great Booke of Nature without perusing those ordinarie Characters wherein is exprest the greatest power of the Worker and excellencie of the Worke fixing our Admiration onely on those Pictures and unusuall Novelties which though for their rarenesse they are more strange yet for their na ture are lesse worthy Every Comet or burning Meteor strikes more wonder into the beholder than those glorious Lampes of Nature with their admirable Motions and Order in which the Heathen have acknowledged a Divinenesse Let a Child be borne but with six fingers or have a part more than usuall wee rather wonder at One supersâ—…uous than at All naturall Sol spectatorem nisi cum desicit non habet nemo observat Lunam nisi laborantem adeò naturale est magis nova quà m magna mirari None looketh with wondeâ—… on the Sunne but in an Eclipse no eye gazeth on the Moone but in her Travell so naturall it is with men to admire rather things Nâ—…w than Common Whereas indeed things are fit for studie and observation though never so common in regard of the perfection of their nature and usefulnesse of their knowledge In which respect the plaine Counsell of the Oracle was one of the wiâ—…est which was ever given to man To studie and to know himselfe because by reason of his owne neerenesse to himselfe hee is usually of himselfe most unknowne and neglected And yet if wee consider how in him it hath pleased God to stampe a more notable Character of his owne Image and to make him amongst all his Workes one of the most perfect Models of created excellencie wee cannot but acknowledge him to be one though of the least yet of the fittest Volumes in this great varietie of Nature to be acquainted withall Intending therefore according to my weakenesse to take some view of the inside and more noble Characters of this Booke it will not be needfull for me to gaze upon the Cover to insist on the materials or sensitive conditions of the humane nature or to commend him in his Anatomie though even in that respect the Psalmist tells us that he is fearefully and wonderfully made for wee commonly see that as most kind of Plants or Trees exceed us in vegetation and fertilitie so many sorts of beasts have a greater activitie and exquisitenesse in their senses than wee And the reason hereof is because Nature aiming at a superiour and more excellent end is in those lower faculties lesse intent and elaborate It shall suffice therefore onely to lay a ground-worke in these lower faculties for the better notice of mans greater perfections which have ever some connexion and dependance on them For whereas the principall acts of mans Soule are either of Reason and Discourse proceeding from his Vnderstanding or of Action and Moralitie from his Will both these in the present condition of mans estate have their dependance on the Organs and faculties of the Body which in the one precede in the other follow To the one they are as Porters to let in and convey to the other as Messengers to performe and execute To the one the whole Body is as an Eye through which it seeth to the other a Hand by which it worketh Concerning the ministrie therefore of the Body unto the Soule wee shall thus resolve That the Reasonable part of Man in that condition of subsistence which now it hath depends in all its ordinarie and naturall operations upon the happie or disordered temperature of those vitall Qualities out of whose apt and regular commixion the good estate of the Body is framed and composed For though these Ministeriall parts have not any over-ruling yet they have a disturbing power to hurt and hinder the operations of the Soule Whence wee finde that sundry diseases of the Body doe oftentimes weaken yea sometimes quite extirpate the deepest impression and most fixed habits of the minde For as wheresoever there is a locomotive facultie though there be the principall cause of all motion and activitie yet if the subordinate instruments the bones and sinewes be dis-jointed shrunke or any other wayes indisposed for the exercise of that power there can be no actuall motion Or as in the Body Politique the Prince whom Seneca calleth the Soule of the Common-wealth receiveth either true or false intelligence from abroad according as is the fidelitie or negligence of those instruments whom Xenophon tearmeth the Eyes and Eares of Kings In like manner the Soule of man being not an absolute independant worker but receiving all her objects by conveyance from these bodily instruments which Cicero calleth the Messengers to the Soule if they out of any indisposition shall be weakened the Soule must continue like a Rasa Tabula without any acquired or introduced habits The Soule hath not immediately from it selfe that strange weakenesse which is observed in many men but onely as it is disabled by Earthie and sluggish Organs which being out of order are more burthensome than serviceable thereunto There are observable in the Soules of men considered in themselves and in reference one to another two defects an imperfection and an inequalitie of operation the former of these I doe not so ascribe to that bodily weakenesse whereby the Soule is any way opprest as if I conceived no internall darknesse in the faculties themselves since the fall of man working in him a generall corruption did amongst the rest infatuate the Mind and as it were smother the Soule with ignorance so that the outward ineptitude of bodily instruments is onely a furtherance and improvement of that Native imperfection But for the inequalitie and difference of mens understandings in their severall operations notwithstanding it be questioned in the Schooles Whether the Soules of men have not originally in their Nature degrees of perfection and weakenesse whence these severall degrees of operation may proceed yet neverthelesse that being granted I suppose that principally it proceeds from the varietie tempers and dispositions in the instrumentall faculties of the Body by the helpe whereof the Soule in this estate worketh for I cannot perceive it possible that there should have beene if man had continued in his Innocencie wherein our Bodies should have had an exact constitution free from those distempers to which now by sinne they are lyable such remarkable differences betweene mens apprehensions as wee now see there are for there should have beene in all men a great facilitie to apprehend the mysteries of Nature and to acquire knowledge as wee see in Adam which now wee finde in a large measure granted to some and to others quite denyed And yet in that perfect estate according to the opinion of those who now maintaine it there would have beene found a substantiall and internall inequalitie amongst the Soules of men and therefore principally this varietie comes from the sundry constitutions of mens bodies in some yeelding enablement for quicknesse of Apprehension in others prâ—…ssing downe and intangling the Vnderstanding in some
great is this Delight that Men have ventured on much Trouble to procure it As Pythagoras Platâ—… Democritus travelled into remote Countries to gather Knowledge as Salomon sent to Ophir for Gold And as it makes adventurous to undertake Troubles so it helps men to beare them A true lover of Knowledge will hardly be over-borne with any Ordinary distresse if it doe not violate and restraine that particular appetite If hee may enjoy the Delights of Learning hee will be very moderately affected with his other restraints Archimedes was not sensible of the losse of Syracuse being wholly intent upon a Mathematicall Demonstration And Demetrius Phalerâ—…us deceived the Calamity of his Banishment by the sweetnesse of his Studies A Man is never afflicted to the Quick but when hee is punish'd in his most Delightfull Affections of all which the most predominant in Rationall men is this of Knowledge And therefore as the first Creature God formed was Light to shew that all his Works were made in Wisedome that they might set forth and manifest his Glory so the first motion of Adam after his Creation was towards Knowledge By his Exercise of Knowledge hee shewed Gods Image in him and by the Ambition after more hee lâ—…st it As no Man sinnes easier than in the Thing which hee best loves And for this cause wee may observe that Christs frequentest Miracles were shewed in opening the Eyes of the blind and the Eares of the Deafe and Dumb. His Mercies being perfect extended themselves on those Faculties which are the chiefe Instruments of Knowledge in Men which they most love And this love of Knowledge is seene evidently in this that men had rather have sober Calamities than mad pleasures and more freely choose cleare Intellectuals with miserie than disturb'd with mirth Many Men better content themselves with but a crazie body for the fruition of their studies than to purchase a better Health at so great a Price as the losse of Learning But the Principall Excellencie of Knowledge is this That it guideth the Soule to God and so doth all kinde of Right Knowledge in divers respects For first there is scarce any Science properly so called which hath not its Arâ—…ana to pose and amaze the Understanding as well as its more easie Conclusions to satisfie it Such as are in Philosophie those Occult Sympathies and Antipathies of which naturall Reason can render no Account at all which overcomming the utmost Vigour of humane Disquisition must needs enforce us to beleeve that there is an Admirable Wisedome that disposeth and an infinite Knowledge that comprehendeth those secrets which we are not able to fathome Againe since the Knowledge of Things is either of their Beings or of their Properties and Operations And Nature abhorreth the Motion of proceeding In Infinitum in either of these necessary it is that the Minde of man tracing the footsteps of naturall things must by the Act of Logicall Resolution at last arise to him who is the fountaine of all Being the First of all Causes the Supreame over all Movers in whom all the rest have their Beings and Motions founded And this the Lord in the Prophet hath delivered unto us I will heare the Heavens and the Heavens shall â—…eare the Earth and the Earth the Corne and Wine and they Iezreel Iezreel cannot subsist without Corne and Wine shee cries to them to help it These cannot help without the Earth to produce them they cry to that to be fruitfull The Earth can bring forth nothing of it selfe without Influence benignity and comfortable showers from the Heavens it cries to them for ayde The Heavens cannot give Raine nor Warmth of themselves without him who is the Father of Raine and the Fountaine of Motion So that here are three notable Things to be observed The Connexion and Concatenation of All second Causes to one another The Cooperation of them together for the good of the Church and the Subordination of them all to God unto whom at length the more accurate Inquiry into them doth manuduct us And this Subordination standeth in foure things 1. All things are Subordinate unto God in Being Hee only hath Being per Essentiam By Absolute and Originall Essence all other things per participationem by derivation and dependance on him 2. In Conservation For God doth not make his Creatures as a Carpenter doth his House which can after stand by it selfe alone but having our very Being from him that Being cannot Be or Continue without His supportance as light in the house dependeth both in Being and in Continuance upon the Sunne 3. In regard of Gubernation and providence for All things are by his Wisedome guided unto the Ends of his Glory And even those Creatures which flie out of the Order of his Precepts doe fall into the Order of his Providence Lastly in Regard of Operation For in him wee live and move hee worketh Our works for us Second Causes cannot put forth any Causality till he be pleased to concurre with them Againe since wee finde that all other Creatures have answerable to the Instincts and Appetitions which Nature hath Grafted in them proportionable Objects of equall Latitude in goodnesse to the Faculties which are carried unto them It must needs be reasonable that that be not wanting to the Excellentest of Creatures which all the rest doe enjoy Since then the supreame Appetite of the Reasonable Soule is Knowledge and amongst all the Creatures there never was yet any found able to fill and satisfie this Desire But that still there is both roome for more Knowledge and Inquirie after it And besides all the Knowledge of them is accompanied with Vnquietnesse and labour as the Beast first stirres the mudd in the water with his feet before hee drink it with his Mouth from hence it infallibly followeth that from these lesser Objects the Soule be carried at the last to God The Adequate and Vltimate End and Object of all our Desires as Noahs Dove was carried back to the Ark when shee found no place for the sole of her foot to rest on Againe when wee see things which have no knowledge work so regularly towards an End as if they knew all the way they were to goe wee must needs conclude they are guided by a Mighty wisedome and Knowledge without them as when an Arrow flyeth directly to the Mark I am sure it was the Hand of a skilfull Archer that directed it Vnto the Perfection of Knowledge after due and proper Representation of Objects in themselves or in their Causes Effects Principles unto the Minde There are in the Subject three things requisite First Clearenesse of Apprehension to receive the right and distinct Notion of the Things represented as the clearenesse of a Glasse serveth for the Admission of a more exact Image of the face that looks upon it whereas if it be soil'd or dimm'd it rendreth either none or an imperfect shape Secondly Solidity of
Israelite That the Crowne of Rabbah was put upon the head of David and the Sword of Goliah used to stay himselfe That the Gold and Myrâ—…h and Frankincense of the Wise men of the East was offered unto Christ when I finde the Apostle convincing the Iewes out of their Law and the Philosophers out of their Maximes And that every gift as well as every Creature of God is good and may be sanctified for the use and delight of Man I then conclude with my selfe That this Morall and Philosophicall Glasse of the humane Soul may be of some service even unto the Tabernacle as the Looking glasses of the Israelitish women were unto the Altar Nâ—…r 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 a little wonder at the melancholly fancy of Saint Hierom who concâ—…iving himselfe in a vâ—…on beaten by an Angel for being a Ciceronian did for ever after promise to abjure the Reading of secular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himselfe both justifying the 〈◊〉 at use of that kind of Learning and acknowledgâ—… 〈◊〉 conceâ—…d vision of his to have beene but a Dreaâ—… It is true indeed that in regard of the bewitching danger from humane learning and the too great aptnesse in the minds of man to surfeit and be intemperate in the use of it Some of the Ancients have sometimes interdicted the Reading of such Authors unto Christian men But this calleth upon us for watchfulnesse in our studies not for negligence for the Apostle will tell us That to the pure all things are pure And even of harmefull things when they are prepared and their malignancy by Art corrected doth the skilfull Physitian make an excellent use If then we be carefull to Moderate and Regulate our affections to take heed of the pride and inslation of secular learning not to admire Philosophy to the prejudice of Evangelicall knowledge as if without the revealed light of the Gospel salvation might be found in the way of Paganisme if we suffer not these leane Kâ—…ne to devoure the sat ones nor the River Iordan to be lost in the dead Sea I meane Piety to be swallowed up of prophane Studies and the knowledge of the Scriptures which alone would make any man conversant in all other kinde of Learning with much greater Felicity and successe to be under-valued and not rather the more admired is a Rich Iewell compared with Glasse In this case and with such care as this there is no doubt but secular Studies prepared and corrected from Pride and Prophanenesse may be to the Church as the Gtâ—…eonites were to the Congregation of Israel for Hâ—…wers of Word and Drawers of Water otherwise we may say of them as Cato Major to his 〈◊〉 of the Graecian Artâ—… and Learning Quandocunquâ—… ista Gens suas literas dabit omnia Corâ—…umpet Nor have I upon these Considerations onely adven tured on the publication of this Tract but because withall in the reviewing of it I found very many Touches upon Theologicall Arguments and some Passages wholy of that Nature Yea all the Materiall parts of the Treatise doe so nearely concerne the knowledge of our selves and the Direction of our lives as that they may be all esteemed Borderers upon that Profession In the perusing and fashioning of it for the Presse I have found that true in writing which I had formerly found true in Building That it is almost as chargeable to repaire and set right an Old house as to Erect a New one For I was willing in the most materiall parts of it so to lop off Luxuriances of Style and to supply the Defects of Matter as that with Candid favourable and ingenuous Iudgements it might receive some toleralle acceptation In hope whereof I rest Thine in all Christian service EDWARD REYNOLDS Perlegi Tractatum hunc cui Titulus A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule c in quo nihil reperio orthodoxae fidei aut bonis moribus adversum quo minus cum summa utilitate imprimatur Mâ—… 14. 1640. Tho. Wykes R. P. Episc. Lond. Capell domest A Summary of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke Chap. 1. OF the dependance of the Soul in her operations upon the body Pag. 1. Chap. 2. In what cases the dependance of the Soul on the body is lessened by faith custome education occasion p. 8. Chap 3. Of the Memory and some few causes of the weaknesse thereof p. 13. Chap. 4. Of the Fancy it's offices to the will and reason volâ—…bility of thoughts fictions errours levâ—…ty fixednesse p. 18. Chap. 5. Of Passions their Nature and distribution of the motions of naturall creatures guided by a knowledge without them and of rationall creatures guided by a knowledge within them of Passions mentall sensitive and rationall p. 31. Chap. 6. Of humane Passions in generall thâ—…ir use naturall morall civill their subordination 〈◊〉 or rebell on against right reaâ—…n p â—…1 Chap. 7. Of the exercise of Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apathy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cure thereof p. 4â—… Chap. 8. Of 〈◊〉 â—…ls of Passions 〈◊〉 thâ—…y 〈◊〉 vertue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divertiâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 57. Chap. 9. Of the affection of Love of Love naturall of generall Communion of Love rationall the object and generall cause thereof p. 74. Chap. 10. Of the rule of true Love the Love of God and our selves similitude to these the cause of Love in other things of Love of Concupâ—…ence how love begetteth Love and how prâ—…sence with and absence from the Object doth upon different reflects exercise and encrease Love p. 81. Chap. 11. Of the effects of Love union to the Object stay and immoration of the minde upon it rest in it zealâ—… strength and tendâ—…rnesse towards it condescention unto it liqueâ—…ion and languishing for it p. 98. Chap. 12. Of the Passion of â—…atred the fundamentall cause or object thereof evill How farre forth evils willed by God may be declined by men of Gods seâ—…t and revealed will p. 111. Chap. 13. Of the other causes of Hatred secret Antipathy Difficulty of procuring a Good commanded 〈◊〉 base sears disparity of Desires a fixed jealous 〈◊〉 p. 119. Chap. 14. Of the Quality and Quantity of Hatred and how 〈◊〉 either respects it is to be regulated p. 131. Chap. 15. Of the 〈◊〉 and evill Effects of Hatred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisedome to profit by that wee hate wâ—…th Confidence Victory Reformation Hatred in generall against the whole kinde cunning â—…ss 〈◊〉 cruelty running â—…ver to persons Innocent vielating Religion Envy Rejoyâ—…ing at evill Creeked suspition contempt contumely p. 137. Chap. 16. Of the affection of Desire what it is The severall kindes of it naturall rationall spirituall intemperate unnaturall morbid Desires The Object of theâ—… good pleasant as possible as absent either in whole or in degrees of perfection or continuance The most generall internall cause vacuity indigence other causes admiration greatnesse of minde curio sity p. 161. Chap.
either delightfull or disquieting Conclusions Sensitive Passions are those motions of prosecution or flight which are grounded on the Fancie Mentorie and Apprehensions of the common Sense which we see in brute beasts as in the feare of Hares or Sheepe the fiercenesse of Wolves the anger or slatterie of Dogs and the like So Homer describeth the joy of Vlysses his Dog which after his so long absence remembred him at his returne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wanton joy to see his Master neare He wav'd his flattering tayle and toss'd each eare Now these motions in brute creatures if we will beleeve Seneca are not affections but certaine characters and impressions ad similitudinem passionum like unto Passions in men which he calleth Impetus the risings forces and impulsions of Nature upon the view of such objects as are apt to strike any impressions upon it I come therefore to those middle Passions which I call'd Rationall not formally as if they were in themselves Acts of Reason or barely immateriall motions of the Soule but by way of participation and dependance by reason of their immediate subordination in man unto the government of the Will and Vnderstanding and not barely of the Fancie as in other creatures And for calling Passion thus govern'd Reasonable I have the warrant of Aristotle who though the sensitive Appetite in man be of it selfe unreasonable and therefore by him contradivided to the Rationall powers of the Soule yet by reason of that obedience which it oweth to the Dictates of the Vnderstanding whereunto Nature hath ordain'd it to be subject and conformable though Corruption have much slackned and unknit that Bond hee justly affirmeth it to be in some sort a Reasonable Facultie not intrinsecally in it selfe but by way of participation and influence from Reason Now Passion thus considered is divided according to the severall references it hath unto its object which is principally the Good and secondarily the Evill of things and either considered after a sundry manner for they may be taken either barely and alone or under the consideration of some difficultie and danger accompanying them And both these againe are to be determin'd with some particular condition of union or distance to the subject for all objects offend or delight the Facultie in vertue of their union thereunto and therefore according as things are united or distant so doe they occasion Passions of a different nature in the Mind The object then may be considered simply in its owne nature as it precisely abstracteth from all other circumstances including onely the naturall conveniencie or disconveniencie which it beareth to the Facultie and so the Passions are in respect of Good Love in respect of Evill Hatred which are the two radicall fundamentall and most transcendent Passions of all the rest and therefore well called Pondera and Impetus animi the weight and force and as I may so speake the first springings and out goings of the Soule Secondly the object may be considered as absent from the subject in regard of reall union though never without that which the Schooles call vnio objectiva union of Apprehension in the Vnderstanding without which there can be no Passion and the object thus considered worketh if it be Good Desire if Evill â—…light and Abomination Thirdly it may be considered as present by a reall contract or union with the Facultie and so it worketh if Good Delight and Pleasure if Evill Griefe and Sorrow Againe as the object beareth with it the circumstances of difficultie and danger it may be considered either as exceeding the naturall strength of the power which implyeth in respect of Good an Impossibilitie to be attained and so it worketh Despaire and in respect of Evill an Improbabilitie of being avoided and so it worketh Feare or secondly as not exceeding the strength of the power or at least those aides which it calleth in in which regard Good is presented as Attainable and so it worketh Hope and Evill is presented either as Avoidable if it be future and it worketh Boldnesse to breake through it or as Requitable if it be past and so it worketh Anger to revenge it Thus have wee the nature and distribution of those severall Passions which wee are to enquire after of all which or at least those which are most naturall and least coincident with one another I shall in the proceeding of my Discourse observe some things wherein they conduce to the honour and prejudice of Mans Nature But first I shall speake something of the generalitie of Passions and what dignities are therein most notable and the most notable defects CHAP. VI. Of Humane Passions in generall their use Naturall Morall Civill their subordination unto or rebellion against right Reason NOW Passions may be the subject of a three-fold discourse Naturall Morall and Civill In their Naturall consideration we should observe in them their essentiall Properties their Ebbes and Flowes their Springings and Decayes the manner of their severall Impressions the Physicall Effects which are wrought by them and the like In their Morall consideration we might likewise search how the indifferencie of them is altered into Good or Evill by vertue of the Dominion of right Reason or of the violence of their owne motions what their Ministry is in Vertuous and what their Power and Independance in Irregular actions how they are raysed suppressed slackned and govern'd according to the particular nature of those things which require their motion In their Civill respects we should also observe how they may be severally wrought upon and impressed and how and on what occasions it is fit to gather and fortifie or to slack and remit them how to discover or suppresse or nourish oâ—… alter or mix them as may be most advantagious what use may be made of each mans particular Age Nature Pâ—…opension how to advance and promote our just ends upon the observation of the Character and dispositions of these whom we are to deale withall And this Civill use of Passion is copiously handled in a learned and excellent discourse of Aristotle in the second Booke of his Rhetoricks unto which profession in this respect it properly belongeth because in matter of Action and of Iâ—…dicature Affection in some sort is an Auditor or Iudge as he speakes But it seemeth strange that a man of so vast sufficiencie and judgement and who had as we may well conjecture an Ambition to knit every Science into an entire Body which in other mens Labours lay broken and seattered should yet in his Bookes De Animâ over-passe the discoverie of their Nature Essence Operatioâ—… aâ—…d Properties and in his Bookes of Morall Philosophie should not remember to acquaint us with the Indifferencie Irregularitie Subordination Rebellion Conspiracie Discords Causes Effects consequences of each particular of them being circumstances of obvious and dayly use in our Life and of necessarie and singular benefit to give light unto the government of right Reason
