living in the Water God to let us understand that his Order constituted them in these Places produc'd them therein From the Earth he form'd Animals and Plants not that the Earth was capable of Generating or as if God had to that intent given it a force and Vertue which it retains till now For we are sufficiently agreed that the Earth does not Procreate Horses and Oxen but because out of the Earth the Bodies of Animals were form'd as is said in the following Chapter Out of the ground the Lord form'd every Beast of the field and every Fowl of the Air. The Animals were form'd out of the gound formatis de humo animantibus says the Vulgar Latin and not produc'd by it Therefore when Moses had related how Beasts and Fish were produc'd by Vertue of the Command which God gave the Earth and Water to produce them he adds that it was God that made them lest we should attribute their Production to the Earth and Water And God CREATED great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the WATERS BROVGHT FORTH abundantly after their kind and every winged Fowl after his kind and a little lower after he had spoken of the formation of Animals he adjoyns And GOD MADE the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth on the Earth after his kind But 't is observable by the way That what the Vulgar Translates Producant aquae reptile animae viventis volatile super terram and our English Let the Water bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath Life and Fowl that may fly above the Earth the Hebrew has it Volatile VOLITET Let the Fowl fly above the Earth Which distinction shows as is evident from the fore-cited passage of the next Chapter that Fowls were not produc'd from the Water and that it was not Moses's design to prove that the Waters were truly empower'd to produce Fish and Fowl but only to denote the respective place design'd for each by the Order of God whether to live or to be produc'd in Et volatile VOLITET super Terram For commonly when we say that the Earth produces Trees and Plants we only mean to signifie that it furnishes Water and Salts which are necessary to the Germination and increase of Seeds But I dwell no longer on the Explication of these Scripture Passages which Literally taken make for Second Causes For we are so far from being oblig'd that it is sometimes dangerous to take Expressions in the Letter which are founded on common Opinion by which the Language is form'd For the vulgar part of Men speak of all things according to the Impressions of Sense and the Prejudices of Infancy The same Reason which constrains us to interpret Literally such Scripture Passages as directly oppose Prejudices gives us Reason to believe the Fathers never design'd ex proposito to maintain the Efficacy of Second Causes or the Nature of Aristotle For though they often speak in a manner that countenances Prejudices and the Judgments of Sense yet they sometimes so explain themselves as to manifest the disposition of their Mind and Heart St. Austin for instance gives us sufficiently to understand That he believed the Will of God to be the Force and Nature of every thing when he speaks thus We are wont to say but not truly that Prodigies are against Nature For the Nature of every Creature being but the Will of the Creator How can that which is done by the Will of God be contrary to Nature Miracles therefore and Prodigies are not against Nature but against what we know of it 'T is true St. Austin speaks in several places according to Prejudices But I affirm that that is no Argument for we are not Literally to explain but those Expressions which are contrary to them for which I have given the Reasons If St. Austin in his Works had said nothing against the Efficacy of Second Causes but had always favour'd this Opinion his Authority might be made use of to confirm it But if it should not appear that he had industriously examin'd that Question we might still have reason to think he had no settled and resolv'd Opinion about the Subject but was it may be drawn by the Impression of the Senses inconsiderately to believe a thing which no Man would doubt of before he had carefully examin'd it 'T is certain for example that St. Austin always speaks of Beasts as if they had a Soul I say not a Corporeal Soul for that Holy Father too well knew the distinction of the Soul and Body to think there were Corporeal Souls I say a Spiritual Soul for Matter is incapable of Sense And yet it would seem methinks more reasonable to employ the Authority of St. Austin to prove that Beasts have not a Soul than to prove they have For from the Principles which he has carefully examin'd and strongly establish'd it manifestly follows they have none as is shown by Ambrosius Victor in his Sixth Volume of Christian Philosophy But the Opinion that Beasts have a Soul and are sensible of Pain when we strike them being consonant to Prejudices for there is no Child but believes it we have still reason to believe that he speaks according to Custom and Vulgar Opinion and that if he had seriously examin'd the Question and once began to doubt and make reflexion he would never have said a thing so contrary to his Principles And thus though all the Fathers had constantly favour'd the Efficacy of Second Causes yet it may be no regard were due to their Opinion unless it appear'd that they had carefully Examin'd the Question and that their Assertions were not the results of common Speech which is form'd and founded upon Prejudices But the case is certainly quite contrary for the Fathers and such as were most Holy and best acquainted with Religion have commonly manifested in some places or other of their Works what was their Disposition of Mind and Heart in reference to the present Question The most Understanding and indeed the greatest number of Divines seeing that on one hand the Holy Scripture was repugnant to the Efficacy of Second Causes and on the other that the Impression of the Senses the publick Vote and especially Aristotle's Philosophy which was had in veneration by the Learned establish it For Aristotle believ'd God unconcern'd in the particulars of Sublunary Transactions That that change was below his Majesty and that Nature which he supposes in all Bodies suffic'd to produce all that was done below The Divines I say have so equally balanc'd these Two as to reconcile Faith with Heathen Philosophy Reason with Sense and to make Second Causes ineffective without the additional concourse of God Almighty But because that immediate concourse whereby God acts jointly with Second Causes includes great difficulties some Philosophers have rejected it pretending that in Order to their Acting there needs no more than
were true that God acted by particular Wills since Miracles are such only from their not happening by General Laws Therefore Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the Opinion I have establish'd But as to ordinary Effects they clearly and directly demonstrate General Laws or Wills If for Instance a Stone be dropp'd upon the Head of Passengers it will continually fall with equal speed not distinguishing the Piety or Quality or Good or Ill Disposition of those that pass If we examine any other Effect we shall see the same Constancy in the Action of the Cause of it But no Effect proves that God acts by particular Wills though Men commonly fancy God is constantly working Miracles in their Favour That way they would have God to act in being consonant to their own and indulgent to Self-love which centers all things on themselves and very proportionate to their Ignorance of the Complication of Occasional Causes which produce extraordinary Effects naturally falls into Mens Thoughts when but greenly studied in Nature and consult not with sufficient Attention the abstract Idea of an Infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being Infinitely Perfect CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE II. Of the Laws of GRACE in particular and of the Occasional Causes which regulate and determine their Efficacy PART I. Of the Grace of JESVS CHRIST I. SINCE none but GOD can act immediately and by himself on Minds and produce in them all the various Motions they are capable of 'T is he alone who sheds his Light within us and inspires us with certain Sensations which determine our diverse Volitions And therefore none but he can as a True Cause produce Grace in our Souls For Grace or that which is the Principle or Motive of all the Regular Motions of our Love is necessarily either a Light which instructs us or a confus'd Sensation that convinces us that God is our Good since we never begin to love an Object unless we see clearly by the Light of Reason or feel confusedly by the tast of Pleasure that this Object is good I mean capable of making us happier than we are II. But since all Men are involv'd in Original Sin and even by their Nature infinitely beneath the Majesty of God 'T is Jesus Christ alone that can by the Dignity of his Person and the Holiness of his Sacrifice have access to his Father reconcile him to us and merit his Favours for us and consequently be the meritorious Cause of Grace These Truths are certain But we are not seeking the Cause which produces Grace by its own Efficacy nor that which merits it by its Sacrifice and Good Works We enquire for that which regulates and determines the Efficacy of the General Cause and which we may term the Second Particular and Occasional III. For to the end the General Cause may act by General Laws or Wills and that his Action may be regular constant and uniform 't is absolutely necessary there should be some Occasional Cause to determine the Efficacy of these Laws and to help to fix them If the Collision of Bodies or something of like Nature did not determine the Efficacy of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions it would be necessary for God to move Bodies by particular Wills The Laws of Union of the Soul and Body become efficacious only from the Changes befalling one or other of these two Substances For if God made the Soul feel the Pain of pricking tho' the Body were not prick'd or though the same thing did not happen in the Brain as if it were he would not act by the General Laws of Union of the Soul and Body but by a particular Will If Rain fell on the Earth otherwise than by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws of Communication of Motions the Rain and the Fall of every Drop that composes it would be the Effect of a particular Will So that unless Order requir'd it should rain that Will would be absolutely unworthy of God 'T is necessary therefore that in the Order of Grace there should be some Occasional Cause which serves to fix these Laws and to determine their Efficacy And this is the Cause we must endeavour to discover IV. Provided we consult the Idea of intelligible Order or consider the sensible Order which appears in the Works of God we shall easily discover that Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of General Laws and are of use in fixing them must necessarily be related to the Design for which God has establish'd them For Example Experience evidences that God has not made and Reason certifies that he ought not to make the Courses of the Planets the Occasional Causes of the Union of our Soul and Body He ought not to will that our Arm should be mov'd in such or such a manner or that our Soul should feel the Tooth-ake when the Moon shall be in conjunction with the Sun if so be this Conjunction acts not on the Body God's Design being to unite our Soul to our Body he cannot in prosecuting that Design give the Soul Sensations of Pain save when there happen some Changes in the Body repugnant to it Wherefore we are not to seek out of our Soul or Body the Occasional Causes of their Union V. Hence it follows that God designing to form his Church by Jesus Christ could not according to that Design seek the Occasional Causes which serve to settle the General Laws of Grace by which the Spirit of Jesus diffus'd through his Members communicates Life and Holiness to them except in Jesus Christ and in the Creatures united to him by Reason Thus the Rain of Grace is not deriv'd to our Hearts by the diverse situations of the Stars nor by the Collision of certain Bodies nor even according to the different Courses of the animal Spirits which give us Motion and Life All that Bodies can do is to excite in us Motions and Sensations purely Natural For whatever arrives to the Soul through the Body is only for the Body VI. Yet as Grace is not given to all that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and is granted to those who do not ask it it thence follows that even our Desires are not the Occasional Causes of Grace For this sort of Causes have constantly and most readily their Effect and without them the Effect is not produc'd For Instance the Collision of Bodies being the Occasional Cause of the Change which happens in their Motion if two Bodies did not meet their Motions would not alter and if they alter'd we may be assur'd they met The general Laws which shed Grace upon our Hearts find nothing therefore in our Wills to determine their Efficacy as the general Laws which regulate the Rains are not founded on the Dispositions of the Places rain'd upon For it indifferently rains upon all Places on hollow and manur'd Grounds even on the Sands and the Sea it self VII We are therefore reduc'd to confess that
Principle In a word Jesus Christ needing Minds of particular Dispositions for the causing particular Effects may in general apply to them and by that Application infuse into them sanctifying Grace As the Mind of a Projector thinks in general of square Stones when these Stones are actually necessary to his Building XVIII But the Soul of Jesus being not a general Cause we have reason to think it has often particular Desires in regard to particular Persons When we intend to speak of God we must not consult our selves and make him act like us but consider the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect and make God act according to that Idea But in speaking of the Action of the Soul of Jesus we may look into our selves and make him act like particular Causes For Example We have reason to believe that the Conversion of St. Paul was owing to the Efficacy of a particular Desire of Jesus Christ. And we are to look upon the Desires of the Soul of Jesus which have a general respect to Minds of a certain Character as particular Desires though they comprehend many Persons because these Desires change daily like those of particular Causes But the general Laws by which God acts are always the same because the Wills of God ought to be firm and constant by reason that his Wisdom is infinite XIX The diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus distributing Grace we clearly conceive why it is not equally dispers'd to all Men and why bestow'd on some more abundantly at one time than another For his Soul not thinking on all Men at once cannot at the same time have all the Desires whereof it is capable So that he acts not on his Members in a particular manner except by successive Influences as the Soul moves not at once all the Muscles of our Body For the Animal Spirits are unequally and successively distributed into our Members according to the various Impressions of Objects the diverse Motions of our Passions and the several Desires we freely excite within us XX. True it is that all the Righteous constantly receive the Influence of their Head which gives them Life and that when they act by the Spirit of Jesus Christ they merit and receive new Graces though it be not necessary that the Soul of Jesus should have any particular Desires as the occasional Causes of them For Order which requires that every Desert should be rewarded is not an arbitrary but a necessary Law and independent from any occasional Cause But though he who performs a meritorious Action may be rewarded for it whilst the Soul of Jesus has no actual Desires relating to him yet 't is certain that he merited not this Grace but by the Dignity and Sanctity of the Spirit which Christ has communicated to him For Men are not well-pleasing to God nor able to do good but in as much as they are united to his Son by Charity XXI It must be farther acknowledg'd that those who observe the Counsels of Jesus Christ out of an Esteem they have for them and through the Fear of future Punishment sollicite as I may say by their Obedience the Charity of Christ to think on them though they act from a Principle of Self-love But their Actions are not the Occasional Causes either of Grace since it does not infallibly follow them or even of the Motions of the Soul of Jesus in their Favour since these Motions never fail to communicate it Thus only the Desires of Jesus Christ as Occasional Causes have infallibly their Effect because God having constituted him Head of the Church ought by him only to communicate his sanctifying Grace to his Elect. XXII Now we may consider in the Soul of Jesus Christ Desires of two sorts viz. Actual Transitory and Particular that have but a short-liv'd Efficacy and Stable and Permanent which consist in a setled and constant Disposition of the Soul of Jesus Christ with relation to certain Effects which tend to the Execution of his Design in general If our Soul by its various Motions communicated to our Body all that was necessary to its Formation and Growth we might distinguish in her two kinds of Desire For it would be by the actual and transitory Desires that she would drive into the Muscles of the Body the Spirits which gave it a certain Disposition with reference to present Objects or to the actual Thoughts of the Mind But it would be by stable and permanent Desires that she would give to the Heart and Lungs the natural Motions by which Respiration and the Circulation of the Blood were perform'd By these Desires she would digest the Aliments and distribute them to all the Parts that needed them in as much as that sort of Action is at all times necessary to the Preservation of the Body XXIII By the actual transitory and particular Desires of the Soul of Jesus Grace is deriv'd to unprepar'd Persons in a manner somewhat singular and extraordinary But 't is by his permanent Desires that it is given regularly to those who receive the Sacraments with the necessary Dispositions For the Grace we receive by the Sacraments is not given us precisely because of the Merit of our Action though we receive them in Grace but because of the Merits of Jesus Christ which are freely applied to us in consequence of his permanent Desires We receive in the Sacraments much more Grace than our Preparation deserves and it suffices to our receiving some Influence from them that we do not oppose and resist it But 't is abusing what is most Sacred in Religion to receive them unworthily XXIV Amongst the actual and transitory Desires of the Soul of Jesus there are certainly some more durable and frequent than others and the Knowledge of these Desires is of greatest Consequence in Point of Morality Doubtless he thinks oftner on those who observe his Counsels than on other Men. His Motions of Charity for Believers are more frequent and lasting than those for Libertines and Atheists And as all Believers are not equally prepar'd to enter into the Church of the Predestinate the Desires of the Soul of Jesus are not equally lively frequent and durable on the account of them all Man more earnestly desires the Fruits that are fittest for the Nourishment of his Body he 〈◊〉 oftner on Bread and Wine than on Meats of difficult Digestion So Jesus Christ designing the Formation of his Church ought to be more taken up with those who can most easily enter than on others which are extremely remote The Scripture likewise teaches us that the Humble the Poor the Penitent receive greater Graces than other Men because the Despisers of Honours Riches and Pleasures are the fittest for the Kingdom of Heaven Those for Example who have learn'd of Jesus Christ to be meek and humble in Heart shall find Rest to their Souls The Yoke of Christ which is insupportable to the Proud will become easie and light by the Assistances of Grace For God
obligation to believe to serve for a Rule and Principle for the guiding our Reasonings in Philosophy where nothing but Evidence ought to perswade us We are not to change the clear and distinct Idea's of Extension Figure and Local Motion for the general and confus'd Idea's of Principle or of subject of Extension of Form of Quiddities and Real Qualities and of all those Motions of Generation Corruption and Alteration and others which differ from Local Motion Real Idea's will produce real Science but from general and Logical Idea's can proceed nothing but a random superficial and a barren Science Wherefore we ought with serious Reflection to attend to the distinct and particular Idea's of things for the discovering the Properties they contain and thereby study Nature instead of losing our selves in these Chimera's which are only the litter or off-spring of some Philosopher's Brains CHAP. IX I. The last general Cause of our Errors II. That the Idea's of things are not always present to the Mind when we would have them III. That every finite Mind is subject to Error and why IV. That we ought not to judge that there is nothing but Body and Spirit Nor that GOD is a Spirit according to our conception of Spirits WE have hitherto treated of such Errors as may have some occasional Cause assigned in the Nature of the pure Intellect or of the Mind consider'd as acting by it self and in the nature of Idea's that is to say in the manner of the Mind 's perceiving external Objects There remains only one Cause now to be explain'd which may be term'd the universal and general Cause of our Errors because we can conceive no Error that has not some sort of dependance on it The Cause is this That Nothing having no Idea to represent it the Mind is carried to believe that the things whereof it has no Idea have no Existence 'T is certain that the general Source of our Errors as we have often said is our Judgment 's having greater extent and latitude than our Perceptions For when we consider any Object we commonly take the prospect but on one side of it but we are not content to judge only of that side we have consider'd but we pronounce of it all entire And so it often fortunes that we are deceiv'd for though the thing be true on the part we have Examin'd it is commonly false on the other we have not and what we believe true is no more than probable Now 't is manifest that we should not judge thus absolutely on things as we do did we not think we had consider'd all the parts of them or suppose them all like that which we have examin'd So the general Cause of our Errors lies in this that having no Idea of the other Faces of the Object or of their difference with that which is present to our Thoughts we believe those other Faces don't exist or at least we suppose they have no particular difference This manner of acting we think reasonable enough For since Nothing cannot form any Idea in the Mind we have some pretence to believe that the things that form no Idea in the Mind at the time of our Examining them resemble Nothing And that which confirms us in this Opinion is our being perswaded by a sort of Instinct that the Idea's of things are due to our Nature and are in such wise subjected to the Mind that they are oblig'd to pay their attendance when the Mind commands them However if we would make a little Reflection upon the present state of our Nature we should hardly be so strongly bent upon believing all the Idea's of things so much at our beck and command Man as I may say is only Flesh and Blood since Adam's Transgression The least impression of his Senses and his Passions interrupts the strongest Application of his Mind and the current of the Spirits and Blood hurry it along with them and drive it continually upon sensible Objects In vain it strives to withstand the Torrent it is carried by and rarely it is that it thinks of resisting it so pleasant it finds it to follow and so troublesome to struggle against the stream The Mind therefore is discourag'd and dejected as soon as it has made an attempt to hold and fix it self upon a Truth and 't is absolutely false in the state we are in that the Idea's of things are present to the Mind as often as we would consider them And therefore we ought not to judge that things are not in being upon the only score of our having no Idea's of them But though we should suppose Man absolute Master of his Mind and its Idea's yet he would still be subject to Error by the necessity of his Nature For the Mind of Man is limited and every limited Mind is by Nature liable to Error The reason whereof is this that the least things have Infinite Relations betwixt them and require an Infinite Mind to comprehend them And therefore a limited Mind being unable to embrace and comprehend all these Relations after all that ever it can do a Man 's inclin'd to believe that those which he does not perceive don't exist especially when he does not consider the Weakness and Limitation of his Mind as 't is customary for him not to do And thus the Finiteness of the Mind alone brings along with it the Capacity of falling into Error Notwithstanding if Men even in this their state of Infirmity and Corruption made always good use of their Liberty they would never be deceiv'd And for this reason every one that falls into Error is justly blameable and deservedly obnoxious to punishment For no more is requisite for the avoiding Error than to judge only of what a Man sees and not to form compleat judgments on things before he is assur'd he has examin'd them in all their parts and this is possible for Men to do But they had rather subjugate themselves to Error than conform to the Rule of Truth and love to arbitrate without the trouble of Enquiry And so we need not wonder if they are guilty of infinite Errors and frequently stand chargeable with uncertain and unwarrantable Judgments All the Idea's for instance that Men have of Substance are those of Spirit and of Body that is of a thinking and extended Substance and thereupon they take upon them to determine that whatever exists is either of Body or Spirit This is not said as if I presum'd to affirm there were any Substance neither Body nor Spirit it being too hazardous to maintain those things exist whereof we have no Idea since 't is suppos'd that GOD who conceals not his Works from us would have given us some Idea of them Yet I think we ought to determine nothing concerning the number of the kinds of Beings which GOD has created from the Idea's we have of them Since absolutely speaking there may be Reasons why GOD should conceal them from us if
