stands at a stay Increasing or decreasing in Health Strength Wealth and subject to many casualties and misfortunes as well from our selves as others Nothing better than a contented mind GOD has but one Son without Sin but none without Affliction Cast thy care on him and trust in him for Worldly Sorrow causeth Death 'T is but thy mistake and over-weenedness to thy self to think thy misfortunes the greatest Consider how many thousands want what thou hast Compare conditions with thy Inferiours as well as Superiours Be thankful for what thou hast remember thou deservest nothing good at all at Gods hand It may be it would be worse with thee wer 't thou in better condition Shall a living Man complain The wise disposer of all things knows what 's best for thee be therefore content Comfort in sickness What canst thou then complain of Art thou sickly Remember the Flesh Rebels against the Spirit and that which hurts the one must needs help the other and 't is for the good of thy Soul 'T will put thee in mind of Death and Judgement and bring thee out of thy self wean thee from the World and bring thee nearer to God Against Losses Hast thou Losses Covet not Wealth and Honour overmuch which rightly considered puff Men up with Pride Insolency Lust Ambition Cares Fears Suspition Trouble Anger Emulation Envy all Diseases both of Body and Mind Damning indeed more Souls than all the Devils in Hell being the in-let of all manner of Sin and Vice High-place macerateth a Man with fears of Death Perils Degradations Treasons Treacheries c. 'T is Lubrica statio proxima praecipitio Shrubs are more secure from storms than lofty Oaks and Cedars There is much more happiness in a meaner State For Riches are the Devils hooks by which he catches Men And as the Moon is fullest of light when farthest from the Sun that gives her that light So the more Wealth a Man has the farther commonly he is from GOD. Riches consist not in the multitude of Gold and Silver but in the use of it and a contented mind For a Man cannot be said to have more then he makes use of though he has never so much by him He is Rich that has bread to eat and a Potent Man that is not compelled to be a Slave If Fortune take away other means it should not take away our Minds Le ts defie her therefore and come what will come Bona mens nullum tristioris Fortunae recipit incursum If it can be amended do it if not make the best of a bad Market but either way let it not trouble thee Against Imprisonment and Banishment Art Imprisoned Be not troubled we are all Prisoners in this Island Nay the whole World is a Prison Thy Soul is imprisoned in thy Body How many take delight to Navigate and is a Ship any thing but a Prison Nay a Prison may be in some cases desired How many worthy Men have been Imprisoned all their Lives to the publick good and their great Honour Art Banish'd What then Patria est ubicunque bene est That 's a Man's Countrey where he can live at ease 'T is a Childish humour to long after thine own Chimney Corner many would think it a Banishment to be sent to their Home How many Travel for pleasure and it may be to that very place whither thou art Banisht Friends are every where to him that behaves himself well mll places are alike distant from Heaven and GOD is as well in one place a another So to a Wise anm there is no difference of places Against Death of Friends Hast thou a Friend Dead Grieve not as without hope thou must go to him Since he is taken from this miserable World thou hast more Reason to rejoyce than mourn Is it a Wife Thou mayst haply find another as good or make her so therefore never despair Or now thou art at Liberty keep thy self so never be in Love with thy Fetters though of Gold many a Man would have been rid of his willingly before thou wast bound 'T was a pretty Child indeed but who knew whether he would be an honest man or a knave we should rather rejoyce for such as Dye well All things must have an End Houses Castles Cities Families Provinces and Kingdomes have but their times of living only longer than we they have their times of Flourishing Decaying and Periods How many Cities doe we read of famous in former times that are now scarce villages Niniveh that great City is Destroyed and so is Jerusalem That Glorious Temple what 's become of it Mycenae was the Fairest City in Greece Jam Seges est ubi Troja fuit And Babylon hath nothing remaining but Rubbish and Pieces of Walls and yet was once the greatest City in the World Nay we have Liv'd to see the Death of our own ancient and chiefest City London and its interment in Ashes Greece of old was the nursery of Sciences the seat of civility and Humanity now a Den of Thieves and over-run with Barbarism Italy in the time of the Romans was Lady of the World Rome the Queen of Cities now Divided by many petty Princes and the Empire translated to Germany of old time uncultivated and rude Epirus a goodly Province in time past now left desolate of good towns and almost Inhabitants Seventy Citys overthrown by Paulus Aemilius Sixty two Cities in Macedonia in Strabo's time Thirty in Laconia that now are hardly villages All the Cities in Peloponesus so Delicately built and adorned Destroyed where are those 4000 Cities of Aegypt those 100. Cities in Crete Are they now come to two in old Italy there were 1166. Cities and now Leander Albertus can find but 300. and nothing near so populous as in the time of Augustus They mustred 70 Legions in former time which now the known World will scarce yield Nay the world it self must have an end How is it that we are so troubled then at the Death of one another when we are less Durable This is also our foly and great weakness Art Slighted undervalued and Contemned This I confess would move some tempers but to a stayd wise Man 't is nothing For he will counterpoize them with their contraries or make them familiar to him that they Against Contempt and slights may be the less grievous or on mature deliberation avoid or remove the cause An Old Souldier in the World me-thinks should not be troubled come what will come but ready to receive and stand the brunt of all Encounters especially since Faber quisque est Fortunae suae nemo Laeditur nisi à seipso In some kind Prosperity and Adversity are in our hands and every mans mind is stronger than Fortune and leads him to what side he will Our Fortunes Friends Enjoyments Wife Children Parents c. ebb and flow with our Conceits of them Please or displease as we construe apprehend and apply them to