Touching Passions in order unto Civill or Iudiciarie affaires I shal not make any observation either of the other I shall in part touch upon though not distinctly and asunder but in a briefe and confused collection of some few particulars The Order which I shall observe in setting downe the Honour and Corruption of them in Generall which Method shall in part be kept in their Particulars shall be this first according to the Antecedents of their Motion and Acts secondly according to the Acts themselves and thirdly according to the Consequents of them First touching the Antecedents to the Act of Passion they are either the Outward Motives thereunto as namely the Objects unto which it is carryed and the Causes whereby it is produced or the Inward Root and Principles of the Act whereby it is wrought and governed For the two former Passion is then sayd commendable when it is direct and naturall And the Corruption is when it is carryed to an undue Object or proceedeth from an indirect Cause but these are more observable in the particulars and therefore thither I referre their distinct handling For the third the Dignitie of Passion chiefely consists in a Consonancie and Obedience to the Prescription of Reason for there is in mans Faculties a naturall subordination whereby the actions of the inferior receive their motion and direction from the influence of the higher Now Appetite was in Beasts onely made to be governed by a sensitive Knowledge But in Man Sense ought not tâ—… have any commanding or moving Power but onely Instrumentall Ministeriall and Conveying in respect of the Object The Action of Sense was noâ—… from the first Institution ordain'd to touch the Affection but to present it selfe primarily to the Vnderstanding upon whose determination and conduct the Passions were to depend to submit all their inclinations thereunto and to be its Ministers in the execution of all such Duties as it should deeme any way expedient for the benefit of Mans Nature so that herein consists a great part of Mans infelicitie by the Fall that albeit his Vnderstanding it selfe be blinded and therefore not able to reach forth any perfect Good to the inferiour parts yet that small portion of Light which it yet retaineth for the government of our Actions is become uneffectuall as being able onely to convince but not to reforme The Corruption then of Passion in this respect is the independance thereof upon its true Principle when it stayeth not to looke for but anticipates and prevents the Discourses of Reason relying onely on the judgement of Sense wherewith it retaines an undue correspondence So that herein is mainly verified that complaint of the Prophet Man being in Honour hath no understanding and is become as the Beasts that perish For as in the Body to use the similitude of Aristotle if any parts thereof be out of joint it cannot yeeld obedience unto the government of the Motive Facultie but when it would carry it one way it falls another So it is in the Mind of Man when that Naturall continuitie and Vnion of Faculties whereby one was made in operation dependant on another is once dissolved when Affections are dis-joynted from Reason and cast off the reines whereby they should be guided there cannot be that sweet harmonie in the motion thereof which is required to the weale of Mans Nature It is prodigious to see an Instrument such as all Appetite should be to be the first and selfe-mover in its owne actions whence cannot in the Mind of Man but follow great danger it being all one as if a Waggoner should commit himselfe to the wild and unswayed fancie of his Horses or as if a blind man who hath not the power of directing his owne feet should be permitted to run headlong without wit or moderation having no Guide to direct him For as Fire though it be of all other creatures one of the most comfortable and usefull while it abides in the place ordained for it yet when it once exceeds those limits and gets to the house-top it is most mercilesse and over-running So Passion though of excellent service in Man for the heating and enlivening of Vertue for adding spirit and edge to all good undertakings and blessing them with an happier issue than they could alone have attained unto yet if once they flye out beyond their bounds and become subject onely to their owne Lawes and encroach upon Reasons right there is nothing more tumultuous and tyrannicall As Bias said of the Tongue that it was the best and the worst part of the Sacrifice so may we of the Affections Nec meliores unquam Servos nec Dominos sent it Natura â—…eteriores They are the best Servants but the worst Masters which our Nature can have Like the Winds which being moderate carry the Ship but drowne it being tempestuous And it is true as well in Mans little Common-wealth as in greater States That there are no more pestilent and pernicious disturbers of the Publique Good than those who are best qualified for service and imployment if once they grow turbulent and mutinous neglecting the common end for their owne private respects and desirous to rayse themselves upon publique Ruines And indeed it is universally true Things most usefull and excellent in their Regularitie are most dangerous in their Abuse CHAP. VII Of the Exercise of Passion of Stoicall Apathie of Permanencie Defect Excesse with the Cure thereof THe next consideration of Passions was according to the Exercise of their Act which we may consider either according to the generall Substance or according to some particular Accidents in the manner of its being For the first it is altogether Good as being nothing else but naturall motion ordained for the perfection or conservation of the Creature For notwithstanding naturall Motion may haply argue some kind of imperfection in the state of the thing moving as supposing it some way deprived of that wherein it should rest it selfe which makes Aristotle conclude that the noblest Act of the Vnderstanding Knowledge and cleare Vision is rather the Rest than the Motion of that Facultie yet I say it alwayes implyeth more naturall Perfection in those things whereunto it belongeth for as Fire the perfectest of Elements and Heaven the perfectest of Bodies so the Soule of Man the perfectest of formes hath the most vehement motion And in this consideration so it be alwayes Motion Naturall governed and dependant on right Reason I find not any Corruption though I find an Error and abuse that I meane which maketh Passion in generall to be Aegritudo Animi a Sicknesse and Perturbation and would therefore reduce the Mind to a senselesse Apathie condemning all Life of Passion as Waves which serve onely to tosse and trouble Reason An Opinion which while it goeth about to give unto Man an absolute government over himselfe leaveth scarce any thing in him which he may command and governe For although there
that which is betweene the Body and the Soule we may well ground some good presumption of similitude in the qualities of the Soule with those lovely impressions of Nature which we find in the Body and may by the same reason collect a mutuall discoverie by which we acknowledge a mutuall sympathie betweene them And therefore it was no ill counsell though not alwayes to be heeded Cave tibi ab iis quos natura signavit to take heed of such who like Cain have any marke of notorious deformitie set upon them by Nature And therefore Homer speaking of the garrulous impudent envious and reviling qualities of Thersites fits him with a Body answerable to such a Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most ill-shapen man that to Troy came With eye distorted and in each foot laine His shoulders crooked to his brest shrunke downe A sharpe wrye head here and there patcht with downe But yet herein though it be injurious for a man out of too much austeritie of Mind to reject the judgement of sense and to quarrell with this naturall instinct yet it is fit that in this case considering the deceitfulnesse of things and what a divers habit Education or Hypocrisie hath wrought in many betweene the out and inside of their Natures that we should I say bring a fearefull judgement like love of Bâ—…as the Philosopher which may easily upon good warrant and assurance alter it selfe otherwise when a thing is throughly knowne to be lovely our hearts may boldly quiet and repose themselves in it But here likewise we must observe that proportion of Nature That if our affection cannot stand in private towards one particular without dammage and inconvenience to the publique Body Politique or Ecclesiasticall whereof we are members the generall must ever be esteemed more deare and precious A scandall to the Body and a Schisme from the whole is more dangerous and unnaturall than any private Divisions for if there be a wound or swelling in one part of the Body the parts adjoyning will be content to submit themselves unto paine for the recoverie of that and rather than it shall perish 〈◊〉 any â—…ble which may conduce to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is the Love of fellow-members amongst themselves But then if any part be so farre corrupted as that it doth more easier derive its contagion upon others than admit of any succour from them so that by the continuance thereof in the Body the whole is endangered or if the whole Body be readie to perish by Famine then doth the Sense of Communitie so swallow up that other more private respect as that the members will be even cruell amongst themselves to the cutting and devouring each of other that thereby the safetie of the whole may be procured And therefore the Fable of the Faction betweene the Belly and the Members was wisely applyed by Menenius Agrippa in a Rebellion amongst the people of Rome to shew how unnaturall a thing it is and how pernicious to the parts themselves to nourish their owne private Discontents when the Weale publique is together therewithall endangered CHAP. X. Of the Rule of true Love the Love of God and our selves similitude to these the cause of Love in other things of Love of Concupiscence how Love begetteth Love and how presence with and absence from the object doth upon different respects exercise and encrease Love FRom this generall and fundamentall cause of Love proceed some others speciall and particular whereof the first and principall is a similitude and resemblance betweene the thing loved and that which is the Naturall Rule of Love Now the Rule of all Love is by Divine Truth prescribed to be God and a Mans selfe so that what beareth similitude to these is the proper and right Object of our Affection To speake therefore a word or two of these The Master-Wheele or first Mover in all the Regular Motions of this Passion is the Love of God grounded on the right knowledge of Him whereby the Soule being ravished with the apprehension of his infinite Goodnesse is earnestly drawne and called out as it were to desire an Vnion Vision and participation of his Glory and Presence yeelding up it selfe unto Him for by Love a man giveth himselfe to the thing which he loves and conforming all its Affections and Actions to his Will And this Love is then Regular when it takes up all the kinds of Love and all the degrees of Love For we love God Amore amicitiae for the Goodnesse and Excellencie which is in himselfe as being most lovely and Amore desiderii with a desire of being united unto him as the Fountaine of all our blessednesse and Amore complacentiae with a love of joy and delight in him when the Soule goes to God like Noahs Dove to the Arke and with infinite sweetnesse and securitie reposeth it selfe in him and lastly Amore Benevolentiae with an endeavour so farre as a poore Creature can to an infinite Creator for our Good extendeth not unto him to bring all praise service and honour unto him And thus we are to love him above all things first Appretiativè setting an higher price upon his Glory and Command than upon any other thing besides all Dung in comparison Secondly Intensivè with the greatest force and intention of our Spirit setting no bounds or measure to our Love of him thirdly Adaequatè as the compleat perfect and adaequate object of all our Love in whom it must begin and in whom it must end And therefore the Wise-man speaking of the Love and Feare of God tells us that it is Totum Hominis the Whole of Man Other Objects are severally fitted unto severall Faculties Beautie to the Eye Musick to the Eare Meat to the Palate Learning to the Mind none of these can satisfie the Facultie unto which it belongs not And even to their proper Faculties they bring Vanitie and Vexation with them Vanitie because they are emptie and doe deceive and because they are mortall and will decay Vexation in the Getting for that is with Labour in the Keeping for that is with Feare in the Multiplying for that is with Care in the enjoying for if we but taste we are vexed with desiring it if we surfet we are vexed with loathing it God onely is Totum Hominis fitted to all the wants of an immortall Soule Fulnesse to make us perfectly happie Immortalitie to make us perpetually happie after whom we hunger with desire and are not griped on whom we feast with delight and are not cloyed He therefore is to be loved not with a divided but a whole Heart To love any Creature either without God or above God is Cupiditas Lust which is the formale of every sinne whereby we turne from God to other things but to love the Creatures under God in their right order and for God to their right end for he made all things for himselfe this is Charitas true and regular Love Now the
For our flesh is to be subdued to reason not to infirmities that it may be a servant to the Soule but not a burden But if we let Wine bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen called it to take a freedome against us like Cham to mocke us and discover our nakednesse and make us servants unto it If we doe not only eate Hony but surfet on it If wee must have meat like Israel in the Wildernesse not only for our Need but for our Lust If we eat and drinke so long that we are good for nothing but either to lye downe and sleep or to rise up and play to live to day and to dye tomorrow If we make our belly the grave of our Soule and the dungeon of our Reason and let our Intestina as well morally as naturally farre exceed the length of the whole Man besides This is in the Apostles phrase to be lovers of pleasure rather then lovers of God and it is an intemperate excesse against natural desires which will ever end in pain It was a witty speech of Aâ—…acharsis the Philosopher that the Vine beareth three sorts of Grapes The first of Delight The second of Excesse The third of Sorrow If wee let our Delight steale us into Excesse and become a mocker our Excesse will quickly betray us unto Sorrow as Dalilah did Sampson to the Philistins and let us know that after Wine hath mocked it can rage too Like the head of the Polypus which is sweet to the Palate but after causeth troublesome sleeps and frightfull dreames Secondly there are brutish and unnaturall Desires which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ferine and inhumane instancing in those barbarous Countries where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat and in the Woman who â—…ipped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones Vnto which head I refer those which the Apostle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vile and dishonorable Affections and Passions of Lust wherein forsaking the guidance of Nature they dishonored their bodies amongst themselves and gave themselves over as S. Iude speaketh unto strange flesh also incestuous and promiscuous Lusts going with naked and painted Bodies as the antient Britâ—…aines offering of men and children in sacrifices eating of the bodies of Friends that dyed burning of the living with the dead and other like savage and barbarous practices wherein wee finde how farre naturall corruption improved with ignorance and want of Education or Religion can imbrace the Manners of Men. Lastly there are morbid Desires growing out of some distemper of Mind or Body called by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those of children which eate coâ—…les or dirt and the strange and depraved longings of women with child called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piâ—…a from the Bird of that name because the inconstant and various appetences of nature so misguided by vitious humours is well resembled by the strange mixture of white and black feathers in that Bird. Having considered the severall kinds both of Regular and corrupt Desires I shall content my selfe with a very briefe inquiry into the causes and effects of this Passion The causes moving it are Externall ex parte objecti in the object or â—…ternall ex parte subjecti in the minde The Object is any thing apprehended sub ratione Boni Iucundi as good and pleasant For upon those inducements did Satan first stirre the desire of Eve towards the forbidden fruit She saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eye Now the Qualification of these to distinguish the formall reason of their being objects to our desires from that wherein they are Objects of our love is first that they bee Possible For Desire being the motion and indeavour of the Soule towards that good which it loveth and wherein it seeketh to delight take away the possibility of such delight and this would bee motus in Vacâ—… like that of Noahs Dove that found no place for her feet to rest on Hope is the whetstone and wheele of industry if that saile how ever a man may waste and pine away his thoughts in empty Velleities and imaginary wishes he caâ—… ever put forth nor addresse his endeavours towards an impossible good Though an old man may wish himselfe young againe yet no man was ever so besotted as to endeavour it And this distinction betweene vanishing wishes and serious desires is of great consequence to be attended in all thâ—… motions of the Soule morall or sacred in as much as those Desires onely which are Active and Industrious purposely addressing themselves to the prosecution of that which they apprehend as acquirable doe commend the Soule from whence they issue for vertuous and pious Secondly the object of the Desires quatale is apprehended as Absent and distant in as much as presence worketh delight rather than desire The things we have we enjoy wee doe not covet wee rest in them we doe not move towards them Yet not alwaies Absent quoad tâ—…m but quoad gradus not in the whole but in the parts and degrees of it for the presence of a good thing doth in some sort quicken the Desires towards the same thing so farre forth as it is capable of improvement and augmentation As we see in externall riches of the body none desire them more eagerly than those that possesse them and the more vertuous the Soule of man is the more is the heart enlarged in the Appetition of a greater measure as the putting in of some water into a Pump doth draw forth more No man is so importunate in praying Lord help mine unbeliefe as hee that can say Lord I beleeve Thus even present things may be desired in order to improvement and further degrees of them as many times a man hath a better stomacke to his meat after he hath begun to eat than when he first sate downe unto it Againe things present may be the Object of our Desires unto continuance as hee that delighteth in a good which he hath desireth the continuance of that Delight And therefore Life even while it is possessed it is desired because the possession of it doth not cause the Appetite to nauseate or surfet upon it Few men there are who desire not old Age not as it is old Age and importeth decay decrepidnesse and defects of Nature For a young man doth not desire to bee old now but as it implyeth the longer and fuller possession of Life For a man being conscious to himselfe first of his owne insufficiency to make himselfe happy from and within himselfe and next of the immortality of his Nature as upon the former reason he is busied in sending abroad his Desires as the Purveyors and Caterers of the Soule to bring in such things as may promote perfection so those very Desires having succeeded doe farther endeavour the satisfaction of Nature
to Hercules when his Wuine fluck in the mud to helpe it out without stretching out his owne hands to touch it are first unnaturall desires it being the formall property of this Passion to put the Soule upon some motion or other And therefore wee see wheresoever Nature hath given it she hath given likewise some manner of motion or other to serve it And secondly they are by consequence undutifull and disobedient Desires in that they submit not themselves unto that Law which requireth that wee manifest the life and strength of our Love by the quicknesse and operation of it in our Desires And lastly such Desires are unusefull and fruitlesse for how can an object which standeth in a fixed distance from the Nature which it should perfect be procured by idle and standing affections The desires of the sluggard saith Salomon slay him because his hands refuse to labour These affections must have life in them which bring life after them Dead desires are deadly desires CHAP. XIX Of the Affection of â—…y Delight The severall Objects thereof Corporall Morall Intellectuall Divine THe next Passions in order belonging to the Concupiscible Faculty are those two which are wrought by the Presence of and Vnion to an Object and that is when either wee by our desires have reached the Object which worketh Ioy and Delight or when in our flight the Object hath overtaken us which worketh Griefe and Sorrow And these two do beare the most inward relation unto and influence upon all our actions Whereupon Aristotle in his Ethicks hath made them the foundation of our vertues and rules of our working And the reason is naturall because the end of our motion is to attaine rest and avoid perturbation Now Delight is nothing else but the Sabbath of our thoughts and that sweet tranquility of mind which we receive from the Presence and Fruition of that good wherunto our Desires have carried us And therefore the Philosopher in one place call it a motion of the Soule with a sensible and felt instauration of Nature yet elsewhere hee as truly telleth us that it standeth rather in rest than motion as on the other side Griefe is the streightning and anguish of our minds wrought out of the sense and burden of some present Evill oppressing our Nature Now these Passions are diverse according to the diversity of the Objects which are either Sensitive and Bodily and then Delight is called Voluptas Pleasure being a medicine and supply against bodily indigence and defects or Intellectuall and Divine and then it is called Gaudium Ioy being a sweet and delightfull tranquillity of minde resting in the fruition and possession of a good So also is the other Passion of Sadnesse considered which in respect of the Body is called a Sense of Paine in respect of the Soule a Sense of Griefe First then for the Object of our Delight it is onely that which can yeeld some manner of satisfaction unto our nature not as it is a corrupt and erring but as it is an Empty and perfectible nature Whatsoever then is either Medicinall for the Repairing or Naturall for the Conserving or any way helpefull for the advancing of a Creature is the onely true and allowable object of its Delight Other pleasures which eat out and undermine Nature as water which by little little insensibly consumeth the bank against which it beateth or as â—…vie which seemeth to adorn the Tree unto which it cleaveth but indeed sucketh out and stealeth away the sap therof may haply yield some measure of vanishing content to mindes which tast every thing with a corrupted palate but certainely such sophisticall premises can never inferre in the conclusion any other than a perfunctory and tottering content And therefore Seneca is bold to find an impropriety in Virgils Epithite Mala Gaudia Ioyes which issue from a polluted fountaine as not having in them that inseparable attribute of absolute Delight which is to be unvariable For how can a mind unlesse blinded with its owne impostures and intangled in the errours of a mis led affection receive any nourishing and solid content in that which is in it selfe vanishing and unto its Subject destructive Whatsoever then may bee delighted in must have some one of the forenamed conditions tending either to the Restitution of decayed nature to the preservation of entire nature or to the Perfection of Empty nature And to the former and â—…mperfecter sort of tâ—…ese Aristotle referreth all â—…orporeall and sensitive Pleasures unto which he â—…herefore granteth a secondary and accidentall goodnesse which hee calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mediâ—…ines of an indigent nature whereby the defects â—…hereof are made up and it selfe disburdened of â—…hose cares which for the most part use to follow â—…he want of them Herein then I observe a double corruption an â—…nnaturall and unlimited Delight Vnnaturall I â—…eane those accursed pleasures which were exerâ—…ised by men given over to vile affections and 〈◊〉 in the pursuing of lusts whose very names abhorre the light Vnlimited Delights are those which exceed the bounds of Nature and the prime Institution of lawfull and indifferent things For such is the condition of those that if they repaire not and strengthen nature they weaken and disinable it as in the body Luxury breeds diseases and in the mind Curiosity breeds Errours Other Objects there are of a wider nature than those which concerne the Body and they are both the Morall and Contemplative Actions of the Mind To both which Aristotle hath attributed principally this passion but more specially to the latter whose object is more pure and whose Acts lesse laborious as residing in that part of the Soule which is most elevate from sense and therefore most of all capable of the purest simplest and unmixed Delights Now every thing is the more free cleare independant spirituall by how much it is the more unmixed And these are the choisest perfections whereby the Soule may be filled with joy It is true indeed that oftentimes the contemplations of the mind have annexed unto them both Griefe and Anxiety but this is never naturall to the act of Knowledg which is alwaies in its owne vertue an impression of Pleasure But it ariseth either out of the sublimity of the Object which dazleth the power or out of the weaknesse and doubtings of the Vnderstanding which hath not a cleare light thereof or out of the admixtion and sleeping them in the Humours of the Affections whereby men minister unto themselves desperate thoughts or weake feares or guilty griefes or unlimited Desires according as is the property of the Object joyned with their own private distempers Thus we see the Intuition of Divine Truth in minds of defiled affections worketh not that sweet effect which is naturall unto it to produce but Doubtings Terrours and Disquietings of Conscience it being the propertie of the workes of Darknesse to be afraid of the word
their owners 6 Give not an easie Eare to Reports nor an Easie entertainement to suspicioâ—…s bee not greedy to know who or wherein another hath wrong'd thee That which wee are desirous to know or apt to beleeve wee shall be the more ready to revenge Curiosity and â—…dulity are the Handmaides unto Passion Alexander would not see the woman after â—…hom he might have Lusted Nor Casar search Pompeyes Cabinet lâ—…st he should find new matters of Revenge He chose rather to make a Fire of them on his Hearth then in his Heart Injuâ—…ies unknowne doe many times the lesse hurt when I have found them I then begin to feele them and suffer more from mine owne discovery then from mine enemies attempt 7 Bee Candid in Interpreting the thingâ—… wherein thou sufferest Many times the glasse through which I looke makes that seeme formidable and the wave that crooked which in it selfe was beautifull and straight Haply thou art Angry with that which could not intend to hurt thee Thy Booke thy Penne the stone at which thou stumblest the winde or raine that beates upon thee bee Angry gaine but with thy selfe who art either so bold as to be Angry with GOD or so foolish as to be Angry with nothing Thou art displeased at a Childish or an Ignorant miscarriage Call it not Injury but Imprudence and then pitty it Thou art Angry with Counsell Reproofe Discipline why doest thou not as well breake the Glasse in which thy Physitian Ministreth a potion unto thee Bee Angry with thy sinne and thou wilt love him that takes it from thee Is hee that adviseth thee thy Superiour Thine Anger is undutifull is hee thy friend thine Anger is ungratefull 8 Give Injuries a New Name and that will worke a new Affection In blinde Agents call it Chance in weake Persons Infirmity In simple Ignorance in wise Counsell in Superiours Discipline In equals Familiarity ' in Inferious Confidence where there is no other construction to be made doe as Ioseph and David did call it Providence and see what God sayes to thee by it Get a minde conversant with high and noble things the more heavenly the lesse Tempestuous 9 Be not Idle Sluggish Luxurious wee are never more apt to bee Angry then when we are sleepy or greedy Weake resolutions and strong Desires are sensible of the least exaâ—…peration as an empty ship of the smallest Tempest Againe be not â—…ver-busie neither That man can hardly bee master of his Passion that is not master of his imployments A minde ever burdened like a Bow alwayes bent must needes grow impotent and weary the fittest preparations to this distemper When a mans businesse doth not poise but presse him there will ever bee something either undone or ill-done and so still matter of Vexation And therefore our Mindes as our Vessels must bee unloaded if they would not have a Tempest hurt them Lastly wrastle not with that which pincheth thee If it bee strong it will hurt if cunning it will hamper and entangle thee Hee that strives with his burden makes it heavier That Tempest breakes not the stalkes of Corne which rends asunder the armes of an Oake the one yeelds the other withstands it An humble weaknesse is safer from injury then a stubborne strength I have now done with the Passions of the Minde And briefly proceede to those Honours and Dignities of the Soule of Man which belong unto it in a more abstracted Consideration CHAP. XXXII Of the Originall of the Reasonable Soule whether it be immediatly Created and Infused or derived by Seminall Traduction from the Parents Of the Derivation of Originall sinne THe dignity of Man in respect of his Soule alone may be gathered from a consideration either of the whole or of the parâ—…s therof CoÌ„cerning the whole we shall consider two things It s Originall and its Nature Concerning the Originall of the Soule divers men have diversly thought for to let passe the Opinion of Seleucus who affirmed that it was educed out of the Earth and that of Origin and the Platoâ—…ists who say that the Soules of men were long agoe created and after detruded into the Body as into a Prison There are three Opinions touching this question The first of those who affirm the Traduction of the Soule by generaâ—… some of which so affirm because they judged 〈◊〉 a Corporeall substance as did Tertullian Others because they beleeved that one spirit might as easily proceed from another as one fire or light be kindled by another as Apollinarius Nemesiâ—… and divers in the Westerne Churches as St. Hierome witnesseth The second of those who deby the naturall Traduction and say that the Soule is 〈◊〉 â—…ion infused into Bodies organiz'd and praedisposed to receive them of which Opinion among the Ancients were St. Hierom Hilarie Ambrose Lactantius Theodoret. Aeneas Gazâ—…us and of the moderne Writers the major part The third is of those who doe haesitare stick betweene both and dare affirme nothing certaine on either side which is the moderation of St. Augustine and Gregory the great who affirme that this is a question incomprehensible and unsolvable in this life Now the only reason which caused St. Austin herein to haesitate seemeth to have been the difficulty of traducing Originall sinne from the Parents to the Children For saith he writing unto St. Hierome touching the Creation of the Soule If this Opinion doe not oppugne that most fundamentall faith of Originall sinne let it then be mine but if it doe oppugne it let it not be thine Now since that Opinion which denieth the Traduction seemeth most agreeable to the spirituall substance of the soule I shall here produce some few reasons for the Creation and solve an argument or two alledg'd for the Traduction of the Soule reserving notwithstanding unto my selfe and others the liberty and modesty of St. Austins haesitation which also I finde allowed by the Holy Ghost himselfe Two things there are of certainty in this point 1. That the soule is not any corporeall Masse or substance measurable by quantity or capable of substantiall augmentation 2. That the Traduction of one thing out of another doth connotate these two things That the thing traduced doth derive Being from the other as from its original principle that this derivation be not any other manner of way but Ratione semiâ—…ali per modum decisionis by a seminall way and the decision seperation or effluxion of substance from the other which things being laid The Arguments against Traduction are these First the testimonies of Holy Scripture calling God the Father of spirits as our naturall Parent the Father of our bodies Iob 33. 4. Eccles. 12. 7. Esa 57. 16. Num. 16. 22. 27. 16. Heb. 12. 9. Zach. 12. 1. which though they doe not according to the judgement of St. Aug. conclude the point by infallible consequence yet doe they much favour the probability of this
