that the high enterprizes of Princes were no less the effects of this Passion than of Virtue he believed that all the disorders of our soul which contributed to Voluptuousness were not to be tamed but by Choler and that the concupiscible appetite would pervert Reason were it not withstood by the Irascible one would think to hear him speak that all great men are Cholerick that this Passion is not only the mark of a good Nature but of an excellent Courage and that a mans mind can conceive nothing of Generous if it be not a little irritated I believe with him that this resentment of our soul may be profitably employed in the service of Virtue when it is moderated by Reason and Grace but certainly it stands in more need of their guidance than do the rest and as it is extreamly violent so causeth it great disorders if it be not carefully suppress'd for let it have what inclination it pleaseth to Good it is too sudden to be regulated and though it seem to love Justice and Reason yet is yet too furious to be just or reasonable we should be undon were Choler as opinionated as it is sudden the earth would be but one desart if Passion were as lasting as it is hot Nature could not better shew her care she hath of our preservation than in giving narrow bounds to the wildest of our Passions and since the love she beareth us hath obliged her to make Monsters barren and to allot but short lives to the most furious Beasts she was bound to affix brevity to Choler and to allow a short term of time to so dangerous a Passion nor doth her short time of duration keep her from causing much mischief she employs to her utmost those moments which Nature hath given her and in a few hours commits many outrages for to boot that she troubles the minds of men that she changes their colour that she seems to play with their bloud making it sometimes withdraw it self to the Heart sometimes disperse it self over the Face that she sets the Eyes on fire and she fills the mouth with Threats and that she arms the Hands of as many as she meets withal she produceth much more strange effects in the world she hath since its birth changed the face thereof a thousand times there is no Province wherein she hath not committed some spoils nor is there any Kingdom which doth not bewail her violence those ruines which have formerly been the foundations of some goodly City are the remainders of Choler those Monarchies that whilome gave Laws to all the earth and which we know only by Story complain not so much of Fortune as of Choler those great Princes whose pride is reduced to ashes sigh in their graves and accuse only Choler for the loss of their Lives and ruine of their States some of them have been assassinated in their Beds others like Sacrifices offer'd up at the Altars some have unfortunately ended their days in the midst of their Armies when all their souldiers that environed them could not defend them from death others have lost their lives in their Thrones the Majesty that shines in the faces of Kings not being able to frighten their Murderers some have seen their own Children make attempts upon their persons others have seen their Bloud shed by the hands of their Slaves but not complaining of the Paricides they complain only of Choler and forgetting all their particular disasters they only condemn this Passion which is the plentiful and the unfortunate Spring-head thereof And certainly they have reason for their complaining since of all the disorders of our soul there is none more savage nor more irrational than this I know not why Aristotle imagined it was serviceable to reason and that it always moved as she did unless it be that it had a design to teach us that this Passion being more Ambitiouâ— than the rest would seem Rational in heâ— Excess and by an execrable attempt oblige Reason her Soveraign to defend heâ— Slaves injustice for she always seeks Excu ses for her faults though she shed humanâ— bloud though she offer up Innocents in sac crifice beat down whole Towns and burâ— their Inhabitants under their ruines shâ— will be thought to be Rational she some times knows well enough the vanity of heâ— resentments yet she without reason perseveres in them lest men should think she had no reason to begin Her injustice makes heâ— opinionated she grows hot upon design she will have her Excess to be an argumenâ— of her Injustice and all the world to imagine that she hath punished her enemieâ— justly because she hath punished them severely See then what she borrows of Reason and how much more insolent she is in other Passions which are blind in their unâ— ruliness and only offend their Soveraignâ— because they know not his Authority buâ— this Passion doth impudently abuse her and by a fearful tyranny employes her Soveraign to excuse her faults after having made use of her to commit them I therefore think Seneca had great reason to say that she is more faulty than the vices themselves and that she commits injustice whereof they are not guilty Avarice heapeth goods together and Choler dissipateth them the former only hurts her self and obligeth her heirs that are to succeed her but the latter hurts all the world and as if she were a publick contagion she puts divisions in Families divorceth Marriages and engageth Kingdoms in War Uncleanness seeks a shameful delight but such as only hurts the parties in fault Choler seeks an unjust one which is prejudicial to Innocents Envy as malicious as she is contents her self in wishing ill unto another she leaves the execution thereof to Fortune and remits to her the accomplishing of her desire but Choler is so impatient she cannot attend this blind Power but preventing the rigour thereof she takes delight in making men miserable In fine she is the cause of all evils and there is no fault committed wherein she hath not a hand there is nothing more obnoxious than Duels 't is Choler that entertains them there is nothing more cruel than Murder 't is Choler that adviseth to it there is nothing more fatal than war 't is Choler that causeth it when she reigns in a soul she stifles all other Passions and is so absolute in her tyranny as she turns Love into Hatred and Pity into Fury for there have been Lovers who in the height of their Choler have buried the same Dagger in their own bosoms which they had just before plunged in their Mistresses bosom committing two real murders to revenge one imaginary injury Avaritious men have been seen to betray their own inclinations to content their Choler throwing all their riches into the water or into the fire to obey the impetuosity thereof Ambitious have been known who have refused proffer'd Honours trampled Diadems under foot because Choler which wholly possess'd their
HENRICUS Dom. CARY Baro. de Loppington Com de MONMOVTH The VSE of PASSIONS Written in French by J. F. Senault And put into English by Henry Earle of Monmouthâ— 167â— Passions araing'd by Reason here you see As shee 's Advis'd therein by Grace Divine But this yowll say 's but in Effigie Peruse this Booke and you in ev'ry line Thereof will finde this truth so prov'd that yow Must Reason contradict or grant it True THE USE OF PASSIONS Written in FRENCH By I. F. Senault AND Put into ENGLISH BY HENRY EARL of MONMOVTH LONDON Printed by W. G. for Iohn Sims at the Kings-Head at Sweetings-Alley end next House to the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1671. THE AUTHORS Dedication of his Work To our Saviour Jesus Christ. IT is not without reason adored JESUS that I offer up unto thee this Work wherein I endevor to teach thy Servants how to use their Passions For to boot that all our thoughts are due unto thee because thou art the Eternal Thought of the Father and that whatsoever our Soul produceth are as so many Images of thine This belongs to thee by a double Title and cannot without some sort of Injustice be Dedicated to any other than thee Passions in that state whereunto they are brought by sin are Monsters which ought to be immolated upon thy Altars this Sacrifice succeeds those of the Old Testament As thou delightest in receiving a heart struck through with sorrow and consumed with love so dost thou with joy receive such Passions as Grace and Reason do consecrate unto thee neither dost thou despise the Motions of our soul when they are enlightned by Faith and inanimated by Charity thou art well pleased that being Priests and Victimes for thy Glory as thou hast been for our salvation we find some feelings in ourselves which we may immolate unto thee that in obedience to thy just Laws we sacrifice unto thee our love and our desires and that courageously suffocating our anger and our hatred we appease thy Iustice by the death of a part of our selves Thou likewise dost permit that without shedding the blood of these savage Beasts we tame them to make them serviceable to thy designes and that we employ our hopes and fears to overcome Vice and acquire Virtue But assuredly we cannot undertake this Combat nor hope for Victory therein without thy assistance for passions hold of thy Empire and since these slaves are become Rebels they are only to be reduced by thy Grace Thou by thy eternal Birth art the primitive Reason and the same term which we make use of in all Languages to express thy Personal proprieties teacheth us that thou art as well the Reason as the Word of thy Father To thee it belongeth to regulate all the Passions and if wise men have any command over theirs 't is for that their Reason flows from thine They are only wise in that they are reasonable and they are reasonable only in that they have the honour to be thy Images Grace it self whence the strength and light of thy Saints do derive flows from thy divine Person those great ones are not only Gods but Sons of God they bear thy Character in their Souls and the Father who looks upon them as thy Brethren loves them as his Children This Divine Quality makes them triumph over their Passions they owe all their victories to thy Alliance and if they tame the motions of their souls 't is because they have the honour to unite as thou dost Reason and Grace in their personages and to be by priviledge that which thou art by Nature Thy Actions since thou hast vouchsafed to become Man serve us for Instructions and we find examples in thy life which we may securely imitate Before thy temporal Birth we had no model which was not imperfect Virtue and Vice were intermingled in all men and the greatest Saints did no good works which were not accompanied with some defects Their Passions out-ran their Wisdom the first motions of them were so sudden and so violent that they could neither foresee them nor hinder them When they were once up and that Reason gathering her forces together gave them battel these Rebels joyned Insolence to Fury and argued Authority with their Soveraign Thus thy faithfullest Servants needed forgiveness in the war which they made against their passions and it behoved thy goodness to give light to illuminate these blind men Wisdom to conduct these giddy-headed People and Fortitude to overcome these Rebels But in thy sacred Person passions have no defect These wild Beasts are tamed these troublesom Seas are always calm these revolted Subjects are alwayes Obedient and by a Miracle as Rare as Illustrious these Enemies of our Reason do always agree with thine They raised themselves when thou ordainedst them so to do their first motions were in thy power they waited thy leave to be troubled Sorrow seized not on thy Heart Tears distilled not from thine Eyes and red-hu'd Anger or pale Fear appeared not in thy Face before thy Will which ruled all their motions had given them Permission They were so well instructed in all thy Designes as they seemed to be indued with Reason and Reason found such Obedience in the Inferior part of thy Soul that no Clouds were gathered together there which she her self had not there formed In the world Tempests are raised from the lower Elements Thunder-claps which make so hideous a noise in the Clouds take their original from the Valleys or the Rivers and all those Storms that trouble the clearness of the Ayr proceed from Vapors of the Sea or Exhalations of the Earth In men that are composed of Mud and Dirt their passions arise from their bodies their Revolts proceed from the senses and all these Tempests which molest their quiet take their vigour from Flesh and Bloud but in thy divine soul it fares clean otherwise thy Passions sprung from thy Reason it was the Soul that wrought upon the Body it was the Superior part that inanimated the Inferior and it was the primum Mobile that gave motion to all the other Spheres which did depend thereon Hence came it that thou didst enjoy a profound peace that thy Victories were without Combat or thy Triumphs without Victories Thou feltest no Disorders in thy Person all was calm in thy soul and even when sadness was grown to such a height as it was able to cause thee to die it was so submiss to Reason that to obey her it agreed with Ioy its Enemy Thou wert the most content and the most afflicted of all men Thou wert able to cause Envy in the most happy Compassion in the most miserarable and Astonishment in them both Love and Hatred were never at odds in thy heart These two contraries bear respect to each other Thy Reason had such absolute power over them that they preserved their opposition without losing their good Intelligence and men were astonished to see that thy Soul which was
begins to have inclinations and notions she sees Objects by the Sense which their reports make unto the Imagination this trusts them or commits them to memory which obligeth her self carefully to keep them and faithfully to represent them From the Lights of the Soul arise her desires and from her knowledge her love or hatred she betakes her self to that which is agreeable unto her shuns that which likes her not and according to the divers qualities of good or evil which present themselves she excites differing motions which are called Passions In this degree she hath nothing of more lofty than the Beasts which discover Objects by Sense which receive the sorts thereof in their Imagination and preserve them in their Memory In the third estate she quits the Body and coming to her self she entertains her self with more Truths she treats with Angels and mounting by degrees even to Divinity it self she knows perfections and admireth greatness she reasons upon such subjects as present themselves she examines their qualities that she may conceive their essence she confers the present with what is past and from the one and the other of them draws Conjectures for what is to come The Faculty which doth all these wonders is termed Understanding Imagination â—nd Sense acknowledge her for their Mistress but she is not so absolute but that â—he dependeth upon a Soveraign and takes â—he Law from one that is blind whom she serves for a guide This which is called Will and which hath no other Object than good to follow it and evil to shun it â—s so absolute as Heaven it self bears a respect unto her freedom for it never useth violence when it hath to do therewithal â—it husbandeth the consentment thereof with address And its efficacious graces which never fail in producing their Effects may well undertake to convert but not to force Will. Heavens Orders are alwaies observed within its Empire the Subjects thereof may well be froward never rebellious and when it commands absolutely 't is alwaies obeyed True it is that motions or agitations are formed in the second acception of the soul which exercise her power for though they hold of her they forbear not to pretend to some sort of Liberty they are rather her Citizens than her Slaves and she is rather their Judge than their Soveraign These Passions arising from the Senses side alwaies with them whenever Imagination presents them to the Understanding he pleads