and evil may be considered in themselves without any Circumstances and that from hence arise Love and Hatred or that a man may look upon them as absent and that then they produce either Fear or Desire or as difficult and that then they cause Hope Audacity and Choler or as impossible and that then they raise despair or in fine as present and that then they pour into the soul either delight or pain Though these reasons may content the understanding yet do they not vanquish her and without offence to Philosophy a man may differ from the opinions of Plato or Aristotle for as it appears to me they give several names to one and the same thing they divide the unity of Love and take her different effects for different Passions So after having well examined this business I am inforced to embrace the opinion of Saint Augustine and to maintain with him that love is the only passion which doth agitate us or hath operation in us For all the motions which molest our soul are but so many disguised loves our Fears and Desires our Hopes and Despaires our Delights and Sorrows are Countenances which Love puts on according to the events of good or bad success and as the Sea carries divers names according to the different parts of the Earth which are thereby watered so doth Love change her name according to the different estates wherein she finds her self But as amongst the Infidels every perfection of God hath past for a several Deity so amongst Philosophers the different qualities of love have been taken for different Passions And these great Masters have opinioned that as oft as Love hath changed guidance or imployment she ought also to change nature and name but if this their reasoning were good the soul must lose its unity as oft as it produceth different effects and the Soul which digests Meat and distributes the Bloud into the Veins must not be the same which speaks by the tongue and lissens by the Ear. Reason therefore will have us to believe that 〈◊〉 but one Passion and that hope and 〈…〉 and joy are the motions or proper◠of love and that to paint her in all her colours we must term her when longing after what is loved Desire when possessing what is desired Pleasure or Delight when shunning what is abhorred fear And when after a long and bootless withstanding inforc'd to suffer grief or sorrow Or to express the same thing more clearly desire and eschewing hope and fear are the motions of Love by which that which is agreeable is endeavoured and the contrary shunned Boldness and Choler are the Combatants which are made use of to defend that which is loved Joy is Loves triumph despair her weakness and sadness her defeat Or to make use of Saint Augustines words desire is the course of Love fear is her flight sorrow is her torment and joy her rest Love draws near to good by desiring it flies from evil by fearing it is sad by resenting sorrow rejoiceth in tasting pleasure but in all her different estates or acceptions she is alwaies her self and in the variety of her effects preserves the unity of her essence But if it be trne that Love causeth all our Passion it follows that she must sometimes transform her self into her contrary and that by a Metamorphosis more incredible than that of the Poets she converts her self into Hatred and produceth effects which will give the Lie to her Humour For Love delights in obliging Hate in the contrary Love is generous and takes pleasure in pardoning Hate not so and studies nothing but revenge Love gives life unto her enemies Hatred endeavours the death of her most faithful friends and it seems more easie to reconcile Vice with Virtue than Love with Hatred This Objection hath much of apperance but little of solidity and those who frame it do not remember that oft times one and the same cause doth produce contrary effects That heat which makes Wax melt dries mud and dirt that the motion which draws us nearer Heaven draws us the further from earth that the inclination we have to preserve our selves is an aversion from any thing that may destroy us So the love of good is the hatred of evil and the same Passion which useth sweetness to those who oblige it useth severity to those who offend it It imitateth Justice which by the same motion punisheth sin and recompenseth virtue It resembles the Sun which by the same Light makes the Eagles see and blinds the Owles And if it be lawful to mount up into the Heavens it hath an influence upon God himself which only hates a sinner out of love unto himself If so many good reasons cannot perswade to so manifest a truth they ought at least prevail thus much with our adversaries that if there be divers Passions Love is the Soveraign thereof and that she is so absolute in her Kingdom as that her Subjects undertake nothing but by her directions She is the primum Mobile which carries them about and as she gives them motion so she gives them rest she by her aspect doth irritate and appease them and her examples do prevail so much over all the affections of our soul that her goodness or her malice renders them either good or evil The FOURTH DISCOURSE Which is the most violent of all the Passions of Man IF the knowledge of a disease be requisite to the cure it is no less necessary to know the Passions that we may the better govern them and to know which of them doth assail us with most fury Philosophers who have treated hereupon agree not in their opinions but are so divided upon this Subject that reason hath not been able to reconcile their difference Plato hath left us in doubt and sounding the Question to the bottom he contents himself with saying there are four passions which seem to surpass the rest in violence The first is Voluptuousness which belies its name and which breathing forth nothing but sweetness ceaseth not to be extream furious and to fight against reason with more violence than doth grief or anguish The second is Choler which being nothing else according to its definition but a boiling of the Blood about the heart cannot be but excessively violent and did not nature which is careful of our preservation make it die as soon as it is born there were no mischief whereof it were not capable nor do I know whether the world were capable to defend it self against the fury thereof or no. But let us attribute what violence we please unto it I esteem it more reasonable than Voluptuousness for as Lions are sooner tamed than Fish an angry man is sooner appeased than a voluptuous man converted and experience teacheth us that of these two Passions the more mild is the less tractable and the more furious the less opinionated The third is the desire of honour which is so powerfully imprinted in the heart
even upon death that they may be serviceable to Patience and Fortitude what virtues would not become weak were they abandoned by Passions how oft hath the fear of infamy infused courage into souldiers who were seeking how shamefully to run away how oft hath shamefastness preserved Chastity and kept both maids and married women within their duty when avarice and wantonness hath endeavoured to corrupt them how oft hath indignation encouraged Judges against the guilty who were made insolent in their misdemeanor by the protection of great ones Let the Stoicks then confess that virtues owe their welfare to Passions and let them not tell us any more that they are too generous to implore aid from their slaves But let us tell them they are too full of acknowledgment to despise such faithful friends and that they will never make a difficulty in accepting them for their allies when ever they will assail the common enemy Vice I had rather follow Aristotles opinion than Seneca's and rather govern Passions than destroy them This man out of an excessive pride will not have Virtue to stand in need of any thing and that the wise man who is thereof possest way be happy even contrary to the will of God himself he will have his happiness to be so firmly grounded that the Heavens cannot overturn it and to judge by his words it seems that insolency and impiety are the first requisite dispositions for the acquiring of wisdom the other on the contrary acknowledgeth his weakness useth such help as nature hath afforded him and knowing very well that he is composed of a Soul and Body he endeavoureth to employ them both in the exercise of virtue He confesseth we cannot undertake any thing of generous unless chafed by choler and that we faint and droop when we are not irritated But as he very well knows likewise that this Passion hath need of a bridle to hold it back he ranks it under Reason and makes not use thereof as of a General but as of a private Souldier Let us use our Passions thus let us teach the Stoicks that nature hath made nothing in vain and that since she hath endued us with fears and hopes she intends we shall make use of them to acquire Virtue and fight against Vice The FOURTH DISCOURSE That Passions are the seeds of Vice IT were to flatter Passions and deceive men if after having shewed the good they are capable of doing we should not shew the evil they can do our draught would be partial if having drawn their perfections we should not likewise set forth their defaults But that we may not be mistaken in so important a Subject and whereupon our happiness seemeth to depend we must know that Passions are neither good nor bad and that to speak properly these two qualities are only found in the superior power which governs them As that is only free it is only good or evil and as it is the Original of merit it is also the Spring-head either of wickedness or goodness But as the Sun spreads forth his light in the world and enlightens solid bodies though it penetrate them not So doth the will dispence abroad wickedness and goodness amongst the Passions and though she do not communicate them fully unto them yet giveth she them a slight tincture thereof which is sufficient to make them either innocent or criminal For if we examine the qualities that they have received from nature and if we consider them in that estate which pleads the use of the will we must acknowledge that they are as well the seeds of vice as of virtue and that those two contraries are so confused in them as they are hardly to be discerned They have an Inclination to good and thus they hold with virtue They are easily seduced soon moved and thus they resemble vice For we are now no longer in that happy estate of innocency where the Passions expected their orders only from Reason and where they never raised themselves till they had obtained leave they are become disloyal and no longer acknowledging the voice of their Soveraign they obey that first that commands them and take part assoon with a Tyrant as with their legitimate Prince This error whereinto they often fall obligeth us to confess that they are not much less inclinable to vice than to virtue and that if we may hope for great advantages by them we ought also to fear notable mischiefs from them For the same desires which raise us up to Heaven fasten us to the earth that which nature hath given us to set us at liberty casts us in prison and claps Bolts upon us The same hope which flatters us abuseth us and that which ought to sweeten our past misfortunes procureth us new ones the same choler which bringeth the couragious to the combate animates the faint-hearted to revenge and what is generous in war becomes cruel in peace In fine Passions are not farther distant from vices than they are from virtue as in the confusion of the Chaos fire was mingled with water so is evil mingled with good in the affections of the soul and from those fatal Mines Iron is as well drawn out as Gold man ought therefore to keep himself always upon his guard and knowing that he carrieth about in his bosom both life and death it behoveth him to be as circumspect in his comportments as those who handle poyson or who walk upon the edge of a Precipice But that which makes the danger the greater is that when these unruly Passions have brought forth a vice they put themselves in arms to defend it and serve it with more courage than do the innocent Passions obey virtue They are servants which are more cruel than are their Masters Officers which are more furious than the Tyrants that set them on work and they commit more of outrage upon Virtue than doth Vice it self All wars are occasioned by these insolent Affections and he who shall banish love and hatred from off the earth will find neither Murder nor Adultery there They furnish the subject of all Tragedies and though men accuse Poets of Fictions they have committed more Errors than the others have invented But they are never more prejudicial than when they meet in the person of a Prince and when they abuse Soveraign power to exercise their fury for then whole States groan under their tyranny the people are opprest by their violence and all parts confess that neither the Plague nor the Sword are so pernicious as are Passions when they have got the supream power An unlawful love put all Greece in Arms and the flames thereof reduced the goodliest City of all Asia to Ashes Jealousie between Caesar and Pompey was the loss of the lives of more than a million of men the world was divided in their quarrel their ambition put arms into the hands of all people their unjust war was the ruine of their Country and the loss of
make us faulty or miserable one might see them make love in their Writings fight in Fables and one might observe in them all the chief affections of those that had invented them Philosophers not able to endure so unjust gods formed more rational Deities and proposed unto the people the Idols of their own minds every one figured out unto himself a god according to his own inclinations and gave him what advantages may be imagined Some placed him in idleness and that they might not trouble his rest berest him of the knowledge or government of our affairs some made him so good as that he suffered all faults to go unpunisht and dealt as favourably with the guilty as with the innocent others made him so rigorous as it seemed he had created man only to destroy him and that he found no contentment but in the death of his Subjects this disorder hath passed from Religion into State-government and according to the ages wherein men have lived they have framed unto themselves divers Ideas of Kings personages and have placed in their Princes such perfections only as they were acquainted withal for in the beginning of the world when people preferred the body before the soul they chose such Kings as were of an extraordinary stature and who were as strong as Giants Nay it seemed that God would apply himself to this humor when he gave Saul unto the Israelites for the Scripture sayes He was higher by the head than all his subjects and when the Poets describe unto us their Heroes they never fail in giving them this advantage but when time had taught us that our good resided not in the body men begun to consider the mind of such men as they would make their Kings and cast their eyes upon such as had most of government in them or most of courage they observed their inclinations and knowing what power their inclinations have over their wills they esteemed them no less than Virtues But Opinions do so differ upon this Subject as a man may say that every Politician fancies unto himself a Prince according to his humour and indues him with that Passion which is most agreeable unto himself Some have wished that their Prince had no Passion at all and that being the Image of God he should be raised above the Creatures he should see all the motions of the earth without any alteration oâ— spirit but we know very well that his being in a higher condition than his subjects makes him not be of another nature and that since he is not exempt from the Diseases of the Body he cannot defend himself against the passions of the soul. Others have been of opinion that he ought to have aâ— passions that like unto the Sun and constellations he should be in a perpetual motion and employ all his care and all his thoughts upon the welfare of his State Some have thought that the desire of glory was the most lawful Passion in a King and that since Fortune had endued him with all the goods she could confer upon him he should only labour how to atchieve honour That virtue was only preserved by this desire and that he who valued not reputation could not love Justice that a Prince ought not to endeavour the eternizing of his memory by the pomp of glorious Buildings but by the gallantry of his actions that setting all other things at nought he should only study how to leave a happy memory of his reign after his death That nothing could more further him in this generous design than an insatiable desire of Glory that Riches were the goods of particular men but that glory was the humor of Kings and that he might well hazard all other things to compass it Others less glorious but more rational have thought that fear ought to reign in the soul of Princes and that as their wisdom exceeded their valour the apprehension of danger should in them also surpass the desire of glory for to boot that their fortune is exposed to a thousand mischiefs that the greater it is it runs the greater danger that it is the more brittle by how much the more glorious they are bound to prevent accidents by their watchfulness to withstand storms by their Constancy and to forgo their own happiness to share in the misery of their Subjects All these opinions are upheld by examples for there have been some Kings who have known so well how to moderate their passions as they seemed not to have any they have not been troubled at ill Successes and they would receive the news of a Defeat with the same countenance as the tidings of Victory The quiet of their mind was not altered by the divers functions they were obliged unto they punished faults with the same easiness as they rewarded Virtue and whatever alteration befell their States you should find none in them they seemed to be raised to so high a pitch of perfection as one might say in the weakness of man they had the assurance of a God There have been others whose government hath been no less happy and who have yet been of a quite different disposition for as their Empire was no less dear unto them than were their own bodies no alteration could happen therein which might not be read in their faces good success put them in good humor they were afflicted at unhappy accidents they were touched to the quick even with evils that threatned them from afar off and every thing that befel their State made so strong an impression in them as they seemed to live in two bodies and that having two lives to lose they had two deaths to fear I dare not blame this their restlesness since it was occasioned by an extream love and a body must be unjust to condemn a Prince that makes himself miserable for no other cause but that he may make his Subjects happy Augustus Caesar was of this humor and though he had endeavoured to compass so much constancy as not to be troubled at any thing yet could he not hear of any good or bad success which befel his Common-wealth without witnessing his resentment thereof by his word and actions Varrus his defeat cost him tears and this accident which he was not prepared for made him say such things as I do rather impute to his affection than to his weakness since upon other occasions he had given so good proof of his Courage Their number is great who have laboured after glory and who have had no other Passion but how to acquire honour Nothing seemed difficult unto them which bear with it the face of glory insomuch as by an inevitable misfortune they neglected virtue when in obscurity and put a valuation upon a glorious vice According to their Tenets it was as lawful to overthrow a State as to found one to oppress a Republick as to defend it and to undertake a War against Allies as well as against Enemies They run after glory