derive this Nature Nature I say first fallen for unto Nature Innocent belonged Originall Righteousnesse and not Originall sinne 2. Nature derived by ordinary generation as the fruit of the loynes and of the womb For though Christ had our Nature yet hee had not our sinne 3. Nature whole and entire For neither part as some conceive is the Totall spring and fountain of this sinne For it is improbable that any staine should be transfused from the Body to the Soul as from the foule vessell to the cleane water put into it The Body it selfe being not Soly and alone in it selfe corrupt and sinfull else all Abortions and miscarrying conceptions should be subject to damnation Nothing is the seat of sin which cannot be the seat of Death the wages of sinne Originall sinne therefore most probably seemeth to arise by Emanation partiall in the parts totall in the whole from Mans Nature as guilty forsaken and accursed by God for the sinne of Adam And from the parts not considered absolutely in themselves but by vertue of their concurrence and Vnion whereby both make up one compounded Nature Though then the Soule be a partiall subject or seat of Originall sinne yet wee have not our sinne and our soule from one Author because sinne followes not the part but the Nature whole and entire And though we have not from our Parents Totum naturae yet we have totam naturam wee have our whole nature though not every part of our nature Even as whole Christ was the Son of Mary who therefore by vertue of the Communication of properties in Christ is justly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God against the Nestorians in the Councell of Chalcedon Though in regard of his divine Nature he was without beginning the reason is because the integrity of Nature ariseth from the Vnion of the two parts together which is perfected by Generation so then wee say that Adam is the Originall and meritorious cause Our next Parents the instrumentall and immediate cause of this sinne in us not by way of Physicall Emission or Transmigration of sinne from them to us but by secret contagion as S. Augustine speaks For having in the Manner aforesaid from Adam by our Parents received a nature most justly forsaken by God and lying under the Guilt and Curse of the first praevarication from this Nature thus derived as guilty and accursed doth immediately and intimately flow Habituall pollution So then Habituall Concupiscence is from Adam alone meritoriously by reason of his first praevarication From Adam by the mediation of our Parents seminally by naturall generation And from Nature generated not as Nature but as in Adam guilty forsaken and accursed by secret and ineffable Resultancy and Emanation This is that which I conceive of this Great difficulty not unmindfull in the meane time of that speech of S. Augustine That there is nothing more certaine to be knowne and yet nothing more secret to be understood than Originall sinne For other Arguments to prove the Traduction of the Soul they are not of such moment And therefore I passe them by and proceed to the consideration of the Soule in its Nature CHAP. XXXIII Of the Image of God in the Reasonable soule in regard of its simplicity and spirituality COncerning the dignity of the soule in its nature and essence Reason hath adventured thus farre to confesse that the soule of man is in some sort a spark and beame of divine brightnesse And a greater and more infallible Oracle hath warranted that it was breathed into him by God himselfe and was made after his Image and likenesse not substantially as if there were a Real Emanation and Traduction of the Soule out of God which were blasphemous and impious to conceive but only by way of Resemblance and imitation of God properties in mans originall created nature which is more notable in him than in the otheâ—… parts of the world there is indeed in all God works some kind of image and lineaments anâ—… footsteps of his glory Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque maris Coelumque profundum c. For all the tracts of Earth of Sea and Sky Are filled with divine immensity The whole world is a great book wherein we read the praise glory power and infinitenesse of him that made it but man is after a more peculiar manner called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the image and glory of God the greater world is only Gods workmanship wherein is represented the wisdom and power of God as in a building the Art and cunning of the workman but man in the originall purity of nature is besides that as wax wherein was more notably impressed by that divine spirit whose work it is to seale a spirituall resemblance of his owne goodnesse and sanctity Againe the greater world was never other than an Orator to set forth the power and praises of God but he made the soule of man in the beginning as it were his Oracle wherein he fastned a perfect knowledge of his law and will from the very glimpses and corrupted Reliques of which Knowledge of his Law some have beene bold to call men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kindred of God And Senec. Liber Animus Diis cognatus which is the same with that of Aratus cited by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for wee are his off-spring yea Euripides as Tully in his * Tusculans observes was bold to call the soule of man by the name of God and Seneca will venture so farre too Quid aliud vocas animum quà m deum in humano corpore hospitantem But to forbeare such boldnesse as it may be one of the Originals of heathen Idolatry Certaine it is that there are as Tully many times divinely observes sundry similitudes betweene God and the minde of man There are indeed some Attributes of God not only incommunicable but absolutely inimitable and unshadowable by any excellency in mans soule as immensity infinitenesse omnipotency omniscience immutability impassibility and the like but whatsoever spirituall and Rationall perfections the power bounty of God conferr'd upon the soule in its first Creation are all of them so many shadowes and representations of the like but most infinite perfections in him The Properties then and Attributes of God wherein this Image chiefely consists are first these three Spirituality with the two immediate consequents thereof Simplicity and Immortality in which the soule hath partaked without any after corruption or depravation Concerning the former it were vast and needlesse to confute those sundry opinions of ancient Philosophers concerning the substance of the soule many where of Tully in the first of his Tusculans hath reported And Aristotle confuted in his first de Anima Some conceived it to be blood others the braine some fire others ayre some that it consists in Harmony and Number and the Philosopher Dicaearchus that
it was nothing at all but the body disposed and fitted for the works of life But to let these passe as unworthy of refutation and to proceed to the truth of the first property There are sundry naturall reasons to prove the Spirituality of the soule as first the manner of its working which is immateriall by conceiving objects as universall or otherwise purified from all grosnesse of matter by the Abstraction of the Active understanding whereby they are made in some sort proportionall to the nature of the Intellect Passive into which the species are impressed Secondly it s in dependance on the body in that manner of working for though the operations of the soule require the concurrence of the commonsense and imagination yet that is by way only of conveyance from the object not by way of assistance to the elicite and immediate act They only present the species they doe not qualifie the perception Phantasmata are only objecta operation is the objects they are not instrumenta operandi the instruments of the soules working The Act of understanding is immediatly from the soule without any the least concurrences of the body there unto although the things whereon that act is fixed and conversant require in this estate bodily organs to represent them unto the soule as light doth not at all concurre to the act of seeing which solely and totally floweth from the visive faculty but only serves as an extrinsecall assistance for qualification of the Medium and object that must be seene And this reason Aristotle hath used to prove that the understanding which is principally true of the whole soule is not mixt with any body but hath a nature altogether divers there-from because it hath no bodily organ as all bodily powers have by which it is enabled to the proper acts that belong unto it And hereon is grounded another reason of his to prove the Soule immateriall because it depends not on the body in its operations but educeth them immediately from within it selfe as is more manifest in the Reflexion of the soule upon its owne nature being an operation as hee expresly speaketh seperable there-from the soule being not only actus informans a forme informing for the actuating of a body and constitution of a compound substance but actus subsistens too a forme subsisting And that per se without any necessary dependance upon matter It is an act which worketh as well in the body as whereby the body worketh Another reason of Aristotle in the same place is the difference betweene Materiall and Immateriall powers For saith he all bodily cognoscitive faculties doe suffer offence and dammage from the too great excellency of their objects as the eye from the brightnesse of the Sunne the eare from the violence of a sound the touch from extremity of heat or cold and the likâ—… But the understanding on the contrary side is perfected by the worthiest contemplations and the better enabled for lower enquiries And therefore Aristotle in his Ethicks placeth the most compleat happinesse of man in those heavenly intuitions of the minde which are fastned on the divinest and most remote objects which in Religion is nothing else but a fruition of that beatificall vision which as farre as Nature goes is call'd the contemplation of the first cause and an eternall satiating the soule with beholding the Nature Essence and glory of God Another reason may be drawn from the condition of the Vnderstandings Objects which have so much the greater conformity to the soule by how much the more they are divine and abstracted Hoc habet animus argumentum suae divinitatis saith Seneca quòd illum divina delectam This argument of its divinenesse hath the minde of man that it is delighted with divine things for if the soule were corporeal it could not possibly reach to the knowledge of any but materiall substances and those that were of its owne Nature otherwise we might as well see Angels with our eyes as understand any thing of them in our minds And the ground of this reason is that axiome in Philosophy that all reception is ad modum recipientis according to the proportion and capacity of the receiver And that the objects which are spirituall and divine have greatest proportion to the soule of man is evident in his Understanding and his will both which are in regard of truth or good unsatisfiable by any materiall or worldly objects the one never resting in enquiry till it attaine the perfect knowledge the other never replenished in desire till it be admitted unto the perfect possession of the most divine and spirituall good to wit of him who is the first of Causes and the last of Ends. From this Attribute of Spirituality flowes immediatly that next of Simplicity Vnity or Actuality for Matter is the root of all perfect composition every Compound consisting of two Essentiall parts matter and forme I exclude not from the Soule all manner of composition for it is proper to God only to be absolutely and perfectly simple But I exclude all Essentiall composition in respect whereof the Soule is meerely Actuall And so I understand that of Tully Nihil est Animus admixtum nihil concretum nihil copulatum nihil coagmentatum nihil duplex CHAP. XXXIV Of the Soules immortality proved by its simplicity independance agreement of Nations in acknowledging God and duties due unto him dignity above other Creatures power of understanding things immortall unsatiablenesse by objects Mortall freenesse from all causes of corruption ANd from this Simplicity followes by a necessary unavoydable consequence the third property spoken of Immortality it being absolutely impossible as Tully excellently observes it is the argument of Iul. Scaliger on this very occasion for any simple and uncompounded Nature to be subject to death and corruption For saith Tully Interitus est discessus secretio ac direptus earum partium quae conjunctione â—…liqua tenebantur It is a separation and as it were a divulsion of parts before united each to other so that where there is no Union there can be no separation and by consequence no death nor mortality Another reason may be the same which was alledged for the spirituality of the soule namely independance in operation and therefore consequently in Being upon the body And that Independance is manifest First because the acts of the soule are educ'd immediately in it selfe without the Intercedence of any organ whereby sensitive faculties work Secondly because the soule can perceive and have the knowledge of truth of universals of it selfe of Angels of God can assent discourse abstract censure invent contrive and the like none of which actions could any wayes be produced by the Intrinsecall concurrence of any materiall faculty Thirdly because in Raptures and Extasies the soule is as it were drawne up above and from the body though not from informing it yet certainely from borrowing from it any assistance to the
on them proceed onely from the Impression of Fancy and sensitive Appetite to serve themselves but not to improve one another And therefore Speech is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Name of Reason because it attendeth onely upon Reason And as by this the Soule of man differeth in Excellency from all other Creatures so in two things amongst many others both subservient unto Reason doth his Body excell them too First in the Vprightnesse of his Stature whereby he is made to looke up to Heaven and from his Countenance to let shine forth the Impression of that Light which dwellâ—…th within him For the Face is the Window of the Soule Pronáque cum spectent Animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dediâ—… Caelumque tueri Iussit erectos ad Sydera tollere Vultus Whil'st other creatures downward fix their sight Bending to Earth an Earthly Appetite To man he gave a lofty Face might looke Vp to the Heavens and in that spatious Booke So full of shining Characters descry Why he was made and whether he should fly Next in the Faculty of Speech which is the Gare of the Soule through which she passeth and the Interpreter of the Conceits and Cogitations of the mind as the Philosopher speaks The uses whereof are to convey and communicate the Conceptions of the Mind and by that means to preserve humane Society to derive Knowledg to maintaine mutuall love and supplies to multiply our Delights to mitigate and unload our sorrows but above all to Honour God and to edifie one another in which respect our Tongue is called our Glory Psal. 16. 2. Act. 2. 26. The force power of Speech upon the minds of men is almost beyond its power to expresse How suddenly it can inflame excite allay comfort mollify transport and carry captive the Affections of men Caesar with one word quiets the Commotion of an Army Menenius Agrippa with one Apologue the sedition of a people Flavianus the Bishop of Antioch with one Oration the fury of an Emperour Anaximenes with one Artifice the indignation of Alexander Abigail with one Supplication the Revenge of David Pericles and Pisistratus even then when they spake against the peoples liberty over ruled them by their Eloquence to beleeve and imbrace what they spake and by their Tongue effected that willingly which their Sword could hardly have extorted Pericles and Nicias are said to have still pursued the same Ends and yet with cleane different successe The one in advancing the same busines pleased the other exasperated the people and that upon no other Reason but this the one had the Art of Perswasion which the other wanted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One spake the Right with a slow Tongue Another fluently spake wrong He lost this stole the Cause and got To make you thinke what you thinke not And this power of Speech over the Minds of men is by the Poet in that knowne passage of his thus elegantly described Magnâ—… in popule cum sapè Coorta est Seditio savitque Animus Ignobile vulgus Ianâ—…que faces Saxa volant furor arma ministrat Tum pietate gravem ac merit is si fortè viruÌ„quem Conspêxere silent arrectisque auribus astant Ille regit dictis Animâ—…s pectora â—…ulcet When in a Multitude Seditions grow And Vicerated Minds do overflow With swelling Ire when stones firebrands fly As Rage doth every where weapons supply Then if some Aged man in Honor held For Piety and Prudence stand to wield And moderate this Tumult strait wayes all Rise up with silent Reverence and let fall Their Angry Clamors His grave words do sway Their Minds and all their Discontents allay The Vertues of Speech whereby it worketh with such force upon the Minde are many which therefore I will but name some Grammaticall as Property and Fitnesse and Congruity without Solaecismes and Barbarousnesse some Rhetoricall as choice Purity Brevity Perspecuity Gravity Pleasantnesse Vigoâ—… Moderate Acrimony and Vehemency some Logicall as Method Order Distribution Demonstration Invention Definition Argumentation Refutation A right digesting of all the Aydes of Speech as Wit Learning Poverbs Apologues Emblemes Histories Lawes Causes and Effects and all the Heads or Places which assist us in Invention Some Morall as Gravity Truth Seriousnesse Integrity Authority When words receive weight from manners and a mans Speech is better beleeved for his Life than for his Learning When it appeares That they arise esulce pectoris and have their foundation in Vertue and not in Fancy For as a man receiveth the selfe same Wine with pleasure in a pure and cleane Vessell which he loâ—…ths to put unto his mouth from one that is soule and soiled so the selfe same Speech adorned with the Piety of one man and disgraced with the Pravity of another will be very apt accordingly to be received either with delight or loathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Speech from Base men and men of Respect Though 't be the same works not the same Effect And therefore the Spartan Princes when they heard from a man of a disallowed and suspected Life an Opinion which they approved They required another man of reputation to propose it That the prejudice of the person might not procure a rejection of his Iudgement For wee are apt to nauseate at very good meat when we know that an ill Cooke did dresse it And therefore it is a very true Character which Tully and Quintilian give of a right Oratour That he must be Vir bonus dicendi Peritus as well a Good man as a Good speaker Otherwise though he may speake with admirable wit to the fancy of his hearers he will have but little power over their Affections Like a fire made of greene wood which is fed with it as it is fewell but quencheed as it is greene Lastly some are Civill in Causes Deliberative or Iuridicall as Wisedome pertinency and fitnes to the Nature and Exigence of the End or Matter whereupon we speake For in that case we are to ponder and measure what we say by the end whereunto we say it and to fit it to all the Circumstances incident thereunto Paul amongst the Philosophers disputed with them from the Inscription of their Altar from the Authority of their Poets and from confessed Maximes of Reason by these degrees convincing them of Idolatry and lending them to Repentance But amongst the Iewes hee disputed out of Scripture With Felix that looked for money he disputed of Righteousnesse and Iudgement to come but amongst the Pharisees and Sadduces of the Resurrection that a Dissention amongst themselves might procure a party for him It is not wisedome for a man in misery to speake with a high stile or a man in Dignity with a Creeping The same speech may be excellent in an umbratile Exercitation which would be too pedanticall and smelling of the Lampe in a matter of serious and weighty debate and that may
17. Of other causes of Desire Infirmity Temerity Mutability of Minde Knowledge Repentance Hope of the effects of it in generall labour languor In speciall of rationall Desires bounty griefe wearinesse indignation against that which withstands it Of vitious Desires deception ingratitude envie greedinesse basenesse of Resolution p. 177. Chap. 18. Rules touching our Desires Desires of lower Objects must not be either Hasty or unbounded such are unnaturall turbid unfruitfull unthankfull Desires of heavenly objects fixed permanent industrious connexion of vertues sluggish desires p. 190. Chap 19. Of the affection of joy or delight the severall objects thereof corporall morall intellectuall Divine p. 197. Chap. 20. Of the causes of Ioy. The union of the Object to the Faculty by Contemplation Hope Fruition changes by accident a cause of Delight p. 203. Chap. 21. Of other causes of Delight Vnexpectednesse of a good strength of Desire Imagination Imitation Fitnesse and accommodation Of the effects of this Passion Reparation of Nature Dilatation Thirst in noble Objects satiety in baser Whetting of Industry Atmorous unbeliefe p. 211 Chap 22. Of the affection of sorrow the object of it evill sensitive intellectuall as present in it selfe or to the minde by memory or suspition particular causes effects of it Feare Care Experience Erudition Irresolution Despaire Execration Distempers of body p. 221. Chap. 23. Of the affection of Hope the Object of it Good Future Possible Difficult Of Regular and inordinate Despaire p. 233. Chap. 24. Of the causes of Hope Want and Weaknesse together Experience and Knowledge In what sense Ignorance may be said to strengthen and know ledge to weaken Hope Examples quicken more then Precept provision of aides the uncertainty of outward meanes to establish Hope goodnesse of Nature Faith and Credâ—…lity wise Confidence p. 240. Chap. 25. Of the effects of Hope Stability of minde wearines arising not out of weaknes but out of want Contention and forthputting of the Minde Patience under the want Distance and Difficulty of Good desired waiting upon aide expected p. 254. Chap. 26. Of the affection of Boldnesse what it is the causes of it strong Desires strong Hopes Aydes Supplies Reall or in Opinion Despaire and extremities experience ignorance Religion immunity from danger Dextâ—…rity of Wit Strength of Love Pride or Greatnesse of Minde and Abilities The effects of it Executiâ—…n of things advised Temerity c. p. 258. Chap. 27. Of the Passion of Feare the causes of it Impotency Obnoâ—…ousnesse Suddennesse Neerenesse Newnesse Conscience Ignerance of an evill p. 274. Chap. 28. Of the effects of Feare Suspition Circumspection Superstition betraying the succours of Reason Feare generative restâ—…cting inward weaâ—…ning the Faculties of the minde base Suspâ—…tion wise Caution p. 210. Chap. 29. Of that particular affection of Feare which is called shame what it is Whom we thus feare The ground of it evill of Turpitude Injustice Intemperance Sordidnesse Soâ—…nesse Pusillanimity Flattery Vainglory Misfortunâ—… Ignorance Pragmaticalnesse Deformity Greatnesse of Minde unworthy Correspondencies c. Shame vâ—…ous and vertuous p. 300. Chap. 30. Of the affection of Anger the distinctions of it The fundamentall cause thereof contempt Three kindes of Contempt disâ—…estimation disappointment Calumny p. 31â—… Chap. 31. Of other causes of Anger first in regard of him that suffers wrong Excellency weaknesse strong dâ—…sires susâ—…ition Next â—…regard of him who doth it Rasenesse Impudence Neerenesse Freedome of speech Contention Ability the effects of Anger the immutation of the Body Impulsion of Reason Expâ—…dition Precipitance Rules for the moderating of this Passion p. 322. Chap. 32 Of the originall of the Reasonable Soule whither it be immediately created and iâ—…sused 〈◊〉 derived by seminall Traduction from the Parents Of the derivation of originall sinne p. 391. Chap. 33. Of the Image of God in the Reasonable Soule in regard of it's simplicity and spirituality p. 400. Chap. 34. Of the Soules Immortality proved by it's simplicity independance agreement Of Nations in acknowledging a God and duties due to him dignity above other creatures power of understanding things immortall unsatisfiablenesse by Objects mortall freenesse from all causes of corruption p. 407. Chap. 35. Of the honour of humane bodies by creation by resurrection of the endowments of glorified bodies p. 420. Chap. 36. Of that part of Gods image in the Soule which answereth to his Power Wisedome Knowledge Holinesse Of mans dominion over other Creatures Of his love to Knowledge what remainders we retaine of originall Iustice. p. 429. Chap. 37. Of the Faculty of understanding it 's operation outward upon the object Inward upon the will Of Knowledge what it is The naturall desire and love of it Apprehension Iudgement Retention requisite unto right Knowledge Severall kindes of Knowledge The originall Knowledge given unto man in his Creation The benefits of Knowledge of Ignorance naturall voluntary Poenal of Curiosity of Opinion the causes of it Disproportion betweene the Object and the Faculty and an acute versutiloâ—…snesse of conceits the benefits of modest Hesitancy p. 444. Chap. 38. Of Errours the causes thereof The abuses of Principles falsifying them or transferring the truth of them out of their owne bounds Affectations of singularity and novell courses Credulity and thraldome of judgement unto others How Antiquity is to be honoured Affection to particular objects corrupteth judgement Curiosity in searching things secret p. 483 Chap 39. The actions of the understanding inventition Wit Iudgement of Invention Distrust Prejudice Immaturity Of Tradition by speech Writing Of the Dignities and Corruption of speech p. 500. Chap. 40. Of the Actions of the understanding upon the Will with respect to the End and Meanes The power of the understanding over the Will not Commanding but directing the Objects of the Will to be good and convenient Corrupt Will lookes onely at Good present Two Acts of the Vnderstanding Knowledge and Consideration It must also be possible and with respect to happinesse Immortall Ignorance and Weaknesse in the Vnderstanding in proposing the right means to the last End p. 517. Chap. 41. Of the Conscience it's Offices of Direction Conviction Comfort Watchfulnesse Memory Impartiality Of Consciences Ignorant Superstitious Sleeping Frightfull Tempestuous p. 531. Chap. 42. Of the Will it 's Appetite with the proper and chiefe Objects therof God Of Superstition and Idolatry Of it's Liberty in the Electing of Meanes to an End Of it's Dominion Coactive and perswasive Of Fate Astrology Satanicall Suggestions Of the manner of the Wills Operaation Motives to it Acts of it The Conclusion p. 537. A TREATISE of the Passions and Faculties of the SOULE of MAN CHAP. I. Of the dependance of the Soule in her operations upon the Body IT hath been a just Complaint of Learned Men that usually wee are more curious in our inquiries after things New than excellent and that the very neerenesse of worthy Objects hath at once made them both despised and unknowne Thus like Children with an idle diligence and fruitlesse Curiositie wee turne over this