loose and indefinite Notions engage not into Errour at least they are wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For though we know that there is in Fire a substantial Form attended with a Million of Faculties like to that of heating dilating melting Gold Silver and other Metals lightening burning roasting the Idea of that substantial Form with all its Faculties of producing Heat Fluidity Rarefaction will not help me to resolve this Question Why Fire hardens Clay and softens Wax There being no Connection betwixt the Ideas of Hardness in Clay and Softness in Wax and those of a substantial Form in Fire and its Faculties of Rarefaction Fluidity c. The same may be said of all general Ideas which are utterly insufficient for resolving any Question But when I know that Fire is nothing else but divided Wood whose Parts are in a continual Agitation by which alone it raises in me the Sensation of Heat and that the Softness of Clay consists in a Mixture of Water and Earth those Ideas being not general and confused but particular and distinct it will not be difficult to perceive that the Heat of Fire must harden Clay nothing being easier to conceive than that one Body may move another if it meet with it being it self in Motion We likewise easily perceive that since the Heat we feel near the Fire is caused by the Motion of the invisible Particles of Wood striking against our Hands Face c. if we expose Clay to the Heat of Fire the Particles of Water that are mixed with those of Earth being more thin and disunited and consequently more agitated by the Action and Impulse of the fiety Corpuscles than the gross Particles of Earth must be separated and expelled and the other remain dry and hard We shall perceive with the same Evidence that Fire must produce a quite contrary Effect upon Wax if we know that it is composed of Particles that are branched and almost of the same Bulk Thus may particular Ideas be subservient to the Enquiry after Truth whilst loose and undeterminate Notions are not only altogether unserviceable but also insensibly engage us into Errour For these Philosophers are not content to make use of those general Terms and uncertain Ideas which answer to them they moreover pretend that those Words signifie some particular Beings they give out that there is a Substance distinguished from Matter which is the Form of it and withal an infinite Number of little Beings really distinguished from that Matter and Form of which they suppose as many as they have different Sensations of Bodies or as those Bodies are supposed to produce different Effects However 't is visible to any attentive Person that those little Beings for instance that are said to be distinguished from Fire and suppos'd to be contained in it for the producing Heat Light Hardness Fluidity c. are but the Contrivances of the Imagination that rebells against Reason since Reason has no particular Idea that represents those little Beings When the Philosophers are asked What is the illuminating Faculty in Fire They only answer That 't is a Being which is the Cause that Fire is capable of producing Light So that their Idea of that illuminating Faculty differs not from the general Idea of Cause and the confused Idea of the Effect they see and therefore they have no clear Idea of what they say when they admit those particular Beings and so say what they not only understand not but what 's impossible to be understood CHAP. III. Of the most dangerous Errour in the Philosophy of the Ancients PHilosophers not only speak without understanding themselves when they explain the Effects of Nature by some Beings of which they have no particular Idea but also establish a Principle whence very false and pernicious Consequences may directly be drawn For supposing with them that there are in Bodies certain Entities distinguished from Matter and having no distinct Idea of those Entities 't is easie to imagine that they are the real or principal Causes of the Effects we see And this is the very Opinion of the vulgar Philosophers The prime Reason of their supposing those substantial Forms real Qualities and other such like Entities is to explain the Effects of Nature But when we come attentively to consider the Idea we have of Cause or Power of acting we cannot doubt but that it represents something Divine For the Idea of a Sovereign Power is the Idea of a Sovereign Divinity and the Idea of a subordinate Power the Idea of an inferiour Divinity yet a true Divinity at least according to the Opinion of the Heathens supposing it to be the Idea of a true Power or Cause And therefore we admit something Divine in all the Bodies that surround us when we acknowledge Forms Faculties Qualities Virtues and real Beings that are capable of producing some Effects by the force of their Nature and thus insensibly approve of the Sentiments of the Heathens by too great a Deference for their Philosophy Faith indeed corrects us but it may perhaps be said that the Mind is a Pagan whilst the Heart is a Christian. Moreover it is a hard Matter to persuade our selves that we ought neither to fear nor love true Powers and Beings that can act upon us punish us with some Pain or reward us with some Pleasure And as Love and Fear are a true Adoration it is hard again to imagine why they must not be ador'd For whatever can act upon us as a true and real Cause is necessarily above us according to Reason and St. Austin and by the same Reason and Authority 't is likewise an immutable Law That inferiour Beings should be subservient to superiour Whence that great Father concludes That the Body cannot operate upon the Soul and that nothing can be above her but God only The chief Reasons that God Almighty uses in the Holy Scriptures to prove to the Israelites that they ought to adore that is to love and fear him are drawn from his Power to reward or punish them representing to them the Benefits they have received from him the Punishments he has inflicted upon them and his Power that is always the same He forbids them to adore the Gods of the Heathens as such as have no Power over them and can doe them neither harm nor good He commands them to honour him alone as the only true Cause of Good and Evil Reward and Punishment none of which can befal a City according to the Prophet but what comes from him by reason that natural Causes are not the true Causes of the Hurt they seem to doe us and as it is God alone that acts in them so 't is He alone that must be fear'd and lov'd in them Soli Deo Honor Gloria Lastly The Sense of fearing and Loving what may be the true Cause of Good and Evil appears so natural and just that it is not possible to cast it off So that in that
indeed whenever we will it and we may be call'd in that sense the natural cause of the Motion of our Arm yet natural Causes are not true but only occasional as acting by the mere force and efficacy of the Will of God as we have already explain'd For how is it possible for us to move our Arm To perform this 't is requir'd we should have Animal Spirits and send them through certain Nerves towards certain Muscles to swell up and contract them for so that Motion is perform'd as some pretend though others deny it and assert that the Mystery is not yet discover'd However it be most Men know not so much as that they have Spirits Nerves and Muscles and yet move their Arms with as much and more dexterity than the most skilful Anatomists Men therefore will the moving their Arm but 't is God that is able and knows how to doe it If a Man cannot overthrow a Tower yet he knows what must be done to effect it but not one amongst them knows what the Animal Spirits must doe to move one of his Fingers How should they then move the whole Arm of themselves These things appear very evident to me and I suppose to all thinking Persons though they may be incomprehensible to others such as are only used to the confused voice of the Senses But Men are so far from being the true Causes of the Motions produc'd in their Body that it seems to imply a Contradiction they should be so For a true Cause is that betwixt which and its Effect the Mind percieves a necessary connexion for so I understand it But there is none besides the infinitely perfect Being betwixt whose Will and the Effects the Mind can perceive a necessary Connexion and therefore none but God is the true Cause or has a real Power of moving Bodies Nay it seems unconceivable that God should communicate this Power either to Angels or Men And those that pretend that the Power we have of moving our Arm is a true Power must by Consequence grant that God can give Spirits the Power of creating annihilating and doing all possible things in short that he can make them Almighty as I am going to pove God needs not Instruments to act 't is enough he should Will the Existence of a thing in order to its Existing because it is contradictory that he should will a thing and his Will should not be fulfilled And therefore his Power is his Will and to communicate his Power is to communicate his Will so that to communicate his Will to a Man or an Angel can signifie nothing else but to will that whenever that Man or Angel shall desire that such or such a Body be moved it may actually be moved In which Case I see two Wills concurring together that of God and that of the Angel and to know which of them is the true Cause of the Motion of that Body I enquire which is the Efficacious I see a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the thing willed in this Case God wills that whenever the Angel shall desire that such a Body be moved it be really so There is then a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the Motion of that Body and consequently God is the true Cause of that Motion and the Will of the Angel is only occasional Again to make it more evidently manifest let us suppose God wills it should happen quite contrary to the Desire of some Spirits as may be thought of the Devils or some other wicked Spirits in Punishment of their Sins In that Case it cannot be said God communicates his Power to them since nothing happens of what they wish However the Will of those Spirits shall be the natural Cause of the produced Effects as such a Body shall be removed to the Right because they wish it were moved to the Left and the Desires of those Spirits shall determine the Will of God to act as the Will of moving the Parts of our Body determine the first Cause to move them and therefore the Desires of all finite Spirits are but occasional Causes If after all these Reasons it be still asserted that the Will of an Angel moving a Body is a true and not a bare occasional Cause 't is evident that the self-same Angel might be the true Cause of the Creation and Annihilation of all things since God might as well communicate to him his Power of Creating and annihilating Bodies as that of moving them if He should will that they should be created and annihilated in a word if he will'd that all things should be performed according to the Angel's Desires as he wills that Bodies be moved as the Angel pleases if therefore it may be said that an Angel or Man are true Movers because God moves Bodies as they desire that Man or Angel might likewise be call'd true Creatours since God might create Beings on occasion of their Will Nay perhaps it might be said that the vilest of Animals or even mere Matter is the real Cause of the Creation of some Substance if it be supposed with some Philosophers that God produces substantial Forms whenever the Disposition of Matter requires it And lastly since God has resolved from all Eternity to create some certain things at some certain times those Times might also be called the Causes of the Creation of such Beings with as much right as 't is pretended that a Ball meeting with another is the true Cause of the Motion that is communicated to it because God by his general Will that constitutes the Order of Nature has decreed that such or such Communication of Motions should follow upon the Concourse of two Bodies There is then but one true Cause as there is one true God Neither must we imagine that what precedes an Effect does really produce it God himself cannot communicate his Power to Creatures according to the Light of Reason He cannot make them true Causes and change them into Gods But though he might doe it we conceive not why he should will it Bodies Spirits pure Intelligences all can doe nothing 'T is he who has made Spirits that enlightens and moves them 't is he who has created Heaven and Earth that regulates all their Motions In fine 't is the Authour of our Being that performs our Desires Semel jussit semper paret He moves even our Arms when we use them against his Orders for he complains by his Prophets That we make him subservient to our unjust and criminal Desires All those little Divinities of the Heathens all those particular Causes of Philosophers are Chimeras which the wicked Spirit endeavours to set up that he may destroy the Worship of the true God The Philosophy we have received from Adam teaches us no such things but that which has been propagated by the Serpent for ever since the Fall the Mind of Man is turned Heathen That Philosophy join'd to the Errours of the Senses has made
but acts always by the simplest Ways and for that Reason he makes use of the Collision of Bodies in giving them Motion Not that this Collision is absolutely necessary to it as our Senses tell us but that being the Occasion of the Communication of Motions there need be but very few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects we see For by this means we may reduce all the Laws of the Communication of Motions to one Viz. That percutient Bodies being considered as but one at the Moment of their Contact or Collision the moving Force is divided between them at their Separation according to the Proportion of their Magnitude But whereas concurrent Bodies are surrounded with infinite others which act upon them by Virtue and Efficacy of this Law however constant and uniform this Law be it produces a World of quite different Communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which are all related to one another It is necessary to Water a Plant to make it grow because by the Laws of the Communication of Motions hardly any other than Watry Particles can by their Motion and by reason of their Figure insinuate and Wind up themselves into the Fibres of Plants and by variously fastning and combining together take the Figure that 's necessary to their Nourishment The subtil Matter which is constantly flowing from the Sun may by its agitating the Water lift it into the Plants but it has not a competent Motion to raise gross Earthy Particles Yet Earth and Air too are necessary to the Growth of Plants Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and Air to give this Water a Moderate Fermentation But the Action of the Sun the Air and Water consisting but in the Motion of their Parts in proper speaking GOD is the only Agent For as I have said there is none but He that can by the efficacy of his Will and by the Infinite Extent of his Knowledge cause and regulate those infinitely infinite Communications of Motions which are made every moment and in a Proportion infinitely exact and regular ARGUMENT IV. Can God resist and Fight against Himself Bodies justle strike and resist one another therefore Gods Acts not in them unless it be by his concourse For if it were he only that produc'd and preserv'd Motion in Bodies he would take care to divert them before the Collision as knowing well that they are impenetrable To what purpose are Bodies driven to be beaten back again why must they proceed to recoil Or what signifies it to produce and Preserve useless Motions Is it not an Absurdity to say that God impugns himself and that He destroys his Works when a Bull fights with a Lyon when a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which God makes to grow Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Therefore Second Causes do all and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself but Concourse is Action The concurring to contrary Actions is giving contrary Concourse and consequently doing contrary Actions To concur with the Action of Creatures that resist each other is to Act against himself To concur to useless Motions is to Act in vain But God does nothing needless or in vain he does no contrary Actions and therefore concurs not to the Action of Creatures that often destroy one another and makes useless Actions and Motions See where this proof of Second Causes leads us But let us see what Reason says to it God Works all in every thing and nothing resists him He Works all in all things in as much as his Will both makes and regulates all Motions And nothing resists him because he does what ever he Wills But let us see how this is to be conceiv'd Having resolv'd to produce by the simplest ways as most conformable to Order that infinite Variety of Creatures which we admire he will'd that Bodies should move in a right line because that is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions tending in Lines that oppose or intersect one another they must necessarily fall foul together and consequently cease moving in the same manner God foresaw this yet notwithstanding positively will'd the Collision or shock of Bodies not that he 's delighted in impugning himself but because he design'd to make use of this Collision as an Occasion for his establishing the General Law of the Communication of Motions by which he foresaw he must produce an infinite Variety of admirable Effects For I am perswaded that these two Natural Laws which are the simplest of all others Namely that All Motion tends to make it self in a right line and that in the Collision Motions are Communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Colliding Bodies are sufficient to produce such a World as we see That is the Heaven and Stars and Planets and Comets Earth Water Air and Fire In a Word the Elements and all Unorganiz'd and inanimate Bodies For Organiz'd Bodies depend on many other Natural Laws which are perfectly unknown It may be living Bodies are not form'd like others by a determinate number of Natural Laws For there is great probability they were all form'd at the Creation of the World and that Time only gives them a necessary Growth to make them Visible to our Eyes Nevertheless it is certain they receive that Growth by the General Laws of Nature whereby all other Bodies are form'd which is the Reason that their Increase is not always Regular I say then that God by the first of Natural Laws positively Wills and consequently Causes the Collision of Bodies and afterwards imploys this Collision as an Occasion of establishing the Second Natural Law which regulates the Communication of Motions and that thus the actual Collision is the Natural or Occasional Cause of the Actual Communication of Motions If this be well consider'd it will be evidently acknowledg'd that nothing can be better Order'd But supposing that God had not so Ordain'd it and that he had diverted Bodies when ready to encounter as if there were a Vacuum to receive them First they would not be subject to that perpetual Vicissitude which makes the Beauty of the Universe For the Generation of some Bodies is perform'd by the Corruption of Others and 't is the contrariety of their Motion which produces their Variety Secondly God would not act in the most simple manner For if Bodies ready to meet should continue on their Motion without touching they must needs describe Lines curv'd in a thousand different Fashions and consequently different Wills must be admitted in God to determine their Motions Lastly if there were no Uniformity in the Action of Natural Bodies and that their Motion were not made in a right Line we should have no certain Principle for our Reasonings in natural Philosophy nor for our conduct in many Actions of our Life 'T is not a disorder that Lyons eat Wolves and that Wolves eat Sheep and Sheep grass of which God has had so
that God should continue to them their Vertue he endow'd them with in their Creation And since this Opinion is exactly agreeable with Prejudice because of the insensible Operation of God in Second Causes it is commonly embrac'd by the vulgar sort of Men and such as have more studied Ancient Naturalists and Physicians than Theology and Truth Most are of Opinion that God created all things at first and gave them all the Qualities and Faculties that were necessary to their preservation that he has for example given the first Motion of Matter and left it afterwards to it self to produce by the Communication of its Motions that admirable variety of Forms we see 'T is Ordinarily suppos'd that Bodies can move one another and this is said to be Mr. des Cartes's Opinion though he speaks expresly against it in the Thirty Sixth and Seventh Articles of the Second Part of his Philosophical Principles Since Men must unavoidably acknowledge that the Creatures depend on God they lessen and abridge as much as possible that dependance whether out of a secret Aversion to God or a strange and wretched stupidity and insensibility to his Operation But whereas this Opinion is receiv'd but by those who have not much studied Religion and have preferr'd their Senses to their Reason and Aristotle's Authority to that of Holy Writ we have no reason to fear its making way into the Mind of those who have any Love for Truth and Religion for provided a Man seriously examin'd it he must needs discover its falsity But the Opinion of God's Immediate Concourse to every Action of Second Causes seems to accord with those Passages of Scripture which often attribute the same Effect both to GOD and the Creature We must consider then that there are places in Scripture where 't is said that God is the only Agent I am the Lord that maketh all things that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the Earth by my self Ego sum Dominus says Isaiah faciens OMNIA Extendens coelos SOLVS stabiliens Terram NVLLVS Mecum A Mother Animated with the Spirit of God tells her Children it was not her that form'd them I cannot tell how you came into my Womb For I neither gave you Breath nor Life neither was it I that form'd the Members of every one of you But doubtless the Creator of the World c. Nescio qualiter in utero meo apparuistis singulorum membra NON EGO IPSA COMPEGI sed mundi Creator She does not say with Aristotle and the School of the Peripateticks that to her and the Sun they ow'd their Birth but to the Creator of the Universe Which Opinion that God only Works and forms Children in their Mothers Womb not being conformable to Prejudice and Common Opinion These Sentences according to the pre-establish'd Principle must be explain'd in the Literal Sense But on the contrary the Notion of Second Causes falling in with the vulgar Opinion and being Suited to the sensible impression the Passages which expresly make for the separate Efficacy of Second Causes must be reckon'd invalid when compar'd with the former Concourse therefore is insufficient to reconcile the different Texts of Scripture and all Force Power and Efficacy must be ascrib'd to God But though the immediate concurrence of God with Second Causes were fit to accommodate the disagreeing passages of Holy Writ yet after all it is a question whether it ought to be admitted For the Sacred Books were not compos'd for the Theologists of these times but for the People of the Jews So that if this People had not understanding or Subtilty enough to imagine a Concourse such as is admitted in School-Divinity and to agree to a thing which the greatest Divines are hard put to to explain it follows if I mistake not that the Holy Scripture which Attributes to God and even to God alone the production and preservation of all things would have betray'd them into Error And the Holy Pen-Men had stood chargeable with writing not only in an unintelligible but deceitful Language For in saying that God Work'd all they would have design'd no more than that God assisted to all things with his concourse which was not probably so much as thought on by the Jews Those amongst them who were not very great Philosophers believing that God Work'd all and not that he concurr'd to all But that we may pass a more certain judgement about this Concourse it would be requisite to explain with care the different Hypotheses of the School-Men upon it For besides those impenetrable Clouds and Obscurities which involve all the Opinions that cannot be explain'd and defended without loose and indefinite Terms there are upon this Matter so great a variety of Opinions that it would be no hard Matter to discover the cause of them But I design not to engage in a discussion that would be so wearisom to my self as well as the greatest part of Readers On the contrary I had rather try to show that my Opinions may in some thing accord with those of the greater number of Scholastick Divines though I cannot but say their Language looks very Ambiguous and confus'd To explain my self I am of Opinion as I have said elsewhere that Bodies for example have no Force to move themselves and that therefore their moving force is nothing but the Action of God or not to make use of a Term which has no distinct import their moving force is nothing but the Will of God always necessarily Efficacious which successively preserves them in different Places For I believe not that God Creates any particular Beings to make the moving force of Bodies not only because I have no Idea of such a kind of Being nor see how they could move Bodies But also because these Beings themselves would have need of others to move them and so in infinitum For none but God is truely Immoveable and Mover altogether Which being so when a Body strikes and moves another I may say that it Acts by the Concurrence of God and that this Concurrence is not distinct from its own Action For a Body meeting another moves it by its Action or its moving force which at bottom is nothing but the Will of God preserving the Body successively in different Places the translation of a Body being not it's Action or moving force but the Effect of it Almost all Divines say too that the Action of Second Causes is not different from that of God's Concurrence with them For though they have a various Meaning yet they suppose that God Acts in the Creatures by the same Action as the Creatures And they are oblig'd if I mistake not thus to speak For if the Creatures Acted by an Action which God Work'd not in them their Action consider'd as such would no doubt be independent But they acknowledge as it becomes them that the Creatures depend immediately on God not only as to their Being but likewise as to
The Soul of a Beast is a Substance distinct from its Body This Soul is Annihilated and therefore Substances may naturally be Annihilated Therefore though the Soul of Man be a Substance distinct from his Body it may be Annihilated when the Body is destroyed And thus the Immortality of the Humane Soul cannot be Demonstrated by Reason But if it be own'd to be most certain That no Substance can be naturally reduc'd to nothing the Soul of Beasts will subsist after Death and since they have no reward to hope for and are made for Bodies they must at least pass out of one to another that they may not remain useless in Nature Which seems to be the most reasonable Inference Now 't is Matter of Faith That God is just and Wise That he Loves not Disorder That Nature is corrupted That the Soul of Man is Immortal and that That of Beasts is Mortal Because indeed it is not a distinct Substance from their Body nor consequently capable of Knowledge and Love or of any Passions and Sensations like ours Therefore in the Stile of Monsieur de la Ville who condemns Men upon Consequences that he draws from their Principles the Cartesians may justly charge him with a Crime and all Mindkind besides for believing Beasts have Souls What would Monsieur de la Ville say if in his way of proceeding we should tax him of Impiety for entertaining Opinions from whence it might be concluded That God is not Just Wise or Powerful Opinions that overthrow Religion that are opposite to Original Sin that take away the only Demonstration Reason can give of the Immortality of the Soul What would he say if we should charge him with Injustice and Cruelty for making innocent Souls to suffer and even for Annihilating them to feed upon the Bodies which they Animate He is a Sinner but they are Innocent and yet for the Nourishment of his Body he kills Animals and Annihilates their Souls which are of greater Worth than his Body Yet if his Body could not subsist without the Flesh of Animals or if the Annihilation of a Soul should render his Body for ever Immortal this Cruelty as unjust as it is might perhaps be excusable But with what Pretence can he Annihilate Substances altogether innocent to sustain but a few days a Body justly condemn'd to Death because of Sin Would he be so little a Philosopher as to excuse himself upon the Custom of the Place he lives in But what if his Zeal should carry him into the Indies where the Inhabitants found Hospitals for Beasts and the Philosophers and the better and more gentile Part of them are so charitable to to the smallest Flies that for fear of killing them by Breathing and Walking they wear a fine Cloath before their Mouths and fan the Ways through which they pass Would he then fear to make innocent Souls to suffer or to Annihilate them for the Preservation of a Sinner's Body Would he not rather chuse to subscribe to their Opinion who give not Beasts a Soul more Noble than their Body or distinct from it and by publishing this Opinion acquit himself of the Crimes of Cruelty and Injustice which these People would charge upon him if having the same Principles he follow'd not their Custom This Example may suffice to shew that we are not permitted to treat Men as Hereticks and dangerous Persons because of Irreligious Consequences that may be deduc'd from their Principles when these Consequences are disown'd by them For though I think it would be an infinitely harder Task to answer the aforesaid Difficulties than those of M. de la Ville's yet the Cartesians would be very Ridiculous if they should accuse Monsieur de la Ville and others that were not of their Opinion of Impiety and Heresie 'T is only the Authority of the Church that may decide about Matters of Faith and the Church has not oblig'd us and probably whatever Consequence may be drawn from common Principles never will oblige us to believe that Dogs have not a Soul more Noble than their Body that they know not their Masters that they neither fear nor desire nor suffer any thing because it is not necessary that Christians should be instructed in these Truths ARGUMENT II. Almost all Men are perswaded That sensible Objects are the true Causes of Pleasure and Pain which we feel upon their Presence They believe that the Fire sends forth that agreeable Heat which rejoyces us and that our Aliments Act in us and give us the Welcome Sensations of Tasts They doubt not but 't is the Sun which makes the Fruits necessary for Life to thrive and that all sensible Objects have a peculiar Vertue by which they can do us a great deal of Good and Evil. Let us see if from these Principles we cannot draw Consequences contrary to Religion and Points of Faith A Consequence opposite to the first Principle of Morality which obliges us to love God with all our Strength and to fear none but Him 'T is a common Notion by which all Men Order their Behaviour That we ought to love and fear what has Power to do us Good and Harm to make us feel Pleasure and Pain to render us happy or miserable and that this Cause is to be lov'd or fear'd proportionably to its Power of Acting on us But the Fire the Sun the Objects of our Senses can truly Act on us and make us in some manner happy or miserable This is the Principle suppos'd we may therefore Love and Fear them This is the Conclusion which every one naturally makes and is the general Principle of the corruption of Manners 'T is evident by Reason and by the First of God's Commandments That all the motions of our Soul of Love or Fear Desire or Joy ought to tend to God and that all the Motions of our Body may be Regulated and Determin'd by encompassing Objects By the Motion of our Body we may approach a Fruit avoid a Blow fly a Beast that 's ready to devour us But we ought to Love and Fear none but God all the Motions of our Soul ought to tend to Him only we are to Love Him with all our strength this is an indispensible Law We can neither Love or Fear what is below us without disorder and corruption Freely to fear a Beast ready to devour us or to fear the Devil is to give them some honour to Love a Fruit to desire Riches to rejoyce in the light of the Sun as if he were the true cause of it to Love even our Father our Protector our Friend as if they were capable of doing us good is to pay them an Honour which is due to none but God in which sense it is lawful to Love none But we may and ought to Love our Neighbour by wisâ—ing and procuring him as Natural or Occasional Cause all that may make him happy and no otherwise For we to Love our Brothers not as if able to do
