Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul, Chapter 10
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 properArist. Probl. sell. 10. sect. 51. 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 *foreigncalled out, as it were, to desire an Vnion, Vision, and participation of his Glory and Presence; yeelding up it selfe unto Him, (for by *Amor non nisi donum … in Ama…um. Guil…el. Paris. de Legibus, c. 19.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 onelyonly 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,Matth. 22. 37. but a whole Heart. To love any Creature, either without God, or above God, is Cupiditas, Lust: Vid. August. de Doct. Christ. l. 1. c. 22. & l. 3. c. 10. & de Tr…uitat. l. 8. c. 3. & l. 9. c. 8.(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 Image and likenesse of God, (not to speake of that Eternall and Essentiall Character of his Fathers brightnesse) is in his Word, and in his Workes; the one, being the Manifestation of his Will; and the other, of his Power and Wisedome. Our love to his Word, is our search of it; as being the onelyonly Glasse, wherein we see the Wonders and deepe things of God: our Beleefe of it, All, and OnelyOnly; acknowledging in it, the fulnesse of its Truth, and of its sufficiencie: and our Obedience to it, submitting our selves, with purpose of heart, unto the rule and guidance of it.
Touching the Workes of God, there are two chiefe things, whereunto the affection of Man is by the Creatures attracted, and wherewith it desires an Vnion, namely, the Truth and Goodnesse of them; for by these onelyonly, may all the diverse Faculties of Mans Soule be exercised and delighted: The love of both which, is then onelyonly Regular, when it is limited, in regard of the quantitie and qualitie of the act; Humble, in the manner of pursuance, without swelling and curiositie: and lastly, subordinate unto that great Love of God, whose Image we can no further truly love in the Creature, than as we are thereby directed to a farther love of Him.
I come now unto that other Rule of Love, wherein Aristotle hath placed the Nature thereof, A Mans selfe, or that unitie and proportion which the thing loved beareth unto the partie loving; foreign Arist. lib. 9 cap. 9. Ethic. lib. 8. cap. 9. 12. Lib. 9. cap. 3. 9.which in one place, he calleth foreign, Equalitie; in another, foreign ▪ Identitie; in another, foreign, Similitude; in another, foreign, Communion; all Relative tearmes, which referre unto the partie loving.
The Root of every mans love unto himselfe, is that unitie and identitie which he hath with himselfe; it being naturall to every thing, to take delight in the simplicitie of it owne being: because the more simple and One it is, the more it is like the Fountaine of its being; and therefore hath the more perfection in it. And this love of Man unto himselfe, if subordinate unto the love of God, and governed thereby, is Debitum Natura, a necessarieAristot. Ethic. lib. 9. c. 4. 8. Debt; and such, as the neglect whereof, is a trespasse against Nature.
Now then, as we love our selves, for the unitie which we have in our selves; so, wheresoever we find any similitude to our selves, or character of our selves, either in Nature or Habits, upon that also doe the beames of this Affection extend. Now, a thing may represent our selves, first, in Substance; as the Husband and Wife are said to be one flesh, Arist. Mag…r. Mo…al. lib. 1. c. 34.and Children are branches and portions of their Parents ▪ Secondly, in Qualities or Accidents; as one man resembleth another in Naturall, and one friend another in Habituall Qualities; as Face answereth to Face in Water, so the heart of Man to Man.
With respect unto this double Similitude, there is a double Love; the one, Naturall; the other, acquired, or Habituall: the former is common with Men unto other Creatures: Thus in Aelian, Plutarch, and others, we reade of the NaturallAelian. lib. de Anim. 2. c. 40. Lib. 2. c. 25. Lib. 6. c. 9. Lib. 9. c. 8. Lib. 1…. …. 38. Plu…ch. de …. Anim…l. & de Amore. Aristat. Hist. …. lib. 9. c. 4. …. affection of Elephants; which seeing their young fallen into a deepe Pit, will leape downe after them, though it be present death; and of the marvellous cunning and valour which many other Birds and Beasts use to provide for the safetie of their B…ood, exposing and offering themselves to danger, that they may be delivered: Yea, the Pelican (if wee beleeve the story) dothSophocles in Electra, & ibl Sc…oltast. p. 1 27 feed her young ones, when they have been bitten with Serpents, with her owne blood to recover them againe: which Embleme Iohn the second,Th…loss. de Repub. lib. 8. c. 1. Sect. 19. king of Portugall is said to have chosen, whereby to expresse his Love to his Subjects: And Homer elegantly expresseth the care of a Bird seeding her young ones.