thinks the qualities they are endued withal may work a change in him he might shun them as snares and use violence upon himself to get free from the creatures lest they make him forget his Creator From this propriety of Love ariseth a second which is that he never is at quiet but goes always in pursuit of what he loves for seeing so many shadows of that supream beauty which he adores he is always in action leaving one to take another he seeks in all what he cannot find in one alone and his change is not so much a proof of his fickleness as of their vanity he becoms wise at his own cost when he meets not with what he expects in the beauty which he idolatrizeth he repents him of his fault betakes himself to another subject which he is forced to forgo again because he enjoys but one part of that universal good wherewithal he is taken his inconstancy would last as long as his life did not reason teach him that what he covets is invisible and that the abiding place wherein we are is not destined for the passion but for the hope thereof he then sets at nothing what he so much esteemed and considering that natural beauties are but steps whereby to raise us to supernatural beauty he loves them with reservedness and useth them as means whereby to purchase what he seeks after The powerful impression which this beauty makes upon Love causeth Loves third propriety which is that he cannot live in quiet and that being solicited by his desires he is always busie he is of the nature of the constellations which are in a perpetual motion the end of one trouble is the beginning of another and he hath not so soon ended his first design but he frames a second he is like those conquerors who egged on by ambition prepare always for new combats never tasting the pleasure of victory I cannot therefore approve of the Poets invention who have feigned Love to be the son of Idleness for if his genealogy be true we must confess he is not of his mothers humour That unfortunate Poet who was Loves Martyr and who saw himself justly persecuted for having forged Weapons against womens Chastity avows that this passion is working and that it is so far from being at rest as it obligeth its partakers to be souldiers and that to love a man must resolve to wage war Hence it is that St. Augustin mixing sacred Love with prophane makes them both equally operative and acknowledgeth that a true affection cannot be idle Ambition which is the love of honour is a good proof of this since it makes such impression upon the hearts of those that are ambitious as they have not much more rest than have the damned and that they are always cause of more trouble to themselves than to those whom they oppress Avarice which is the love of money doth authorize this truth no less than doth Ambition since those wretchmen which are therewithal possessed rend up the bowels of the earth that they may not be unuseful and seek out Hell before their death that they may not be exempt from pain whilst alive This propriety is so peculiar to Love as it is not found in any other of the Passions For though our desires be the first rivulets that derive from this Spring-head yet do they give us some respit and when they are weary of seeking after a far distant good they suffer us to take a little rest we oft-times dry our tears and if we make not peace we conclude a truce with our sorrow we do not always meditate upon revenge and choler as so much less lasting as it hath more of impetuosity and violence Our hatred is sometimes laid asleep and requires a new injury to awaken it our joys are so short as the longest of them endure but for a moment and they love idleness so much as they cease to be pleasing when they begin to be operative But Love is always in action it tarries not till age give it strength to work it formeth designs as soon as it is born though abandoned by desires and hopes it ceaseth not to think of what it loveth and to entertain it self to no purpose with the thought of good success which it never shall enjoy In fine activity is so natural unto it as the life thereof consists in motion and as the heart it ceaseth to live when it ceaseth to move From hence proceeds its fourth propriety which is the strength which doth accompany it in all its designs for though but new born it is vigorous if true and giving proofs of its courage it tameth Monsters which it is not yet acquainted withal it measures its strength by its desires thinks it self able to do whatsoever it will it is not astonished with difficulties If one propound them to Love that they may stay the careir thereof he thinks 't is done to try its Will and solicited by glory it endeavoureth to overcome them Love neither accepts of nor makes excuses It will try all its forces before 't will acknowledge an impotency and it doth oft-times overcome enemies which the most generous virtues durst never set upon Hence it is that the holy Scripture compares it to death not only for that it separateth us from our selvs to join us to the things we love but because nothing can resist it for of so many pains which Divine Justice hath found out wherewith to punish us there is none but death which we may not defend our selves from We save our selves from the injuries of the Weather by Cloaths and Houses we overcome the Barrenness of the Earth by our excessive labour we correct nourishments by the help of Physick we reduce wild Beasts to our obedience by art or forces we oft-times turn our pains into pleasure and we draw advantages from the misery of our condition which we should not have found in the state of Innocency But nothing can resist death and though Physitians have found out secrets to prolong our lives yet do they in vain seek out means to defend themselves against death which makes havock throughout the whole earth pardons neither age nor sex and Palaces which are environed with so many guards cannot keep Kings from the reach thereof So Love finds no difficulties which it overcomes not no pride which it lays not low no power which it tameth not nor no rigour which it doth not allay Briefly by another propriety which is not less considerable than the former Love charmeth troubles mingleth pleasures with pain and to encourage us to difficult actions finds out inventions to make them either pleasing or glorious Hunting is rather a business than a diversion 't is an image of war and men who pursue wild Beasts seem as if they studied how to overcome their enemies the Victory is therein doubtful as well as in combates and honour is therein purchased sometimes by the loss of life
yet all these troubles are the hunters pleasures and their passion to this Exercise makes them term that a pastime which Reason would term a punishment There is nothing of delight in war the very name thereof is odious were it not accompanied with injustice disorder and fear it would notwithstanding have horrors enough to astonish all men death makes her self be there seen in a thousand different shapes there is no exercise in war wherein the danger doth not exceed the glory and it never furnisheth souldiers with any actions which are not as bloudy as glorious yet those that love it make it their delight they esteem all the deformities thereof beauties and by an inclination which proceeds rather from their love than from their humour they find delight in dangers and taste the pleasantness of peace in the tumults of war This it is which made St. Augustine say That Lovers troubles are never troublesom and that they never find pain in serving what they love or if they do they cherish it But we shall never make an end if we would observe all the proprieties of Love I therefore pass on to the effects thereof which being so many pictures of Love will represent unto us its nature and will discover unto us what it is able to do The first of its miracles is that which we call Extasie for it frees the Soul from the Body which she inanimates that she may join to the Object which she loveth it parts us from our selves by a pleasing violence and what the holy Scripture attributes to the Spirit of God befals this miraculous division so as a lover is never at home with himself if you will find him you must seek him in the person that he adores He will have people know that contrary to the Laws of wisdom he is always without himself and that he hath forsaken all care of his own preservation since he became a slave to love The Saints draw their glory from this extasie and truth it self which speaks by their mouths obligeth them to confess that they live more in Jesus Christ than in themselves Now as a man must die to himself to live in another death accompanieth this life and as well sacred as prophane lovers cannot love unless they be bound to die 'T is true that this death is advantageous to them since it procures unto them a life wherewithal they are better pleased than with that which they have lost for they live again in those that they love by a miracle of love they like the Phenix take life again from their ashes and recover life in the very bosom of death He who doth not conceive this truth cannot understand those words by which S. Paul teacheth us that we are dead unto our selves and alive in Jesus Christ. This effect produceth another which is not much less admirable for as lovers have no other life than what they borrow from their love it infallibly falls out that they transform themselves thereinto and that ceasing to be what they were they begin to be that which they love they change condition as well as nature and by a wonder which would surpass all belief were it not usual they become like unto that which they cherish 'T is true that this power shines much more gloriously in divine than in prophane Love for though Kings abase themselves in loving their Subjects and that they forgo their greatness as soon as they engage themselves in friendship yet do they not raise those up into their Throne whom they love Jealousie which is inseparable from Royalty will not suffer them to give their Crown away to him who possesseth their heart But if they should arrive at this excess the Maxim would only be true in them and their Subjects could not change conditions by the force of their love for the love of greatness makes not a Soveraign nor is a man the more accommodated though he love riches the desire of health did never yet cure a sick man we have not found that the bare Passion to know hath made men wise But divine Love hath so much power as it raseth us up above our selves by a strange Metamorphosis it makes us be that which it makes us love It renders the guilty innocent it makes slaves children changeth Demons into Angels and that we may not diminish the virtue thereof whilst we think to heighten it let it suffice to say that of men it makes Gods It doth not therefore become us to complain of our misery and to accuse our Creator for not having equalled our condition to that of Angels for though those pure spirits have great advantages over us and that we hope for no other good than that which they possess yet are we happy enough since we are permitted to love God and that we are made to hope that our nature being by love transformed into his nature we shall lose what we have of mortal and perishable to acquire what is incorruptible and eternal This is the Consolation of divine Lovers and this is the only means how to aspire without blame to that happiness which Lucifer could not do but with impiety I cannot end this Discourse without justly reproaching those that whilst they may love God engage their affections on the earth or on earthly things and deprive themselves of that immense felicity which divine love promiseth them for in loving of the creatures they cannot share in their perfections without doing the like in their defaults after having laboured much they oft-times change an obscure and peaceable condition into a more glorious but a more dangerous one So there is always hazard in the love of the creatures and the advantage that may be drawn from thence is never so pure but that it is mingled with somewhat of misfortune For whatsoever passion we have for the creature we are not sure the creature hath the like for us yet this miraculous change which passeth for the principal effect of love is made in this mutual affection and in this correspondency of friendship But we run not these hazzards in consecrating our love to God his perfections are not accompanied with faults and we know it cannot be disadvantageous to us to make a change with him Our love is never without this acknowledgment since it is rather the effect than the cause of his and that we love not him till he hath first loved us He is so just as he never denies our affection the recompense which it deserves he is not like those misbelieving Mistresses who amongst the numbers of their Lovers prefer him who is best behaved before him that loveth best in the commerce which we hold with him we are sure that he that hath most charity shall have most glory and that in his Kingdom the most faithful lover shall be always the most honoured The SECOND DISCOURSE Of the Badness of Love SInce there is nothing so sacred but meets with some
the will of God That with like submissiâ— we ought to receive punishments and rewards at his hands that we must adore the thunder wherewith he smiteth us and have as great respect unto his Justice as to his Mercy that we must be cruel to our selves to be obedient to him That it iâ— Piety to â—mmolate the innocent to him when he demands them and that as there is no creature which owes not his being to his Power there is none who is not bound to lose it for his Glory Then what man is he who will submit to these truths if he be a slave to self-self-love and how shall he be faithful to God if he be in love with himself I conclude then that this inordinate affection is the undoing of Families the ruine of States and the loss of Religion that to live in the world a man must denounce war to this common enemy of Society and that imitating the elements which force their inclinations to exclude a vacuum we must use violence upon our desires to overcome a Passion so pernicious to Nature and Grace From this Spring-head of mischief flow three rivers which drown the whole world and which cause a deluge from the which it is very hard to save ones self for from this inordinate love arise three other loves which poyson all souls and which banish all Virtue from the earth The first is the love of Beauty which we term Incontinencie The second is the love of Riches which we call Avarice The third is the love of Glory which we call Ambition These three capital enemies of mans welfare and quiet corrupt all that belongs to him and render him guilty in his soul in his body and in his goods It is hard to say which of these three monsters is hardest to overcome for to boot with their natural forces they have Auxiliaries which they draw from our inclinations or from our habits and which make them so redoubted that they are not to be overcome without a miracle To consider them notwithstanding in themselves Ambition is the most haughty and the strongest Voluptuousness the most mild and soft and Avarice the basest and most opinionated These are fought against by divers means and all Morality is busied in furnishing us with reasons to defend our selves against them The Vanity of Honour hath cured some that have been thereof ambitious For when they come to know that they laboured after a good which happened not to them till after death and that from so many dangerous actions they could only expect to have their sepulchers adorn'd or some commendation in History they have ceased to covet an Idol which rewardeth ill the slaves that serve it and that for a little applause which it promiseth them obligeth them many times to shed their own bloud or that of their neighbour The infamy of the voluptuous the mischiefs which accompany them the displeasures which follow them and the shame which never forsakes them have oft-times cured men to whom sin had left a little reason Age may likewise be a cure for this it is a disorder in nature to find a lascivious old man and it is no less strange to see love under gray hairs than to see those mountains whose heads are covered with snow and whose bowels are full of flames The misery of riches the pain that is taken in accumulating them the care in preserving them the evils which they cause to their owners the ease which they afford to content unjust desires and the sorrow