must needs be driven to acknowledge a supreme hand and a GOD the first moving cause For all actions and mutations in the World are performed by motion which motion being traced through its causes will bring us to an eternal Being and the acknowledgment of a GOD as being the first mover and consequently that he 's Eternal whence 't is easie to prove the rest of his Attributes Causes of Atheism I shan't dispute with such as maintain there is no real Atheist denying GOD in the heart Since this wicked Age wherein we live doth sadly evince to us the contrary But this I shall affirm that hardly any Sect or Opinion in Religion is approved by any but the professors thereof as if they had no m Nulla firmior amicitia quám quae contrabitur hinc nulla Discordia major quám quae a Religione fit Montanus in Micah Charity presently account them Atheists which may be put as another cause of Atheism For none more like to be Atheists than such as place their Religion in this or that Opinion especially if they reflect on the Antipathy each have to other and consider seriously how all confidently conclude themselves in the Right backing their Tenets with Scripture Authority and Reason and that most things they hold as Truths to be but dubious at best unless he be a resolute Person not doubting at all in his Opinion and Sect. But if he waver and be doubtful changing from one Sect to another have taken exceptions at the defects of most 't is a wonder if he fall not out with all and fix on Atheism at last and despise all Religion as a cheat or policy to keep Men in good Order Another cause of Atheism may be Peace and Plenty in a time when Learning flourishes For Prosperity has damn'd more Souls than all the Devils in Hell It makes Men cast off fear of GOD and Man entangles Mens minds in Vanity blinds them in their pleasures and overwhelms them in Sin For whilst we thrive in the World we are apt to turn our backs on Heaven whereas Poverty and afflictions are the dispensations of Providence and the blessings of the Almighty to fit Sinners for Repentance inclining our minds more to true Devotion for the afflicted have God for the most part in their minds and mouthes An Habit of Scoffing and deriding the Scriptures may be another cause This Vain Idle and Phantastical Pityful Childish humour of Jesting proceeds which this Age so Super-abounds with among such as call themselves Gentlemen from Pride and Ostentation For they being generally Men of weak Judgments and unfit for matters of Substance and Solidity as being above their apprehension they immediately with a disdainful Jest scorn what they are uncapable of or proceeds from any that attempt noble things Wit may lawfully be used GOD having given nothing to us in vain but great care ought to be had it be not abused especially in jesting with Holy things for thereby they make a mock of Sin trifle with the wrath of GOD and play like Fools with Hell-fire whither without Repentance they are posting This way of fooling is beneath a Gentleman for it Hebetates the Reason and renders him empty flashy and Phantastical Another cause may be the Clergy live scandalously which is a great eye-sore and a main cause what can be more unseemly than to see such as should lead men to Heaven walk themselves as if there were no Hell That should be Instructers of others in Sobriety Humility and all Piety live loosely proudly in all Riot and Excess Drinking Whoring Lying Swearing Pride and Covetousness are odious in every one but especially in those that should teach otherwise are they aggravated Such are a dishonour to their Coat the scandal of the Church and an occasion of the Enemies Blaspheming Who will believe those are sins as they exclaim in the Pulpit if they themselves all the week after walk in them with delight A Gentleman though he shou'd with much indignation abominate such vile practices and if in power endeavour to suppress them yet shou'd not be so narrow spirited as therefore to neglect the Ordinances of GOD since the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Religion Commands the very Apostles themselves to hear the Scribes and Pharisees those whom he calls so often Hypocrites and against whom he pronounces so many woes only with this Restriction That they do not as they do However their Doctrine was good and therefore enjoyned To do as they say A Minister that has a Lawful Call ought rather to be reprehended than slighted He may be evil himself yet instruct others in good works These make large Rents in the Church Union of all things else ought to be desired therefore And why are there so many differences among us Either because we are wedded to our own wayes and Opinions or because we quarrel with shadows Order Ceremonies and things indifferent and not of Faith while we neglect the Substance and fundamentals in Religion Many times through weakness of Judgment violent contests arise between party and party and yet neither differ in the main and perhaps not in the thing it self neither which through their ignorance notwithstanding they know not how to Reconcile To Compose these Differences is by fair and gentle not foul and rigorous means according to the Laws A weak Brother is to be restored in the Spirit of meekness Consciences are not to be compell'd by Fire and Sword For that Religion which is established by the sword must needs bek in to Mahomet's let the pretences be what they will or worse As we have lately too wofully experimented in our blessed times of Reformation in which they did not stick in their Zeal to destroy the Lord 's Anointed If they had been men after Gods own heart as they were Saints their hearts would certainly have melted with sorrow and remorse as David's smote him for but cutting off the skirt of Saul's Garment and yet he never intended to cut his throat But their hearts were hardned if not seared Nothing more unbecoming a Gentleman than to oppose his Sovereign the fountain of Gentility or Government the Ordinance of GOD. Can any man be so stupid as to imagine there can be any Religion in Rebellion or Reformation in murthering of Kings subverting of Government and destroying many Families Innovations in Religion are dangerous unless gradual and by the steps of time for so they 'l hardly be perceptible No Innovation unless by the product of time can suit well with any well-governed Nation for long-continued Customs agree best together although perhaps in themselves bad whereas better being unused link not so well and therefore prove more troublesome So that great caution is to be had in Reformation that the Alteration be for Reformation and not the Reformation a pretence to Rebellion which a Gentleman in all publick Conferences Consultations and Counsels ought carefully to avoid Let all Discourses of Religion be