—foreign.Iliad. 1. 324.
She brings her young ones what mea… she can find,
When she her selfe with hunger's almost pin'd.
And the like affection, another Poet hath expressed in the most cruell of all the Beasts, the Tyger:
——Sic Aspera TygrisStatius. Theb. Lib. 10.
Foetibus abreptis Scythico deserta sub Antro
Accubat, & lepidi lambit vestigia lecti.
—The Tyger (which most thirsts for blood)
Seeing her selfe rob'd of her tender brood,
Lies down lamenting in her Scythian Den,
And licks the prints where her lost wholps had lyon.
And this kind of Piety wee finde Reciprocall, Aelian. l. de animal. …. cap. 40. & lib.returning from the young ones upward▪ so the young Lyons are said to feed and provide for their old ones; which is also observ'd of Eagles, Sto…kes and other creatures. And hence wee read of foreign, Lawes, which receive theirAelian. lib. de Anim. 2. cap. 40 & lib. 3. cap. 23 & lib. 9. c. 1. & lib. 10. c. 16. Plutarch. de solert. animal. Aristoph. in Avibus. Plin. lib. 10. c. 23. & lib. 8. cap. 57. demomination from the Stork, providing that children should nourish and take care of their Parents in their distresse. And for men, so great is the power of naturall affection, that Parents desire nothing more, than to be excelled by their children; even vitious men (as Seneca somewhere speaketh) desire that their sonnes may be vertuous, and vertuous men that they may bee more worthy and happy than themselves, as Hector prayed for his sonne.
foreign.Iliad. …. 480.
Let it be said, here's a brave Sonne indeed,
Who doth his noble Father farre exceed.
And Aeneas to Ascanius.
Disce puer virtutem ex me, verosque labores,Aenead. lib. 12. Fortunam ex aliis,—
Vertue and Patience learne my sonne of me,
But may thy fortunes better Patternes see.
And therefore unnaturallnesse of Affection is2 Tim. 3. 3. reckoned up by the Apostle amongst the soulest of sinnes, when like Ismael the nature of men groweth wilde and brutish, as the Philosopher calleth such men foreign, men of savage and fierce dispositions. And therefore in the Scripture an unnaturall man is called Onager homo, a wilde-asse man, Gen. 16. 1…. Iob 11. 12. but a meeke and tender▪spirited man is called Ovi… homo, a Sheepe man, or a man of a sociable and calme disposition, Ezek 36. 37▪ 38. And amongst the Thebans there was a Law made, which appointed…lian. v…r. hist. l. 2. c. 7. a Capitall penalty upon those unnaturall men, who should cast out and expose their children unto ruine.
And as this kind of Love ariseth from Propinquitie of Nature, so another there is growing out of Similitude of Manners. All flesh, as Syracides Eccles. 13. 17.speakes, will resort to their like, and every man will keepe company with such, as he is himselfe; as wee see learned men hold correspondency with thoseforeign ▪ … ▪ Thirsit is viti…, … al…ter indicat Ho… qu…m quod esle… viris praestantissim is Achilli & Vl…ssi invis… ▪ I…iad 2. Vid. Aristot. Prob. §. 10. q. …. foreign, &c. …. Id…. 9. foreign. S… apud D…og. Lat…i. in Zenon. l. 7. M…im▪ Tyriu… …. 4. that are learned, and good with those that are good: no man that excelleth in any quality, shall ever want Friends; because every man, that either hath or liketh that Quality, will love it in any other man, and him for it. For by the same reason that a man by the study or practice of any good things laboureth to commend himselfe to his owne judgement, and to the love of others; he is ingaged (unlesse hee will bee false to his owne grounds) to love any other whom hee observeth to study and practice the same thing: For how can I expect, that that in mee should reape Love from other…, which in others reapeth nothing but Envie from me? And upon this reason it is, that a man can hardly permit another to love that, which he himselfe hateth; because we are too apt to make our Iudgements or Passions the rule of another mans, and to dislik… that in him, which we doe not allow in our selves: Which unruly affection, the Poet hath excellently described in Achilles, when his friend mediated a reconciliation betweene him and Agamemnon:
——foreign.
