A view of the soul, in several tracts ... by a person of quality.

SECT. III. Of the Nature and Origine of Sorrow: That the rise of all Passions is from Love; this particularly demonstrated in that of Sorrow.

IN order to which, I did in my troubled thoughts endea∣vour, as to define Sorrow, what it is; so, to find out the right and true origine thereof, and other turbulent passions of our mind. I think it has been truly defined, that Sorrow (with the rest, &c.) is Animi commotio, aversa à recta ratione, contra na∣turam: And so they are not natural, but consequential (as I may say) from somewhat that is good, implanted in our nature, although misguided and mislead. For that God, who is goodness, and has attested every particle of his Creation to be very good, would not naturally implant in us our turbulent passions, which are evil. But they are raised by our a follies on∣ly, in forsaking that Good, with respect to which we were crea∣ted. Now that Good is God, and God being Love, (as St. Iohn has defined him) has in us, his Image, naturally implanted Love, the tendency of which should be chiefly towards him, and all other his Creatures in reference to him. And this is the Epi∣tome of our whole duty, and that great natural Command∣ment, of which the Law and the Prophets are but the Com∣ment and Explanation.

But this natural plant of Love, rooted in us from our Birth, and growing in us, necessarily finds out some object or other, whereon to lodge its branches, and to be the support and prop thereof: which, if it be wholly or chiefly lodged upon some Worldly object, the decay and fall of that object, leaves it

withering on the ground, and this is Sorrow. But if it fix it self aright, and spread its branches over mankind in general, al∣though it may more especially lean on some one or more par∣ticulars; yet, those failing, it holds it self fresh and verdant, and obtains the blessed title of Charity, whose property is, b to bear all things, and to endure all things: so as I cannot define immoderate sorrow to be other, than a drooping withering love, or the spurious off-spring of a misguided love, in the absence of perfect love and charity. Neither can I resemble the product thereof, to any more proper thing, than Esau's Vine, mentioned of God's planting, c who looked it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes; that which is planted in us for joy and de∣light, when mislead produces only misery and sorrow.

Now if in holding this natural Love, mislead (or rather misguided) by opinion and fancy, to be the source of all our evils whatsoever, and in talking thereof I shall seem to differ from the Judgment of the Learned, and betray my ignorance in terms of Art; all that I can say for my self is, that I both thought, and speak according to that ability of understanding God has endowed me with, (without any great improvement of it by study, or much reading) from a desire or endeavour to ease my self, if I could, in finding out the readiest and shortest way of cure; which undoubtedly is best found out, by discerning the original defect of some part of Nature out of order, and not performing its office aright, and so hindring and obstructing that perfect Harmony which otherwise might be in the Soul of man. And whether that be it, I leave to other men to weigh and consider from their own reason, without any endeavour to confine them unto mine.

God has, as I said, in us, and I think in every sensitive Crea∣ture, (being the workmanship of his hands too) implanted some seeds and sparks of Love, that they might have in them all some image, or at least some impress of their Maker: and as his universal love (who is himself termed Love it self) ex∣tends it self towards all the works of his Creation; so, every particular of his Creation has its bending and inclining, by way of Love, to somewhat according to the capacity given it. This inclination of Love is visible in the most Savage Beasts towards their young ones, and their Mates, and others often of the same species: And in some of them, their Love is not terminated in their own kind and species, but extends it self to others of a different kind; as is observable, and we have seen

in Lions to Dogs, and other Creatures bred up with them; but especially in Dogs to Men.

Now this Love works and moves only in these Creatures by a natural instinct or fancy, and is terminated upon a few objects, and is not capable to extend it self beyond sense, and therefore is not found to be extreme upon any thing, so as to work any great disturbance, or to be of long continuance; yet I think we may affirm, that their mourning or their sorrow (if I may so term it) proceeds from their love to their young, or the like, and so their rage and fury to those who rob them thereof: And so their fear must needs proceed from a love they have for them∣selves, whereby every Creature has an inclination to self-preservation.

This same natural Spring or Fountain does man bring with him into the World; which, though it lie longer hid under ground, usually breaks out into more various and rapid streams, by reason of a more quick and roving fancy to help and assist it, if not to stir it up: yet 'tis not long e're it be seen, and the first discernible effect of the Soul, besides motion, is a love to it self, by crying when any thing offends it; and to its Nurse who nourishes it, by cleaving to her, and avoiding others; which after by degrees shews its more peculiar inclination or tendance. For whatsoever may be storied of Timon the Athe∣nian, 'tis sure he loved himself; and besides there is no one so inhumane, but his love will find some other receptacle or reposure than himself, though it be but some one person, to whom he may shew that rancour or poison he bears to∣wards others.