Finisher of our faith is given by no less than GOD himself who though he be Omnipotent Å¿ Omnipotentia excludit omnes defectus qui sunt Impotentiae seu posse mori Peccare c. Thomas Aquinas 2. Quest 25. Art 34. yet cannot lye being Truth it self in the abstract His very existence then may be as well doubted as his Testimony And you have heard already the irrationality of Atheism in our proof of a Deity and that even among the Heathen a Deity has ever been acknowledged as also that their gods were true The Testimony God gives of Christ He was promised to Adam when fallen long before his coming The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head And his Testimony of him when sent was at his Baptism and on the Mount with Peter James and John This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And a little before his Death I have glorified it and will glorifie it again Likewise by the Star at his Birth which the very Heathen confest portended the descent of some God for the Salvation of Mankind Also by many Miracles wrought both by Christ and the Apostles and other wayes as well as by an Audible Voice As at his Death By Eclipsing the Sun at the time of the Full Moon contrary to the course of Nature so that many Astronomers in other parts of the World admired the strangeness thereof as a violence done to Nature whence Dionysius the Areopagite thus exclaim'd Aut Deus Naturae patitur aut Mundi machina Dissolvitur The Vail of the Temple was rent which the Superstitious Jews so adored And the saints dead Bodies arose and went into the Holy City and were seen by many Which things were so notoriously known that multitudes were Converted saying Of a Truth this was the son of God And lastly He himself did not only Rise but was taken up into Heaven both body and soul before their eyes So that the Question will be now whether there be any credit to be given to the scriptures that give such ample testimony of Christ from GOD or whether they are his revealed word more than other Writings Touching which I shall wholly lay aside those Arguments from their Majestickness and sometimes plainness of stile Their subject on which they treat or the power and influence they have on Mens Consciences as Idle frivolous not sufficiently evincing them to be Divine Oracles or to proceed from the Holy Spirit since our Consciences easily consent to what our belief is prepossest with in our Infancies Besides if this be all a Turk may plead as much for the Alchoran in every respect as we Whether the Old New Testaments be the Word of God can for the Bible Neither doth the sealing the Truth thereof by the blood of Martyrs signifie any thing in this particular since we daily see Jews Turks Pagans Hereticks Sects of all sorts Venners gang though in open Rebellion and before that the Regicides dye as resolutely couragiously with as much seeming assurance of their salvation as the best Martyr of them all in the affirmation and justification of their own belief and Deceits We must therefore endeavour to ground the Truth and Authority of Holy writ on more sure and sound Foundations Which I shall here at this time a little attempt notwithstanding the uncharitable censures of ignorant angry and narrow-witted Zelots accounting me in Discourses of this Nature an Atheist or at least one that contemns or hath but little regard for or to the Scripture And all because I have still endeavoured to bring them to a Rational ground of their Faith For although some things in Religion be beyond Reason yet it is not against Reason and most may be made out by Reason If this were not so our belief would be very Implicite I shall therefore endeavour to make it plain that the Books of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God and that upon the pure account of Reason only For to go about to prove any such thing to an Atheist or Pagan by the Scripture or any Argument deduced thence is when he believes no such thing to be ridiculous and to prove a thing to be so as Women do because it is so and compel another mans Reason too suddenly This I hope no Pagan or Atheist will deny that there is as much reason to believe the History of the Old and New Testament as any other since there is the same Reason first to believe the Tradition of the Old and New Testaments as the Tradition of any other i. e. That there was such a Man as Moses that wrote of the Creation of the Patriarchs of Gods Judgments on the Egyptians of his delivering the Israelites from the servitude of Pharaoh and leading them through the Wilderness And after him a Joshua who was their Captain and General in their possessing the Land of Canaan And so the Judges Kings and Prophets c. that did such and such Acts. A Matthew Mark Luke and a John that wrote such things as they saw and knew in their own times to be true of one Jesus of Nazareth I say we have as much reason to believe the Tradition of these Histories as any other Histories Or as that there was an Homer that wrote Illiads a Virgil his Georgicks an Ovid his Metamorphosis A Plato an Aristotle and the rest of the Philosophers or their Works Secondly it s as Rational to believe that those Books of the Old and New Testament were written by the same Men as are their reputed Authors as to believe Plutarch's Tacitus's Tully's and Caesar's works were theirs Thirdly that all that was delivered in the Old Testament in Christs time was true appears by his frequent quoting of and referring to it in his Discourse and Disputes Besides if it had been corrupted he would no doubt have taxt them with it as well as for their Teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of Men. And that 't is the same we now have and the Jews at this day acknowledge and that 't was never corrupted is evident from the multitude of Copies distributed after the first and second Captivities to every Synagogue where they were dispersed in which they read every Sabbath-day Now how it shou'd be possible for Men in almost all Nations and at different times to combine together in corrupting the Book of God on design let a prudent Man judge But we find they do all agree which they could never do if any and not all of them shou'd have been corrupted And that they shou'd altogether designedly or casually be corrupted when there appears no solid reason for such a contrivance seems more than improbable To which add if they were corrupted 't would have been in those places especially which speak and Prophesie of Christ and against them Besides if they were corrupted they shou'd have corrupted the Septuagint Translation which was extant in Egypt three hundred years before
by thee These are the ordinary effects of Drinking and when the Senses and Reason are denubilated what Vice may it not be an In-let to bringing all Diseases both of Body and Mind upon the Transgressors As I have elsewhere noted To which I might here add This good-fellowship will prove the worst fellowship in the World in the end and their maintaining of Friendship the greatest enmity it destroying both Reputation Good Name and Estate as well as Health Life Body and Soul How many in their Jovial Cups have done that which they have Repented all their lives after And by thinking to drive away care by drink have drank care their own confusion here and eternal damnation hereafter on themselves A Gentleman therefore should have better Recreation and Past-time than this sordid one of Drinking forasmuch as his endowments are beyond others If he have but little Worldly business he may employ his time many wayes in edifying others If he rightly and seriously considers the uncertainty of our times and Lives how above the one half is spent in sleep eating and other necessary diversions in our Callings Visits from Relations Friends c. He will find Time is the most precious thing in the World and that his whole time is but little enough to work out the Salvation of his Soul and that he hath none to squander away in Drinking then SUBSECT III. To Inferiours EVery Condition is or may be made pleasant unto us since there are miscarriages in all Men it behoves a Gentleman to be so discreet as to pass them by neither injuries nor favours