caused by their loss are considerations strong enough to make those contemn them who are not as yet become slaves thereunto But when they shall exercise their tyranny upon the spirits I esteem their malady incurable Age which cures other Passions encreaseth this Covetous men never love riches more than when they are near losing them and as love is then most sensible when it apprehends the absence of the party beloved Avarice is most violent when it apprehendeth the loss of its wealth But without medling with another mans work I shall content my self with saying that to preserve a mans self from all these evils he must endeavour to forgo self-love For as natural love causeth all the passions inordinate love causeth all the Vices and whosoever shall be vigilant in the weakning of this Passion by repentance and charity shall find himself happily freed from Avarice Ambition and Incontinency But to arrive at this high degree of happiness we must remember that in whatsoever condition Providence hath placed us we are not for our selves but for the publick and that we must not love our selves to the prejudice of our Soveraign We are in nature a portion of the Universe in civil life a part of the State in Religion we are the Members of Jesus Christ. In all these conditions self-love must be sacrificed to universal love In nature we must die to give place to those that follow us In the State we must contribute our goods and our bloud for the defence of our Prince and in Religion we must kill the old Adam that Jesus Christ may live in us The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good Vse of Love MOrality considers not so much the goodness of things as the good use of them she neglects natural perfections and puts a valuation only upon their rational employment Metals are indifferent to her nor doth she consider them otherwise than earth whose colour the Sun hath changed But she blames the abuse and commends the good husbanding thereof she is troubled when wicked men abuse them to oppress the innocent to corrupt Judges to violate the Laws and to seduce Women She is well pleased when good men make use thereof to nourish the poor cloath the naked to set Captives at liberty and to succour the miserable There is nothing more glorious than the vivacity wherewithal Nature hath endued men nobly endued 'T is the key which opens unto them the Treasury of Science be it either to acquire them or to distribute them to others 't is that which is acceptable to all companies and 't is a quality which is as soon beloved as seen Yet doth not Morality esteem it otherwise than as it is well husbanded and S. Augustine who acknowledged it for a Grace confesseth it hath been pernicious to him by reason of his ill employment thereof and because he had entertained it amongst his errors Love without all question is the holiest of all our Passions and the greatest advantage which we have received from Nature since by the means thereof we may fasten our selves to good things and make our souls perfect in the love thereof 'T is the spirit of Life the Cement of the whole world an innocent piece of art by which we change condition not changing Nature and we transform our selves into the party whom we love 'T is the truest and purest of all pleasures 't is a shadow of that happiness which the blessed
their hatred they leave it as an inheritance to their Children they oblige them to eternal enmity and make imprecations against them if they be ever reconciled to their enemies In fine this Passion is immortal and as it resides in the bottom of the soul it accompanieth her whithersoever she goeth doth not forgo her no not when she is loosened from the Body This it is which the Poets who are the most excellent Painters of our affections would represent unto us in the persons of Eteocles and Polynices who continued their hatred after death and who went to end the combat in Hell which they begun on earth this Passion lived in their bodies deprived of Sense it passed by a secret contagion into their funeral Pile and waged war in the flames which were to consume them But I wonder not that this Passion is so opinionated since it is so daring and I think it not strange that it continues after death since it hath made men resolute to lose their lives for love of revenge and that it makes them find some contentment in death provided they see their enemies accompany them therein For Hatred ceases to be true when it becomes discreet and we may say a man is not wholly possessed therewithal when to spare his own bloud he dares not shed the bloud of his adversary When he hath given himself over to the tyranny thereof he thinks he can never purchase the pleasures of revenge at too dear a rate And propose whatever punishment you list unto him he is well-pleased therewithal provided his Passion may be satisfied Atreus wisheth to be overwhelmed under the ruine of his Palace provided it fall upon his brothers head and so cruel a death seems pleasing to him so as he be therein accompanied by Theistes In short Hatred is very puissant since all torments are endured to give it satisfaction and it useth strange tyranny upon such as it possesseth since there is no fault which they are not ready to commit in obedience to it If the proprieties of Hatred be thus strange the effects thereof are no less fatal For as Love is the cause of all generous and gallant actions Hatred is the rise of all base and tragical actions And those who are advised by so bad a Counsellor are capable of all the evil that can be imagined Murder and Paricide are the ordinary effects of this unnatural Passion 'T was this that made us see in the day-break of the world that a man might die in the flower of his age and that one brother was not secure in the company of another 'T was this that found out weapons to dispeople the world to ruinate Gods goodliest workmanship 'T was this that making man forget the sweetnes of his nature taught him to mingle poyson in drinks to shed humane bloud at Banquets to kill under pretence of hospitality 't was this that first instituted that fatal art which teacheth us how to murder with method how to kill men handsomly and which forceth us to approve of Paricide if it be done according to the laws of the world 'T was this in fine and not avarice which tore up the bosom of the earth and which sought within the bowels thereof for that cruel Metal wherewith it exerciseth its fury And to describe in a few words all the evils it is cause of it will suffice to say that Anger is her first Master-piece Envy her Counsellor Despair her Officer and that after having pronounced bloudy sentences as Judge it self puts them in execution as Hangman 'T is true that hatred never comes to these extremities till it grow unruly but this unruliness is almost natural thereunto and unless Reason and Grace labour jointly how to moderate this Passion it easily becomes excessive The fierceness thereof is oft-times augmented by resistance like an impetuous torrent it overthrows all the banks which oppose its fury and when it 's forbidden any thing it believes it may lawfully do all things therefore the remedy which is ordained for Love is no less necessary for Hatred and to heal an evil which becomes incurable by time early withstandings must be made lest gaining strength it grow furious and be the death of its Physitian for having been negligent in its cure The FIFTH DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Hatred THough the greatest part of effects produced by Hatred may pass for disorders and that after having described the nature thereof it may seem unprofitable to observe the ill use that may be made of it yet that I may not fail in the laws that I have prescribed unto my self I will employ all this discourse in discovering the injustice thereof and I will make it appear to all the world that of as many Aversions as molest our quiet there is hardly any one that is rational For as all creatures are the workmanship of God and bear in their Foreheads the Character of him that produced them they have qualities which render them lovely and goodness which is the principal object of Love is so natural unto them as it is not to be separated from the Essence to cease to be good they must cease to be and as long as they have a subsistance in nature we are obliged to confess that there remains some tincture of goodness in them which cannot be taken from them without an absolute annihilation Thus God gave them his approbation when they were first made he made their Panegyrick after they were created and to oblige us to make much of them he hath taught us by his own mouth that they were exceeding good so as the Belief of their goodness is an Article of Faith in our Religion whatsoever opposition they may have to our humors or our inclinations we ought to believe that they have nothing of evil in them and that their very qualities which hurt us have their imployments and their use Poysons are serviceable for Physick and there are certain maladies which are not to be cured but by prepared poyson Monsters which seem to be errors of nature or ordained by Providence which cannot do amiss they do not only contribute by their ugliness to heighten the beauty of other creatures but are presages which advertise us of our misfortunes and which invite us to bewail our sins the very Devils themselves have lost nothing of their natural Advantages and the malice of their Will hath not been able to destroy the goodness of their essence and though they are compleated in evil they cease not to possess all the good which purely appertains unto their nature they have yet that beauty which they did Idolatrize they enjoy all their lights which they received at the first moment of their creation they have yet that vigor which makes a part of their being and were they not restrained by the power of God they would form thunder raise storms spread abroad contagions confound all the Elements 't is true that these their advantages
salvation thy Iustice shines forth no less in making good use of those of thine Enemies to their Destruction For they become chains in thy hands to bind these Malefactors with thou forgest out of them Irons to punish these slaves and thou changest their Desires into Aversions their pleasures into pain Thou abandonest every sinner to the passion which possesses him thou commandest this domestick fury to revenge thee correct him thou turnest his sin into his punishment without imploying either Hell or Devils thou ordainest every sinner to be his own executioner and makest him taste as many torments as he nourisheth passions in his Soul Thus we see by experience that the irregular desire of honor is the punishment of the ambitious that the shamful love of voluptuousness is the torment of the Incontinent and that the insatiable thirst after riches is the penalty of the covetous Those chastisements which astonish us with their outward appearance are not the most rigorous those plagues which sweep away whole Kingdoms those wars that unpeople the world those thunders which grumble over our heads and those Abysses which gape under our feet are but the flourishes of thy anger thou makest thy Children feel those scourges when thou wilt correct them and these disorders of Nature are oftentimes rather favors from thy Mercy than chastisements of thy Iustice. But when thou wilt punish the guilty who have long offended thee that thou desirest to continue them in their sins that thou maist satisfie thy just fury thou givest them over to their own Lusts thou commandest their Passions to be their executioners thou permittest all the inclinations of their souls to be turned into so many sins and that delighting in their offence they no longer think of appeasing thee or of their own Conversion Since then thou dost so justly employ the passions both of thy friends and enemies vouchsafe to let me offer up these unto thee and that to do homage unto thine I may sacrifice to thee mine Suffer me to propound thy life for an example to thy faithful ones that not abusing them with false Virtues whereof Vain-Glory was the Soul and honor the reward I represent to them those which thou didst practise during those happy years thou wert pleased to converse with men Give me Grace to explain to them the Morality which is learnt in thy school And since the passions are the Seeds of Virtues and Vices favor me so far that I may so well express their Nature their Motions as that I may make all the readers of this my Book virtuous dissipate the darkness of my understanding that in handling this matter I may penetrat the depths of mens hearts I may discover the extent of their jurisdiction that I may bring all men to observe how passions are raised in them how they rebel against Reason how they seduce the Vnderstanding and what sleights they use to enslave the will After I have known the Malady teach me the Remedy that I may cure it teach me how a passion is to be stifled in its birth what means I must use to subdue a passion which finds her strength in her old age and which O the wonder is never more vigorous than when most ancient Teach me the dexterity we are to use for conquering those Passions that flatter us with their promises those which corrupt us with their subtilties those which daunt us with their threats and those which enchaunt us with their allurements That being illuminated by thy Light and assisted by thy Grace I may by one and the same Work inspire mens souls with the Love of Virtue and Hatred of Sin THE TRANSLATOR Upon the BOOK I. IF to command and rule o're others be The thing desir'd above all worldly pelf How great a Prince how great a Monarch's he Who govern can who can command Himself If you unto so great a Pow'r aspire This Book will teach how you may it acquire II. Love turn'd to Sacred Friendship here you 'l find And Hatred into a Just Indignation Desires when moderated and not blind To have to all the Virtues â—ear relation Flight or Eschewing you will find to be The chiefest Friend to spotless Chastitie III. You 'l find how Hope incites to Noble Acts And how Despair diverts Rash Enterprises How Fear from Wisdom nought at all detracts But is of use to her through just Surmises How Boldness may in hand with Valor ride How hair-brain'd Choler may with Justice side IV. How harmless Joy we may Fore-runner make Of that Eternal never-ending Bliss Whereof the Saints in Heaven do partake And how our earthly Sorrow nothing is But a sharp Corrosive which handled well Will prove an Antidote to th' pains in Hell Thus Rebels unto Loyalty are brought And Traytors true Allegiance are taught THE Translator to the Reader I Had once in my thoughts to have dedicated this my Product of some Leisure-hours to an exactly accomplish'd Lady of Honor but considering that my Author hath chosen our Saviour JESUS CHRIST for his Patron I thought I should do less should I chuse any other for my Patroness than the Kings Daughter his Spouse the Church who is all glorious within For though these be days wherein the Church may be compared to a Coppice in which the Under-wood grows much thicker and faster than do the Oaks and though she may be thought to suffer much in Dilapidations yet as Mr. Fuller saith hath she some Inner-more Chappel well in repair And truly when I considered the like coherence which is between a Wife and her Husband as between a Translation and its Original for if the one be Bone of the same Bone and flesh of the same flesh the other are composed of the same matter and as the woman is acknowledged to be the weaker vessel a Translation will never vie for worth or precedency with its Original I was somewhat confirmed in my Opinion yet when upon second thoughts which are or ought to be the best I called to mind the many Rivals she hath in these days which might peradventure cause both me and her to suffer should I say any thing of her or undertake her quarrel me by doing it her by my so ill doing it I resolved to pass over all Dedications yet could not forbear the Englishing of my Authors being thereunto invited both by the Piety and Elegancy of it as also by the like Dedications of Alstedius in his Encyclopaedia other Protestant Writers though I find it left out of some French Copies to content my self with thinking and to address my self in words only to thee my Reader and to tell thee that the Conde de Gondamor a Spanish Minister of State with whose name and fame this our Nation hath been well acquainted had wont to say If you will make a small inconsiderable Present to any great Man of the Court or to your Mistress you may do well to usher it in with some Preamble whereby to