in their behalf by means of so good an Advocate they corrupt their Master and win all their Causes The Understanding listens unto them weigheth their Reasons considereth their Inclinations and lest he may grieve them oft-times gives Sentence to their Advantage he betrayes the Will whereof he is the Chief Officer he couzens his Blind Queen and disguising the Truth makes unfaithful Reports unto her that he may draw unjust Commandments from her when she hath declared her self Passions become Crimes their Sedition begins to make head and man who before was but unruly becomes wholly Criminal for as the Motions of this inferiour part of the Soul are not free they never begin to be vitious but when they become voluntary As long as they are awakened by Objects solicited by the Senses and protected by Imaginations self they have no other Craft than what they draw from corrupted Nature But when the Understanding overshadowed by their obscurity or won by their solicitations perverts the Will and obliges this Soveraign to take upon her the interest of her Slaves she makes them guilty of her sin she changes their motions into rebellion and of the insurrection of a Beast makes the fault of a man It is true that when the understanding keeps within the bounds of duty and is faithful to the Will he suppresses their seditions and reduceth these Mutineers to obedience she husbandeth their humours so well as taking from them all their unruliness he makes rare and excellent virtues of them In this estate they are subservient to Reason and defend the party which they were resolved to fight against The good or the evil that may be drawn from them binds us to consider their nature to observe their proprieties and to discover their original to the end that arriving at the exact knowledge of them we may make use of them in our affairs Passion then is nothing else but a moâ—ion of the Sensitive Appetite caused by the Imagination of an appearing or veritable good or evil which changeth the Body against the Laws of Nature I term it motion because it hath a respect to good or evil as the Objects thereof and suffers it self to be born away by the qualities which she observes therein this motion is caused by the Imagination which being fill'd with sorts of things which she hath received from all the senses sollicits passions to discover unto her the beauties or deformities of such Objects as may move her The sensitive appetite is so partial to her as it sooths her in all her inclinations let her be never so little agitated she draws after her all other passions she raiseth tempests as winds do waves and the Soul would be at quiet in her interiour part were she not moved by this power but she bears so great a sway in this Empire as she there doth what she pleaseth Nor is it requisite that the good or evil which she represents to the appetite be true which relyeth on her fidelity and believes her councils without examining them having no other light but what is borrowed from her he follows hoodwink'd all the Objects which she proposeth and let them be but cloathed with any appearance of good or evil he impetuously either rejects or embraceth them He behaves himself so vigorously as he alwaies causeth alteration in the Body for besides that his motions are violent and that they do hardly deserve the name of Passions when they are moderated they have such access unto the Senses and the Senses have so much of communication with the Body as it is impossible but that their Disorders should cause an alteration therein In brief Passion is against the Law of Nature because she sets upon the heart which cannot be hurt without resentment of all the parts of the Body for they are Looking-glasses wherein one sees all the Motions of him that animates them And as Physitians judge of his Constitution by the beating of his Pulse and Arteries one may judge of the Passions wherewith â—e is transported by the colour of his face by the flame which sparkles in his eyes by the shaking of his Joynts and by all such other signs as appear in the Body when the Heart is agitated Now these are the Passions which we â—ndertake to reclaim and bring under the Empire of Reason and by the assistance of â—race to change them into Virtues â—ome have been satisfied with describing â—hem unto us not shewing how to regulate â—hem and have employed their eloquence â—nly in making us know our Miseries
but sees that the understanding is engaged in the Errour and that it confusedly receives falshoods and truths that the will applies it self more to appearing than to real good that her interests are the rules of her inclinations and that she loves not that which is good save that she is therewithal delighted that by experience she finds she hath lost much of her liberty and that if sin hath not taken from her all the love she had to good it hath left her but weak helps and useless desires to come by it As her forces are but small to atchieve what is good she hath yet smaller power to rule her Passions and though she approve not of their disorders she knows not how to remedy them Oft times by a strange misfortune she foments their sedition which she ought to hinder and that she may not afflict her Subjects she becomes guilty of their crimes The Christian Philosopher is therefore bound to employ aid from Heaven to overcome these Rebels and confessing that his Reason is weakned he must look for help from without himself and beg favour from him who hath permitted the unruliness of Nature for the punishment of Sin But that we may not be said to be enemies to the greatness of man and that we make his disaster greater than it is we confess that nature is good in her foundation and that very sin is an excellent proof thereof for as it is but a Non Ens it cannot subsist by it self for its preservation it must needs fasten it self to some subject that may uphold it and which may impart unto it part of its essence So evil is ingraffed upon good and sin is upholden by nature which is much endamaged by so evil a guest but doth not therefore lose all the advantages thereof For since she conserves her own being she must likewise conserve unto her self some goodness since she is not annihilated for being become criminal she must amidst her misery enjoy some good fortune and amidst her faultiness some tincture of innocence must remain And this is it which Saint Augustine affirms in as learned as eloquent terms The being of man is certainly praised though the sin thereof be blamed and no better reason can be given for the blaming of sin than by making it appear that by the contagion thereof it dishonoureth what was honourable by nature If we consider her then in her ground-work or foundation she hath lost nothing of her goodness but if we look upon her under the tyranny of sin she hath almost lost her use and she can make no more use of her faculties unless freed from the enemy which possesseth her methinks she may be compared to the birds that are taken in nets they have wings but cannot fly they love liberty but cannot regain it So men in the state of sin have good inclinations but they cannot pursue them they have good designes but cannot put them in execution and more unfortunate than the aforenamed Birds they love their prison and agree with the Tyrant that doth persecute them In this sad condition they have need of Grace to comfort them and to strengthen them if not totally to free them from the enemy which pursueth them at least to give them liberty of operating and to put them into a capacity of practising virtue of contesting with vice and of ruling their Passions This necessity which we impose upon man of receiving Grace ought not to appear so harsh since even before his disorder he stood in need of a forreign succour and that in his natural purity he could not avoid sin without a supernatural aid For he is so composed that in all his motions he is forced to have recourse unto God and since he is his Image he cannot operate but by his Spirit Though humane Nature saith Saint Augustine had continued in the integrity wherein God created it yet could it not have preserved it self against Sin without Grace and drawing a consequence from this first truth he with a great deal of reason adds since man without Grace could not preserve the purity which he had received how can he without the same recover the purity which he hath lost he must then resolve to submit himself to his Creator if he will assubject his Passions and he must become pious if he will be reasonable For ought there to be any relation between our welfare and our loss Passions did not revolt against the understanding till that had revolted against God there is reason to believe they will never obey the underdanding till that be obedient to God and as our mischief hath taken â—ts rise from our rebellion our good must take its beginning from our assubjection If prophane Philosophers object unto us â—hat Reason was in vain allowed us to moderate our Passions if she have no power â—ver them and that nature is a useless guide â—f she her self have need of a Conductor â—e must satisfie them by experience and â—each them without the holy Scripture that â—here are disorders in man which Reason aâ—one cannot regulate and that we are subâ—ect unto maladies which Nature without â—race cannot cure The THIRD DISCOURSE That the disorder of our Passions considered Grace is requisite to the Government thereof THose who are instructed in the mysteries of Christian Religion confess that the grace which Iesus Christ hath merited for us doth infinitely surpass that grace which Adam by his fall deprived us of The advantages thereof are such as do exceed all our desires and the most ambitious of mankind could never have wished for the good which we hope for thereby For to boot that we are thereby raised to a pitch far above our condition and that we are thereby promised an happiness equal to that of the Angels we have Iesus Christ thereby given us for our Head and we are thereby so straightly joined unto him as that his Father is bound to admit us for his children But all these priviledgeâ— regard rather the future than the present And though we have the pledges of these gracious promises we do not as yet enjoy all the effects thereof The grace which purchaseth this right for us resides in the depth of our soul the which she sanctifieth leaving the body engaged in sin She begins the work of our salvation but doth not finish it she divides the two parts whereof man is composed and giving strength unto the Spirit she leaves the flesh in its weakness But by a stranger miracle she parts the soul from the Spirit and worketh a division in their unity for to take her aright 't is only the superior part of the soul which doth fully resent the effects of Grace and which in Baptism receives the virtue of that divine character which gives us right to Heaven as to our inheritance Hence it is that one Apostle terms us but imperfect workmanship and the beginning of a new creature We belong unto Iesus Christ only
fasten themselves to all objects that are pleasing to them Man seeks after a beauty which time cannot alter which age cannot decay nor death it self eface assoon â—s he discovers the shadow thereof in a viâ—age he awakens his desires and thinks it â—s the eternal beauty wherewith he ought â—o be satisfied He longs after a good which puts an end to all his miseries which frees him from all his cares and which cures him of all the evils that oppress him when he is falsly perswaded by opinion that Gold is a Metal which assisteth us at all our needs which opens the gate to Honour which facilitates the execution of our Designs and which makes us triumph over all difficulties he commands his desires to purchase a good unto him from whence he expects all his happiness In fine man seeks after a solid and true Glory which serves as a recompense to virtue and which satiates him with honour which cannot be efaced by time nor injured by back biters when error hath once perswaded him that Battels are Heroick actions that conquests are the businesses of Soveraigns he orders his desires to go in quest of these glorious occasions and to undertake unjust wars he forms designs to throw down Towns to ruine States and to carry horror and death into all the parts of the world that he may look big in Story The remedy to all these evils is easie and since the Will hath not lost all her good inclination there needs no more than to clear the understanding to fortifie it by solid reasons which it may oppose to the false maxims of the world The second cause of the irregularity of our desires is Imagination which only makes use of its advantage to irritate them for they would be regular enough did not this embroyling power put them in disorder Nature seeks only how to free her self from incommodities that molest her she requires not magnificence in buildings and provided they save her from being injured by the ayr all their adornments are of no use to her she wisheth not for pomp in apparel provided they hide her nakedness and that they fence her body from the rigour of the Cold she is yet innocent enough to blame the disorder she seeks not after excessive pleasure in what she eats or drinks provided they sustain life and allay hunger and thirst she values not the delicacies which accompany them but Imagination which seems to have no other employment since the corruption of our Nature than to invent new delights to defend us from our ancient misfortunes adds dissoluteness to our desires and makes our wishes irregular she adviseth us to enclose fields and rivers within our Parks she obligeth us to build Palaces more glorious than our temples and greater than our forefathers Towns she employes all Artificers to cloath us she makes whole nature labour â—o satisfie our pride she dives into the Entrails of the earth and into the depths of the Sea to find out Diamonds and Pearls to deck us withal In fine she seeks out Delicates in food she will have no Viands which are not exquisite she misprizeth what is common and will try unknown Cates she awakens the appetite when it is asleep she confounds the seasons to afford us pleasure and maugre the heat of Summer she preserves Snow and Ice to mingle with our Wine In a word Imagination makes us wise in our coveted delicates she instructeth them to wish for things which they did not know and putting our natural desires out of order she makes them commit excuses which they are only guilty of in being obedient to her Thus our debaucheries arise from our advantages and we are more irregular than beasts only in that we are more enlightned for Aristotle distinguishing between our desires terms by a strange fashion of speech the most modest ones unreasonable because they are common to us with Beasts and the most insolent reasonable because they are proper and peculiar to our selves In my opinion 't is for this cause that Philosophers reduce us to the condition of Beasts and that they have propounded nature unto us for example believing her to be less irregular or unruly than Reason 't is for the same reason that they have divided our desires into necessary superfluous and that they have affirmed the one to be bounded the other infinite that such as were necessary would find wherewithal to content themselves in banishment and solitariness and that the superfluous would not find wherewithal to content themselves in Towns and Palaces Hunger is not ambitious she requires only meat which may appease her all those several services in preparing wherof so much care is had are the punishments of Gluttony which seeks out means how to provoke Appetite after it is satisfied for she complaineth that the Neck is not long enough to taste meats that the stomach is not large enough to receive them and that natural heat is not ready enough to digest them she likes not wine unless served in costly vessels nor can she resolve to take it unless prepared by a fair hand But natural desires are not accompanied with all these distastes we are almost always pleased with what is absolutely necessary for us And Nature which is a good Mother hath mingled pleasure with necessity for our refreshment let us make use then of a benefit which we may number amongst the greatest and let us believe that she hath never more apparently obliged us than when she hath freed all our natural desires of distaste The third cause of their disorder is our not sufficiently considering the quality of the things which we desire for we oft-times corrupt the nature of desire by extream violence we force it to seek out a thing which it ought to shun We only look upon objects as they appear we betake our selves indiscreetly unto them not considering their defaults and make our desires be succeeded by sorrow and grief to be the sequel of our delights We wish for real evils because they have some shadow of good and when after a long pursuit we possess them they begin to be unsupportable changing opinion we change our desires and accuse Heaven of having been too easie to us in granting them We know by experience that there be Vows which God doth doth exact at our hands unless he be angry and that we make wishes the accomplishment whereof is fatal to us We are like the Prince who repented his having wished for riches and who was afflicted for having obtained them his desire becomes his punishment he abhorred that which he desired and finding himself poor in the midst of plenty he prayed to be delivered from an evil which he himself had procured Absence puts a valuation upon almost all we have of good and their presence makes us despise them they appear great unto our Imagination when far off but when they draw nearer they lose their
