about their own particular Interests she takes care for the welfare of her whole State The understanding seeks only after truth and when he thinks he hath found it out he leaves further pursut Memory labours only after the reteyning of those species which are committed to her fidelity and when she hath acquitted her self thereof she thinks she hath done her duty The imaginations only care is to entertain commerce between the senses and the understanding the senses have no imployments but to consider objects and to give there opinion thereof to the imagination the passions themselves which are the motions of love have their exercises limited desire goes inquest after things which are absent or a far off Fear drives away dangers which threaten us hope flatters us by her promises Audacitie assails Enemies that injure us and choller furnisheth us with weapons to fight but the will is like a Queen in the midst of her State who rules all these disorders and remedies all that is faulty she listens to what the senses say calmes the fury of the imagination appeaseth the passions tumults gives ear to what the understanding counselleth and from the Throne where she sits gives out orders and pronounceth decrees When she is peremptory in what she says she is always obeyed her power as in God is Composed of her will and so long as she is not divided between her body and her understanding she seldom undertakes any thing which she brings not to effect The supream Authority is doubtlesse one of the wills chiefest Advantages and the generall care which she takes of the guidance of all the other Faculties of the soul is an excellent proof of her worthinesse but who sees not that this eminent greatnesse is accompanied with extream misery since she that can do all seeth nothing and that she who is so absolute is blinde for she discernes Truth only through borrowed eyes she must ask counsell of the understanding upon the advice of this faithles officer she must examine reports made by the senses stop the violence of passions and asswage the fury of the imaginations Objects corrupt the senses The passions suffer themselves to be guided by the imagination The understanding is perverted by opinion this blinde Queen amongst so many mutinous Subjects and so many interressed advices knows not what resolution to put on neither to what object to fasten her self imagine the miserable condition of a Prince who being blinde should have a great State to govern Provinces to rule Enemies to fight with Subjects to guide Treaties to conclude Rebels to punish and who to effect all this should have none but interessed Officers or ignorant Counsellors This is the deplorable condition of the will she hath a Dominion which though it be inclosed within man ceaseth not to be larger then the whole World she hath passions which are wilder then Tygers shee hath intestine seditions and wars abroad
much the more dangerous by how much it is the more concealed and the vanity which in-animates their vertue is so much the more difficult to cure for that it is more subtill and more nice for though they make no accompt of Honour and that they seem to despise Glory and that satisfied with the merit of Vertue they seek not after the reputation which doth accompany her yet are they drunk with the esteem of themselves and are their own Idolaters The lesse praises they receive the more they think they deserve and who could read their hearts would find nothing there but proud insolent thoughts they tye themselves up to reason and despise Divinity they think themselves wise and better than Gods and not knowing that the Angels were Rebels they become guilty of their faults for as Saint Augustine says very well all men who stop at the Creature and do not raise themselves up to the Creator are criminall He trifles with those things which he ought to make use of he makes that his onely end which is but onely a means to arrive at it and reversing all the laws of Nature he will find in himself the happinesse which is onely to be found in God Thus are these Philosophers proud even when they contest against vain glory they trample upon ordinary Pride by a more subtill Pride they despise not riches save onely that they adore vertue they loosen themselves from the world onely that they may fasten themselves to their own persons and they make war against their bodies onely that they may make love unto their minds They are not Epicureans but Stoicks they neither love Pleasure nor Glory yet cease not to be slaves to both of them self-love is their voluptuousnesse and the satisfaction which they receive from their vertue is their vain glory they behold not one another without admirations and if they appear modest in their writings their designs are full of Pride Doubtlesly they are proud since they take Pleasure in themselves and they are not aware that this Complacency is a proof of their Folly since as Saint Augustine saith every man is a fool who delighteth in himself and he alone is wise who pleaseth God To conclude this discourse by a reason of Saint Pauls y of which Saint Augustine shall be the Interpreter the delight which we have in our selves is aswell a sin as the pleasure we take in others This great Apostle doth equally condemn these two disorders he will not have us to delight in our advantages the satisfaction which we take in our selves is a science or young shoot of self-love and if we be forbidden to love our selves we are not permitted to esteem our selves Saint Peter all whose words are Oracles Places complacency amongst the number of sins and condemning those who raise themselves above their deserts he condemnes those also who take pleasure in their Vertues and Saint Augustine discovering the intention of these great Apostles teacheth us that there are two sorts of Temptations the one exterior which being easily discovered are not hard to overcome the other interior and which lying in the bosome of our souls are as hard to cure as to know Of this sort is their Temptation who not requiring the praises which they deserve or who rejecting such praises as are given them cease not notwithstanding to be displeasing to God because being filled with a vain glory so much the more dangerous as the more subtill they delight in themselves and do not raise themselves up to the Summum Bonum which is the fruitfull Fountain-head of all true vertues This is the fault whereof prophane Philosophers were guilty the vain glory which blindes the Socratesses the Catoes this is the nice Temptations which undid all the excellent wits of Rome and Athens The rest which were so very fine were contented with the peoples applause and demanded no other recompence for their vertues than triumphs and victories and certeinly those could not complain of Gods Justice since he hath changed their desires into effects and proportioning their recompences to their Actions hath crowned their fallacious vertues with a vain Honour since he hath paid their Labours with so many conquests and hath submitted so many people to men that are Ambitious of Command and glory The fourth Discourse That the vertue of Infidels cannot be True VErtue is so beautifull as her very shaddow is delightfull vices have some sort of comelinesse when they borrow her accoutrements and we cannot forbear praising such errours as appear in her likely-hood We approve of prodigality in Princes because it counterfeits liberality We admire boldnesse in Souldiers because it hath an air of valour and courage We adore ambition in conquerours because it borders upon Generosity This errour would be excusable did it not advance further but there are some men who preferring appearances before truths value a glorious vice at a higher rate than a neglected vertue Socrates his conference with his friends seems of a more lofty style to them than doth S. Pauls last words and this Philosophers discoveries prevailes more with them than the examples of our Martyrs Hence it is that Christians admire the vertues of Infidels that not content to make their Apologies they make Panegyricks in their behalf and praise men on earth whom God punisheth in hell Saint Austine not being able to endure this injustice which had its birth with the Pelagian Heresie opposeth it in a thousand parts of his writings and contradicting the reasons which it proffers in ' its defence Makes Christians confesse that the greatest part of infidels vertues are but glorious vices as I am of his opinion I will march under his colours and I will make use of his weapons to preserve the advantages of the Graces of Jesus Christ and to take away the vanity of corrupted Nature But to proceed by degrees we must presuppose with S. Austine that no action can be holy which proceeds not from Faith according to this holy Fathers sense a man must be faithful if he will please God and the soul which is not enlightened by the Divine light cannot acquire any Christian vertues that which hath no regard to the Summum Bonum cannot be good in this sense and where supreme tatis cognitio is wanting no Divine vertue can be practised Either Grace or corrupted Nature are the Originals of our actions whatsover proceeds from the former is sacred whatsoever derives from the second is prophane a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor can a bad one bring forth good Since humane Nature hath lost her Innocence and her Inclinations are corrupted unlesse she be amended by Grace she remains always bâ—assed towards the earth she must be raised up by faith if she will look up to heaven though she see â—er disorder she cannot amend it and though she be conscious of her evill she cannot hate it she wants both light and
hands thereof Politicians are surprized in their cunning that which happens well unto them in one affair falls out clean otherwise when heaven forsakes them This made the Pagans say that fortune laughs at wisdom and that to confound our presumption she had so ordered affairs as that happinesse and wisdom did not always keep Company she makes fools happy when she cannot make them wise and not being able to make wise men fools she makes them unfortunate whence it is that Politicians doubt whether good fortune or wisdom be the more requisite ingredient to the composure of a puissant Prince Wisdom is more honourable but good fortune is more certein wisdom furnisheth advice but good fortune gives the event Wisdom comes from earth but good fortune from Heaven therefore Sylla who understood this secret very well chose rather the name of fortunate than of great or wise and was of an opinion that an Empire favoured by fortune was better established than one governed by wisdom This confession makes all Polititians despair after having built Altars to their Idol they must erect Temples to providence and acknowledge that it is she which gives Scepters to shepheards which overthrows the Thrones of the wise which inspires the timerous with courage and infuseth fear into the heart of the most hardy which snatcheth Lawrell from out the hands of the victorious to crown the conquered therewithall To atribute good successe to humane wisdom is to offend Divine providence in all our enterprizes we must leave much to her guidance and in executions we must give all to her Glory she is jealous of this acknowledgement and who fails to give her this Honour never failes to be unfortunate 'T is said that a certein Grecian named Timothy recounted to the Athenians the victories which he had gotten over their enemies vaunted that his victories were wrought by his wisdom and not by fortune that they owed their obligation to his good guidance and not to his good luck Though those insolent speeches were onely uttered against an idol which could not resent them Divine providence forbore not to revenge her self upon this generall not suffering him to have any good successe in any thing that he undertook afterwards to let him know that his former good successes were not so much the effects of wisdom as of Fortune Though these two qualities which accompany wisdom are sufficient enough to tarnish her glory the third is much more injurious to her for ignorance and weaknesse bear their excuses with them and there are glorious vertues which have not much more power nor much more light but guile is odious and vertue turns to sin when it becomes deceitfull yet this is a quality which seldom forsakes humane wisdom all her cunning is criminall and being often interessed she is almost always g unjust couznage is so naturall to her as that all her counsels are there withall infected she approves of cheating when we may reap profit thereby and because by the Laws of War we are permitted to overcome our enemies either by stratagem or by force she thinks she may deal so with all men She disperseth her guile into all worldly commerce be it either that particular men end their difference by processe at Law be it that Marchants traffick with strangers be it that Princes treate by their Ambassadours wisdom fenceth her self onely by cunning and in all her imployments he who knows best how to coozen is the ablest man Thus is cheating mixt with wisdom and those who are not guided by charity cannot be wise unlesse they be deceivers Though Pagan vertues be oft disguised vices which under a counterfeit beauty hide reall uglines yet there is not any which hath a neerer allyance to vice than wisdom hath Exempt vain glory from temperance in the unbeleevers and Temperance shall be without blemish and separate force from ambition and ambition shall be praise worthy but wisdom is inter-mingled withall sins interest is her motive injustice her originall deceit her interpreter and dissimulation her Counsellour she hazards innocency to eâ—vade infamy she violates Nature to preserve a peece of Earth and to settle her own State she overturns that of strangers All her right consists in might under any colour of pretence which her cunning may pretend unto she takes up arms to defend it and thinks that all war is just whereby she may be aggrandised all her Maximes are blasphemies which give against Religion or society she frames Gods and Laws after her own Mode or fashion she esteems whatsoever withstands her interest to be weaknes of spirit and is firm of opinion that the Heavens must do miracles to make her tractable In fine in the State of corrupted Nature it is hard to be wise and not a Cheater T is therefore that the Son of God when he instructeth his Disciples never adviseth them to be wise as Serpents without obliging them to be Innocent as Doves because innocencie without wisdom would turn to folly and wisdom without innocencie convert to guile Tertullian descanting upon this passage says that were it in his choise he would prefer the innocencie of the Dove before the wisdom of the Serpent and that if he could not shun the two evils which accompany these two vertues he would rather fall into that of Folly than that of Guile Indeed the Scripture gives the preeminency to Innocency as by this comparison for the Dove is much more pleasing than is the Serpent she is the Emblem of Innocency and love she expresseth her selfe by sighes she was chosen by God in the beginning of the world for the Messenger of Peace and to advertise man of the Deluges decrease in the fulnesse of time she had the honour to denote Jesus Christ and to instruct the chiefest of all Prophets The Holy Ghost hath made it his mysticall Image and when he would become visible he took upon him the forme of a Dove but the Serpent creeps upon the earth hides himself in the grasse wraps himself in his own folds and never discovers but one part of himselfe he served for an Interpreter to the evill spirit to expresse himselfe by and for an officer to seduce man this was the first visible shape the Devill put on and we never see this Animal but we are touched with some secret horrour which teacheth us that the Devill is odious and wisdome dangerous This is also the vertue of self-love which endeavours to restore man to what he hath lost which withstands Gods purposes which gives against the lawes of his Providence and Justice and which under a pretence of freeing us from those miseries which afflict us endevours to make in each of us a proud Tyrant of a rebellious Slave The sixth Discourse That there is no true Temperance nor Iustice amongst the Pagans IT is not without reason that I joyn these two vertues in the same discourse and that I make one onely Panegyrick for Temperance