the Helps reach'd to them by Jesus Christ but also by natural Forces or ordinary Graces For in brief Nature may be made subservient to Grace in a thousand Instances PART II. Of GRACE XVIII THE Inequality which is found in the Liberty of different Persons being clearly known it will be no hard Matter methinks to discover how Grace works in us if we but affix to the Word Grace distinct and particular Ideas and remember the Difference between the Grace of the Creator and Renovator I said in the preceding Discourse that there is this difference between Light and Pleasure That the former leaves us entirely to our selves whilst the latter incroaches upon our Liberty For Light is something extraneous to us it does not affect and modifie our Soul it does not drive us to the Objects it discovers but only disposes us to move our selves and to consent freely and by Reason to the Impression God gives us towards Good The Knowledge of our Duty the clear Idea of Order separate from all Sensation the Contemplation of naked abstract wholly pure and intelligible Good that is Good without Tast or Fore-tast leaves the Soul to her entire Liberty But Pleasure is an Inmate to the Soul it touches and modifies her And so it diminishes our Liberty makes us love Good rather by a Love of Instinct and Passion than of Choice and Reason And it transports us as I may say to sensible Objects Not that Pleasure is the same thing as Love or the Motion of the Soul towards Good but that it causes this Love or determines this Motion towards the Object that makes us happy But because no Truths are demonstrable save those whereof we have clear Ideas which we have not of our own inward Motions 't is not possible for me to demonstrate what I advance as we demonstrate the Conclusions depending on common Notions Every one therefore must consult his own inward feeling of what passes in his Soul if he would be convinc'd of the difference between Light and Pleasure and must carefully observe that commonly Light is attended with Pleasure which yet he must separate to judge soundly of it But of this I have said enough XIX If then it be true that Pleasure naturally produces Love and is like a Weight which gives the Soul a Propensity to the Good that causes or seems to cause it 't is visible that the Grace of Jesus Christ or the Grace of Sensation is of it self efficacious For though preventing Delectation when but weak works not an entire Conversion in the Heart of those whose Passions are too lively yet it never fails of its Effect in as much as it always inclines them towards God It is in some measure always efficacious but it has not always all possible Effect because of the Resistance of Concupiscence XX. Put for Example in one Scale of a Balance ten pound weight and in the other only six this latter weight shall truly gravitate for adding but so much more weight to this or taking it from the opposite Scale or lastly hanging the Balance nearer the over-weighted and the six pounds shall carry it But though this weight gravitates 't is visible its effect depends still on the resisting weight and the manner of its resisting Thus the Grace of Sensation is always of it self efficacious it constantly weakens the Effort of Concupiscence since Pleasure naturally creates Love for the Cause which produces or seems to produce it But though this Grace be always Self-efficacious yet it depends or rather its Effect depends on the actual Dispositions of the Receiver The weight of Concupiscence resists it and sensible Pleasures which draw us to the Creatures that seem to produce it in us hinder the Pleasures of Grace from uniting us strictly to him who alone can act in us and make us happy XXI But the case is otherwise with the Grace of Light or the Grace of the Creator It is not of it self efficacious It does not move or convey the Soul but leaves her perfectly to her self But though it be not efficacious of it self it nevertheless is persued by many Effects when 't is great and animated by some delectable Grace which gives it Force and Vigour or when it meets with no contrary Pleasure that greatly resists it Such is the difference between the Grace of the Creator and that of the Restorer between Light and Pleasure between the Grace which supposes not Concupiscence and the Grace which is given us to counterpoize the Pleasures of it The one is sufficient to a Man perfectly Free and Fortified with Charity the other is efficacious to a Man Infirm to whom Pleasure is necessary to draw him to the Love of the True Good XXII But the Force and Efficacy of Grace ought always to be compar'd with the Action of Concupiscence with the Light of Reason and especially with the degree of Liberty the Person is endued with And we must not imagine that God bestows it by particular Wills with design to produce certain Effects by it and nothing more For when 't is said that Grace always works in the Heart the Effect for which 't is given we err if we suppose God acts like Men with particular Considerations God diffuses his Grace with a General Design of sanctifying all that receive it or according as the Occasional Cause determines him to refuse it Mean while he knows very well that it will not have so much Effect in some as in others not only because of the Inequality of Force on the part of Grace but also of the Inequality of Resistance on the part of Concupiscence XXIII Since Concupiscence has not utterly destroy'd the Liberty of Man the Grace of Jesus Christ as efficacious as it is is not absolutely irresistible A sensible Pleasure is superable when weak and a Man may suspend the Judgment of his Love when he is not hurried by a too violent Passion And when he stoops to the Lure of an adulterate Pleasure he is culpable through the Abuse of his Liberty So likewise the Delectation of Grace is not ordinarily invincible A Man may decline following the good Motions it inspires which remove us from the false Objects of our Love This Grace fills not the Soul in such a manner as to hurry her to the True Good without Choâ—ce Judgment and Free Consent Thus when we resign up our selves to its Motion and advance farther as I may say than it irresistibly carries us when we sacrifice the Pleasures of Concupiscence which weaken its Efficacy or lastly when we act by Reason or love the true Good as we ought we merit through the good use we make of our Liberty XXIV 'T is true that Delectable Grace consider'd in it self and separate from the Pleasures of Concupiscence which are contrary to it is always invincible Because this holy Pleasure being conformable to the Light of Reason nothing can withstand its Effect in a Man perfectly free When the Mind sees clearly by
full of Obscurity and Darkness are founded on the Ignorance we are in of the Properties of our Soul 'T is from our having as I have elsewhere proved no clear Idea of our Being and that what is in us which gives way to be conquer'd by a Determination not invincible is absolutely unknown to us Furthermore if I cannot clearly answer these Objections I can answer by others which to me seem more incapable of Solution I can from Principles oppos'd to mine deduce more harsh and unlucky Consequences than those which are presum'd to follow from Liberty such as I have suppos'd in us But I engage not on the Particulars of all this as taking no delight to walk in the dark and to lead others upon Precipices THE ILLUSTRATION OR CONTINUATION OF THE TREATISE CONCERNING Nature and Grace What is meant by acting by General and Particular Wills I. I Say that God acts by General Wills when he acts in consequence of the General Laws which he has establish'd For Example I say that God acts in me by General Wills when he gives me the Sense of Pain when I am prick'd since in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of Union of my Soul and Body which he has constituted he makes me suffer Pain when my Body's ill dispos'd So when a Bowl strikes another I say God moves the stricken by a General Will because he moves it in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of the Communications of Motions God having generally Ordain'd that at the Instant of Collision of two Bodies the Motion should be distributed between them according to certain Proportions and 't is by the Efficacy of that General Will that Bodies have the force of moving one another II. I say on the contrary that God acts by Particular Wills when the Efficacy of his Will is not determin'd by some General Law to the producing any Effect Thus supposing God should make me feel the Pain of pricking whilst there happen'd no Change in my Body or in any Creature whatsover which determines him to act in me by some General Law I say that then God acts by Particular Wills So again supposing a Body begins to move without being stricken by another or without any Alteration happening in the Will of Spirits or in any other Creature which determines the Efficacy of some General Laws I say that God would move that Body by a Particular Will III. According to these Definitions it plainly appears that so far from denying Providence I suppose on the contrary that God works all in all things that the Nature of the Heathen Philosophers is a Chimera and that to speak properly Nature is nothing but the General Laws which God has establish'd for the Construction or Preservation of his Work by the simplest ways by an Action always uniform constant perfectly worthy of an infinite Wisdom and an universal Cause But that which I here suppose though certain for the Reasons I have given in The Search after Truth is not absolutely necessary to what I design to prove For if it be suppos'd that God had communicated his Power to the Creatures in such a manner as that surrounding Bodies had a real and true Force by which they might act on our Soul and make her happy and miserable by Pleasure and Pain and that Bodies in Motion had in themselves a certain Entity which they call Impress'd Quality that they can communicate it to those about them and with that Celerity and Uniformity we observe it would be still equally easie to prove what I intend For then the Efficacy of the concurrent Action of the General Cause would be necessarily determin'd by the Action of the Particular Cause God for Instance would be oblig'd by these Principles to afford his Concourse to a Body at the Instant of Collision that it might communicate its Motion to others which is still to act by virtue of a General Law Yet I do not argue upon that Supposition as believing it utterly false as I have shewn in the Third Chapter and Second Part of the Sixth Book of The Search after Truth in the Illustration of the same Chapter and elsewhere Which Truths suppos'd here follow the Notes by which we may discover whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will MARKS by which we may judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will IV. When we see an Effect immediately produc'd after the Action of an Occasionl Cause we ought to judge it produc'd by the Efficacy of a General Will. A Body moves immediately after the Collision the Collision of Bodies is the Action of an Occasional Cause Therefore this Body moves by a General Will. A Stone falls on the Head of a Man and kills him and this Stone falls like all others that is continues its Motion almost in Arithmetical Proportion 1 3 5 7 9 c. Which suppos'd I say it moves by the Efficacy of a General Will or by the Laws of the Communications of Motions as is easie to demonstrate V. When we see an Effect produc'd without the Mediation of the known Occasional Cause we have reason to think it produc'd by a Particular Will supposing this Effect be not manifestly unworthy of its Cause as I shall say hereafter For Example When a Body 's mov'd without being smitten by another there 's great Probability it was mov'd by a Particular Will but yet we cannot be confident of it For on Supposition of a General Law that Bodies should move according to the several Volitions of Angels or the like 't is visible this Body might be put in Motion without Impulsion the particular Will of some Angel being in this case able to determine the Will of the general Cause to move it Thus we may be often positive that God acts by general Wills but we cannot have the like Assurance that he acts by particular Wills even in the most averr'd Miracles VI. Since we have not a competent Knowledge of the various Combinations of Occasional Causes to discover whether such and such Effects arrive in consequence of their Action and are not sufficiently Intelligent to discover for Instance whether such a Rain be Natural or Miraculous produc'd by a necessary Consequence of the Communication of Motions or by a particular Will we must judge an Effect is produc'd by a General Will when 't is visible the Cause did not propose it self a particular End For the Wills of Intelligences have necessarily an End general Wills a general End and particular Wills a particular Design Nothing can be more plain and evident For Example Though I cannot discover whether a Shower of Rain which falls on a Meadow falls in consequence of general Laws or by a particular Will of God I have reason to think it falls by a general Will if I see it fall as well on the neighbouring Grounds or on the River which bounds the Meadow no less than on the Meadow it self For
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
which in our ordinary way of Conception is a Decree posteriour to this Order of Nature Mysteries then of Faith must be distinguish'd from things of Nature We ought equally to submit to Faith and to Evidence but in the concernments of Faith we must not look for Evidence as in those of Nature we ought not to take up with Faith That is with the Authority of Philosophers In a word to be a Believer 't is requir'd to Assent blindly but to be a Philosopher it is necessary to See plainly 'T is not however to be deny'd but there are some Truths besides those of Faith for which it would be unreasonable to demand indisputable Demonstrations as are those which relate to Matter of Fact in History and other things which have their dependence on the Will of Men. For there are two kinds of Truth the one Necessary the other Contingent I call Necessary Truths those which are immutable by their Nature and those which have been fix'd and determin'd by the Will of God which is not subject to Change All other sorts of Truth are Contingent Mathematicks Physicks Metaphysicks as also a great part of Morality contain Necessary Truths History Grammar Private Right or Customs and such other things as depend on the changeable Will of Man contain only Contingent Truths We demand therefore an exact Observation of the Rule we have been establishing in the Search of Necessary Truths the Knowledge of which may be call'd Science and we must be content with the greatest Probability in History which includes the Knowledge of things Contingent For under the general Name of History may be concluded the Knowledge of Languages Customs as also of the different Opinions of Philosophers when Men have only learnt them by Memory without having either Evidence or Certainty concerning them The Second thing to be Observ'd is that in Morality Politicks and Medicine and in all Practical Sciences we are obliged to be content with Probability Not Universally but upon occasion not because it satisfies the Mind but because the Instance is pressing And if a Man should always delay Acting till he had perfect Assurance of Success the Opportunity would be often lost But though it falls out that a Man must inevitably act yet he should in acting doubt of the Success of what he does And he should indeavour to make such Advances in Sciences as to be able on Emergencies to act with greater Certainty For this should be the constant end of all Mens Study and Employment who make any use of Thought The Third and last thing is this That we should not absolutely despise Probabilities since it often happens that many of them in Conjunction have as convincing a force as most evident Demonstrations Of which Nature there are infinite Examples to be found in Physicks and Morality So that 't is often expedient to amass together a sufficient number of them in subjects not otherwise Demonstrable in order to come to the Knowledge of Truth impossible to be found out any other way And now I must needs confess that the Law I impose is very Rigorous and Severe That there are abundance of Those who had rather renounce Reasoning at all than Reason on such Conditions That 't is impossible to run so fast with such retarding Circumspections However it must be granted me that a Man shall walk with greater Security in observing it and that hitherto those who have march'd so hastily have been oblig'd to return upon the same Ground Besides there are a great number of Men who will agree with me in this That since Monsieur Des-Cartes has discover'd more Truths in Thirty Years than all the Philosophers that preceded him meerly for his Submission to that Law if many others would study Philosophy as he has done we should in time be acquainted with the greatest part of those things which are necessary to make Life as happy as is possible upon an Earth which God has Curs'd CHAP. IV. I. Of the Occasional Causes of Error whereof there are Five Principal II. The general Design of the whole Work III. The particular Design of the First Book WE have seen from what has been said that a Man falls not into Error but for want of making a due use of his Liberty that 't is for want of curbing that eagerness of the Will and moderating its Passion for the bare appearances of Truth that he is deceiv'd And that Error consists only in the Consent of the Will which has a greater Latitude than the Perception of the Understanding since we should never err if we only simply judg'd according as we perceiv'd But though to speak properly there is no other cause of Error than the ill use of our Liberty it may notwithstanding be said we have several Faculties that are the Causes of our Errors not Real Causes but such as may be term'd Occasional All the ways of our Perceiving are so many occasions of Deceiving us For since our false Judgments include two things namely the Consent of the Will and the Perception of the Vnderstanding it is manifest that all the ways of our Perception may afford us some occasion or other of falling into Error forasmuch as they may incline us to rash and precipitate Consents But because it is necessary first to make the Soul sensible of her Weaknesses and Wandrings in order to possess Her with just Desires of a Deliverance from them and that she may with greater ease shake off her Prejudices We will endeavour to make an exact Division of her Manners of Perception which may serve as so many Heads to one or other of which may be referr'd as we proceed the different Errors whereunto we are obnoxious The Soul has three several ways of Perception By Pure Intellect by Imagination and by the Senses By Pure Intellect she perceives things Spiritual Universals Common Notions The Idea of Perfection that of a Being infinitely perfect and in general all her own thoughts when she knows them by a Reflexion made upon her self 'T is likewise by Pure Intellect she perceives Material things Extension with its Properties For 't is the pure Understanding only which is capable of Perceiving a Circle and a perfect Square a Figure of a thousand sides and such like things Such sort of Perceptions bear the name of Pure Intellections or Pure Perceptions since there is no necessity of the Mind 's forming Corporeal Images in the Brain to represent them by By Imagination the Soul only perceives things Material when being Absent she makes them present to her by forming the Images of them in the Brain This is the way whereby a Man Imagines all sorts of Figures a Circle a Triangle a Face an Horse Towns and Fields whether he has already seen them or not This sort of Perceptions we may call Imaginations because the Soul represents to her self these things by framing Images of them in the Brain And for as much as Spiritual things cannot be represented
by any Image it follows the Soul cannot imagine them which is a thing worthy to be remember'd Lastly By Sense the Soul perceives only Sensible gross and ruder Objects when being present they cause an Impression on the external Organs of her Body Thus it is the Soul sees things plain and rugged present to her Eyes thus she knows the Hardness of the Iron the point of a Sword and the like and this kind of Perceptions one may call Sentiments or Sensations The Soul then has no more than these three ways of Perceiving which will easily be granted if we consider that the things we perceive are either Spiritual or Material If they be Spiritual they are perceptable only by the Pure Vnderstanding If they be Material they are either Present or Absent If they be Absent the ordinary way of the Soul 's representing them is by the Imagination But if they be Present the Soul can perceive them by the Impressions they make upon her Senses And thus Our Souls are not capable of more than a three-fold Perception by Pure Intellect by Imagination and by Sense These three Faculties therefore may be lookt upon as so many certain Heads to which we may reduce the Errors of Men and the Causes of their Errors and so avoid the confusion into which the multitude of them would infallibly cast us should we talk of them without Order or Method But moreover our Inclinations and our Passions act very strongly upon us They dazzle our Mind with their false Lights and overcast and fill it with Clouds and Darkness Thus Our Inclinations and our Passions engage us in an infinite number of Errors when we suffer our selves to be guided by that false Light and abusive Glare which they produce within us We must then together with the three Faculties of the Mind consider them as the Sources of our Deviations and Delinquencies and add to the Errors of Sense Imagination and Pure Intellect those which may be charg'd upon the Passions and Natural Inclinations And so all the Errors of Men and the Causes of them may be reduc'd to five Heads and we shall treat of them according to that Order First We shall speak of the Errors of the Senses Secondly Of the Errors of Imagination Thirdly Of the Errors of the Pure Intellect Fourthly Of the Errors of our Inclinations and Fifthly Of the Errors of the Passions And thus having made an Essay to rid the Soul of the Errors which she's subject to we shall Lastly lay down a General Method to Conduct her in the Search of Truth We will begin with an Explication of the Errors of our Senses or rather of the Errors into which we fall for want of making the due use we should do of our Senses And here we shall not so much descend to our Particular Errors which are almost infinite as fix upon the general Causes of these Errors and such things as seem most necessary to inform us of the Nature of the Humane Mind CHAP. V. Of the SENSES I. Two ways of explaining how they were corrupted by Sin II. That 't is our Liberty and not our Senses which is the true Cause of our Errors III. A Rule for avoiding Error in the use of our Senses UPON an attentive Consideration of the Senses and Passions of Man we find them so well proportion'd to the End for which they were given us that we can by no means agree with those who say they are to all intents and purposes debauch'd and spoil'd by Original Sin But that it may appear it is not without Reason we are of a different Opinion it is necessary to Explain in what manner we may conceive the Order and Regularity which was to be seen in the Faculties and Passions of our First Parent in his State of Righteousness and the Changes and Disorders that were consequent to his Fall Now there are Two ways of Conceiving these things of which this is the First That it seems to be a common Notion That it is necessary to the right ordering of Affairs that the Soul should perceive lesser or greater Pleasures according to the proportion of the Littleness or Greatness of the Goods which she enjoys Pleasure is an Instinct of Nature or to speak clearer 't is an Impression of God himself who inclines us towards some Good which Impression should be so much stronger by how much that Good is greater According to which Principle it seems not to be contested that our first Parent before his Sin coming fresh out of the Hands of his Maker found greater Pleasures in the most solid Goods than in those that were not so Wherefore since he was created in order to Love God who created him and that God was his true Good it may be said God gave him a Taste and Relish of himself That he inclin'd him to the Love of the Divine Perfection by a Sense of Pleasure and that he possess'd him with those Internal Satisfactions in his Duty that counter-balanc'd the greatest Pleasures of the Senses whereof since the State of Sin Man is altogether insensible without a Supernatural Assistance and particular gift of Grace Notwithstanding since he had a Body which God design'd he should take care of and look upon as a Part of himself he gave him to Perceive by the Mediation of his Senses Pleasures like those we our selves are sensible of in the use of things which are proper for and adapted to the Preservation of our Life and Being We presume not here to determine whether the First Man before his Fall had a Power to hinder agreeable or disagreeable Sensations in the instant that the principal part of his Brain was agitated by the Actual Impression of Sensible Objects Possibly he had that Soveraignty over himself because of his Subjection to the Will of God though the contrary Opinion seems more probable For though Adam might stop the Commotions of the Blood and Spirits and the Vibrations of the Fibres of his Brain which Objects excited in it because being in a Regular State his Body must needs submit to his Mind yet it is not probable he was able to prevent the Sensations of Objects at the time he had not stopt the Motions they produc'd in that part of his Body to which his Soul was immediately united For the Union of the Soul and Body consisting principally in the mutual Relation there is betwixt Sensations and the Motions of the Organs this Union would rather seem Arbitrary than Natural if Adam had been capable of hindring Sensation when the Principal Part of his Body receiv'd an Impression from those round about it However I declare for neither of the two Opinions The First Man therefore felt Pleasure in that which was Perfective of his Body as he felt it in that which was Perfective of his Soul And because he was constituted in a Perfect State he found that of the Soul far greater than that of the Body Thus it was infinitely