being other then as we apprehend and apply them to our selves Our conceits and Interpretation of all Actions and things making them pleasing or displeasing unto us As it is arrogancy to be at variance with Superiours dangerous as well as hazzardous with Equals so with Inferiours 't is baseness and beneath a Gentleman The truth is we should avoid the displeasure of all nay even of the meanest could we think seriously how advantagious such an one with whom we are angry may be unto us hereafter Be civil and affable therefore to all carrying thy self in an equal temper between Pride and Familiarity Discharge thy heart of those turgid thoughts that all kind of passions frequently occasion whereby thou shalt never break Friendship If it be a Child or Ignorant whether Man or Woman that gives thee Offence or cause of Anger 't is beneath thy notice for this is but to mistake them and so to give them the occasion of Offence If a Droll let him Droll on and reflect not that on thy self that was not intended towards thee for so thou wilt not only make a Fool of thy self but him wise by thy application If a Servant perswade or command him yet so as thy Love to his good by amendment may be rather seen than the venting thy Rage which will never do good for angry words and Rage do but excite contempt in him and hatred towards thee it ought to be done then mildly seasonably and gravely And be sure thy iâ—l example lead not him nor any of thine Inferiours to err If a Scurrilous Person as thou hast no cause of admiring at it so thou hast as little of taking notice of it Let thy great care be to oblige all thy Inferiours if it lye in thy way and to gain their Love whereby thou shalt assuredly avoid the hatred envy and malice which thou must ever suspect from such as are beneath thee Expect the worst so shalt thou be so wise as to know how to Remedy thy self let it be what it will And be not too scrupulous for if a wise Man should take notice of all the mad and foolish Actions of most Men he should never be quiet and so a wise Man would be rendred a Fool miserable and unfortunate and Fools would be more happy Pay every Man his due without grudging or endeavours of abatement especially when agreement was made before or you know the worth of the thing That money which is gotten by Robbing the Spittle will prove the worst gotten of any and by grinding the faces of the poor will eat as a Canker into thine Estate Neither despise them if thou wilt render thy self Rational it being Fortunes fault not theirs they ought rather to be pityed than slighted For if they help not themselves God will never help them So that in some measure Faber quisque est Fortunae suae SUBSECT IV. To Relations SUch as are Parents Wife Children I call and understand by the Name of Relations in this place All other Kindred as Brethren Uncles Cousins c. come either under the Notion of Superiours Equals Inferiours or Friends and therefore I shall speak only as to the three former Parents challenge as their due from us Love Obedience Honour and Reverence as Instruments and the Procaâ—…rtick cause of our Beings and that however they are affected in Body or Mind Nothing so unbecoming as Pride towards hatred of Rebellion against Parents especially in a Gentleman and yet how frequent is it among them to wish their Parents Death to get the Inheritance And by so much is this the more frequent by how much the greater is the Possession than which nothing is more inhumane and abominable and this is the end of all our labour under the Sun or that can be expected in this Vale of misery and Ocean of tears wherefore David might well exclaim Mine Age is as nothing before thee verily every Man at his best State is altogether Vanity And I have observed however such have to their extreme trouble been Retaliated in the same manner by their own Children as a just Judgment of the Almighty As Marriage is a most Honourable Estate being appointed by God himself in Paradise So if the Parties can agree as they ought it is the greatest Happiness can befall a Man on this side Heaven But if they be unequally Matcht live at variance no greater torment or misery To have a Scold a Fool a Whore a Fury is the worst of Plagues and an Hell upon Earth A Gentleman ought to be exceeding wary in so weighty a matter as Marriage which is for Life and perhaps may be but once done and therefore ought to be well done Of Marriage and single Life See more Division 7. Especially since thereby he shall either make or marr his Fortunes Marriage being usually the impediment to great and Noble Atchievements Better therefore never Marry than Marry amiss since the most glorious noblest Acts and most laudable and meritorious have been done by unmarried Men. And truly though Marriage in some Respects and for some men be very commodious yet a single Life is more free from all cares fears and troubles more pleasant more advantagious and prosperous in every respect since he that is married has given Hostages to Fortune and is but a Prisoner to the World at best But if thy Constitution of Body or conveniency
contrary is an emotion of the Spirits which incite the Soul to Will to be freed and separated from objects represented to be hurtful or evil In Love the motions of the Blood and Spirits if not joyned with Desire Joy or Sadness c. but simple and alone are even as also the pulse but greater and stronger than ordinary emitting more heat and Celeritating Digestion and therefore is an Healthy Passion But in Hatred the Pulse is uneven more debile and quick cold instead of heat or mixt with pungent heats in the breast sometimes concoction impedited vomits excited and the humours become corrupted or at least vitiated and so is a very noxious and unhealthy passion This proceeds from the tye that is between the Soul the Body as when any corporeal action is joyned with a thought one still accompanies the other As is apparent in such who have an aversion to some Medicine they cannot think on it but the taste smell c comes also immediately into their thought For the Blood or some good and delectable chyme getting into the Heart and becoming a more convenient Alimony than ordinary to maintain heat there the principle of Life occasion the Soul to joyn in will to this Alimony viz. Love it And thus at the same time the Spirits descending from the Brain to the muscles might press or agitate the parts from whence it came to the Heart Stomack and Intrails whose agitation increaseth the appetite or to the Liver and Lungs which the muscles of the Diaphragma may press Whence the same motion of the Spirits ever since accompanies the Passion of Love On the contrary in Hatred some strange Chyme not proper to maintain the heat of the Heart but rather like to extinguish it is thereunto communicated and so the Spirits ascending to the Brain from the Heart excite the passion of Hatred in the Soul And thus these same Spirits being from the Brain transmitted to the Nerves may expel the blood from the Spleen and the small Veins of the Liver to the Heart to hinder the noxious succ from entring and move to those which might repel this juice to the intrails and