Iliad. 1. 610.It is not courteous, that where I hate, you
Should love, except you'ld have me hate you too:
But take this rule, if you'l be thought my friend;
The man that offends me, doe you offend.
So much naturally are men in love with their owne likenesse, that many times they can be content to have their very deformities imitated:Plutarch. de Adulat. & A…icis. and therefore, the chiefe art of flatterers, is to commend and imitate every thing of him, of whom they would make a prey.
It is true, that in some cases, similitude is the cause of Envie; but this is onelyonly then, when first the qualitie wherein men agree, is a litigating and contentious qualitie: in which case, the meeting of such men in one disposition, is but like the meeting of two rough Streames, which makes them runne with the more noyse … Therefore, a wise and a meek-tempered man shall sooner winne and hold the love of an angry man, than he, who is like unto him in that distemper; because such a man (though indeed he be Conquerour, in regard of his Wisdome) yet by his Patience he seemeth to yeeld: and there is nothing which a mans Passion loves so much as victory. Whereas betweene Anger and Anger there must needs be fighting of affections, which is the remotest temper from Love.
Secondly, when by accident, the quality, wherein men agree, doth any other way inconvenience them▪ either in point of credit, usefulnesse▪ or pro fit. For as the Sta…res, though they agree in light, yet Validiorum exortu exilia obscurantur, Pl… …gyr.those that are small suffer losse by the brightnesse of others. So amongst men, agreeing in the same abilities, one many times proveth … prejudice and disadvantage unto the other, as the Poet said,
foreign.Hesiod.
The Potter's often angry with his mates,
One ne…ghbour▪ Architect the other hates.
And therefore as the Sunne and Moone agree best in their light when they are fa…hest asunder, so in these Arts, which maintaine life or credit, men usually agree best at a distance, because thereby the one doth the lesse dammage or darken the other.
Now this Naturall and Habituall Love is then regular, when Subordinate to that greater, ourforeign ▪ …. A. … …. …. b. …. c. 3. Love of God, and when governed by the dictates of a rightly informed Reason, which amongst many others are these three.
First, That our Love carry its right respect, and no sinister, or by-…nd with it; That wee love a friend for himselfe, and not with indirect ends, onelyonly upon our owne benefit: For, as bRbe…. l. …. c. 4the Philosopher speakes, true Love is a benevolent Affection, willing good unto another for his owne sake. Hominum charitas, saith Cicero, gratuita est. c De Nat▪ d…or. lib. 1.True love is free, and without selfe respects: whereas to shrowd our owne private aymes under the name of friendship. Non est amicitia sed mercatura, S…. Epi… 9.is onelyonly to make a Trade and Merchandize of one another.
Secondly, that our love be s…rene, not mudded with errour, and prejudice: *foreign. …. …. 106.in the most able men that are, God is pleased to leave some wants and weakenesses, that they may the better know themselves, bee acquainted with divine bounty in what they have, and their necessary use of others in what they want. And therefore it was a seasonable increpation of Polydamas to Hector.
foreign…iad. r. 720. vid. Plutarch. de Animi …ranquil. Ci…r▪ ad A…icum▪ lib. 14. …p. ….
Because thou canst in Warre all men out do,
Wilt thou presume thou canst in Counsell to▪
One breast's too narrow to containe all Arts,
God distributes his gifts in severall parts.
In this case therefore our care must bee to discerne betweene the abilities and infirmities of men, that our Honour and Love of the Person render not his weakenesses beautifull us, nor worke in us an unhappy diligence in the imitation of them. Vix enim dici potest, quantò libentiùs imitamur Quintil. lib. 2. cap. 2. & li. 10. c. ….eos, quibus favemus; Love is very apt to trans port us so farre as to make us imitate the errours of whom we love. Like unskillfull Painters, whoPlutarch. de Adulat. not being able to reach the beauty of the face, expresse onelyonly the wrinkles and blemishes of it.