long after a felicity to come she confesseth she is not of this world and she thinks it not strange if shâ— be persecuted in an enemies Countrey she knows very well that she is called from this miserable world to another more happy and that having nothing to possess on earth she ought to hope for all in heaven All Christians who are instructed in her School do with a holy impatience expect the happy day wherein the Son of God will punish his enemies and crown his Subjects They think themselves already saved because they are so in hope and amongst so many evils that afflict them they solace themselves in this virtue which promiseth much but gives more for it never confounded any body and though she suffer such as lay claim to her to be persecuted she inspires them with so much courage as that far from resenting their sorrows they cast the happiness of Angels amidst their punishments and laugh at the cruelty of Tyrants and Hang-men let whatsoever accidents befall them they are always secure and knowing that Jesus Christ is the foundation of their Hope they look upon all the changes of the earth with calmness of mind But whatsoever advantage Christians may draw from the virtue we must confess that she hath nothing to do with that Passion which considers the time to come and which seeks out a good which is possible and difficult for the one is a Christian Virtue which resides in the Will and the other is a Passion which resides in the sensitive appetite the one is a meer effect of Nature the other is the pure work of Grace the one by its one strength can extend but to some ages the other by its proper vigor mounts even to eternity the one in brief makes not good all that it promiseth and failing in her word leaves her lovers in confusion and sorrow but the other is so faithful in her promises as those who have sought under her banners confess that her recompenses surpass all their services yet in these their differences nothing hinders them from agreeing the best use of humane Hope is to assubject it to divine Hope and to make it aspire by her assistance to the Possession of eternal happiness for though Passion know no eternity and that being engaged in the body she raiseth her self not much higher than the Senses she hath yet some inclination to follow after Grace and to suffer her self to be guided by her motions as she obeys Reason she may obey Godliness as she is useful to Moral Virtue she may be useful to Christian Virtue and if it be not to give her too much advantage I should think that as she inter meddles with Patience and Fortitude to frame Moral habits she may do the like with Hope and Charity to form super-natural habits But without engaging my self in a School-dispute it shall suffice me to say that if all our Passions may be sanctified by Grace Hope being of no worse condition than the rest may pretend unto the same favour and contribute to all the good works of a Christian. Neither do I doubt but that the Saints have made good use thereof and that enlightned by Faith they have placed all that hope in Jesus Christ which they placed in their Kings or in their gods whilst they lived in Paganism I doubt not but that this generous Passion which encouraged them in dangers for the glory of their Princes did animate them amidst flames for the quarrel of the Son of God and I am firmly of opinion that as by her own forces she made them good souldiers so assisted from above she made them couragious Martyrs for Nature is the ground-work of Grace and as Faith presupposeth Reason the fortitude of a Martyr did presuppose the hope of a man and it behoved that Passion should work in the hearts of those generous Champions whâ—st Grace wrought in their Wills God makes daily use of the mouths of his Prophets to explain his Mysteries when he discovers to them secrets to come he makes use of their words to declare them unto his people and he accords Nature with Grace in them to execute his Designes I therefore think that the best use a man can make of Hope is to assubject it to three Christian virtues which may make good use of her heat the first is that which bears her name and which by a harmless piece of cunning loosens her from the earth and gives her desires for heaven for though humane Hope be so generous yet cannot she pretend to the happiness of eternity and though in the souls of Alexander and Caesar she aspired to divine honours it hath not proceeded so much from any motion of her own as from the like of vain-glory but when she is instructed by faith when she knows that God hath chosen us to be his children and that Jesus Christ hath made us his brethren that we may be coheirs with him she wisheth with Humility for what the others wisht for out of Ambition The second Virtue which she may be serviceable unto is Patience which in all the evils she undergoes hath no other comfort than what Hope furnisheth her withal for while she fights with grief and pain she would be a thousand times opprest by their violence did not this glorious Passion point out unto her the Rewards which are prepared for her and if she did not sweeten the present evil by future happiness which Hope promiseth her To understand this you must know that Patience is a Virtue as mild as close she hath nothing of lustre and though she undertake great matters she spares Pomp and the Theater darkness and the desarts are pleasing unto her and she is content to fight in his prefence by whom she expects to be crown'd neither is she any ways given to use violence and though her enemies be so powerful she defends her self by suffering and makes us win the victory by the loss of our lives she hardly takes the liberty to complain and she shews so little feeling of outrages done unto her or of her sufferings as those who do not know her accuse her of stupidity So great a coldness ought to be animated by the heat of Hope and so mild a virtue requires the assistance of an active Passion During all her displeasures the recompenses which are promised her do only possess her and in the sorrows which she suffers she raiseth her self up to heaven upon the wings of Hope and with the eye of Faith seeth the happiness which is prepared for her But the chief use which we ought to make of this Pashon is when Fortitude grapples with grief and when she sets upon these dreadful enemies which endeavour to triumph over her Courage For there is this difference between Patience and Fortitude the first is content to suffer the second will be doing the one out of modesty hides her self the other out of generosity shews it self the one
throw themselves headlong into Praecipices did not Despair withhold them did not she by her knowledge of their weakness divert them from their rash enterprizes she is also a faithful Counsellor which never doth deceive us and which deserves not to be blamed if not being sent for till our affairs be in a sad condition she gives us more wholsome than honorable advice we must accuse Hope which engageth us too easily in a danger and praise Despair which finds a means to free us from it The greatest Princes are only unhappy for not having listned unto her for would they measure their forces before they undertake a war they would not be enforced to make a dishonourable peace to take the law from their victorious enemy but the mischief is they never implore Despairs assistance but when she cannot give it them and they never advise with this Passion till all things be reduced to an extremity yet is she not unuseful at such a time and her counsels cease not to be profitable though precipitate For when Princes know that their forces are inferiour to those of their enemies and that all the advantage lies on the enemies side Despair wisely managed causeth them to retreat and this Passion repairing the faults of Hope and Audacity makes them keep their souldiers till another time when they may assuredly promise themselves the victory for Despair is more cautious than couragious and aims more at the safety than glory of a Kingdom it makes use of the evils which it hath observed and thinks it self glorious enough if it can escape the fury of him that doth pursue it 'T is true that when it sees all ways of safety barred up and that it is on all sides environed by death it chuseth the most honourable and recalling Hope which it had chased away resolveth either to die or overcome Therefore 't is that good Commanders do never put the vanquished to Despair but knowing that this Passion becomes valiant when provoked they make her bridges of gold open all passages to her and suffer this Torrent to disperse it self abroad in the open Champion lest her fury swelling by resistance overbear such works as are opposed to her impetuosity Herein the nature of Despair is strange for it ariseth from Fear and its greatest wisdom consisteth in its timorousness in the good which it offers it self it rather considereth the difficulty which may astonish than the glory which may attract and be it that it be more cold or less courageous than Hope it hath not so much an eye to good as to bad events yet when the danger is extream and that the mischief is so great as it cannot be evaded it makes virtue of necessity and gives battel to an enemy which Hope it self durst not assail it oftentimes plucks the Lawrel from out the Conquerors hand and performing actions which may pass for miracles it exceeds Nature it preserves mens lives in making them contemn them and wins the victory by seeking after an honourable death By all these effects it is easie to judge of the nature of Despair and to know that it is a violent motion by which the soul keeps aloof from a difficult good which it thinks it cannot compass and by which likewise it sometimes draws near unto it rather to shun the evil which threatens it than to possess the difficult good for in its birth Despair is fearful and hath no other design than to divert the soul from the vain seeking after an impossible good but in its progress it becomes bold and when it sees that by keeping aloof from a difficult good it engageth it self in an infamous evil it resumes courage and employs all its power to gain a thing which it thought assuredly to have lost so as this is not a single Passion to explain the nature thereof well we must say that she is mixt of Fear and Hope and that as in the beginning she is more faint-hearted than the former she is in the end more generous than the latter But at both these times she hath need of government that she may be serviceable to Virtue she must shun two dangerous extreams which bear her name and stain her glory the one may be called Faint-heartedness the other Foolhardiness she falls into the former when not knowing her own strength she keeps at distance from a good which she might compass she falls into the second when not regarding her own imbecility or the greatness of the danger she undertakes an impossibilty and engageth her self in a design which cannot have any good success It belongs to Reason to govern her and to see when she may eschew without infamy and when she may charge without rashness if it be a lawful good which may with Justice be expected it must seldom or never be despaired of upon such an occasion Opiniatrecy is commendable and a man is not to be blamed who attempts even an impossibility to purchase a happiness which his duty requires him to seek after but if that which he wisheth for be hard to come by and perishable he must cure himself of his vain desires and foolish â—â—pes by a rational Despair But he must beware that though this Passion be in Nature oft-times innocent she is always guilty in relation to Grace for natâ—ral hope being grounded upon our proper forces it is lawful to forgo her to embrace Despair and there is nothing of inconvenience that man whose misery is so well known do quit his designs when he cannot compass them but supernatural hope being grounded upon divine power we must not forgo her and it is a capital fault to suspect God of falshood or of weakness Those therefore who despair of their souls health justle his highest perfections and make themselves unworthy to receive pardon of their sins from the time they cease to hope for since the holy Scripture teacheth us that God is good and all-powerful those who perswade themselves that he either will not or cannot save them commit outrage against his Power and Goodness and by one and the same fault give against his two most excellent qualities and if we will believe St. Austin they who despair imitate proud people and make themselves equal with God by losing the hope of their salvation for when they fall into despair they imagine that Gods Mercy is not so great as their sin is and by an injurious preferrence they raise their wickedness above his goodness they prescribe bounds to an infinite Love and bereave him of perfections who possesseth more than our souls can imagine True it is that if Despair be faulty in relation to Grace there is an excess of Hope which is not much less dangerous and there are certain Christians in the Church who are opinionated in their sins only out of a confidence they have of Gods Mercy they make use of his goodness only to injure him they think not of his favours to sinners save