the stomack or sometimes to cause the Stomack to eject it whence these motions accompany the Passion of Hatred Benevolence and Concupiscence There are two effects of Love Benevolence and Concupiscence The former is when we wish well to what we Love The latter when we desire the thing loved There are different passions that yet participate of Love As the Ambitious Loves Glory The Avaritious Riches The Amorous a Woman The Drunkard Wine which though different yet participating of Love they are alike Affection Friendship and Devotion However Love is not alwayes the same and alike for it admits of Degrees as when we esteem an object of Love less than we esteem our selves it may be termed only an Affection when we value it equal to our selves it may be termed Friendship when more Devotion And sometimes we love merely for the possession of the object whereunto our passion relates and not the object it self for which we have only a desire mixt with other particular passions As Ambition Avarice c. But the Love a Generous Soul and a Man of Honour bears his Friend is of another and purer Nature And that of a Father to his Child is more immaculate and sublime Now although Hatred be Diametrically opposite to Love yet are there not so many sorts of Hatreds as Loves Because we observe not so much the difference between the evils we separate from in Will as we do between the goods whereunto we are joyned And forasmuch as the objects of both Love and Hatred are represented to the Soul both by the External senses and Internal it will follow there are two sorts of Love and as many of Hatred according to the object whether good or handsom evil or ugly When we judge any thing good and convenient for us by our internal Senses and Reason we may most properly term it Love if contrary to our Nature and offensive Hatred Liking and Horrour If it be judged by our external Senses we term it Handsom or Ugly and so have either a liking or abhorring to it Which two passions of Liking and Horror are usually more violent than Love and Hatred Because what is conveyed to the Soul by the Senses makes greater impression and yet presents things more false than what is communicated to it by Reason Love and Hatred proceeding from Knowledge as 't is clear they do must needs precede Joy and Sadness except when Joy and Sadness proceed from Knowledge and when the things this Knowledge inclines us to Love are in themselves truly good or to Hate truly evil Love is then most excellent and transcendent for it joyning things that are truly good to us we are thereby rendred more perfect Neither can it then be in excess the most that can be does but joyn us so absolutely to those good things that we distinguish between the Love we have to them and our selves which cannot be evil Nay Love is so good that were we un-bodyed we could never Love too much Neither can it fail of producing Joy because it represents what we love as a good belonging to us Hatred on the other side can never be in the least degree but it is noxious and accompanied with sadness Yet Hatred of evil is necessary in respect to the Body though not manifested but by pain Therefore 't is never enough to be avoided though it proceed from a true knowledge since 't is not only prejudicial to the Soul but extremely hurtful to the Body if it exceed in relation to its health Much more is it then to be shun'd when it arises from any false Opinion SUB-DIVISION III. 4. Desire YOu must remember as was said that all the Passions arise from the consideration of good and evil and so doth this As we may Desire the possession of a good or to be rid of an evil or to avoid it c. 'T is caused by the Spirits agitating the Soul thereby disposing it to will such things as she accounts convenient whether it be the presence of an absent good or the conservation of a present or è contra The Heart is thereby agitated more than by any of the other passions and the Brain furnish'd with more Spirits which passing thence into the muscles render all the Senses more nimble and consequently all the parts of the Body It hath no contrary for seeing there is no good the privation thereof is not evil nor any evil taken in the notion of a positive thing the privation thereof is not good it must be the same motion which causes a Desire after good and the avoiding of evil that is contrary to it If it be considered thus I say it may be clearly perceived to be but one passion Aversion Horrour and Liking Herein only is the difference that when desire is after some
Boldness is in most dangerous and desperate cases required joyned with hope or assurance of success Emulation as I said is also a sort of it but in another sence for Courage may be considered as a Genus that is divided into as many sorts of species as there are objects and as many more as it has causes In the first sence Boldness is a sort in the other Emulation which is nothing else but an heat disposing the Soul to attempt things which she hopes may succeed from the example of others yet so attended with Desire and Hope that they are more powerful to send abundance of Blood to the Heart than Fear or Despair to hinder it Cowardize is Diametrically opposite to Courage 't is a frigid languishing whereby the Soul is from the Execution of what it should do impedited It proceeds from want of Hope and Desire and very unbecoming a Gentleman and is extremely noxious in that it diverts the Will from profitable Actions yet is advantagious to the Body For by hindring the motion of the Spirits it also hinders the dissipation of their Forces Besides it frees him that 's possessed with it of pain Fear the opposite to Boldness or Affright is not only frigidness but as it were Animae atonitus that divests her of all power of Resistance much more unbecoming a Gentleman it being an excess of Cowardize as Boldness is of Courage The chief cause is Surprize But I shall draw to an end SUB-DIVISION IV. 5 6. Joy and Sadness SInce in the midst of Joy there is commonly Sadness our Lives being a Glucupicron I shall here joyn them together and briefly touch them both with their subordinate Passions and hasten to a Conclusion Joy is a pleasing emotion of the Soul consisting in her enjoyment of good that the Impressions of the Brain represent unto her as her own Joy is the only fruiâ— the Soul possesses of all other goods insomuch as he that is wholly without Joy is as it were without a Soul Intellectual Joy There is also an Intellectual Joy which differs from this that is a Passion being a pleasing emotion in the Soul excited by her self and her sole action consisting in her enjoyment of good which her Understanding represents to her as her own yet is hardly separable from that which is a Passion For the Understanding being sensible of the good we possess the Imagination immediately makes some Impression in the Brain whereby the Spirits being moved the Passion of Joy is also excited 'T is evident then Joy whether a Passion or Intellectual proceeds from the opinion we have we possess some Good as sadness some Evil. Intellectual Sadness For in the same manner there is also an Intellectual sadness as well as Sadness