much and Fearing nothing from them whilst they keep them within those Boundaries I have prescrib'd them In this Second Book I shall Discourse concerning the Imagination as the Natural Order of things obliges me For there is so near a Relation and Affinity betwixt the Imagination and the Senses that they in no wise ought to be separated We shall see too in the Sequel of the Discourse that these two Powers are no farther Different than according to Degree of more or less This then is the Method which I have Observ'd in this Treatise It is divided into three Parts In the First I Explain the Natural Causes of the Disorder and Errors of the Imagination In the Second I make some Application of these Causes to the more General Errors of the Imagination and I Discourse of such as may be term'd the Moral Causes of these Errors In the Third I treat of the Contagious Communication of Strong Imaginations Though the greatest part of the things contain'd in this Tract may not be so new as those I have already deliver'd in Explaining the Errors of the Senses yet their Use and Advantage will be no less considerable Men of bright and clarify'd Understandings can easily discover the Errors and the Causes of the Errors I am treating of But there are few such Men as can make sufficient Reflection thereupon I pretend not to give Instructions to all the World my design is only to Inform the Ignorant and to Caution and Remind the rest or rather I try to be my own Instructour and Remembrancer It has been said in the First Book that the Organs of our Senses were compos'd of little Fibres which terminate on one hand upon the External parts of the Body and on the Skin and on the â—ther center in the middle of the Brain But these Fibres may be moved in a two-fold manner either by commencing their Motion at those Extremities which terminate in the Brain or at those which terminate on the Surface of the Body Being the Agitation of these Fibres cannot be communicated to the Brain but the Soul must have some Perception or other if the Agitation be begun by the Impression of Objects made upon the External Surface of the Fibres of the Nerves and be communicated to the Brain the Soul thereupon receives a Sensation and judges what she has the Sensation of to be without that is to say She perceives an Object as Present but if it be only the Internal Fibres that are agitated by the Course of the Animal Spirits or in some other manner the Soul Imagines and judges what she imagines to be not without but within the Brain that is she perceives an Object as Absent And this is the difference there is between Sensation and Imagination But it ought to be observ'd That the Fibres of the Brain are more violently agitated by the Impression of External Objects than by the Course of the Animal Spirits and that for this reason the Soul is more nearly touch'd by External Objects which she judges as present and as it were capable of making her instantly sensible of Pleasure or Pain than by the Course of the Animal Spirits And yet it happens sometimes in Persons whose Animal Spirits are put in extream Commotion by Fastings Watchings a scorching Fever or a violent Passion that these Spirits move the Internal Fibres of the Brain with as great a force as External Objects so that these Persons have the Sensation of what they should only have the Imagination and think they See Objects before their Eyes which they only Imagine in the Brain Which evidently shews that in regard of what occurs in the Body the Senses and Imagination differ but in Degree of more or less as I have before declar'd But in Order to give a more distinct and particular Idea of the Imagination we must know that as often as any Change happens in that part of the Brain where the Nerves unite there happens a Change also in the Soul That is as has been already explain'd if there happens any Motion in this part which alters the Order of its Fibres there happens at the same time a new Perception in the Soul and she either Feels or Imagines something afresh And that the Soul is incapable of receiving any fresh Sensation or Imagination without some Alteration in the Fibres of that part of the Brain So that the Faculty of Imagining or the Imagination consists only in the Power the Soul has of framing the Images of Objects by effecting a Change in the Fibres of that part of the Brain which may be call'd the Principal Part as being that which corresponds to all the Parts of our Body and is the Place where the Soul keeps her immediate Residence if I may be so allow'd to speak This manifestly shews that this Power which the Soul has of Forming these Images includes two things one that has its Dependence on the Soul and the other on the Body The first is the Action and the Command of the Will The second is the ready Obedience paid to it by the Animal Spirits which delineate those Images and by the Fibres of the Brain wherein they must be imprinted In this Tract both one and the other of these two things go indifferently by the Name of Imagination nor are they distinguish'd by the Terms Active and Passive which might be given them because the Sense of the thing spoken of easily determines which of the Two is understood whether the Active Imagination of the Soul or the Passive Imagination of the Body I shall not here particularly determine which is that Principal Part of the Brain before-mention'd First Because it would be but an useless thing to do it Secondly Because it is not perfectly and infallibly known And lastly Since I could not convince others it being a Matter incapable of Probation in this place though I should be infallibly assur'd which was this Principal Part I should think it more adviseable to say nothing of it Whether then it be according to the Opinion of Dr. Willis in the two little Bodies call'd by him Corpora Striata that the common Sense resides and the Cells of the Brain preserve the Species of the Memory and the Corpus Callosum be the Seat of Imagination Whether it be according to Fernelius's Opinion in the Pia Mater which involves the Substance of the Brain Whether it be in the Pineal Gland according to the Notion of Des-Cartes or lastly in some other part hitherto undiscover'd that our Soul exercises her Principal Functions is of no great concern to know 'T is enough to be assur'd that there is a Principal Part and this is moreover absolutely necessary and that the Basis of Mr. Des-Cartes's System stands its ground For 't is to be well observ'd that though he should be mistaken in assuring us it is the Pineal Gland to which the Soul is immediately united this could no ways injure the
the Minds of Men of different Countries The Gascons for instance have a more brisk and lively Imagination than the Normans Those of Rhoan and Dieppe and Picardie differ all from one another And yet farther from the Low-Normans though at no great distance from each other But if we consider Men that live in Countries more remote we shall find much stranger Differences between them For instance an Italian a Flemming and a Dutch-Man To conclude there are places celebrated in all Ages for the Wisdom of their Inhabitants as Theman and Athens and others as notorious for their Stupidity as Thebes and Abdera and some others Athenis tenue coelum ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici crassum Thebis Cic. de Fato Abderitanae pectora plebis habes Mart. Boeotum in crasso jurares aëre natum Hor. CHAP. IV. I. Of the Change of the Spirits caus'd by the Nerves which go to the Heart and Lungs II. Of that which is caus'd by the Nerves which go to the Liver to the Spleen and Viscera III. That all that is perform'd without the concurrence of our Will but yet it cannot be done without a Providence THE third cause of the Changes which happen to the Animal Spirits is the most ordinary and most active of them all because it is this which produces maintains and corroborates all the Passions For our better understanding this we must know that the Nerves of the fifth sixth and eighth Conjugation shoot out the greatest part of their Branches into the Breast and Belly where they are most advantagiously imploy'd for the Preservation of the Body but most dangerously in regard to the Soul Because these Nerves in their Action depend not on the Will of Men as do these us'd in moving the Legs and Arms and other External Parts of the Body And they have a greater influence upon the Soul than the Soul has upon them We must know then that many of the Branches of the Nerves of the eighth Conjugation fall in among the Fibres of the Principal of all the Muscles the Heart that they encircle its Orifices its Auricles and its Arteries That they expatiate also into the Substance of the Lungs and thus by their different Motions produce very considerable Changes in the Blood For the Nerves which are dispers'd among the Fibres of the Heart causing it to Dilate and Contract it self in too hasty and violent a manner throw with an unusual force abundance of Blood towards the Head and all other External Parts of the Body Though sometimes these same Nerves have a quite contrary Effect As for the Nerves which surround the Orifices of the Heart it s Auricles and Arteries their use is much the same with that of the Registers wherewith the Chymists moderate the Heat of their Furnaces or of Cocks which are instrumental in Fountains to regulate the Course of their Waters For the use of these Nerves is to contract and dilate diversly the Orifices of the Heart and by that manner to hasten and retard the Entrance and the Exit of the Blood and so to augment and diminish the Heat of it Lastly The Nerves which are dispers'd over the Lungs have the same employment For the Lungs being made up only of the Branches of the Trachea of the Vena Arteriosa and the Arteria Venosa interwoven one among another it is plain that the Nerves which are dispers'd through their Substance by their Contraction must obstruct the Air from passing so freely out of the Branches of the Trachea and the Blood out of those of the Vena Arteriosa into the Arteria Venosa to discharge it self into the Heart Thus these Nerves according to their different agitation augment and diminish still the Heat and Motion of the Blood All the Passions furnish us with very sensible Experiments of these different Degrees of Heat of our Heart we manifestly feel its Diminution and Augmentation sometimes on a sudden And as we falsly judge our Sensations to be in the Parts of our Body and by occasion of them to be Excited in our Soul as has been explain'd in the foregoing Book So the generality of Philosophers imagine the Heart to be the Principal Seat of the Passions of the Soul and 't is even at this day the most common and receiv'd Opinion Now because the Imaginative Faculty receives considerable Changes by the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and because the Animal Spirits are very different according to the different Fermentation of the Blood perform'd in the Heart it is easie to discover the Reason of Passionate People's imagining things quite otherwise than those who consider'd the same sedately and in cold Blood The other Cause which exceedingly contributes to the Diminution and Augmentation of these Extraordinary Fermentations of the Blood in the Heart consists in the Action of many other Branches of the Nerves whereof we have been speaking These Branches are dispers'd throughout the Liver which contains the more subtil part of the Blood or that which is commonly call'd the Bile through the Spleen which contains the grosser part or the Melancholy through the Pancreas which contains an acid Juice most proper for Fermentation through the Stomach the Guts and the other parts which contain the Chyle Finally They are dispers'd and spread about all the parts that can any ways contribute to the varying the Fermentation of the Blood in the Heart There is moreover nothing even to the Arteries and Veins which has not a Connection with these Nerves as Dr. Willis has discover'd of the Inferiour Trunck of the Great Artery which is connected to them near the Heart of the Axillary Artery on the right side of the Emulgent Vein and several others Thus the use of the Nerves being to agitate the parts to which they are fastened diverse ways it is easie to conceive how for instance the Nerve which surrounds the Liver may by constringing it drive a great quantity of Bile into the Veins and the Canalis Cysticus which mingling with the Blood in the Veins and with the Chyle through the Canalis Cysticus enters the Heart and produces a Heat therein much more fervent than ordinary Thus when a Man is mov'd with some kind of Passions the Blood boyls in the Arteries and in the Veins and the Heat is diffus'd throughout the Body the Fire flies up into the Head which is presently fill'd with such a prodigious quantity of over-brisk and rapid Animal Spirits as by their impetuous Current hinder the Imagination from representing other things than those whose Images they form in the Brain that is from thinking on other Objects than those of the Predominant Passion 'T is so again with the little Nerves which run into the Spleen or into other parts which contain a Matter more gross and course and less capable of Heat and Motion they render the Imagination wholly Languid Drousy and Unactive by pouring into the Chanels of the Blood a Matter that is
of a tender and delicate Body than in those of a more strong and robust Complection Thus Men who abound with Strength and Vigour are not at all hurt with the sight of a Massacre nor so much inclin'd to Compassion because the sight of it is an offence to their Body as because it shocks their Reason These Persons have no Pity for a Condemned Criminal as being both Inflexible and Inexorable Whereas Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Hurt and Wounds they see receiv'd by others They are machinally dispos'd to be very Pitiful and Compassionate to the Miserable And they are unable to see a Beast beaten or hear it cry without some disturbance of mind As for Infants which are still in their Mother's Womb the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh infinitely exceeding that of Women and Children the Course of their Spirits must necessarily produce more considerable Changes in them as will be seen in the Sequel of the Discourse We will still suffer what we have said to go for a simple Supposition if Men will have it so But they ought to endeavour well to comprehend it if they would distinctly conceive the things I presume to explain in this Chapter For these two Suppositions I have just made are the Principles of an infinite number of things which are generally believ'd very difficult and abstruse And which indeed seem impossible to be explain'd and clear'd up without them I will here give some instances of what I have said It was about seven or eight Years ago that there was seen in the Incurable a young Man who was born anâ—Idiot and whose Body was broken in the same places that Malefactors are broken on the Wheel He lived near twenty Years in the same condition many Persons went to see him and the late Queen-mother going to visit the Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and also to touch his Legs and Arms in the places were they were broken According to the Principles I have been establishing the cause of this Calamitous Accident was That his Mother hearing a Criminal was to be broken went to see the Execution All the blows which were given to the Condemned struck violently the Imagination of the Mother and by a kind of Repercussive blow the tender and delicate Brain of her Infant The Fibres of this Mother's Brain receiv'd a prodigious Concussion and were possibly broke in some places by the violent course of the Spirits produc'd at the Sight of so frightful a Spectacle But they had Consistency enough to prevent their total Dissolution The Fibres on the contrary of the Infant 's Brain not being able to resist the furious torrent of these Spirits were broke and shattered all to pieces And the havock was violent enough to make him lose his Intellect for ever This is the Reason why he come into the World deprived of Sense Now for the other why he was broken in the same parts of his Body as the Criminal whom his Mother had seen put to Death At the Sight of this Execution so capable of dismaying a timorous Woman the violent course of the Animal Spirits of the Mother made a forcible descent from her Brain towards all the Members of her Body which were Analogous to those of the Criminal and the same thing happened to the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were capable of withstanding the violent Impression of these Spirits they receiv'd no dammage by them it may be too she felt not the least Pain nor the least Trembling in her Arms or Legs upon the Breaking of the Criminal But the rapid course of the Spirits was capable of bursting the soft and tender parts of the Infant 's Bones For the Bones are the last parts of the Body that are form'd and they have very little Consistence whilst Children are yet in their Mother 's Womb. And it ought to be observ'd that if this Mother had determin'd the Motion of these Spirits towards some other part of her Body by some powerful Titillation her Infant would have escaped the Fracture of his Bones But the part which was correspondent to that towards which the Mother had determined these Spirits would have been severely injured according to what I have already said The Reasons of this Accident are general enough to explain how it comes to pass that Women who whilst big with Child see Persons particularly mark'd in certain places of their Face imprint on their Infants the very same Marks and in the self-same places of the Body And 't is not without good Reason that they are caution'd to rub some latent part of the Body when they perceive any thing which surprises them or are agitated with some violent Passion For by this means the Marks will be delineated rather upon the hidden parts than the Faces of their Infants We should have frequent Instances of like Nature with this I have here related if Infants could live after they had receiv'd so great Wounds or Disruptions but generally they prove Abortions For it may be said that rarely any Child dies in the Womb if the Mother be not distemper'd that has any other cause of its ill fortune than some fright or impotent Desire or other violent Passion of the Mother This following is another Instance very unusual and particular It is no longer than a Year ago that a Woman having with too great an Application of Thought contemplated the Picture of St. Pius at the Celebration of his Feast of Canonization was deliver'd of a Child perfectly featur'd like the Representation of the Saint He had the Countenance of an Old Man as near as was possible for an Infant that was beardless His Arms were folded across upon his Breast His Eyes bent up towards Heaven and had very little Forehead because the Picture of the Saint being postur'd as looking up to Heaven and elevated towards the Roof of the Church had scarce any Fore-head to be seen He had a kind of Mitre reclining backwards on his Shoulders with many round prints in the places where the Mitres are imboss'd with Precious Stones In short this Infant was the very Picture of the Picture upon which the Mother had form'd it by the force of her Imagination This is a thing that all Paris might have seen as well as I since it was a considerable time preserv'd in Spirit of Wine This instance has This remarkable in it That it was not the Sight of a Man alive and acted with some violent Passion that mov'd the Spirits and Blood of the Mother to the Production of so strange an Effect but only the sight of a Picture which yet made a very sensible Impression and was accompanied with a mighty Commotion of Spirits whether by the Fervency and Application of the Mother or whether by the Agitation the noise of the Feast caus'd in her This Mother then beholding the Picture with great Application of Mind and Commotion of Spirits the Infant
It daily happens that an unexpected Event that has any thing terrible in its circumstances deprives of their Senses Men of a Mature Age whose Brain is not so susceptible of new Impressions who are experienc'd in the World who can make a Defence or at least are capable of taking up some Resolution Children at their first Arrival in the World suffer something from every Object that strikes upon their Senses wherewith they are not yet acquainted All the Animals they see are Creatures of a new Species on their Regard since nothing of what they see at present was ever seen by them before They are destitute of Strength and void of Experience the Fibres of their Brain are of a most fine and flexible temper How then is it possible their Imagination should continue whole when expos'd to the Impressions of so many different Objects 'T is true the Mothers have somewhat pre-accustomed their Children to the Impressions of Objects by having already imprinted them in the Fibres of their Brain before they left the Womb and this is the reason they receive much less damage when they behold with their own Eyes what they in some manner have perceived already with their Mother's 'T is farther true that these adulterate Traces and wounds their Imagination receives upon the sight of so many Objects to them frightful and terrible close up and heal again in time for as much as being unnatural the whole Body is against them and all the parts conspire to their Destruction as has been seen in the preceding Chapter And this is the cause that all Men in general are not Fools from their Cradles But this hinders not but that there may be ever some Traces so strong and deep impress'd as can never be effac'd but will remain as long as Life it self If Men would make serious Reflections upon what happens in their own Breast and contemplate their own Thoughts they would not want an Experimental Proof of what I have said They would generally discover in themselves some secret Inclinations and Aversions which are not in others whereof there seems no other Reason to be given than these Traces of our Infancy For since the causes of these Inclinations and Aversions are peculiar to us they have no foundation in the Nature of Men and since they are unknown to us they must needs have acted on us at a time when our Memory was not yet capable of registring the circumstances of things which might have assisted us in calling them again to Mind and that time could be only that of our tenderest Age. Monsieur Des-Cartes has acquainted us in one of his Epistles that he had always a particular fancy for all Squint-ey'd People and having diligently search'd into the Cause of it at length understood this Defect was incident to a young Maid he lov'd when he was a Child the Affection he retained for her diffusing it self to all others that any way resembled her But 't is not these little irregularities of our Inclinations which subject us most to Error 'T is our having universally or almost universally our Mind adulterate in something or other and our being generally subject to some kind of Folly though perhaps we are not aware of it Let a Man but examine carefully the Temper of those People he converses with and he will easily be perswaded into this Opinion and though himself be an Original for others to Copy after and be look'd upon as such yet he will find all others to be Originals too and all the difference to consist in the Degree of more or less Now one of the Causes of the different Characters of Mens Minds is doubtless the difference of Impressions received by them in their Mother's Womb as has been manifested touching peculiar and unusual Inclinations because these being Species of Folly that are settled and permanent for the most part they cannot have their Dependence on the Constitution of the Animal Spirits which is of a flux and alterable Nature And consequently they must needs proceed from the Base and Spurious Impressions made in the Fibres of the Brain at such time as our Memory was incapable of preserving the Remembrance of them that is in the beginning of our Lives Here then is one of the commonest Causes of the Errors of Mankind I mean that Subversion of their Brain caused by the Impression of External Objects in making their Entrance into the World and this Cause does not so suddenly cease as may be possibly imagined The ordinary Commerce Children are oblig'd to have with their Nurses or even with their Mothers that frequently have had no Education puts the last hand and gives the finishing stroke to the corruption of their Mind These silly Women entertain them with nothing but Fooleries with ridiculous Tales and frightful Stories Their whole Discourse to them is about things sensible and they deliver it in a way most proper to confirm them in the false Judgments of their Senses In a word they sow in their Minds the Seeds of all the Follies and Weaknesses themselves are subject to as of their extravagant Fears and Apprehensions their ridiculous Superstitions and other the like Feeblesses of Mind Which is the Reason that not being accustomed to search for Truth nor to taste and relish it they at last become incapable of discerning it and of making any use of their Reason Hence they become timerous and low-spirited which Temper for a long time sticks by them For there are many to be seen who when fifteen or twenty Years old retain the Character and Spirit of their Nurse 'T is true Children seem not to be greatly qualified for the Contemplation of Truth and for abstract and sublime Sciences because the Fibres of their Brain being extreamly fine are most easily agitated by Objects even the most weak and least sensible that can be and their Soul necessarily admitting Sensations proportioned to the Agitation of these Fibres leaves Metaphysical Nations and pure Intellection to apply her self wholly to her Sensations And thus Children seem improper for and incapable of an attentive Application to the pure Idea's of Truth being so frequently and so easily drawn off by the confus'd Idea's of their Senses Yet in Answer to this it may be said First that 't is easier for a Child of seven Years old to be freed from the Errors his Senses lead him to than for a Man at sixty who all his Life long has been mis-guided by the prejudices of Childhood Secondly that a Child though incapable of the clear and distinct Idea's of Truth is at least capable of being admonish'd that his Senses deceive him upon all occasions and if he cannot be taught the Truth he should not however be encouraged and fortified in his Errors Lastly the youngest Children though never so taken up with Pleasant and Painful Sensations yet learn in little time what Persons more advanc'd in Years cannot in much longer as the Knowledge of the Order and Relations