Thirdly, that our love keepe in all the kinds thereof its due proportion, both for the nature of them, being towards some a love of Reverence, towards others of friendship, towards others of Compassion, towards others of counsell and bounty; as also for their severall degrees of intension, which are to be more or lesse according to the Naturall, Morall, or Divine obligations which wee finde in the persons loved. For though wee must love All men as Our selves, yet that inferres not an Equality, but a Fidelity and Sincerity of love; Since even within Our selves, there is no man but loves his Head and his Heart and other vitall parts with a closer Affection than those which are but fleshly and integrall, and more easily repayrable. And therefore the Apostle limiteth the foreign, the greatest degree of our love upon two objects, those of our owne house, and those of1 Tim. 5. 8. Gal. 6. 10. the houshold of faith; not excluding others, but preferring these.
I shall end this particular with naming one Species of Love more (for all this hitherto hath been Amor Amiciti…, a Love of a Person for himselfe) and it is that which the Schooles call Amor Concupiscenti…, a love of Concupiscence, or a Circular love, that which begins and ends in a Mans selfe, when his Affections having gone forth to some object, doth againe returne home, and loves it not directly for any absolute goodnesse which it hath in it selfe, but as it is conducible and beares a relation of Convenience to him that loves it. For though all affection of love (as Aristotle observed) bee Circular, in as much as the Object first moves the Appetite, and then the Appetite moves to the Object, and so the motion ceaseth where it began (which is a circle;) (which also by the way shewes us in an Embleme the firmenesse and strength which love workes amongst men; because of all Formes and Fabriques, those which are Circular are the strongest; as we see in Arches, wherein every part doth mutually touch and claspe in that which is next it:) Yet in this love which I here speake of, there is a greater circle; in that, after all this, there is another Regresse from the Object to the Appetite, applying the goodnesse thereof unto the same, and loving it onelyonly for the commodity and benefit, which the mind is likely to receive from it.
Another subordinate and lesse principall cause of love, may be love it selfe; I meane in anotherEthic. l. 8. cap. … & Lib. 9. cap. 1 man: for as it is naturall, according to Aristotle, to praise, so sure it is to love, foreign ▪ Men of loving and good natures: and so he maketh just, beneficient & pleasant foreign men that are true lovers of their owne friends to be the proper objects of Love. And herein is that partly verified, that Love is strong as Death. For as that grave which buries a dead man, doth likewise burie all his enemies (it being unnaturall to hate the dead, whom wee cannot hurt: for the utmost harme, that malice can doe, is to kill. And therefore it is noted as a prodigious hatred betweene the two emulous brothers of Thebes, Aetcocles and Polynices;
Nec furiis post fata modus slammaeque rebellesStatius The b…id. Seditione rogi.—
Their furies were not bounded by their fate,
Ones funeral flame the others flame did hate.)
Even so likewise a mans love hath a power to bury his enemies, and to draw unto it selfe the most backward and differing affections; for being of a transient nature, and carrying forth it selfe into the person beloved, it usually (according to the condition of other naturall Agents) worketh semblable and alike affections unto it selfe. For besides that, hereby an Adversary is convinced of nourishing an injurious and undeserved… causam meam hodie… p…tas s…it▪ prorsus …cens, quicunque visus tam b…no seatrie… nocens. Senc…. i… …. enmity; hee is moreover mollified and shamed by his owne witnesse, his conscience telling him that it is odious and inhumane to repay love with hatred. Insomuch that upon this inducement, Saul the patterne of raging and unreasonable envie, was sometimes brought to relent and accuse himselfe. And this is the occasion (as I take it) of that speech of Salomon; If …. 25. 21.thine enemie hunger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drinke; for thou shal… heape coales of fire upon his head. Which, though perhaps,… … …st …, … … …, si … imp…ndere, … re…endere. Aug. de C…te. b. … dib. c. 4. with earthie and base minds, it hath a propertie of hardning and confirming them in their hatred; yet, with minds ingenuous and noble, it hath a cleane contrarie effect, to melt and purge them. And so the Apostle telleth us, that we love God, because he loved us first; and Mary Magdalene 1 …ol. 4. 19. Luke 7. 47.having had much forgiven her, did therefore love Christ much. And therefore the Poets counsell is good:
foreign.
Theocri….If for thy love thy selfe would'st loved bee,… ameris? am…. Martial.
Shew love to those that doe shew love to thee.