Death I confess that they being better than are ours he repaired his strength more advantageously and that by prolonging the course of his Life they kept the hour of his Death farther off I affirm likewise that they kept away corruption from his Body and that they kept him in so perfect a health as that it could not be altered but then they must likewise grant me that if man had not used these remedies his natural heat had consumed his Humidum Radicale and that old age succeeding this Disorder he must inevitably have died All these Maximes are to serve as Saint Augustine is obliged to confess that if the use of the tree of life were permitted unto us in the condition wherein we are death would no longer domineer in the world and that man sinful as he is would not cease to be immortal If then Adam were capable of death because he had a Body and if he were incapable thereof because he had Grace methinks by like proportion one may say he had Passions since his Soul was ingaged in a material Subject but that they were tractable for original Justice did repress their motions and that in this innocent condition he had only just fears and rational desires I verily conceive there may be some Passions the use whereof were interdicted him and that though he were capable thereof he was not therewithal agitated because they would have troubled his quiet I am easily perswaded that all evil being banished from off the earth sadness and despair were likewise exempted from hiâ— heart and that during so high a pitch oâ— felicity reason was not bound to excitâ— such Passions as only belong unto the miserable but assuredly I am confident hâ— made use of all others and that thinkinâ— upon the Laws that were imposed upon hiâ— by his Soveraign Lord he was sometimes flattered by hopes sometimes astonished by fear and by them both joined together kept within his duty I doubt not likewise but that in the unhappy conference which our unwise Mother had with the Devil in the shape of a Serpent she was seized upon by as many Passions as usually People are who consult upon any important affairs that the Devils promises did stir up her hope that God Almighties Threats did cause fear in her and that the loveliness of the forbidden fruit did irritate her desire I know not whether some other may imagine this Dialogue could pass without some dispute but I know very well that Saint Augustine with whom I believe a man cannot be mistaken doth argue thus upon this subject 〈◊〉 and that he believes so great a bickering was not made in the earthly Paradise without the Womans making use of all her Passions either to defend her self or to suffer her self to be overcome 'T is true this authentical man seems to be of another opinion in his Ninth Chapter of the City of God but he who shall well examine his Reasons will find that he endeavours not so much to exclude Passions from out the soul of Adam as their disorder judging aright that their disorder could not accord with original Justice Therefore I am perswaded that man had our agitations in the state of innocency and he feared punishment and hoped for reward that as he made use of his Senses inasmuch as they made up a part of his Body he also used his Passions inasmuch as they were a part of his Soul and that in brief they did not differ from ours in nature but in obedience The SIXTH DISCOURSE Whether there were any Passions in our Saviour Christ and wherein they differ'd from ours NOt to know that the Son of God was pleased to take upon him our nature with all the weakness thereof and that set aside ignorance and sin which could not correspond with the sanctity of his person he hath vouchsafed to bear our miseries conversing with men in the likelihood of a sinner were to be ignorant of all the principles of Christian Religion Hence it came that during his term of mortal Life it behoved him to preserve himself by nourishment to repair his strength by rest to suffer his Body to sleep and to use all means which Providence hath ordained for these natural maladies He was subject to the injuries of time to the unseasonableness of seasons Men have seen him benummed with Cold during the violence of winter and bedewed with Sweat during the heat of Summer the Elements spared him not and if they reverenced him as God they persecuted him as man The same Creatures which obeyed his Word warred against his Body the Waves which grew calm at his awaking had assaulted the ship wherein he was Hunger which he had overcome in the Deâ—arts assailed him in Towns And upon the Cross he tasted the Terrors of Death from which he had delivered Lazarus Then as â—assions are the most natural Weaknesses â—f man he would not exempt himself â—rom them and he would have them to be â—s well witnesses of his love unto us as asâ—rances of the truth of his Incarnation He â—ingled his tears with those of Magdalen â—ough by his power he might have remedied her evils he would out of compassion resent them Before the doing of a miracle he would undergo a weakness and weep over a dead man whom he went about to revive He suffered sadness often to seize upon his heart and by a strange wonder he accorded joy with sorrow in his all-blessed soul. In fine according to the incounters of his life he made use of Passions He taught us that there was nothing in man which he contemn'd since he had taken his infirmities upon him and that he loved well the nature of man since he did cherish even the defects thereof For to believe that his resentments were but imaginary is in my opinion to clash against the mystery of the Incarnation to give the lye to truth it self and to give Iesus Christ a bootless honor make us doubt all the assurances of his love Since he had a true body he could have no false Passions and since he was veritably man he ought to be veretably afflicted A man gannot gainsay this truth without weakening our belief If it be permitted to suffer the tears of the Son of God to pass for illusions one may make his sorrow pass for Imposturism and under the pretence of reverency a man may overthrow the ground-work of our souls welfare But we must have a care left whilst we establish the love of the Son of God we commit no outrage upon his Greatness or Omnipotency and that whilst we allow him Passions we free them from their Disorders for we must not believe that they were unruly as are ours nor that they required all those virtues to tame them as are necessary for us He was their absolute Master and they in their Birth Progress and Continuance depended upon his Will In their Birth because they never raised themselves but by order from him but
made him over-run the world commit spoiles throughout all Asia penetrate the Indies pass the Seas be angry with Nature which by the limits thereof did bound his conquests and force him to end his designes where the Sun finisheth his course Who is not affected with pity to see Pompey who drunk with love of a false greatness undertakes civil and foreign Wars Sometimes he passes into Spain to oppress Sertorius sometimes scoures the Seas to free them from Pyrats sometimes he flies into Asia to fight with Mithridates He ransacks all the Provinces of that great part of the world makes himself Enemies where he finds none After so many Fights and Victories 't is he alone that thinks himself not great enough and though men give him that name he thinks he deserves it not unless Iulius Caesar confess it Who hath not compassion for this man who was not so much the Slave as Martyr of Ambition For he prostituted his honour to get power he became slave to his Army that he might be Master of the Senate he vowed the destruction of his Countrey to revenge himself of his Son in Law Seeing no other State against which he could exercise his cruelty he employed it against the Republick and would merit the name of Patricide that he might obtain that of Soveraign He never had any motions save those that Ambition gave him If he pardoned his Enemies 't was but only out of vain-glory and if he bewailed the death of Cato and Pompey it was perhaps for that the honour of his Victory was lessened All his thoughts were ambitious When he saw the Image of Alexander he wept not save only for that he had not yet shed bloud enough Whatsoever offered it self to his Eyes awakened his Passions and Objects which would have taught others modesty inspired him with Pride and Insolency Briefly Caesar commanded over his Army and ambition commanded over Caesar she had such â—ower over him as the foretelling of his death did not make him change his Deâ—ign and doubtlesly he would have anâ—wered for himself to the Soothsayers as Agrippina answered for her Son to the Astrologers Let him kill me provided he may reign If servitude be so irksom in ambition 't is much more shameful in obscenity It must be confest That a man who is possest by this infamous Passion hath neither Reason nor Liberty and that being inslaved to Love he is no more Master of himself Did not Cleopatra govern Mark Anthony might not this Princess boast her self to have revenged Egypt upon Italy and to have subjected the Roman Empire by putting him under her Laws who governed it This unfortunate man lived only at the pleasure of this stranger he did nothing but by her motions and never did slave labour so much to win the good will of his Master as this effeminate Prince to win the like of his proud Mistress He gave all his Charges by her directions and the best part of the Roman Empire groaned under the government of a woman He durst not overcome in the batel of Actium and rather chose to forgo his Army than his Love He was the first Commander that abandoned his Souldiers and who would not make use of their courage to defeat his Enemy but what could one expect from a man who had no more any heart and who far enough from fighting could not so much as live if parted from Cleopatra In brief read the story of all the great ones and you will find their Passions have enflamed them and that in the height of their fortune they have made use of all the punishments that tyranny could invent to afflict those that she oppresseth Therefore ought all men to make use of Reason and Grace to shun the fury of these insolent Masters every one ought to resolve in his particular rather to lose his life than his liberty and to prefer a glorious death before a shameful servitude But without coming to these extreams in this Combat a will to overcome is sufficient to be victorious for God hath permitted that our good fortune depend upon our Will together with his Grace and that our Passions should have no further power over us than we shall give them since in effect experience teacheth us that they beat us not but by our own weapons and that they make us not their slaves but by our own consent The THIRD DISCOURSE That to govern Passions a man must moderate them THough Passions be ordained for the service of virtue and that there is not any one of them the use whereof may not be advantageous to us we must notwithstanding confess that we need dexterity to govern them and that in the state whereinto sin hath reduced our Nature they cannot be useful to us unless moderated that unhappy Forefather oâ— ours who made us to inherit his fault hath not left us so pure a being as he had wheâ— he received it from God The body and soul suffer pain and as they were both guilty so are they both punished The understanding hath its errors the will her irregular inclinations the memory her weakness The body which is the Channeâ— through which Original sin passeth into the soul hath its misery and though it be the less faulty yet is it the more unfortunate all that is in it is out of order the senses are seduced by Objects these help to abuse Imagination which excites disorders in the inferior part of the soul and raiseth Passions so as they are no longer in that obedience wherein Original Justice kept them and though they be subject to the Empire of Reason yet they so mutinie as they are not to be brought within the compass of their duty but by force or cunning They are born to obey the understanding but they easily forget their condition and the commerce which they hold with the senses is the cause why they oft-times prefer their advises at the commandments of the will They raise themselves up with such might as their natural motions are for the most part violent They are horses which have more of fury than of force They are seas which are oftner troubled than calm In fine they are parts of our selves which cannot serve the understanding till it hath allaied or tamed them This ought not to seem strange 〈…〉 that know what spoil sin hath 〈…〉 nature and the very Philosopher 〈…〉 fess that virtue is an art which 〈…〉 learn'd will not find it unjust that the Passions be not obedient unless governed by Reason To execute so great a design a man must imitate nature and art and consider what means they use to finish their work Nature which doth all by the Elements and who of these four bodies composeth all others never employs them till she hath tempered their qualities As they cannot suffer together and that their natural antipathy engages them to fight this wise Mother by allaing their aversions appeaseth their differences and never unites them 'till she hath
above a mortal condition and to put storms and thunder under their feet She boasts to cure them of all their evils and to free them from those vexatious disorders which molest the Souls tranquility all those fair promises have brought forth none effects and these proud billows after having made such noise are turned to foam Certainly we owe thanks to Providence which hath rendered their endeavors vain for if they had made good their words they had deprived us of all those aids which nature hath endowed us withal to make us virtuous and the inferior part of our soul hath remained without either exercise or merit for the passions are the motions thereof they carry her whither she mindeth to go and without loosning her from her body they join her to the Objects which she looks after or keep her aloof from those she desires to shun Joy is her blooming and displaying sorrow is her contraction and pain desire is her seeking and fear her eschewing for when we are merry our soul dilates it self when afflicted she contracts her self when we desire she seems to advance and when we fear she seems to retire insomuch as those who will take the Passions from the soul take away all her motions and under colour of rendring her happy make her unprofitable and unable I know no rational man that would purchase felicity at so dear a rate and I know no true man that would promise it upon so hard a condition For if happiness consist in action and if to be content a man must taste the good which he possesseth there is none but will avow That Passions are necessary to our soul and that joy must perfect the Felicity which desire hath begun Those who side with the Stoicks will tell us peradventure That these Philosophers condemn not such desires as arise from the love of virtue nor the joy that accompanies the fruition thereof but that they blame only those irregular wishes that we make every day for Riches and Honour and that consequently they blame the vain contentment which their accomplishment brings us This answer weakens their Maximes and confirms ours for it admitteth of Passions and only forbids their excess It admits of desires and hopes and only rejects their disorder and to end all in few words It healeth the malady of our affections and doth not destroy their nature But the Stoicks were not so just and their Philosophy had in it so much of severity and so little of reason as it would have a man seek out virtue without wishing for it possess it without relishing it and that being as happy as God himself he should be void of desire hope or joy In brief it had vowed the death of our Passions and yet this proud Sect did not consider that in destroying them they caused the death of all Virtues for they are the seeds thereof and by taking a little pain in trimming and pruning of them they may be made advantageous to us Though man be not born virtuous and that art which teacheth him to become so be as difficult as it is glorious he seemeth notwithstanding to know before he learneth it that his understanding hath the principles of Truth and his will the seeds of Virtue That as science according to the Platonicks is but a remembrance or calling to mind her good habits are but natural inclinations For all his Passions are budding Virtues and if he take a little care to perfect them they become compleat Virtues Is not fear which foresees evil and shunneth it natural wisdom Is not Choler which takes up arms in the behalf of good against the enemy thereof a shadow of Justice Is not Desire which serves us from our selves to join us with somewhat that is better an Image of Charity which takes us from the Earth to raise us up to Heaven What must be added to Boldness to make thereof true Fortitude And what difference is there between Sorrow and Repentance save only that the one is the meer workmanship of Nature and the other the production of Grace but both of them are afflicted with evil and they oft-times mingle their tears to bewail the same sin In fine There are no Passions which may not become Virtues and as they have inclinations to what is good and aversions from what is evil they need but a little Government to make them change Conditions The good Application of a mans Love is sufficient to make all his Passions innocent and without taking so much pain to love aright is only requisite to make us happy in this world Since Virtue faith St. Augustine is the habit of a well governed mind we are but to moderate our Affections that they may be changed into Virtues for when our hatred and our love which are the Spring-heads of all other Passions shall be wisely modestly strongly and justly guided they will become rare Virtues and will be converted into wisdom temperance fortitude and justice Is it not then a barbarous thing to go about to strangle Passions which have such affinity with Virtue and which without much labour may be raised to so noble a Condition Is it not ingratitude to mistake the advantages which we have received from Nature and is it not injustice to give infamous names to these innocent Subjects which being well managed by Reason might merit such glorious Titles 'T is then an indubitable Maxim amongst the Philosophers That Passions are the seed of Virtues and that they have no more noble employment than to arm themselves in their behalf to fight their quarrels and to revenge them of their enemies As mothers are never more couragious than in the defence of their children the affections of our soul are never more vigorous than when they defend their products against Vices This praise puzzles the brains of all the Stoicks And Seneca could not endure that Virtues Army should be composed of souldiers that could mutinie he will not have us employ Passions in her service because some few have been found which have injured her authority Certainly if all Princes were so obdurate as is this Philosopher they would find few souldiers and they must cashier all their troops because formerly they have found some of them unfaithful The negligence of Princes is oft-times cause why the souldiers mutinie and the weakness of Reason is almost alwayes the cause of the revolt of Passions In true Philosophy the soul must be rather accused than the body and the Soveraign rather blamed than the Subjects Who sees not that fear is watchful for virtue that she always mingles her self as a Spy amongst the enemies to find out their designs that all her reports are faithful and that we are for the most part unhappy only for having neglected them who knows not that hope strengthens us and that she encourageth us to the understanding of glorious and difficult designs who doth not confess that Boldness and Choler despise danger suffering hardness and setting