instruct at least the Body in some measure and prevent their tasting Vice and consequently their becoming Slaves to it But that which is more especially observable is That Pains fill not the Capacities of the Mind as Pleasures do We easily cease to think of them when we no longer suffer them and are out of the danger and fear of them For then they importune not the Imagination they excite not the Passions nor provoke Concupiscence In fine they leave the Mind at liberty to think of what it pleases and thus we may discipline Children with them to keep them in their Duty or in the Appearance of it But though it be sometimes useful to affright and punish Children with sensible Corrections it ought not to be concluded that they should be allured by sensible Rewards There should no means be made use of that any whit forcibly affect the Senses but in a case of extreme necessity Now there can be none of bestowing Sensible Rewards upon them and representing these Rewards as the End of their Employment This on the contrary would be the means of vitiating their best Actions and inclining them rather to Sensuality than Vertue The Traces of Pleasures which they have once tasted remain strongly imprinted in their Imagination They continually quicken and awaken the Ideas of Sensible Goods they constantly excite importunate Desires which disturb the peace of the Mind Lastly They provoke Concupiscence on all occasions which is the Leaven that corrupts the whole mass But this is not the place of explaining these things according to their Desert The SECOND PART Concerning The IMAGINATION CHAP. I. I. Of the Imagination of Women II. Of the Imagination of Men. III. Of the Imagination of Old Men. WE have in the First Part in some measure explain'd the Physical Causes of the Disorders of Man's Imagination We shall endeavour in this to make some Application of these Causes to the more general Errors of Imagination and shall treat likewise of the Causes of these Errors which may be call'd Moral It may be understood from what has been said in the fore-going Chapter that the Delicacy of the Fibres of the Brain is one of the principal Causes that disables us from bringing an Application sufficient for the Discovery of Truths that lye any whit deep or conceal'd This Delicacy of the Fibres is more usually incident to Women and this is the Principle of their so exact acquaintance with all things that strike upon their Senses 'T is the Woman's Province to determine concerning the Fashions to judge of Language to distinguish the genteel Mein and the fine and courtly Behaviour They far out-do Men in the Science Skill and Dexterity about these things All that depends upon the Tast falls under their Jurisdiction but generally they are incapable of Penetrating into Truths that have any Difficulty in the Discovery All things of an abstracted Nature are Incomprehensible to them They cannot imploy their Imagination in disentangling compound and perplex'd Questions Their Consideration terminates on the surface and out-side of things and their Imagination has neither strength nor reach enough to pierce to the bottom of them and to make a Comparison of their parts without Distraction A Trifle or a Feather shall call them off the smallest out-cry dismay them and any little Motion gives them Imployment In short the Mode and not the Reality of things is enough to take up the whole Capacity of their Mind because the least Objects producing great Motions in the delicate Fibres of their Brain by a necessary consequence excite such lively and great Sensations in their Souls as wholly possess and take them up But though it be certain that this Delicacy of the Fibres of the Brain is the principal Cause of all these Effects yet it is not equally certain that it is universally to be found in all Women Or if it be to be found yet their Animal Spirits are sometimes so exactly proportion'd to the Fibres of their Brain that there are Women to be met with who have a greater solidity of Mind than some Men. 'T is in a certain Temperature of the Largeness and Agitation of the Animal Spirits and Conformity with the Fibres of the Brain that the strength of parts consists And Women have sometimes that just Temperature There are Women Strong and Constant and there are Men that are Weak and Fickle There are Women that are Learned Couragious and capable of every thing And on the contrary there are Men that are Soft Effeminate incapable of any Penetration or dispatch of any Business In fine when we attribute any Failures to a certain Sex Age or Condition they are only to be understood of the generality it being ever suppos'd there is no general Rule without Exception For it ought not to be imagin'd that all Men or all Women of the same Age Country or Family have their Brain of the same Constitution It is more pertinent to believe that as there are not two Faces in the World in every thing resembling one another so there are not two Imaginations exactly alike And that all Men Women and Children differ from one another only more or less in the Delicacy of the Fibres of their Brain For as we ought not too hastily to suppose an Essential Identity in those things between which we see no Difference so we ought not to make Essential Differences where we cannot find perfect Identity For these are the common Faults Men usually fall into That which may be said of the Fibres of the Brain is That in Children they are very soft and extreamly tender that with Age they harden and corroborate Yet notwithstanding the generality of Women and some Men have them extreamly delicate all their Lives To determine any thing farther we dare not But this is enough to be said of Women and Children That as they are not concern'd with searching after Truth and the Instruction of others so their Errors do not occasion much Prejudice since little credit is given to things by them advanc'd Let us speak of Men grown up of such as have their Mind in its Strength and Vigour such as may be thought capable of finding out Truth and teaching it to others The ordinary Season for the greatest Perfection of the Mind is from the Age of Thirty to that of Fifty Years The Fibres of the Brain in that Age have usually attain'd a tolerable consistence the Pleasures and Pains of the Senses make hardly any more Impression on them So that a Man has no more to do than to ward off violent Passions which rarely happen and from which a Man may screen himself if he diligently avoid all manner of occasion And thus the Soul meeting with no more Diversion from things sensible may with greater ease and leisure give her self to the Contemplation of Truth A Man in this capacity who had not his Mind fill'd with the Prejudices of Childhood who from his Youth upwards had
to their Passions which proceed from the Commotion of the Animal Spirits I shall not explain these things more at large because it is easie to judge of this Age by the others before treated of and to conclude that Old Men have more difficulty than others at conceiving what is said to them that they are more zealously devoted to their Prejudices and Ancient Opinions and consequently are more confirmed and strengthened in their Errors in their corrupt Habits and other things of like Nature 'T is only to be advertis'd That the state of Old Age is not precisely determined to Sixty or Seventy Years that all Old Men are not Dotards and that those who have pass'd the Sixtieth Year are not always delivered from the Passions of Youth and that we ought not to draw too general Consequences from the Principles establish'd CHAP. II. That the Animal Spirits generally run in the Tracks of Idea's that are most familiar to us which is the Reason of our preposterous Judgments I Have I think explain'd in the fore-going Chapters the various Changes happening in the Animal Spirits and in the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain according to different Ages Wherefore supposing a Man to have meditated a little upon what has been said upon that Subject he must necessarily have a distinct Knowledge enough of the Imagination and of the most common Natural Causes of the differences observable between the Minds of Men since all the Changes happening in the Imagination and the Mind are only the Consequences of those which are to be found in the Animal Spirits and the Fibres that compose the Brain But there are many particular and such as we may call Moral Causes of the Changes which happen in the Imagination of Men namely Their different Conditions their various Employments and in a word their several ways of Living which deserve to be attentively consider'd because these sorts of Changes are the Causes of a numberless multitude of Errors every Man judging of things with reference to his own Condition We think it not so much our Business to stand to explain the Effects of some less customary Causes such as great Diseases surprizing Misfortunes and other unexpected Accidents which make very violent Impressions in the Brain and which sometimes totally subvert it because these things are of very rare occurrence and besides the Error such sort of Persons fall into are too gross to be contagious since they are palpable and discernible to all Mankind But that we may perfectly comprehend all the Changes the different conditions and states of Life produce in the Imagination 't is absolutely necessary to be call'd to mind that our Imagining Objects is only the framing Images thereof to our Selves and that these Images are nothing but the Traces delineated by the Animal Spirits in the Brain that we Imagine things so much stronglier as these Traces are more deep and better cut and as the Animal Spirits more frequently and violently pass through them that these Spirits by their frequent course so plain and open the Passage as to enter the same Tracks with greater readiness than any other neighbouring parts through which they either have not pass'd or not so frequently This is the most ordinary Cause of the Confusion and Falsity of our Idea's For the Animal Spirits which were directed by the Action of External Objects or even by the orders of the Soul to the production of certain Traces frequently produce others which indeed have some resemblance with them but are not altogether the Traces of these same Objects nor those the Soul desir'd to represent because the Animal Spirits finding some Resistance in the parts of the Brain through which they ought to pass are easily diverted to throng into the deep Traces of Idea's which are most familiar to us Here are some very gross and sensible Instances of these things When those who are not extraordinary short-sighted behold the Moon they see in her two Eyes a Nose and a Mouth in a word it looks to them as if they saw a Face tho there be nothing in her of what they fancy they perceive Many Persons see in her quite another thing And those who believe the Moon to be such as she appears would quickly be undeceived did they but behold her with Telescopes though of a moderate size or did they only consult the Descriptions Hevelius Riccioli and others have made Publick Now the Reason why a Man usually sees a Face in the Moon and not those irregular Blotches that are in her is because the Traces of a Face which are imprinted in the Brain are very deep for that we frequently look on Faces and with great Attention So that the Animal Spirits meeting with opposition in the other parts of the Brain easily swerve from the Direction the Light of the Moon impresses on them when a Man beholds her to accomodate themselves to the Traces whereunto Nature has affix'd the Idea's of a Face Besides that the apparent Magnitude of the Moon differing not much from a common head at a certain Distance She by her Impression forms such Traces as have Connection with those which represent a Nose a Mouth and Eyes and so she determines the Spirits to take their course in the Traces of a Face There are some who discern in the Moon a Man on Horse-back or something else than a Face because their Imagination having been briskly smitten with some particular Objects the Traces of these Objects open at any thing that bears the least Analogy to them 'T is upon the same grounds we Imagine we see Chariots Men Lions and other Animals in the Clouds when there is any little resemblance between their Figures and these Animals and all Men especially those who are used to Designing see sometimes Heads of Men on Walls whereon there are many irregular stains 'T is for the same Reason still that the Spirits of Wine entering without any Direction of the Will into the most familiar Traces make Men betray their Secrets of the greatest concernment and that when a Man sleeps he usually dreams of Objects he has seen in the Day-time which have form'd very great Traces in the Brain because the Soul is ever representing those things whereof she has the greatest and deepest Traces But see other Examples of a more complex kind A Distemper is new and it makes such havock and destruction as amazes all Men. This imprints Traces so deep in the Brain that this Disease is never absent from the Mind If this Disease be call'd for instance the Scurvy all Diseases must presently be call'd Scurvy the Scurvy is new therefore all new Distempers is the Scurvy The Scurvy is accompany'd with a dozen Symptoms whereof many are common to other Distempers that matters not If a sick Person fortunes to have any one of the Symptoms he must needs be sick of the Scurvy and other Distempers are never suspected or thought of that have the same Symptoms 'T is
expected that all the Accidents which befal those that have been sick of the Scurvy must befal him too The same Medicines therefore are prescrib'd him and 't is matter of amazement to find they have not the same Effect as they have been known to have had in others An Author applies himself to one kind of Study The Traces of the Subject he 's imploy'd about are so deeply imprinted and make such lively Radiations through the Brain as to confound and efface sometimes the Traces of things of a quite different kind There has been a Man for instance that has wrote many bulky Volumes on the Cross this made him discover a Cross in every thing he look'd upon and 't is with Reason that Father Morinus handsomly rallies him for thinking a Medal represented a Cross though it represented quite another thing 'T was by such another unlucky turn of Imagination Gilbertus and many others after having studied the Load-stone and admir'd its properties must needs reduce to these Magnetick Qualities abundance of Natural Effects that had no Relation to them in the World The Instances I have here alledg'd suffice to prove that the great facility of the Imagination's representing Objects that are familiar to it and the difficulty it finds in Imagining those that are Novel is the Reason of Mens forming almost ever such Idea's as may be styl'd mix'd and impure and of the Mind 's judging of things only with Relation to it self and its former Thoughts And thus the different Passions of Men their Inclinations Conditions Imployments Qualities Studies finally all their different Ways and Scopes of Life putting very considerable Differences in their Idea's occasion them to fall into innumerable Errors which we shall explain in the following Discourse Which was the reason of My Lord Bacon's speaking this most judicious Sentence Omnes perceptiones tam sensûs quam mentis sunt ex analogiâ hominis non ex analogiâ universi Estque Intellectus humanus instar speculi inaequalis ad radios rerum qui suam Naturam naturae rerum immiscet eamque distorquet inficit CHAP. III. Of the Mutual Connection between the Idea's and the Traces of the Brain and of the Mutual Connection there is between Traces and Traces Idea's and Idea's AMONG the whole Mass of Material Beings there is nothing more worthy of the Contemplation of Men than the Contexture of their own Body and the Correspondence found between the Parts that compose it And among all things Spiritual there is nothing the Knowledge whereof is more necessary than that of their Soul and of all the Relations she is indispensably under to GOD and Naturally to the Body 'T is not enough to have a confus'd Knowledge or Sensation that the Traces of the Brain are mutually connected to each other and that they are pursued by the Motion of the Animal Spirits that the Traces when excited in the Brain excite the Idea's in the Understanding and that the Motions that arise in the Animal Spirits raise the Passions in the Will We ought as far as is possible to have a distinct Knowledge of the Cause of all these different Connections but especially of the Effects they are capable of producing We ought to know the Cause thereof in as much as it is necessary to know our Guide and Conductor who alone is capable of acting in us and of rendring us happy or miserable and we ought to know the Effect of them it being necessary to know our selves as much as possible and other Men with whom we are oblig'd to live So should we know the means both of conducting our selves to and preserving our selves in the most happy and perfect state we are capable of attaining by the order of Nature and the Precepts of the Gospel and so should we be able to frame our Lives sociably with Men by exactly knowing the means of making use of them in our Exigencies and assisting them in their Miseries I pretend not to Explain in this Chapter a Subject so vast and Comprehensive nor have I that Opinion of my self as to think I should throughly do it in this whole Work There are many things I am still ignorant of and despair of ever knowing well and there are others which I presume I know but am unable to explicate For there is no mind so little and so narrow but may by Meditation discover more Truths than can be deduc'd at length by the most Eloquent Man in the World We are not to imagine with a great part of the Philosophers that the Mind becomes Body when united to the Body and that the Body becomes Mind when united to the Mind The Soul is not expanded through all the parts of the Body in order to give Life and Motion to it as the Imagination represents nor does the Body become capable of Sensation by its Union with the Mind as our treacherous and abusive Senses would seem to perswade us Either Substance preserves its own particular Being and as the Soul is incapable of Extension and Motions so the Body is incapable of Thought and Inclinations All the Affinity that we know between the Body and Mind consists in the Natural and Mutual correspondence of the Thoughts of the Soul with the Traces of the Brain and of the Emotions of the Soul with the Motions of the Animal Spirits When the Soul receives some new Idea's some new Traces are imprinted on the Brain and when Objects produce new Traces the Soul receives new Idea's Which is not said as if the Soul consider'd these Traces since she has no knowledge of them or as if these Traces included these Idea's since there is no Analogy betwixt them or lastly as if she receiv'd her Idea's from these Traces for 't is inconceivable as shall be explain'd hereafter how the Mind should receive any thing from the Body and become more enlightned than she is by turning towards it as the Philosophers pretend who would have the Souls Perception of all things to be caus'd Per conversionem ad phantasmata by the Conversion to the Phantasms or Traces of the Brain Thus when the Soul wills the moving of her Arm the Arm is mov'd though she not so much as knows what ought to be done to the moving it and when the Animal Spirits are agitated the Soul finds a Commotion in her self though she is ignorant whether there be any such thing as Animal Spirits in her Body When I come to treat of the Passions I shall speak of the Connection there is between the Traces of the Brain and the Motions of the Spirits and of that which is between the Idea's and the Emotions of the Soul for all the Passions have their Dependance thereon I am to Discourse at present only of the Connection between Traces and Idea's and the Connection Traces have with one another There are three very considerable Causes of the Connection of Idea's with the Traces of the Brain The first and most general
when absent it disappears and the presence of the Object almost always is found in company with the Idea that represents it to us However if Men were not rash and inconsiderate in their judgments they ought only to conclude from the Idea's of things being present to their Mind whenever they will have them that according to the order of Nature their Will is for the most part necessary to their having these Idea's but not that the Will is the True and Principal Cause that exhibits them to the Mind much less that the Will produces them out of nothing or in the manner they explain it Nor is there any more Reason for concluding that Objects emit Species that resemble them because the Soul has seldom any Perception of them but when they are present but only that the Object is for the most part necessary to the Idea's being present to the Mind Lastly They ought not to conclude that the Bowl in motion is the principal and true Cause of the motion of another which it meets in its way since the first has no power of moving it self They can only judge that the Collision of the two Bowls is an occasion to the Author of the motion of Matter to execute the decree of his Will which is the universal Cause of all things by communicating to the other Bowl a part of the motion of the first that is to speak more clearly by willing that the latter should acquire as much motion as the former lost for the impellent force of Bodies can be nothing but the Will of him that preserves them as will be made appear in another place CHAP. IV. That we perceive not Objects by means of Idea's Created with us That GOD does not produce them in us every moment we have need of them THE third Opinion is of those who pretend That all Idea's are Created with us For our better discovering how little likelihood there is in this Opinion we must consider that there are in the World many quite different things whereof we have Idea's But to mention only simple Figures it is certain that the number of them is infinite and even if we fix only on an Ellipsis 't is not to be doubted but the Mind can conceive an infinite number of Ellipses of a different Species inasmuch as it can conceive that one of its Diameters may be lengthened to Infinity the other remaining constantly the same So since the Height of a Triangle may be augmented or diminish'd to Infinity the side which serves for the Base being still the same we conceive there may be infinite Triangles upon the same Base of a different Species And moreover which I desire may be well consider'd here the Mind in some manner perceives that infinite number though it can imagine but a very few and a Man cannot at one and the same time have particular and distinct Idea's of many Triangles of a different Species But that which should be most especially attended to is that this general Idea the Mind has of an infinite number of Triangles of a different Species is a sufficient proof that if we cannot conceive by particular Idea's all these different Triangles in a word if we cannot comprehend Infinity 't is not for want of Idea's or because Infinity is not present to our Mind but meerly for want of the Mind's Capacity and Comprehension If a Man should apply himself to the considering the Properties of all the diverse Species of Triangles and even should eternally pursue this sort of Study he would find new and particular Idea's in an endless succession But his Mind would tire under the unprofitable Disquisition What I have now said of Triangles may be apply'd to Figures of five six an hundred a thousand or ten thousand sides and so up to infinity And if the sides of a Triangle being capable of infinite Relations with each other can make Triangles of infinite Species it is easie to be seen that the Figures of Four Five or of a Million of sides are capable of much greater Differences as being subject to a far greater number of Relations and Combinations of their sides than simple Triangles The Mind then discerns all these things and has Idea's of them all And 't is certain these Idea's will never be exhausted though it should imploy infinite Ages in the consideration of one Figure only and if it perceives not these infinite Figures all at once or if it comprehend not infinity 't is only because its Capacity is too short and limited It has then an infinite number of Idea's What said I an infinite number It has so many infinite numbers of Idea's as there are different Figures Insomuch that there being an infinite number of different Figures the Mind must have an infinity of infinite numbers of Idea's for the Knowledge of Figures only Now I demand of them Whether 't is probable that GOD has created so many things with the Mind of Man For my own part it can never enter into my Head especially since it might be done in another most simple and easie manner as we shall see by and by For whereas GOD acts always by the most simple means it seems unreasonable to explain our manner of knowing Objects by admitting the Creation of an infinity of â—eings when the difficulty may be resolv'd in a way more easie and natural But what if the Mind had a Magazine of all the Idea's necessary to its Perception of things It would be still extreamly difficult to explain how the Soul could make choice of them to represent Objects to her self how for instance she could bring it about to perceive the Sun when it were present to the Eyes of the Body For since the Image the Sun imprints in the Brain is nothing like the Idea we have of it as has been formerly prov'd and since likewise the Soul perceives not the Motion the Sun produces in the Fund of the Eye and in the Brain it is not conceivable how among such an infinite number of Idea's which she had she could exactly divine which it was necessary to represent for the imagining or seeing of the Sun It cannot then be said that the Idea's of things were created with us and that this is sufficient for our perceiving the Objects that are round about us Nor can it be said that GOD produces every moment so many new Idea's as we perceive different things This is sufficiently refuted by what has been said in this Chapter Besides it is necessary we should actually have in our selves the Idea's of all things at all times since at all times we can Will the conceiving all things Which we could never do unless we had already a confus'd Perception of them that is unless we had an infinite number of Idea's present to our Mind For to conclude we cannot Will the Thinking on Objects whereof we have no Idea CHAP. V. That the Mind perceives neither the Essence nor the Existence of
as little as possibly it can 'T is upon this account it is easily perswaded that the Essences of things are in Indivisibili and that they are like Numbers as we have said before for that then it requires only one Idea to represent all the Bodies that go under the name of the same Species If you put for example a Glass of Water into an Hogshead of Wine the Philosophers will tell you the Essence of Wine still remains the same and the Water is converted into Wine That as no number can intervene between three and four since a true Unity is indivisible so 't is necessary the Water should be converted into the Essence or Nature of the Wine or that the Wine should lose its own That as all Numbers of Four are perfectly alike so the Essence of Water is exactly the same in all Waters That as the Number Three Essentially differs from the Number Two and cannot have the same Properties so two Bodies differing in Specie differ Essentially and in such wise as they can never have the same Properties which flow from the Essence and such like things as these Whereas if Men consider'd the true Idea's of things any thing attentively they would not be long a discovering that all Bodies being extended their Nature or Essence has nothing in 't like Numbers and that 't is impossible for it to consist in Indivisibili But Men not only suppose Identity Similitude or Proportion in the Nature the Number and essential Differences of Substances but in every thing that comes under their Perception Most Men conclude that all the fix'd Stars are fastned as so many Nails in the mighty Vault of Heaven in an equal distance and convexity from the Earth The Astronomers have for a long time given out that the Planets rowl in exact Circles whereof they have invented a plentiful number as Concentric Excentric Epicycles Deferent and Equant to explain the Phenomena that contradict their Prejudice 'T is true in the last Ages the more Ingenious have corrected the Errors of the Ancients and believe that the Planets describe Ellipses by their Motion But if they would have us believe that these Ellipses are regular as we are easily inclin'd to do because the Mind supposes Regularity where it perceives no Irregularity they fall into an Error so much harder to be corrected as the Observations that can be made upon the Course of the Planets want Exactness and Justness to shew the Irregularity of their Motions which Error nothing but Physicks can remedy as being infinitely less observable than that which occurs in the Systeme of exact Circles But there is one thing of more particular occurrence relating to the Distance and Motion of the Planets which is that the Astronomers not being able to discover an Arithmetical or Geometrical Proportion that being manifestly repugnant to their Observations some of them have imagin'd they observ'd a kind of Proportion which they term Harmonical in their Distances and Motions Hence it was that an Astronomer of this Age in his New Almagistus begins a Section intitul'd De Systemate Mundi Harmonico with these words There is no Man that 's never so little vers'd in Astronomy but must acknowledge a kind of Harmony in the motion and intervals of the Planets if he attentively considers the Order of the Heavens Not that he was of that Opinion for the Observations that have been made gave him sufficiently to understand the extravagance of that imaginary Harmony which has yet been the Admiration of many Authors Ancient and Modern whose Opinions are related and refuted by Father Riccioli It is attributed likewise to Pythagoras and his Followers to have believ'd That the Heavens by their Regular Motions made a wonderful Melody which Men could not hear by reason of their being us'd to it As those says he that dwell near the Cataracts of the Waters of Nile hear not the noise of them But I only bring this particular Opinion of the Harmonical Proportion between the Distances and Motions of the Planets to shew that the Mind is fond of Proportions and that it often imagines them where they are not The Mind also supposes Uniformity in the Duration of things and imagines they are not liable to Change and Instability when it is not as it were forc'd by the Testimonies and report of Sence to judge otherwise All Material things being extended are capable of Division and consequently of Corruption And every one that makes never so little reflection on the Nature of Bodies must sensibly perceive their Corruptibility And yet there have been a multitude of Philosophers who believ'd the Heavens though Material were Incorruptible The Heavens are too remote from our Eyes to discover the Changes which happen in them and there seldom any great enough fall out to be seen upon Earth which has been sufficient warrant to a great many Persons to believe they were really incorruptible What has been a farther confirmation of their Opinion is their attributing to the Contrariety of Qualities the Corruption incident to Sublunary Bodies For having never been in the Heavens to see how things were carried on there they have had no Experience of that contrariety of Qualities being to be found therein which has induc'd them to believe there were actually no such thing And hence have concluded the Heavens were exempt from Corruption upon this Reason That what according to their Notion corrupts Sublunary Bodies is not to be found in the higher Regions of the World 'T is plain that this Arguing has nothing of solidity for we see no Reason why there may not be found some other Cause of Corruption besides that contrariety of Qualities which they imagine nor upon what grounds they can affirm There is neither Heat nor Cold neither Drought nor Moisture in the Heavens that the Sun is not hot nor Saturn cold There is some probability of Reason to say That very hard Stones and Glass and other Bodies of like Nature are not corrupted since we see they subsist a long time in the same Capacity and we are near enough to observe the Changes that should happen to them But while we are at such a Distance from the Heavens as we are it 's absolutely against all Reason to conclude they don't corrupt because we perceive no contrary Qualities in them nor can see them corrupting and yet they don 't only say they don't corrupt but that they are unchangeable and incorruptible And a little more the Peripateticks would maintain That Celestial Bodies were so many Divinities as their Master Aristotle did believe them The Beauty of the Universe consists not in the Incorruptibility of its parts but in the Variety that is found in them and this great Work of the World would have something wanting to its Admirable Perfection without that Vicissitude of things that is observ'd in it A Matter infinitely extended without Motion and consequently rude and without Form and without Corruption might perhaps manifest