The next two Causes, which I conceive, of Love, I will joyne in one; namely, the absence from, and contrarily, the presence with the thing loved; both which, in a different respect, doe exercise Love. And therefore, first, I like not that speech of Aristotle, that though distance of place…. lib. 8. cap. 5. doe not dissolve the root and habit yet it doth the exercise and acts of Love; except he meant it (as I suppose he doth) of the transient acts thereof, whereby each friend doth the office of Love and …eneficence to another. For, as in naturall bodies there is not onelyonly a Compl…encie or Delight in their proper place, when they enjoy it; but an innate propension and motion thereunto, when they* An…mus … …, sicu… corpus ponde…c. …. de Civi…. …. lib. 11. c. 2…. Pond…um A…or …eus, co … quocu…. … …. Confe…. lib. 13. cap▪ 9. & Epist. 89. are absent from it; so in the mind of man (whose a Love in his Weight) there is not onelyonly a Love of Delight in the fru…tion, but a Love likewise of Desire, in the privation of a Good; which, the more it wanteth, the more it fixeth it selfe upon it: b as some things doe naturally attract fire at a distance. Thus the Poet expresseth the Love of Dido to Aeneas:* …. sympos. l. 5. q. 7. Aen…id. l. 4.
Illum absens absentem anditque videtque.
When night had severed them apart,
She heard and saw him in her heart.
And it is the wonder of Love (as Saint Chrysostome foreign, in 1 Cor. 10. 30.speaketh) to collect and knit together in one, things faire separated from each other: Wherein stands the Mysterie of the Communion of the Church on Earth, both with it selfe, in all the dispersed members of it, and with Christ the Head; and that other part of it, which triumpheth in Heaven. So that herein, Divine Love hath the same kind of Vertue with Divine Faith; that as this is the being and subsisting of things to come, and distant in Time; so that is the Vnion and knitting of things absent, and distant in place.
But then, much more doth Presence to the goodnesse of an object loved, encrease and exercise our Love; because it gives us a more compleat sight of it, and Vnion unto it. And therefore Saint Iohn speakes of a Perfection, and Saint1 Ioh. 4. 18. Paul of a Perpetuitie of our Love unto God, grounded1 Cor. 13. 8. on the fulnesse of the Beatificall Vision, when we shall be for ever with the Lord; whereas now, seeing onelyonly in a Glasse darkely, as we know, so likewise we love but in part onelyonly. And Aristotle makesE…hic. lib. 8. c. 5 Mutuall Conversation and Societie one of the greatest bonds of Love; because thereby is a more immediate exercise; and from thence, a greater encrease of the Affection.
As living *Plutareb. l. de Invidia & Od. Aristot. po…it. lib. 1. c. 7.Creatures, so Affections are nourished, after the same manner as they are produced: Now it is necessarie, for the first working of Love, that the Object have some manner of Presence with the Affection, either by a Knowledge of Vision, or of Faith. And therefore Saint Paul sayth, If they had knowne, they would not have crucified 1 Cor. 2. 8.the Lord of Glory; their Ignorance and Hatred of Him, went both together: Simul ut desin…nt ignorare, Apolog. l. c. 1.cessant & odisse; as soone, sayth Tertullian, as they ceased to be ignorant of Christ, they ceased to hate Him: And usually, in the phrase of the Scripture, Knowledge and Love are identicall. So2 Tim. …. 19. Matth. 7. 23▪ Ioh. 9. 21. Psa. 1. 6. 3…. …8. Rom. 8. 29. then, all Love proceeding from Knowledge, and all Knowledge presupposing some Presence of the thing knowne, it appeareth, that the Presence of the Object begetteth, and therefore, by proportion, it nourisheth this Affection.
The last Cause or inducement to this Passion, (which I will but name) is an Aggregate of diverse Beautifull and Amiable Qualities in the Object; as namely, Sympathie, Iustice, Industrie, Temperance, Ingenuitie, Facilitie, Pleasantnesse and Innocencie of Wit, Me…knesse, Yeeldingnesse, Patience, Sweetnesse of behaviour and disposition, without Closenesse, Suspition, Intermedling, Inquisitivenesse, Morositie, Contempt, Dissention; in all which, men are either Injusti or Pugnaces, Rhe…or. l. 1. c. 4.doe either wrong us, or crosse us: Which two, the Philosopher makes the generall Opposites of Love: On which I shall forbeare to insist, as also on the Circumstances of the Act of this Passion it selfe, in the Quantitie and Qualitie thereof, and shall proceed in briefe to the Consequents or Effects of this Passion.