the Theatre where two so violent motions were formed should enjoy Peace amidst War In fine Fear and Audacity ended their differences in thy Person thou didst suffer these two affections to possess thy Heart without dividing it whilst thou wert in thine Agony in the Garden thou gavest confidence to thine Apostles and when the thought of death made such havock in thy Soul thou didst encourage Martyrs to the Combat thou preparest Crowns for their Victories and procuring them strength by thy weaknesses thou ordainest them to be the Champions of thy Church Militant But whatever help they received from thy Grace their Victories were never like thine they found more obedience in the World than in themselves and have confessed it cost them less to overcome wild Beasts than to vanquish their own Passions Famous Martyrs have been known who having overcome Lyons could not quell their own choler and have suffered themselves to be born away with Impatience after they had endured Tortures Their Combats were not always followed with good Success they were oft-times in one and the same day both Conquered and Conquerors They gave way to Voluptuousness after they had triumphed over Grief and having had courage enough to be Martyrs they wanted resolution to be continent How often have they wisht for Death that they might be freed from these domestick enemies and to that end sighed and made vows When thy Providence gave them over to their own weakness they despaired of their Salvation finding no support save in thy Goodness they begun all their wrestlings by Prayer and professed that to overcome their Passions they must be animated by thy Spirit and assisted by thy Power Thou art the sole Conqueror that wert never worsted in this War thy Affections never betrayd thy Reason and thy power hath been as absolute in thy Person as in thy Kingdom These Passions of our Soul changed nature in thine by the use thou madest of them they became Virtues Thou conceivedst no love which did not turn it self into Charity thou didst excite no Choler that was not just indignation and thou feltest no pity but it was transformed into Mercy All that in our Nature is Humane was Divine in thine and the unconfused Mixture of two Natures whereof thou art composed made thy passions to be rather Miracles than Virtues Thy Anger served as an Officer to thy Fathers Iustice thy Compassion was the Interpreter of His Mercy and thy Love an earnest of His Good will How happy was that distressed man that drew tears from thine eyes how rich was that poor one whose wants thou didst bewail how puissant was the oppressed whose interests thou maintainedst how innocent was that Offender whose Conversion was wrought by thy Tears and how glorious was the infamous Sinner to whom thou witnessedst thy Love by thy Complaints and Sighs Heaven had a regard to all the motions of thy Soul the eternal Father never denied any thing to thy Tears and his Thunder-bolts never failed to fall upon their heads on whom thy just Anger called for punishment Thy Passions were the Organs of thy Divinity thy Sighs were no less powerful than thy Words and without using either Prayers or Vows the Desires were sufficient to make known thy Will What Admiration did these Motions of thy Soul cause in the Seraphim with what astonishment were those pure Intelligences strucken when they considered that God taking our nature upon him took part of her feelings and no part of her weaknesses That he wept with the wretched without interessing his happiness That he was Angry at those that were injured without troubling his Quiet That with the needy he formed desires without loss of his Abundance And that with Lovers he felt the flames of Love without enduring their Disturbances What a miracle was it to see that Anger should be kindled in thy Soul without trouble thereunto That Pity should wound thy Heart without weakning it That it should be enflamed with Love yet not consumed That it should be eaten up with Sorrow yet not disquieted What can I do less in honour of so many Wonders than to consecrate our Passions unto thee What less submission can I make to thy adored Power than loudly to avouch that there is none but thou who can teach us the use of these Motions And that it appertains only to thy Wisdom to change our Anger into Indignation our Pity into Mercy and our Love into Charity Indeed it is thou alone who canst rule our passions thou art he only who workest our good out of our Evil and of Poysons composest Antidotes Thou knowest men by their Inclinations thou seest without studying them the motions of their hearts and making benefit thereof dost wisely conduct them to thy end Thou employest Fear to take off a covetous man from those perishable Riches which possess him thou makest a holy use of Despair to withdraw from the World a Courtier whose youth had been mis-imployed in the service of some Prince thou makest an admirable use of Disdain to extinguish there with a lovers flames who is enslave by a proud beauty thou employest Choler to disabuse a Souldier whom a dissembling General feeds with vain hopes thou makest excellent use of Grief to cure a sick man who sought for his Souls happiness in his Bodies health and lost the remembrance of Heaven by being to strongly fastened to the Earth In fine thou makest Chains of all our Passions to unite our Wills to thine thou minglest Grace with Nature and makest Angels by the same disorders as they would have been made Devils Sin is the Theatre of thy Power as well as Nothing thou makest thy greatest Works issue out of two Subjects whereof the one is Barren the other Rebellious Out of Nothing thou drawest Existence and out of Sin thou extractest Grace thou findest every thing in its contrary and by an effectual violence which can proceed only from an infinite Power thou compellest Nothing to produce men and sin to make Saints But after these two Miracles which are thy Master-pieces we see not any thing more wonderful than the use which thou art able to make of our Passions for the changing of our Wills thou makest that serve thy designes which did serve thine enemies thou savest men by those Weaknesses which would have been their undoing and bestowing on them a little Divine Love thou turnest all their Passions into Virtues For when once Charity begins to reign in their souls they fear nothing but sin they wish for nothing but Grace Thou art the end of their Desires as thou art the object of their Love They change Condition without changing Nature though they have Passions they commit no more Offences and losing neither Hope nor Despair neither Audacity nor Fear neither Love nor Hatred they are free from all the mischiefs which accompany these Passions when they are Faulty But certainly if thy Mercy appear in well husbanding the inclinations of thy Friends to their
Laws it must take heed lest opinion endeavour to establish her self and must consult with Reason to defend it self against Errour and Falshood thus will Passions always be peaceable and their motions being regulated they will be serviceable unto virtue The FIFTH DISCOURSE That there is more disorder in the passions of man than in those of Beasts BEfore we resolve this question we must discuss another and examine whether beasts be capable of these motions which we call Passions For as our Adversaries confound them with vices and as they will have all the affections of the inferiour part of our soul to be criminal they hold that beasts are exempt from them and that having no freedom or liberty one cannot impute unto them either Virtue or Sin That they are led on by an Instinct which cannot err and if sometimes they seem to do amiss we must attribute it to providence which disordereth them for our punishment or which suffereth their unruliness to put us in mind of our wickedness 't is therefore that their motions serve for plagues to all people and that the Infidels took counsel by the flying of Birds and the Entrails of Victims that they might know what was to come or what Heaven had decreed But though Beasts be exempt from sin and that they owe their innocency to their servitude they are not notwithstanding insensible All Philosophers acknowledge they have inclinations and aversions and that according as objects give against their eyes or ears they excite desire or fear in their Imaginations In effect the nethermost part of our soul hath such correspondency with our senses as that she borrows her name from them and is called sensitive insomuch as it is almost impossible but that any thing that entreth by those passages with any contentment or detestation should cause either pleasure or pain in the soul. As beasts have these two faculties which give them feeling and life we must necessarily conclude That they have Passions that they approach to what is good out of desire and shun what is evil out of dislike that they taste the one with joy and suffer the other with sorrow This reason is confirmed by examples for we see every day how Horses are brought to manage through the fear of punishment that the Spur quickens their memory that the noise of Trumpets puts them in good humor and that very hurts do animate their courage Bulls fight for glory and joining craft with strenth dispute as hotly for the â—eading of an Herd as Princes do for the â—onquest of a Kingdom Lions in their â—ighting covet not so much revenge as â—onour when they see their enemy on the â—round their choler is appeased and having â—aken up Arms only for glories sake they â—ontent themselves with this advantage â—nd gives life to what yields the victory â—n fine they are netled as well by jealousie as by love they love faithfulness punish Adultery and wash this fault in the bloud of the guilty It cannot then be doubted but that beasts have Passions and that they are agitated with those furious motions which trouble our quiet but the difficulty is to know whether theirs or ours be more violent and whether they or we be less regulated in our motions Truth it self obligeth us to confess that our advantages are prejudicial to us and that when very Reason becomes a slave unto our senses it serves only to make our affections more unreasonable Beasts apprehend not evil but when it is nigh at hand they discern not what is to come and do not much remember what is past the present only can make them unhappy But men go about to find out casualties before they happen they seem to have a design to hasten their misadvantages and that to enlarge Fortunes Empire they will prevent the evils to which she hath not yet given birth Their fear is employed both in whaâ— is pasâ— and in what is to come and as they tremble at a missfortune which hath ceased to be so they grow pale at a disaster which hath yet no being There are but few objects wherein beasâ— are concerned set aside those things which are necessary for the maintenance of their life and you shall find they consider all other things as indifferent But men cannot bound their desires either â—y reason or necessity they extend them too beyond what is useful and seek out superfluities to increase their punishments all their Passions are so out of order as that nothing can content them That which ought to appease them incenseth them and that which is given them to satisfie their hunger serves often times only to provoke it so as one may not be said to lie if he affirm That man is only ingenuous to his own loss and that he employs the goodness of his wit only to make himself more unfortunate or more faulty Beasts are stupid their temperature which holds of the Earth makes them insensible and happily exempts them from all those evils which hurt not the body save in as much as they have hurt the Imagination Bulls must be goaded on to make them furious and these heavy lumps whose soul is but a body do little unirritated Elephants endure all things at their Masters hands they think not themselves hurt unless they see their bloud when the pain is over their choler is appeased and they become as tractable as they were before but man is of so delicate a constitution as the slightest pain offends him his blood which is of the the nature of fire is easily moved and being once moved it hurries fury throughout all his parts This fury doth its greatest outrages about the heart for she furnisheth it with such Spirits as oftentimes she causeth that to die which gives life to the whole body and to revenge her self of a particular injury she hazzards the publick welfare To compleat this mischief this Passion is so shy in man as the least matter is sufficient to provoke it A word troubleth it a motion of the head offendeth it silence sets it going not finding any thing to entertain it it devours her own Entrails and by an excess of despair turns all her rage against her self In fine The life of Beasts being uniform and nature having given them bounds narrow enough they have but a few Passions almost all their motions are caused out of a fear which possesseth them or a desire wherewith they are affected But as the life of man is more mingled and that in the course thereof it is subject to a thousand different inconveniences his Passions rise up in a croud and wheresoever he goes he finds subjects of Choler and of Fear of Pleasure and of Sorrow Therefore it is that the Poets have feigned That his soul passeth into the body of divers Creatures and that taking all their evil qualities he uniteth in his person the guile of Serpents the fury of Tygers Choler of Lions teaching us by this Fiction That man
alone hath as many Passions as have all Beasts put together 'T is therefore that Philosophers propound them unto us for examples and that the Stoicks after having raised our nature to such a height of greatness are obliged to reduce us to the condition of Beasts and to place the happiness and rest of their wiseman in a strange kind of stupidity This sense differs not much from that of the proud Spirits which being desirous to sit on the Throne of God demanded leave of Jesus Christ to withdraw themselves into the bodies of Swine and that not being able to reign with the persons of the Deity they were contented to live with infamous Beasts So our proud Stoicks after having raised their wise-man even unto Heaven and given him Titles unto which the accursed Angels in their rebellion durst never pretend they brought him down to the condition of Beasts and not able to make him insensible they endeavoured to make him stupid They accuse Reason to be the cause of all disorders they complain of the disadvantages we have by Nature and would lose both Memory and Wisdom that they might neither foresee the evils that are to come nor muse of those that are past This folly is the punishment of their vanity Divine Justice hath permitted that understanding which had been their Idol should become their torment and that they should every where divulge That since they could not live like Gods they were resolved to live like Beasts But not immediating their despair we are only to implore aid from Heaven and acknowledging the weakness of Reason seek out another light to conduct us and borrow new forces to vanquish our Passions This is that which Christian Religion hath taught us and that which we shall examine in the pursuit of this work The Third Treatise Of the Government of Passions The FIRST DISCOURSE That there is nothing more glorious nor more hard to come by than the Government of Passions NAture by a wise providence hath united Difficulty with Glory and lest Glorious things might become too common her pleasure is they should be hardly come by There is nothing of greater lustre amongst men than the valour of Conquerors all Orators would have been mute had not battels bin fought and victories bin had But to acquire this title of honour a man must despise death forgo pleasures overcome troubles and oftentimes purchase Glory by the loss of his own life After the valour of Conquerors there is nothing more illustrious than the eloquence of Orators she ruleth States without violence she governs people without weapons she works upon their wills with sweetness she fights and obtains Victories without blood-shed but to arrive at this great height one must overcome a thousand difficulties accord Art and Nature together conceive strong thoughts express them in good words study the humour of the People learn the secret of forcing their liberties and of winning their affections This truth appeareth evidently in the Subject we treat of and every one confesseth there is nothing harder nor yet more honourable than for a man to overcome his Passions For to boot that we are not assisted by