constantly impresses on our Will is The Love of our selves and Our own Preservation We have already said That GOD loves all his Works and that it is only his Love which preserves them in their Being and that 't is his Will that all Created Spirits should have the same Inclination with his own 'T is his Will therefore that they all have a natural Inclination for their own Preservation and that they love themselves So that Self-love is reasonable because Man is really amiable in as much as GOD loves us and would have us love our selves but it is not reasonable to love our selves better than GOD since GOD is infinitely more lovely than we are It is injust for us to place our ultimate End in our selves and to centre our Love there without reference to GOD since having no real Goodness or Subsistence of our selves but only by the participation of the Goodness and Being of GOD we are no farther amiable than we stand related to him Nevertheless the Inclination we should have for GOD is lost by the Fall and our Will now has only an infinite Capacity for all Goods or Good in general and a strong Inclination to possess them which can never be destroy'd But the Inclination which we ought to have for our own Preservation or our Self-love is so mightily increas'd that 't is at last become the absolute Master of our Will It has even chang'd and converted the Love of GOD or the Inclination we have for Good in general and that due to other Men into its own nature For it may be said that the Love of our selves at present ingrosses all because we love all things but with relation to our selves whereas we should love GOD only first and all things after as related to him When Faith and Reason certifie us that GOD is the sovereign Good and that he alone can fill us with Pleasures we easily conceive it our Duty to love him and readily afford him our Affections but unassisted by Grace Self-love always is the first Mover All pure and defecate Charity is above the strength of our corrupt Nature and so far are we from loving GOD for himself that Humane Reason cannot comprehend how 't is possible to love him without Reference to our selves and making our ultimate End our own Satisfaction Self-love therefore is the only Master of our Will ever since the Disorders of Sin and the Love of GOD and our Neighbour are only Consequences of it since we love nothing at present but with the hopes of some Advantage or because we actually receive some Pleasure therein This Self-love branches into two sorts viz. Into the Love of Greatness and the Love of Pleasure or into the Love of ones Being and the Perfection of it and into the Love of Well-being or Felicity By the Love of Greatness we affect Power Elevation Independency and a Self-subsisting Being We are after a sort ambitious of having a Necessary Being and in one sense desire to be as Gods for GOD only has properly Being and Necessary Existence for that every Depending Nature exists only by the Will of its Upholder Wherefore Men in desiring the Necessity of their Being desire Power and Independency which may set them beyond the reach of the Power of others But by the Love of Pleasure they desire not barely Being but Well-being Pleasure being the best and most advantageous Mode of the Soul's Existence For it must be noted That Greatness Excellency and Independency of the Creature are not Modes of Existence that render it more happy of themselves for it often happens that a Man grows miserable in proportion to his growing great But as to Pleasure 't is a Mode of Existence which we cannot Actually receive without being Actually more happy Greatness and Independency are commonly External Modes consisting in the relation we have to things about us But Pleasures are in the very Soul are real Modes which modifie her and are naturally adapted to content her And therefore we look upon Excellency Greatness and Independency as things proper for the Preservation of our Being and useful sometimes by the order of Nature to the continuance of our Well-being But Pleasure is always a Mode of the Mind's Existence which of it self renders it Happy and Content So that Pleasure is Well-being and the Love of Pleasure the Love of Well-being Now this Love of Well-being is sometimes more powerful and strong than the Love of Being and Self-love makes us desire Non-existence because we want Well-being This Desire is incident to the Damn'd for whom it were better according to the Saying of our SAVIOUR not to be at all than to be so ill as they are because these Wretches being the declar'd Enemies of him who contains in himself all Goodness and who is the sole Cause of all the Pleasures and Pains we are capable of 't is impossible they should enjoy any Satisfaction They are and will be eternally miserable because their Will shall ever be in the same Disposition and Corruption Self-love therefore includes two Loves that of Greatness Power and Independence and generally of all things thought proper for the preservation of our Being and that of Pleasure and of all things necessary to our Well-being that is to our being Happy and Content These two Loves may be divided several ways whether because we are compounded of two different parts of a Soul and Body by which they may be divided or because they may be distinguish'd or specify'd by the different Objects that are serviceable to our Preservation But I shall insist no longer upon this because designing not a Treatise of Morality there is no need of making an exact Disquisition and Division of all the things relating to us as our Goods Only this Division was necessary to reduce into some order the Causes of our Errours First I shall speak to the Errours that are caus'd by the Inclination we have for Greatness and whatever sets our Being free from Dependence upon others In the next place I shall treat of those which proceed from our Inclination to Pleasure and whatever meliorates our Being as much as possible and contents us most CHAP. VI. I. Of the Inclination we have for whatever elevates us above others II. Of the false Judgments of some Religious Persons III. Of the false Judgments of the Superstitious and Hypocrites IV. Of Voetius Mr. Des Cartes's Enemy WHatever tends to exalt us above others by making us more perfect as Science and Vertue or gives us Authority over them by rendring us more powerful as Honours and Riches seems to put us in a sort of Independence All those that are below us reverence and fear us are always prepar'd to execute what we please for our Preservation and are afraid of offending us or resisting our Desires which makes Men constantly endeavour to be Masters of these Advantages which elevate them above others for they don't consider that their Being and
pursuant to his first Will to give us the Sensation of Pleasure when we don't deserve it either because the Action we do is unprofitable or criminal or that being full of Sin we have no Right to demand a Recompence The Enjoyment of Sensible Pleasures was justly due to Man in his Regular Actions whilst he remain'd Innocent But â—ince the Fall there are no Sensible Pleasures entirely innocent or incapable of harming us when we taste them For it is commonly sufficient only to taste them to become their Slave Thirdly GOD being Just cannot chuse but punish one day the Violence that was done him by obliging him to reward with Pleasure criminal Actions committed against him When our Soul shall be dis-united from our Body GOD will be dispens'd from the Obligation he has impos'd upon himself of giving Sensations answerable to the Motions of the Animal Spirits but he will still be oblig'd to satisfie his Justice and so that will be the season of his Wrath and Vengeance Then though he change not the Order of Nature but remain ever fix'd and immutable in his first Will he will punish the unmerited Pleasures of the Voluptuous with Pains that will never have an end Fourthly Because the Certainty we have in this Life of the future Execution of that Justice exagiâ—ates the Mind with dreadful Anxieties and throws it into a sort of Despair which renders the Voluptuous miserable even amidst the greatest Pleasures Fifthly Because of those disquieting Remorses which almost ever attend the most Innocent Pleasures by reason we are inwardly convinc'd we don 't deserve them which Remorses rob us of a certain internal Joy that is found even in the Severities of Repentance And therefore though Pleasure be a Good yet it must be acknowledg'd that the Enjoyment of it is not always to our Advantage for the foregoing Reasons And for others of like nature most requisite to be known and easily deducible from them it must be granted that it is most commonly highly advantageous to suffer Pain though really an Evil. Nevertheless every Pleasure is a Good and actually makes happy the Enjoyer at the time of Enjoyment and so long as he enjoys it and every Pain is an Evil and makes the Sufferer actually unhappy at the instant of suffering and so much as he suffers it The Righteous and Holy may be said to be the most miserable of all Men in this Life and most worthy of Compassion Si in vita tantum in Christo speramus miserabiliores sumus omnibus hominibus says St. Paul For those that weep and suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake are not blessed for suffering Persecution for the sake of Righteousness but because the Kingdom of Heaven is Theirs and a great Reward is laid up for them in Heaven that is because they shall be happy Such as are persecuted for Righteousness are thereby Righteous Vertuous and Perfect as being in the Divine Order and because Perfection consists in the observing it But they are not happy because they suffer There shall be a time when they shall suffer no more and then they shall be happy as well as righteous and perfect However I deny not but the Righteous even in this Life may be in some measure happy by the Strength of their Hope and Faith which bring those future Goods as it were present to their Minds For it is certain that the vigorous and lively Hope of any Good brings it closer to the Mind and anticipates the Enjoyment and thus makes a Man happy in part since 't is the Taste and the Possession of Good 't is Pleasure that makes us happy Therefore we should not tell Men that Sensible Pleasures are not good and that they render the Possessors never the Happier since this is false and at the time of Temptation they find it so to their Misfortune They ought to be told That these Pleasures are in their own nature good and after a sort capable to make them happy yet for all that to be avoided for such like Reasons as the foremention'd but that they have not strength enough to withstand them of themselves because they desire to be happy by an invincible Inclination which these transitory Pleasures to be avoided by them in some measure satisfie and therefore are under a fatal necessity of being lost unless rescued and assisted These things are to be inculcated to them to give them a distinct Knowledge of their own Imbecillities and their need of a Redeemer We ought to speak to Men as our Lord and not as the Stoicks do who understand neither the Nature nor Distemper of an humane Mind We must continually tell them they are to hate and despise themselves and not look for a Settlement and Happiness here below that they must continually bear their Cross or the Instrument of their Suffering and lose their Life at present to save it everlastingly Lastly we must shew them their Obligation to act quite contrary to their Desires to make them sensible of their Impotence to Good For their Will is invincibly bent on Happiness which 't is impossible actually to obtain without doing what they have a Mind to Perhaps being sensible of their present Evils and knowing their future they will humble themselves on Earth possibly they will cry to Heaven will seek out a Mediator stand in fear of sensible Objects and conceive a salutary Abhorrence for whatever flatters Concupiscence and their Senses Probably they may enter into that Spirit of Prayer and Repentance so necessary to the obtaining Grace without which no Strength no Health no Salvation can be expected We are inwardly convinc'd that Pleasure is good which inward Conviction is not false for Pleasure is really so We are naturally convinc'd that Pleasure is the Character of Good and that natural Conviction is certainly true for whatever causes Pleasure is unquestionably very good and amiable But we are not assur'd that sensible Objects or even our Soul it self are capable of producing Pleasure in us For there is no reason why we should believe it but a thousand why we should not Thus sensible Objects are neither good nor amiable they are to be employ'd as serviceable to the Preservation of Life but we must not love them as being incapable of acting upon us The Soul ought only to love what is good to her and able to make her happier and more perfect and therefore nothing but what 's above her can be the Object of her Love since 't is evident her Perfection can derive from nothing that is not so But because we judge that a Thing is the Cause of some Effect when it constantly attends it we imagine that sensible Objects act on us because at their approach we have fresh Sensations and because we see not him who causes them really in us In tasting a Fruit we have a Sensation of Sweetness and we attribute that Sweetness to the Fruit which we judge both to cause it and contain it We
see not GOD as we see and touch this Fruit nay we do not so much as think on him nor perhaps on our selves And so we judge not that GOD is the true Cause of that Sweetness nor that it is a Modification of our Soul but impute both the Cause and Effect to the Fruit we eat What I have said of Sensations relating to the Body may be understood of those which have no relation to it such are those which are incident to pure Intelligences A Spirit contemplates it self and finds nothing wanting to its Happiness or Perfection or else sees that it is not in possession of what it desires Upon the View of its Happiness it feels Joy upon the sight of its Misery it feels Sorrow It immediately imagines that 't is the sight of its Happiness which produces in it self this Sensation of Joy because this Sensation still accompanies this Perception and fancies likewise that the sight of its Misery is what produces in it the Sensation of Sorrow because the latter is a constant Attendant of the former The true Cause of these Sensations which is GOD alone does not appear to it nor does it it may be think on GOD. For GOD acts in us in an imperceptible manner GOD rewards us with a Sense of Joy when we find our selves in the state we ought to be in to the intent we may continue in it that our Anxiety may cease and that we may fully enjoy our Happiness without suffering the Capacity of our Mind to be taken up with any thing else But he produces in us a Sensation of Sorrow when we know we are not in our convenienâ— state to the end we may not stay in it but restlesly seek out for the Perfection which we want For GOD continually drives us towards Good when we know that we do not possess it but gives us a powerful Check when we see we are fully possess'd of it Wherefore 't is evident to me that the Sensations of Intellectual Joy and Sorrow no less than Sensible are not the voluntary Productions of the Mind Our Reason then should constantly teach us to discover that invisible Hand which fills us with Good and which lies disguis'd to our Mind under Sensible Appearâ—nces This Hand we are to adore and to love and also to fear since though it loads us with Pleasures it can likewise over-whelm us with Pains We ought to love it with a Love of Choice an enlightned Love a Love worthy of GOD and our selves Our Love is worthy of GOD when it proceeds from our Knowledge of his being Amiable and this Love is worthy of our selves for that being Reasonable Creatures we ought to bestow our Love on that which Reason teaches us is worthy of it But we love sensible Things with a Love unworthy our selves and undeserv'd by them whilst being reasonable we love them without any Reason for it as not clearly knowing them to be lovely and on the contrary knowing they are not But we are betray'd by Pleasure to the Love of them the blind and irregular Love of Pleasure being the true Cause of the false Judgments of Men in Subjects of Morality CHAP. XI Of the Love of Pleasure with Reference to Speculative Sciences I. How it disables us from discovering Truth II. Some Instances OUR Inclination for Sensible Pleasures being misgovern'd is not only the Original of those dangerous Errours we are guilty of in Subjects of Morality and the general Cause of the Corruption of our Manners but likewise one of the main Causes of the Depravation of our Reason And it insensibly engages us in most gross but less dangerous Errours in point of Subjects purely Speculative because it disables us from bringing a sufficient Attention to comprehend and judge well of things that do not affect us We have spoken several times already of the Difficulty we find to apply our selves to Subjects somewhat Abstract the Subject of our Discourse requiring it As towards the End of the First Book where we shew'd that Sensible Ideas more affecting the Soul than Ideas purely Intellectual she was more taken up with the out-side manners than the Things themselves So again in the Second where treating of the Tenderness of the Fibres of the Brain we shew'd whence the Softness of certain Effeminate Minds proceeded Lastly in the Third when speaking of the Attention of the Mind it was necessary to shew that it was very careless of things Speculative but very attentive to such as affected her and made her feel Pleasure or Pain Our Errours have most commonly several Causes contributing to their Rise so that it ought not to be thought it is for want of Order that we repeat almost the same things and assign several Causes of the same Errours it is really because they have so many I still speak of Occasional Causes for we have often declar'd they have no other true and real Cause than the wrong use of our Liberty which wrong use consists in our not using it so much as we might as we have explain'd at the beginning of this Treatise We are not therefore to be blam'd if in order to make it fully conceiv'd how for Instance the Sensible Manners Things are involv'd in surprize and lead us into Errour we were oblig'd by way of Anticipation to speak of our Inclination for Pleasures in the other Books which seems fitter to have been reserv'd for this wherein we purposely treat of the Natural Inclinations and the same may be said of other things in other places All the harm that will come of it is this that we may dispense with many things here which we had been oblig'd to explain if it had not been done elsewhere All things in the Humane Nature are so link'd and twin'd to one another that we find our selves often as it were over-whelm'd with the Number of things necessary to be said at the same time to set our Conceptions in an open and clear Light We are sometimes forc'd to let things go unseparated which Nature has join'd together and to proceed against our own prescrib'd Method when this Method throws us in Confusion as it inevitably does on some Occasions And yet after all it is impossible to make others take in all our Conceptions All that can commonly be pretended to is to put others in a Capacity of discovering with Pleasure and Ease what we have discover'd our selves with great Pains and Fatigation And since 't is impossible to make any Discovery without Attention our Studies should be chiefly employ'd on Means of making others Attentive This is what we have essay'd to do though we must acknowledge but weakly perform'd and we are the willinger to confess we have been defective that the Confession may provoke our Readers to supply themselves what is wanting in us to make them attentive in order to penetrate the Bottom of Subjects which deserve to be thorowly consider'd Infinite are the Errours wherein our Inclination for Pleasures and in general
the Subject But the Title of my Book evidences as much for 't is concerning the Search after Truth I answer That to search out Truth two things are requisite first to be delivered from the Prejudices of Childhood or vulgar Errours Secondly to have a good Method The Title of the Book is comprehensive of these two parts I have given the first in the former Volume but the Animadverter will needs have it that I have given the second which surely is unreasonable He ought rather to correct the Title by the Book if the Title displeased him than to go about to ruine a whole Book for the Title 's sake But continues our Aurhor I declare my self upon the Point in this manner Let us examine the Causes and Nature of our Errours and since the Method of examining things by considering them in their Birth and Origin is the most regular and perspicuous and serves better than others to give us a thorough knowledge of them let us try to put it here in practice I have been shewing that I have declar'd distinctly enough in the Division I have made of my work that I gave not my Method in the first Volume this cannot be doubted But let us see whether this passage was enough to make him think I have given a Method I say Let us examine the Causes and Nature of our Errours My Design therefore according to this Passage is to examine the Causes and Naâ—ure of our Errours That 's plain I continue And since the Method of examining things by considering thâ—m in their Birth and Origin is more regular and perspicuous than others let us try to put it in practice My Design therefore is to examine the Causes and Nature of our Errours methodically can any one from hence believe I have given a Method If so we may believe there is no Author but has given a Method since there is none but has the same Design as my self to write methodically I might even say that the Animadverter has design'd to give a Method and impugn him by his own Weapons but that he had rather be thought to have written without any These are the Proofs imployed by him to demonstrate I have given a Method The fourteen Heads of this Imaginary Method are in the places whence they are taken either incidental Propositions or Answers to Objections or Opinions he ascribes to me for want of Understanding what he engages or lastly Examples which of themselves neither are nor can be Heads of a Method Here follows the first of these Heads I begin thus The Mind or Soul of Man being neither material nor extended is undoubtedly a simple Substance indivisible and without any Composition of Parts notwithstanding it has been the custom to distingish in it two Faculties namely the Understanding and the Will which it is necessary in the first place to explain for it seems c. And in order to render the abstract Ideas of these two words sensible I explain them not as our Author misrepresents me with Relation to the Essence of Matter which he supposes unknown but by Relation to the Properties which all the World acknowledge are in Matter i. e. the capacity of being mov'd and of receiving different external Figures and internal Configurations The Animadverter supposing as has been said that the Book he impugns is a Method begins thus The first thing to be observ'd when a Man pretends to the search of Truth is not to suppose he has already found it though he be in perfect possession of it c. And lower Which thing the Author seems not to have sufficiently consider'd for at his very first setting out he engages in the supposition of a thing the Knowledge whereof is the principal motive to his Enquiry after Truth and which he ought not to determine before he had exhausted the greatest Questions in Philosophy Thus it is he enters on his matter in his first Chapter The Mind of Man being neither material nor extended c. 'T is easie to see this Supposition is not indifferent c. I answer first that it was not my Design to give a Method in the Book he impugns but only to prepare the Mind by delivering it from Prejudices Secondly that though it had been my Design I might have suppos'd some Truths which are commonly acknowledg'd as that the Soul is not material especialy if I employ them not as a Foundation to build some System on I answer in the third place that the Proposition he will have to be an Head of my Method is an incidental Proposition The bare construction of the words is a sufficient indication the process of the Discourse an undeniable proof and all that I say in this place might subsist though the Soul were material 'T is not the part of a good Critick to take an incidental Proposition for a Fundamental and an Head of a Method Nor is this to prove I have suppos'd to have found the Truth I am in quest of since the thing I suppose or rather which I do not examine is not of any use to me When it was necessary to the sequel of Discourse to know that the Soul was a kind of Being distinct from Matter I have prov'd it or referr'd to those that have But why will he oblige me to prove a thing in this place which would be useless to the following Discourse and I should have been sorry to have prov'd here Whether the Soul be material or not it is always true that it has been the custom to distinguish two Faculties in it the Understanding and Will These two words are in use and I may employ them they are perhaps obscure and I ought to define them and because their Ideas are abstract I may make them sensible This is what I have done and I cannot yet see what any one can blame in it At my very first setting out he says I engage in the supposition of a thing the knowledge whereof is the principal motive to my Enquiry after Truth and which I ought not to determine before having exhausted the greatest Questions in Philosophy All this Discourse is false I engage not in a Supposition for incidental Propositions come not into account The principal motive to my Enquiry after Truth is not to know whether the Soul be Material or Immaterial and so far is this Question from being insoluble till having drain'd the greatest Questions of Philosophy that its Resolution depends on no other This Question is not complex'd and the bare Comparison of Ideas which answer to the terms is sufficient to resolve it as I shall shew in the sixth Book though this is not discoverable by those who make more use of their Imagination than their Reason There is no necessity of explaining this more at present we need but know that this Supposition is an incidental Proposition from which I draw no Conseqence and which I should have been to blame to prove and