their humours and opinions had so straightly united their souls that death it self could not part them The Tyrant Dionysius to whom vertue was an Enemy condems one of these faithfull friends to his last sufferings he findes that his occasions ingage him to make a voyage the Tyrant who would adde mirth to cruelty permits him so to do provided he finde out Baile who may take his place and who will be bound to die for him if he defer his return Pythias accepts of this Condition and entring into Prison wisheth that the day of Execution drew nigh that he might deliver his friend the fatall hour being come and Damon not yet appearing Pythias is led to punishment he rejoyceth at his happinesse whilst the people are afflicted at his misfortune he excites the Hangman to make hast and fears death lesse then his friends return and without excusing his delay or suspition of his fidelity he commends Fortune which keeps his friend from making good his word at this very moment Damon arrives quite out of breath he presseth through the crowde presents himself before the Tyrant and the Executioner and calls for his baile in Pithias pleades the hower is past that Damon having failed in his assignment is no more lyable to death and that it is he Pythias that must end what he had begun This strife makes the Hang-man stay his hand moves wonder in the people and softens the Tyrant who for their fidelity revokes his Decree desires to be admitted into their society this monster who had never studied any thing but to make himself to be feared ravisht to see this Miracle wisheth to be beloved It cannot be denied but that this was a rare example and that in this mutuall correspondancy the height of friendship is seen for it was of power to inspire the contempt of death to cancell the love of life to mollifie cruelty to change rage into mildness and to turn the pain of punishment to a glorious recompence but who doth not also see that this contestation might rather proceed from vain Glory then love who thinks not that each of these loved themselves better than their companion since leaving life to him he would keep Glory to himself who will not confesse that in this dispute there was more of Ambition then fidelity and who will not acknowledge that so gallant an adventure might have been wisht for by men not so wel known to one another and between whom there was not so great a friendship as between Damon and Pythias But we must not wonder if friendship be faulty amongst the Pagans since she is not alwayes innocent amongst Christians and since interest which gives against the designes of Charity keeps her from inlarging her self and doth unjustly confine her self between two parties for we suffer our selves to be perswaded by Philosophy that common friendship cannot be reall that he who loves many loves none and that who doth so readily ingage himself doth disingage himself with as much as Ease Yet the Son of God bindes us to love all Christians as our brothers he will have his body and blood to be the bond of all the faithfull and that his chiefest mysteries tend onely to the uniting of them together his pleasure was that we should all have one and the same Father to the end we might have one and the same inheritance he ordeined but one Baptisme to the end that our birth might be alike and that the difference of Conditions being banisht from out his Church reciprocall love might not by mistake be diminished he gave us but one head to the end we might be inanimated by the same spirit and that the conformity of our opinions might be the preservation of our friendship he hath left us his body in the Eucharist to the end we might have one and the same food and that being converted to himself we should be obliged to love one another as being his members he hath caused us to be born in one and the same Church to the end that we might have but one Mother upon earth as we have but one Father in Heaven he hath promised us one and the same Paradise to the end we might have one and the same Country and that being so straightly united in time we may not be separated in Eternity yet all these powerfull means cannot keep friendship amongst Christians self love derides them the division of wealth divides their wills every one prefers his interest before Charity the Common people end their differences by suite at Law Gentle-men by Duels and Princes by Battails Men defend their right either by cunning or by force not considering that Jesus Christ lives in our enemies we kill them to revenge our selves and commit murther to cancell an injury But though we should be more charitable we cannot shun being unfortunate for sin hath so corrupted our nature Divine Justice hath so severely punisht sins as the life of man is rather a succession of miseries then of years man cannot live long without much suffering if his body be in health his minde is sick if his wealth be not exposed to injustice his Innocency is exposed to Calumny if he fence himself from one misfortune he is assayed by another and he learns to his own cost that long life is but a long punishment And then again whosoever engageth himself in friendship obligeth himself to new displeasures as he lives in two bodies he suffers in two places and addes his friends miseries to his own if he have many friends Fortune hath more to lay hold off in him and as afflictions are more common than blessings he must resolve to be often miserable Those deceive themselves who esteem friendship a consolation to the afflicted to give her her due name she ought to be termed the torment of the fortunate because she hath made evil Common between those who mutually love and since she makes a man suffer in his friends misfortune though otherwise he himself should be in a happy condition she augments the number of the miserable under pretence of diminishing it she turns a single Malady into a contagion she inlargeth displeasures under colour of easing them and by an ingenious Cruelty she findes a means to hurt many in indeavouring to heal one Therefore do the unfortunate fear having friends when they are uninteressed they love not that their maladie should be contagious it sufficeth them that they are miserable without making others so they are as covetuous of their Pains as they have been prodigall of their pleasures they think not themselves freed of their miseries by laying them upon their friends they shun company for fear of infecting them knowing that solitarinesse is the abode of the afflicted they forsake the world and hold for certain that an unfortunate man becomes faulty when he wisheth for Companions in his misery Be it confest that friendship is very fantastick and that she imprintes
and there is no knowledge so certain which admits not of doubts none so profitable which is not discommodious nor none so good which is not bad True knowledge ought to have two qualities Evidence and Certainty the first without the second occasioneth Opinion the second without the first produceth Faith Therfore 't is that all Sciences boast to possesse these two advantages and employ all their power to perswade us that they are evident and assured but the means they make use of to prove this contradicts their design and makes their doubts and obscurities equally appear For they draw their light either from Time Authority or Experience Time is the father of truth but is also oft-times the murtherer thereof according to the Rabbines 't is the witnesse of all things but it suffers corruption and the depositions thereof are as obscure as doubtfull all knowing men complain that life is short the way to knowledge long and that it were requisite to spend whole Ages in the School of Time to become learned 'T is only permitted to Damons who are ancient as the world to profit under a Master that discovers his secrets only to such as through their own industry observe them Authority is grounded upon the worth of those who have gone before us their antiquity gives them credit we think them abler than our selves onely because they are older and we dare nor oppose their opinions because they are no longer able to defend them they onely rule because they live no longer and if they beare away the victory 't is because they are without the danger of the fight Their Maximes serves us for Oracles their wills serve us for laws and they may say as Kings This is our Pleasure Death which destroyes the power of Soveraigns establisheth the Tyranny of Philosophers and these men who live no longer have yet credit enough to triumph over our liberty Yet is their antiquity a proofe of their ignorance since they have seen lesse then we they should in reason know lesse and since they lived in the first Ages they could not have made sufficient observations to discern the truth That which we call the worlds Antiquity was but it's Infancy men not being able to advantage themselves by the labour of their Ancestours did live in profound ignorance and left the glory of finding out truth to the care of those that should succeed them Experience is grounded upon the Senses and hath all her good from their reports but all men know these Messengers are unfaithfull that they are corrupted by objects that the soule which is by them advised is oft-times deceived and that nature hath given her an inward light to free her selfe from their Superchery they mistake themselves daily in their own operations if we will believe these blinde guides we shall be always engaged in errour The Sun appears greater at his rising than at Noon-day the Heavens seem to meet with the earth at the Levell of the Horizon and men think a long walk narrower in the extremities thereof than in the middle Wherefore the wisest Philosophers knowing the vanity of the Senses have confest the like of Sciences and being pressed by Truth it selfe have been forc't to acknowledge that that there was nothing certain in them but their uncertainty nor any thing evident but their obscurity The modestest among them have boasted to know nothing but that they knew nothing and to have learnt by their study that mans greatest knowledge was but a Depth of ignorance The uncertainty thereof is accompanied with uselessenesse and let her promise what she pleaseth she teacheth us things which are rather curious than profitable Science is not vain onely because she is proud but because she is given to lying for she makes those that court her hope for miracles and to hear her servants or her slaves speak you would think that were a remedy for all evils and a means to come by all vertues but if we will examine all the miseries of men we shall not finde any one that may be lessened by knowledge Sin hath reduced them to a condition wherein both good and bad are equally dangerous to them some apprehend death which threatens them some complain of poverty wherewith they are afflicted some are slaves to their riches and wonders that plenty should bereave them of liberty this man dreads ill fortune that man is glutted with good some are persecuted on earth some punisht from heaven All these stand in need of help in their differing conditions and are in danger of shipwrack unlesse they be assisted by a favourable and gracious hand Knowledge boasted that she would succour them and men abused by her promises sided with her under this confidence but after they had listned to her instructions they found she abounded more in light then in heat and more in vanity then in power To say truth she busieth her selfe in enlightning the understanding not being able to heat the will and in stead of instructing things usefull she is content to vent curiosities Not being able to accord the Elements within our bodies nor yet the passions in our soules she busieth her selfe in sorting voices and in forming an agreeable harmony out of differing Tones not being able to withstand vices nor irregular inclinations she undertakes to fight against wilde-beasts or enemies to get the victory where the danger exceeds the honour and to bear away Triumph where injustice and fortune have a greater share then courage or wisdome When she saw she could not observe the wonders of nature she appli'd her selfe to consider the Debauchments and passing by her goodliest operations either in silence or oblivion she entertained men with her disorders onely or with her diversions For all Sciences which are now in request and wherein great men do glory teach nothing but ridiculous things and fill their disciples mindes with naught but smoak winde Were it not better that Astrology should teach us the way to heaven than uselesly to teach us the Number of the Stars the Influence of Planets and Motions of the Sphears Were it not to be wisht that Arithmetick which teacheth to calculate immense summes should teach us to bound our own desires and not to set by riches were it not to be desired that the Mathematicks in stead of instructing us how to besiege Towns and not to defend them should shew us how to preserve our own liberty and how to keep us from the Tyranny of sin If in fine Sciences were rationall would they not rather endeavour to make men Vertuous than Knowing and if they were not slaves to Curiosity would they not labour more to regulate the will than to satisfie the understanding and yet the chiefest of Philosophers after having in all his writings made the Panegyrick of knowledge after having offer'd Incense to this Idol and after having purchased her as many Adorers as he had Disciples confesseth that she is of no use to