any others in this conflict that fortune which rules as chief in all other combats cannot favour us in this that men partake not of glory with us and that we do at once the office of a common Souldier and of a Commander there is this of anger and some difficulty in it that we fight against a part of our selves that our forces are divided and that nothing encourageth us in this war but duty and integrity Upon other occasions men are spurred on by honour and envy Oft times choler when it hath to do with virtue makes up the greatest part of our valour hope and boldness assist us and their forces being united it is almost impossible to be overcome But when we assail our Passions our Troops are weakned by division we operate but by one part of our selves let virtue or worth animate our Courage with the best reason she can our love to our enemies makes us faint-hearted and we are afraid of a victory which must cost us the loss of our delights For though our Passions be irregular and that they trouble our quiet these cease not to make up a part of our soul though their insolency dislike us we cannot resolve to tear out our bowels unless we be assisted by Grace self-love doth betray us and we spare rebels because they are our Allies But that which augments the difficulty and which makes the victory more uncertain is the power of our enemies for though they held no intelligence with our soul though they should not by their cunning divide her forces and though she should set upon them with all her might they are of such a nature as they may be weakned and yet not overcome they may be worsted yet not routed for they are so streightly joined with us as they cannot be parted from us Their life is bound up with ours and by a strange fate they cannot die unless we die with them So as this victory is never entire and these Rebels are never so much quelled but that upon the first occasion they will frame a new Army and give us battel again They are Hydra's which thrust up as many heads as are cut off they are so many Antaeusses who gather strength from their weakness and who rise up the stronger after they have been beaten down all the advantage which one can expect upon such unruly subjects is to clap irons upon their hands and feet and leave them no more power than what is requisite for the service of Reason We must treat them as we do Gally-slaves who draw alwaies their iron Chains after them and who have only the use of their arms to row or if you will deal with them more favourably you must be well assured of their fidelity and remember a Maxim which â— approve not of save in this case that reconciled enemies ought alwaies to be had in suspition If the difficulty which accompanieth this combate astonish us the glory which ensues thereupon ought to encourage us for the Heavens behold nothing of more Illustrious nor doth the Earth bear any thing of more glorious than a man who commands his Passions No Crown is sufficient to adorn his head all praises come short of his merit nothing but Eternity can recompense so exalted a Virtue the very shadows thereof are pleasing and the truth thereof is so beautiful that men adore the semblance We do not revernce Socrates nor Cato but for that they had some tincture thereof nor do we place them in the number of the Sages save for that they have triumphed over our weakest Passions The glory of these great men is purer than that of Alexander or Pompey their Victory never made Widow or Orphan their Conquests have not laid Kingdoms waste their Combates have neither caused the shedding of bloud nor of tears and
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
the liberty thereof the world doth yet bemoan this disaster the spoils of this shipwrack are yet seen and the States of Europe are but so many pieces which did compose the Body of that puissant Republique Ambition when confounded with virtue is guilty of more murders than Revenge and Choler though this passion pretend to be generous she is always stained with blood whatsoever delight she takes in pardoning her greatness is grounded upon the ruine of her enemies she is cause of more deaths than she procureth pardons and she is the loss of more innocents than safety of those that are guilty She astonisheth all the world when she is seen in the person of an Alexander And it seems Nature produced him to no other end than to teach us what ambition can do when assisted by fortune He ruined all Princes who would defend their own States he treated those as Enemies who refused to be his Subjects he could not permit an equal in any place through which he passed He complained of the Seas that stopt the current of his victories and wisht for a new world that he might conquer it If his vain-glory caused so many disorders his Choler committed no less ransack and if by the one he revenged himself of his Enemies he rid his hands of his Friends by the other the least suspitions encouraged these passions to revenge one indiscreet word provoked it an honest freedom set it a going and his Choler grew to be so nice as there was as much danger in doing well as in saying ill As he was possessed by all these violences so did he obey them he dipped his hands in the bloud of his Favourites he took upon him the office of a Hangman and that he might taste all the pleasures of revenge he himself would be the Minister thereof and with his own hands kill him who had saved his life But amongst all the cruelties whereunto his Choler oft did perswade him I know none more infamous than that which he exercised upon Innocent Calisthenes his condition was a Sanctuary to him and professing Phylosophy it seemed he ought not fear the fury of Alexander the very fault for which he was condemed was glorious and had it happened in the time of true Religion it would have passed for an eminent virtue for he defended the cause of his gods and was of opinion that Temples could not be built to his Prince without provoking the gods against him he guided himself so dexterously in so ticklish a business as that whilst he preserved the honour of Heaven he flattered Alexanders humour and by an admirable piece of cunning he accorded flattery with piety for if the reasons which Quintus Curtius alledgeth be true he represented unto the Macedonians that since men could not dispose of Crowns they ought not to dispose of Altars that since they made not Kings they ought not go about to make Gods and that when humane vanity would attribute unto it self that power she could not make use thereof till after the death of such as she would Deisie that to receive adoration from men one must keep far from any commerce with them lose his life to purchase a divinity That Alexander was yet necessary to them and that he ought not to mount into the Heavens till he had conquered all the Earth This short Oâ—aâ—ion was able to have obliged the most ambitious of mankind yet did it offend the vain-glory of this Prince and so far provoked his Choler as not many days after he caused this Philosopher to be put to death not allowing him liberty to defend himself This Murder drew upon him the hatred of all Greece and as Parmenio's death had exasperated all the Souldiers this of Calisthenes did much more all the Orators and these men who revenge themselves with their Tongue have spoke so oft of this excess as it is yet dishonour to him that did commit it All the praises that can be given to his gallant actions are darkned by the murder of Calisthenes And that I may make use of Seneca's eloquent words this irregular proceeding is Alexander's everlasting fault which neither his Fortune nor his Valour will ever be able to blot out For if a man shall say he defeated the Persians in three pitcht Battels another will say he slew Calisthenes If men put a valuation upon him for having overcome Darius the most puissant Monarch of the world they will blame him for having killed Calisthenes If men praise him for having carried the Bounds of his Empire to the utmost parts of the East they will add he was guilty of the death of Calisthenes If finally to end his Panegyrick a man shall say he hath stained the glory of as many Princes as preceded him another will reply his fault is greater than his valour and that all his actions of memory are sullied by Calisthenes his Blood This example ought to instruct and teach all Princes that if irregular Passions are maladies in private men they are Plagues and contagious diseases in publick Personages and that if well guided by Reason they may become glorious virtues they may by the tyranny of our senses degenerate into most infamous vices The THIRD DISCOURSE That there are no Passions which may not be changed into Virtues VVE have said in our former discourses that Passions are the seeds of Virtues that by having a care of husbanding them well their effects were very advantageous to us But proceeding on further my intention is in this discourse to teach Christians the secret how they may change them into Virtues and to take from them whatsoever they have of savage or monstrous This Metamorphosis is certainly very hard but not impossible and if we advise with nature she will furnish us with inventions for this wise Mother is continually working of strange alterations Her power never appears to be greater than when she alters the Elements or Metals and when she takes from them their former qualities that she may give them others more excellent and more noble But she observes therein an admirable method which well deserves consideration for though she be all-powerful and that holding the place of God she may act as a Soveraign and do what she pleaseth with the Elements or Metals yet doth she never use violence and she seemeth rather to accommodate her self to their interests than to her own inclinations she observeth their sympathies and worketh no alteration which is not agreeable unto them Thus we see she ratifies air to change it into fire and conduceth water to turn it into earth thus we observe she purifies silver to give it the tincture of Gold and labours whole ages to finish without violence this useful Metamorphosis Now as Morality is an imitation of Nature her chief care ought to be employed in observing the proprieties of our Passions and in converting them into virtues which are not contrary unto them for he that would go about to
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
false greatness all their advantages vanish away as shadows before the Sun and we turn our valuation into disesteem our love into hatred and our desires into detestation Prophane Philosophy desirous to find out a remedy to so many evils gives us counsel which makes us despair for she will have us to moderate our desires without reforming our Soul she inhibits us the use of wishes as if the mischief lay only in them and adviseth us to wish for nothing if we woul be happy she builds her felicity in the cutting off of this Passion She thinks to have pronounced an Oracle when by the mouth of Seneca she says that he who hath bounded his desires is as happy as Iupiter and that without increase of riches or addition to delight If we would find a solid contentment we need only lessen our desires But certainly in flattering us she abuseth us and promising us an Imaginary happiness she bereaves us of the means how to come by a true one For she leaves us in the indigency wherein sin hath plac'd us and forbids us the use of desires she leaves us with the Inclination which nature hath endowed us withal for the Summum bonum will not suffer us to seek after it she will have us to be poor and yet to have no feeling thereof and that to the misfortune of poverty we add the like of insolence and pride When we shall reign in heaven and shall find our perfect happiness in the fruition of the Summum bonum we shall banish all wishes But as long as we grovel upon earth and that we suffer evils which inforce us to seek for remedies we shall conceive just desires and shall learn from religion how to make use of them to the glory of Iesus Christ and salvation of our own souls The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Desire THough there be nothing more common than Desires there is nothing more rare then the good use thereof and of as many as make wishes there are but very few that know how to rule them well for this Passion is as free as Love and as she is in her first production she cannot endure to be constrained she is so glorious as that she receives no Laws but from the Summum bonum she sets not by the authority of Princes and knowing that she holds not of their Empire she is not affrighted at their threats nor is she moved by their promises Therefore Kings who sufficiently know the extent of their power offer not to intrench upon her liberty they punish actions forbid words but they leave thoughts and desires to his guidance who seeing them in the bottom of the heart can eternally recompense or punish them they make no laws to retain them they confess God is only able to suppress them and that he is the only Soveraign whose prerogative it is to say unto his Subjects you shall not covet They therefore are to be esteemed insolent who undertake to reform desires unassisted by his Grace and all the advices we can give to regulate them do necessarily presuppose his assistance but after having rendred this acknowledgment to him from whom we receive whatsoever we have of good me thinks we may prescribe certain conditions to the use of this Passion which may make it glorious and useful to us Nature hath endowed us with desires only to come by the good which we have not and which is necessary for us they are help in our need they are the hands of our will as those parts of the body labour for all the rest our desires take pains for all the Passions of our Soul and by their care oblige our Love and Hatred but this advantage would be prejudicial to us if being given us to assist our poverty we should make use thereof to increase it Therefore before we engage our selves in the pursuit of a good we must be well assured whether it be great enough or no to inrich us and if the enjoyment thereof will cause those desires to die to which the want thereof gave birth for if it do only irritate and if in lieu of healing our evils it make them worse a man must be mad to continue the desire I would then only desire those real good things which may free me from my miseries and to the end that my Passion may be rational I would only wish them as far forward as they ought to be wished I would weigh their qualities and I would fit my wishes to their merits I would endeavour riches not to serve my vain-glory but to supply my wants I would endeavour meat for sustenance not to provoke appetite I would endeavor honour as an aid to virtue in its birth and which hath need of some foreign help to defend it against vice yea I would endevor harmless pleasures but I would shun their excess and I would remember that they are of the nature of those fruits that are pleasing in tast but are harmful to the body thus moderated our desires would be rational if they fix us to things on earth necessity will serve us for excuse and we shall esteem the servitude glorious which will be common to us with Saints We must have a care likewise to have only weak desires for things perishable and to hold a hanck in such desires as may be violently taken from us The Stoicks Philosophy is too austere to be listned unto their maxims tend more to make us despair than to instruct us for it absolutely inhibits us the desire of such things as we may be bereft of and it employeth all its sophistical reasons to perswade us that the good which we come by by our desires cannot be a true good Christian Philosophy which knows very well that our felicity is not within us and that we must forgo our selves ere we fasten to the Summum bonum blames this Maxim but as she is not likewise ignorant that we may be bereft of other goods she ordains us to desire them without anxiety and to consider we are not so sure of their possession but that it may sometimes meet with interruption she prepars us for their loss when she permits us to seek after them she teacheth us that the desire of things perishable ought not to be eternal and that we must possess without too much of addition what ought to be forgon without sorrow she teacheth us that the goods of Fortune and of Nature depend upon divine Providence which doth not give us but lend us them which refuseth them to her friends and grants them to her enemies and which doth so bestow them as if they be not marks of hatred neither are they testimonies of her love by these good reasons she fairly perswades us that they ought not to be the principal objects of our desires and that to follow our Soveraigns intentions we must love them with coolness desire them with moderation possess them with indifferency