a Passion which is an unpleasant languishing consisting in the Inconveniencies it receives from evil which the Impressions of the Brain represent unto her However many times we are Joyful or Sad without any apparent Cause or Reason we being not able to observe distinctly the good or evil exciting them Because the good or evil make their Impressions in the Brain without any intercourse of the Soul they belonging only to the Body And sometime also though they appertain to the Soul because she considers them not as good or evil and so the Impression in the Brain is joyned thereunto under some other Notion In Joy the Pulse is even but quicker than ordinary yet not so strong nor so great as in Love in it a Man feels a pleasant heat not only in the Breast but over all the parts of the Body with the Blood In Sadness the Pulse is slow and weak feeling the Heart as it were contracted or tyed about also frigidity which communicates a coldness to the whole Body and is extremely prejudicial to the Health The Orifices of the Heart being greatly streightned by the small Nerve that environs them and but little Blood sent to the Heart being not agitated in the Veins Yet the Appetite faileth not because the Pilorus the Lacteals and other Vessels through which the Chyle passes from the Stomack and Intrails to the Liver are open unless it be joyned with Hatred and that closes them On the other side in Joy all the Nerves in the Spleen Liver Stomack Intestines and the whole Man Act especially that about the Orifices of the Heart which opening and dilating them enables the Blood which the rest of the Nerves have sent from the Veins to the Heart to get in and issue forth in greater quantity than ordinary which Blood having often passed through it coming from the Arteries to the Veins easily dilates and produces Spirits fit for their subtilty and equality to form and fortifie the Impressions of the Brain which dispense lively and quiet thoughts to the Soul And therefore is a Passion conducing much to Health rend'ring the Colour and aspect of the Countenance livelier brisker and more Vermilion which we call Blushing For by opening the sluces of the Heart the blood is made thereby to flow quicker in all the Veins become hotter and more subtil Whereas clean contrary in Sadness the Orifice of the Heart being contracted the blood flows more slowly to the Veins and so becoming colder and thicker doth not dilate so much but rather retires to the internal parts neglecting the remote and external whence the Face becomes pale and squalid especially in great Sadnesses or such as are sudden as is seen in Affrights whose surprizals augment the Action that obstructs the Heart Change of Colour or Blushing Gesture of the Visage and Eyes Tremors Languishings Syncope Laughter Tears Sighs and Groans Whence these Passions cause various effects in us as well as Change of Colour or Blushing As Gesture of the Face and Eyes Tremors Languishings Syncope Laughter Tears Sighs and Groans Though for the most part the face is pale with Grief Sorrow Affrights and red in Joy yet sometimes it may also be red in Sadness especially when Desire Love nay and often times when Hatred is joyned therewith Definition of Shame Or in Shame which is only a mixture of Self-love and an earnest desire to avoid some present Infamy or 't is a sort of Modesty or Humility and mistrust of ones self for he that values himself so highly as to think none can slight or dis-esteem him can hardly ever be ashamed For the blood being heat by the passions they drive it to the Heart and thence through the Great Artery to the Veins of the Face and Sadness that obstructs the ventricles of the Heart not being able to hinder it unless when it is in extreme as also hindring the blood in the Face from descending when but moderate whilst the afore-named Passions send others thither which fixing the blood in the Face makes it oft-times redder then in Joy because the blood in Joy flowing quick appears livelier and fresher And so in Shame which is compounded of Self-Love and an earnest desire to avoyd some
from Anger Wine Tobacco how occasioned For in Anger an earnest desire after any thing In Drunkenness by Wine other Liquors or Tobacco or extraordinary heat too many spirits being sent to the brain make such a confusion as they cannot regularly nor readily be sent thence into the muscles The Causes of Languishing Languishing is another and is felt in all the Members being a disposition or inclination to ease and to be without motion occasioned as Trembling for want of sufficient spirits in the nerves But in a different manner For Languishing is caused when the Glance in the Brain do not determine the Spirits to some muscles rather than others when Trembling proceeds from a defect of the Spirits 'T is also frequently the effect of Love joyned to the desire of any thing which cannot be acquired for the present For in Love the Soul being so busied in considering the object beloved all the spirits in the Brain are imployed to represent the Image thereof to her whereby all the motions of the Glance are stopt which were not subservient to this Design And so in Desire though it frequently Renders the Body active as was noted when the object is such as something from that time may be done for acquiring it Yet when there is an Imagination of the Impossibility of attaining it all the agitation of Desire remains in the Brain where being wholly imployed in fortifying the Idea of this object without passing at all into the Nerves leaves the rest of the Body Languishing And thus also Hatred Sadness and Joy may cause a kind of Languishing when they are violent by busying the soul in considering their objects But most commonly it proceeds from Love because it depends not on a surprize but requires some time to be effected Swoonings and the Causes Swooning is another effect of Joy and is nothing but a suffocation of the vital heat in the Heart some heat remaining that may afterwards be kindled again It may be occasioned several wayes but chiefly by extreme Joy in that thereby the orifices of the Heart being extraordinarily opened the blood from the Veins rush so impetuously and so copiously into the Heart that it cannot be there soon enough rarified to lift up those little skins that close the entries of those veins whereby the fire and heat thereof is smothered which used to maintain it when it came regularly and in a due proportion 'T is seldom or never the effect of Sadness though it be a Passion that contracts and as it were tyes up the orifices of the Heart because there is for the most part blood enough in the heart sufficient to maintain the heat though the Orifices thereof should be almost closed Subordinate to Joy and Sadness also is Derision Envy Pity Satisfaction Repentance Gratitude and Good Will Indignation and Wrath Glory and Shame Distrust sorrow and Light-heartedness Of Derision and its Causes When a Man perceives some small evil in another which he conceives him worthy of it occasions Derision Whence 't is apparently a kind of Joy mixt with Hatred But if the evil be great he to whom it happens cannot be thought