change Choler into Mildness or fear into generousness would endeavour an impossibility and would have ill success in all his labours but that his designes may succeed well he must study the nature of every Passion and use all his means to turn each passion into such a virtue as it hath least aversion unto and this ought not to seem strange since the most rational of all men hath been of opinion that in the opposition which Nature hath placed between vice and virtue they had notwithstanding somewhat of resemblance one with the other for all men will confess that prodigality hath more relation to liberality than avarice and that it is not hard to reduce a prodigal man to be a liberal man every one is bound to confess that Rashness sides more with Courage than with Cowardice and that it is easier to make a rash man than a Coward couragious Therefore do Philosophers agree that of the two extreams which do environ virtue one of them is alwaies more favourable unto her and a little care being had will easily take her part and defend her interest Following the same Maxime we must confess that there are some passions which have more of affinity with some virtues than with some others and which by the help of Morality may easily become virtues That fear which foresees dangers which laboureth how to shun them which looks far into what is to come that it may find a remedy may easily be changed into wisdom provided the distraction which accompanieth it and which doth most commonly abuse us in our deliberations be taken away That hope which makes us taste a good which we do not yet enjoy which comforteth us in our misfortunes and which through our present evils shews us a future happiness may easily be converted into that virtue which we call Assurance That Choler which punisheth faults and arms us to revenge our friends injuries differs not far from Justice for provided it be not too violent and that the self interests thereof leave it light enough to guide it self it will wage war with all the wicked and take all that are innocent into its protection That boldness which encourageth us to the combate which gives assurance in danger and which makes us prefer a glorious death before a shameful retreat will become exact Valour if we suppress its inclination to fury and if we mingle a little light with the too much heat thereof Love and Hatred Desire and Eschewing are rather Virtues than Passions when governed by Reason Provided they love nothing but what is lovely and hate nothing but what is hateful they deserve praise rather than reproach Sadness and Despair Jealousie and Envy are indeed more cried down they seem to be enemies to our quiet that the Heavens have made them Ministers of their Justice and that they supply the places of those revengeful Furies which Poets feign to punish the faulty Yet may they be useful to Reason if well managed and under those hideous faces wherein they appear they hide good meanings which are of use to virtue A good emulation may be framed out of a well-regulated Envy Discreet zeal may be shaped out of moderated Jealousie without which neither prophane nor sacred yet love undertakes any thing of Generous Sorrow hath so many praises given her in the holy Scripture as it is easie to judge that if she be not amongst the number of the virtues she may be advantageously made use of to their service She loosens us from the earth and by a despising all the contentments of the world she makes us thirst after eternal delights she appeaseth Gods anger she furnisheth us with tears wherewithal to wash away our sins and to water his Altars She is always a faithful companion to Repentance and no sin in Christian Religion was ever forgiven before Sorrow and Repentance had obtained pardon Despair hath but the name of terrible but who shall well consider her effects will avow 't is a wise invention of nature which cures the greatest part of our maladies by taking away from us the hope of remedy for then we make virtue of necessity we draw force from our weakness we turn our fear into fury and our desires into contempt we set upon enemies whose approach we dare not expect and we misprize objects which we cannot abandon Thus shall we find many men who owe their quiet more to Despair than to hope and who shall well examine the humour of these two Affections will be forced to acknowledge that the one makes us miserable by her promises the other happy by her refusals that the one nourisheth our desires the other causeth them to die that the one cozeneth us and the other disabuseth us that we are lost by the flatteries of the one and saved by the others affliction This is the Reason why the greatest Poet in the world hath affirmed that Despair is that which raiseth up the Courage of the conquered and which restores unto them the Victory which Hope and Rashness had berest them of But whatever advantage I attribute to these Passions I confess they have their errors and that to make them virtuous they must be carefully cleansed And because so profitable an affair cannot be too often treated of I shall willingly observe their chiefest enormities to the end that discerning them as in a Looking-glass every one may be careful how to eface them Take blindness from love and he will be no more faulty for it is permitted to love such subjects as deserve love and there is no less injustice in denying it to personages of excellency than to grant it to deformed persons Exempt errour from hatred and hatred will become consonant to Reason for it is not just to confound the sinner with his sin and who can make this distinguishment may boast to hate with justice desire and eschewing are innocent provided they be moderated joy and sorrow are only blameable in their excess and the same Reason which permits us to taste with pleasure a good which we wish for doth not forbid us sorrowing for an evil which we apprehend Hope is only then unjust when she measureth not her forces and despair is only then faulty when it takes its rise rather from our remissness than from our weakness Boldness is then praise-worthy when it grapples with a danger which it may overcome and fear is wisdom when it shuns a danger it cannot overcome Choler is an act of justice when born against sin and provided it be not judge in its own cause it pronounceth none but lawful decrees Envy is generous provided it excite us unto virtue and that it lay before us the good qualities of our neighbour only so far forth as that we may imitate them Jealousie is only hateful because it hath in it too much of love yet this fault is pardonable when not accompanied with suspition and if the beloved cannot cure it they are bound to endure
rewards and that in the Roman Common-wealth where they gave but an oaken Garland to such souldiers as had mounted a Breach they made them pass the Pikes for having gone out of their Rank or forsaken their Colours that God himself whose government ought to serve for an example to all Princes governed his people with more severity than lenity that he had been constrained to express himself by the voice of Thunder to work obedience to him that he had not preserved his authority by the death of Rebels and that notwithstanding whatever inclination he had to Mercy he was enforced to have recourse to Justice Briefly they say Soveraignty is somewhat hateful that Love and Majesty agree not well together that one cannot rule over men and be beloved that men are so jealous of their liberty as they hate all things that obviate it and that Princes according to the Maxime in the Gospel have no greater enemies than their Subjects Those who take part with love have no less specious reasons and much more true ones for they say that the Soveraign being the Father of his people he is bound to treat them as his Children that fear makes them only Masters of the Body and that love makes them rule over the Heart That such as fear their Masters seek an end of their servitude and that such as love them dream not of recovering their Liberty That such Princes as govern with rigour cannot live securely that of necessity those who cause fear must themselves be subject thereto and that they must fear their peoples revolt who only obey them through constraint That if nothing that is violent be of continuance an Empire which is only grounded upon violence cannot long subsist and to answer the reasons objected unto them they reply that love enters much better into the heart than doth fear that if there be angersom ways to make a man be feared there be innocent Charms to make him be beloved that in generously-minded men recompenses make greater impressions than punishments and that the promises of a Prince more animates his subjects than doth his threats that contempt cannot arise from love since love ariseth from valuation and is always accompanied by respect that the justest Monarchies and not the severest have flourished the most and that if in the Roman Common-wealth punishments exceeded recompenses it was not for that fear made deeper impressions in the souls of men than love but because Vice hath not so much of ugliness as virtue hath of beauty and that it is not necessary to propound honour unto her who finding all her glory within her self is as well satisfied with silence as amidst all acclamations and applause That if God dealt rigorously with his people 't was contrary to his inclination and that his lenity had been greater than his severity because the latter could not purchase him all Iudaea and the former hath submitted unto him the whole world St. Paul represents us with the difference between these two laws often in the holy Scripture the one of which hath made slaves the other hath produced children the one of which hath fortified sin the other hath destroyed the tyranny thereof They add that Soveraignty is not odious since it was consecrated in the person of Jesus Christ who desirous to serve as an example to all Kings on earth never used his power but in order of service to his mercy and never did any miracle unless to help the afflicted In fine that subjects did not repine at the loss of their liberty since that being voluntary they like it that Princes are not the objects of fear since they are the images of God and that some Princes have been found even among Infidels who have been their peoples delight whilst alive and their sorrow when dead Though these answers be so pertinent as they are not be gainsaid yet methinks both the parties may be reconciled and their difference so taken away as that each of them should therein find their advantage for though lenity be to be preferred before rigour and that a State be better grounded upon love than upon fear there are occasions wherein a Prince ought to let his clemency give place to his severity wherein he is obliged to quit the quality of a Father that he may exercise the like of a Judge He ought to govern his humor according to the humor of his Subjects if they be giddy-headed or proud he must use rigour to teach them obedience and fidelity if troublesom and prone to Rebellion he must make examples and by the punishment of a few frighten more if unquiet and desirous of novelty he must punish them by keeping them in continual employment but amidst all these punishments he must not forget that he is the head of his State that his subjects are a part of himself and that he ought to be as sparing in punishing them as a Physitian in cutting off the Arm or Leg of a diseased person If nothing be done in his Kingdom which enforceth him to Rigour if all things be peaceable and if the people under his government have no other motions than his own will he ought to deal gently with them afford them just liberty which may perswade them that they are rather his children than his subjects and that reserving to himself the marks only of Soveraignty he permits them to gather all the fruits thereof In brief he ought not to use Rigor but when Clemency is bootless in his government as well as in the like of God mildness must precede severity and all the world must know that he punisheth not the faulty out of his own inclination but forc'd thereunto by necessity The power of a Prince is sufficiently dreadful by reason of his greatness he need not make it odious by his cruelty One word of theirs terrifies all their subjects the punishment of one guilty person astonisheth all the rest their anger maketh even the innocent to quake and as a Thunderbolt does little harm yet frightens much so great men cannot punish a particular personage without infusing terror throughout their whole Dominions I therefore am of opinion with the wisest Politicians That Soveraignty ought to be tempered with lenity and that being accompanied with all qualities that may make it be feared it ought to seek out all such means as may make it be beloved The FOURTH DISCOURSE What Passions ought to reign in the power of a Prince ONe of the greatest Misfortunes which can befall Religion is the liberty which men take to frame unto themselves such a Divinity as liketh them best In the first age every one adored the workmanship of his own hands and made an Idol unto himself which had its worth from the industry of the Workman or from the excellency of the Materials in pursuit of time as mens spirits grew more refined Poets made the gods sensible and gave them all such affections as
by unlawful wayes and as some make fortunate faults pass for Virtues these took glorious pieces of injustice for heroick Actions The first Caesar held this Maxime his ambition perswaded him that nothing was infamous that could purchase him honor and that he ought not to consider whether an enterprise were just or unjust provided that it might add unto his reputation and make his Name look big in Story His Son in Law was of the same opinion and though he had fairer pretences for his designs his motives thereunto were no better for under colour of preserving the Common-wealth he increased his particular authority and by a detestable piece of Art he made use of the Senate to establish his tyranny There needs no great policy go to the observation that so unruly a Passion is disadvantageous to States and that this is not that which ought to precede in the soul of Princes I shall therefore willingly side with those who attribute this honour to the zeal of Justice and who will have the hearts of Monarchs animated by this harmless affection for since the welfare of their people is the end of all their labours the justice that must produce and preserve it must be the scope of their desires and they must maintain a well grounded quiet in the variety of conditions whereof their States are compounded Who is not indued with this virtue knows not how to reign and though he have all the rest he deserves not to bear a Scepter since he wants that which makes Kings good and Kingdoms happy I cannot end this Discourse without taking notice of the excessive obligation which we have to Divine providence who hath given us a Prince of so pure inclinations as he seems to have no part in this sin which hath put our nature out of order and who loveth Justice so passionately as he would be therewithal adorn'd and chose the title of just as the only recompence of all his heroick virtues He might have assumed unto to himself the title of happy as well as Sylla since the Sea hath born respect unto his endeavours that the Alpes have humbled themselves and their Snow dissolved to make way for his victorious forces and that upon a thousand occasions the Elements have fought in his behalf he might have taken the title of Great as well as Alexander since his Actions have exceeded our hopes and that he hath undertaken and effected designs which all his predecessors have thought unpossible Lastly he might have challenged the name of Victorious as well as Trajan since men may number his Victories by his Battels since his souldiers were never worsted in his presence and since good success hath alwayes accompanied his Enterprizes But knowing that Justice is the Virtue of Kings he hath contented himself with the Title of Iust and hath preferred it before those of Happy Great or Victorious to teach all Monarchs that Zeal of the publick good is the passion which chiefly ought to rule in them The end of the First Part. The Second Part of the Vse of PASSIONS Of Passions in particular The First Treatise of Love and Hatred The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Properties and Effects of Love DIvinity teacheth us that there is nothing more hidden yet nothing more known than the God whom we adore his Essence fills the world and his Immensity is such as he can produce nothing which he encloseth not all creatures are the Images of his greatness and the proofs of his power one cannot see them without knowing him and they by their motions discover unto us what the Prophets have declared unto us in their Writings yet is there nothing more secret than he he is every where and he is no where he makes himself to be felt yet will not suffer himself to be touched he environeth us yet will not permit us to approach him all people know he is and no Philosophers know what he is The belief that we have that he is is so ingraven in the very ground-works of our Essence as to eface it were to annihilate our selves yet cannot our understanding comprehend him and this Sun casts about so much light as dazles the eyes that would behold him Though love be but a Passion of our Soul yet hath it this advantage common with the Divine Essence that it is as secret as it is publick and that there is nothing in nature more evident yet nothing more hidden Every one speaks of Love as of the soul that preserves the Universe and as the secret knot which entertains the Society of the world our desires declare it and a man that wisheth witnesses his love our hopes divulge it and all our Passions do discover it yet is it retreated too within the bottom of our hearts and all the marks that it giveth of its presence are as many clouds which hide it from our understandings men feel the power thereof yet cannot explain its Essence even they who live under its Empire and who reverence the Laws thereof are ignorant of its nature Poets who interest themselves in its greateess will have it pass for a god lest men may blame the violence of Love they give it a stately name and endeavour to excuse the true fury thereof by a false Piety The Platonicks make Love a Spirit and attribute unto it so absolute a power over the Passions as they will have even Hatred it self to obey its Will and will have Hatred change all her Rage into Mildness that she may please Love The Stoicks term Love a Fury and judging of its nature by its effects they cannot believe that that motion of our soul be well ruled which is as direful to us as Hatred and which hath so little government as it most commonly offendeth even those whom it intendeth to oblige The Peripateticks dare not give it any name at all for fear of being mistaken and Aristotle who defineth the most hidden things contents himself with the description thereof leaving us in a despair how to know a Passion which he knew not Sometimes he terms it sympathizing sometimes an inclination sometimes a complacency and teacheth us by these different terms that the nature of Love is no less obscure than is the nature of the Soul Amongst so many doubts some Philosophers affirm that it is the first impression which the Bonum sensible makes in the heart of man that 't is a pleasing wound which man hath received from a fair Object that it is the Beam of a Sun which warms him that it is a Charm whose virtue is attractive and that it is the first motion which carries him either to what appears to be good or to what truly is so But if I may be permitted to differ from common opinions that I may follow the more true I will say that Love is all the Passions that according to its different conditions it hath different names but that custom hath so prevailed as in its