tolerate it and by an unfortunate necessity we must give lodging to a guest we should not be able to love but Nature hath well provided for this and her providence which always watches over her children hath given us a Passion which eschews evil with as much impetuosity as desire seeks after good This keeps at distance from all that can hurt us and following the inclinations of hatred whereof she is either the Daughter or Slave she flies from all objects that displease her and fights to defend it self against her enemies 't is the first succour we have received against evils 't is the first violence the first salley which the concupiscible appetite makes to free us from them Though this Passion be almost alwayes blameless and that she cannot be made criminal but by surprizal yet ceaseth she not to have her ill use and to be every day employ'd against the design of Nature Those therefore that would make use of her are bound to consider whether that which they endevor to eschew be truly so or be but so in appearance and whether opinion which easily seizeth upon the understanding hath not perswaded them unto falshoods instead of truths For it is apparent that of two things that bear the name of evil in the world there is but one of them which may properly be said to deserve it Sin and Punishment are the two most ordinary objects of eschewing and most men do so confound them as we know not which of them is most odious Punishment being more sensible than Sin it is more carefully shunned and there are not many people who do not love rather to be faulty than unfortunate We shun the Plague and seek out sin we keep far from all infected places the bad air whereof may work an alteration in our health and we draw near to evil company which may rob us of our innocency Religion obligeth us not withstanding to believe that Punishments are the effects of Divine Justice that they have Beauties which though austere ought not to be the less pleasing that God honours himself by punishing of his enemies and that he finds as much satisfaction in chastening the guilty as in recompencing the just The greatest Saints have known that our punishments were favours which did no less contribute to the welfare of man than to the glory of his Creator they have confessed that we must adore the arm which hurts us love the wounds because of the arm that made them and teach all the world that Heavens Thunders are just since those who are therewith struck adore them but sin is a true evil which hath nothing in it which is not odious its object is a soveraign good which it offendeth and if in the behalf of the committer the malice thereof be bounded on his behalf against whom it is committed it is infinite Sin violates all the Laws of Nature dishonoureth men and Angels and all the evils which we suffer are the just punishments of its disorders 'T was then for this dreadful evil that we were endued with aversion and this aversion cannot be more justly employed than in keeping us far from a Monster the abode whereof will be hell and death the eternal punishment Next to sin nothing ought to be more carefully eschewed than those that do defend it and who to enlarge the Empire thereof endeavor to make it appear lovely and glorious As Nature is the pure workmanship of God she cannot tolerate sin and that she may banish it from the earth she hath laden it with confusion and fear it dares not appear in full day it hides it self in darkness and seeks out solitary places where it hath none but such as are complices with it for witnesses But its partakers raise it up upon a throne and play all their cunning to win it glory they cover it with the cloak of Virtue and if it hath any thing of affinity with its enemy they strive to make it pass for Virtue They change their names and by one and the same action committing two faults they bereave Virtue of her honour that they may give it to Sin they term Revenge greatness of Courage Ambition a generous Passion Uncleanness an innocent pleasure and consequently they term Humility lowness of Spirit the forgiving of injuries faint-heartedness and continency a savage humor They spread abroad these false maxims they turn evils into contagious diseases and their errors into heresies they seduce simple souls and presenting poyson in Chrystal vessels they make it be swallow'd down by innocent people Those who are most couragious have much ado to defend themselves from them the best wits suffer themselves to be perswaded by their lewd Reasons we are therefore bound to have recourse to the succour that Nature hath given us to excite this Passion which keeps us aloof from what is evil and furnisheth us with forces to fight against it But her chief employment ought to be against Incontinence and the Heavens seem to have given a being to Aversion only to rid our hands of an enemy which cannot be overcome but by Eschewing All Passions come in to the aid of Virtue when she undertakes a war against Vice Choler grows hot in her quarrel Audacity furnisheth her with weapons Hope promiseth her Victory and Joy which always follows generous actions serves instead of Recompense but when she is to set upon Incontinency she dares not employ all these faithful souldiers and knowing very well that the enemy she is to fight withal is as crafty as puissant she fears lest he may seduce them and by his cunning draw them over to his side In truth Choler agrees easily with Love and Lovers quarrels serve only to re-kindle their extinct flames Hope entertains their Affections and Joy oft-times takes its rise from their displeasures so as Virtue can only make use of Eschewing to defend her self and of so many Passions which assist her in her other designs she is only seconded by Eschewing in her combate against Impurity But she thinks her self strong enough if succour'd therewithal and there is no such charming Beauty no so strong inclination nor so dangerous occasion which she doth not promise her self to overcome provided she be accompanied by this faithful Passion She is the cause why Chastity reigns in the world 't is by reason of her wisdom that men do imitate Angels and triumph over evil spirits in the frailty of the flesh But the greatest miracle which she produceth is when being subservient to Charity she separateth us from our selves and when preventing the violence of death she divideth the soul from the body for man hath no greater enemy than himself he is the cause of all his own evils and Christian Religion agrees with the Sect of the Stoicks that man can receive no true displeasure save what he himself procures he is therefore bound to keep at distance from himself and to hold no commerce with his Body
lest it take part with the frailties thereof he ought to shun its company if he would preserve himself in his innocency and by the assistance of eschewing the soul must loosen her self from what she inanimates Men forbid solitariness to such as are affected because it nourisheth their sorrow and endeavour to divert them to make them forget their displeasures So is solitariness forbidden unto sinners men dare not abandon them to their own thoughts lest they entertain themselves therewithal and be therewith too much possest and a thousand tricks are made use of to take them from themselves lest they finish their own ruine for 't is well known that they take nothing but evil counsels in solitariness that they study how to lay traps for Chastity that they meditate on Revenge that they excite their Choler and that losing that Shame and Fear which withheld them when in company they give freedom to all their Passions when they are drawn aside To cure them of so many evils 't is endeavoured to part them from themselves and to lead on this design with success the charge is given to Eschewing which by harmless cunning separates the Soul from the Body and keeps men aloof from what may hurt them Since then we are so much obliged to this Passion of Eschewing and that we owe our welfare to her it will become us to employ the rest of this Discourse in the consideration of her Proprieties that we may the better know a Passion which doth us so many good Offices She is the same to Hatred which Desire is to Love though she seem to consider Evil only to the intent she may keep aloof from it yet seeketh she after good in all parts and like to Watermen she turns her back towards the place where she would be her effects are as powerful as those of Desire and those unfortunate people who keep far from a great danger have no less trouble in so doing than those who seek after a great good fortune As Desire calls in Hope to her succour to compass the good which she esteems too difficult Eschewing imployes the aid of Fear to acquit her self of an evil which surpasseth her power As Desire is a mark of our indigence Eschewing is a proof of our weakness and as in Desiring we obtain that which we want by Eschewing we overcome that which sets upon us In fine as Desire doth dilate our heart and make it capable of the good which it endeavoureth Eschewing by a clean contrary effect doth close up our Soul and shuts the door upon the Enemy which would force her So as these two Passions are the faithful handmaids of Hatred and Love and as Love undertaketh nothing of generous without the assistance of Desire Hatred doth nothing of memorable unassisted by Eschewing and as we owe the possession of good to Desire which sought after it we owe our escaping of Evil to eschewing which hath given it the Repulse THE THIRD TREATISE OF Hope and of Despair The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Hope THat Art which riseth from the Earth to consider the Heavens and neglects all the Worlds beauties that it may admire those of the Stars teacheth us that the Sun changeth Influences as she changeth Houses for though he lose nothing of Virtue in his course though the Eclipses which rob us of his sight take not from him that brightness which they hide from us and his being the farther off doth not diminish his heat yet are their certain parts in the heavens where his aspects are more favourable and his influences more benign there be constellations which he cherisheth and in which he delighteth to oblige whole Nature they seem to heighten his lustre to augment his force and he appears never to be more powerful than when he communicates with them Morality which knows no other Sun than Love confesseth that he takes new force as he takes new countenances for though he be always himself and that the different names that we give him do not change his Essence yet he accommodates himself to the apprehensions of our Soul which he employeth and doth with them produce more extraordinary or more common effects He is cloudy in sorrowfulness violent in choler ready in desire undertaking in boldness calm in joy and droops in despair but certainly he is never more pleasing than in Hope 'T is the Throne wherein he appears with most pomp 't is the affection wherein he works most strongly 't is the Passion wherein he most smoothly flattereth us so is it also the most generous motion of our Soul Nature seems to have ordained it to assist great men in their highest enterprize and that nothing of memorable can be effected without the assistance of this Passion 'T was at her solicitation that Alexander undertook the conquest of Asia distributing all the wealth that he had received from his father he only received her for his patrimony and he who found the world too little contented himself with the promises which Hope gave him Caesar consulted only with her when he resolved to change the state of the Roman Common-wealth and to make himself master of that haughty Queen which gave Kings to all the people of the Earth all Conquerors have been her Slaves and Ambition which commanded over them neither drew forth Forces nor took advice but from Hope which augmented their Courage But she is not so appropriated unto Princes as not to communicate her self unto their Subjects for her care extends even to the meanest condition of men she preserveth the worlds society and all that give her entertainments are only guided by her motions The Husbandman doth not cultivate the ground Merchants put not to sea nor do Souldiers give battel but when solicited by the sweets of Hope Though she have no warrant and that all her promises be uncertain she sees a thousand people follow her orders and attend her recompenses She hath more subjects than all the Kings of the earth put together and she may boast that neither the one nor the other do any thing but by her advice 'T is she alone that contents all men and who in the difference of their conditions makes them expect the same success 'T is she that promiseth the Labourer a happy harvest favourable winds to Mariners Victory to Souldiers and to Parents obedient children Every one is ready to engage himself upon her word and that which is yet more strange men believe her though they have tane her in a lie she gives so many colours to her new promises as upon the assurance thereof men form new enterprizes and throw themselves into new dangers The Labourer plows the ground after an ill year and endeavoreth to overcome the sterility of the soil by the unwearisomness of his labour Mariners remount their Vessels after a shipwrack and cozened by Hope forget the horror of Tempests and the seas perfidiousness Souldiers return to the fight