to deserve it but by such as are very ill-natur'd or have much hatred against him When the evil comes unexpectedly being surprized with Admiration it occasions Laughter For Laughter as was said never proceeds of Joy unless it be very moderate and some little Admiration or Hatred be therewith complicated When the accident is good it excites Joy and gladness when anothers welfare is perceived by us And this Joy is serious and no ways accompanied with Laughter or Derision But when we account him worthy of it it occasions Envy as the unworthiness of the evil Pity and these two are the Daughters of Sadness Cause of Envy and Pity Envy is a Vice proceeding from a perverse Nature causing a Man to molest and vex himself for the goods of Fortune he sees another possessor of and so is a kind of Sadness mixt with Hatred and a Passion that is not alwayes vitious For I may Lawfully Envy the Liberal distribution of the goods of Fortune on unworthy Illiterate and base Fellows that no wayes deserve them inasmuch as my love of Justice compels me thereunto because its Laws are violated by an unjust distribution or the like Especially if it go no farther and extend not to the Persons themselves 'T is somewhat difficult to be so just and generous as not to hate him that prevents me in the acquisition of any commendable good which is frequently seen in Honour Glory and Reputation though that of others hinders me not from endeavouring their attainment also though it render them more difficult to be atchieved Wherefore Envy not thus qualified is no wayes becoming a Gentleman there being no Vice so hurtful both to the Soul and bodily health of him that 's possessed therewith What mischiefs does it not do by Detractions Lyes Slanders and several other wayes beneath the Action of a Gentleman Cause of Pity Pity is a mixture of Love and sadness towards such whom we see that we bear a kindness to suffer any evil which we think they deserve not So that its object is diametrically opposite to Envy and Derision considering it in another manner And although it proceed rather from the Love we bear to our selves then to the pityed those being most incident to it that find themselves impotent and subject to the frown of Fortune thereby fancying themselves possible to be in the same condition yet 't is no wayes unbecoming a Gentleman since the most high generous and great Spirits that contemn want as being above the frowns of Fortune have been known to be highly compassionate when they have heard the complaints and seen the failings of other men Besides to love and bear good will to all men is a part of Generosity and thus the sadness of this Pity is not extreme Nay none but evil mischievous pernitious and envious Spirits want Pity or such as are fraught with an universal hatred and destitute of love For 't is chiefly excited by Love whence it sending much blood to the Heart causeth many Vapours to pass through the eyes and then sadness by its frigidity retarding the agitation of those vapours condensing them into tears is the cause that Weeping often accompanieth it 'T is much more to be preferred in a Gentleman than Derision since the most defective in Body and Mind are the greatest Deriders of others desiring to see and bring all Men equally into disgrace with themselves This proceeds from Hatred that from Love Jesting exploded Nothing more vain then than Jesting so much now in use with such as assume the name of Gentlemen if thus grounded Wit in moderate Jesting for the detecting or reprehending vice may be allowed it being a seemly quality in the best and greatest thereby discovering the Tranquillity of the Soul and liveliness of the disposition Nay even to Laughter
offend God if he be conformable to the World or else he must live in contempt disgrace and misery all his Life What difference between words and deeds the Tongue and Heart How common is it for a Scholar to crouch to an illiterate Pesant for a meals meat A Scrivener better payed for a Bond or Bill then a Student A Lawyer get more in a day then a Philosopher in a year Better rewarded for an hour then a Scholar for a twelve moneths study If we have any bodily Disease we send for the Physitian but of the diseases of the mind we take no notice Lusts torment us on one side Envy Anger Ambition c. on the other we are torn in pieces by our Passions one in disposition the other in Habit. But the misery is we seek for no Cure Every man thinks with himself I am well I am wise laughs at others when indeed all fools But now adayes we have Women Polititians Children Metaphysitians Every silly fellow can square a Circle make perpetual motions find out the Philosophers Stone interpret the Revelation make new Theoricks new Logick new Philosophy a new Body of Physick a new System of the World For one Virtue notwithstanding you shall find ten Vices in any individual Person on Earth A wise man is a great wonder Our Life is but a span or hand-breadth as David declares We are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon Earth are as a shadow Swifter than a Post they flye away and see no good Few Man that 's born of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not * St. August Confess Lib. 10. Cap. 28. Catena est vita nostra perpetuorum malorum tentatio super terram quis potest molestias Difficultates pati All his dayes are sorrows and his Travel grief Hath he not an appointed time upon Earth Are not his dayes all like the dayes of an Hireling Nay his dayes are as grass and as a flower of the Field Surely the People are grass At the best estate man is but Vanity and that every man The King as well as the Pesant The Philosopher as well as the Dunce The Noble as well as the base The Earth is curst for his sake and in sorrow shall he eat of it all his dayes it shall bring him out nothing but Thorns and Thistles and in the sweat of his Face shall he eat bread till he return unto the ground out of which he was taken into which again he must be transmuted and while he remains in the Land of the Living he shall be fraught with all manner of miseries and calamities Man is full of miseries miseries of Soul of Body while he sleeps wakes whatever he doth or wherever he turns as St. Bernard well notes Great travel is Created for all men and an heavy yoak on the Sons of Adam from the day that they came out of their Mothers Womb unto that day they return unto the Mother of all things namely their thoughts and fear of their hearts and their Imagination of things they wait for and the day of Death from him that sitteth on the glorious Throne to him that sitteth beneath on the Earth from him that 's cloathed in blew silk and weareth a Crown to him that 's cloathed in simple Linnen wrath envy trouble and unquietness and fear of Death and rigour and strife and such things come to both man and Beast but seven-fold to the ungodly If the World smile on us we are thereby ensnared puffed up Dat vitam animamque Pecunia And Prout res nobis fluit ita et animus se habet we thereupon forget our selves and others If we are poor and dejected we rave take on lament repine and covet wealth Or if we can carry our selves even