man becomes by discourse the contagion of a whole Town Conceptions are spread abroad by words and faults are multiplied by communication if those who are dumb conceive envie they cannot shew it by detraction and if they expresse it by signes 't is either the hands or eyes which makes them guilty our soule is not infected with falshood or heresie save by our most refined sense these two poisons are taken in by the care not by the mouth And as faith and truth enter the soule by hearing their mortall enemies make their passage by the same way a man must stop his eares and shut his eyes if he will keep his heart pure It were to be wisht that men were blinde that so they might not see the beauty which inchants them that women were deafe that they might not hear the praises which seduce them In fine the world abuseth us onely by our senses it 's pernicious Maximes get into our soules by our eares the vanities thereof corrupt our wills by our eyes and all those objects whose different beauties do be witch us make no impression in our soule but by our body We should be invulnerable were we spirituall and of a thousand temptations which we have we should hardly be troubled with one were we not engaged in Materia To compleat our mis-fortune we love our enemy the bad offices he doth us cannot diminish our love All the Maximes of Religion cannot perswade us to revenge and though this motion of the minde be so pleasing to the injured it seems severe unto us when we are invited to punish our body Our passion for this unfaithfull one is not extinguished by death The damned preserves it amidst the flames though they know their pains shall be increased by the resurrection of their body they cannot chuse but desire it In hell hope triumphs over fear and pain and this cruell enemy hath so many charmes as though he be reduced to dust yet doth he cause love in the soule which did inanimate him The remembrance of the injuries which the soule hath received from the body and the fear of pain which she expects from thence is not able to stifle this desire She hopes for the day of Judgement where she must be condemned though she know her punishment will be increased by her re-union with her body she cannot but desire it with impatience and places the delay thereof in the number of her sufferings So as we are bound to conclude that if the body be the cause of sin during life it will be the punishment thereof after death and that if it hath made the soule guilty upon earth 't will make her unhappy in hell The third Discourse Of the Infidelity of the Senses NAture being so intermingled with sin as that the one is the production of God the other the work of man the praises which we give to the former are always mingled with Invectives made against the latter and we cannot value the beauty of nature unlesse we blame the out-rages which she hath received from sin the figure of mans body is an evident signe of his Makers wisdome The Lineaments of his face bindes us to admire the power of the hand which hath formed them and the disposall of the parts thereof draw no lesse praises from our mouthes than the like of the universe But the disorder which we see in mans Temperature the opposition of those Elements which go to his composure and that generall revolt which hath shed it self throughout all his members obligeth us to detest sin which is the cause thereof We must argue in the same sort concerning our senses and confesse that as their use deserves estimation their irregularity deserves blame They are admirable in their structure and were they not common to us with beasts we might be permitted to glory in them The operation of the noblest of them is so subtill as that the soule as divine as she is can hardly comprehend it she admireth these Master-pieces of nature though she have so great a share in their miracles yet knows she not how they are done and thinks strange that she should contribute to wonders which she cannot conceive For the soule inanimates the senses and this spirituall forme is a created Divinity which sees by the eyes heares by the eares and expresseth it selfe by the mouth But if the senses have their perfections they have also their defects and if the soule receive any service by them she is by them likewise much injured They are the gates of falshood and errour vanity slides into our soules by their means they are exposed to illusions the objects wherewith they are pleased corrupt them and being once corrupted by delight they make no true reports unto the soule Nature hath endowed us with them that we might know God by things visible and to raise us up to consider the beauty of the Creatour by the like of his works these deceitfull Guides do notwithstanding abuse us and sollicited either by delight or interest make Idols unto themselves of all the creatures and lead us to adore sensible and perishable Gods Saint Augustine confesseth that he never went astray in his beliefe save when he would follow them and that he never engaged himselfe in errour save when he gave beliefe to their advise he sought out God with his eyes he would have touched him with his hands and thought to have found him in the world whom he carried about with him in his heart He gave commission to all his senses to finde him out but these ignorant messengers could learn him nothing and he found not his God because he knew not how rightly to seek for him Their ignorance would be excusable were it not accompanied with injustice but these evill Counsellours grow insolent in chiding us after they have abused us and make violence succeed superchery they tyrannize over our souls after having seduced them and make the Sovereign take laws from his slaves According to the Government of the Universe Inferiour things are alwas subject to their superiour as the earth is lesse noble than the Heavens it is also lower it receives their influences thereof with respect and all the fruit it beareth raise themselves up towards the stars to witnesse that it's fruitfulnesse derives from their Influences In Civill Government women are subject unto their husbands and slaves obey their Masters in Politique the people hold of their Sovereign and the Kings will is the Subjects laws but in man this order is reverst by an irregularity which can be nothing but the punishment of sin his soule depends upon his body and in her noblest operations she is obliged to be advised by the senses Her condition is so unhappy as she seems almost enforced to believe the ignorant to follow the blinde and to obey Rebels A man would blame a State where fools should command over wise men where children should prescribe laws to the Ancient
unfortunate and perishable one If this discourse be thought to be too finely spun yet can it not be denied that mans life is shortened since his offence and if a strong man hath made a shift to tumble in the world a hundred years he is a wonder to those that see him History records his name with respect posterity admires him and if he passe not for a miracle he doth at least for a prodigie Every gift of life is so short as we may easily judge we have divided it onely to deceive our selves Our infancy endures but seven years when our tongue gets its liberty and our understanding is formed we enter into our Bovish age which is of no longer continuance it findes its death in our adolescence and as soon as down appears upon a mans face he changeth qualitie This age which is esteemed the pleasantest of mans life and which I think the most dangerous lasts no longer than doth his Boyish-age it ends when youth begins which lasts somewhat longer than the other parts of life which did precede it it begins at Thirty years of age and ends not till sixty old age serves it for a Sepulcher and when the head is covered with snow t is time to prepare for death For this age is shortest of all the rest if it have any hope t is ill grounded and the sicknesses wherewith it is assailed are so many summons to the grave If man arrive at that extremity of the age we tearm decrepit he languisheth in pain he calls in death to his aide and the sorrows he suffers makes him think life tedious But for all this the longest life is but composd of moments which multiplied by dayes and monthes produce some years we divide it to make it seem the longer and perswade our selves that by giving it severall names we adde somewhat to the durance thereof We imitate the vanity of Princes who divide the earth to aggrandise it and part it into provinces to satisfie their ambition Mathematitians teach us that the earth compared to the heavens is but a point they ground their operation upon this maxime and that art which teacheth us to measure hours by the Sun-diall draws her certainty from this truth Yet Princes divide this point into kingdoms they thinke to extend the whole by multiplying the parts thereof and that they do inlarge the world by dividing it into Provinces but let their ambition do its utmost let it make fights by Sea and land let it cover the one with Houses the other with Ships they dispute but for a point a pâ—nctum and this place which they have chosen for the Theatre of their vain glory and the Subject of their differences is but an indivisible atome The bounders which we prescribe to kingdoms are as well the proofs of our weaknesse as of our pride The Alpes and Pyrenean mountains which part France from Italy and Spain are lines which nature hath drawn upon the earth to divide it not to aggrandise or inlarge it the Seas which seem to us vast and the Rivers which we think so deep are lesse considerable in the world then the veines are in the bodie and whatsoever it be that feeds the vain glory of Conquerours it is not so great as the least of those Stars which appear to us to be so little If pismires had as much understanding as men they would give as specious nâ—mes to their little caverns since they have a shadow of policie they would divide their States into provinces and by an Ambition equall to ours they would frame a little world of a foot of earth what Monarchs make of the world men make the like of life they distinguish the ages thereof to flatter themselves they thinke to keep off death by extending life and that they have a great way to go when they have yet to passe through their adolescence and their old age They consider not that the longest life is equall to the shortest if it be compared to eternity and that the condition of children is no better then that of old men if it be compared with the worlds lasting The time we live is almost nothing and Nature hath left us but a moment to merit eternity we can adde nothing thereunto by all our cunning but as if we were more ingenious to work our selves evil then good we have a thousand ways to shorten it and the longest life becomes short through the bad use we make thereof We are prodigall of time and greedy of good We think we give nothing to our friends when we give them whole daies and we consider not that we advance death by consuming our time We heap up riches and scatter abroad years we are streight handed in things the profession whereof is praise worthy and prodigall of those whereof the avarice is laudable The time which we have lived for our selves makes the least part of our life and when we shall have atteined to sixty years of age t is found that we have lost more then the half of it If we will cut off what time we have allowed to company keeping what we have employed in visits what consumed in pastimes and what employed in other mens affairs we shall finde the number of our years to be much fewer then we account them to be Nature All whose examples are instructions teacheth us to husband our time well she is rather prodigall then liberall of her favours she hath sewed the stars confusedly in the firmament and though they be the most beautifull parts of the Universe she would not have them to own their worth for their raritie Rivers flow profusively their spring heads are not dried up and though they water never so much ground they grow not dry The earth is alwayes fertile there is no part of it which produceth not somewhat and if you will except rocks which seems to be the bones of this great body her muscles and her veines abound in milk which nourisheth her children But this mother which is so liberall in her productions is covetous of time she gives it us by measure to make us value it the more she spins it out drop by drop the parts thereof succeede one another and continue not together she never gives us one moment but she takes another from us she takes from us what is past when she gives what is present and she threatens to take the present time from us when she promiseth us the future Of all the liberalities which she hath used since the beginning of the world she was never profuse of time and this her avarice teacheth us that time is the most pretious of all her gifts Let us learn of so wise a Mistresse to Husband our years let us by our wisdom prolong our life and let us not part with so much time for our sports and our affairs but that we reserve the greatest part thereof for our well-fare Thus shall we