disposing the Minde unto one object in some unto another according as the impetus and force of their naturall affections carrieth them And therefore Aristotle in his Politiques ascribeth the inequalitie which hee observes betweene the Asiatique and European Wits unto the severall Climates and temperature of the Regions in which they lived according whereunto the Complexions and Constitutions of their Bodies onely could be alter'd the Soule being in it selfe according to the same Philosopher impassible from any corporeall Agent And to the same purpose againe he saith That if an old man had a young mans eye his sight would be as sharpe and as distinct as a young mans is implying 〈◊〉 diversitie of Perception to be grounded onâ—…ly on the diversitie of bodily instruments by which it is exercised And therefore he elsewhere observes I shall not trouble my selfe to examine upon what ground that men of soft and tender skins have greatest quicknesse of wit and on the contrarie Duri Carne ineptiâ—…mente thereby intimating that there is no more significant and lively expression of a vigorous or heavie Soule than a happie or ill-ordered Body wherein wee may sundry times reade the abilities of the Minde and the inclinations of the Will So then it is manifest that this weakenesse of apprehension in the Soules of men doth not come from any immediate and proper darknesse belonging unto them but onely from the coexistence which they have with a Body ill-disposed for assistance and information For hee who is carried in a Coach as the Body is vehiculum animae though he be of himselfe more nimble and active must yet receive such motion as that affoords and Water which is conveyed through Pipes and Aqueducts though its motion by it selfe would have beene otherwise must yet then be limitted by the posture and proportion of the Vessels through which it passeth CHAP. II. In what Cases the dependance of the Soule on the Body is lessened by Faith Custome Education Occasion BVt yet this dependance on the Body is not so necessarie and immutable but that it may admit of variation and the Soule be in some cases vindicated from the impression of the Body And this first in extraordinarie and next in more common actions In actions extraordinarie as those pious and religious operations of the Soule Assent Faith Invocation and many others wherein the Soule is carried beyond the Sphere of Sense and transported unto more raysed operations For to beleeve and know that there are layd up for pious and holy endeavours those joyes which eye hath not seene nor care heard and to have some glimpses and fore-taste of them which Saint Paul calleth the Earnest and first fruits of the Spirit What is this but to leave sense behind us and to out-run our Bodies And therefore it is that Religion I meane chiefely the Principles Foundations Articles and Mysteries Evangelicall were alwayes not to be urged by Disputes of Secular Learning but to be sacredly and secretly infused not so much perswading to the knowledge of apparent Truths as drawing to the beleese of true Mysteries Divine Truths doe as much transcend the Reason as Divine Goodnesse doth the Will of Man That One Nature should be in Three Persons and Two Natures in One Person That the invisible God should be manifested in the flesh and a pure Virgin bring forth a Sonne That Death should be conquered by dying and not be able to digest and consume the Body which it had devoured That dead bones should live and they who dwell in the dust awake and sing These are Mysteries not onely above the reach of Humane but even of Evangelicall disquisition in somuch that even unto Principalities and Powers they were not otherwise made knowne but by Divine Revelation delivered unto the Church Sarah laughed when Abraham beleeved and the Philosophers mocked when Paul disputed and Reason expected that the Apostle should have fallen downe dead when contrarily Faith shooke the Viper into the fire There is a great difference betweene the manner of yeelding our assent unto God and Nature For in Philosophie we never resigne our beleese nor suffer our judgements to be wholly carried to any Conclusion till there be a demonstrative Argument grounded on Induction from the Sense for the enforcement thereof But Divinitie on the other side wheâ—… God speakes unto us worketh Science by Faith making us so much the more assured of thosâ—… Truths which it averreth than of any Naturalâ—… Conclusions notwithstanding they may seemâ—… sometimes to beare opposition to humane Reason by how much Divine Authoritie is more absolute and certaine than any Naturall demonstration And this freedome from bodily restraint have according to the Schoole-men those Raptures and Extasies which rayse and ravish the Soule with the sweetnesse of extraordinarie Contemplations And yet even Religion it selfe hath so much condiscended to the senses of men as to give them manner of roome and service in this great Mysterie And therefore generally the Doctrine of Christ is set forth in Parables and Similitudes and the Faith in Christ confirmed by Sacraments things most agreeable to the perception and capacitie of the Senses Now for the exemption of the more ordinarie actions of the Soule from any predominancie of the Body it is chiefely wrought by these three meanes Education Custome and Occasion For the Rule of Aristotle though in Agents purely Naturall and peremptorie which are not directed by any degree of knowledge inherent it held true yet in Man it is not universall That any thing which comes from Nature is unalterable by Custome For we commonly observe that the Culture of the Minde as of the Earth doth many times deliver it from the barrennesse of its owne Nature Exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat arvis As frequent Husbandry commands The emptiest and most barren Lands Education then and Custome doe as it were revenge Nature insomuch that though the outward Humours and Complexions doe worke the Mind unto an unhappie temper yet by a continuall grapling with these difficulties it getteth at the last some victorie though not without much reluctancie And for Occasion that alters the naturall inclination of the Will and Affections rather than of the Vnderstanding for so wee see that the byas and force of mens desires are oftentimes turned by reason of some sudden emergent occurrences contrarie to the standing temper and complexion of the Body Thus wee reade some times of men in Warre who notwithstanding of themselves timerous and sluggish yet when the disadvantage of the place had taken away all possibilitie of flight and the crueltie of the Adversarie all hope of mercie if they should be conquered have strangely gayned by their owne despaires and gotten great and prosperous Victories by a forc'd and unnaturall fortitude Vna salus victis nullam sperare salutem The onely weapon which did win the day Was their despaire that they were cast away An example whereof wee have in the
Philistims When the Israelites brought forth the Arke of the Lord in the Campe they were sore afraid and cryed out Woe unto us woe unto us who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mightie Gods And thereupon resolved to quit themselves like men and fight And Caesar in his Commentaries telleth us of a people who when they went out to Warre would burne their Houses that having no Home of their owne to flye unto they might by that despaire be urged to gaine one by the Sword The Historian reporteth of a Band of Scythians who though they were of themselves bond-slaves did notwithstanding upon occasion of their Masters absence endeavour to shake off their in-bred Civilitie usurping to themselves a Freedome of which the basenesse of their condition was uncapable Nor could they be removed from this Insolencie till the sight of Rods and Staves and other the like instruments of feare had driven them back into their Nature againe CHAP. III. Of the Memorie and some few causes of the weakenesse thereof NOw for these inward Senses which are commonly accounted three though extending themselves unto sundry operations of differing qualities â—… take the two later to wit Memorie and Fancie or Imagination to have a more excellent degree of perfection in man as being indeed the principall Store-houses and Treasuries of the oâ—…â—…ons of the Soule Where by Memorie I under stand not the facultie as it is common to beasâ—…s with men and importeth nothing but the simple retention and conservation of some species formerly treasur'd up by the conveyance of the outward sense but as it is Consors co-operatrix Rationis â—…s Hugo speakes a joynt-worker in the operations of Reason which the Latines call Reminiscentia or Recordatio including some acts of the Vnderstanding Which is a reviewing or as wee speake a calling to minde of former objects by discourse or rationall searching for them which is made by Aristotle to be the remote ground of all Arts For saith hee Memorie is the Ground of Experience and Experience the Mother of Art The dignitie hereof in man is seene both by perfecting the Vnderstanding in matter of Learning and Discourse wherein some men have attained unto almost a miraculous felicitie as Seneca the elder confes seth of himselfe who could immediately recite two thousand words in the same order as they had beene spoken before to him and Cyrus of whom Zenophon testifieth that hee could salute all the Souldiers in his Armie by their Names and Mithridates who being King over twentie two Countreyes did speake so many Languages without an Interpreter and Politian in his Episâ—…les telleth of Fabius Vrsinus a Child but of a eleven yeeres of age in whom there was so rare a mixture of Invention and Memorie that â—…ee could unto five or six severall persons at the same time dictate the matter and words of so many severall Epistles some serious some jocular all of different arguments returning after every short period from the last to the first and so in order and in the conclusion every Epistle should be so close proper and coherent within iâ—… selfe as if it alone had beene intended As also by affording speciall assistance for the direction and discreet managing of our actions conforming them either unto Precepts and Rules in Moralitie or unto Principles of Wisdome and publike Prudence gathered from Historicall observations while the Minde by the helpe of Memorie being as it were conversant with Ages past and furnished with Examples for any service and imployment doth by mature application weighing particulars comparing times circumstances and passages of affaires together enable it selfe with the more hope and resolution to passe successefully through any enterprise or difficultie for qui credit spâ—…rat hee that beleeveth and is acquainted with the happie issue of other mens resolutions will with the lesse anxietie or discouragement goe on in his owne The principall Corruptions which I conceive of the Memorie are first too much slightnesse and shallownesse of observation when out of an impatiencie of staying long or making any proâ—…ound enquirie into one object and out of a gluttonous curiositie to seed on many the greedinesse of the appetite weakeneth the digestion for so some have called the Memorie the Belly of the Soule and an eagernesse to take in makes uncarefull to retaine And this is the reason why many men wander over all Arts and Sciences without gaining reall improvement or soliditie in any They make not any solemne Iourney to a particular Coast and Head of Learning but view all as it were in Transitu having no sooner begun to settle on one but they are in haste to visit another But such men as these except endowed with an incredible and usuall felicitie of dispatch are no more able to finde the use or search the bottome of any Learning than he who rides Poast is to make a description and Map of his Iourneyes who though by much imployment he may toyle and sweat more in travelling from place to place yet is hee farre lesse able to discover the nature of the Countreyes temperature of the Aire Character of the people Commodities of the Earth than he who though not so violent in the motion is yet more constant in his abode and though his haste be lesse eager yet his observations are more serious Omnis festinatio coeca est saith Seneca Precipitancie and unstablenesse as well in the motions of the Wit as of the Body dazeleth and disableth the eyes And it is true in the Minde as in the Stomack too quick digestion doth alwayes more distemper than nourish and breedeth nothing but Crudities in Learning Nor can I call that so much Studie as agitation and restlesnesse of the Minde which is as impatient of true setled labour as it is of quiet Now the reason why such a temper of Minde as this is corruptive to the Memorie is first because Memorie is alwayes joyned with some measure of Love and wee most of all remember that which wee most respect Omnia quae â—…urant meminerunt There where the Treasure is the Minde will be also There therefore where our Love is most constant our Memories will be most faithfull So that sudden vanishing and broken desires which like the appetite of sick men are for the time violent but give presently over as they argue an eager Love for the present of what wee pursue and by consequence â—… fastidium and disesteeme of that which wee soone forsake so doe they necessarily inferre weakenesse on the Memorie by how much they make our hopes the stronger For as Seneca speakes Cadâ—…ca memoria futura iminentium Men strongly bent upon things future have but weake memories of things past Secondly the body of any one Homogeneall Learning hath this excellent propertie in it that all the parts of it doe by a mutuall service relate to and communicate strength and lustre each to other so that he
as I conceive in that evill spirit who promised to be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets For the vision of such men being for the most part imaginarie the impression of that lying and deceitfull perswasion was in all probabilitie made upon the Imagination For notwithstanding I confesse that Prophets had events by divers meanes revealed unto them as by true Voices by reall accesse of Angels and by immediate illapse of Truth into the Vnderstanding yet because those two wayes by Visions and by Dreames were for ought can be observ'd the most usuall meanes of Revelation it is not unlikely that the Devil who in such things strives for the better advancement of his owne ends to imitate Gods manner of working did by this manner of imposture on the Imagination seeke to possesse the false Prophets and to delude the King And here by the way from the three former we may take occasion to observe the miserie of mans corrupted Nature wherein those Faculties which were originally ordained for mutuall assistance doe now exercise a mutuall imposture and as man did joyne with a fellow-creature to dishonour and if it had been possible to deceive his Maker so in the Faculties of man we may discover a joynt conspiracie in the working of their owne overthrow and reproach and a secret joy in one to be deluded by another The next Corruption which I observed is the Levitie and too much Volubilitie of this Power proceeding from the over-hastie obtrusion of the species For notwithstanding I grant the quicknesse of its operations to be one principall part of the excellencie thereof yet I thereby understand the Power not the Infirmitie the Nature not the Disease of that Facultie the abilitie of having speedie recourse unto varietie of Objects treasured up in the Memorie or of apprehending new with dexteritie not that floating and inconstant humour whereby it makes many needlesse excursions upon impertinent things and thereby interrupteth the course of the more needfull and present operations of the Soule For since it may fall out that unto the same Facultie from diversitie of occasions contrarie operations may proove arguments of worth a restraint unto one manner of working is an argument of weaknesse and defect in that it straitneth and defraudeth the power of those advantages which it might receive by a timely application of the other There may be a time when the Fancie may have libertie to expatiate but againe some objects will require a more fixed and permanent act And therefore to have a vanishing and lightning Fancie that knoweth not how to stay and fasten upon any particular but as an Hanging of divers Colours shall in one view present unto the Vnderstanding an heape of species and so distract its intention argues not sufficiencie but weaknesse and distemper in this Facultie The last Corruption observed is in the other extreame I meane that heavinesse and sluggish fixednesse whereby it is disabled from being serviceable to the Vnderstanding in those actions which require dispatch varietie and suddennesse of execution from which peremptorie adhesion and too violent intension of the Fancie on some particular objects doth many times arise not onely a dulnesse of Mind a Syncope and kind of benumnednesse of the Soule but oftentimes madnesse distraction and torment Many examples of which kind of depravation of the Phantasie in melancholy men wee every where meet withall some thinking themselves turned into Wolves Horses or other Beasts others pleasing themselves with Conceits of great Wealth and Principalities some framing to themselves Feares and other Hopes being all but the delusions and waking Dreames of a distâ—…mpered Fancie His ego saepè Lupum fieri se condere Sylvis Moerim saepè animas imis exire sepulâ—…ris Atque salas alio vidi traducere messes Here oâ—…en I have seene this Moeris worke Himselfe into a Wolfe and into Woods lurke Oâ—… have I seene him raise up ghosts from Hell And growing Corne translate by Magick Spell And upon this over-strong working and stay of the Fancie on some one or other object it hath ofâ—…entimes come to passe that some men out of depth of contemplation on some difficulties of Learning as is reported of Aristotle in his meditation on the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea others out of some strong and predominant passion as Love Feare Despaire drawing all the intention of the Mind unto them have attempted such strange practises on themselves and others as could not proceed but from a smothered and intangled Reason And thus much briefely shall suffice touching the honour of mans common and inferiour Faculties CHAP. V. Of Passions their nature and distribution of the Motions of Naturall Creatures guided by a knowledge without them and of Rationall Croatures guided by a knowledge within them of Passions Mentall Sensitive and Rationall INow proceed unto the Soule of Man of which I must speake in a double reference either according to its motions and impressions which it makes on the Body and receiveth from it or according to those more immanent perfections which it hath within it selfe under the former of these come to be considered the Passions of Mans Minde with the more notable perfections and corruptions as farre as my weakenesse can discover which the Soule and Body contracted from them Passions are nothing else but those naturall perfective and unstrained motions of the Creatures unto that advancement of their Natures which they are by the Wisdome Power and Providence of their Creator in their owne severall Spheares and according to the proportion of their Capacities ordained to receive by a regular inclination to those objects whose goodnesse beareth a naturall conveniencie or vertuâ—… of satisfaction unto them or by an antipathie and aversation from those which bearing a contrarietie to the good they desire must needs be noxious and destructive and by consequent odious to their natures This being the propâ—…rtie of all unconstrained selfe motions it followeth that the root and ground of all Passions is principally the good and secondarily or by consequent the evill of things as one beareth with it rationem convenientiae a quieting and satisfacto rie the other rationem disconvenientiâ—… a disturbing and destroying nature This being premised touching the nature and generall essence of Passions the division of them must be then grounded because as Philosophie teacheth us Faculties and Operations receive their essentiall distinctions from their objects and those severall respects wherewith they in order to the Facultie are qualified Now since all appetite being a blind Power is dependant upon the direction of some Knowledge from the diversitie of Knowledge in or annexed unto things may be gathered the prime distinction of Passions Knowledge in respect of created Agents may be considered either as dis-joyn'd and extrinsecall to the things moved or 〈◊〉 intrinsecall and united thereunto both which serve as a Law and Rule to regulate the inclinations of each nature that they might not
be in the Will over the Body an Imperium yet in rigour this is not so much to be tearmed Command as Imployment the Body being rather the Instrument than the Servant of the Soule and the power which the Will hath over it is not so much the command of a Master over his Workmen as of the Workman over his Tooles The chiefe subjects to the Will are the Affections in the right governing whereof is manifested its greatest power The strength of every thing is exercised by Opposition We see not the violence of a River till it meet with a Bridge and the force of the Wind sheweth it selfe most when it is most resisted So the power of the Will is most seene in repairing the breaches and setling the mutinies wherewith untamed Affections disquiet the peace of mans nature since excesse and disorder in things otherwise of so great use requireth amendment not extirpation and we make straight a crooked thing we doe not breake it And therefore as he in Tacitus spake well to Otho when he was about to kill himselfe Majore animo tâ—…lerari adversaquam relinqui That it was more valour to beare than put off afflictions with courage so there is more honour in the having Affections subdued than in having none at all the businesse of a wise man is not to be without them but to be above them And therefore our Saviour himselfe sometimes loved sometimes rejoyced sometimes wept sometimes desired sometimes mourned and grieved but these were not Passions that violently and immoderately troubled him but he as he saw fit did with them trouble himselfe His Reason excited directed moderated repressed them according to the rule of perfect cleare and undisturbed judgement In which respect the Passions of Christ are by Divines called rather Propassions that is to say Beginnings of Passions than Passions themselves in as much as they never proceeded beyond their due measure nor transported the Mind to undecencie or excesse but had both their rising and originall from Reason and also their measure bounds continuance limited by Reason The Passions of sinfull men are many times like the tossings of the Sea which bringeth up mire and durt but the Passions of Christ were like the shaking of pure Water in a cleane Vessell which though it be thereby troubled yet is it not fouled at all The Stoicks themselves confessed that wise men might be affected with sudden perturbations of Feare or Sorrow but did not like weak men yeeld unto them nor sinke under them but were still unshaken in their resolutions and judgements like Aeneas in Virgil Mens immotamanâ—…t lacryma volvuntur inanes He wept indeed but in his stable mind You could no shakings or distempers find And therefore indeed this Controversie betweene the Peripateticks and Stoicks was rather a strife of Words than a difference of Iudgements because they did not agree in the Subject of the Question the one making Passions to be Naturall the other Praeternaturall and disorderly motions For the Peripateticks confessed That wise men ought to be fix'd immovable in their vertuous resolutions and not to be at all by hopes or feares deterred or diverted from them but as a Dye to be foure-square and which way ever they be cast to fall upon a sure firme bottome Which is the same with that severe and unmovable constancie of Mind in Vertue in defence whereof the Stoicks banished Affections from wise men not intending thereby to make men like Caeneus in the Poet such as could not be violated with any sorce for they acknowledge subjection to the first motions of Passion but onely to shew that they wisdome of Vertue should so compose consolidate the Mind and settle it in such stabilitie that it should not all be bended from the Right by any sensitive perturbations or impulsions As they then who pull down houses adjoyning unto Temples doe yet suffer that part of them to stand still which are continued to the Temple so in the demolishing of inordinate Passions we must take heed that we offer not violence to so much of them as is contiguous unto Right Reason whereunto so long as they are conformable they are the most vigorous instruments both for the expression and improvement and derivation of Vertue on others of any in Mans Nature Now concerning the Accidents or manner of these Acts which are from Passion it may be considered either in regard of the Quantitie Extension or of the Qualitie Intention of the Act. And both these may be considered two manner of wayes for the Quantitie of Passions we may consider that as the Quantitie of Bodies which is either Continued or Severed by Quantitie Continued I understand the manner of a Passions permanencie and durance by Severed I meane the manner of its multiplicitie and reiteration from both which it hath the denomination of good or bad as the object whereunto it is carryed hath a greater or lesse relation to the Facultie For some objects are simply and without any limitation convenient or noxious and towards these may be allowed both a more durable and a more multiplyed Passion others are good or evill only with some circumstances of Time Place Person Occasion or the like which therfore require both fewer and lesse habituall motions The same maybe said of the Qualitie of them wherein they are sometimes too remisse sometimes againe too excessive and exorbitant according to varietie of conditions Concerning all these I shall observe this one generall Rule the permanencie or vanishing the multiplicitie or rarenesse the excesse or defect of any Passion is to be grounded on and regulated by the nature only of its object as it beares reference to such or such a person but never by the private humour prejudice complexion habit custome or other like qualifications of the Mind it selfe To see a man of a soft and gentle nature over-passe some small indignitie without notice or feeling or to see a man of an hot and eager temper transported with an extreamer and more during Passion upon the sense of some greater injurie more notably touching him in his honestie or good Name is not in either of these any great matter of commendation because though the nature of the object did in both warrant the qualitie of the Passion yet in those persons they both proceeded out of humour and complexion and not out of serious consideration of the injuries themselves by which onely the Passion is to be regulated Of these two extreames the defect is not so commonly seene as that which is in the excesse And therefore we wil here a little observe what course may be taken for the allaying of this vehemencie of our Affections whereby they disturbe the quiet and darken the serenitie of mans Mind And this is done either by opposing contrary Passions to contrary which is Aristotles rule who adviseth in the bringing of Passions from an extreame to a
coactis Quos neque Tydides nec Larissaeus Achilles Non anni domuere decem non mille carinae They are surpriz'd by frauds and forced teares In whom their greatest foes could work no feares Whom ten yeres war not won nor thousand ships Are snar'd and conquer'd by perjurious lips The second manner of Corruption which Passion useth on the Vnderstanding and Will was Alienating or withdrawing of Reason from the serious examination of those Pleasures wherewith it desireth to possesse the Mind without controule that when it cannot so farre prevaile as to blind and seduce Reason getting the allowance and Affirmative Consent thereof it may yet at least so farre inveagle it as to with-hold it from any Negative Determination and to keepe off the Mind from a serious and impartiall consideration of what Appetite desireth for feare lest it should be convinced of sinne and so finde the lesse sweetnesse in it And this is the Reason of that affected and Voluntarie Ignorance which Saint Petâ—… speakes of whereby Minds prepossessed with a love of inordinate courses doe with-hold and divert Reason and forbeare to examine that Truth which indeed they know as fearing lest thereby they should be deterred from those Vices which they resolve to follow Which is the same with that excellent Metaphore in Saint Paul who sayth That the wrath of God was revealed from Heaven on all Vngodlinesse and Vnrighteousnesse of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whicâ—… hold or detaine the Truth in Vnrighteousnesse that is which imprison and keepe in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle interpreteth himselfe in the next Verse all those Notions of Divine Truth touching the Omnipotencie and Iustice of God which were by the singer of Nature written within them to deterre them from or if not to make them inexcusable in those unnaturall pollutions wherein they wallowed Thus Medea in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know 't is wicked that I goe about But Passion hath put all my Reason out And therefore that Maxime of the Stoicall Philosopher out of Plato is false 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all men are unwillingly deprived of Truth since as Aristotle hath observed directly agreeable to the phrase of Saint Peter there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an elected or Voluntarie Ignorance which for their Securities sake men nourish themselves in And that there should be such an Alienation of the Mind from Truth when the Fancie and Heart are hot with Passion cannot be any great wonder For the Soule is of a limited and determined Activitie in the Body insomuch that it cannot with perspiâ—…uitie and diligence give attendance unto diverse Objects And therefore when a Passion in its fulnesse both of a violence and delight doth take it up the more cleare and naked brightnesse of Truth is suspended and changed So that as the Sunne and Moone at their rising and setting seeme farre greater than at other times by reason of thick Vapours which are then interposed so the Mind looking upon things through the Mists and Troubles of Passion cannot possibly judge of them in their owne proper and immediate Truth but according to that magnitude or colour which they are framed into by prejudice and distemper But then thirdly if Reason will neither be deluded nor won over to the patronage of Evill nor diverted from the knowledge and notice of Good then doth Passion strive to confound and distract the Apprehensions thereof that they may not with any firmenesse or efficacie of Discourse interrupt the Current of such irregular and head-strong Motions And this is a most inward and proper Effect of Passion For as things presented to the Mind in the nakednesse and simplicitie of their owne Truth doe gaine a more firme Assent unto them and a more fixed intuition on them so on the contrarie side those things which come mixt and troubled dividing the intention of the Mind between Truth and Passion cannot obtaine any setled or satisfactorie Resolution from the Discourses of Reason And this is the Cause of that Reluctancie betweene the Knowledge and Desires of Incontinent Men and others of the like Nature For as Aristotle observes of them they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Halfe-Evill as not sinning with that full and plenarie Consent of Will but Pratâ—…r Electionem as he speakes so I may more truly say of them that they have but an Halfe-Knowledge not any distinct and applicative Apprehension of Truth but a confused and broken Conceit of things in their Generalitie Not much unlike unto Nighttalkers who cannot be sayd to be throughly asleepe nor perfectly awaked but to be in a middle kind of inordinate temper betweene both or as Aristotle himselfe gives the similitude it is like a Stage-Player whose Knowledge is expresse and cleare enough but the things which it is conversant about are not personall and particular to those men but belonging unto others whom they personate So the Principles of such men are in the generall Good and True but they are never brought downe so low as if they did concerne a mans owne particular Weale or Woe nor thorowly weighed with an assuming applying concluding Conscience but like the notion of a Drunken or sleeping man are choaked and smothered with the Mists of Passion And this third Corruption is that which Aristotle in the particular of Incontinencie calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weakenesse and disabilitie of Reason to keepe close to her owne Principles and Resolutions Whereunto exactly agreeth that of the Prophet How weake is thy heart seeing thou doest all things the workes of an imperious Whorish Woman And elsewhere Whoredome and Wine are sayd to take away the Heart So Hector describes lascivious Paris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy face hath beautie in 't but in thy brest There doth no strength nor resolution rest The last Effect which I shall but name is that which Aristotle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rashnesse or Precipitancie which is the most Tyrannicall Violence which Passion useth when in spight of all the Dictates of Reason it furiously over-ruleth the Will to determine and allow of any thing which it pleaseth to put in practise and like a Torrent carryeth all before it or as the Prophet speakes rusheth like an Horse into the Battell So Lust and Anger are sometimes in the Scripture called Madnesse because it transporteth the Soule beyond all bounds of Wisdome or Counsell and by the Dictates of Reason takes occasion to become more outragious Ipsaque praesidia occupat feedes like Wild-fire upon those Remedies which should remove it As she sayd in the Poet Levis est dolor qui capere consilium potest Libâ—… ire contra That 's but light griefe which counsell can abate Mine swells and all advice resolves to hate The corrupt effects which Passion worketh in the last place on the Body are