But man also, being the more immediate hand-work of God, and created more expresly after his own Image, has not only this natural Spring of Love in him moved by sense and instinct, and also by a roving conceit of imaginary goodness, beyond that of other Creatures; but Reason, and Understand∣ing also, to guide and direct this Love, and bend and incline it towards that chief good, for which it was created: That it should not stand as a Lake, like that of Beasts, nor yet water some adjacent parts only, by violent out-lets, but diffuse it self into several Streams and Channels, leaving its fruits and effects towards the whole good of mankind, and yet tending to that infinite Ocean which gave it its first being.

Now when it thus has its free passage, although it may have some lets and stops, that disquiet it somewhat in its course, yet

they never cause any great Billows or Surges to arise: But when by opinion and fancy, we too much confine it to some particular, and d forsake the fountain of living waters, (as Ieremy expresses it) we hew us out Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that can hold no water; so as from the ill-husbandry of this native Spring of Love, arises the chief disquiet of the mind.

Love will be hunting after some good, and often takes an imaginary one for a real: For indeed nothing being properly good but God only, and all other things in reference to him; if they be aimed at in any other respect, they lose that good∣ness they had, as to us.

Now according as we by our foolish fancy direct this Love, it obtains its denomination from the World: If it be chiefly center'd in any man, from the good opinion he has of himself, we call it Pride; if it chiefly run after the applause of men, we call it Vain-glory; if the common vain pleasures of the World, Voluptuousness, or Epicurism; if Women, Amorous∣ness; if we lodge it in our Children, Fondness or Dotage; if in Riches, Covetousness; and so for the like.

Now if this Love be exercised in the obtaining, then it is termed Desire; if in the fruition, Joy; if in the losing, Fear; if in the loss, Sorrow. For why does a man desire any thing, but because he loves it? or why does he rejoyce in the fruition, but because he loves it? why does he fear the losing it, but be∣cause he loves it? or why does he sorrow for the loss, but be∣cause he loves it? This one thing Love, is the primum mobile (as I may call it) of all: the other passions are but its ne∣cessary Attendants; and whatever definitions are made of our Animal faculties, 'tis this, like the principal Spring in a Watch, that sets them all on going, and whatever evil hap∣pens to us, is from the ill motion, or ill setting of the Spring, for want of reason; for as our Love is good or bad, so are its Attendants.

If we chiefly place it on God and goodness, it has its desires, its joys, its fears, and its sorrows; from which, Philosophy need not exclude a wise man. Surely a man may, with St. Paul, desire to be dissolved; he may desire to persevere to the end, and receive the crown of his warfare; he may rejoyce in hope; he may fear to offend; he may sorrow for sin; and all this, without committing evil or folly: for affects arising sim∣ply from the love of good, cannot have any thing of evil in them. These good affects or passions, we see in the man accor∣ding

to God's own heart: His soul brake out for very fervent de∣sire; he rejoyced as one that found great spoils; his flesh trembled for fear, and he was afraid of God's judgments; he was horribly affrighted for the ungodly that forsook God's Law; his soul melted away for very heaviness; he was troubled above measure; his eyes gushed out with water, because men kept not God's Law; trouble and heaviness had taken hold on him; it grieved him when he saw the transgressors. And all this, proceeding from Love, as it appears by the often expression of it, in word, in that excellent 119^th Psalm, (the title of one part whereof is, Quomodo dilexi) wherein he professes what he loved above gold and precious stones, and what was dearer unto him, then thousands of gold and silver.

But if our Love be chiefly placed on other things, and too much wander and stray from the chief good, though it take along with it the same concomitants of Desire, &c. yet they are in an amazed, distracted, and uneasie dress, and can own no∣thing but a misguided Love, to be their principal Captain and Leader. For although, as I said before, Love may take its deno∣mination from the thing it pursues, yet still its proper attribute and name is Love. And not only the Poet, in case of Covetous∣ness, cries out, Amor nummi; but St. Paul himself gives it its true and proper definition, for the root of all evil, he plainly terms, e the love of money; and when he reckons up a number of the greatest Vices, Pride, Blasphemy, &c. he begins them thus, f men shall be lovers of their own selves; and concludes with these words, lovers of pleasures, more then lovers of God, as if some sort of love were the mother of all Vices. Indeed, when any one Worldly thing has taken possession, and as it were monopolized a man's heart, it brings with it a number of disquiet Inmates, as solicitous cares and fears, &c. and amongst the rest, sorrow shall never be wanting: For in that case, of love of money, as it causes men to err from the Faith, by St. Paul's rule, so it causes them to pierce themselves through with many sorrows; and he might well say, many, for even in its first desire of obtaining (besides what attend it in the fruition and loss) sorrow often goes along with it, as may be instanced in Ahab, whose g heart was sad, and he could eat no bread, in the very primary effect of this covetous Love, viz. desire of Naboth's Vineyard And I think we may affirm, vexing sorrow never yet entred into any mans heart, without some precedent love to usher it in: For take sorrow in both St. Paul's sences, Worldly and Godly sorrow, apart, or both together, the rise thereof is from Love; for if we are first sor∣rowful