he guards their precious relicks in the bosome of the earth the waters cannot corrupt them nor the flames devour them being innocent he will not deal with them as guilty death spares their body after having separated it from their soul they seem to rest in their graves to repose themselves after their labour and to expect with joy that dreadfull day which all the guilty do apprehend Death then is the punishment of our sin it is the workmanship thereof we have procured it unto our selves by our disobedience God hath ordeined it by his justice and Jesus Christ who draws good out of our evil hath made a sacrifice of it for our salvation The ninth Discourse What advantages we may draw from death by the means of Grace THough death be the first production of sin and that the malice and deformed lothsomnesse of the Father appear in Sons visage some Philosophers have gone about to make apologies for death and after having made use of their reason in the defence thereof they have imployed their cunning in praising it Being ignorant of the first mans fault they would have death to be a law and not a punishment they have excused his rigour by his necessity and have gone about to perswade us that he was pleasing because necessary All things in nature perish this mother hath brought forth nothing which she hath not sentenced to die nothing is immortall and few things durable fountains grow dry and their spring-heads are either lost orstrayed out of the channel the mountaines give way to the violence of floods the sea advances and wins upon the earth whole isles have sunke into the earth we see lakes now where our Ancestours have seen Towns and husbandmen plough up fields where Pilots have steerd their ships The Change which preserves Nature is a kinde of death nature subsists onely by alteration were it not for change she would utterly perish kingdomes which apprehend nothing like vicissitude cannot shun it as oft as they lose their Princes they hazard the losse of their liberty they grow jealous of all their neighbours and ambition is so perfidious as their allyes may become their enemies all those great Colossuses which past for miracles in their age their subsistance depends now only upon paper Time hath made them know that all the workmanship of man is perishable and that frail hands can build nothing which is eternall In fine the world it self is not exempt from death the deluge wherewith it was drown'd and the fire wherewith it shall be consumed teach us that it may perish the Stars which never are at a stay are threatned one day to lose their influences and their light the same hand which hath seated them in the firmament will one day pull them from thence and though Aristotle imagines the heavens to be incorruptible Jesus Christ assures us that they shall perish together with the world Wherefore then do we complain of death since he spares not the Stars and wherefore do we wish that our houses may never have an end since the world cannot escape the fall which threatens it Death is not so cruell as men imagine the fear which we have thereof is rather an effect of opinion then of Nature if we were lesse wise we should be more couragious we augment our evil by thinking too oft of it the weapons wherewith we indeavour to withstand this enemy serve only to make him the more redoubted a Philosopher apprehends him more then doth an ignorant person and all the constancie of the stoicks cannot equall the stupidity of a country clown These silly people are easily comforted they look after no priviledges which their Ancestours have not enjoyed they prepare for death when they see their friends die and having no plots which may fasten them to the world they are not troubled to be interrupted therein by their death All men seem to conspire to be cause of astonishment to themselves and that it fares with them as in the route of an Army where those that ran away cause fear in those that fight Every particular man frames unto himself an Idea of death and he who can make it appear the most hideous passeth for the ablest man Sciences which ought to incourage us do intimidate us and there is not any one who doth not adde somwhat to the image of this Monster to increase his uglinesse and our apprehension Painters represent him as a ghastly skeleton bearing a coffin upon his shoulders and a sithe in his hands to mow down the whole earth Poets whose fictions are more pleasing then those of painters do give him arrowes each of which being shot doth wound a heart physicians decipher him as the enemy of nature and to no end seek for remedies against his wounds Philosophers who boast that they know him that they may withstand him do astonish their disciples by the number of their reasons and perswade them that the Monster which they assail is very terrible since so many preparations are required to overcome him Yet experience teacheth us that he takes upon himselfe pleasing formes to reclaim us that he glides so pleasingly into the heart as those whom he wounds feele him not he set upon Plato sleeping and it was hard to discern sleep from death in this Philosopher one of the Crassuses died laughing and the Romans ceased to fear death seeing it so amiable upon his face Chilon was choked with joy his sons victory was as fatall to him as to the enemies of the State and whil'st men sought for Laurell to crown the Conquerour others sought for Capres to put upon his fathers head Clydemus died not lesse pleasingly since the praises which Greece gave him were the cause of his death and that he lost his life amidst his Triumph He also since the corruption of our nature makes up a part of our selves He is as well an effect of our temper as of a fever and as the agreement of the Elements makes us live their disagreement makes us die We carry the principles of death about us and from once that originall righteousnesse ceased to appease the differences between those parts whereof we are composed we began to die It is not necessary that the world disorder it selfe to bereave us of our lives though the seasons should not be put out of their pace we should not cease to perish And if death be to be feared we must resolve to fear life There are some people who apprehend any thing that happens of disorder in the world and who grow pale as often as they see rivers over-flow their banks as often as they hear thunder or see earth-quakes They think that every clap of thunder comes in pursuit of them and that the sea exceeds not her bounds but to drown them on the earth but the causes of our death are much lesse violent and more naturall For the earth should still stand stable under our feet though the
made the widowes of Carthage weep and the same successe which made them be reverenced made them be hated by their enemies Thus triumph is onely founded upon faults combates are not made without weapons nor are victories wonne without murther This notwithstanding is the glory of Princes and the mightinesse of Conquerours he who hath fought amongst Battails is most valiant he who hath plundered most Townes is most happy and he who hath ruin'd most Provinces is the most August this madnesse hath been common among Christian Princes the lawes forbid murther to particular men and ambition doth oft without reason permit Sovereigns to wage war 't is a piece of injustice to end a difference by a duell and 't is an heroick action to engage fifty thousand men in a Battail upon a triviall occasion faults are secure because they are accompanied with an absolute power and they are publickly praised because they are out of the reach of ordinary Justice There remains nothing to adde idolatry to cruelty but to render divine honour to these illustrious guilty ones and to raise up Altars to those who have ruin'd Kingdoms The example of Pagans may well authorize this impiety for they never granted Apotheosis or Canonization but to such as were famous for their faults The first man whom Italy placed in heaven did sprinkle the wals of Rome in it's rise with his brothers bloud And the first Prince to whom this Republique changed into a Kingdome did erect Altars had oppressed the liberty thereof since Augustus his death Apotheosis or Canonization was the recompence of mutther and incest to become God he must cease to be man and must forego all humane relations to acquire divine honour The Consul placed men in heaven whom they would have driven out of the Senate had they not lived under their Tyranny they appointed Priests to such as deserved Hangmen and Rome was so accustomed to flatter as she numbred those amongst her Gods which she had numbred amongst her Tyrants But grant that honour were justly distributed 't is notwithstanding so frail a good as men would never so passionately seek after it had not sin corrupted his nature and troubled his judgment For to boot that it is not within us and that it is impossible to be happy in a thing which we possesse not it depends upon the opinion of the vulgar who meddle as well in weighing the merit of men as the States-men doe This bad Judge is guided more by humour then by reason his Intetest is the rule of his Judgment and these base persons esteem nothing honourable but what is advantagious to them they change with every wind and as their minds are agitated with hatred love anger or pitty they praise and blame the same thing Thus Conquerors are bound to acknowledge that their reputation depends more upon fortune than victory and that to be glorious it is not sufficient for them to have overcome their enemies unlesse by a continuance of good fortune they win their subjects love I know 't is said that glory is never pure till after death that Kings must lose their lives to purchase esteem and that the Palmes and Lawrels of renowu serve onely to crown their sepulchres but I think there are few Conquerors that would purchase glory at so deer a rate and who would wish to die that they might receive a recompence which is not tasted but in life what are they the better for praises given them in Historie what redounds to them from a vain reputation which cannot get admittance into the other world and how are they advantaged either in heaven or in Hell by their sepulchres adornments Nothing is more famous in antiquity then Caesar he is almost as well known throughout the world as Jesus Christ. All Historians speak of him with Encomiums all Conquerors endevour to imitate him an action is not Glorious save when it doth conform with his Children are rather instructed in his life then in those of the Apostles or Martyrs and they know better what he hath done in Italy then what the Sonne of God did in Palestine his voyages are more admired than Saint Pauls and his Commentaries are read with more contentment then the Epistles of the great Apostle but what advantage reaps he by our praises in hell do's his renown lessen his torments is he lesse unfortunate for being more honoured or is he lesse tormented for being better known hath he any preferment in hell where all things are in confusion and disorder that ambitious humour which could neither suffer a superiour nor yet an equall is it satisfied with our Panegyricks and a soul which suffers so much punishment can it find any contentment in those praises ought we not rather to conclude that his shadow is praised and his person tormented that he is sensible of his pains but not of our praises and that he is well esteemed on on earth and tortered in hell Is not Alexander ill rewarded for all his labours and this lover of glory doth not he repent that he so long served this faithlesse Mistris he over-run the whole world he was troubled that his Conquests should find a stop where the Sun stayes his course he would have gone further then that glorious constellation and have carried his arms where the Sun did not carry his light he hath plaid the part both of a private souldier and of a Commander upon a thousand incounters and hath hazarded his Estate his Army and his Person a hundred times to win a little reputation yet what of all this remains to him in the grave doth his glory allay his sufferings do's the title of great take from him the name of unhappy do the Ghosts of his souldiers or of his enemies tremble at his presence and he who held all the earth in awe and silence is he any wayes delighted with his reputation or our astonishment his pomp was effaced by his death he ceased to be Alexander when he ceased to be man his body is reduced to dust his soul burns in hell and his name which is but a Fantasme receives the vain praises which are given it Let us conclude then that a man must be a fool to imagine that honour is the recompence of vertue and that man never sought after these imaginary contentments till after he had lost those which were solid and reall Mans honour consists in his duty of all the testimonies which he receives there are none but those of his conscience which can satisfie him knowing that vertue depends upon Grace he gives the glory to him who hath indued him with the strength he confesseth that God crowns his own gifts when he crowns our merits Vainglory was permitted to the Pagans who defied honour but she is forbidden Christians who hold ambition a crime she was permitted unto Pagans whose immortality consisted in renown but she is forbidden Christians whose felicity consists in beholding God In
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