of Light But of all these former objects of mans Delight because they are amongst Salomons Catalogue of things under the Sunne none are here without vexation and vanities For to let passe the lightning of an idle mirth which indeed is madnesse and not Ioy. For Seneca telleth us that true Ioy is a serious and severe thing and not to meddle with riches and other secular Delights which have wings to fly from us and thornes to prick us even that highest naturall Delight of the Mind Knowledge and the heavenly eloquence of the Tongues of Angels which a man would think were above the Sunne and therfore not obnoxious to Salomons vanity would be in man without the right corrective thereof but a tinkling noise yeelding rather a windy Pleasure than a true Delight The properties whereof is not to puffe up but to replenish And therefore it is the prayer of Saint Paul The God of Peace fill you with all Ioy. True heavenly Ioy is a filling a satiating Ioy a Ioy unspeakeable with Saint Peter a Peace past understanding with Saint Paul Nor doth this property of overflowing and swallowing the Mind add any degrees of offence or anxiety therunto for it is not the weaknesse of the soule as it is of the body to receive hurt from the excellency of that which it delighteth in nor doth the mind desire to subdue or conquer but onely to be united with its object And here the onely corruption of our Delight is the deficiency and imperfections of it For though this blessed Light leaves not any man in the shadow of death yet it takes him not quite out of the shadow of sinne by the darknesse wherof hee is without much of that lustre and glory which he shall then have when the righteous shal shine like the Sunne in the Firmament Yet at the least our endeavours must be that though our Ioyes cannot be here a Replâ—…nishing Ioy yet it may be an Operative Ioy and so worke out the measure of its own fullnesse I have done with the severall Objects of mans delight Corporall Morall Intellectuall and Divine CHAP. XX. Of the Causes of Ioy. The union of the Object to the Faculty by Contemplation Hope Fruition Changes by accident a cause of Delight I Now proceed to speak of the more particular causes and effects of this Passion Touching the former not to meddle with those which are unnaturall belluine and morbid which the Philosopher hath given some instances of The generall cause is the naturall goodnesse of the Object and the particulars under that Any thing which hath a power to unite and make present the Object with the Faculty And that is done to speake onely of intellectuall Powers three manner of wayes by Contemplation by Confidence and by Fruition by thinking of it in the Minde by expecting of it in the Heart and by enjoying it in the whole Man Contemplation addes unto the Soule a double Delight First from it's owne property it being the proper and naturall agitation of mans minde insomuch that those things which wee abhorre to know experimentally our curlous and contemplative nature desires to know speculatively And therefore the Devils first temptation was drawne from the knowledge as well of evill as good for he knew that the minde of Man would receive content in the understanding of that which in it's owne nature had no perfection in it But then secondly in the Object of true Delight Contemplation ministreth a farther Ioy in that it doth in some sort pre-unite our Soules and our Blessednesse together and this is partly the reason why Aristotle so much advanceth his Contemplative before his practique Felicity For though this in regard of it's immediate reference unto Communion be of a more spreading and diffusive Nature yet certainly in that sweetnesse of content that serenity of Soule that exaltation of thoughts which we receive from those noble motions of the higher Mind the other doth farre in pleasure and satisfaction surpasse all active happinesse And hence we see in the parts of Mans Body those which are if I may so speake more contemplative have precedence to those that are more practique The parts of Vision are before the parts of Action the right eye is preferred before the right hand Thus we may observe in God himselfe notwithstanding in him there can bee neither accession nor intermission of Delight yet by way of expression to us ward he did not in the creation of the World so much ioy in his fiat as in his vidit not so much when he gave his creatures their Nature as when he saw their Goodnesse Nature being the Object of Power but Goodnes the Object of Delight and therefore the day of his rest was more holy than the dayes of his working that being appointed for the Contemplation as these were for the production of his creatures And as Contemplation by way of Prescience when it looketh forward on good things hoped So also by way of Memory when it looketh backward and receiveth evill things escaped doth minister matter of renewed Ioy. No Man looketh on the Sea with more comfort than he who hath escaped a shipwracke And therefore when Israell saw the Egyptians dead on the Sea shore the fear of whom had so much affrighted them before they then sang a Song of Triumph Past troubles doe season and as it were ballace present Comforts as the Snow in Winter increaseth the beauty of the Spring But in this particular of Contemplation notwithstanding the excellency of it there may be Corruption in the Excesse For in those matters of Delight except they be such as are disproportioned to our corrupt Nature I meane divine things wee seldome erre in the other extreme And that is when wee doe not divide our selves between our parts and let every one execute his proper function so to attend upon meere mentall notions as to neglect the practicall part of our Life and withdraw our selves from the fellowship and regard of humane society is as wicked in Religion as it would be in Nature monstrous to see a fire burne without light or shine without heate aberrations from the supreme Law being in divine things impious as they are in naturall prodigious And therefore that vowed sequestration and voluntary banishment of Hermits and Votaries from humane society under pretence of devoting themselves to Contemplation and a fore-enjoying of the Light of God is towards him as unâ—… pleasing as it is in it selfe uncomfortable for their very patterne which they pretend in such cases to imitate was not only a burning lamp by the heate of his owne Contemplations but a shining lamp too by the diffusing of his owne Comforts to the refreshing of others A second cause of Delight is the sure Confidence of the Mind Whereby upon strong and unâ—…ring grounds it waiteth for the accomplishment of it's desires so that what ever doth incourage our Hope doth therewithall strengthen and inlarge our Delight
1. 26. A second effect of Ioy is Opening and Dilâ—…tion of the heart and countenance expressing the serenity of the mind whence it hath the name 〈◊〉 Latitia as it were a broad and spreading Passioâ—… Now the reason of this motion occasioned 〈◊〉 Ioy is the naturall desire which man hath to 〈◊〉 united to the thing wherein he delights to make way and passage for its entrance into him And hence wee find in this Passion an exultation and egresse of the spirits discovering a kind of loosenesse of Nature in her security doing many things not out of resolution but instinct and power transporting both mind and body to sudden and unpremeditated expressions of its owne content For of all Passions Ioy can be the least dissembled or suppressed nam gaâ—…dio Cogendi vis inest saith Pliny it exerciseth a kind of welcome violence and tyranny upon a man as we see in Davids dancing before the Arke and the lame Mans walking and leaping and praising God after hee had been cured of his lamenesse And this diffusion of the spirits sheweth both the haste and forwardnesse of Nature in striving as it were to meet her Object and make large roome for its entertainment as also to dispell and scatter all adverse humours that would hinder the ingresse of it and lastly to send forth newes as it were through the whole province of nature that all the parts might beare a share in the common Comfort Thirdly those noble Delights which arise from heavenly causes doe withall cause a sweet thirst and longing in the Soule after more as some colours do both delight the sight and strengthen it For while God is the Object there cannot bee either the satiety to cloy the Soul nor such a full comprehension as will leave no roome for more Thus they who delight in the fruition of God by Grace doe desire a more plentifull fruition of him in glory and they that delight in the sight of Gods Glory doe still desire to be forever so delighted So that their Desire is without Anxiety because they are sâ—…tiated with the thing which they doâ—… desire â—… and their 〈◊〉 is without loâ—… thing because still they desire the thing wherwith they are sâ—…tiated they desire without Griefe because they are replenished and they are replenished without wearinesse because they desire still they see God and still they desire to see him they enjoy God and still they desire for ever to enjoy him they love and prayse God and make it their immortall businesse still to love and prayse him Et quem semper habent semper haberevolunt Whom they for ever have with love yet higher To have for ever they do still desire Divine Ioy is like the water of Aesculapius his Well which they say is notcapable of putâ—…ifaction Fourthly Delight whettoth and intendeth the actions of the Soule towards the thing wherein it delighteth it putteth forth more force and more exactnesse in the doing of them because it 〈◊〉 the mind of all those dulling Indispositionâ—… which unfitted it for Action And for this reason hâ—…ppily it iâ—… that the 〈◊〉 used Musicke in their Warres to refresh and delight Nature For Ioy is in stead of recreation to the Soule it wonderfully disposeth for busines And those Actions which Nature hath made neâ—… it hath put pleasure in them that thereby Men might be quickned â—…nd excited unto them and therefore Wisemen have told us that pleasure is Sal 〈◊〉 vitâ—… The Sawce which seasoneth the Actions of men Lastly because the Nature of man is usually more acquainted with sorrowes then with pleasures therefore whither out of Conscience of guilt which deserves no joy or out of experience which useth to finde but little joy in the world or out of feare of our owne aptnesse to mistake or out of a provident care not to close or feed upon a Delight till we are fully assured of our Possession of it and because usually the Minde after shaking is more setled whether for these or any other reasons we see it usually come to passe that vehement joy doth breed a kinde of jealousie and unbeliefe that sure â—…he thing we have is too good to be true 〈◊〉 and that then when our eyes tell us that they see it they doe but 〈◊〉 and deceive us as Quod nimiâ—… volumuâ—…â—…aud facile credimus The things which we desire should be We scarse beleeve when we doe see So Iâ—…cob when he heard that his sonne Ioseph was alive fainted being astonished at so good newes and could not beleeve it And when God restored the Iewes out of captivity they could thinke no otherwise of it then aâ—… a dreame And Peter when he was by the Angel delivered out of prison tooke it for a vision only and an apparition and not for a truth And lastly of the Disciples after Christs resurrection when he manifested himselfe to them it is said That for very joy they beleeved not their feares keeping backe as it were and questioning the truth of their joyes Omnia tuta timens not suffering them too hastily to beleeve what their eies did see As in the Sea when a storme is over there remaines still an inward working and volutation which the Poet thus expresseth Vt si quando ruit debell at asque reliquit Eurus aquas pax ipsa tumet pontumque jacentem Exanimis jam voluit hyemâ—… As when a mighty tempest doth now cease To tosse the roaring Billowes even that peace Doth swell and murmurre and the dying Wind On the calm'd Sea leaves his owne prints behind Even so in the Minde of man when it's feares are blowne over and there is a calme upon it there is still á motus trepidationis and a kinde of sollicitous jealousie of what it enjoyes And this unbeleefe of joy is admirably sâ—…t forth in the Carriages of Penelope when her Nurse and her sonne endevoured to assure her of the truth of Vlysses his returne after so many yeares absence by the Poet in which doubting she stil persisted till by certaine signes Vlysses himselfe made it appeare unto her whereupon she exâ—…used it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My deare Vlysses let it not offend That when I saw you first I did suspend My love with my beliefe since my faint brest When first with those glad tidings it was blest Trembled with doubts lest by such forged lies Some crafty false pretender might devise To have ensnaâ—…'d me and with these false sounds Defiel'd my love and multiplied my wounds CHAP. XXII Of the Affection of Sorrow the Object of it evill sensitive Intellectuall as present in it sâ—…lfe or to the mind by memory or suspition particular causes effects of it Feare Care Experience Erudition Irresolution Despaire Execration Distempers of Body THe opposite Passion to this of Delight is Griefe and Sorrow which is nothing but a perturbation and nnquietnesse wrought by the prâ—…ssure of some present
â—…vill which the mind in vaine strugleth with as finding it selfe alone too impotent for the conflict Evill I say either formally as in sinne or paine present or feared or privatively such as is any good thing which we have lost or whereof we doe despaire or have beene disappointed And this is in respect of its object as the former Passion either Sensitive or Intellectuall Sensitive is that anguish and distresse of Nature which lyetâ—… upon the body A Passion in this sense little conducing to the advancement of Nature being allwaies joyned with some measure of its decay but onely as it serves sometimes for the better fortifying it against the same or greater evils it being the condition as of corporeall delights by custome to grow burdensome and distastefull so of paines to become easie and familiar The other and greater Griefe is Intellectuall which in Solomâ—…us phraise is A wounded spirit so much certainely the more quicke and piercing by how much a spirit is more vitall then a body besides the anguish of the soule findes alwayes or workes the same sympathy in the body but outward sorrowes reach not ever so farre as the spirituall and higher part of the soule And therefore we see many men out of a mistake that the distresse of their soules hath beene wrought by a union to their bodies have voluntarily spoiled this to deliver and quiet that The causes of this Passion are as in the former whatsoever hath in it power to disturbe the mind by it's union thereunto There are then two Conditions in respect of the Object that it be Evill and Present Evill first and that not onely formally in it selfe but apprehensively to the understanding And therefore wee see that many things which are in their Nature Evill yet out of the particular distemper of the Mind and deceitfulnesse in them may prove pleasant thereunto And this is the chiefe Corruption of this Passion I meane the misplacing or the undue suspending of it For although strictly in its owne property it be not an advancement of Nature nor addes any perfection but rather weakens it yet in regard of the reference which it beares either to a superior Law as testifying our Love unto the Obedience by our griefe for the breach thereof or to our consequent Carriage and Actions as governing them with greater Wisedome and Providence it may bee said to adde much perfection to the mind of man because it serves as an inducement to more cautelous living The next Condition in respect of the Object is that it be Present which may fall out either by Memory and then our Griefe is called Repentance or Fancy and Suspition and so it may be called Anxâ—… of Mind or by Sense and present union which is the principall kind and so I call it Anguish For the first nothing can properly and truly worke Griefe by ministry of Memory when the Object or Evill is long since past but those things which doe withall staine our Nature and worke impressions of permanent deformity For as it falleth out that many things in their exercise pleasant prove after in their operations offensive and burden some so on the other side many things which for the time of their continuance are irkesome and heavy prove yet after occasions of greater Ioy. Whether they be means used for the procuring of further good Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum 〈◊〉 in Latium sedes ubi c. Through various great mishaps dangers store We hasten to our home and wished 〈◊〉 Where fates do promise rest where Troy revives Only reserve your selves for better lives Or whether they bâ—… Evils which by our Wisedome we have broken thâ—…ough and avoided sed 〈◊〉 olim 〈◊〉 iâ—…vabit When we are arrived at ease Remembrance of a strome doth please The Objects then of Repentance are not our passive but our active Evils not the Evils of suffering but the Evils of doing for the memory of afflictions past representâ—… unto us Nature loosed and delivered and should so much the more increase our Ioy by how much redemption is for the most part a more felt blessing than Immunity but the memory of sinnes past represents Nature obliged guilty and imprisoned And so leaves a double ground for Griefe â—…he staine or pollution and the guilt or malediction a deformity to the Law and a curse from it It would be improper here to wander into a digression touching Repentance only in a word it is then a Godly Sorrow when it proceeds from the memory of Evill not so much in respect of the punishment as of the staine When we grieve more because our sin hath made us unholy then because it hath made us unhappy and not only because we are runne into the danger of the Law but because we are run out of the way of the Law When it teacheth us to cry not only with Pharaoh take away this Plague but with Israel in the Prophet take away Iniquity Concerning Griefe of Preoccupation arising out of a suspitious Feare and expectation of Evill I know not what worth it can have in it unlesse haply thus that by fore-accustoming the Mind to Evill it is the better strengthned to stand under it For Evils by praemeditation are either prevented or mitigated the Mind gathering strength and wisedome together to meet it And therefore it is prudent advise of Plutarch that wee should have a prepared Minde which when any Evill falleth out might not be surprised by it To say as Anaxagoras did when he heard of the death of his Sonne sciome genuisse mortalem I know that I be gat a mortall Sonne I know that my riches had wings and that my comforts were mutable Preparednesse composeth the Minde to patience Vlysses wept when he saw his Dogge which he did not when he saw his Wife he came prepared for the one but was surprised by the other Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem Et perferre soror potero Had I foreseene this Griefe or could but feare it I then should have compos'd my selfe to beare it Which is the reason why Philosophers prescribe the whole course of a Mans Life to be only a meditation upon Death because that being so great an Evill in it selfe and so sure to us it ought to be so expected as that it may not come sudden and find us unprepared to meet the King of Terrour For it is in the property of custome and acquaintance not only to alleviate and asswage evils to which purpose Seneca speakes perdidisti tot mala si nondum misera esse didicisti thou hast lost thy afflictions if they have not yet taught thee to be miserable but further as Aristotle notes to work some manner of delight in things at first troublesome and tedious and therefore hee reckoneth mourning amongst pleasant things and teares are by Nature made the witnesses as well of Ioy as of Griefe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Inward on our selves specially where there is Passion to withdraw and pervert it as the one is stronger so commonly the other is weaker which is true most of all in this Passion of Feare wherein the more we see of dangers from outward oppositions the lesse we see of inward strength for resistance Insomuch that great minds when they meet with great dangers are oftentimes staggered as the Poâ—…t intimates when Ajax came forth to battell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feare had the other Trojans all opprest Yea Hectors heart panted within his breast A third Effect may be a Weaknesse of the Fa culties of the Minde and the Spirits in the Body whereby the one is made unfit for Search or Counsell the other for Service or Execution And hence as Plutarch noteth it imports in the Greeke a Binding or Shutting up and so withdrawing and indisposing the Soule for Action And such Actions as Feare forceth a man upon are presumed to be so weake and unnaturall that it is a Maxime in the Law Per metumgesta prâ—… non ratis habentur Those things which wee doe in Feare are void and invalide to binde when the Feare which forceth them is removed And as it is in the Civill State so it is in the Morall Common-wealth of the Soule there are three principall wayes to inferre Weaknesse Forreign Incursions Intestine Tumults and an Emptying of the Parts all which are to be seen in an Extremity of Feare Where first two things are to be granted one concerning the Body and the other the Mind The first is that the Spirits being of the most strong subtle and quicke motion are the principall Instruments of Entercourse either in Negotiation to or Service from Reason the other that the Mind being of a Spirituall and Elevating Nature retaines then the perfectest power of Operation when it least of all suffers the Incursion of grosser Passions which yet I understand not of all manner of Ministry and Admixtion of Appetite with Reason as if the Regular motions of inferiour powers did not serve to sharpen the Counsels of the higher but onely of Invasion and Tyranny Which granted wee may observe all the three former causes of Weaknesses in an Extremity of Feare For first there is a Confused and Vnserviceable mixture of Passion and Reason The Passion with too much outrage and assault breaking in and distracting the advices of Reason which is Forreigne Incursion For though these two are not parts of a different Regiment yet they are of a different Nation if I may so speake the one belonging to the higher the other to the lower parts or region of the Soule Secondly there is Tumult and Disorder amongst the Spirits which is Civill Dissention Thirdly there is a Retyring of them to the principall Castle or Fort the Heart whereby the Outward Quarters are left Naked and Vngarrison'd which though it be a strengthning of the Better yet it is a Weakning of the Major part and this answereth unto Emptying or Vacuity By all which both Reason is made unfit for Counsell all the Conceipts therof being choaked and stifled with a disorderly throng of Spirits and Passions â—…nd the Body likewise is so benummed that though our discourse were entire yet it could not be there seconded with any successefull service And hence are those many ill Effects of Feare upon the Body whitenesse of Haire Trembling Silence Thirst Palenesse Horrour Gnashing of Teeth Emission of Excrements The Outward parts being over-cooled and the Inward melted by the strength of the Spirits retyring thither Which Homer hath thus described speaking of a Coward His Colour comes and goes nor doth he set Long in one place he croucheth to his feet His Heart pants strong and intercepts his breath His Teeth doe gnash with but the thoughts of Death Brave men are still the same not much agast When the first brunt of their Attempts is past Where by the way we may observe what Seneca also tels us that Feare doth usually attend the beginnings of great enterprizes even in the worthiest men Which mindeth me of one more and that an usefull and profitable Effect of this Passion I meane Care Wisedome and Caution which ever proceeds from a Moderate Feare which is a Dictate of Nature And therefore the weakest Fishes swim together in shoales and the weakest Birds build in the smallest and outermost boughes which are hardest to come unto And we may observe that Nature hath made the weakest Creatures swiftest as the Dove the Hare the Hart and the say that the Hare is very quicke at hearing and sleepeth with his Eyes open every way sitted to discouer danger before it surprise him For as in Religion a Feare that is governed by the Word of God so proportionably in Morality a Feare grounded by the Word of Reason is the Principle of Wisedome As Security and Supinenesse is the Root of Folly which Tiberius replyed to the petition of Hortuluâ—… wherein he requested of the Senate a Contribution from the publicke Treasury to recover the honour of his Family which now was sunke and began to wither Industry saith hee will languish Idlenesse will increase if no man have Feare or Hope in himselfe but all will securely expect a supply from others in themselves lâ—…zy and burthensome unto us and it is the judgement of Tacitus upon one of the wisest Policies which ever that Emperour practised I meane his writing to the Legions abroad Tanquam adepto principatu as if he were already Emperour when at home in the Senate he used only Modesty and Refusals That he did it out of Feare so wise a Counsellor was his Passion unto him And we find that some * great Commanders have caused their Skout-watches to be unarmed that Feare might make them the more vigilant And therefore this Passion is the Instrument of Discipline seasoning the Minde as ground Colours doe a Table to receive those beauties and perfections which are to bee superinduced CHAP. XXIX Of that particular Affection of Feare which is called Shame What it is Whom we thus feare The ground of it Evill of Turpitude Injustice Intemperance Sordidnesse Softnesse Pufillanimity Flattery Vaine-glory Misfortune Ignorance Pragmaticalnesse Deformity Greatnesse of Minde Vnworthy Correspondencies c. Shame Vitious and Vertuous BEsides this generall Consideration of the Passion of Feare there is one particular thereof which calleth for some little observation namely Shame which is a Feare of just Disgrace and Reproof in the Minds of those whose good opinion wee doe or ought to value as hee said in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now those whom we thus feare are wise men for so Polydamas is said to looke behind and before him Aged men and all whose presence wee reverence as Parents Rulers Counsellers Friends Any whom we our selves Admire or who Admire us We feare disgrace with those whom we Admire because their judgement of us is in our own Apprehension a kind