sacrilegious person which doth prophane it we must not wonder if Love which is the holiest Passion of our Soul meet with impious persons which corrupt it and who contrary to its own inclination make it serve their designs for love seeks only the Summum bonum she is not without some sort of violence made to love her own particular good which is but the shadow of what she desires to abuse it therefore sin must disorder nature and turn natural love into self-love making the Spring-head of good the original of all our evil For during the state of innocency men had no love save only for good and nature was so well temper'd with grace as that all her inclinations were holy In this happy condition charity and self love were the same thing and a man feared not to injure his neighbour by loving himself but since his disobedience his love changed Nature he who looked upon another mans advantage and his own with the same Eye began to separate them and forgetting what he ought to God he made a god of himself He confounded all the Laws of Innoceney and as if he alone had been in the world he forsook the sweets of Society he took a resolution to rule his affections by his own interests and to love no longer any thing but what was useful and pleasing unto him This mischief like poyson disperst it self throughout the whole fabrick of Nature and Reason cannot defend her self against it without the assistance of Grace The gallantest actions lost their lustre by this irregularity Philosophy by all her precepts could not reform a disorder which was rather in the bottom of Nature than in the Will She put some of her might to fight against this Monster and spying a glimering of light amidst the darkness with which she was blinded she confessed that man did not belong so much to himself as to his Country and that he ought endeavour more the glory of the State than the good of his own family She thought that the love of our neighbour should be formed upon the love of our selves and believed that in willing us to treat them as our selves she had corrected all the abuse of Humane Nature But this malady lying not only in the Understanding her advice was not sufficient to cure it so as she was enforced to confess that there was none could reform man but he that made him Thus shall we find no remedy for our misfortunes but by the assistance of Grace and our desires have had no freedom save since Jesus Christ came into the world to banish self-love from out our souls for his coming had no other motive nor his Doctrine any other end than the ruine of this dreadful Monster He setteth upon it throughout all his Maxims and hardly doth any word proceed from his divine mouth which gives it not a mortal wound He protests he would admit of no Disciples who have not changed their selflove into an holy aversion and that he will not suffer any Subject in his Kingdom who are not ready to lose their lives for the glory of their Soveraign He condemns the excess of riches and the love of honour only for that they nourish this inordinate Passion and he obligeth us to love our enemies only to teach us to hate our selves Mortification and Humility which are the ground-works of his doctrine tend only to destroy this inordinate affection which we bear unto our Souls or our Bodies In fine he hath appointed us charity only to overthrow self-self-love and he died upon the Cross only to make his enemy die which is the cause of all our quarrels and divisions We ought also to confess that this evil includes all others and that there is no disorder in the world which doth not acknowledge this for its original and I am of opinion that a man cannot only not make a good Christian of one that doth too excessively love himself but I hold that according to the laws of Policy and Morality one cannot make a good man nor a good Statesman of such a man for Justice it absolutely necessary in all manner of conditions and this Virtue cannot subsist with self-love Justice will have a man endued with Reason to prefer the inclinations of the soul before those of the body and that he preserve all the rights of authority to the Soveraign Self-love which leans always towards the flesh will have the slave to govern his Master and that the Body command over the Soul Justice will have a good man not to wish for any thing which exceeds his merit or his birth and she instructeth him that to be happy and innocent he must prescribe bounds to his designs Self-love commands us to follow our own inclinations and to govern our desires only according to our Vanity it flatters our Ambition and to insinuate it self into us it gives us leave to do what we please Justice will have a good Statesman prefer the publick interest before that of his own house that he be ready to lose his wealth and to sacrifice his own person for the preservation of his Country she perswades him that there is no death more glorious than that which is suffered for the defence of a mans Country and that the Horatii and Scaevola's are famous in the Roman History only for having sacrificed themselves to the Glory of their Common-wealth though there be nothing more natural to a man than to love his Children some men have been found whom Justice hath made to lose this affection to preserve the like of good Statesmen who solicited by this Virtue have butcherd those whose fathers they were teaching by so rigorous an example that the love to a mans Country ought to exceed the love to his own flesh and blood A State cannot be happy wherein there 〈◊〉 any doubts made of these Maxims as oft 〈◊〉 the publick interest shall give way unto thâ—â— particular it shall always be near ruine anâ— shall have no less trouble to defend it selâ— against its subjects than against its enemies Self-love this mean while makes a man labour only for his own pleasure or glory 〈◊〉 makes this the end of all his actions anâ— doth so bind man up within himself as 〈◊〉 suffereth him not to consider the publick if he do his Country any service it is in order to his own particular good and wheâ— he seems most busie for the good of thâ— State he wisheth the slavery thereof 〈◊〉 conspires its ruine Marius Scilla do witness these truths Pompey and Caesar haâ—â— made us see how dangerous such Statesmen are who love themselves better than thâ— Common-wealth and who so they maâ— preserve their own power fear not to 〈◊〉 press their Countries liberty In Religion this unjust Passion is 〈◊〉 more fatal and Piety can never agree wiâ—â— Self-love For there is no man that understands any thing who will not affirm thâ— to be godly a man must submit himself 〈◊〉
impression on their senses than Virtue they must imitate the Prophet which had sentenced his eyes not to look upon those innocent countenances which seemed not to infuse other than chaste thoughts In fine they should resolve never to approach near those malign Constellations which burn more than they do enlighten and which raise more tempests than they shed light abroad To remedy these evils we must implore aid from Charity for it is she that purifies Love that reforms the excesses and amends the errors thereof she will not have it to be excessive neither will she that it be confined to our own persons or to our families she knows that Love is disperst throughout all the world that when it goes from us it passeth into our enemies It takes its birth saith St. Augustine in marriage and enlargeth it self upon the children that proceed from thence But in this condition 't is carnal That Passion is not to be commended amongst men which is observed to be in Tigers and a man cannot praise such natural affections in reasonable creatures as are seen in the most savage beasts In its progress it extends it self to our Kindred and begins to be rational for though he that loves his Parents loves his Bloud and that though his love forgo his own Person it doth not forgo his Family yet is his love more expiated than is the love of Fathers and communicates it self to personages which are not so near unto him as are his Children in the vigour thereof it passeth even unto strangers it receives them into its house it makes them share of what it hath and not considering either their humors or their languages their very having the aspects of men is sufficient to make them the objects of its liberality in this acceptation Love is well waxen but to be perfect it must descend even to our enemies and induing us with strength to overcome our inclinations it obligeth us to do good to them who endeavour to do us harm When it is arrived at this pitch it may hope for reward but if it stop in the middle of its Carier it must expect nothing but punishment These words comprehend all the use of this Passion and I can add nothing thereunto which will not prove weak or useless passing therefore forward I come to the last Object of our Love which is Creatures void of Reason I wonder that in this point all men joyn not with the Stoicks and that their opinion passeth not for a law among all the people of the world for they hold that Creatures which want reason do not deserve our love and that our will is given us only to tie us to God or to man Truly if this Maxim be a Paradox I hold it extreamly rational for what appearance is there that we should bestow our affection on Creatures which not knowing it cannot be obliged to us for it and having no obligation cannot be conscious of our affection In my opinion no man can be more prodigal than is the avaritious man since he engageth his affection to an insensible Metal and that he loves without hope of being re-beloved I think no man more irrational than he who ties his love to the beauty of a flower which for all its odour and splendor is not sensible of the adoration that is given it I cannot endure those extravagant men who place all their Passions upon a Dog or a Horse which do them no other service than what they are carried unto either by instinct or by necessity I therefore think the profit which we reap by them should be the rule of the affection we bear them or to speak more correctly we must rather love ourselves in them than them for our selves for they are too much beneath us to deserve our love and though some shadow of fidelity be observed to be amongst Dogs and some sparks of love amongst horses yet both of them being void of reason they are uncapable of friendship To set our hearts on things insensible is to prophane them It is not just that the same soul which may love the Angels love dumb beasts that the soul which may unite himself to God join itself to Metals and that it lodge in the same heart the noblest of all spirits with the most imperfect of all bodies I would then make use of Gold yet not love it I would be Master thereof yet not Slave thereunto I would keep it for my occasions not adore it I would teach the whole world that it hath no valuation but what the good employment thereof bestows upon it and that it is no less useless in the bowels of the earth than in the Coffers of the Avaritious But not to be mistaken in so important an affair we must use some distinction and say that the Creatures may be considered in a threefold acceptation either as ways that lead us to our last end and thus they ought to be loved or as nets which stay us on the earth and thus they ought to be shunned or as Instruments which Divine Justice makes use of to punish us withal and thus they ought to be reverenced for when the Creatures lead us unto God that they express unto us his beauty and that their perfections raise us up to the consideration of him that is their fountain there is no harm in loving them and it were a piece of injustice not to acknowledge in them him whose Images they are God himself hath invited us so to do when he made them he praised them and having given them his approbation he obligeth us to give them our love yet this our love must be moderate and must unite us no further to them than they may unite us to the Creator we must look upon them as Pictures which we love not but only for his sake whom they represent we must consider their beauties as the shadows of the like in God and never permit that their perfections engage us so strongly that we reserve not freedom enough to forgo them when our Souls health or the glory of Jesus Christ requires it If the Devil make use of them to seduce us and if by the permission which he hath received from God he employ them to tempt us If he will make the Stars serve to make us Idolaters if he will corrupt our innocence with gold if he make our pride swell or sooth our vanity with riches and if by beauty he will rob us of our continency we must shun them as nets spred abroad in the world to surprize us and as things which since the fall of man seem to have changed their inclination since they labour now to undo him as they formerly laboured for his welfare If in fine they be serviceable to the justice of God if through a zeal to his honour they pursue his enemies if the earth quake underneath our feet if the thunder roar above our heads and if the fire and water
agree to declare war unto us we must suffer them with respect and love them with so much ardency as we may with less danger for in this acceptation they have nothing of charm in them which may flatter or abuse us they are rather hateful than loving they cause in us rather a fear of God than love of our selves and by an happy effect they loosen us from the earth and raise us up to heaven this counsel comprehends all that Religion teacheth us touching the use of the creatures and whosoever shall upon occasions make use thereof will by experience find that they are never less dangerous than when most cruel and that they never oblige us more than when they punish us most severely The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Properties and Effects of Love THose who judge of things by their appearances imagine there is nothing more contrary to man than Hatred and that since he takes his name from Humanity he should not tolerate a passion which breathes forth nothing but bloud and finds no delight but in murder Yet it is a part of his being and if he need love to fasten him unto objects which may preserve him he hath need of hatred to drive him from those that may destroy him These two motions are so natural to all Creatures as they subsist not but by the love of their like and by the hatred of their contraries The world had been ruined ere this had not the Elements whereof it is composed kept it in being by their oppositions and accords did not water by reason of the coldness thereof resist fire fire would ere this have reduced all into ashes and having no further fuel to nourish it it would have consumed it self our humors which are nothing but tempered elements preserve us by their natural Antipathies and Choler would have dried up our whole body were it not perpetually watered with flegm so as the great and little world consist only by the contrariety of their parts and if the author which hath produced them should appease their difference he would overthrow all his work which would cease to love one another if they ceased to hate their contraries What is seen in Nature is observed in Morality where the soul hath her inclinations and aversions to preserve and to defend her self to fasten her self to things she likes and to make her keep aloof off from what she likes not And had not God indued her with these two Passions she would be reduced to a necessity of suffering all the evils which assail her not having power to oppose them or hope to defeat them Hatred is then as requisite as Love we should have reason to complain of Nature if having given us inclinations to what is good she should not likewise have given us an aversion from the contrary and if she had not indued our souls with as much vigour to shun objects which are prejudicial to her as to draw near to these that are useful These two inclinations differ then only in their objects and to speak exactly we must say that Love and Hatred make but one and the same Passion which changes name according to their different uses which is called Love when it hath a liking to what is good and Hatred when it abhors what is evil Leaving here the first effect of Hatred which we