losse of our welfare self-loue hath made avarice arise which justling Gods designs undertakes to make man richer in his state of sin then ever he was in that of innocency and divine love which takes pleasure in saving of a sinner by losing him raiseth poverty from thence depriving her self even of those things which her judge would not take from his enemies that she may appease him For it is true that this vertue takes it's originall from onr punishment 't is a remedy which we have got by our evil and 't is a correction which we endure to allay Gods anger Whilest man was innocent he was rich the sun by his heat made the earth fruitfull he cherished it without scorching and his influences were so well tempered as trees were always covered with fruit leaves and flowers the fields were fertile without labour every country bore every thing and without crossing the seas that was found in any one part of the world which all the rest produced Beasts which afforded nourishment for men yeilded milk in aboundance running waters were never dried up and provision was uselesse where there was perpetuall plenty Bees wrought without wearing themselves they made their hives at all times and the earth being continually covered with flowers there was no season wherein they did not make honey and wax Man being clothed with innocency he stript not beasts of their skins to cloth himself the art of spinning was not as then found out or if it were known to worms man did not molest their labours he admired the industry of their workmanship the magnificency of their Tombs and leaving them to reassume life where they had left it he delighted to see them after having been dead arise again The elements not having as yet vowed his undoing he was not bound to guard himself from their injuries the seasons were so regular as he neither feared heat nor cold trees were his shelter from them both and those which afforded him shade in the day-time served him for covering in the night If gold were already ript out of the bowels of the earth it was rankt amongst such things as are esteemed of more for their beauty then profit Man thought himself rich enough without that metall having all things at his command he needed not to buy them and art not being as yet come into the succour of Nature he contented himself with looking upon what he could not make use of In this happy condition most desires were uselesse and all those wishes which are occasioned by indigency not having as yet a mother could not disquiet man He was rich for he wanted nothing Nature supplied all his needs whil'st he slept void of care the starrs which glittered above his head did by their influences make the earth fruitfull and the Rivers running amidst the fields did by their waters bring plenty every where But when man became faulty he became poor hee lost all his wealth in losing the Summum Bonum and that selfe same moment which robb'd him of his innocency threw him headlong into poverty The earth grew barren under his feet her fruitfulnesse brought forth nothing but thornes her bowels must be ript open ere she yeilded fruit and she must be threatned with iron in her bosome to make her nourish us Trees shook off their leaves when winter had disrobed them men thought that nature was drawing toward her end and that the earth ceasing to be his Palace grew to be his Sepulchre shame shewing him that he was naked made him make himselfe clothes of leaves and cold which made him sensible of his sinfulnesse forced him to apparell himselfe with skins From that time forwards necessity made him ingenious he built Cabins to fence himselfe from the heat he sowed corn to avoid famine finding that the earth was not fruitfull save by his labour he lockt up what he had gathered thence and to shun poverty fell upon avarice But he found by experience that the remedy was worse than the disease and that if poor men wanted many things the covetous wanted all things Grace which doth not abandon even the sinfull taught him how to use this his punishment and to turn hie poverty into an illustrious vertue He began to condemne perishable things and to wish for things eternall he endeavoured to forgo earth that he might raise himselfe up to heaven he had such happy successe in his designes as he found plenty in poverty and confest that that vertue had been more advantagious to him then innocency To say truth this pain was glorious when it became voluntary and from once that man began to suffer indigency with humility he found that God was his Father Heaven his inheritance Jesus Christ his Redeemer and that the holiest blessings were his recompences For God takes the poor into his protection he who draws his rarest qualities from his noblest works and who makes himselfe be called the God of heaven and earth would be called the Father of the poor a man cannot set upon them without hurting him their interests are joyned to his glory and whosoever makes war upon them doth infallibly provoke his anger He hath done a hundred miracles in their behalfe and when Kings would obtain any favour from his goodnesse they have assumed the quality of poor men to render themselves more considerable with him David fore-went the quality of a King to assume the name of needy and his poverty is the best reason which he alledges to obtain what he demands of God The Son of God values not this vertue lesse then doth his Father he hallowed it in his own person when he would become man he preferr'd the condition of the poor before that of the rich and he who was born in a manger would live without a house and die upon the Crosse his disciples were all poor men and of as many people as he chose to preach his Gospell throughout the world there was not any one eminent for riches nor dignity Shepherds had notice of his birth before Kings and the instruction of the poor was as well a proofe of his mission as the healing of the sick or raising of the dead Though his mysticall body be alike composed of rich and poor though mens qualities are not considered though his Church be as well open to the Gentiles as to the Iews and that slaves be admitted into his house as well as are their Master yet the poor hold there the first place and of as many members as go to the composure of that admirable body they are the most precious Kings are the hands thereof Prelates the eyes the people the feet but the poor are the bowels of it they are quartered next his heart when he shall descend from heaven to revenge injuries done unto himselfe and to punish our offences he will begin with them who shall have neglected him in the poor the highest favours on earth are reserved for them
their handcherchiefs in great assemblies 't is uncivill to be vailed at a mask or a play and they are ashamed to appear modest where men use all their art to make them unchast Thus great meetings are nothing but publick prostitutions innocency is there destroyed by bringing nakednesse in fashion and men lend weapons to the Devil to undo the subjects of Jesus Christ. The ninth Discourse That Buildings are the work of Necessity Pleasure or Vainglory THough we do not know all mans advantages in the state of innocency and that that happy condition be not much lamented because 't is not much known yet we very well know it was exempt from pain as well as from sin and that man saw nothing neither in his person nor in his state which caused either pain or shame in him The body was subject to the soul and the senses which so often break loose that they may fix themselves to objects without reasons permission did nothing but by her order and this Sovereign was so absolute as her subjects had no other inclinations but what were hers The world was as much at quiet as man was and the elements w th by their contesting molest him held so good intelligence as the one never intrencht upon the rights of the other men neither feared the overflowings of rivers earthquakes nor fires the earth was a temple and a palace Religion did so well agree with nature as the same place served man to do his homage to God in and to disport himself in he saw his Creator in every Creature they were images which painted forth unto him the perfection of him that made them when he beheld them for his pastime his pleasure was not to be parted from his piety and contenting his curiosity he satisfied his duty This Temple was also his palace he could wish for nothing neither for pastime nor yet for profit which was not in this stately habitation The heavens served him for a canopie and the irregularity of the seasons had not yet obliged him to deprive himself by buildings of the sight of the most beautifull part of the world the Sun was his torch and when this glorious constellation withdrew himself to give light to the other half of the earth the stars stepping into his place afforded light enough not to leave men in darknesse grasse mingled with flowers served him for his bed Trees lent him their shade and holes which nature had hollowed in rocks served him for Chambers and Closets Gates were needlesse when there was no fear of theeves and windows would have been uselesse when people apprehended neither winde nor rain Nature had so well provided for all things as arts were superfluous and her workmanship was so exact as mans industry could adde nothing thereunto all the fields were gardens all Forrests Parks all dens Palaces and though the floud hath changed the face of the world it's out-rages could not efface the beauty thereof There be Forrests yet thick enough to shelter us Champions of extent enough to weary our eyes Vallies delightfull enough for diversion to them and Cavernes rich enough to satisfie them the pillars which sustain these forrests are the models of our Columnes the brooks which water these Champions have furnisht us with the invention of water-pipes the concavity of Trees hung in the aire hath taught our Architechts to vault buildings their proportions have caused Symmetry and the Caverns in mountains are the originall of our houses 'T is true that where sin had corrupted man and disordered nature we were forced to raise buildings to save our selves from the injury of weather and not being secure in a condition where we saw so many subjects revolted we were necessitated to build Citadels to keep us from being surprized by them But necessiy not being so ingenious as self-love she was contented with providing remedies for the most pressing evils and did not seek so much for accommodation as for preservation The first houses were but one story high the earth afforded the materials and Thatch was the covering man finding nothing delightfull in so sad an abode wisht for an earthly Paradise and never thought of his former condition without being sorry for his disobedience which had banished him from thence he never betook himselfe to this prison but either when the nights obscurity or the weather made him seek for Covert he looked upon it as upon his grave and living in so unpleasing an abode he did by degrees prepare himselfe for death but when self-love grew weary of suffering the punishment of it's sin and when justling divine Justice it would finde out a Paradise in this world it inuented Architecture and taught man how to change his prison into a Palace under the conduct of so good a Master he raised stately Palaces he sought for stone in the bowels of the earth he polisht them with tools he ranked them with Symmetry and placing one of them on the top of another he made his exile glorious and his prison pleasing Those who will excuse this disorder say that 't is a work worthy the wisdom of man that he is not forbidden to defend himselfe from natures out-rages that it is to imitate God and that every building is an image of the world and an Epitome of the Universe that time is requisite to bring things to perfection that the first men were not lesse vain but lesse industrious that if Adam had been a good Architectour he would not have left his children so long in Dens and Cabins that houses were the beginning of Towns that men were never civilized till they lived within the circuit of wals and that whil'st they lay in Forrests their lives were rather bestiall then rationall But let vanity make what excuses she pleaseth it is not to be denied but that buildings as well as apparell do prove our guilt and that the excesse and pomp which are used therein are marks of our ambition for houses are built either out of Necessity Pleasure or Vain-glory and men seek for nothing therein but the preservation of their life the satisfaction of their senses or the honour of their name Our first fathers built only to shun the persecution of the Elements they were contented with a house which saved them from storms and provided that it would afford them shade against the Sun and covering against the cold they were well apayed Architecture was not yet become an art every man was his own Architect after having cut out his clothes he made himselfe a house and seeking only how to fence himselfe against the incommodities of life he sought for neither delight nor vain-glory in buildings two Trees joyned together did oft-times make a house the entrance into a rock would with small cost lodge a whole family and the thickets which now serve for a retreat for wilde beasts served to lodge men in Nature was indulgent to these innocent malefactours seeing they bare
respect to Gods Justice which did punish them she allai'd the rigour of the Elements and regulated the Seasons disorders Though these first men were lesse guilty than we and that their buildings were the meer workmanships of necessitie yet they did acknowledge Adams rebellion as oft as they withstood themselves into those Sanctuaries of dirt and mire they were bound to believe that during the state of innocency the world was not an Enemies Countrey that the creatures did not make war against them till their Father had rebelled against God When they had lost the remembrance of the earthly Paradise and their sorrow for the losse thereof they endeavoured to content themselves in their exile to please themselves in their structures they inclosed whole Champians within their Parks they changed rivers into Water-works and Forrests which served for coverts to wilde beasts into Groves for the better ornament of their houses that which did suffice to lodge a whole Generation was too little to lodge a single Family one man possessed more land then a Nation and that which formerly made up a little Kingdom was now the Farm for one particular man they made Nature serve their pleasures they corrupted her who gloried to follow Gods orders did fit her inclinations to their designs they saw no rivers on the banks whereof they raised not up houses of delight wheresoever the earth threw out warm water they there made bathes where the Sea advanced it to the Land they there made fish-ponds and prescribing bounds to this Element which receives Laws only from God they forced the fiercenesse thereof to be serviceable to their pastimes they built Citadels on the tops of mountains to discover the subjacent Countreys and changing Champians into large pastures they made their neighbours inheritances serve their delights But mans luxury growing weary of things when they became common and despising what it possesseth after having gotten from nature all that they could hope for they disordered her course to finde contentment in her disorder they turned the course of rivers to inclose their Palaces withall they raised up vallies and levelled mountains that they might exercise their tyranny every where they found the invention of Arches to build in the aire and of Aqueducts to bring water into Towns they planted forrests on the top of their houses and bringing themselves to mans first condition they lodged under trees and woods they built in barren places that they might please themselves in overcoming nature they peopled Desarts to drive Lions thence and to take pleasure in pain which seems to be her Enemy they built houses in the midst of solitary places But certainly they were forced to confesse that they were inconsiderate in building so great Palaces for a man who during his life and after death takes up but seven foot of earth they grew weary of so great buildings they lost themselves in these Labyrinthes and knowing that they could fill but one chamber they acknowledged it was unjustly done to build so prodigious a number of rooms they learn't by experience that what they could not possesse belonged not to them and that to build