intreat those who interess themselves in the difference of others not to believe me on my bare word nor easily to imagine I am in the right I think I have Liberty to demand of them that they will carefully examine the Answers I have made to the Animadversions in that Preface and the Argumentations of the Animadverter in reference to the Book oppos'd so I think I may without offence to the Author of this Answer require of those who would judge of it not to imagine he has reason on his side upon a slight and transient reading of his Book I desire them not to judge of any of his Answers before having examined it with reference to this Preface and the preceeding Books Take here for an instance the first of his Answers which begins thus Vpon what the Author of the Search pretends the Animadverter imposes on him touching his Design 'T is not imposing on him to make his Book pass for a Collection of Observations thought by him useful to the discovery of Truth 'T is plain I have positively declared that I look upon his Book as a Collection of many Remarks c. If the Author had consider'd these words he would not have accus'd me of imposing on him for he could not deny but he had a Design of offering something serviceable to the discovery of Truth which is all that I attributed to him And lower Wherein I even prove that that is not to be imputed to him which he affirms I impose upon him Lastly he concludes this Article with these words 'T is therefore evident the Author of the Search cannot prove I impose on him unless he will maintain he had a Design of writing a Book altogether useless to the Search of Truth These Words might possibly make a Man imagine I had without Reason accus'd the Animadverter of imposing on me in the Design of the Search but whoever would but confront what he here says with the foregoing Preface or with what he has said himself pag. 9 10. of his Animadversions would I hope be of another mind That I may not give the trouble of turning to it these are my words Nevertheless as he is pleas'd to make me undertake a Design I do not execute that he may have the more to charge upon my Conduct so he goes to prove it was my Design to lay down a Method in that Book I do him no injury says he in looking on his Book as a Method to lay the Foundation of the Sciences For besides that the Title expresses so much he declares himself upon the Point in the following manner Let us examine the Causes and Nature of our Errours and since the Method of examining things by considering them in their Birth and Origin is the most regular and perspicuous and serves better than others to give us a thorough knowledge of them let us try to put it here in practice Methinks these words I do him no injury says he c. which I cite out of the Animadversions are clear enough and that a Man need but understand English to see that the Animadverter imposes on me a Design of giving a Method and pretends too to prove it by the Title of the Search as also by a passage of the same Book and yet he boldly concludes this Article with these words 'T is therefore evident the Author of the Search cannot prove I impose on him c. But what he has positively declar'd he look'd upon the Search after Truth as a Collection of many Observations I cannot deny says he but he had a Design of offering something useful to the discovery of Truth which is ALL mark that word I attribute to him Since he has a mind to be diverted see my Answer A Painter has drawn a Polyphemus and standing behind his Piece hears some Critick say Look here Gentlemen the Artist design'd to paint an Hercules but if you mind it it is a Polyphemus The Painter out of patience starts from behind the Scene and gives the Spectators to undrestand he had no Design of representing an Hercules and that he imposes on him The Critick surpriz'd addresses the Painter Sir why so angry what did you design to represent Polyphemus returns the Painter Strange Sir replies the Critick why do you say I impose on you I call these Gentlemen to witness that ALL that I said was you had drawn a Polyphemus upon which the Painter withdraws contented and says no more I think my self therefore obliged to rest silent upon such like Answers I have shewn by the Animadverter's own words that he imposes on me a Design of giving a Method in the first Book of the Search and that he likewise pretends to prove it I have cited the place of the Animadversions from whence I have taken my proof Nevertheless this Author affirms he does not impose on me that 't is evident I cannot prove it that he proves quite contrary that what I say he imposes on me is not to be imputed to me that ALL he atributes to me is a Design of offering something useful to the discovery of Truth In a word that he has positively declared he look'd on the Search as a Collection of many Observations as if from his regarding the Search as a Collection it were to be concluded I had no other Design I say no more then but hope this Example may keep Men from judging without examining I have taken the three first Pages of his Book and have not given my self the liberty of chusing which ought to be consider'd yet I intend not this for an Answer remembring the obligation I have laid on my self at the end of the preceding Preface and I had rather those who think I have not satisfied the Animadversions because I have answer'd but three Chapters at length should say this Book whereof I answer but three Pages remains without Reply than weary the World with Answers which tend only to the justifyng other Replies F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH TOME II. BOOK V. CHAP. I. Of the Nature and Original of Passions in general THE Mind of Man has two essential or necessary Relations extreamly different the one to God and the other to its Body As mere Mind it is essentially united to the Divine Word the Eternal Wisdom and Truth since it is only by that Union that 't is capable of thinking as is proved in the Third Book As a humane Mind it has an essential Relation to its Body since it is by Virtue of that Union that it imagines and perceives by its Senses as is explained in the First and Second Book We call the Mind Sense or Imagination when the Body is the natural or occasional Cause of its Thoughts and we call it Understanding when it acts by it self or rather when God acts in it or his Light illuminates it several different ways without a necessary Relation to what is done in the Body It 's even so with
on a sudden design'd the destroying of the whole Nation that his Revenge might be the more splendid Two Men sue each other about a Piece of Land they ought only to produce in Court their Titles to it and to say nothing but what relates to the Case or to set it off fair However they seldom fail to slander one another to contradict each other in every thing to raise trifling Contestations and Accusations and to intricate the Suit with an infinity of Accessary Circumstances which confound the Principal In short the Passions reach as far as the sight of the Mind does in those that are affected by them I would say there is nothing to which we may suppose their Object to be related but their Motion will extend to it which is done after the following manner The Tracks of the Objects are so connected to each other in the Brain that it is impossible the Course of the Spirits should violently move any one of them without raising several others at the same time The principal Idea of the Thing perceiv'd is therefore necessarily accompanied with a vast number of accessary Ideas which increase more and more as the Impression of the Animal Spirits is more violent Now that Impression cannot but be very violent in the Passions because they continually hurry into the Brain abundance of such Spirits as are fit to preserve the Traces of the Ideas which represent their Object So that the Motion of Love or Hatred extends not only to the Chief Object of either Passion but also to all the Things that are found any ways relating to it because the Motion of the Soul in the Passion follows the Perception of the Mind as the Motion of the Animal Spirits in the Brain follows the Traces of the Brain as well those that excite the principal Idea of the Passion 's Object as those that are related to it And therefore we must not be surprized if Men carry their Hatred or Love to such a heighth and commit such strange and capricious Actions Every one of those Effects has its proper Cause though unknown to us because their accessary Ideas being not always like to ours we cannot rightly judge of them So that Men act always by some particular Reason even in those Actions that appear most extravagant to us CHAP. VII Of the Passions in particular And first Of Admiration and its ill Effects WHatever I have said hitherto of the Passions is general yet 't is no hard matter to draw particular Inferences from it If one do but reflect upon what occurs in his own Breast and upon the Actions of others he will discover at one View a greater number of those Truths than can be explain'd in a considerable time However there are so few who think of retiring into themselves and make any Attempt to that purpose that to quicken them and raise their Attention it will not be amiss somewhat to descend into Particulars It seems when we handle or strike our selves that we are almost insensible whereas if we be but never so little touched by others we receive such lively Sensations as awaken our Attention In a word as it never comes into our Mind to tickle our selves and if it did perhaps the Attempt would be unsuccessful So almost for the same Reason the Soul cares not to feel and sound her self is presently disgusted at that sort of Exercise and commonly is incapable of feeling or knowing all the Parts that belong to her till touch'd and made sensible to her by others So that it will be necessary for the facilitating some People in acquiring the Knowledge of themselves to mention some of the particular Effects of the Passions to â—each them by touching them of what Make and Constitution their Soul is of In the mean while those that shall read the following Thoughts must be forewarn'd that they will not always be touched to the Quick nor be aware that they are subject to the Passions and Errours of which I shall speak because particular Passions are not always the same in all Men. All Men indeed have the same natural Inclinations which referr not to the Body and likewise all those that relate to it when 't is in a very good Constitution But its various Tempers and frequent Alterations produce an infinite Variety in particular Passions To which diversity of Constitutions if that variety of Objects be added which cause very different Impressions upon those who follow not the same Employments and manner of Life it will plainly appear that such a Person who is lively touched by some Things in one Place of his Soul may be absolutely insensible as to many others so that we should commonly mistake should we always judge of the Commotions of others by what we feel in our selves I am not afraid of being deceiv'd when I assert That all Men would be happy for I fully and certainly know that Chinese and Tartars Angels and Devils in a word all Spirits whatsoever have an Inclination for Felicity Nay I know that God shall never produce any Spirit without that Desire I never saw either Chinese or Tartar so that I never learn'd it from Experience nor yet from my inward Consciousness which only teaches me that I would my self be happy God alone can inwardly convince me that all other Men Angels and Devils desire Happiness and he only can assure me that he will never create a Spirit that shall not care for Felicity For who else can positively assure me of what he does and even thinks And as he cannot deceive me so I may safely relie on what I learn from him And therefore I am certain that all Men would be happy because that Inclination is natural and independent on the Body It goes quite otherwise with particular Passions For because I love Musick Dancing Hunting Sweet-meats high-season'd Dishes c. I cannot certainly conclude that other Men have the same Passions Pleasure is doubtless sweet and grateful to Men but all find it not in the same Things The Love of Pleasure is a Natural Inclination not depending upon the Body and therefore general to all Men But the Love of Musick Hunting or Dancing is not general because the Disposition of the Body from which it proceeds being different in several Persons the Passions they produce are not always the same General Passions as Desire Joy and Sorrow are the Mean betwixt natural Inclinations and particular Passions They are general as well as Inclinations but they are not always of the same strength because the Cause which produces and feeds them is not always equally active There is an infinite Variety in the Degrees of Agitation of the Animal Spirits in their Plenty and Scarcity in their Solidity and Fineness and in the Relation betwixt the Fibres of the Brain and those Spirits And therefore it often happens that we touch not Men in any part of their Soul when we treat of particular Passions but if they chance to
false Supposition of the Philosophers which we are here endeavouring to destroy that the surrounding Bodies are the true Causes of our Pain and Pleasure Reason seems to justifie a Religion like the Pagan Idolatry and approve the universal Depravation of Morals Reason I grant teaches not to adore Onions and Leeks for instance as the Sovereign Divinity because they can never make us altogether happy when we have them or unhappy when we want them neither did the Heathens worship them with an equal Homage as their great Jupiter whom they fansied to be the God of Gods or as the Sun whom our Senses represent as the universal Cause that gives Life and Motion to all things and which we can hardly forbear to look on as the Sovereign Divinity if we suppose as the Pagan Philosophers that he Comprehends in his Being the true Causes of what he seems to produce as well upon our Soul and Body as upon all the Beings that surround us But if we must not pay a Sovereign Worship to Leeks and Onions they deserve at least some particular Adoration I mean they may be thought upon and loved in some manner if it be true that they can in some sort make us happy and may be honour'd proportionably to the good they doe us Surely Men that listen to the Reports of Sense think Pulse capable of doing them good otherwise the Israelites would not have bewailed the loss of them in the Wilderness or look'd on themselves as unhappy for being deprived thereof had they not fansied to themselves some great Happiness in the Enjoyment of them See what an Abyss of Corruption Reason plunges us into when it goes hand in hand with the Principles of Pagan Philosophy and follows the footsteps of the Senses But that the Falshood of that wretched Phylosophy and the Certainty of our Principles and Distinctness of our Ideas may not be longer doubted it will be necessary plainly to establish the Truths that contradict the Errours of the Ancient Philosophers or to prove in few words that there is but one true Cause since there is but one true God that the Nature and Force of every thing is nothing but the Will of God that all Natural things are not real but only occasional Causes and some other Truths depending on them It is evident that all Bodies great and little have no force to move themselves a Mountain a House a Stone a Grain of Sand the minutest and bulkiest Bodies imaginable are alike as to that We have but two sorts of Ideas viz. of Spirits and Bodies and as we ought not to speak what we conceive not so we must only argue from those two Ideas Since therefore our Idea of Bodies convinces us that they cannot move themselves we must conclude that they are moved by Spirits But considering our Idea of finite Spirits we see no necessary Connexion betwixt their Will and the Motion of any Body whatsoever on the contrary we perceive that there is not nor can be any Whence we must infer if we will follow Light and Reason That as no Body can move it self so no Created Spirit can be the true and principal Cause of its Motion But when we think on the Idea of God or of a Being infinitely perfect and consequently Almighty we are aware that there is such a Connexion betwixt his Will and the Motion of all Bodies that it is impossible to conceive he should will that a Body be moved and it should not be moved And therefore if we would speak according to our Conceptions and not according to our Sensations we must say that nothing but his Will can move Bodies The moving force of Bodies is not then in themselves this force being nothing but the Will of God Bodies then have no proper Action and when a moving Ball meets with another and moves it the former communicates nothing of its own to the latter as not having in it self the Impression it communicates though the former be the Natural Cause of the latter's Motion and therefore a natural Cause is not a true and real Cause but only an occasional which in such or such a Case determines the Author of Nature to act in such or such a manner 'T is certain that all things are produced by the Motion of visible or invisible Bodies for Experience teaches us that those Bodies whose parts are in greater Motion are always the most active and those that Cause the greatest Alterations in the World so that all the Forces of Nature are but the Will of God who Created the World because he will'd it who spake and it was done who moves all things and produces all the Effects we see because he has established some Laws by which Bodies Communicate their Motion to each other when they meet together and because those Laws are efficacious they and not the Bodies act There is then no Force Power nor true Cause in all the Material and sensible World Nor need we admit any Forms Faculties or real Qualities to produce Effects which the Bodies bring not forth or to divide with God his own Essential Force and Power As Bodies cannot be the true Causes of any thing so likewise the most Noble Spirits are subject to the same impotency on that respect They cannot know any thing unless God enlightens them nor have the Sensation of any thing unless he modifies them nor will unless he moves them towards himself They may indeed determine the Impression God has given them to himself towards other Objects but I doubt whether it can be call'd a Power For if to be able to sin is a Power it is such a one as the Almighty wants saith St. Austin somewhere If Men had of themselves the Power of loving Good it might be said that they have some Power but they cannot so much as love but because God Wills it and that his Will is Efficacious They love because God continually drives them towards Good in general that is towards himself for whom alone they are Created and preserved God moves them and not themselves towards Good in general and they only follow that Impression by a free Choice according to the Law of God or determine it towards false and seeming Goods according to the Law of the Flesh But they cannot determine it but by the sight of Good For being able to doe nothing without an Impression from above they are incapable of loving any thing but Good But though it should be supposed which is true in one sense that Spirits have in themselves the Power of knowing Truths and loving Good should their Thoughts and Will produce nothing outwardly it might still be said that they were impotent and unoperative Now it seems undeniable that the Will of Spirits is not able to move the smallest Body in the World it being evident there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Will we may have of moving our Arm for instance and the Motion of the same Arm. It moves
to another more exact by which we might accurately know how much London is larger than that open place contained in it There are therefore several sorts of Questions First There are some in which we seek a perfect Knowledge of all the exact Relations of two or several things betwixt each other Secondly There are some in which we search after the perfect Knowledge of some exact Relation betwixt two or several things Thirdly There are some in which we enquire after the perfect Knowledge of some Relation nearly approaching to the exact Relation that is betwixt two or more several things Fourthly There are some in which we are content to find a general and indefinite Relation 'T is evident First That to resolve the Questions of the First sort and perfectly to know all the exact Relations of Magnitude and Quality betwixt two or more things we must have distinct Ideas perfectly representing them and compare them together in all the possible manners We may for Instance resolve all the Questions that tend to discover the exact Relations betwixt 2 and 8 because both Numbers being accurately known may be compared together as much as is necessary to know the exact Relations of their Magnitude and Quality We may know that 8 is 4 times 2 and that 8 and 2 are even but not square Numbers 'T is plain Secondly That to resolve Questions of the second sort and accurately to know some Relation of Magnitude or Quality which is betwixt two or more things 't is necessary and sufficient distinctly to know those Faces by which they must be compared to discover the enquired Relation For Instance to resolve such Questions as tend to discover some exact Relations betwixt 4 and 16 as that 4 and 16 are even and square Numbers it 's sufficient exactly to know that 4 and 16 can be divided into equal parts without Fractions and that both are the product of a Number multiplied by it self and 't is to no purpose to examine what is their true Magnitude It being plain that to know the exact Relations of Quality betwixt things a distinct Idea of their Quality is sufficient without thinking on their Magnitude and that to know the exact Relations of Magnitude we need not search after the true Quality an accurate Knowledge of their Magnitude being all that is required Thirdly It clearly appears that to resolve the Questions of the third sort or to know some Relation very near approaching the exact Relation that is betwixt two or several things it is enough nearly to know the Faces by which they must be compared to discover the Relation required whether it be of Magnitude or Quality For Instance I may evidently know that the √ 8 is greater than 2 because I may very near know the true Magnitude of the √ 8 but I cannot discover how much the √ 8 is greater than 2 because I cannot exactly find out the true Magnitude of the √ 8. Lastly 'T is evident that to resolve the Questions of the fourth sort or to discover general and undefinite Relations it is enough to know things in a manner propotion'd to the need we stand in of comparing them together to find out the required Relation So that 't is not necessary to the Solution of all sorts of Questions to have very distinct Ideas of their Terms or perfectly to know the things expressed by those words But our knowledge must be the more exact as the Relations we search after are more accurate and numerous For as we have said in imperfect Questions imperfect Ideas of the things consider'd are sufficient to resolve them perfectly that is as far as they reach And many Questions may be resolved even without any distinct Idea of their Terms as when we are ask'd whether Fire is capable of melting Salt hardning Clay resolving Lead into Vapours and the like we understand perfectly those Questions and may very well solve them though we have no distinct Idea of Fire Salt Clay c. Because the Querists only desire to know whether we are ascertained by sensible Experiments that Fire produces those Effects And therefore may receive a satisfactory Answer by a knowledge drawn from the Senses CHAP. VIII An Application of the other Rules to particular Questions QUestion 's are of two sorts some are simple and others compound The former may be solved by the bare Attention of the Mind to the Ideas of the words in which they are expressed but the Solution of the latter must be perform'd by comparing them to a third or to many other Ideas We cannot find out the unknown Relations that are express'd in the Terms of a Question by immediately comparing the Ideas of those Terms since they can neither be joined nor compared We must then have one or several mean Ideas that we may make such Comparisons as are necessary to discover those Relations taking a special Care that those mean Ideas be the more clear and distinct as the Relations enquired after are more exact and numerous That Rule is but a Consequence of the first but of an equal importance with it For if exactly to know the Relation of the things compared it is necessary to have clear and distinct Ideas of them It plainly follows from the same Reason that we must have an accurate knowledge of the mean Ideas by which we intend to make our Comparisons since we must distinctly know the Relation of measure with each of the things measured to find out their Relations I shall give some Instances of it When we put a piece of Cork or other small and light Vessel in the Water with a Loadstone in it and offer to the North Pole of that Stone the same Pole of another Magnet which we keep in our Hands we presently perceive that the former Load-stone flies back as though it were driven by a violent Wind. 'T is requir'd to discover the Cause of that Effect 'T is plain that to render a Reason of the Motion of that Load-stone it is not sufficient to know the Relations it has to the other for we might perfectly know them all and yet not understand how two Bodies could repel each other without meeting We must therefore examine what are the Things which we distinctly conceive capable according to the Course of Nature of moving Bodies for 't is requir'd to find out the natural Cause of the Motion of a Load-stone which is certainly a Body And therefore we must not have recourse to any Quality Form or Being which by a clear Knowledge we cannot conceive capable of moving Bodies neither must we ascribe their Effect to an understanding Agent since we are not assur'd that Intelligences are the ordinary Causes of the natural Motions of Bodies and know not so much as whether they can produce Motion We plainly know that it is a natural Law that Bodies should move each other when they meet We must then endeavour to explain the Motion of the Load-stone by the Means of