offered us by friends or those of whom we have well deserved than by enemies or strangers No wounds go so deep as those we receive in the house of our friend And the reason why this difference between men neerly referring each other should worke a greater Anger between them is First because herein we may finde that which before I observed as a furtherance to this Passion Disappointment and frustrating of Expectation For in this case we expect Sympathy not Division Secondly because all Anger is a kind of dis-joyning or Divulsion of things before joyned there therefore where is the greatest Vnion must needs bee the strongest and most violent separation as in the Body the Divulsion of Soule is more horrible than of an Arme or some other member because the one is an Essentiall the other onely an Integrall Vnion and so it is with those who are by bloud or friendship made one as the dividing of them is more strange and violent so doth it produce a stronger Passion Another cause of this Passion in respect of the Injurer may be a too great Freedome and indiscreet use of speech especially if it be in way of correction and rebuke For as Solomons speech is true Mollis responsio frangit Iram a soft answer pacifies wrath so on the contrary it is true likewise Dura Correptio unit Iram that an harsh rebuke knits it Anger is by nothing more nourished than by much speaking though not in the parâ—…y that speaketh because Speech is to Anger like Teares to Griefe a spending and venting of it yet alwayes in another unto whom we minister farther matter of offence To which purpose is that speech of Syracides Strive not with a man that is full of tongue and heape not wood upon his fire Another Cause which I shall observe is contention and Difference whether it be in Opinions or in Inclinations because this must needs be ever joyned with some undervaluing of another mans choice and judgement which if it be not seasoned with much sobriety will easily induce a man to beleeve that it proceeds not from Zeale to Truth but from a humour of Opposition Wherewith many men are so farre possessed that one must hardly dare to speake the truth in their company for feare of endangering it and them Like Chryâ—…ippus in Laertius who used to boast that hee often wanted Opinions but those once gotten he never wanted Arguments and Sophismes to defend them The last cause which I shall note of this Passion is in him who offends us his very Abilities when we see them neglected for this provokes to more displeasure then naked impotency Weaknesse when it miscarries is the object of Pitty but strength when it miscarries is the object of Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I should not blame unworthy and base spirits To slâ—…g and shrinke from Battle but for merits So to forget themselves for you to be Vnlike the men you are What man can see Such weaknesse and not wonder chide debate Till you your selves doe your owne Errours hate Vnto all these we might adde some others which the Philosopher toucheth as neglect of our Calamities or rejoyeing at them or divulging them or bringing readily the report of them unto us receiving the report of them with pleasure Or lastly representing the Signes which may bring into minde the memory of any injuries done us As the Levite sent the parts of his Abused Concubine up and downe unto the Tribes of Israel to move them unto Indignation So Antony in the funerall Oration upon Iulius Caesar produced his robe stained with the blood which Brutus and Cassius had shed to worke adâ—…testation of that fault in the people Now concerning all these causes together because it would be two tedious to gather particular circumstances of dignity and corruption from all of them we are to conclude that Anger as it ariseth from any of them is then onely Regular and Iust when it keepes these conditions I First that it still observe proportion and conformity to the rules of Love otherwise it iâ—… not Ira in Delictum but Ira in fratrem not againsâ—… the Crime but the person of my brother 〈◊〉 knâ—…w the nature of this passion is to be Transient to goe out from us on our brother and reforme him not Immanent to worke upon our selves and deforme us I meane by soyling the habite of Charity which ought alwayes to remaine inviolate 2 Secondly that it keepe likewise due proportion unto judgement and that unto a true judgement and a whole judgement otherwise it is not onely to be Angry with our brother but which is farther to be angry with him unadvisedly Iudgement then must be true first that is cleare setled and untransported and that likewise in two actions in the Act of Interpretation which reacheth unto the Injurie and in the Act of Direction or Government which reacheth unto the Passion 3 And next it must be a whole judgement and that in both the former It must judge fully of the nature and circumstances of the injury which ever receives it degrees of Intention or remission not from the matter of the Act but from some particular Qualifications and Circumstances joyned thereunto Secondly it must judge fully of the Act of Passion not onely in Informing quod sit that Reparation of our selves is lawfull but 〈◊〉 too in the manner and forme how to undertake it Because as Passion being without Reason in it selfe wants the tongue of judgement to inform it what to do So being blinde it wants the hand of judgement to leade it in the doing of it and this I take to be the proper way of governing this Passion But that which was once prescribed by Athenodorus the Philosopher unto Augustus to repeate over the Alphabet between the Passion and the Revenge is too boyish and slight as diverting the minde from the occasion to some other trifle which is onely to cozen and not to conquer ouâ—… distemper and therefore though it may for a time allay it yet this is but as the cures of Empericks which give present ease but search not into the roote nor leave such â—…n habit within as shall in after occasions limit the unrulinesse of such distempers like those odours which use to raise men out of a fit of the falling sicknesse but doe not all cure them of the disease Now to speake a word or two of the Effects of this Passion they are such as are wrought either in our selves or others Concerning the former they are either outward effects which â—…each to our bodies or inward which reflect upon Reason Those on the body are clamour as Saint Paul cals it in the Tongue Tumour and Inflammation in the Heart Fire in the Eyes and Fiercenesse and Palenesse in the Countenance and a sensible alteration in the whole man The use or deformity of all which depend upon the subordination of
Opinion 2. To have Being by Traduction is when the soule of the Child is derived from the soule of the Parent by the meanes of Seed but the Seed of the Parent cannot reach the Generation of the soule both because the one is a Corporeall the other a Spirituall substance uncapable of Augmentation or Detriment Now that which is spirituall cannot be produced out of that which is corporeall neither can any Seed be discinded or issue out from the soule being substantia simâ—…lex impartibilis a substance simple and indivisible 3. That which is separable from the body and can subsist and work without it doth not depend in its Being or making upon it for if by the Generation of the Body the soule be generated by the corruption of the Body it would be corrupted for every thing that is generable is corruptible But the Soule can subsist and work without the Body therefore it doth not from corporeall generation derive its Being 4. If the Soule be seminally traduced it must he either from the body or from the soule of the Parents not from the Body for it is impossible for that which is not a body to be made out of that which is a Body no cause being able to produce an effect out of its owne spheare and more noble than it selfe not from the soule because that being a spirituall and impartible substance can therefore have nothing severed from it by way of substantiall seed unto the constitution of another soule 5. If there be nothing taken from the Parents of which the soule is formed then it is not traduced by naturall generation but there is nothing taken from the Parents by which the soule is formed for then in all Abortions and miscarrying Conceptions the seed of the Soule would perish and by consequence the soule it selfe would be corruptible as having its Originall from corruptible seed These and divers other the like arguments are used to confirme the doctrine touching the Creation of the Reasonable Soule Unto which may be added the judgement and testimony of some of the forecited Fathers St. Hierome telleth us that the Originall of the soule in mankinde is not as in other living creatures Since as our Saviour speaketh The Father worketh hitherto And the Prophet Esat telleth us That hee formeth the spirit of mâ—…n within him and framâ—…th the hearts of all men as it is in the Psalmes And so Lactamius whom I doe wonder to finde numbred amongst the Authors that affirme the Traduction of the soule by Ruffinus and the Author of the Dialogue amongst the works of Hierome It may be questioned saith he whether the soule be generated out of the Father Mother or both Neither of all three is true Because the seed of the Soule is not put into the Body by either or both of these A Body may be borne out of their Bodies because something may be out of both contributed but a Soule cannot be borne out of their Soules in as much as from so spirituall and incomprehensible a substance nothing can issue forth or be severed for that use So also St. Hilary The Soule of man is the work of God the generation of the flesh is alwayes of the flesh And againe It is inbred and an impress'd Beliefe in all that our Soules have a divine Originall And in like manner Theodoret God saith he frameth the Bodies of living creatures out of Bodies subsisting before but the Soules not of all creatures but of Men only hee worketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing that had beene before Against this Doctrine of the Soules Originall The principall argument is drawn from the consideration of Originall sinne and the propagation thereof which alone was that which troubled and staggerd S. Augustine in this point For if the Soule be not naturally traduced how should Originall sinne be derived from Adam unto it And if it were not in the loynes of Adam then neither did it sinne in his loynes whereas the Apostle expresly telleth us that by one Man sinne came into the world and that in one all have sinned and that not only by imputative participation but by naturall Propagation deriving an inhaerent habituall pollution which cleaveth inseparably to the soule of every man that entreth into the world and is the fruit of Adams loynes Unto which Argument to omit the different resolutions of other men touching the pollution of the Soule by the immediate contact of the flesh and the Parents attinging the ultimate disposition of the Body upon which naturally followeth the Union of the Soule God being pleased to work ordinarily according to the exigence of second causes and not suffering any of them to be in vain for want of that concurrence which he in the vertue of a first and supreame cause is to contribute unto them I shall set downe what I conceive to be the Truth in this point First then it is most certaine that God did not implant Originall sinne not take away Originall righteousnesse from Man but man by his Praevarication and Fall did cast it away and contract sin and so derive a defiled nature to his posterity For as Maâ—…arius excellently speaketh Adam having transgressed did loâ—… the pure posâ—…esion of his Nature Secondly Originall injustice as it is a sinne by the default and contraction of Man so it is also a punishment by the ordination and disposition of Divine Justice It was mans sinne to cast away the Image of God but it is Gods just judgement as hee hath that free dispensation of his owne Gifts not to restore it againe in such manner as at first he gave it unto that nature which had so rejected and trampled on it Thirdly In this Originall sinne there are two things considerable The Privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in us and the lust or Habituall concupiscence which carrieth Nature unto inordinate motions The Privation and want of Originall justice is meritoriously from Adam who did voluntarily deprave and reject that Originall rectitude which was put into him which therefore God out of his most righteous and free disposition is pleased not to restore unto his Nature in his posterity againe In the habituall lust are considerable these two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinfull disorder of it And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Punishment of sinne by it Consider it is as a Punishment of Adams first Praevarication and so though it be not efficiently from God yet it falls under the Order of his Justice who did most righteously forsake Adam after his wilfull fall and leave him in the Hand of his owne Counsell to transmit unto us that Seminary of sinne which himselfe had contracted But if we consider it as a sinne we then say that the immediate and proper cause of it is lapsed nature whole and entire by Generation and Seminall Traduction derived upon us But the Reâ—…ter cause is that from which wee receive and
produceing of its operation All which prove that the soule is separable from the body in its Nature and therefore that it is not corrupt and mortall as the body Another reason may be taken from the Universall agreement of all Nations in the Earth in Religion and the worship of some Deity which cannot but be raised out of a hope and secret Resolution that that God whom they worshipped would reward their piety if not here yet in another life Nulla gens adeo extra leges est projectâ—… ut non aliquos deos credat saith Seneca whence those fictious of the Poets touching Elyzium and fields of happinesse for men of honest and well ordered lives and places of Torment for those that doe any way neglect the bonds of their Religion Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt Therefore they exercised are with paine And punishments of former crimes sustaine For in this life it is many times in all places seene that those which have given themselves most liberty in contempt of Gods Lawes and have suffered themselves to be carried by the swinge of their owne rebellious Passions unto all injurious ambitious unruly Practises have commonly raised themselves and their fortunes more than others who out of tendernesse and feare have followed no courses but those which are allowed them And yet these men who suffer so many indignities out of regard to Religion doe still observe their duties and in the midst of all contempt and reproach fly into the bosome of their God And as Lucretius himselfe that Arch-Atheist confesseth of them Multò in rebus acerbis Acriâ—…s advertunt animos ad religionem Their hearts in greatest bitternesse of minde Unto Religion are the more enclinde Their very terrors and troubles make them more zealous in acknowledging some Deity and in the worship of it Hic Pietatis hâ—…s would not this easily have melted their Religion into nothing and quite diverted their minds from so fruitlesse a severity had they not had a strong and indeleble perswasion fastned in their soules that a state would come where in both their Patience should be rewarded and the insolencie of their Adversaries repayed with the just Vengeance they had deserved As for that Atheisticall conceit that Religion is only grounded on Policie and maintained by Princes for the better Tranquillity and Setlednesse of their States making it to be only Imperiorum Vinculum a Bond of Government that the Common-weale might not suffer from the fury of minds secure from all Religion it is a fancie no lesse absurd than it is impious For that which hath not only beene observed and honour'd by those who have scarce had any forme of a civill Regiment amongst them but even generally assented unto by the opinions and practice of the whole world is not a Law of Policie and civill Institution but an inbred and secret Law of Nature dictated by the consciences of men and assented unto without and above any humane imposition Nor else is it possible for Legall institutions and the closest and most intricate conveyances of Humane Policy so much to entangle the hearts of men of themselves enclinable to liberty nor to fetter their consciences as thereby only to bring them to a regular conformity unto all government for feare of such a God to whose Infinitnesse Power and Majestie they Assent by none but a civill Tradition It must be a visible character of a Deitie acknowledged in the Soule an irresistible Principle in Nature and the secret witnesse of the heart of man that must constraine it unto those sundry religious ceremonies observed among all Nations wherein even in places of Idolatry were some so irksome and repugnant to Nature and others so voyd of Reason as that nothing but a firme and deepe Assurance of a Divine Judgement and of their owne Immortality could ever have impos'd them upon their consciences And besides this consent of men unto Religion in generall we finde it also unto this one part hereof touching the Soules immortality All the wisest and best reputed Philosophes for Learning and stayednesse of life and besides them even Barbarians Infidels and savage people have discerned it Adeò nescio quo modâ—… inhaeret in menibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium futurorum saith Tully The Soule hath a kinde of presage of a future world And therefore he saith that it is in mans Body a Tenant tanquam in dome alâ—…enâ as in anothers house And is only in Heaven as a Lord tanquam in domo suâ as in its owne Though in the former of these the ignorance of the Resurrection made him erre touching the future condition of the Body wherein indeed consists a maine dignity of Man above other creatures And this Opinion it is which he saith was the ground of all that care men had for posterity to sow and plant Common-wealths to ordaine Lawes to establish formes of Government to erect Foundations and Societies to hazard their Blood for the good of their Country all which could not have beene done with such freedome of Spirit and prodigality of life unlesse there were withall a conceit that the good thereof would some way or other redound to the contentment of the Authors themselves after this life for it was a speech savouring of infinite Atheisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I am dead and in mine Vâ—…ne What care I though the World burns Now although against this present Reason drawne from the consent of men which yet Heathens themselves have used It may be alledged that there hath beene a consent likewise of some That the Soule is nothing else but the Eucrasie or good Temperature of the Body and that it is therefore subject to those Maladies Distempers Age Sicknesse and at last Death which the Body is as amongst the rest Lucretius takes much paines to prove yet the Truth is that is Votum magic quà m Iudicium never any firme opinion grounded on Judgement and Reason but rather a desire of the heart and a perswasion of the Will inticing the Understanding so to determine For the conscience of lewd Epicures and sensuall minds being sometimes frighted with the flashes and apprehensions of Immortality which often times pursues them and obtrudes it selfe upon them against their wills shining like lightning through the chinks crevises as I may so speak of their Soules which are of set purpose closed against all such light sets the Reason on work to invent arguments for the contrary side that sâ—… their staggering and fearefull impiety may bâ—… something emboldned and the Eye of their conscience blinded and the Mouth mustled from breathing forth those secret clamors and shrikes of feare The Deniall then of the Immortality of the Soule is rather a Wish than an Opinion a corruption of the Heart and Will than any Naturall Assertion of the understanding which cannot but out of the footsteps and reliques of those first sacred Impressions acknowledge a spirituall
is understood Because as the Wax after it is stamped is in some sort the very Seale it selfe that stamp'd it namely Representative by way of Image and resemblance so the Soule in receiving the species of any Object is made the picture and image of the thing it selfe Now the understanding being able to apprehend immortality yea indeed apprehending every corporeall substance as if it were immortall I meane by purging it from all grosse materiall and corruptible qualities must therefore needs of it selfe be of an immortall Nature And from the latter of those two Principles which I spake of namely that the quality of the Being may be gathered from the Nature of the Operation Aristotle inferres the separability and independance of the understanding on the Body in the third de Animâ afore-named For the Soule being able to work without the concurrence of any bodily Organ to the very act it selfe as was before shewed must needs also be able to subsist by its owne nature without the concurrence of any matter to sustaine it And therefore hee saith in the same place that the understanding is separable uncompounded impassible all arguments of immortality Other reasons are produced for the proofe hereof taken from the causes of corruption which is wrought either by Contraries working and eating out Nature or by Defect of the Preserving cause as light is decayed by absence of the Sunne or thirdly by corruption of the subject whereon it depends None whereof can be verified in the Soule For first how can any thing be contrary to the Soule which receiveth perfection from all things for Intellectus omnia intelligit saith Aristotle yea wherein all Contraries are reconciled and put off their Opposition For as a great man excellently speaketh those things which destroy one another in the World maintaine and perfect one another in the Minde one being a meanes for the clearer apprehension of the other Secondly God who is the only Efficient of the Soule being else in it selfe simple and indivisible and therefore not capable of death but only of Annihilation doth never faile and hath himselfe promised never to bring it unto nothing And lastly the Soule depends not as doe other Formes either in Operation or Being on the Body being not only Actus informans but subsistens too by its owne absolute vertue CHAP. XXXV Of the Honour of Humane Bodies by Creation by Resurrection of the Endowments of Glorified Bodies ANd now that this particular of immortality may farther redound both to the Honour and comfort of Man I must fall upon a short digression touching mans Body wherein I intend not to meddle with the Question How mans Body may be said to be made after the Image of God which sure is not any otherwise than as it is a sanctified and shall be a Blessed Vessell but not as some have conceited as if it were in Creation Imago Christi futuri nec Dei opus tantum sed Pignus As if Christ had beene the patterne of our Honour and not wee of his Infirmity since the Scripture saith Hee was made like unto us in all things and that he Assumed our Nature but never that we were but that we shall be like unto him not I say to meddle with this I will only briefly consider the Dignity thereof in the particular of immortality both in the first structure and in the last Resurrection of it The Creation of our Bodies and the Redemption of our Bodies as the Apostle calls it What Immunity was at first given and what Honour shall at last be restored to it In which latter sense it shall certainly be Secundum Imaginem after his Image who was Primitiae the First fruits of them that rise That as in his Humility his Glory was hid in our Mortality so in our Exaltation our Mortality shall be swallowed up of his Glory And for the first estate of Mans Body we conclude in a word that it was partly Mortall and partly Immortall Mortall in regard of possibility of Dying because it was affected with the mutuall Action and Passion of corruptible elements for which reason it stood in need of reparation and recovery of it selfe by food as being still Corpus Animale and not Spirituale as St. Paul distinguisheth a Naturall but not a Spirituall Body But it was Immortall that is Exempted from the Law of Death and Dissolution of the Elements in vertue of Gods Covenant with man upon condition of his Obedience It was Mortall Conditione Corporis by the Condition of a Body but immortall Beneficio Conditoris by the Benefit of its Creation else God had planted in the Soule such naturall desires of a Body wherein to work as could not be naturally attained For the Soule did naturally desire to remaine still in the body In the naturall Body of Adam there was no sin and therefore no death which is the wages of sinne I come now to the Redemption of our Bodies already performed in Pignore in Primiâ—…its In our Head in some few of his Members Enoch Ellas and as is probable in those dead Bodies which arose to testifie the Divine power of our crucified Saviour and shall be totally accomplished at that day of Redemption as the same Apostle calls the Last day that day of a full and finall Redemption when Death the last enemy shall be overcome And well may it be called a day of Redemption not only in regard of the Creature which yet groaneth under the Malediction and Tyrannie of sinfull Man nor yet only in respect of Mans Soule which though it be before admitted unto the purchased Possession of the Glorifying Vision and lives no more by Faith alone but by sight shall yet then receive a more abundant fulnesse thereof as being the day of the Manifestation and plenary discovery both of the Punishing Glory of God in the Wicked and of his Merciful and Admirable Glory in the Saints but also and as I think most especially in respect of the Body For there is by vertue of that Omnipotent Sacrifice a double kinde of Redemption wrought for us The one Vindicative giving us Immunity from all spirituall dangers delivering us from the Tyrannie of our Enemies from the Severity Justice and Curse of the Law which is commonly in the New Testament called simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Deliverance from evill The other Purchasing or Munificent by not only freeing us from our own wretchednesse but farther conferring upon us a Positive and a Glorious Honour which St. Iohn calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Power Priviledge Prerogative and Title unto all the Glorious Promises of Immortality which like wise St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Redemption of a purchased Possession and a Redemption unto the Adoption of Sonnes Now then the Last day is not Totally and Perfectly a day of Redemption unto our Soules in either of these
senses since they are in this life delivered from the Malediction of the Law from the Wrath of the Judge from the Tyrannie of the Enemie from the Raigne of Sinne and by Death freed not only from the Dominion but from the Possession or Assault of the Enemie not only from the Kingdome but from the Body of Sinne and is withall in good part possessed of that Blisse which it shall more fully enjoy at last But our Bodies though before that Great day they partake much of the benefits of Redemption as being here sanctified vessells freed from the Authority and Power of the Devill World Flesh and from the Curse of Death too wherein they part not only with life but with sinne yet after all this doe they want some part of either Redemption as namely to be raised and delivered from that dishonour and corruption which the last Enemie hath brought upon them and to be Admitted into those Mansions and invested with that Glory whereby they shall be Totally possessed of their Redemption In a word the Soule is in its separation fully delivered from all Enemies which is the first and in a great measure enjoyeth the Vision of God which is the second part or degree of mans Redemption But the Body is not till its Resurrection either quite freed from its Enemie or at all possessed of its Glory I meane in its selfe though it be in its Head who is Primitiae P◅gnus Resurrectionis the first fruits and earnest of our Conquest over Death Touching the Dignity of our Bodies though there be more comfort to be had in the Expectation than Curiosity in the enquirie after it yet what is usually granted I shall briefly set down And first it shall be Raised a whole entire and perfect Body with all the parts best fitted to be Receptacles of Glory freed from all either the Usherers in or Attendants and followers on the Grave Age Infirmity Sicknesse Corruption Ignominie and Dishonour And shall rise a true whole strong and honourable Body For though every part of the Body shall not have those peculiar uses which here they have since they neither eat nor drink marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God yet shall not any part be lost Licet enim officiis liberentur judiciis re◅inentur Though they are freed from their Temporall service for which they were here ordained yet must they be reserved for receiving their judgment whether it be unto Glory or unto Dishonour The second Dignity is that Change and Alteration of our Body from a Naturall to a Spirituall Body whereby is not meant any Transubstantiation from a Corporeall to a Spirituall substance For our Bodies shall after the Resurrection be conformable unto Christs body which though glorious was not yet a Spirit but had flesh and bone as we have Nor is it to be understood of a thinne Aereall Invisible Body as some have collected since Christ saith of his Body after he was risen Videte Palpate Wheresoever it is it hath both its quantity and all sensible qualities of a Body Glorified with it It is a strong Argument that it is not there where it is not sensible And therefore the Doctrines of Vbiquity and Transubstantiation as they give Christ more thā he is pleased to owne an Immensity of Body so doe they spoyle him of that which hee hath beene pleased for our sakes to assume Extension Compacture Massinesse Visibility and other the like sensible Properties which cannot stand with that pretended miracle whereby they make Christs Body even now a Creature and like unto ours in substance though not in qualities of Corruptibility Infirmity Ignominie Animality to be truly invested with the very immediate properties of the Deity True indeed it is that the Body of Christ hath an efficacie and operation in all parts of the world it worketh in Heaven with God the Father by Intercession amongst the blessed Angels by Confirmation in Earth and that in all ages and in all places amongst Men by Justification and Comfort in Hell amongst the Devils and Damned by the Tremblings and Feares of a condemning and convicting Faith But Operation requireth only a presence of Vertue not of Substance For doth not the Sunne work wonderfull effects in the bowels of the Earth it selfe notwithstanding being a fixed Planet in the Heaven And why should not the Sunne of Righteousnesse work as much at the like distance as the Sunne of Nature Why should he not be as Powerfull Absent as he was Hoped Or why should the Not presence of his Body make that uneffectuall now which the Not existing could not before his Incarnation Why should we mistrust the Eyes of Stephen that saw him in Heaven at such a Distance of place when Abraham could see him in his own bowels through so great a Distance of Time That Speech then that the Body shall be a Spirituall Body is not to be understood in either of those former senses but it is to be understood first of the more immediate Union and full Inhabitation of the vertue and vigour of Gods Spirit in our Bodies quickning and for ever sustaining them without any Assistance of Naturall or Animall qualities for the repairing and augmenting of them in recompence of that which by labour and infirmity and the naturall opposition of the Elements is daily diminished Secondly it shall be so called in regard of its Obedience Totall Subjection to the Spirit of God without any manner of Reluctance and dislike Thirdly in respect of those Spirituall qualities those Prerogatives of the Flesh with which it shall be adorned which are First a Shining and Glorious Light wherewithall it shall be cloathed as with a Garment for the Iust shall shine as the Sunne in the Firmament Now this shal be wrought first by vertue of that Communion which wee have with Christ our Head whose Body even in its Mortality did shine like the Sunne and had his cloathes white as light And secondly by diffusion and Redundancie from our Soule upon our Body which by the Beatificall Vision filled with a Spirituall and unconceiveable brightnesse shall work upon the Body as on a Subject made throughly Obedient to its Power unto the Production of alike qualities The second Spirituall Property shall be Impassibility not in respect of Perfective but in respect of annoying disquieting or destructive Passion There shall not be any Warre in the members any fighting and mutuall languishing of the Elements but they shall all be sustained in their full strength by vertue of Christs Communion of the Inhabitation of the Spirit of the Dominion of the Glorified Soule There shall be no need of rest or sleepe or meat all which are here requisite for the supply of our Infirmities and daily defects and are only the Comforts of Pilgrimage not the Blessednesse of Possession For although Christ after his Resurrection did eat before his Disciples yet this was none otherwise done than that other