in so many places was to make lodgings for Owles and to prepare habitations for Horn-Coots Vain glory reaped no advantage by the faults pleasure committed but looking upon the works thereof onely as upon beginnings she undertook whatsoever seemed to be impossible and her raising of Colossuses and Pyramides was onely to purchase fame she thought that of all mans works there was none more withstood the injuries of time then those huge heaps of stone and rocks she esteemed victories odious battles bloudy and thought that Triumphs required Historians and Poets to make them be known she knew that Children were not immortall that kingdomes had their periods as well as families and that the vertues of Princes were aswell buried in oblivion as their vices she was perswaded nothing was of so long continuance as buildings that the vast greatnesse thereof rendered their authors memorable to posterity and that the works of so many hands and so many years could not perish but together with the world Upon this foolish belief Kings caused Colossuses to be built of so prodigious a height that ships passed between their legs with their Masts up and Sails displayed they built Pyramides the foundations whereof descended even unto hell and their tops were lost in the clouds they tired their subjects to content their ambition they threw all the revenues of their kingdomes into the bowels of the earth to purchase reputation they engraved their names in brasse they hung their arms round about the wals of towns and because marble is more solid then paper they thought that that these monuments of vain glory would last longer then the writings of Orators or Philosophers This passion is as ancient as the deluge those that descended from Noah were the first that attempted it they would leave marks of their might to posterity before they would divide themselves to people the world they undertooke a piece of work worthy their vain glory and not knowing the distance between heaven and earth they resolved to erect a tower which should unite them both together they thought certeinly heaven might have been taken by Scalado and that without taking the pains to win it by their vertue they might take it in by storming No lesse then a miracle could disswade them from so rash a design they laid the foundation of this building so deep in the earth as they hoped to reach to heaven after having come so neer hell their work advanced insensibly they had already outgone the highest mountains they saw storms formed under their feet they wondered that drawing neerer to the Sun the cold grew the greater they could not comprehend how getting so far from the earth their approach towards heaven should be so very small they lost the sight of men the greatest trees seemed but as Pismires to them and all objects appearing to them but as Atomes they wonder that the stars seemed no greater The desire of glory made them overcome all difficulties their courage was inflamed by their passion for purchasing esteem and the death of their companions that fell into precipices could not asswage their ambition Heaven did compassionate their pain to stop the course of so unprofitable a labour it put confusion into their mouths and to divide their underwanding divided their language every wondered that he had forgot his native tongue and learnt another in an instant the brother could not believe that his brother could not understand him the father thought it strange that his son could not conceive what he meant and wives were much astonished to see their husbands change their language not having changed their countrey So strange an accident put an end to so great a work and parted those by force who out of vain glory had undertaken it the people that understood one another retired into the
our senses and to content our minds The curious discover therein every day new beauties to satisfie themselves 't is a book which never wearies those that read it Every creature is a character which represents some one of it's Authors perfections and Infidels instructed in this school have framed unto themselves noble Ideas of the divine Essence In effect the spaciousnesse of the Heavens which serves for bounds to nature and which inclose all the works thereof in their extent do point out unto us Gods immensity who comprehends whatsoever he produceth and incloseth within his essence whatsoever he by his power doth draw from thence The earths solidity which serves for center to all the world and which grounded upon it's own weight cannot be shaken by storms nor winds is an Embleme of Gods stability who causeth all the alterations in the world without any change in himself and who by an unalterable act of his will rules all the adventures of our life The Suns light is a shadow of his and the prodigious activity of this glorious constellation which produceth metals in the bowels of the earth flowers and fruits in the fields clouds and meteors in the air and which by it's influences doth rule over all the productions of nature is the picture of that infinite power which shed abroad in all his creatures doth act with them and accommodate it self to their inclinations The incensed sea big with storms the waves whereof rise up unto the heavens and descend unto the depths her fury which threatens ships with wracking and the neighbouring fields with deluge is a fearfull draught of Gods anger who prepares torments for sinners and makes himself be dreaded by rebels who would not love his goodnesse In fine every creature is a looking-glasse wherein a man see the Lineaments of his Creator and where with but a grain of grace all rationall men may become faithfull So prodigious is the mightinesse of this work as 6000 years have not been sufficient to discover it avarice nor ambition have not been able to finde out the ends thereof there are yet whole Countries whether by reason of the extreamity of cold and the Seas vast extent no man ever yet came There are unknown desarts which mans curiosity hath not been able to penetrate and the Sun enlightens some part of the earth whereon no Conquerour ever yet set his foot Those who have gone round the world have not discovered it's profundity and though they be vainly perswaded that there is nothing so great which their understanding cannot comprehend yet are they bound to confesse that there be havens whereinto they never put and savage people whose language nor manners they understand not There is none but God alone who knows the greatnesse of his work every age discovers unto us our ignorance And though the earth be but a point yet doth it consist of so many parts as we may with reason doubt if what we know not thereof do not exceed for bulk and beauty it 's known parts That new world which our fore-fathers knew not is richer and of larger extent then ours It is so ravishing as it makes whole Nations quit their own Countries to conquer it the wealth thereof gives the law to all Europe the latter Kings of Spain have made more conquests with the gold thereof then all their Predâ—ssours have fought battels with the iron of their Mines Their overcoming of this part of the world hath made them overcome the rest their victories depend only upon it And did not the Indians dig up the entrails of Perve the Spaniards would not trouble the Peace of Europe 'T is true that these Provinces are so far distant from the Center of their State and the Sea which brings them the wealth thereof is so treacherous as they run hazard of being undone as oft as the Indian Fleet is in danger of shipwrack And Polititians are of opinion that so great a body the parts whereof are divided by so many seas can be of no long durance it only appertains to God to govern in a State the Provinces whereof though never so far distant are yet always united to their Sovereign and which though scituated in different Climates are still enlightened by the same Sun The beautifulnesse of this Kingdom is answerable to it's greatnesse nothing is therein to be seen which hurts the senses all the pieces whereof it is composed are pleasing their difference makes a part of it's beauty and the wit of man which is naturally criticall can finde nothing in this work to be found fault with Every part is so well placed as they are not to be altered without some disorder The Elements are lodged according to their deserts the earth as the heaviest makes the lowest story the fire as the lightest is nearest heaven the aire and water whose qualities have some resemblance are seated above the earth and beneath the fire The noblest of these Elements is the most barren it is so active as it will not permit any creatures to live in it The Salamander doth for a while resist it's heat and till his moisture which doth preserve him be dried up he delights in the fire but if he tarry long there his pleasure turns to pain and he there findes his death The aire whose purity comes nearest that of the fire is the abode of birds they cut this liquid Element with their wings they make new paths in those spacious Champians they therein breath with freedom and till man found out the art to kill them with his arrows they laughed at his Empire Their wings are oares which guide through this sea their taile is their rudder and when the storm is so great as they fear being born away by the fury thereof they take up stones in their feet and defend themselves against the Tempest Though they live at liberty they acknowledge a King which title the eagle hath won be it whether for that she flies highest or for that he can look fixedly on the Sun or for that he defends his subjects from birds of prey which appear to be the Tyrants of this part of the world The Sea abounds more in fishes then the aire doth in birds Their number is as prodigious as their shapes the species is there by miracle preserved and Naturalists who boast to know all things know not in what part of the fish her fecundity doth lie The Elements which give them their life being almost always in agitation war is there more frequent then peace and the abode of these Monsters is the picture of a State divided by Civill war Right consists there either in force or fraud the greater eat up the lesse and if the weak ones want nimblenesse to defend themselves they become a prey to the more puissant The Whale which doth for greatnesse equall mountains doth not govern in this Empire this great Colossus wants spirit to inanimate his
Ignores the rarest of all his wonders This great piece of workmanship had nothing but nothing for it's Materia all the different parts whereof it is composed had the same originall and this vacuum in-animated by the word of God brought forth the Heavens with their constellation the earth with all it's fields and the sea with all her rocks Nature which is so powerfull can do nothing of her self her works are rather alterations then productions she turns dew into flowers and rain into wine she multiplyeth all things without a miracle a few grains of corn in her hands prove a whole harvest and a few acorns sown in the earth do by her care become a Forrest but let her do what she can she cannot make any thing out of nothing and he who shall bereave her of the elements takes from her the means of exercising her power Art which boasts to imitate nature can produce nothing of gallant unlesse it have some subject to work upon a painter cannot finish a picture without colours nor can an Ingraver make the visage of an Heroe without brasse or porphiry The most skilfull Architects fall short if they be not assisted by Nature and their stateliest designs would be but uselesse Chimeraes did not the Forrest furnish them with Timber and the Quarries with marble to put them in execution But God makes all things out of nothing and when he operates as a Creator he draws all his works ex nihilo This is so admirable an effect of his power as prophane Philosophy cannot comprehend it And the learnedest of all her disciples chose rather to believe that the world was eternall then that it was made of nothing It is not hard to conceive how flames may arise from water and by what secret veins rivolets are drawn from out the barren bosomes of rocks Philosophy hath light enough to comprehend that all is in all things and that the variety of the parts of the world hinders not their communication But she cannot conceive without the help of faith that the whole world could proceed from nothing and that this nothing obeying the word of God hath produced flowers Constellations mountains and rocks There went but one moment to this great work and if we will believe the wisest of men heaven and earth were created in an instant there went six daies to their disposall and this comly order which we observe in the world was the work of a week but the matter was formed as soon as God had spoken the word and that which we call the creation of the world did last no longer then was requisite for the ordering of it Nature do's wonders which do surprize mens understandings her works deserve to be admired by Philosophers and she sometimes doth miracles which surpasse our belief but this wise work woman is slow in her productions she doth nothing without the aid of Time which is her Counsellor and Officer As she takes time to put on her resolutions so she never executes them without him she requires whole years to ripen fruits and stands in need of all the four seasons to bring them to maturity She requires a whole age to bring a forrest to it's perfection and Philosophers accuse her it being more speedy in her decay than in her increase she is precipitate when she leans towards her ruine there needs but a moment to overthrow her goodliest works but she is slow in forming even most common things and if she undertake to change mould into metall and to give it the Lustre of gold or the hardnesse of Iron she doth not finish this usefull Metamorphosis under many ages after she hath begun it But when God works of himself he doth not assubject himself to the laws of time the same moment which seeth the beginning of his work seeth the end thereof If this way of working were wonderfull it was no lesse easie for all this mighty work cost him but a word he made himself be understood by nihil and this nihil did obey him He spoke saith the Scripture and the ending his word was the beginning of the world this Commandement was followed by the effect thereof and far differing from that of earthly Princes who leave the execution of their commands to their subjects he accomplished all he had ordained We must yet further believe with divinity that this word was but mentall