have already considered we will now examine the second and will see what the nature properties and effects thereof are Hatred in her birth is nothing else but a meer aversion in us from whatsoever is contrary unto us 'T is an antipathy of our Appetite to a subject which displeaseth it 'T is the first impression which a true or an appearing evil makes in the lowest part of our soul 't is a wound which we have received from a displeasing object and it is the beginning of that motion which our Soul makes to keep aloof off or to defend it self from an enemy which pursues it She hath this in common with Love that she oft-times prevents Reason and shapes her self in our will not consulting with our judgment She takes offence at divers things which are not unpleasing in themselves and many times one and the same object causeth Hatred and Love in two different personages Sometimes it so falls out that according to the divers dispositions of our minds we like what formerly we have disliked that which did hurt us cures us and becomes the remedy of the evil which it caused she hath this of different with Love that she is much more sensible For Love is oft-times formed in our Souls before we are aware our friends must give us notice thereof and those whose company we keep must teach us that we do love we must reflect upon our selves to know this Passion in its birth and as it is extreamly delightful it wounds us so pleasingly as we do not feel the hurt till by process of time it become an incurable Ulcer But Hatred discovers it self as soon as it is conceived because it proceeds from an Object wherein we are only concern'd as it hurteth us it makes us suffer in its birth and from the time that it possesseth us it becomes our punishment It is as readily formed as Love a moment serves to produce it in our wills notwithstanding the little care we have to entertain it It disposeth its flames abroad into all the faculties of our Soul and as the most active of all the Elements it feeds upon whatever it encountereth but it hath this of misfortune that it is not so soon efaced as is Love when it hath once taken root in the heart there is no tearing of it out time which hath produced it preserves it and Philosophy is defective of sufficient reasons to cure a man who is affected with this troublesom malady Religion it self is never more troubled than when she oppugns so opinionated a passion the Son of God seems to have descended upon earth only to teach us to subdue Hatred and to pardon our enemies Neither did he oblige us to this duty till he had suffered death for his enemies he believed that to establish so strange a Doctrine it must be confirmed by his example authorized by his death and signed by his own bloud Thus did he declare war to a passion which hath this advantage over other Passions as that it endeth not with our self it is so dearly esteemed of by men as it is their sole entertainment It serves to divert them when they are displeased and though it corrode their Bowels it gives content to their heart I have heard of a Princess who after having lost her Kingdom and her Liberty found comfort in the hatred she bore her enemies and confessed she was not so much possess'd with sorrow for her past happiness as by her desire of revenge We see fathers who having their souls hanging upon their lips and who being no longer able to live do yet think how to continue
contribute to their punishments and that Divine Justice makes use of their Enlightnings and Beauties to make them the more miserable but this consideration hinders not that their nature be not good and that God see not in the Ground-work of their Being Qualities which he loveth and conserveth as he sees in the ground-work of their Wills qualities which he detests and punisheth Therefore 't is that hatred seemed useless and that to exercise it a man must go out of this world to seek for creatures which may be the object of his indignation for there is nothing neither in Heaven nor in Earth which is not lovely if we meet with any thing which crosses our inclinations we must attribute it to our ill humor or else we must blame sin for it which having disordered our will hath given it irrational antipathies and forceth it to hate the workmanship of God I know there are natural aversions between insensible creatures and that it is no little wonder that the worlds peace is caused by the discord of the Elements If their bodies of which all other bodies are compounded had not some difference amongst them Nature could not subsist anh 't is Gods will that their warfare be the worlds quiet but to boot that their quarrels are innocent and that they set not upon one another to destroy but to preserve themselves their Combats are caused through their defaults and their bad intelligence proceeds from their being imperfect for those other bodies which are more noble and which natural Philosophers call perfectè mixta do not wage war they cease not to love though they have different inclinations and they oft-times use violence upon themselves that they may not trouble the worlds tranquility whence I infer that if a man bear a dislike unto his neighbour he ought to blame his own misery and confess that his hatred is an evident proof of his defaults for if he could reconcile the particular differences of others he would love in them what he should find in himself and he could not hate that in their persons which he should observe to be in his own but he cannot tolerate their advantages because he himself is not Master thereof the bonds which Nature hath prescribed unto him close him in within himself and separate him from all others If he were an universal good he would love every particular good and if he were indued with all the perfections that are found in all men he would find none that would contrary him but he is unjust because he is poor and his aversion takes its original from his poverty God suffers not these unfortunate divisions his infinite love cannot be bounded as he is the summum bonum he loves all things that bear any badge of goodness as he gathers up within himself all these perfections which are disperst abroad in his workmanship he cherisheth them all together and he hath no aversion because he hath no defaults Hatred is then a weakness in our nature a proof of our indigence and a Passion which a man cannot with Reason employ against the handy-works of God Self-love is the secend cause of its disorder for if we were more regulate in our affections we should be more moderate in our aversions and not consulting with our own interests we should hate nothing but what is truly odious but we are so unjust as we judge of things only by the credit we bear them we condemn them when they displease us we approve of them when they like us and by a strange blindness we esteem them good or evil only by the satisfaction or displeasure which they cause in us we would have them change qualities according to our humours that like Camelions they should assume our colours and accommodate themselves to our desires we would be the Center of the world and that all creatures had no other inclinations than what we have The fairest seem ugly to us because they are not pleasing to us we are offended with the brightness of the Sun because the weakness of our eyes cannot tolerate it the beams of Virtue dazle us because that virtue condemns our defaults truth which is the second object of Love becomes the object of our indignation because she censures our offences there is nothing of truly glittering but her light she discovers all the beauties of nature which would to no use have produced so many rare Master pieces had not truth taught us how to know them Truth hath more lovers saith St. Austin than Hellen of Greece all Philosophers court her she is the subject of all their contestations she infuseth Jealousies into them and they dispute with as much heat to possess her as do two Rivals to enjoy a Mistress every one seeks her out by several ways Divines in her Fountains head which is Divinity Naturalists in the bowels of the earth Alchymists in the bosom of Metals Painters and Poets under Colours and Fables yet this beauty which causeth so much love to the whole world ceaseth not to have enemies she angers those she would oblige she loseth her friends in thinking to preserve them if she make her self be beloved of them by instructing them she makes her self be hated by reprehending them and she then becomes odious when she ought to be most beloved It is therefore extreamly dangerous to employ a Passion which assails Virtue oftner than Vice and which contrary to the design of him that indued us therewithal undertakes good and wages war with it because having some shadow of evil it crosses our interests or our delights For remedy of this evil I would advise to consider well the things which we hate and to look on them on that side which may render them agreeable unto us for as they are good in their foundation we shall always find some quality in them which will oblige us to love them and we shall observe even in our enemies some advantages which will force an estimation from us the injuries they have done us and whereupon we ground the justice of our resentments will furnish us with reasons to excuse them and if we will calmly examine them we shall confess that there is hardly any injury which bears not with it its excuse for that I may make use of Seneca's words and to confute Christians by Infidels methinks there can no outrage be done which may not be sweetned when a man shall consider the motive or the quality thereof Hath a woman offended you you must pardon the weakness of her sex and remember that she is as subject to do amiss as to change Is it a Child that hath injured you you must excuse his age which suffers him not yet to distinguish between what is good bad Hath your enemy used outrage to you it may be you have obliged him so to do and in this case Reason wills that you suffer your turn about for what you have made him suffer Is it your
and contentedly forgo them But the chief use we ought to make of so noble a Passion is thereby to raise us up to God and to make thereof a glorious chain to fasten us inseparably to him as he is the only object of Love he is also the only object of desires they miss of their end when they keep aloof from him they lose themselves when they seek not him and they stop in the midst of their course when they come not full home to him He is the Spring-head of all perfections and as they are without mixture of default there is nothing in them which is not perfectly wishable we see some creatures which have certain charms which make them be desired but then they have imperfections to make them be undervalued the Sun is so full of glory and beauty as it hath made Idolaters one part of the world doth yet worship it and Christian Religion which is spread over the whole earth hath not been able to dis-deceive all Infidels yet hath its weaknesses which teacheth Philosophers that it is but a creature the light thereof is bounded and cannot at one and the same time enlighten the two halves of the world it suffers Eclipses nor can it shun them it grows faint and sees it self obscured by a constellation not so great nor glorious as it self it hath benign influences it hath also malignant ones if it concur with the birth of man it doth the like to his death if it be the father of flowers it is also their Paricide if the brightness thereof serve to light us it doth also dazle us if the heat thereof warm Europe it scorcheth Africa so as the noblest of all constellations hath its defaults and if it cause desire in us it is also cause of aversions under-valuations but God hath nothing that is not lovely innumerable numbers of Angels see all his perfections and are destin'd to honor them they have immortal lovers which adore them from the beginning of the world men who know them desire them and wish death unto themselves that they may enjoy them this Summum bonum is that which we ought to seek after for him it is that our wishes were given us our heart is sinful when it divides its love and gives but one part thereof to him that deserves the whole Gods abundance and mans indigence are the first links of alliance which we contract with him He is all and we are nothing He is a depth of mercy and we are a depth of misery He hath infinite perfections and we faults without number He possesseth no greatness which is not to be wisht for we suffer no want which obliges us not to make wishes He is all desirable and we are all desire and to express our nature aright it will suffice to say that we are only a meer capacity of good there is no part of our Body nor faculty of our Soul which doth not oblige us to seek him we make Inrodes in the world by our desires we wander in our affections but after having considered the beauty of Heaven and the riches of the Earth we are constrained to return again unto our selves to fix our selves on him who is the ground-work of our being and to confess that none but God alone is able to fill the capacity of our heart Let us draw these advantages from our misery and let us rejoyce that Nature hath endowed us with so many desires since they have wings which raise us up to God and chains which fasten us to him Upon all other occasions desires are useless and after having made us Long a long time they furnish us not with what they made us hope for they torment us whilst they possess us and when despair causes them to die they leave us only shame and sorrow for having listned to so evil Councellors I know very well that they awaken the Soul and that they endue it with vigor to compass the good which it wishes for but the good success of our undertakings depends not upon their efficacy and should the things that we love cost us nothing but desires all ambitious men would be Kings all covetous men rich and we should hear no Lovers complain of the rigors of their Mistresses or of their infidelity women would take their Husbands from their Graves Mothers would cure their sick children and captives would regain their liberty we should do as many Miracles as make wishes and all mischief would be banish'd from off the earth since men can wish but experience shews us they are for the most part impotent and that their accomplishment depends upon the supream providence which at its pleasure can turn them into effects those that concern our souls health are never useless fervency in wishing is sufficient to make a man good our conversion depends only upon our will our desire animated by Grace blots out all our sins and though God be so great he hath only cost them wishes that possess him this Passion dilates our soul and makes us capable of the good we wish for she extends our heart and prepares us to receive the happiness which she procures us In fine she gets audience of God makes her self be understood without speaking and she hath such power in heaven as nothing is denied to her demands she glorified Jesus Christ and the Saints Christ takes from them the most ancient of his Names and before he was known by that of Saviour of the world he was already known by that of the desired of all the people His Prophets honoured him with this title before he was born He who shewed us the time of his coming took his title from his wishes and merited to be called the man of Desires His Vows did advance the Mystery of the Incarnation the like of the Virgin did obtain the accomplishment thereof ours will taste the effect thereof if they grow not weary in begging them at Gods hands The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of the good evil use of Eschewing NAture would have failed us at our need if having endued us with Love to good things she had not furnished us with desire to seek after them These good things which now are cause of our happiness would cause all our punishments if being permitted to love them we should be forbidden to wish for them the Summum bonum would only serve to make us miserable and the virtue which it hath to attract hearts would contribute to our misery if we wanted a capacity of atchieving it We should have equal reason to complain of her charity if having imprinted in our hearts the hatred of evil she had not likewise engraven therein that Passion which we call Shunning or Eschewing to make us keep aloof from it for we should see our enemy and not have the power to defend our selves from him we should have an aversion from vice yet should be enforced to