for our sins, it is because we shall one day feel the smart of them; that proceeds from the love of our selves: and then if we be further sorrowful, that we have offended a gracious God, though there were no punishment attending sin, that pro∣ceeds from the love of God; so as Love is the motive of all, and we cannot but conclude, that sorrow has its being and exi∣stence from Love.

But herein, as to a vain sorrow from a misguided Love, whe∣ther the inferiour and more brutish part of man, the sensual ap∣petite, or the will, (which is in some sort in Brutes, for they have choices as well as we, though those choices are necessarily determined by their appetite, for want of reason) or the under∣standing be most to be blamed, is to be enquired into. Where∣about, we must first acknowledge, that the three prime fa∣culties of the Soul, to wit, the Understanding, the Will, and the Affections, do all concurr in every fault we commit; yet so, as though they be all faulty, the chief obliquity springeth most immediately from the more special default of one of the three. As in the present case of sorrow, however the other faculties may be concerned, yet the understanding is most to blame, and this our error is through ignorance. Indeed our ignorance is so far wilful, that there being imprinted in us the common princi∣ples of the Law of Nature, (as well as the written Law) if we had but carefully improved them, we might in right reason have discerned, that our Love ought more chiefly to tend to our Crea∣tor and Governour, than our own natural product; but yet I think no man will arraign the Will as principal, unless in that case of no∣luit consolari: where notwithstanding a mans reason inform him he ought not, yet he is resolved, like Iacob, he will go mourning to his grave. Neither are the affections chiefly to be blamed, because Love of it self is good, and only misled through ignorance; and sorrow, as I have said, is but the consequent of a misguided Love.

Now then towards the cure, our ignorance is to be discussed, and our understanding cleared, that so our wills and affections may become obedient, and follow its dictates. This right understanding, is indeed an immediate influence of the Almighty, by whose powerful rays there is a gracious dissipation of these sublunary Mists and Fogs, which hinder and obstruct the clearer prospect of our Souls. And, as I so in all humility own it, I cannot rationally expect any one should take it barely by re∣verberation from me, or by looking into these Papers. He who is Brightness, and the Mirrour of wisdom, grant unto me, and

every man, so much of true reason and understanding, as that while it is time, we may in some sort behold the errors and follies of our own ways; For, though I and others may cry out, Why art thou so troubled, O my Soul! and why art thou so disquieted within me? yet they and I shall never argue our selves into patience, without trusting, that he is the help of our counte∣nance, and our God.

But if I may in humility present my thoughts to others, (who may by his gift believe with me) I cannot think any rule herein, or hereabout, to be observed of so much weight as this one, in two words, custodi cor. The wisest of men, after he has partly shewed us the manner of wisdoms entrance into the Soul, and her excellencies; that the merchandize thereof is better then silver, and the gain thereof then gold; that she is more precious then Rubies, and all that can be desired, in the three first Chapters of his Book: And after divers commendations of her, and exhortations to attention in the fourth, he does as it were lay the first ground∣work of attaining her in this precept, h Keep thy heart with all di∣ligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Surely God has placed that in the midst of us, to be the magazine and treasury of our Soul, and has required it for himself of every one in express terms, My Son, give me thy heart. I will not here in this place, and upon this occasion, enquire whether the functions of the intellect, or the affections, do follow the cogitations, or the cogitations are actuated and stirred by them, or which is the most proper seat of either: The Soul is of so subtle a compo∣sure, that it self could never yet find out the manner of its own operations; but this I hope may be affirmed here, that if the heart be the more peculiar seat of the affections, and Love the chief of the affections, the aim thereof must be good; and what that good is, our Reason, under God, will certainly best direct us. For Reason as in a Watch-tower beholding as well absent as present good, and the affections only beholding the present; it is Reason only that must reclaim the imagination, and bring it in subjection to it self, and place the affections upon a right object there. And surely, Reason tells every man that has her, that, That from which the Soul it self had its primary being and existence, is the chief good, and ought to take up the chief room in our Soul. I, for my part, with my little reason, can∣not find any such Engine, as will remove the whole World, unless it be the Love of God; nor any place to fix this Engine in, more proper then the heart. If this Love do once possess