and that onely act of Gods will without other expression perfected all the beauty of the Universe and establisht the world where nothing was Contrary to the laws of Nature which suffers that soon to perish which she is not long in forming this admirable work indures numberlesse ages thousands of years are past since it's creation all kingdomes have changed their countenances and their governments a hundred times whatsoever of most glorious the hand of man hath erected is buried in ruines Cities which gave law to so many people are reduced to dust nothing remains of their greatnesse but a vain remembrance and their glory is so totally effaced as men dispute about the place wherein they were built But the world doth still subsist and seems not to draw neerer it's end for all it 's growing further off from it's beginning All it's principall parts are yet intire and though they be preserved by change yet are they always like themselves The Sun gives as much heat as at his birth Those so many Territories which he hath cherished have not diminished his heat and those who see him rise every day complain not that Time hath weakened his influences the sea nor earth have lost nothing of their former fruitfullnesse and what of Vertue the curse of God did leave in them is not weakened by the succession of so many years 't is true that if we compare the guilty world with the world when it was innocent we shall find a strange difference between them after having admired Gods power we shall be obliged to adore his Justice and confesse that rebellious man did not deserve a world which was onely made for man when obedient The second Discourse That all creatures have lost some of their perfections THere is not any one who doth not complain of the rigour which the creatures use towards man every one is sensible thereof and not any one seeks out the cause those who argue upon the works of nature wonder to find therein so much disorder and knowing that the Government thereof is subordinate to that of Divine Providence they cannot conceive why she should be so irregular some imagin that the world being cōposed of so differing parts can have no peace which is not interrupted by war that the quarrelling of the elements is necessary that their qualities cannot be so well tempered but that they must be always in opposition That the power of God cannot end their differences without destroying their inclinations and that a body which is composed of fire and water must of
as good as fair Shee to whom nature had not been so liberall of her favours learnt by this true friend that she was to amend the faults of her face by the perfections of her soul and that she ought to strive for the advantages of men since she wanted those of women A young Prince who observed in this true glasse that he was in the Flower of his age found himself obliged to undertake such glorious actions as render men famous an old man who saw his wrinkles and gray haires in this chrystall resolved to do nothing unworthy of his condition and seeing by his colour that he had not long to live prepared to die with courage Thus was the use of looking glasses a serious study men learnt vertue by beholding themselves and every one seeing his conscience in his face put on a generous resolution to acquit himselfe of his duty but incontinency hath prophaned this innocent art in this corrupted age if men see their faces in a glasse 't is that they may endeavour to surprize chastity and women look therein only to entertain their vanities Ambition gives not place to impurity and if the latter be ingenious in corrupting the purest things the other knows how to assubject the most noble In effect she teacheth Lions obedience she fastens them to the Chariots of Triumphers and having tamed men she tames wilde beasts She engages Elephants in a fight she encourageth these huge Lumps against her Enemies she loads them with Towers upon their backs she makes use of their Trunck and teacheth them to war that she may win battels at their cost she makes the ground to groan under the weight of her Engines the mountains to quake at the noise of her Cannons she sends death by their bullets into Towns and imprisoning the noblest of Elements in Mines she forceth it to blow up bastions to recover it's liberty she tames the Seas haughtinesse she forceth this Monster to bear her ships to assist her in her Conquests to open the way unto her to lead her into the farthest distant Countries and to serve her for a Theater to fight upon and bear away victory Thus man instructed by this bad Mistresse assubjects all the Elements to his Tyranny he forceth the inclinations of the noblest subjects he makes them guilty of his offences and strangely abusing his liberty he makes them mutiny against their Common Sovereign Taking the same freedom he prophanes sacred things makes the worlds most holiest parts serve his impiety For though heaven be the Temple wherein God resides though the Sun be the Throne wherein he makes himselfe visible though the Stars be open eyes through which he observes our faults yet the Libertine abuses all these excellent creatures in his unjust designes he disposeth of heaven as of the earth he promiseth it unto himselfe after his death and imagines he ought to reign amongst Angels after having commanded amongst men he perswades himselfe that the Sun riseth onely to afford him light that the Stars finish their courses onely to serve him that the Planets meet not but to observe his adventures and to presage his victories and being strangely hoodwinkt hee believes that Nature is onely busied to finde him pastimâ— or for his honour He raiseth up devills by the help of Magick he extends his Empire even unto hell not knowing that he purchaseth his power by the losse of his liberty that he becomes their slave who obey him and that he procures unto himselfe as many Tyrants after death as he imployes officers in his life time The creatures to revenge themselves for so many out-rages conspire his undoing and declare war against him he sees no one part in all his Dominions wherein he findes not either Rebels or Enemies whatsoever he undertakes he meets with resistance and his subjects through despair resolve to free themselves from their unjust Sovereign though by their own undoing Of the so many ways which they finde to revenge themselves or punish him the two most remarkable are violence or cunning The first is more sensible the second more dangerous For no man is so resolute but that he trembles when he sees all creatures armed against him and that wheresoever he turns his eye he either findes factions or revolts in his state Every Element threatens him with a thousand torments he findes no sanctuary amidst so many dangers and let him be how carefull he can to defend himself he knows he cannot shun a violent death for to understand it aright no death is naturall and if we give it somtimes that Title 't is either to sweeten the rigour thereof or to confound nature with sin This war which appears so cruell is not the most dangerous for to boot that we know how to defend our selves from it and that self-love hath found out remedies for all our evils it loosens us from off the earth it makes us abhor our exile and love our dear Countrey it raiseth us up gently into heaven and we may say that if this persecution makes not Martyrs it doth at least make Penitents But the other is so much more dangerous as it is more pleasing it deceives us so much the more easily by how much it flatters us more cunningly for the creatures are in the devils hands to seduce us they are full of snaâ—es and nets to surprize us we can hardly make use of them without hazarding our welfare This Tyrant who got the Sovereignty of them when he lost it in Paradise makes such cunning use of them as it is almost impossible to avoid his snares To preserve our innocence we ought to interdict our selves the use of the world and not to fall under the slavery of devils it seems we ought to have no commerce with his creatâ—res They were formerly faithfull Guides which led us to God and now they draw us far from him formerly they taught us our mysteries and to know the beauty of God a man was only to consider his works now they engage us in errour the Prince of darknesse imployes them either to abuse Philosophers or to deceive the mis-believers formerly they served us for pastime wherein pleasure was mingled with innocency they charmed our eyes without distracting our mindes religion and study were not as yet separated the one and the other of them had their sweets without bitternesse and made men learned and godly without labour but now the creatures serve us for pastime only to undo us the sports which they furnish us withall are almost always accompanied with sin if we exceed necessity we fall into intemperance and if we use them profusely we cannot shun injustice Every creature bears about it's dangers with it a man must stand upon his guard when he intends to make use of them and who sailes upon this sea without very much caution is in danger of shipwrack We ought most to suspect such things as are most necessary for us
consume the World corrupted by Sinne that he may make a new World THough Sinne hath wrought such havock in man as it hath brought darknesse into his understanding and malice into his will that it hath effaced out of his soul those inclinations which she had to vertue and that corrupting his nature it seems to have destroyed Gods goodliest workmanship yet do some glimmerings of light remain in the bottome of his soul which sin could never darken Idolatry which hath so long raigned in the world hath not been able to blot out the belief of the unity of God the Pagans have preserved this opinion amidst the worship of their Idols words have escaped from them which have given their actions the lie and when they followed the meer motions of Nature they spake the same language as christians do Though Poets made Hell to passe for a fable and that their pleasing fictions made a prison be despised whence Orpheus had escaped by musick and Pyrithous by force the people ceased not to apprehend eternall pains after death they had already cognizance of Devils under the name of revengfull furies they knew that the fire wherewith the sinfull were burnt could not be quenched that it was preserved without nourishment and as serviceable to the power of God it had operation upon the soul. Though the Devil to introduce licentiousnesse amongst men made them hope for impunity for their faults and that r Minos and Rhadamantus had not credit enough to terrifie Monarchs Nature more powerfull then fiction had imprinted in all men an apprehension of an universall Judgment there was no guilty person who did not fear it nor none miserable who did not hope it every one in the belief of this truth found either punishment for his fault or consolation in his misery when the oppressed innocents could not defend themselves against their Enemies they implored aid from that rigorous Judge which punisheth all sins and rewardeth all vertues In fine though the earths solidity might have made men confident though the water which doth inviron it might have freed them from the fear of a generall consuming by fire though so great a disaster had no certain proofs nor assured predictions yet they believed that the world should be consumed by fire that the seas should not be able to extinguish the flames thereof and that nature which had been cleansed by water should be purified by fire but they knew not the cause of this prodigie and the vanity wherewith they were blinded would not permit them to believe that this disorder should be the punishment of their sin yet the holy Scripture gives no other reason for it nor did it threaten us with the worlds ruine till it had acquainted us with the story of our misfortune As Adam had never lost his life had he never lost his innocency the world had never lost its adornment had it not lost it's purity As death is the punishment of sinfull man water and fire are the punishments of the corrupted world for though insensible creatures commit no sins and that guiltinesse presupposeth rationality yet do they contract some impurity by our offences the Sun is sullied by giving light unto the sinfull the light which shines as bright upon a dirty puddle as upon the cleerest river and which is not more undefiled in Chrystall then in mire is endamaged by our sins and ceaseth to be innocent when it gives light unto the guilty the air is infected by our blasphemies the earth cannot be the Theater of our vanity without sharing in our offences whatsoever is serviceable to our misdemeanors is polluted though the creatures are scandalized to see themselves inthral'd to our insolency yet do they incurre heavens displeasure and deserve punishment for having been imployed in our offences hence doth the sterility of the earth proceed hence was occasioned that deluge which did bury it in it's waters and from hence shall arise that universall fire which shall consume it in it's flames For Divine Justice seems to deal with sinners as humane Justice deals with the greatest offenders the latter is not contented to punish the guilty party in his own person but vents it's anger upon his Children and servants it believeth that whatsoever toucheth him is defiled that those who converse with him are either his Copartners or confederates and that to be allied to him is sufficient to share in his sin it mingleth the bloud of the children with that of the father it wraps up the innocent and the guilty in the same punishment and to make the fault appear more odious it punisheth whatsoever doth appertain unto the offender it spareth not even unsensible things it sets upon the dead after having punisht the living for it puls down the houses and demolisheth the castles of the enemy it makes rocks and Marble feel it's anger burns what it cannot throw down and as if the party offending did live in every thing that was his it thinks to kill him as oft as it beats down his buildings or cuts down his forrests it endevours to rob him of his reputation after it hath bereft him of his life and not to leave any token that may renew the memory of his person or of his crime Thus doth Divine Justice deal with sinfull man and Adam must confesse that heaven hath used this rigour in punishing his sin For after having past the sentence of death upon him it will have his grave to serve him for a funerall pile that time consume what the flames could not devour and that nothing remain of that body which was the prime piece of it's workmanship then either worms or dust it condemns all that come of him to the same punishment their whole guilt consists in their birth it is enough to make them guilty that Adam was their father God waits not till they have broken his Commandements to punish them he forestals the use of their reason and makes them miserable before their time to the end that they may be known to be guilty before they be born by an ingenious yet just rigour after having punisht this father in his children he punisheth him in his estate he makes his subjects revolt and because they are somtimes serviceable to him in their rebellion he bereaves them of their excellentest qualities and makes them together with their miserable Sovereign unfortunate he takes from the Sunne part of his light he takes the Government of Nature from the Stars he makes the earth barren and moveable he hides rocks in the sea and troubles the calm thereof by storms he formes maligne rain in the middle region of the air and corrupts the purity thereof to infect the whole earth he makes use of fire in Thunder and ordains it to punish offenders he inforceth this noble Element to descend contrary to it's inclination and fastning it to the matter which serves for nourishment to his anger he makes it the