The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Audacity or Boldness SInce the Nature of man is out of order and that she stands in need of Grace to recover the Innocence which she hath lost we must not wonder if Passions not succour'd by Virtue become criminal and if by their proper inclination they degenerate into some sins Effects are always answerable to their Causes the fruit holds of the tree and men for all their freedom draw their humors from the Sun that lightens them and from the earth that nourisheth them whatsoever can be taken to correct their defaults some marks thereof remain always and education is never powerful enough wholly to change Nature This is evidently seen in Fear for she leanâ— so much toward disorder as it is very hard to stay her and she is so giddy a humour that she oftner sides with Vice than with Virtue she is so unconstant that she produceth rather contrary than different effects and she takes upon her so many several shapes as it is hard to know her Sometimes she bereaves us of our strength and brings us to a condition of not defending our selves sometimes she infuseth a chilness throughout all our members and detaining the bloud about the heart she makes the image of Death appear in our faces anon she takes our speech away from us and leaves us only sighs to implore aid from our friends sometimes she fastens wings to our feet and makes us overcome them by our swiftness who overcame us by their courage sometimes she imitates Despair and paints out the danger so hideous to us on all parts as she makes us resolve to change a fearful flight into an honourable resistance she is sometimes so indiscreet as thinking to shun an evil she runs headlong upon it and oftentimes out of a strange fantasticalness she engageth her self in a certain death to shun a doubtful one If her effects be extravagant her inclinations are not more rational for unless she be guided by wisdom she easily degenerates into hatred despair or loathfulness we do not much love what we fear and as love is so free that it cannot endure constraint it is so noble as it cannot tolerate an outrage all that doth affright it irritates it when men will by violence overcome it it turneth to Aversion and changeth all its gentleness into choler hence it is that Tyrants have no Friends for being bound to make themselvs dreaded they cannot make themselves be beloved and their government being grounded upon rigour it cannot produce love those who are nearest them hate them the praises which men give them are false and of so many Passions which they endeavour to excite Fear Hatred are the only true ones likewise seeing that the mischief of their condition obligeth them to cruelty they renounce Love and care not though they be hated so they be feared God alone can accord the two Passions it is only he that can make himself to be feared of those that love him and loved of those that fear him yet do Divines confess that perfect Charity banisheth Fear and that those who love him best are those who fear him least But though it be usual for this Passion to turn it self into Hatred yet is she not always permitted so to do and this change is a sign of her ill nature there are some whom we ought to fear and cannot hate their greatness obligeth us to respect them and their justice forbids us to hate them that Majesty which environs them produceth fear but the protection which we draw from thence ought to make us love them so as the propensity to Hatred is a disorder in Fear and to follow her irrational inclination is to abuse this Passion She also easily changeth her self into Despair and though she march differing ways she fals into the same praecipice for she paints out dangers in so horrid a manner unto Hope as she makes her â—ose all her courage and this generous Passion suffers her self to be so far perswaded by â—er enemy that keeping aloof from the gâ—od which she did pursue they both of them turn to an infamous Faint-heartedness But of all the monsters which fear doth produce none is more dangerous than Slothfulness for though this vice be not so active as others and that her nature which is remiss suffers her not to frame any great designs against Virtue yet is it guilty of all the outrages that are done thereunto and seems to be found in all the counsels which are plotted to her prejudice it hath such an aversion to labour as it cannot endure Innocence because she is laborious and we may say that if it be not one of her most violent enemies it is the most dangerous most opinionated enemy that Innocence hath it produceth all the sins which cover themselves with darkness and to make them cease it would be only requisite to kill this their Father which gives them their birth 't is this that nourisheth uncleanness and Love would have no vigour were it not for it 't is this that entertains Voluptuousness and who to amuse her doth furnish her with shameful entertainments 't is this that authorizeth Poormindedness and which diverts it from those glorious labours that make men famous 'T is this in fine which loseth States which corrupteth Manners which banisheth Virtues and is the cause of all Vices mean while it assumes to it self a venerable name and to colour its laziness it causeth it self to be called honest Vacancy but certainly there is a great deal of difference between the rest of Philosophers and the idleness of the Voluptuous the former are always a doing when they seem to do least they are most busied and when men think they are unserviceable they oblige the whole world to their labours For they make Panegyricks on Virtue they compose Invectives against Vice they discover the secrets of Nature or they describe the perfections of her Author but the later are always languishing if their mind labour 't is for the service of the body if they keep from the noise of the world 't is that they may taste pleasure with the more freedom and if they banish themselves from the company of men 't is that they may be with lewd women these wretches know how to conceal themselves but they know nat how to live their Palaces are their Sepulchres and their useless rest is a shameful death The leisure-times of good men must be rational they must not withdraw themselves to solitariness but when they can be no longer serviceable to the State they must leave the world but not abandon it they must remember that they make a part of it that whither soever they retire themselves the Publique hath always a right in them those are not solitary but savage who forgo Society because they cannot endure it who keep far from the Court because they cannot endure to see their enemies
generous Passion when they have in vain employed Mercy 't is true that this argument is not convincing and we must not wonder if this prophane Poet attribute the motions of our souls to his gods since he imputes its disorders to them and that after having described to us their Murders he acquaints us with their Adulteries buâ— the holy Scripture which was dictated bâ— the Spirit of Truth teacheth us that thâ— true God grows angry and that there 〈◊〉 some faults which cannot be sufficientlâ— punish'd unless Justice borrow heart from Choler Therefore 't is that the Wiseman when he represents unto us that dreadfuâ— day wherein God shall revenge himself oâ— his Enemies he gives him weapons where with to terrifie and punish them he stinâ— him up with Zeal and Jealousie he clotheâ— him with Justice as with a Curass he put Judgment upon his head as a Corslet hâ— puts Severity in his left hand as a Buckâ—ler and Choler in his right as a Lance anâ— makes him descend upon the earth in thiâ— furious equipage to punish the Rebels oâ— his Kingdom I very well know that thâ— Prophet in this eloquent description fitâ— himself to our weakness and his meaning 〈◊〉 not to perswade us that Gods Choler is oâ— the same nature as is ours nor that this passion doth trouble his rest which is not interrupted in hell it self by the chastisements oâ— Devils but we must confess that Jesus Christ made use thereof to revenge himselâ— of the wrongs done to his Father that he armed with whips and cords those adored â—ands which were to be pierced with nails â—hat he suffered his just anger to be seen in his Countenance and did in this condition whatsoever Wise men use to do when they â—unish Crimes or defend Innocence In fine the wisest of Kings doth not beâ—â—eve that Kingdoms can be well govern'd without Choler he will have Princes sensible of their Injuries that the Sword which they bear be as well employ'd in punishing Offenders as in defeating Enemies and that they shew as much indignation when their Subjects violate their Laws as when their Frontiers are seized on by their Neighbours he is of opinion that the Choler and Mildness of a King ought to maintain the peace of his Kingdom and using an excellent comparison says The one is as the roaring of a Lion whereat all the wild beasts of the Forrests tremble the other as the dew upon the Grass which defends it from the heat of the Sun But in all these just Commotions which accompany the correction of Offenders the Prince must remember that Punishments are Remedies and that the Death it self which he ordains is a kind of mercy which he shews to the Faulty he banisheth some lest their conversation may augment the number of the wicked from others he takes their wealth left they abuse it he deprives others of theiâ— liberty for fear they would employ it against the State he takes their life from them when he thinks their mischief inâ—curable and he thinks to do them a favour when he condemns them to death Hâ— therefore is obliged to divide himself beâ—tween the relation of a Judge and a Physiâ—tian to deal with the same person as with one that is guilty and sick and to mingle Mildness with Severity left his Choleâ— prove more pernicious than profitable to his State If Kings are bound to be so cautious in the punishing of Rebels private men may judge what a hand they ought to hold over their Passions and how mild their Choler ought to be that it may be reasonable for their power is not equal to that of Kings they cannot be so highly injured and their resentment is not so excusable I will likewise advise them to stifle a passion the use whereof is so dangerous and to dry up the Spring that they may drain the Current when it is natural to us and makes up the chief part of our temperature 't is very hard to subdue it and it is not in our power to change the Elements whereof we are compounded or to mend the faults which Nature hath committed yet this mischief is not without its Remedy and if 〈◊〉 cannot be totally cured it may at least be much qualified wine which sets it on fire must be cut off and as Plato saith One fire must not be added to another Choler must not be nourished with delicious viands left the mind swell according as the body is strengthened it must be held in Exercise by moderate labour which may diminish the heat thereof without extinguishing it which may turn all the fervency into scum Pastimes will be of good use to her provided they be not excessive harmless pleasures provided they be moderate will allay her fury but when she is more Accidental than Natural and that she proceeds either from Sickness which may have changed our Constitution or from immoderate watchings which may have heated it or from Debauchery which may have dried it up or from those other disorders which wound both soul and body it will be no hard matto drive out an enemy which holds no Intelligence in the place and which is only entertained in our hearts by reason of our wretchedness But without seeking for so many remedies we may boldly use Choler againsâ— our selves and suffer this passion to punish those faults whereof we alone are guilty Self-love will hinder the excess thereoâ— well enough and without consulting with so many Masters the care we have of preserving our selves will sence us from the violence of this passion it is against our selves that we may with Reason use her since we have so many just motives that invite us to it we must make use of her fury to satisfie Jesus Christ who demands of us reparation for injuries done unto him and revenge for his death we may lawfully employ her in our Repentance without any fear that her excess may make us lose Mildness or her Violence make us forget Charity for this Virtue which punisheth faults seems to be but Choler allay'd and the Penitent who makes war upon Himself is but a man incens'd Love and Sorrow encourage him to Revenge he cannot behold his sins without vexation and believes that without violating the Laws of Nature or of Grace he may be his own Judge and his own Client his own Witness and his own Executioner that without offence to Justice he may execute the sentence which he hath pronounced against Himself Thrice happy Choler which only offends man to appease God whlch by her Tears washeth away her sins which by Self-accusing gets Absolution and which by slight punishments frees her self from the pains of Hell and prepares for her self the Joys of Heaven THE SIXTH TREATISE OF Delight and Sorrow The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Delight or Pleasure THough Hope be so much praised by men and that of all the Passions which flatter the Sense
she is one of the most Taking yet must she give place to Pleasure and confess that Pleasure is a Sun whose presence defaces all her beuty for if she promiseth ought that is good this other giveth it us if the one hath Flowers the other bears Fruit and if the one content us in Word the other makes us happy in effect Delight is the period of all the motions of our soul and as Love is the beginning thereof Pleasure is the end it stoppeth the violence of our desires and forceth those fickle Passions to taste rest to which they seem to profess Enmity it sweetens Choler and takes from her that forward humour which accompanieth her in all her designs it pays Boldness for all her good services and is it self the recompense of those glorious labours which she hath undergone to compass it it drives away Fear and banishes all those vain terrors which disquiet us it kills Despair which seems to have conspired the death of it it banisheth Sadness at first sight and if it retain Tears and Sighs they are the spoils which publish the Victory and honour the Triumph thereof Love is content when after having tane so much pains it can rest in Pleasure of as many shapes as Love puts on this is that it most delights in and doth not forgo it to assume another without violence Love is unquiet when it Desires and its wishes are shamefull and true proofs of its indigency when it hopes it is not without Fear and those two keep it so faithful company as they never leave it but it costs them their life for Fear becomes Sadness when 't is destitute of Hope and Hope is changed into Despair when it is parted from Fear Love is not satisfied with Revenge and though Revenge be sweet yet it is accompanied with pain In Boldness it is cover'd with Sweat and Dirt Glory flatters it and threatning danger astonisheth it in Hatred it is tormented and the evil which it wisheth to its enemy is a Viper that lies gnawing upon it in Eschewing it wants strength and it shuns not him that pursues it save only because it cannot defend it self from him in Despair it is vanquish'd and yielding up its weapons to the Conquerour suffers it self to be led in Triumph in Sadness it is miserable and the remembrance of its fore-past happiness serves only to augment its present sorrow but in pleasure it is at once both Victorious Triumphant and Happy all its Races are stopt all its Desires are accomplish'd and all its designs at an end And surely we must not wonder if it be in so deep a Tranquillity since it enjoyes the happiness it sought for and is luckily arrived at the end of all its labours for Pleasure is nothing else but the enjoying of a pleasing Good which renders the soul content and which interdicts it the use of Desire as well as that of Sadness and Fear This definition excludes all such delights as spring only from Remembrance or from Hope and which make us happy only in that which we have been or hope to be Memory doth not always entertain us with our misfortunes though she be more faithful in retaining a Displeasure than a contentment busies her self oftner about things which offend us than about such as we are well pleased withall yet doth not she forbear to represent unto us past felicities and by a pleasing Remembrance thereof sweeten our present miseries to serve us she triumphs over the Laws of Time to favour us she recalls what is no more and seeks out in by-gon ages divertisments to recreate us but let her do her utmost endeavour she cannot beguile our soul nor give it true contentment in entertaining it only with a Falshood things that are past are but so many shadows and if they make any Impression in us it is rather of Sorrow than of Joy Good when far distant from us makes it self be desired but when past it makes it self to be bewailed its Presence ingenders our Happiness and its Absence causeth our Desires or our Regret Loss and Fruition of one and the same thing cannot be pleasing and let Memory use what cunning she can she cannot call to our minds a good which hath no more a being without awakening our Wishes and refreshing our Sorrows Hope is not much more favourable to us for though she fore-run our good fortune that she anticipate the birth thereof and that she feeds us with a contentment which is not yet happen'd though by an impatience which is advantageous to us she seeks out present felicities in Futurity and that precipitating the course of years she advanceth our Contentment yet a man need not be over-wise to observe that she deceives us and that she often makes us miserable out of a desire of making us too soon Happy she is found false in her Promises and after having long expected their effects all we reap thereby is Shame for having been too credulous and Sorrow for having grounded our happiness upon an uncertain good Solid pleasure requires the presence of its object and though in Morality the end hath so much power over our Wills yet can it not make them happy but by possession therefore is it that the Covetous and Ambitious who forgo a present good only to entertain themselves with a Future and who consider not so much what they have as what they want cannot be esteemed happy since in the very Fruition of honour or riches they are languishing and contrary to the nature of Pleasure they seek for what they have not and value not what they have By the same definition we exclude all those sensualities which spring from Indigence or which produce Sorrow for to boot that they are desired with so much Anxiety as doth exceed the Pleasure which they promise us they are such enemies to our quiet as it is impossible to taste thereof without becoming miserable and faulty they wound at once both the soul and the body they weaken the one and corrupt the other they are Remedies worse than the Evils which they would cure their disorder causeth always the like in our health and their excess is so pernicious thereunto that we must take them moderately if we intend to receive satisfaction thereby true Delight is never more pleasing than when in extreams the greater it is the more it doth ravish us and being agreeable to our nature it never makes us more happy than when it most abundantly communicateth it self but Sensualities are poysons which must be prepared if we will reap profit thereby and since the irregularity of Sin we had need of Grace to fence our selves against their disorder whatever Pleasure they promise us they have so great Affinity with Sorrow that their words and effects resemble each other they have their Groans and their Sighs as well as Sorrow when they are extream they dissolve into tears and to shew us that they are enemies