expects till mischiefs come the other goes to seek them out the one is mild the other severe the one to speak properly suffers pains which she cannot shun the other endures torments which she easily might eschew But amongst all these differences they have this of common that they cannot subsist without Hope 't is the soul which gives them life and these two beaÌ„tiful virtues would not attract the eyes of men and Angels were they not encouraged by this Passion which regards futurity For vain-glory is not able to inspire us with the contempt of sorrow and the Sect of the Stoicks as proud as it is hath been able to make but few Philosophers generously suffer the violence of tortures and the Hang-mans cruelty but Christian Religion hath produced multitude of Martyrs who have overcome Flames and Savage Beasts and triumphed over Pagan Emperours Their Fortitude was grounded upon the virtue of Hope whilst men went about to corrupt them with promises to affright them with threats and to vanquish them with toâ—ments they raised up their spirits to heaven and considered the recompenses which God prepares for those that serve him faithfully 'T is doubtless out of this reason that the great Apostle hath given such glorious titles to hope that he employs all his divine eloquence to express the wonderful effects thereof for sometimes he calls it an Anchor which stops our Vessel in the Sea which makes us find tranquility in the midst of a storm and which fixeth our desires on heaven and not on earth sometimes he terms it a Buckler under the shelter whereof we beat down the blows which our enraged adversary makes against us sometimes he calls it our Glory and represents it unto us as an honorable title which blotting out our shame makes us hope that after having been Gods enemies we shall become his children and that in this acception we shall share in his inheritance By all these praises he teaches us that we have need of Hope in all manner of conditions and that we may usefully employ her in all the occurrences of our life that it is our security in storms our defence in combats and our glory in affronts But let us observe that she is not of this world that she forbids us the love thereof and that she promiseth unto us another more glorious and innocent to be the object of our desires Let us neglect such a good as is perishable that we may acquire that which is eternal let us remember that it is hard to have pretences at the same time both to heaven and earth and that we must set at naught the promises of the world if we will obtain those of Jesus Christ. The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of the good evil use of Despair OF all the Passions of man Despair is that which hath been most honour'd and most blam'd by Antiquity for she hath past for the last proof of courage in those famous men who have made use of sword or poyson to free themselves from the insolence of a victorious enemy Poets and Orators never appeared more eloquent than when they describe the death of Cato and they do so artificially disguise that furious action that did not faith perswade us that it is an execrable attempt we should take it for an Heroick action Seneca never praised Virtue so much as this crime he seems by the high Excomiums he gives it to perswade all men to Despair and to oblige all unfortunate people to commit Paricide he imagines that all the gods descended into Vtica to consider this spectacle that they would honour a Stoick Philosopher with their presence who not able to endure Caesars government though he had born with the like in Pompey plung'd his dagger into his breast tore his entrails and that he might taste death rent his soul from his body with his own hands But truly I do not wonder that Seneca would make a murder pass for a Sacrifice since he hath approved of Drunkenness and that he hath made it a Virtue that he might not be constrained to blame Cato who was accused thereof Others have absolutely condemn'd Despair and because some men giving themselves over unto fury have dipt their hands in their own bloud they have been of opinion that this Passion ought to be banisht from out our soul and that nothing could befal us in this life wherein it was lawful to follow the motions thereof Both these opinions are equally unjust and do violate the Sense of Nature for let the disaster be what it please which Fortune threatens us withal and whatsoever great mishap she prepareth for us we never may attempt against our own life our birth and our death depend only upon our Lord God and none but he who hath brought us into the world can take us out of it he hath left unto us the disposal of all the conditions of our life and hath only reserved to himself the beginning and the end we are born when he pleaseth and we die when he ordaineth it to hasten the hour of our death is to intrench upon his rights and he is so jealous of it as he oft-times doth miracles to teach us that it belongeth unto him But if Despair be forbidden us upon this occasion there are many others wherein it is permitted and I am of opinion that Nature did never more evidently shew her care over man than in enduing him with a Passion which may free him from all the evils for which Philosophy hath no remedy For though Good be a pleasing Object and that by its charm it powerfully attracts the Will yet it is sometimes environed with so many difficulties that the Will cannot come nigh it its beauty makes her languish she consumes away in Desire and Hope which eggeth her on obligeth her to do her utmost in vain the more she hath of Love the more she hath of Sorrow and the more excellent the good which she seeks after is the more miserable is she that which ought to cause her Happiness occasioneth her punishment and to speak it in few words she is unfortunate for that she cannot forbear loving an object which she cannot compass This torment would last as long as her Love did not Despair come in to her succour and by a natural wisdom oblige her to forgo the search of an impossibility and to stifle such Desires as seem only to afflict her As this Passion takes us off from the pursuit of a difficult good which surpasseth our power so are there a thousand occasions met withal in mans life wherein she may be advantageously made use of and there is no condition how great soever in the world which needs not her assistance For mens powers are limited and the greater part of their designs are impossible Hope and Boldness which animate them have more of heat than government led on by these blind guides they would
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
in effect Shamefastness is an innocent paint women never seem fairer than when they are somewhat shamefac'd aud there is no face how taking soever which receiveth not a fresh lustre from the innocent blush which accompanies Shamefastness she is so appropriated to Virtue as men have a good opinion of all them that have her and she defends the interests of Reason with so much fervency that the Empire thereof would ere this have been overthrown if this Passion had been banished from off the earth For experience teacheth us that more men abstain from sin for Shame than for Duty and that the Fear of Infamy hath more power over mens minds than the love of Innocence The Devil therefore very well knowing that this Passion is averse to his designs and that to make us lose it our nature must be destroyed endeavours to perswade us that Virtue is criminal to the end that it being thought infamous by us Shame which always defends her may be enforced to abandon her He thought it was easier to take from Virtue her estimation than Innocence from Shame not being able to corrupt Shame she hath gone about to deceive her and to make her lose her aversion to sin he hath made her believe sin to be glorious This Errour is so generally dispers'd throughout the whole world as there are now adays some Virtues which are esteemed Infamous and some Vices Honourable Revenge passeth for greatness of Courage and forgetting of Injuries for meanness of Spirit Ambition is illustrious and because it sets upon Crowns means to be no longer ashamed Modesty and Humility are despised and because they delight in Solitariness and Silence they have lost all their glory Opiniatricy in a fault is the mark of a stout spirit Penitence and Change of life an argument of Weakness thus all Things are confounded and Shame suffering her self to be seduced by opinion sides with Vice not thinking of it and forgoes Virtue wicked men who hid themselves now shew themselves upon the Stage and being no more ashamed which was the only good that remain'd among all their evils they become Insolent and boast of their misdemeanors the way of salvation is block'd up unto them and since they have given Titles of Honour to infamous things we cannot hope that Shame should convert them or reduce them to their duties To shun this evil this innocent Passion must be disabused and giving to every Object the name that it deserves she must be withdrawn from the error wherein she hath indiscreetly engaged her self she must be perswaded that the humblest Virtues are most profitable and that those Vices which are the most Honourable are the most dangerous upon these good Maximes she will side with Innocence again and repenting for having suffer'd her self to be deceived she will so much the more hotly pursue her enemies by how much her hatred is augmented by their injurious dealing and for that by defending Virtues interests she shall likewise revenge her self of her own particular Injuries THE FIFTH TREATISE OF CHOLER The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of CHOLER THe Virtues are so streightly united one to another as they are not to be parted without using of violence oft-times also they mingle one with another and these noble habitudes are blended together that they may make up one single Virtue Clemency which makes Kings reign happily borrows her beauties from two or three of her companions she ows her good Government to Prudence her Mildness to Mercy and her Glory to Generosity Valour which makes Conquerors triumph holds all her riches from the liberality of all other Virtues and he that should take from her the stateliness which she derives from Magnanimity the address which she takes from Discretion and the Moderation which she receives from Justice would leave her but a vain shadow of all her real greatness Though the passions hold not so good Intelligence as do the Virtues yet are there some of them which never forsake one another and there are some others which live wholly upon borrowing and which would be poor should the rest forgo them Hope is of this nature for she hath no other goods than what are given her and were she forsaken by Desire which eggs her on by Fear which holds her in and by Audacity which encourageth her nothing but a bare name would remain unto her Choler is of the same condition though she make so much noise she draws all her force from the Passions which compose her and she appears not to be couragious â—â—ve only that she is well accompanied she is never raised in our souls uncalled by Sorrow she endeavours not satisfaction for injuries done unto her unless sollicited by Desire provoked by Hope and encouraged by Audacity for he that is irritated promiseth himself revenge of his enemy but when he is so weak as he cannot hope for it his Choler turns to Sadness and wanting the Passions which did feed it it loseth both Name and Nature From all this Discourse it is easie to gather that Choler is nothing else but a Motion of the Sensitive Appetite which seeks Revenge for an Injury Aristotle therefore thought she was Rational and that even in her Fury she had some shadow of Justice the truth is she is never moved but when she imagines she hath received some injury and if she take up Arms 't is to revenge wrongs which she thinks have been done unto her herein she is much less faulty than Hatred for this later wisheth evil directly unto its enemy and without seeking any pretence or excuse for its fury desires the ruine of the party persecuted but the other wisheth him only punishment for his fault and looks not upon Revenge as an irrational Excess but as a just chastisement the later is hardly ever pacified but dischargeth its cruelty upon the Innocent and pursues the dead even to their graves if we may believe Poets it descends into Hell to torment the damned there and would mount into Heaven if it could there to afflict the blessed but the other is satisfied when she is Revenged when she thinks that the punishment equals or exceeds the Injury she is appeased and by a providence of Nature turns to Pity she spares the faultless and when even the faulty become distressed she loseth her desire of Revenge I confess she grows greater when withstood and that when she hath the better of her enemies she delights in their defeat but she seeks not that infamous content which Tyrants feel in the death of their subjects for they seek not so much to revenge themselves of an Injury as to content their brutish Cruelty and in punishing Innocents are guided more by the motions of Fury than of Choler In fine all the Philosophers have had so good an opinion of Choler as Aristotle was perswaded she sided always with Virtue against Vice that it was she that encouraged us to gallant actions and
souls had driven thence the desire of Glory Nevertheless though she be so pernicious yet there is no Passion more common and it seems that Nature to punish all our faults hath intended that she should persecute all men as a revengeful Fury there is no Nation which hath not felt her Rage and of as many people as there are differing in Customes Apparel and Language there hath not as yet been any found exempt from this cruel Passion We have seen whole Nations that have defended themselves against Riot favour'd by Poverty and who have preserved their Innocence through their never knowing riches we have seen of them that having no abiding place have kept in perpetual motion banish'd Sloth for not having known the art of building houses we have seen others who have gone naked and whom neither Shame nor Necessity hath been able to instruct to make themselves Clothes we see some which possessing all in common cannot dispute for a part and who not having lost all their natural purity are ignorant of the injustice which Avarice causeth to arise amongst us but there hath not yet any been known which have been exempt from Choler she reigns as well among people that are civiliz'd as among Barbarians she commands in all parts of the earth and where she hath not yet introduced the use of Musket and Sword she employs Bows and Arrows in her revenge In fine one only Passion hath never been seen to agitate a whole Province or to possess a whole Army Love though it be the master of Passions was never able to make a whole Town in love with one Woman Helena had but a few Lovers of so many Captains as fought for her at the siege of Troy none but her Adulterer and her Husband were taken with her beauty Avarice makes not all men sordid and if some heap up riches other-some squander them away all men are not troubled with Ambition if some seek after Honours others shun them as much if some are forward to shew themselves others will hide themselves and amongst so many guilty people some are always found that are Innocent Envy is no publick Malady and if Virtue hath her enemies she hath also her admirers but Choler is a Contagion which spreads it self through a whole Town in a moment one Oration hath made a whole Nation take up Arms and Men Women and Children agitated with this Passion have been seen confusedly to kill their own Citizens or declare war against their enemies Subjects have revolted against their Princes Souldiers have conspired against their Commanders the common people have bandied against the Nobility Children have risen up against their Parents and all the rights of Nature have been violated at the solicitation of Choler But that which is most vexatious in this so strange malady is that it takes its beginning from all things for though it be so great and that it enlargeth it self like fire a very small spark is sufficient to kindle it 't is so easie to be moved as that which ought to appease it doth oft-times provoke it and what might satisfie it offends it a servants negligence sets it on foot the freedom of a friend makes it stark mad and the scoffing of an enemy engageth it in a Combat Notwithstanding all these mischiefs Choler would be to be born withal if it were capable of counsel but she is so violent even in her birth as she cannot receive the advice that is given her for she grows not by degrees like other passions she doth not encrease with Time she needs not moneths to get root in our hearts a moment suffereth her to form her self she marcheth not a slow pace as doth envy or sorrow she is of full force at the beginning at her birth she is at her full growth if other passions in their heat thrust us forward this in her ftry doth precipitate us As she is so sudden we must not wonder if she be inconsiderate and if she make us hazard our lives to revenge an injury for she listens only to her own desires she only follows her own motions and she acknowledgeth no other Laws but those of her own