terrour of all that are faulty But after having had this service from it he reserves it for the generall ruine of the world and to consume that proud building which was the Palace of sinfull man For when the number of the elect shall be accomplisht when the thrice happy ones who shall fill up the places left void by the Angels rebellion shall have finished their course and their labours and that Christs mysticall body shall have all the number which ought to compose it Divine Justice which cannot be satisfied but by the ruine of whatsoever hath been serviceable to sin wil command the fire to consume the world will drown all his works in a deluge of fire Then this Element mixing it selfe with the clouds wil kindle lightnings in all parts the air being set on fire by so many flames shall burn the whole earth which shall open her entrails to let loose those intestine flames which have devoured it for so many ages from the mixture and confusion of so many fires the generall burning of the world shall arise the mountains shall melt with heat and those great râ—ks where coldnesse seems to make it's residence shall be turned into Vesuviuses and Aetnaes the flames inanimated by Gods anger shall lay all Champians waste walls which resist the Thunder of the Cannon shall not be able to defend their Inhabitants from it's fury all the dead shall be made equall the guilty shall burn in one and the same fire and shall be reduced to the same ashes the Sun shall be darkned with smoak and did not the flames serve for torches the world should burn amidst darknesse all the rivers which bathe the earth shall be dried up in their Spring-heads The fire shall triumph over the waters in their channels and this victorious Element shall make it's Enemy which hath had so many advantages over it feele it's power The Ocean it selfe whose extents are so vaste shall see her waters converted into fire and the Whales burn in the midst of it's abysmes Forrests shall help to consume the little hils which bear them those proud mountains whose tops are always covered with snow to which the Sun in his greatest heats bears a respect shall vomit up flames together with their bowels and all those eminent places which command over the vallies shall see their pride buried in ashes all the guilty shall perish amidst this fire they shall finde hell upon earth and shall wish that the mountains might overwhelm them in their ruins to quench the fire which shall devour them The just shall be astonished to see the fire spare them to see the heavens work the same miracle for them as they did in days of yore for the three unjustly condemned Children and imitating the piety of those Innocents they shall sing Canticles of praises whil'st the wicked shall vomit forth blasphemies How horrible will the spectacle be to see the earth burn the sea consumed and whole Nature buried in a Sepulchre of fire this is the revenge which God will take of sin this is the satisfaction which his Justice will exact for our insolency and this is the last punishment which the creatures shall suffer for having been confederate with man The very Stars shall not be able to escape the rigour thereof that solid matter whereof they are composed shall be dissolved by heat and those beautifull parts of the world having the same destiny as gold and brasse have shall trickle down drop by drop upon the earth their having been serviceable to us in their light sufficeth to make them guilty their having received homage from us and accepted of our sacrifices is sufficient to make them receive this punishment God will not permit that that which hath been corrupted should rest unpunished and his holinesse joyned to his justice cannot tolerate that in Eternity which hath been prophaned in Time Jesus Christ himself was of this opinion he taught that this world did not belong unto him he imprinted in the Souls of his Disciples the horrour and contempt of this present Age and obliged them to wish for the Age to come of which he made himself be called the Father All the perfection of Christianity consists in these two points all vertues are composed of these two points and he is perfect amongst the faithfull who contemning Adams world doth incessantly thirst after Christ Jesus his world Though God be the Authour of them both he detests the former since it was prophaned by sin and since the devill hath submitted it to his Tyranny he hath given over the Sovereignty thereof unto his Enemies he suffers the Turk to possesse the best part thereof he permits his most faithfull servants to be persecuted he will not have us to receive more glory there than he doth and if we will follow his counsels and his instructions we must look upon it as a place of exile or as an Enemies Countrey I very well know he giveth Crowns to Sovereigns Lawrell to the victorious that he makes the Angels fight for Christians and that he arms the Elements for the defence of his Church but in fine his Kingdom is not of this world he will not govern in a world which he will destroy he pretends not to command in a State where his Enemy is worshipped and we must not love a world which he will punish because we have made it sinfull Let us expect that which he will give us let us long after that world which will arise out of the others ashes and let us not fix our fortunes in a Kingdom which shall perish when Jesus Christ shall revenge himselfe upon his Enemies 'T is true that it's ruine will be usefull to it and that it will reap advantage by it's losse for all Gods punishments are favours he puts obligations upon those that he punisheth his goodnesse turns their sufferings into salves and to be strucken by the hand of God brings both honour and advantage with it Death which destroys the body prepares it for the resurrection it changeth it's grave into a cradle and as the corruption of corn is the cause of it's re-assuming life we may say that the putrefaction of the body is in some sort the seed of it's mortality Purgatory which burns the soules of men doth purifie them the flames whereby they suffer prepares them for glory that which we esteem a punishment is a lovely penance and that which seems to retard their contentment serves only to advance their happinesse So shall the fire which shall burn the world contribute to it's perfection it shall perish only to become more perfect it 's beauty shall arise from it's being consumed by fire and this last deluge shall be of more honour and advantage to it then was the former the waters purified the world by drowning it this great havock was Natures baptisme and the same Element which did bereave her of her children did restore unto
disobedient or unfaithfull to him whence proceeds this disorder if not from his sin whence proceeds so universall a rebellion if not from his disobedience and why should he have lost his authority in the world if he had not lost his innocency which was the foundation thereof I very well know that Phylosophers who knew not the state of sin endeavour to excuse this insurrection alledging it is naturall but who sees not the excusing of man is to blame God and that to leave innocency to the Creature is to bereave God of his Providence The Elements began not to prosecute man till he became criminall and God is so good and just as he would not have made him subject to these sufferings had he not found him guilty His Sovereignty never gives against his justice he makes such moderate use of his power as he never injures his Providence what ever power he may justly challenge over the Creature he condemns it not till it hath offended who will not then term this unruliness of the seasons a punishment who will not esteem the earths sterility the like who will not believe but that the Pestilences and Earth-quakes Deluges and Punishments by fire are the just rewards of sin more ancient then all these disorders we must also avow that the wisest Phylosophers have acknowledged that there was one cause of all these disorders and though they neither knew the wickednesse nor the name thereof they have known it by its effects Aristotle who may be termed the Genius of Nature who loved her so passionately took such pains to study her and so carefully considered her hath guest at the cause of all the disorders which he observed in her workmanship He wonders that man cannot tame his passions that being victorious every where else he is conquered by himself and that the soul hath not strength nor dexterity to triumph over her body he cannot comprehend how the noblest workmanship of Nature should be a Monster that the senses should be unfaithfull and passions disobedient and that reason which is her light should be obfuscated with so many darknesses he cannot conceive that man being free should be a slave to so many masters that being furnisht w th knowledg he should be ingaged in errours and that being assisted by so many vertues he should be withstood by so many vices had he durst have condemned the Diety he would have found fault with the workmanship thereof wavering between Religion and impiety he admires what he knows not he suspects what he cannot discover he guesses at what he cannot finde and amidst these doubts he confesseth that there is some hidden cause which hath produced these disorders what could a Phylosopher say more who had only been instructed â—n the School of Nature what could a man imagine who never having been enlighted by the beams of Faith was equally ignorant of Adams innocency and guilt if he be ignorant of the name of concupiscence doth not he acknowledge the nature thereof and if he know not the cause of originall sin hath he not observed the effects thereof Cicero who is no less a Phylosopher in his Academick discourses then Orator in his Orations complains that Nature is mans Stepdame that she hath bin negligent in the Master-piece of her workmanship and that as envying his happiness shee hath given him a body exposed to the injury of the Aire to the malice of Maladies and to the Insolencies of Fortune that shee hath lodged an unhappy soule over-born with pains abashed by fear faint in labour and unruly in her delights in so frail a body which hath made Saint Augustine confess that this great Phylosopher had the Cognizance of sin though he knew not its name and that he acknowledged the effects of a Cause which he could not discover Thus reason without faith seems to have found out originall sin And Phylosophy which makes Nature a Diety hath been enforced to accuse the disorderliness thereof and to impute unto her the faults whereof the first man was Author Seneca in whose person was united the pride of a Stoick and vain-glory of a Spaniard and who confesseth no weakness save such as he can neither excuse nor conceal after having pleaded in the behalf of Nature is obliged to forsake her he acknowledgeth in a thousand parts of his Writings that sin is naturall unto us and that Phylosophy is not sufficient to save us from a Monster which constitutes a part of ourselves I know that he varies in his opinions that Pride makes him revoke such Confessions as truth hath extorted from out of his mouth and pen that he complains that we live not as we were born that we do not preserve those advantages that Nature hath given us and that seduced by errour or corrupted by example We commmit errours which she detests but he quickly alters his minde and being prest by his own conscience hee avows that vertue is a stranger vice naturall to us hee confesseth that the first men were not more innocent then we save only in that they were more ignorant that they had not as yet opened the bowels of the earth to enrich themselves with her spoyls nor kill'd beasts to satisfie their appetites but that they even then had the principles of all these crimes in their souls and that there is great difference between a man who hath not the knowledge of evill and him who hath not a desire thereunto Had this Phylosopher read our Histories and had hee learnt from Moses what past in the beginning of the World he had plainly seen that vice comes not by degrees as doth vertue and that corrupted Nature is a Mistris good enough to teach us what is ill in giving us life Murther was Cain's Aprentisage and the Impieties which wee detest have dishonoured the first ages as well as they do ours since man was irregular he became capable of all vice and since hee lost Originall Justice hee is faln into all sort of disorders We polish sins we invent them not we commit them with more pompe not with more wickedness we only add ornament thereunto And in a word wee are not more faulty then our fore-fathers but more industrious In fine if it be lawfull to make use of Fables to strengthen Truth and to beat down lies by Poets who are the Authors thereof I see not a better draught of a man born in sin then that which is represented to us by the Tragoedian in his Thebais For Oedipus recounting the Story of his Misfortunes complains that his death preceded his birth that his sin preceded his reason that nature feared him before she had brought him into the world that by a strange prodigie he had committed sins before he knew what sin was that the Heavens whose decrees are so just had declared him criminall before he was indued with reason and that his father being a servant to divine justice had punisht him as soon as