the Retaining of his wounds which was only for our sakes that our Faith touching the Truth of his Body might not be without these visible and inferiour Witnesses by which he was pleased to make his very Glorified flesh a proportioned Object to our fraile sense and faith that so wee might thence learne confidently to rely for our selves as well on the Benefit of his Exaltation as of his Humility Or it was done as St. Augustine speaks Non ex Necessitate sed ex Potestate as the Sunne is said to draw and suck up standing waters Non Pabuli Egestate sed Virtutis Magniâ—…adine Not to Nourish but to Manifest its vertue Thirdly the Body shall be a strong and beautifull Body throughly able to minister unto the Soule any service wherein it shall imploy it and shall be no longer as it is now the clogge and luggage thereof It shall likewise be free from all blemish and deformity which ever ariseth out of the distemper discord of the Elements as it is by good probability conjectured reduced unto a full comely and convenient stature even in those who were in their Death contemptible Infants lame dismembred or any other way dishonoured with the miseries of corruption Naturae non injuriae reddimur we shall be restored to our Nature but not to our shame the Dust shall still retaine and bury our dishonour and it shall be one part of our Glory to be made fit for it The last quality of our Bodies which I shall observe is a perfect subtilty and agility best befitting their service for the Soule in all speedy motion which surely shall be there so much the more requisite than here on earth by how much Heaven is a more ample and spacious Country And thus while the Body is made an attendant on the Soules glory it is likewise a partaker of it Unto these adde the sweet Harmony of the Affections the exact and exquisite Operation of the senses the Bodily communion and fellowship of the Saints and above all the Eternall Corporeall vision of that most sacred Body whence all ours derive their degrees of Honour whose presence were truly and without any Hyperbole able to make Hell it selfe a Place of Glory how much more that Country and those Mansions where the Soule likewise shall be swallowed up with the immediate vision and fruition of Divine Glory Our Soules are not here noble enough to conceive what our Bodies shall be there CHAP. XXXVI Of that part of Gods Image in the Soule which answereth to his Power Wisedome Knowledge Holines Of Mans Dominion over other Creatures Of his Love to Knowledge What remainders we retaine of Originall Iustice. THe other Properties or Attributes of God of which Mans Soule beareth an Image dark resemblance are those which according to our Apprehension seeme not so Intrinsecall and Essentiall as the former And they are such as may be either generally collected from the Manifestation of his Works or more particularly from his Word These which referre unto his Works are his Power in Making and Ruling them his Wisedom in Ordering and Preserving them his Knowledge in the Contemplation of them and of these it pleaseth him at the first to bestow some few degrees upon mans Soule Concerning the Attribute of Power most certaine it is that those great parts of Gods workmanship Creation and Redemption are incommunicably belonging unto him as his owne Prerogative Royall Insomuch that it were desperate blasphemy to assume unto our selves the least resemblance of them Yet in many other proceedings of Gods works there is some Analogie and Resemblance in the Works of Men. For first what are all the motions and courses of Nature but the Ordinary works of God All formes and intrinsecall Motive Principles are indeed but his Instruments for by him we live and move and have our being And of all other works mans only imitate Nature as Aristotle observes of the Works of Art which peculiarly belong unto Man all other Creatures being carried by that naturall instinct which is Intrinsecally belonging to their condition without any manner of Art or variety The Resemblances of Nature in the Works of Art are chiefly seene in these two Proportions First as Nature doth nothing in Vaine but in all her Works aymes at some End the Perfection or the Ornament or the Conservation of the Universe for those are the three ends of Nature subordinate to the Maine which is the Glory of the Maker so likewise are the works of Art all directed by the Understanding to some one of those ends either to the perfection of Men such are all those which informe the Vnderstanding and governe the life or to his Conservation as those directed to the furthering of his welfare and repairing the decayes or sheltering the weaknesses of Nature or lastly to his Ornament such as are those Elegancies of Art and Curiosities of Invention which though not necessary to his Being yet are speciall instruments of his delight either Sensitive or Intellectuall The second Resemblance is betweene the Manner and Progresse of their Workes for as the Method of nature is to proceed ab imperfectioribus ad Perfectiora and per determinata Media ad 〈◊〉 Finem So Art likewise as is plaine in those which are Manuall by certain fixed rules which alter not proceeds to the producing of a more perfect effect from more tough and unformed beginnings by the help of Instruments appropriated to particular services But this because â—…t limits Mans dignity as well as commends it I for beare to speake of Though even herein also we doe seeme to imitate God who in his great worke of Creation did proceed both by successiâ—… of Time and degrees of Perfection only it is Necessity in us which was in him his Will To come therefore nearer it is observable that in the first Act of Gods power in the Making and Framing of the World there was No thing here below created properly immediatly and totally but the Chaos and Masse or the Earth without forme and voide out of the Obedience whereof his Power did farther educe and extract those Wonderfull Vaâ—…ious and Beauti full Formes which doe evidently set forth unto the Soule of Man the Glory and Majestie of him that made them By a small Resemblance of this manner of Working Man also in those Workes of Art peculiar to him from other Creatures doth ex Potentia Obedientiall as the Schooles call it out of the Obedience and Subjection of any proposed Masse produce Non per Naturam sed per Imperium not out of the Nature of the Subject but by the command of Reason sundry formes of Art full of Decency and Beauty And for Government I meane Subordinate and by Derivation or Indulgence it is manifest that all Creatures inhabiting the World with him were subdued unto Man and next unto the Glory of the great Maker were ordained for his service and benefit * And therefore when ever wee finde any
of them hurtfull and Rebellious wee cannot but remember that the occasion thereof was our owne disloyalty they doe but Revenge their great Masters wrong and out of a Faithfull care and jealousie to Preserve his Honour Renounce their Fidelity and Obedience to a Traitom * And indeed how can we looke to have our Dominion intire over Beasts and inferiour Creatures when by continuall Enormities we make our selves as one of them Continued by the Generall Providence of God whereby hee is pleased to preserve things in that course of Subordination wherein first hee made them and like a gracious Prince to continue unto Man the use of his Creatures even then when hee is a prisoner unto his Justice Renewed by the Promise and Grant made againe unto Noah And there is a Double Promise under which wee may enjoy the Creatures the one a Morall Promise made unto Industry as The Diligent hand maketh Rich and hee that Ploweth his Land shall have Plenty of Corne the other an Evangelicall Promise made unto Piety and Faith in Christ whereby is given unto Christian men both a freer use of the Creatures than the Iews had and a purer use than the wicked have For unto the Cleane all things are Cleane And this Grant of God doth sometimes shew it selfe extraordinarily as in the Obedience of the Crowes to Eliah the Viper to Paul the Lyons to Daniel the Whale to Ionah the Fire to the three Children and the trembling and feare of wilde Beasts towards many of the Martyrs Alwayes Ordinarily in ordering and dispensing the course of Nature so as that Humane Society may be preserved both by power in subduing the Creatures which hee must use and by wisedome in escaping the Creatures which hee doth feare Now for the second Attribute Wisedome there is also a remainder of the Image thereof in Man for albeit the fall and corruption of Nature hath darkned his eyes so that hee is enclined to worke Confusedly or to walk as in a Maze without Method or Order as in a Storme the Guide of a Vessell is oftentimes to seek of his Art and forced to yeeld to the windes and waves yet certaine it is that in the minde of Man there still remaines a Pilot or Light of Nature many Principles of Practicall prudence whereby though for their faintings a man do's often miscarry and walke awry the course of our Actions may be directed with successe and issue unto Civill and Honest ends And this is evident not only by the continuall practise of Grave and Wise men in all States Times and Nations but also by those sundry learned and judicious Precepts which Historians Politicians and Philosophers have by their naturall Reason and Observation framed for the compassing of a Mans just ends and also for Prevention and disappointment of such inconveniences as may hinder them Lastly for the Attribute of Knowledge It was doubtlesse after a most eminent manner at first infused into the Heart of Man when hee was able by Intuition of the Creatures to give unto them all Names according to their severall Properties and Natures and in them to shew himselfe as well a Philosopher as a Lord. Heâ—… filled them sayth Siracides with the Knowledge of Vnderstanding And herein if wee will beleeve Aristotle the Soule is most neerely like unto God whose infinite Delight is the Eternall Knowledge and Contemplation of himselfe and his Works Hereby saith hee the Soule of man is made most Beloved of God and his minde which is Allied unto God is it selfe Divine and of all other parts of Man most Divine And this made the Serpent use that Insinuation only as most likely to prevaile for compassing that Cursed and miserable project of Mans ruine By meanes of which Fall though Man blinded his understanding and â—…obd himselfe of this as of all other blessed habits I meane of those excellent Degrees thereof which he then enjoyed yet still the Desire remaines Vast and impatient and the pursuit so violent that it proves often praejudiciall to the estate both of the Body and Minde So that it is as true now as eyer that Man is by Nature a Curious and inquiring Creature of an Active and restlesse Spirit which is never quiet except in Motion winding it selfe into all the Pathes of Nature and continually traversing the World of Knowledge There are two maine Desires naturally stamped in each Creature a Desire of Perfecting and a Desire of Perpetuating himselfe Of these Aristotle attributeth in the highest degree the latter unto each living Creature when he saith that of all the works of living Creatures the most naturall is to Generate the like and his Reason is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because hereby that Immortality the Principall end as hee there supposeth of all naturall Agents which in their owne Individuals they cannot obtaine they procure by deriving their Nature unto a continued off-spring and succession But though in regard of life it hold true of all Man notwithstanding is to be exempted from the universality of this Assertion And of himselfe that other desire of Perfection which is principally the desire of Knowledge for that is one of the principall advancements of the Soule should not only in a Positive sense as Aristotle hath determined in the Entrance to his Metaphysicks but in a Superlative degree be verified that He is by nature desirous of Knowledge This being the Principall thing to use Aristotle his owne reason whereby Man doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Partake of Divinity as I observed before out of Aristotle himselfe And the reason of the difference betweene Man and other Creatures in this particular is First Because Man hath not such necessary use of that former desire as others have in regard of his owne Immortality which takes away the Necessity of Propagation to sustaine his Nature And secondly because Knowledge the Perfection of the Soule is to Man as I may so speake a kinde of generation being of sufficiencie to exempt the Person endued therewith from all injurie of Time and making him to survive and out-live his owne Mortality So that when the Body hath surrendred unto each Region of the World those Elements and Principles whereof it was compos'd and hath not so much as Dust and Cinders left to testifie that Being which once it had then doth the Name lie wrapped in the Monuments of Knowledge beyond the reach of Fate and Corruption The Attributes of God which are manifested more especially in his Word though sundry yet as farre forth as they had ever any Image in Man may be comprized in this more Generall one of Holinesse Whereby I understand that Absolute and Infinite Goodnesse of his Nature which is in him most Perfect Pure and Eternall Of which though Man according to that measure as it was unto him communicated was in his great Fall utterly rob'd and spoyl'd as not being able in any thing to resemble it or to retaine
any the least Prints of those Pure and Divine Impressions of Originall Righteousnesse yet still there remaines even in depraved and Polluted Nature fome shadowes thereof There is stil the Opus Operatum in many Actions of Mortality though the Obliquity of the Heart and Ignorance of the true end whether it should be directed take away the Goodnesse and the Sanctity thereof The top and highest pitch of Nature toucheth the hemme and lowest of Grace We have in us the Testimonies though not the Goodnesse of our first estate the Ruines of a Temple to be lamented though not the holy Places thereof to be Inhabited It is true indeed those great endowments of the most severe and illightned Heathen were indeed but glorious miseries and withered Vertues in that they proceeded from a depraved Nature and aymed at sinister and false ends yet withall both the corruption of them proves their praecedent losse which also the Heathen themselves espied in their distinction of Ages into Golden and Iron times And likewise the pursuit and practice of them though weak imperfect corrupt imply manifestly that there was much more an Originall Aspiring of Nature in her perfection to be like her Maker in an absolute and universall Purity Now in this Rectitude and Perfect Regularity of the Soule in this divine Habit of Originall Justice did man most eminently beare the Image and Signature of God on him And therefore notwithstanding we continue still Immortall Spirituall Reasonable yet we are said to have defaced that Image in us by our hereditary Pollution And hee alwayes recovereth most thereof who in the greatest measure repaireth the ruines and vindicateth the Lapses of his decayed estate unto that prime Originall Purity wherein he was Created These are the Dignities of the Soule considered wholy in it selfe In all which it farre surmounts the greatest perfections which the Body or any Faculty thereof are endowed withall And yet such is the preposterous and unnaturall basenesse of many men that they are content to make their Soules vassals to their owne Servant How do they force their Understandings which in their owne worthiest objects those deepe and Divine Contemplations are as drowzie as Endymion to spend and waste themselves in proud luxurious vanishing Inventions How doe they enthrall that Supreame and Architectonicall Power in Mans little World his Will to the Tyrannie of slavish appetite and sensuall desires as if they served here but as Cookes to dresse their owne Bodies for the Wormes Strange is it that Man conscious to himselfe of Immortality and of an Heroicall and Heavenly complexion that hath received such immediate Impressions of God and is the very Modell of all Natures Perfections should so much degrade himselfe as to doat only on that part which is the vassall and slave of Death If there were no other mischife which sinne did the Soule but to debase it even that were argument sufficient for noble spirits to have it in detestation For man being in honour and which understandeth not is like the beasts that perish CHAP. XXXVII Of the Faculty of Vnderstanding Its operations outward upon the Object Inward upon the Will Of Knowledge What it is The naturall Desire and Love of it Apprehension Iudgement Retention requisite unto right Knowledge Severall kindes of Knowledge The Originall Knowledge given unto Man in his Creation The Benefits of Knowledge Of Ignorance Naturall Voluntary Penall Of Curiosity Of Opinion the Causes of it Disproportion betweene the Object and the Faculty and an Acute Versatilousnesse of Conceits The benefit of Modest Hesitancie NOw it followes to speak of the parts or principall powers of the Soule which are the Vnderstanding and the Will Concerning the Understanding the Dignity thereof though it may partly be perceived in the Latitude and excellent Variety of its Objects being the whole world of things for Ens Intelligibile are reciprocall omnia intelligit saith Aristotle of the understanding yet principally it proceeds from the Operations of it both Ad extra in respect of the Objects and ad intra in respect of the Will The one is a Contemplative the other a more Practique office whereby the speculations of the former are accommodated unto any either Morall or Civill Actions Those which respect the Objects are either Passive or Active Operations Passive I call those first Perceptions and apprehensions of the Soule whereby it receiveth the simple species of some Object from immediate Impression thereof by the Ministry of the Soule as when I understand one Object to be a Man another a Tree by Administration and Assistance of the Eye which presents the Species of either Another sort of Passive Operations that is of such as are grounded on Impressions received from Objects are mixed Operations of Compounding Dividing Collecting Concluding which wee call Discourse Of all which to speake according to their Logicall Nature would be impertinent Their Excellencie chiefly stands in the End whereunto they move and serve which is Knowledge of the which I shall therefore here speak a few things Knowledge is the Assimilation of the Understanding unto the things which it understandeth by those Intelligible Species which doe Irrâ—…diate it and put the power of it into Act. For as the beames of the Sunne shining on a glasse doe there work the Image of the Sunne so the species and resemblances of things being convayed on the Understanding doe there work their owne Image In which respect the Philosopher saith That the Intellect becommeth All things by being capable of proper impressions from them As in a Painters Table wee call that a face a hand a foot a tree which is the lively Image and Representation of such things unto the eye There is not any Desire more noble nor more Naturall unto a Man who hath not like Saul hid himselfe amongst the stuffe and lost himselfe in the Low and perishing provisions for Lust than is this Desire of Knowledge Nature dictating to every Creature to be more intent upon its Specificall than upon its Genericall perfection And hence it is that though Man be perfectest of all Creatures yet many doe excell him in sensitive Perfection Some in exquisitenesse of Sight others of Hearing others of Tast Touch and Smell others of Swiftnesse and of Strength Nature thereby teaching us to imitate her in perfecting and supplying of our Desires not to terminate them there where when wee have made the best Provision wee can many Beasts will surpasse us but to direct our Diligence most to the improving of our owne specificall and rationall perfection to wit our Understandings Other Faculties are tyred and will be apt to nauseate and surfet on their Objects But Knowledge as knowledge doth never either burden or cloy the Minde no more than a Covetous man is wearied with growing Rich And therefore the Philosopher telleth us that Knowledge is the Rest of the Vnderstanding wherein it taketh delight as a Thing in its naturall Place And so
and Communion with God of the Dominion and Government over the Creatures of the Acquaintance with himselfe and of the Instruction of his Posterity did require Knowledge in him For wee may not think that God who made Man in a perfect stature of Body did give him but an Infant stature of Minde God made all things exceeding Good and Perfect and therefore the perfection naturally belonging unto the Soule of Man was doubtlesse given unto it in its first Creation Hee made Man right and straight and the Rectitude of the Minde is in Knowledge and light and therefore the Apostle telleth us that Our Renovation in Knowledge is after the Image of him that Created us Coloss. 3. 10. Without Knowledge hee could not have given fit Names and suteable to the Natures of all the Creatures which for that purpose were brought unto him Hee could not have awed and governed so various and so strong Creatures to preserve Peace Order and Beauty amongst them Hee could not have given such an account of the substance and Originall of Eve Of the End of her Creation to to be the Mother of all living men as hee did Experimentall Knowledge hee had not but by the Exercise of his Originall light upon particular Objects as they should occurre Knowledge of future Events hee had not it being not Naturall nor Investigable by imbred light but Propheticall and therefore not seene till Revealed Secret Knowledge of the Thoughts of Men or of the Counsells of God hee could not have because secret things belong unto the Lord. But so much light of Divine Knowledge as should fit him to have Communion with God and to serve him and obtaine a blessed life so much of Morall Knowledge as should fit him to converse in Love as a Neighbour in Wisedome as a Father with other men so much of Naturall Knowledge as should dispose him for the Admiring of Gods Glory and for the Governing of other Creatures over which hee had received Dominion so much wee may not without notable injurie to the perfection of Gods Workmanship and to the Beauty and rectitude of our first Parent deny to have beene conferred upon our Nature in him The Benefits of which singular Ornament of Knowledge are exceeding Great Hereby wee recover a largenesse of Heart for which Salomon is commended 1 Reg. 4. 29 Able to dispatch many Businesses to digest and order Multitudes of Motions to have mindes seasoned with generous and noble resolutions for that disposition is by the Philosopher called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greatnesse of Minde Hereby wee are brought to a Just Contempt of sordid and wormie Affections It is Darknesse which makes Men grope and pore and looke onely on the things before them as the Apostle intimates 2 Pet. 1. 9. Illightned mindes see a greater lustre in Knowledge than in the fine Gold Pro. 3. 14. 15. The Excellencie of Evangelicall Knowledge made Saint Paul esteeme every thing in the World besides as Dâ—…ng Phil. 3. 8. As the light of the Sunne swallows up all the petty light of the Starres so the more noble and spacious the Knowledge of Mens mindes is the more doth it dictate unto them the Contempt of those various and vulgar Delights which bewitch the fancies of ignorant Men. It disposeth Men for mutuall Communion and helpfull Societie for without Knowledge every Man is ferae Naturae like Birds of prey that flie alwayes alone Neither is it possible for a man to be sociable or a member of any publick Body any further than hee hath a proportion and measure of Knowledge Since Humane Society standeth in the communicating of mutuall notions unto one another Two men that are Deafe and Dumb and Blinde destitute of all the Faculties of gaining or deriving Knowledge may be together but they cannot be said to have society one with another To conclude hereby we are brought neerer unto God to admire him for his Wisedome and Power to Adore him for his Greatnesse and Majestie to Desire him and work towards the fruition of him for his light and Glory because in the Vision of Him consisteth the Beatitude of Man This Knowledge is corrupted foure manner of wayes First By the Contempt of it in Ignorance Secondly By the Luxuriousnesse and Wantonnesse of it in Curiosity Thirdly By the Defect and uncertainty of it in Opinion Fourthly By Contradiction and Opposition unto it in Error There is a three-fold Ignorance wherewith the Minds of men may be blinded and defaced The one is a Naturall Ignorance which of Divine Things so farre forth as those things are Spirituall is in all men by Nature for the Naturall Man neither Receiveth with Acceptation nor with Demonstration discerneth the things of the Spirit of God And the Reason the Apostle gives because they are spiritually discerned For as the Eye is fitted to discerne light by the Innate property of light and Cognation which it hath thereunto without which the Eye could no more perceive Objects of light than it can of sounds so the Minde cannot otherwise receive spirituall Objects than as it hath a similitude to those Objects in a spirituall disposition it selfe whence that Expression of St. Iohn Wee shall be like unto him for wee shall see him as hee is Spirituall Things doe exceed the weaknesse of Reason because they are above it and so cannot be discerned And they doe oppose the corruption of Reason because they are against it and so cannot be Received There is likewise in many Men much Naturall Ignorance even in Morall and Natural things For as in the Fall of Man our Spirituals were lost so were our Naturals weakned too as wee finde in the Great Dulnesse of many men in matters of learning in so much that some have not beene able to learne the Names of the first Letters or Elements Againe there is a Voluntary Ignorance of which wee have before spoken whereby Men doe wilfully close their Eyes against Knowledge and refuse it and of this there may be a double ground The one Guile in Knowledge that pertaineth to the Conscience when a man chooseth rather not to know his duty than by the Knowledge of it to have his Conscience disquieted with Exprobrations of contemning it The other out of Sluggishnesse and Apprehensions of Difficulty in the Obtaining of Knowledge When of two Evils Undergoing of labour or forfeiting of Learning a man esteemeth this the lesser Thirdly there is a Poenall Ignorance of which I shall not speake because it differeth not from the Voluntary Ignorance of Spirituall things save onely in the relation that it hath to the Justice of God thereby provoked who sometimes leaveth such men to their Blindnesse that the thing which with respect to their owne choyce of it is a pleasure with respect unto Gods Justice may be a plague and punishment unto them Thus the Intellectual Faculty is corrupted in many men by Ignorance In others it is abused by Curiosity which may well
his owne judgement with contempt or neglect of others But I consider a double Estate of the Learned Inchoation and Progresse And though in this latter there be requisite a Discerning Iudgment and Liberty of Dissent yet for the other Aristotl's speech is true Oportet discentem credere Beginners must beleeve For as in the Generation of man hee receiveth his first life and nourishment from one Wombe and after takes onely those things which are by the Nurse or Mother given to him but when he is growne unto strength and yeares hee then receiveth nourishment not from Milke onely but from all variety of meats and with the freedome of his own choise or dislike so in the generation of Knowledge the first knitting of the Ioynts and Members of it into one Body is best effected by the Authority and Learning of some able Teacher though even of his Tutors Gate being a childe was wont to require a reason but being growne thereby to some stature and maturity not to give it the Liberty of its owne Iudgement were to confine it still to its Nurse or Cradle I speake not this therefore to the dishonour of Aristotle or any other stom whose Learning much of ours as from Fountaines hath bin derived Antiquity is ever venerable and justly challengeth Honour Reverence and Admiration And I shall ever acknowledge the worthy commendation which hath been given Aristotle by a learned man that he hath almost discovered more of Natures Mysteries in the whole Body of Philosophy than the whole Series of Ages fince hath in any particular member thereof And therefore he and all the rest of those worthy Founders of Learning do well deserve some credit as well to their authority as to their matter But yetnotwithstanding there is difference betweene Reverence and Superstition we may Assent unto them as Antients but not as Oracles they may have our minds easie and inclinable they may not have them captivated and fettered to their Opinions As I will not distrust all which without manifest proof they deliver where I cannot convince them of Errour So likewise will I suspend my beleefe upon probability of their mistakes and where I finde expresse Reason of Dissenting I will â—…ather speake Truth with my Mistresse Nature than maintaine an Errour with my Master Aristotle As there may be Friendship so there may be Honour with diversity of Opinions nor are wee bound therfore to defie men because we reverence them Plura sâ—…pe peccantur dum demeremur quam dum off endimus Wee wrong our Auncestors more by admiring than opposing them in their Errours and our Opinion of them is foule and without Honour if we thinke they had rather have us followers of them then of Truth And we may in this case justly answer them as the young man in Plutarch did his Father when he commanded him to do an unjust thing I wil do that which you would have me though not that which you bid mee For good men are ever willing to have Truth preferred above them Aristotle his Commendation of his middle Aged men should be a rule of our Assent to him and all the rest of those first Planters of Knowledge Wee ought neither to overprize all their Writings by an absolute Credulity because they being Men and subject to Errour may make us thereby liable to Delusion neither ought we rudely to undervalue them because being Great men and so well deserving of all Posterity they may challenge from us an Easines of Assent unto their Authority alone if it bee only without and not against Reason as Tâ—…lly professed in a matter so agreeable to the Nature of Mans Soule as Immortality Vt rationâ—…m nullam Plato afferret ipsa Authoritate me frangeret Though Plato had given no reason for it yet his Authority should have swayed Assent I say not slavish but with reservation and with a purpose a lâ—…vaies to be swayed by Truth more than by the thousand yeares of Plato and Aristotle 4 Another Cause of Errour may be a Fastning too great an Affection on some particular Objects which maketh the Minde conceive in them some Excellencies which Nature never bestowed on them As if Truth wâ—…re the hand-maid to Passion or Camelion like could alter it selfe to the temper of our defires Every thing must be Vnquestionable and Authenticall when wee have once affected it And from this Root it is probable did spring those various Opinions about the utmost Good of mans Nature which amounted to the number of two hundred eighty eight â—…s â—…as long ago observed by Varro which could not â—…ut be out of every particular Philosophers con â—…ipt carrying him to the Approbation of some particular Object most pleasing and satisfactory to the Corruption of his owne crooked Nature so that every man sought Happinesse not where it was to be found but in himselfe measuring it by the Rule of his owne distempered and intangled Iudgement whence could not possibly but issue many monstrous Errours according as the Minds of men were any way transported with the false Delight either of Pleasure Profit Pompe Promotion Fame Liberty or any other worldly and sensuall Objects In which particular of theirs I observe a preposterous and unnaturall course like that of the Atheist in his Opinion of the Soule and Deity For whereas in Nature and right Method the Determinations of the Vnderstanding concerning Happines should precede the pursuit of the Will they on the contrary side first love their Errour and then they prove it as the Affection of an Atheist leads him first to a Desire and wish that there were no God because â—…e conceiveth it would goe farre better with him in the end than otherwise it is like to doe and then this Desire allures the Vnderstanding to dictate Reasons and Inducements that may persuade to the Beleefe thereof and so what was at first but a wish is at last become an Opinion Quâ—…d nimis volumus facile credimuâ—… we easily beleeve what we will willingly desire And the reason is because every man though by Nature he love Sinne yet he is altogether impatient of any checke or conviction thereof either from others or himselfe and therefore be his Errours never so palpable his Affections never so distempered his Minde never so depraved and averse from the Rules of Reason he will notwithstanding easily persuade himselfe to thinke he is in the right course and make his Iudgement as absurd in defending as his Will and Affections are in embracing vitious Suggestions Viti a nostra quia amamus defendimus When once our Minds are by the violence and insinuation of Affection transported into any crooked course Reason will freely resigne it selfe to bee perverted and the discourse of the Vnderstanding will quickely bee drawne to the maintaining of either So easie it is for men to dispute when they have once made themselves obey And another reason hereof is because as a Body distempered and affected in