violence she never sets upon her enemy without discovery of her self she gives him never a blow without running the hazard to receive a greater she loseth the victory by being too eager in the pursuit thereof and falls into the power of her enemy because she is not in her own Though all these evil qualities make us see clear enough how easie it is to abuse Choler and how hard it is to make good use thereof yet will I not forbear to pursue the order I have prescribed unto my self and to employ the two remaining Discourses in making appear what Vices and what Virtues she may take part withal but for the present I confess that so violent a Passion doth not yield much to Reason and that if we be not the more strongly assisted by Grace to resist her she is very hardly to be overcome The SECOND DISCOURSE Of the evil use of Choler SInce Choler is nothing else but a Natural Revenge and that the one and the other of these do boast of Justice and greatness of Courage I can find no better way to discover the evil use thereof than by making the Injustice and Pusillanimity thereof appear For most men persist not in their disorders but for the esteem they have thereof and those who are incens'd continue their desire of Revenge only because they think it reasonable the Incontinent excuse themselves upon their weakness and if they be not blind they approve not of a sin which Reason Nature do condemn the Envious and Detractors seek pretences for their calumnies and knowing that their fault is accompanied with unworthiness they cunningly disguise it and strive to give it some colour of Justice but Revenge and Choler believing themselves to be grounded upon Reason demean themselves insolently and would perswade us that all their excesses are as just as courageous mean while they have nothing of what they think they have and of all the motions of our soul there is none more unjust nor more pusillanimous Men imagine it is Generous because it is useful among great ones and perswade themselves it is Noble because it takes up its abode in the hearts of Kings but certainly Choler is not so much a proof of their Greatness as of their Weakness had not Voluptuousness mollified them and had not that tenderness which accompanies good successes made them so sensible of the least injuries they would not so easily fly out into Passion they would contemn Outrages and knowing that their own dignity raised them out of the reach of Storms theâ— would laugh at the vain endevours of thosâ— that go about to offend them but the slaveâ—ry they require of their subjects and thâ— shameful obsequiousness render'd to aâ— their desires makes them be offended witâ— a just
his Ambition by satisfying his Incontinence the more sins he commits the more pleasures he tastes A Tyrant rejoyceth in his Usurpation and if he reaps Glory by his Injustice he thinks himself more happy than a Lawful Prince A Cholerick man rejoyceth in Revenge though to obey his Passion he hath violated all the Laws of Charity he finds Contentment in his Crime and strangely blind the more faulty he is the more happy he thinks himself So that worldly joy is nothing else but wickedness unpunish'd or a glorious Sin Therefore when this passion becomes once faulty no less than a Miracle is required to restore it to its innocence For though such desires as rise up contrary to the Laws of God are unjust and that there are punishments ordained in his kingdom for the chastisement of irregular thoughts yet are these but begun offences and which have not as yet all their mischief though fond hopes be punishable and entertain our vanity yet are they not always follow'd by effects and oft-times by a fortunate Impotence they do not all the evil which they had promised unto themselves our boldness is fuller of inconsideration than of wickedness and an ill event makes it lose all its Fervour Our Sorrows and our Griefs are not obstinate they are healed by any the least help that is given them and as they are not well pleas'd with themselves they are easily changed to their contraries Our Fears are slitting the evil which caused them being once withdrawn they leave us at liberty and to conclude in a word there is no passion incurable but Joy But since it hath mingled it self with sin and that corrupting all the Faculties of Nature it takes delight in evil Morality hath no remedies more to cure it with 'T is a great disorder when a man glories in his sin and that as the Apostle sayes he draws his Glory from his own Confusion 'T is a deplorable mischief when together with Shame he hath lost Fear and that the punishments ordained by the Laws cannot hold him in to his duty but a strange irregularity is it when his sins have made him blind or that he knows them not save only to defend them but certainly when he takes delight in his sin when he grounds his Felicity upon Injustice and that he thinks himself Happy because he is Sinful this is the height of evil To punish this impiety it is that the Heavens dart forth Thunders The Earth grows barren for the punishment of this horrid disorder when war is kindled in a nation or that the Plague hath dispeopled Cities and turned Kingdoms into desolate places we ought to believe that these Judgments are the punishments of men who place their contentment in their offences and who violating all the Laws of Nature do unjustly mingle Joy with Sin Now because this mischief as great as it is ceaseth not to be common and that it is very hard to taste any innocent pleasure Iesus Christ adviseth us to forsake all the pleasure of the world and henceforth to ground our felicity in Heaven He bids us by the mouth of his Apostle not to open the doors of our hearts save to those pure consolations whereof the Holy Ghost is the Spring-head and arguing out of our own interests he obligeth us to seek only after that Joy which being founded on himself cannot be molested by the injuries of men nor the insolence of Fortune For if any think to place it in our Riches we are bound to fear the Loss thereof if we lodg it in reputation we shall apprehend Calumny and if like Beasts we put it in those infamous delights which slatter the Senses and corrupt the Mind we shall have as many subjects of fear as we shall see Chances that may bereave us of them Therefore following St. Augustines counsel which we cannot suspect since in the slower of his age he had tasted the delights of the world We should take care to lessen all sinful pleasures till such time as they may wholly end by our death and to increase all innocent pleasure till such time as they be perfectly consummated in Glory But you will peradventure say that our Senses are not capable of these holy delights and that Joy which is but a Passion of the Soul cannot raise it self up to such pure contentments that it must have some sensible thing to busie it self about and that whilst it is engaged in the body 't is an unjust thing to propound to it the felicity of Angels This exception is current only among such as think the passions of men to be no nobler than those of Beasts The affinity which they have with Reason makes them capable of all her Benefits when they are illuminated by her Lights they may be set on fire by her Flames When Grace sheddeth her influences into that part of the soul where they reside they labour after Eternity and forestalling the advantages of Glory they elevate the body and communicate unto it Spiritual feelings They make us say with the Prophet My body and my Soul rejoyce in the living God neglecting perishable delights they long after such only as are Eternal The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Grief and Sorrow IF Nature could not extract good out of evil and did not her Providence turn our miseries into Felicities we might with Reason blame her for having made the most troublesome of our Passions the most Common For sadness seems to be Natural to us and Joy a Stranger All the parts of our body may taste Sorrow and Pain and but very few of them are Sensible of pleasure Pains come in throngs and assail us by Troops they agree to afflict us and though they be at discord among themselves they joyn in a confederacy to conspire our undoing but pleasures justle one another when they meet and as if they were jealous of good fortune the one of them destroys the other Our Body is the Stage whereon they fight the miseries thereof arise from their differences and man is never more unhappy than when he is divided by his Delights Griefs continue long and as if nature took pleasure in prolonging our punishment she indues us with strength to undergo them and makes us only so far Couragious or so far patient as may render us so much the more miserable Pleasures especially those of the Body endure but for a moment their death is never far off and when a man will make them of longer durance by art they occasion either torment or loathing But to make good all these reasons and to shew that Grief is more familiar to man than Pleasure we need only consider the deplorable condition of our life where for one vain contentment we meet with a thousand real sorrows For these come uncalled they present themselves of their own proper motion they are linkt one to another and like Hydra's heads they either never die
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-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
enjoy Earth would be Hell if Love were vanisht thence and it would be a great piece of rigour in God if he should permit us to see handsom things and forbid us to love them But that we may the better govern this Passion we must learn of Morality what Laws to prescribe unto it and what liberty we must allow it There are three objects of our Love God Man and Creatures deprived of Reason Some Philosophers have doubted whether we could love the first or no they were perswaded his greatness did rather require our adoration than our love but though this be a religious opinion and that it merits the greater esteem since it proceeds from the prophane we cannot deny but that we were endued with love to unite us to God for to boot with our thorough sense of this inclination to boot that it is imprinted by Nature in the very ground-work of our wills and that uninstructed by our Parents or our Teachers we labour after the Summumbonum Reason teacheth us that he is the Abyss of all perfections and the Center of all love so as a man need not fear committing any excess in loving him with all his might He is so good as he cannot be loved so much as he ought to be and let a man do his utmost he is obliged to confess that the goodness of God doth far exceed the greatness of mans Love Such Souls as are elevated and approach nearer unto him complain of their coolness and wish that all the parts of their Bodies were turned into Tongues to praise him or into Hearts to love him They are troubled that since his greatness is so well known his goodness is no more loved and that having so many subjects he hath no more that love him We must not then prescribe any bounds to this Passion when it hath respect unto God but every one ought to make it his sole desire and to wish that his heart were dilated that he might infinitely love him who is infinitely lovely but we must take great heed not to rob him of what doth so justly belong unto him and we must remember that though his goodness should not force his duty from us we should be bound to render it unto him in order to our own interest For our love is never content but when it rests in God It fears infidelity in the creatures is never so assured of them but that there remains some rational doubts and though it should have such proofs of their good will as that it were constrained to banish all suspition yet would it fear lest death might take from it what good fortue hath given in one or other of these just apprehensions it could not shun being miserable But it knows very well that God is immutable that he never forsaketh us till we have forsaken him it knows that God is eternal and that death being no less distant from him than change his affection cannot end but through our infidelity 'T is true there are carnal souls who complain that he is invisible and who cannot resolve to give up their hearts to a Divinity which doth not content their eyes But all things are full of him his greatness is poured out in all the parts of the Universe every Creature is an Image of his perfections he seems to have made these pictures only to make himself be thereby known and loved and if he should not have used this piece of skill we need only consult with our own Reason to know what he is Error cannot corrupt her and in the souls of Pagans she hath verified Oracles Those very men who offered Incense unto Idols knew very well that there was but one God when Nature spake in their mouths she made them speak like Christians and they confess'd those truths for which they persecuted the Martyrs For as Tertullian observes their soul was naturally Christian when they were surprized with a danger they implored the succour of the true God and not that of their Iupiter when they took an oath they raised up their eyes towards heaven not towards the Capitol so as we must not complain that God is invisible but we must wish that he may be as much loved as he is known And moreover this complaint is no more to be admitted of since the mystery of the Incarnation where God became man that he might treat with men where he hath given sensible proofs of his presence and where clothing himself with our nature he hath suffered our eyes to behold his beauty our hands to touch his body and our ears to hear his voice Since that happy moment he is become our Allie and he who was our Soveraign is become our Brother to the end that this double quality might oblige us to love him with more ardor and might permit us to accost him with more freedom we cannot then fail in the use of that love which we owe unto him but by being either too much reserved or too unfaithful But the love we render to men may be defective in two manner of ways and we may abuse it either in loving them too much or not enough as shall be shewn in the pursuit of this Discourse Friendship is certainly one of the chief effects of Love and the harmlessest delight which men can take in Society Very Barbarians did reverence the Name thereof those who despise the Laws of Civility put an estimation upon the laws of friendship and cannot live within their Forrests without having some whom they trust who know their thoughts who rejoyce at their good fortune and who are afflicted when any ill besals them Thieves who intrench upon the publick liberty who make war in time of peace and who seem desirous to stifle that love which Nature hath placed in mankind cease not to bear respect to friendship they have a certain shadow of society amongst them they keep their word though with prejudice to their condition tortures cannot sometimes make them violate their Faith and they will rather lose their lives than betray their Companions In fine people subsist only by virtue hereof and who should banish friendship from off the earth must raze Towns and send men into Desarts She is more powerful than the Laws and who shall have well established her in Kingdoms need neither tortures nor punishments to contain the wicked within their duties But to be just she must have her bounds to be true she must be founded upon Piety those who will love one another must be united in faith and must have the same sense of Religion their friendship must be a study after Virtue and they must labour to become better by their mutual communication their souls should rather be mingled than united from this mixture a perfect community of all things must arise their goods must be no more divided and the words thine mine which cause whatever there is of division in the world must be totally