the Citadel of our Soul, we are safe; we all too truly find, that while we are cloathed with flesh, it will let in sometimes other more visible and sensible objects, which may make some mutiny in her, but still she has this Love as a safe and sure Captain, that will keep her from taking. Surely methinks if Reason be but consulted, this Love must be the predominant affection: Were it possible for us to give be∣ing to some Creatures, and to endue them with Reason too, should we not desert them for deserting us? and for too close an union amongst themselves, and to other Creatures without respect to us? And if God had never instilled into us by his Word, that he is a jealous God, who would punish for admit∣tance of a Rival to his love, could we expect less? And there∣fore ought not we in reason, as much as may be, to keep out all Rivals? 'Tis a strange fascination in us to confine all good∣ness (which is the aim of Love) within our own bowels, and sometimes the bowels of the Earth too. No wise man will think, neither can we justly own, the affections in us to be mo∣ved from any habitual or inherent goodness in our nature, or that we do thereby express any similitude or likeness to that Image, whose goodness is universally diffusive to all. Since our Love (though it be owing to the whole Race of mankind, as we are made of one lump from one Eternal power) is con∣centred in particulars: From which cause, as our Love does often thereby, upon our loss, convert into sorrow; so should that sorrow, in reason, convert into shame. For to say (I think) the truth, we excessive mourners in this case, may be defined to be persons who have locked up our hearts from the love of God, and shut up our bowels from mankind in general, and confined them to work only within our own imaginary Sphere. And were we accosted with that rough speech of Ioab to David, i That we hereby declare, that we regard neither Princes nor Servants, but that the World may well perceive, that if our Absalom had lived, and an hundred else had died, it had pleased us well; we could find no sufficient reply to justifie our selves, but must confess our own error.

And now if our gourd be withered, shall we sit down in a sullen mood? And if that perfect love, that should have held place in us, be dispossessed, shall not reason and understanding struggle for her? Sure the most rational way of cure is, since we have given up our hearts to follow that which flies from us as a shadow, to leave the pursuit, and catch hold on something

else if may be. Though our Children are gone, the World is yet full of various objects of delight: But that which makes all or any of them so, is God, and from that original, must they so glide into the heart; and therefore we most of necessity re∣duce and bring back our wandring love to its proper state and original, for which 'twas first implanted in us, and fix it upon that delightful object, and through that Mirrour, all things will have a more lovely aspect.

Understanding, and the Love of God, are always so coupled and linked together, that the one cannot be, or subsist without the other: If a man love not his God and Creator, 'tis for want of understanding; and if a man has not a right understanding of his present and future well-being, it is alone because he wants that love. For that love will infallibly fix every mans thoughts upon a hearty endeavour to perform the whole will of God. Thus hath St. Iohn truly defined the love of God to be, a keeping of his Commandments; k This is the love of God, if we keep his Commandments. And our l Saviour himself has made that the test and tryal of love: And both David and his Son Solo∣mon, the wisest of men, have assured us in sundry positions, that understanding takes her possession of the Soul with it, and that through his Commandments it is, that we are wiser then our Teachers. And surely if there were not some defect in every man of these Graces, by the intetposition of Sin and Satan, he would, sooner or later, hear that gracious and effectual Eccho resound in his Soul, from the Spirit of all true love and comfort, m Let not your hearts be troubled. This is the only rational way I think of cure, Redire ad cor; and to get that clean swept and garnished, that the Spirit of true love may enter in, and keep possession against all unruly passions, and I dare say, whoever tries it, will sub∣scribe his probatum to it.

Notes

• a

  Has perturba∣tiones, stultitia quasi quasdam emittit furias.
• b

  1 Cor. 13.7.
• c

  Isa. 5.2.
• d

  Jer. 2.13.
• e

  1 Tim. 6.10.
• f

  2 Tim. 3.2, 4.
• g

  1 King. 21.4.
• h

  Prov. 4.23.
• i

  2 Sam. 19.6.
• k

  1 John 5.3.
• l

  John 14.15.
• m

  Vers. 1.