any part especially those vitall ones which diffuse their vertue into the whole the Weaknesse spreads and over-runnes all the other though remotest from it So likewise the violent motion of partiall and unruly Appetites which do any waies miscarry by the delusion of Objects which they fasten upon immediately derive themselves upon the higher paâ—…s of mans Soule out of the naturall Harmony consent which they desire to have amongst themselves but especially doe they labour to winne over the Iudgement unto their side and there hence to get unto themselves Warrant and Approbation For as where the Vnderstanding is regular the chiefe Dominion thereof is over-Affection And therefore we see alwaies that men of the most stayed and even Iudgements have the most unresisted power in the government of Passions So on the other side when the Affections are strongly enclined to any either enormous motion in Morality or Object in Nature the first Faculty whereon they strive to transferre their prejudice in the Reason since without the Assent and Approbation thereof they cannot enjoy it with such freedome from distractions and feare as if they were warranted thereto by the Sophistry and Disputes of that Power Thus as it is usuall with men of deceitfull palates as before I touched to conceive in every thing they taste the same disagreeing rellish wherewith their mouth is at that time distempered So it is with mens Minds prepossessed with any particular fancy Intus Existens prohibet alienum They cannot see it in its own proper colours but according as their Conceipts are any way distempered and transported by the violence of their Affection And hence in Naturall Philosophy sprang that Opinion of Aristoxenus the Musitian which I spake of before that the Soule of Man consisted in Harmony and in an apt Concord Velut in Cantu Fidibiu between the parts and Tully intimates the reason I speake of very prettily Hic ab artificio suo non recessit this man knew not how to leave his owne Art more expresly of the same in another place Ita delactatur suis Cantibus ut etiam ad animum transferre conâ—…tur Hee was so affected with Musicke that he transferred it upon the Soule 5 Another reason which I conceive of Corruption of the Vnderstanding by Errour is Curiosity and Pushing it forward to the Search of things clasped up and reserved from its Inquiry T is the naturall disease of Mankinde to desire the Knowledge of nothing more than what is lest attainable It a Naturâ comparatum est saith Pliny ut proximorum incuriosi Longinqua sectemur adeo ani 〈◊〉 rerum Cupidâ—… Languescit cum fâ—…ili occasio est It is the vanity of man as well in Knowledge as in other things â—…o esteeme that which is far fetched as we say and deare bought most pretious as if Danger and Râ—…rity were the only Argument of worth The enquiry after the Estates of Spiriâ—… and separated Soules the Hierarchies of Angels and which is more the secret Counsels of God with other the like hidden Mysteries doe so wholly possesse the Minds of some men that they disappoint themselves of more profitable Inquiries and so become not onely hurtfull in regard of their owne vanity and fruitlesnesse but also in that they hinder more wholsome and usefull Learnings And yet Ignorance is of so opposite a nature unto mans Soule that though it be Holy it pleaseth not if there be but Evill the worst of all Objects unknowne The Devill persuades Adam rather to make it by sinning than not to know it But wee are to remember that in many things our searchings and bold speculations must be content with those Silencing more than Satisfying Reasons Sic Natura jubet sic opus est mundâ—… Thus God will have it thus Nature requires We owe unto Natures workes aâ—… well our wonder as our inquiry and in many things it beâ—…ooves us more to magnifie than to search There are as in the countries of the World so in the Travels of mens wits as well Praecipitia as Via as well Gulfes and Quicksands as common Seas Hee that will be climing too high or sayling to farre is likely in the end to gaine no other Knowledge but only what it is to have a shipwrack and to suffer ruine Man is of a mixed Nature partly Heavenly partly Morall and Earthly and therefore as to be of a creeping and wormy disposition to crawle on the ground to raise the Scule unto no higher Contemplations than Base and Worldly is an Argument of a degenerous Nature So to spurne and disdaine these Lower Inquiries as unworthy our thoughts To soare after Inscrutable Secrets to unlocke and breake open the closet of Nature and to measure by our shallow apprehensions the deep and impenetrable Counsels of Heaven which we should with a holy fearfull and astonished Ignorance onely adore is too bold and arrogant sacriledge and hath much of that Pride in it by which the Angels fell For Ero similis Altissimo I will be like the most high was as iâ—… beleeved the Devils first sinne and Eriti tanquam Dij ye shall be like unto God was I am sure his first Temptation justly punished both in the Author and Obey or with Darknesse in the one with the Darknesse of Tophet in the other with the Darknesse of Errour CHAP. XXXIX The Actions of the Vnderstanding Invention Wit Iudgement of Invention Distrust Prejudice Immaturity of Tradition by Speech Writing of the Dignities and Corruption of Speech HItherto of the more Passive Operation of the Vnderstanding which I called Reception or Knowledge of Objects Now follow the more active which consist more in the Action of Reason than in its Apprehension And they are the Actions of Invention of Wit and of Iudgment The former of these hath two principall parts the Discovering of Truth and the Communicating of it The former only is properly Invention the other a Consequent thereof Tradition but both much making to the honour of the Faculty For the former I shall forbeare any large discourse touching the particular Dignities thereof as being a thing so manifestly seen in Contemplations Practises dispatches in the maintaining of Societies erecting of Lawes government of Life and generally whatsoever enterprize a man fastens upon this one Faculty it is that hath been the Mother of so many Arts so great Beauty and Ornament amongst men which out of one world of things have raised another of Learning The Corruptions then which I conceive of this part of Invention are First a Despaire and Distrust of a mans owne Abilities For as Corruption and Selfe Opinion is a maine Cause of Errour so Dissidence and Feare is on the other side a wrong to Nature in abusing those Faculties which she gave for enquiry with Sloath and Dulnes Multis rebus inest Magnitudo saith Seneca non ex naturâ suâ sed ex debilitate nostrâ and so likewise Multie rebus inest difficultas non ex natura sua sed
nature of it but a Fulnesse of Perpetuity in the Continuance Most perfect in proportion in the Spirituality most infinite in proportion to the Immortality of mans Soule The Frailty and Languishing of any Good and a Foresight of the losse thereof with the ablest Miâ—…ds doth much weaken the Desire of it And the reason is because Providence and Forecast is a certaine companion of the humane Nature and he which is most a man is most carefull to contrive the advancement of his Future Estate It is beastiall to fasten only upon Present Good this being a maine difference between the Vnderstanding and the Sensuall Appetite that this respecteth only the present Ioy that is at hand but that being secretly conscious of its owne Immortality fastens it selfe upon the remotest times yea outrunnes all time and suffers it selfe to bee ever swallowed up with the Meditation and Providence of an Endlesse Happinesse And therefore the reason that Aristotle brings against his Masters Ideas argues an Vnderstanding lesse Divine in this particular than Plato's was when hee saith that Eternity doth no more perfect the Nature of Good than Continuance doth the Nature of White For though it be true that it is not any Essentiall part of Goodnesse in it selfe yet it is a necessary and principall condition to make Goodnesse Happines that is an Adequate Obiect to mans Desires there is not then the same proportion between Eternity and Good as there is between Continuance and White For Continuance is altogether Extrinsicall and Irrelative in respect of White but the Happinesse of man hath an Intrinsicall Connection with Immortality because mans Vtmost and Adequate Good must be proportioned to the Nature of his Minde for that is no perfect Good that doth not every way replennish and leave nothing behind it that may be desired So that man himselfe being Endlesse can have none End able to limit his desires but an Infinite and Immortall Good which hee may enjoy without any anxiety for After-Provision I dare say there is not an A theist in the world who hath in his Life be-beasted himselfe by setting his Desires onely on Transitory and Perishable goods that would not on his death-bed count it the best bargain he ever made to change Souls with one of those whose Diligence in providing for a Future Happinesse hee hath often in his beastly Sensuality impiously derided Now of these two Directions of the Vnderstanding to the Will in desiring the End or Means the Corruption is for the most part more grosse and palpable in Assistance to the Means than in the Discovery of the End and farre oftner fayles the Will herein than in proposing an Object to fix its Desires upon For we may continually observe how a world of men agree all in opinions and wishes about the same Supreme and Immortall Happinesse the Beatificall Vision Every Balaam fastens on that and yet their means unto it are so jarring and opposite that a looker on would conceive it impossible that there should be any Agreement in an End where is such notable Discord in the wayes to it The reason which I conceive of this difference is the severall Proportion which the true End and the true Means thereunto beare unto the Will of man For it is observable that there is but one Generall Hinderance or Errour about the right End namely the Ignorance thereof For being once truly delivered to the Vnderstanding it carries such a proportion to the nature of the Will being a most perfect fulfilling of all its wishes that it is impossible not to desire it but the disproportion betweene man and the right means of a true End is farre Greater For there is not only Errour in the Speculation of them but reluctance in other practique Faculties proceeding from their generall Corruption in this Estate and nayling the Affection on the present Delight of Sensuall Objects First for the Vnderstanding I observe therein a double Hinderance concerning these Means Ignorance and Weaknesse the one respects the Examination of them the other their Presentation or Inforcement upon the Wil. For the former of these there seemes to bee an equall difficulty between the End and the Means as proceeding in both from the same Root But in this very convenience there is a great difference for the Ignorance of the End is farre more preventable considering the Helps we have to know it than of the Means Not but that there are as powerfull Directions for the Knowledge of the Means as of the End but because they are in their Number many and in their Nature repugnant to mans Corrupt Minds There is therfore more Wearinesse and by consequence more Difficulty in the Inquiry after them than after the End because that is in it selfe but One and besides beares with it under the generall Notion of Happinesse such an absolute Conformity to mans Nature as admits of no Refusall or Opposition Insomuch that many that know Heaven to be the End of their Desires know yet scarse one foot of the way thither Now besides this Ignorance when the Knowledge of the means is gotten there are many prejudices to be expected before a free Exercise of them For as Aristotle observes amongst all the Conditions required to Morall Practise Knowledge hath the least sway It hath the lowest place in Vertue though the highest in Learning There is secondly in the Vnderstanding Weaknesse whereby it oftentimes connives at the Irregular Motion of the Will with drawes it from Examining with a piercing and fixed Eye with an Impartiall and Bribelesse Iudgement with Efficacy and weight of Meditation the severall Passages of all our Actions with all the present and consequent Inconveniences of crooked courses It were a vaste labour to runne over all the Oppositions which vertuous means leading to an Happy End doe alwayes finde in the severall Faculties of man how the Will it selfe is stubborne and froward the Passions Rebellious and Impatient of Suppression the Senses and Sensitive Appetite thwart and wayward creeping alwayes like those under-Coelestiall Orbes into another motion quite contrary to that which the Primum Mobile Illightened Reason should conferre upon them Sufficient it is that there is a Disproportion between the means of Happinesse and the generall Nature of Corrupt man For all Goodnesse is necessarily adjoyned with Rectitude and Streightnesse in that it is a Rule to direct our Life and therefore a Good man is called an Vpright man one that is every where Even and Strait To which Aristotle perhaps had one Eye when hee called his Happyman a Foure-square man which is every where smooth stable and like himselfe But now on the other side mans Nature in this Estate of Corruption is a Distorted and Crooked Nature and therfore altogether unconformable to the Goodnesse which should as a Cannon direct it to the true and principall End it aymeth at And this is the reason why so many men are Impatient of the close and narrow passage of
Honesty For crooked and reeling Movers necessarily require more Liberty of way more broad courses to exerise themselves in as wee see in naturall Bodies a crooked thing will not bee held within so narrow bounds as that which is strait CHAP. XLI Of the Conscience its Offices of Direction Conviction Comfort Watchfulnesse Memory Impartiality Of Consciences Ignorant Superstitious Licentious Sleeping Frightfull Tempestuous THere remaines yet one higher and diviner Act of the Practicall Vnderstanding of most absolute power in man and that is Conscience Which is not any distinct Faculty of the Soule but onely a Compounded Act of Reason consisting in Argumentation or a practique Syllogisme inferring alwaies some Applicative and Personall Conclusion Accusing or Excusing The Dignities whereof are to bee gathered from the Offices of it and from the Properties of it The maine Offices are three Direction Conviction Consolation whereof the two last alwayes presuppose the first with a contrary Qualification of Breach and Observance The Direction of Conscience consists in a Simple Discourse or as I may so speake in a Direct Ray of Vnderstanding gathering Morall or Divine Conclusions from a presupposed habit of Principles either from the reliques of our Originall Knowledge naturally imprest or by concurrence of Religion and Theologicall Precepts spiritually iuspired into the Practique Iudgement or hearts of men The observance of which Conclusions it imposeth upon all those Executive Powers which each particular Conclusion doth most immediately concerne upon paine of hazarding our owne Inward Peace with that sweet repose and security of Minde which followes it and also as the Heathenâ—… themselves have observed upon feare of iâ—…curring the displeasure of that God concerning whom the very light of Nature hath revealed thus much that as his Penetrating and Sâ—…arching Eye is able to read our most retyred Thoughts so his impartiall and unpreventable Iustice hath thunder and fire in store for the Rebellions against this Faculty which he hath made to be as it were his Officer and Herauld in all mens hearts The two latter of those Offices consist in a Reflection of that former discourse upon mens Actions and according as is discovered in them either an observance or neglect of those imposed Duties the heate of that Reflection is either Comfortable or Scorching Now of these two that of Conviction is nothing else but a performance of that Equivocall killing promise made by the Serpent to our seduced Parents I meane an Opening of their Eyes to know with desperate Sorrow the Good they had irrecoverably foregone and with feare shame and horrour the Evill which they plunged themselves and their whole posterity into This one Act it is which hath so often confuted that Opinion of Aristotlâ—… touching Death that it is of all things most Terrible in that it hath it pursued many so farre as that it hath forced them to leap out of them selve and to preferre the Terrour of Death and Darknesse of the Grave before the grisly Face of a Convicting Conscience The chiefe Dignity hereof consisteth in Consolation whereby it diffuseth into the whole man from a secret assurance of divine favour for nothing can throughly calme the Conscience but 〈◊〉 a sweet Tranquillity silent Peace setled Stayednesse and which is highest of all a ravishing Contemplation and as it were Pre-fruition of Blisse and Immortality The propâ—…rties of the Conscience whereby I understand the Ministeries which it never fayles to execute in man are as I conceive principally three Watchfulnesse Memory Impartiality It keeps alwaies Centinâ—…ll in a mans Souleâ—…and like a Register records all our good and ill actions Though the Darknesse of the Night may hide us from others and the Darknesse of the Mind seem to hide us from our selves yet still hath Conscience an Eye to looke in secret on whatsoever weâ—… doe whether in regard of Ignorance or Hardnesse Though in many men it sleep in regard of Motion yet it never sleeps in regard of Observation and Notice it may be Hard and Seared it can never be Blind That writing in it which seemes Invisible and Illegible like letters written with the juice of Lemmon when it is brought to the fire of Gods Iudgement will be most cleere And for the next if we observe it there is nothing so much fastened in the Memory as that which Conscience writes all her Censures are written with Indelible Charactâ—…rs never to be blotted out All or most of our Knowledge forsakes us in our Deaths Wit Acutenesse variety of Language habits of Sciences our Arts Policies Inventions all have their period and fate onely those things which Conscience imprinteth shall be so far from finding any thing in death to obliterate raze them out that they shall be thereby much more manifest whether they be impressions of Peace or Horrour The Testimoniâ—…s of Comfort if true are fastened in the Heart with such an Hand as will never suffer them finally to bee taken out and if they be Accusatory and Condemning the Heart is so Hard and they so Deep that there is no way to get them out but by breaking or mâ—…lting the Table they are written in that only course can be taken to make Conscience forget Then thirdly it is a most Bribelesse Worker it never knows how to make a false report of any of our wâ—…yes It is if I may so speake Gods Historion that writes not Annals but Iournals the Words Deeds Cogitations of Houres and Moments never was there so absolute a Compiler of Lives as Conscience It never comes with any prejudice or acceptation of persons but dares speake truth as well of a Monarch as of a Slave Nero the Emperour shall feele as great a fire burning in his breast as he dare wrap the poore Christians in to light him to his Lust. There is scarse one part in man but may be seduced save his Conscience Sense oftentimes conceives things which are not Appetite and Imagination can transport the Will and themselves both may be drawne by perswasion contrary to their owne propensions this onely deales faithfully with him whose witnesse it is though it bee to the confusion of it selfe and him in whom it lodgeth It may I know erre sometimes and mistake but it can never by any Insinuation be bribed to contradict its owne Iudgement and register White for Blacke The Corruption of Conscience arises principally from two Extremes the one occasioned by Ignorance the other by Sinne for I oppose these two here as concurring to the Corruption of Conscience after a different manner The oâ—…e is when the want of due Knowledge drawes the Conscience to sinister determinations either in Practise or Forbearance The other when evill Habits and Actions defile the Conscience Now both these containe under them sundry Degrees of Corruption From Ignorance First comes a â—…ettered and Restrained Conscience fearfully binding it selfe to some particular Acts without sufficient grounds Next a Licentious and Indulging Conscience giving Freedome to it's selfe in such course
Will hath no Dominion Absolute and Soveraigne over those Apprehensions of the Vnderstanding which depend on necessary and demonstrative Principles It can require it not to discourse about such Objects and divert it but it cannot make it assent unto them contrary to the Evidence of Truth demonstrated Briefly then the Dominion of the Will is partly Mandatory and partly Perswasive The one is Absolute working on meere Passive and Obedient Faculties the other more Conditionall and upon Supposition of Regularity or Subjection in the Inferior Powers For the Will hath both an Oeconomicall Government in respect of the Body and the Moving Organs thereof as over Servants and it hath a Politique or Civill Government towards the Vnderstanding Affections and Sensitive Appetite as Subjects with which by reason of their often Rebellions it hapneth to have sundry conflicts and troubles as Princes from their seditiouâ—… and rebellious Subjects So that the Corruption of this Power in the Will is either Tyranny in it selfe or Vsurpation in another an Abuse of it and a Restraint of it The Abuse when the Will absolutely gainsayes the Counsels Lawes and Directions of the Vnderstanding which is wrought by the Allection Inticing Insinuation of the Sensitive Appetite secretly winning over the Will to the Approbation of those courses which are most delightfull to sense for since the Fall the sweet Harmony and Subordination of Sense to Reason and of Reason to God is broken and the highest Faculties of the Soule become themselves Sensuall and Carnall And the Restraint when the Will is desirous to obey the Dictates of Reason or of Grace and Lust by her tyranny overbeares the Soule and leads it captive to the Law of Sinne so that a man cannot do the things which he would As a Bird whose wings are besmeared and intangled with some viscous slime though hee offer to flye yet falleth downe againe Now touching the Corruption of the Will in regard of Desire Liberty and Dominion there have been heretofore some who ascribed them to Naturall and Divine Causes and so make the Will to be corrupted only ab Extrinseco and that Necessarily The Stoicks they framed a supreme swaying Power inevitably binding it as all other Agents to such particular Actions by an eternall secret connexion flux of causes which they call Fate Astrologers understanding by Fate nothing but the Vniforme and Vnchaâ—…gable working of those beautifull Bodies the Heavenly Orbes and their Influencies upon Inferiours annexed unto them a Binding Power Necessarily though Secretly over-ruling the Practises of men Inquire the reason why one man lives conformably to the Law of God and Nature another breakes out into Exorbitant courses Anne aliud quà m 〈◊〉 occulti miranda potentia Fati What is it else but Stars Malignity And wondrous power of secret Destiny It is not to be denyed but that the Heavens having strong and powerfull Operations on all Sublunary Corporall Substances may in altering the humours of the Body have by the mediation thereof some kind of Influence if it may bee so called upon the manners but to ascribe unto them any Dominion is as much repugnant to Philosophy as it is to Piety For by Binding the Actions of mans Will to such a Law of Destiny and making them inevitably to depend upon Planets Houses Constellations Conjunctions c. Wee doe not onely impiously take away the Guilt of Sinne in that we make all mens Lapses to be wrought without free Principle in himselfe and so dâ—…rogate from the Iustice of God in punishing that whereunto wee were by other of his Creatures unavoydably determined nor onely rob God of his Mercy in Ascribing those vertuous dispositions of the Mind which are his immediate Breathings into man unto the Happy Aspect of the Heavens but withall wee deny to the Soule both Naturall Motion and Spirituality Naturall Motion first since that alwaies flowes from an Inward Principle that is Essentiall to the Mover which in the Will must needs be free and voluntary and not from violence or impression made by some Extrinsicall Worker And then Spirituality likewise since the Heavens being Corporall Agents can therefore extend the Dominion of their Influence no farther than over Bodily Substances Others there have been yet more Impious which seeke to fasten all the Corruptions of their Wils on somthing above the Heavens even the Eternall Foreknowledge and the Providence of God As if my Foreknowledge that on the morrow the Sunne will rise or that such men as these shall one day be brought to a severe Doom were the Cause working Necessity of the next Day or the last Iudgement It is true indeed Gods Prescience imployes a Necessity of our working after that manner as he foreknowes but this is Necessitas onely Infallibilitatis in regard of his Vndeceivable Knowledge which ever foresees things as they will certainly come to passe by the free or naturall workings of the Agents whence they proceed It is not Necessitas Coactionis or Determinationis whereby the Will of man is without any other disposition or propension in it selfe inforced or unspontaneously determined to the producing of such Effects The Actions of our Will are not therefore necessarily executed because they were foreknowne but therefore they were foreknowne because our Will would certainly execute them though not without Freedome and Election And for Providence notwithstanding there be Providentia Permissiva whereby God hath determined to suffer and permit men to sinne and moreover a Disposing Providence in Ordering all things in the World unto his owne Glorious Ends yet we may not presume to think that God doth determine or actuate impell and overrule the wils of men to Evill It is true indeed that nothing is done which God in all respects dothwill shall not be done with the secret Will of his good pleasure for who can withstand his Will and that his purposes are advanced by all the operations of the Creature but yet hee doth not so worke his Will out of mens as thereby to constraine and take away their 's for indeed the constraint of a liberall and free Faculty is as it were the extinction thereof This were an Argument of Weaknesse as if hee were not able to bring his owne Ends about but by chaining and 〈◊〉 his Oppugners from exercising the Freedome which he first gave them nor doe his owne Will but by taking away his owne Gifts But herein is rather magnified the Power of his Providence and the great Wisedome of his Power that notwithstanding every man worketh according to the inclination of his owne heart and that even Rebelliously against him yet out of so many different so repugnant so contrary intents hee is able to raise his owne Glory the End whether we will or no of all our Actions and even when his Will is most resisted most powerfull to fulfill it For as sundry times Gods Revealed Will is broken even by those whose