between these two yet to Riches we shall find cares fears anxieties and troubles annexed To Poverty disgrace slights derision and affronts c. And no condition we shall find without Inconveniencies To Idleness is Poverty annexed To Wisdom Knowledge Learning much labour pain and trouble To Honour and Glory Envy To increase of Children care and sollicitude To Voluptuousness and Riot Diseases and Infirmities As if as the Platonists hold man were born into the World to be punisht for such sins as he had * Maintaining very idly the Pre-existency of the Soul and that it is sent into the Body upon Earth to play as it were an after-game A preposterous way of Reformation to put the Soul into such fatal prophasities of sinning as it must be here in this World This must needs be the direct course to Ruine it and cast it on a fatal necessity of perishing especially if cast on such times and places as are over-run with Barbarism and Vice If our conditions of Recovery be so near impossibility our State is as bad as the Devils and if the non-performance of these conditions be punisht with greater penalties 't is worse Better be abandoned to eternal Despair then have hopes to be Rescued by such means only as 't is ten thousand to one but will exceedingly increase our torment and misery formerly committed All this befalls man in this Life and perhaps eternal trouble in the Life to come Whence Pliny on the consideration of the many miseries man brings with him into the World said It were good for a Man not to be Born at all or else so soon as he is Born to dye Which made the Scythians mourn at their Births and rejoyce at the Funeral of their Children and Friends They cease from their Labours c. Job also cursed the day of his Birth Why dyed I not from the Womb Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly Why did the Knees prevent me or the Breasts that I should suck For now should I have been still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at Rest And farther in this manner he exclaims Wherefore hast thou brought me then forth out of the Womb Oh that I had given up the Ghost and no eye had seen me And Solomon the wise concludes the day of Death to be better then the day of ones Birth In a word 't is a misery to be born into this wretched World a pain to live and a trouble to dye For the Lives of the best men you see are stuff'd with vexation mischief and trouble To particularize all is as great a task as to perfect the motion of Mars and Mercury which so puzzles our Astronomers or to Rectifie the Gregorian Calendar or Rectifie those Chronological Errours in the African Monarchy find out the Quadrature of a Circle The Creeks and Sounds of the North-East and North-West passages I shall therefore content my self with this hint only of the Vanity of the World and therein of our Lives that we may endeavour to amend
thy self to many eminent dangers For while thou art sollicitous to preserve thy self thou hazzardest thine Honour Virtue and Honesty The contempt of Death produces the most Honourable exploits whether in good or evil He that fears not Death fears nothing for he can do what he will and is master both of his own and anothers life That the self-murther of the Romans and other Nations was rather pusillanimity and Cowardize than Magnanimity and Courage I know the wisest were wont to say That a Wise Man liveth as long as he should not so long as he can Death being no more at his command and in his power than Life There is but one way into the World but ten hundred thousand wayes out of it Every vein will set us free This way has been much commended by some rather then live in care trouble misery and accounted the best gift of Nature that no one is compelled to live against his will Whence Timon the Athenian imployed all his skill in perswading his countrey-men to shorten their lives by hanging themselves on Gibbets which he had erected in a Field that he bought for the same purpose to whose perswasions many agreed But whether this be a lawful course may be questioned The Platonists approve of it so do the Cynicks and Stoicks Socrates and Seneca who commend Dido Cato and Lucretia So likewise Sr. Thomas More * In his Vtopia If a Man be troublesome to himself or others Dost thou see that precipice that Pit that Pond that Tree that Well that Knife that Sword that Pistol c. There is Liberty at hand Wherefore has our Mother Earth broughtforth so many variety of Poysons but that Men in distresses might make away themselves so Seneca advises we give God thanks no one is compelled to live perforce And * Lib. 8. Cap. 15. Eusebius admires Sophronia a Roman Matron that to save her self from the Lust of Maxentius the Tyrant kill'd her self * Lib. 3 De Virginitate Ambrose likewise commends Pellagius for the same fact But Lactantius explodes this opinion and confutes it Lib. 3. Cap. 18. De Sapientia So does St. Augustine Epist 52. ad Macedonium Cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum St. Hierom to Marcella of Blesilla's Death and St. Cyprian de Duplici Martyrio 'T is a prophane act abominated by GOD and all good Men and expresly prohibited in Scripture Exod. 20.13 Thou shalt not kill Now if we must not kill our Neighbour much less our selves He that kills another destroys but his * Mat. 10.28 Body but he that kills himself destroys both Body and Soul * Rom. 3.8 No evil is to be done that good may come of it Yet if any which is a sad case be given over to such an act they should rather be objects of our greatest pity then condemnation as murtherers damn'd Creatures and the like For t is possible even for Gods elect having their Judgments and Reasons depraved by madness deep melancholly or how otherwise affected by Diseases of some sorts to be their own executioners We are but flesh and blood the best of us and know not how soon God may leave us to our selves and Deprive us of our Understanding Wherefore le ts be slow to censure in such cases Again for a man to Kill himself is an act of pusillanimity and the greatest cowardize imaginable notwithstanding in former times it was held among the Hebrews Greeks Romans Egyptians Medes Persians Britains French and Indians an act of virtue courage magnanimity c. since thereby a man hides himself Basely and sneakingly from the strokes of Fortune which is beneath a Gentleman For a true and lively virtue should never yield That 's true Fortitude to contemn and smile at the miseries of fortune If the whole VVorld should fall on such a man it might kill him but never daunt him VVell then I shall close with this That as we should not fear Death but rather contemn it nor on the other hand pull it on our selves So we should be alwayes walking ready to meet it in any place at any time alwayes prepared Remembring our whole life is but a continual dying or death We are every day nearer to our end every moment the less time to live Let then our Lives be with care and speed amended that when this Life is ended our souls may be saved and eternally glorified Which of our Hope Life and Creation is the END Mors Ultima Linea Rerum ERRATA PAge 8. 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