intend not to treaâ— of The Curious may consult des Cartes's Principles of Philosophy I only observe as an Answer to an Objection which will presently be made against this Hypothesis that is Why those small Particles cannot re-enter through the Pores from whence they came That besides that the Pores of the Load-stones may be suppos'd to be wrought like the Channelling of a Screw which may pruduce the propos'd Effect it may be said likewise that the small Branches of which those Pores are made bend one way to obey and yield to the Motion of the entring Particles whereas they stand on end and shut them out another way So that we must not be surpriz'd at this Difference betwixt the Pores of the Load-stone for it may be explain'd in several manners and the only Difficulty consists in chusing the best If we had endeavour'd to resolve the fore-mention'd Question beginning with the Corpuscles that are suppos'd to stream out of the Magnet C we should have found the same and likewise discover'd that Air is compos'd of an infinite Number of Parts that are in a perpetual Motion without which it would be impossible that the Load-stone c could approach the Magnet C. I insist not on the Explication of this because there is no Difficulty in it Here follows a Question more compound and complicate than the fore-going for the Solution of which 't is necessary to make use of many Rules 'T is ask'd Which may be the Natural and Mechanical Cause of the Motion of our Members The Idea of Natural Cause is clear and distinct when understood as I have explain'd it in the former Question But the Words Motion of our Members are equivocal and confus'd because there are several such Motions some being Voluntary others Natural and others Convulsive There are also different Members in the Humane Body and therefore according to the first Rule I must ask Of which of these Motions the Cause is requir'd from me But if the Question be left undetermin'd and to my Discretion I examine it after this manner I attentively consider the Properties of those Motions and discovering at first that Voluntary Motions are sooner perform'd than Convulsive I infer that their Cause is different and therefore that I may and must examine the Question by Parts for it seems to require a long Discussion I restrain then my self to consider only Voluntary Motions and because several of our Members are employ'd about them I content my self for the present with the Consideration of the Arm. I observe that it is compos'd of several Muscles which are most or all in Action when we raise soâ—ething from the Ground or remove it from one place to the other But I only insist upon one being willing to suppose that the others are very near fashion'd after the same manner I inform my self of its Texture and Shape by some Book of Anatomy or rather by the sensible Sight of its Fibres and Tendons which I cause to be dissected in my presence by some skilful Anatomist to whom I put all the Queries which in the sequel may exhibit to my Mind a Medium to find out what I seek for After such a serious Consideration I cannot doubt but the Principle of the Motion of my Arm depends on the Contraction of its Muscles which compose it I am likewise content lest I should puzzle my self with too many Difficulties to suppose according to the common Opinion that this Contraction is perform'd by the Animal Spirits which filling up the Ventricle of those Muscles may cause their Extremities to come nearer Now the whole Question concerning Voluntary Motion is reduc'd to this Point How the small Quantity of Animal Spirits which are contain'd in our Arm may at the Command of the Will so suddenly swell the Muscles as to afford a sufficient Strength to list up an Hundred Weight or more Upon an attentive Reflexion thereupon the first Means that offers it self to the Imagination is commonly that of a quick and violent Fermentation like to that of Gun-powder or of some Liquors fill'd with Volatile Salt when they are mix'd with others that are Acid or full of a fixed Salt A small quantity of Gun-powder is able when kindled to raise not only an Hundred Weight but even a Tower and a Mountain Earthquakes that overthrow Cities and shake whole Countries proceed from Spirits kindling under the Ground almost as Gun-powder So that supposing in the Arm such a Cause of the Fermentation and Dilatation of the Spirits it may be look'd upon as the Principle of that Force by which Men perform so sudden and violent Motions But as we ought to mistrust those Means that are offer'd to the Mind by the Senses and of which we have no clear and evident Knowledge so we must not easily admit this for it is not sufficient to give an Account of the Strength and Quickness of our Motions by a Comparison For this is both a confus'd and imperfect Account because we are here to explain a voluntary Motion and Fermentation is not so The Blood is exceedingly fermented in Fevers and we cannot hinder it The Spirits are inflam'd and agitated in the Brain but we cannot rule their Agitation nor lessen it by our Desire When a Man moves the Arm several Ways a Thousand Fermentations great and small swift and â—low ought to begin and what is harder to explain to end likewise in a Moment as often and as soon as it is desir'd if this Hypothesis were true Besides Those Fermentations ought not to dissipate all their Matter but need always be ready to take Fire When a Man has walk'd Twenty Miles how many Thousand times must the Muscles employ'd in walking have been fill'd and empty'd and what a vast quantity of Spirits would be requir'd if Fermentation should dissipate and deaden them so often And therefore this Supposition is insufficient to explain such Motions of our Body as entirely depend upon our Will 'T is plain that the present Question may be reduc'd to this Problem of Mechanicks To find â—ut by Pneumatick Engines a Means to overcome such a Force as an Hundred Weight by another Force though never so small as that of an Ounce Weight And that the Application of that small Force may produce the desir'd Effect at the Discretion of the Will The Solution of that Problem is easie and the Demonstration of it clear It may be solv'd by a Vessel which hath two Orifices one of which is a little more than 1600 times larger than the other in which the Pipes of two equal Bellows are inserted and let a Force precisely 1600 times stronger than the other be apply'd to the Bellows of the larger Mouth for then the Force 1600 times weaker shall overcome the stronger The Demonstration of which is clear in Mechanicks since the Forces are not exactly in a reciprocal Proportion with their Mouths and that the Relation of the weaker Force to the smaller Mouth is greater than
desire to know whether a Thing has such or such Properties or if we know it has we desire only to discover what is the Cause of them To solve the Questions of the first sort we must consider Things in their Birth and Original and conceive that they are always produc'd by the most simple and natural Ways But the Solution of the others requires a very different Method for they must be resolv'd by Suppositions and then we must examine whether those Suppositions induce into any Absurdity or whether they lead to any Truth plainly and clearly known For instance We desire to discover the Properties of the Roulet or some one of the Conick Sections We must consider those Lines in their Generation and form them by the most simple and least perplexing Ways for that is the best and shortest Means to discover their Nature and Properties We easily see that the Subâ—endent of the Roulet is equal to the Circle whence it is form'd And if we discover not many of its Properties that way 't is because the Circular Line that produces it is not sufficiently known But as to Lines merely Mathematical the Relations of which may be more clearly known such as are Conick Sections 't is sufficient for the discovering a vast Number of their Properties to consider them in their Generation Only we must observe that as they may be produc'd by a Regular Motion several Ways so all sorts of Generation are not equally proper to enlighten the Mind that the most simple are the best and that it often happens notwithstanding that some particular Methods are fitter than others to demonstrate some particular Properties But when it is not requir'd to discover in general the Properties of a Thing but to know whether such a Thing has such a Property then we must suppose that it actually enjoys it and carefully examine the Consequences of that Supposition whether it induces into a manifest Absurdity or leads to an undeniable Truth that may serve as a Means to find out what is sought for That is the Method which Geometricians use to solve their Problems They suppose what they seek and examine what will follow of it they attentively consider the Relations that result from the Supposition they represent all those Relations that contain the Conditions of the Problem by Equations and then reduce those Equations according to the usual Rules so that what is unknown is found equal to one or several Things perfectly known I say therefore that when 't is requir'd to discover in general the Nature of Fire and of the different Fermentations which are the most universal Causes of natural Effects the shortest and surest Way is to examine them in their Principle We must consider the Formation of the most agitated Bodies the Motion of which is diffus'd into those that ferment We must by clear Ideas and by the most simple Ways examine what Motion may produce in Matter And because Fire and the various Fermentations are very general Things and consequently depending upon few Causes there will be no need of considering very long what Matter is able to perform when animated by Motion to find out the Nature of Fermentation in its very Principle and we shall learn withall several other Things altogether requisite to the Knowledge of Physicks Whereas he that would in such a Question argue from Suppositions so as to ascend to the first Causes even to the Laws of Nature by which all things are form'd would make a great many of them that should prove false and unprofitable He might perhaps discover that the Cause of the Fermentation is the Motion of an invisible Matter communicated to the agitated Parts of Matter For 't is sufficiently known that Fire and the various Fermentations of Bodies consist in their Agitation and that by the Laws of Nature Bodies receive their immediate Motion only from their meeting with others that are more agitated So that he might discover that there is an invisible Matter the Motion of which is communicated to visible Bodies by Fermentation But 't is morally impossible that he should ever by his Suppositions find out how all that is perform'd which however is not so hard to do when we examine the Formation of Elements or of Bodies of which there is a greater Number of the same Nature as is to be seen in Monsieur des Cartes's System The Third Part of the Question concerning Convulsive Motions will not be very difficult to solve if we suppose that there are in our Bodies Animal Spirits susceptible of Fermentation and withall Humours so piercing as to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Nerves through which the Spirits are diâ—â—us'd into the Muscles provided always that we pretend not to determine the true Texture and Disposition of those invisible Parts that contribute to these Convulsions When we have separated a Muscle from the rest of the Body and hold it by the two Ends we sensibly perceive that it endeavours to contract it self when prick'd in the Middle 'T is likely that this depends on the Construction of the imperceptible Parts of which it is made which are as so many Springs determin'd to some certain Motions by that of Compunction But who can be sure he has found out the true Disposition of the Parts employ'd in the Production of that Motion and who can give an uncontroverted Demonstration of it Certainly that appears altogether impossible though perhaps by long thinking we might imagine such a Construction of Muscles as would be fit to perform all the Motions we know them to be capable of we must not therefore pretend to determine the true Construction of the Muscles However because it cannot be reasonably doubted but that there are Spirits susceptible of some Fermentation by the Mixture of a very subtile heterogeneous Matter and that acriminious and pungent Humours may creep into the Nerves that Hypothesis may be suppos'd Now to proceed to the Solution of the Question propos'd We must first examine how many sorts of Convulsive Motions there are and because their Number is indefinite we must insist on the Principal the Causes of which seem to be different We must consider in what Parts they are made what Diseases precede and follow them whether they are attended with Pain or free from it and above all what are the Degrees of their Swiftness and Violence for some are very swift and violent others are very swift but not violent a third sort are violent and not swift and others again are free from both these Symptoms Some finish and begin afresh perpetually others keep the Parts rigid and unmoveable for some time and others deprive us of their Use and altogether deform them All this being well weigh'd it will be no hard matter to explain in general after what has been said concerning Natural and Voluntary Motions how the Convulsive are perform'd For if we conceive that some Matter capable of fermenting the Spirits mixes with those contain'd in
to grant that we ought not to consider a Vessel on the Water as at Rest. I grant likewise that all the parts of the environing Water are â—ubservient to the new Motion imprinted by the Waterman though it be but too visible by the decrease of the Boat 's Motion that they resist it more on the side where it makes than on the other whence it is driven Notwithstanding which supposition I say that of all the Parts of Water in the River according to M. Des Cartes there are none which can promote the Motion of the Vessel except those which immediately touch it on the side it is driven on For according to that Philosopher The Water being fluid all the parts that go to its Composition act not conjointly against the Body we would move but only those which touching it conjointly bear upon it But those which conjointly bear upon the Vessel and the Boat's-man together are twenty times more inconsiderable than the Boat 'T is plain therefore from the Explication given by M. Des Cartes in this Article concerning the difficulty we find to break a Nail between our Fingers that a little Body is capable of moving one much bigger than it self For in short our Hands are not so fluid as Water and when we would break a Nail there are more parts that act jointly in our hands than in the Water which pushes against a Vessel But here 's a more sensible Experiment Take a Plank well smooth'd or any other very hard Plain drive in it a Nail half way and set this Plain in a somewhat inclining posture then place a Bar of Iron an hundred times thicker than the Nail an Inch or two above it and letting it slide down it will not break it Mean time it is observable that according to Des Cartes all the parts of the Bar as being hard and solid act jointly upon the Nail If therefore there were no other Câ—ment than Rest to unite the parts of the Nail the Bar of Iron being an hundred times bigger ought by the Fifth Rule of M. Des Cartes and according to Reason communicate somewhat of its Motion to the part of the Nail it fell upon that is to break it and pass on even though this Bar should slide with a very gentle Motion Therefore we must seek some other Cause than the Rest of Bodies that makes them hard and capable of resisting the violence that is offer'd to break them since Rest has no Force to withstand Motion And I am persuaded these Experiences are sufficient to evince that the abstracted Proofs we have given are not false We must then examine the third Thing we supposed before might be the cause of the strict Union found between the Parts of hard Bodies namely an invisible Matter which surrounds them and which being rapidly mov'd pushes most violently the external and internal Parts of these Bodies and constringes them in such a manner as requires greater strength to separate them than has that invisible and extremely agitated Matter Methinks I might reasonably conclude that the Union of the constituent Parts of hard Bodies depends on an invisible Matter which surrounds and compresses them since the two other things supposed possible Causes of this union have been discover'd not to be truly so For since I meet with Resistance in breaking a Piece of Iron which Resistance proceeds not from the Iron nor the Will of God as I think I have proved it must necessarily proceed from some invisible Matter which can be no other than that which immediately surrounds and compresses it Nevertheless I shall give some positive Proofs of this Opinion after I have more largely explain'd it by some Instance Take a Globe of any hard Metal which is hollow within and divided in two Halfs join them together with a little Bond of Wax at the place of their Union and then extract the Air these two half Globes will be so firmly join'd to one another that two Teams of Horses fastned to the Rings on the opposite sides of the Globe shall not separate them provided they be large in proportion to the Number of Horses when yet if the Air be suffer'd to enter one Man shall separate them with a great deal of Ease From this Experiment 't is easie to conclude that what united the two Hemispheres to one another was the Pressure of the surrounding Air upon their outward and convex Surface whilst there was no Compression in their concave and inward parts so that the Action of the Horses which drew the two Hemispheres on either side could not conquer the Resistance made by innumerable little Parts of Air by their pressing these two Halfs But the least Force is capable of dividing them when the Air entring in the Copper Globe drives against the Concave and inward Surfaces as much as the external Air presses against the outward and convex Take on the contrary the Bladder of a Carp and put it in a Vessel from which the Air is pump'd this Bladder being full of Air will crack and burst because then there is no exteriour Air to resist that within the Bladder 'T is likewise for the same Reason I have given of the first Experiment that two Glass or Marble Plains ground and polish'd upon one another so cling together that Violence must be us'd to separate them one way because the two parts of the Marble are press'd and constring'd by the external Air that surrounds them and are not so strongly press'd by that between I might produce infinite other Experiments to prove that the gross Air which surrounds Bodies strongly unites their Parts But what I have said is enough to give a distinct Explication of my Thoughts upon the present Question I say then that what causes the Parts of hard Bodies and the little Fetters before-mentioned to hang so closely united to each other is there being other little Bodies infinitely more agitated than the course Air we breath which bear against them and compress them and that which makes it so hard to separate them is not their Rest but the Agitation of these little surrounding Bodies So that that which resists Motion is not Rest this being but the Privation of it and has no Force at all but some contrary Motion This simple Exposition of my Opinion perhaps seems reasonable yet I foresee that many Persons will not easily be induc'd to yield to it Hard Bodies make so great Impression on the Senses when they strike us or when we use Violence to break them that we are inclin'd to believe their Parts more strictly united than they really are And on the contrary the little Bodies which I have said encompass them and to which I have ascribed the Force of causing this Union making no Impression on our Senses seem too weak to produce so sensible an Effect But to take away this Prejudice which bottoms on the Impressions of our Senses and on the Difficulty we find to imagine Bodies more little
of their Motion to the lesser which they met with and that the latter should rebound at the Encounter of the former without the like Loss of their own For otherwise the first Element would not have all the Motion that is necessary above the second nor the second above the third and so all his System would be absolutely false as is manifest to those who have a little consider'd it But in supposing that Rest has Force to resist Motion and that a great Body in Rest cannot be mov'd by another less than it self though most violently striking against it 't is plain that great Bodies must have much less Motion than an equal Mass of little ones since they may always by that Supposition communicate their own Motion but cannot always receive any from the lesser Thus this Supposition being not contrary to all that Monsieur des Cartes had laid down in his Principles from the beginning to the Establishment of his Rules of Motion and according very well with the Consequence of these same Principles he thought the Rules of Motion which he believ'd he had demonstrated in their Cause were sufficiently confirm'd by their Effects I agree with Monsieur des Cartes in the Bottom of the Thing that great Bodies communicate their Motion much easier than the lesser and that therefore his first Element is more agitated than the second and the second than the third but the Cause is manifest without recourse to his Supposition Little and fluid Bodies as Water Air c. can but communicate to any great ones an uniform Motion which is common to all their Parts The Water of a River can only communicate to a Boat a descending Motion which is common to all the little Parts the Water is composed of each of which Particles besides its common Motion has infinite others which are particular Which Reason makes it evident that a Boat for instance cannot have so much Motion as an equal Volume of Water since the Boat can only receive from the Water a direct Motion and common to all the Parts of it If twenty Parts of a fluid Body drive against any other Body on one side whilst there are as many urging it on the other it remains immoveable and all the Particles of the surrounding Fluid it swims in rebound without losing any thing of their Motion Therefore gross Bodies whose Parts are united one to the other can receive only a circular and uniform Motion from the Vortex of the encompassing subtile Matter This Reason seems sufficient to give us to understand why gross Bodies are not so much agitated as little ones and that it is not necessary to the explaining these things to suppose any Force in Rest to resist Motion The Certainty of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophical Principles cannot therefore be of Use in proving or defending his Rules of Motion And we have Reason to believe that if Monsieur des Cartes himself had without Prepossession examin'd his Principles afresh at the same time weighing such Reasons as I have alledg'd he would not have believ'd the Effects of Nature had corroborated his Rules nor have fallen into a Contradiction in attributing the Hardness of hard Bodies only to the Rest of their Parts and their Elasticity to the Effort of the subtile Matter I now come to give the Rules of the Communication of Motion in a Vacuum which follow upon what I have before establish'd concerning the Nature of Rest. Bodies being not hard in a Vacuum since they are only so by the pressure of the subtile Matter that surrounds them if two Bodies meet together they would flatten without rebounding We must therefore suppose them hard by their own Nature and not by the pressure of the subtile Matter to give these Rules Rest having no Force to resist Motion and many Bodies being to be consider'd but as one at the Instant of their Collision 't is plain they ought not to rebound save when they are equal in their Bulk and Swiftness or that their Swiftness compensates for the Want of Bulk or their Bulk the Want of Swiftness And 't is easie from hence to conclude that they ought in all other Cases so to communicate their Motion as afterwards to proceed along together with an equal Pace Wherefore to know what ought to happen in all the different Suppositions of the Magnitude and Celerity of Colliding Bodies we need only add together all the Degrees of Motion of two or more which ought to be consider'd but as one in the Moment of their Concourse and afterwards divide the Summ of the whole Motion proportionably to the Bulk of each respective Body Hence I conclude that of the seven Rules of Motion Monsieur des Cartes has given the three first are good That the Fourth is false and that B ought to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the bigness of the same C and after go along in Company so as if C be double to B and B have three Degrees of Motion it must give away two of them For I have sufficiently prov'd that Monsieur des Cartes ought not to have suppos'd in Rest a Force to resist Motion That the Fifth is true That the Sixth is false and that B ought to communicate half of its Motion to C. And that the Seventh is false and that B ought ever to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the Magnitude and Motion of both B and C. But that if according to the Supposition C be double to B and have three Degrees of Motion whilst C has but two they must proceed together in Company C and B being but one Body at the time of their Collision and therefore we must add together the Degrees of Swiftness which are five and afterwards divide them in proportion to their bigness and so distribute 1 3 2 to B and 3 â…“ to C which is double to B. But these Rules though certain from what I have said are yet contrary to Experience since we are not in a Vacuum The chief of those Experiences which are contrary to what I have said about the Rules of Motion is the constant rebounding of hard Bodies when they meet one one way and another another or at least their not going in Company after their Encounter In Answer to which we must call to mind what we have formerly said of the Cause of Elasticity namely That there is a Matter of a strangely-violent Motion which continually passes into the Parts of hard Bodies and makes them so by its compressing both their outward and inward Parts For it will be easie from hence to see that at the time of Percussion two encountring Bodies drive and turn off the Current of this Matter from the places nearest to the stricken which Matter resisting with great Violence repells the two Bodies which strike against each other and restores its Passage which the Percussion had stopp'd up That which more clearly still proves my Opinion is
Learning or in the Study of all vain and useless Sciences which flatter the secret Pride of our Heart because this is what recommends us to the Admiration of the Vulgar I have shewn that the Inclination for Pleasures constantly throws off the View of the Mind from the Consideration of abstracted Truths which are the most simple and exuberant and permits it not to consider any thing with a competent Attention and Impartiality to judge well of it That Pleasures being the Modes of our Souls Existence they necessarily divide the Capacity of the Mind and that a Mind thus divided cannot fully comprehend a Subject of any great Extent Last of all I have made appear that the Relation and Natural Union we have to all those with whom we live and converse is the Occasion of many Errours we fall into and of our communicating them to others as others communicate to us the same they were engag'd in In the Fifth where I have endeavour'd to give some Idea of our Passions I have I think made it sufficiently evident that they were ordain'd to unite us to all things sensible and to give us as we are among them a due and necessary Disposition for their Preservation and our own That as our Senses unite us to our Body and expand our Soul into all the composing Parts of it so our Commotions carry us as it were out of our selves and diffuse us upon all things round about us That Lastly they incessantly represent things not as they are in themselves whereby we may form true Judgments but according to the Relation they have to us whereby to form Judgments useful to the Preservation of our Being and of those to whom we are either naturally or voluntarily united After having attempted the Discovery of Errours in their Causes and the Deliverance of the Mind from the Prejudices it is subject to I thought it was time at last to prepare it for the Search of Truth Wherefore in the Sixth Book I have explain'd the Means which I thought most natural for the increasing the Attention and enlarging the Capacity of the Mind by shewing the Use that might be made of its Senses its Passions and Imagination to the giving it all the Force and Penetration it is capable of After which I have establish'd certain Rules which must of necessity be observ'd for the Discovery of any Truth whatever I have explain'd them by many Examples that I might make them more sensible and have chosen those which I thought most useful or that included more fecund and general Truths that they might be read with greater Application and be made more sensible and familiar Possibly it may be acknowledg'd by this Essay of Method which I have given how necessary it is to reason only about clear and evident Ideas and in which we are inwardly convinc'd that all Nations do agree and never to proceed to Compound Things till having sufficiently examin'd the Simple whereon they depend And if it be consider'd that Aristotle and his Followers have not observ'd the Rules I have explain'd as we ought to be assur'd by the Reasons I have alledg'd and by the Correspondence that may be had with the most zealous Defenders of that Philosopher it may be we shall despise his Doctrine in spight of all the Impressions which persuade such as give way to be amuz'd by Words they do not understand But if we take notice of the manner of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophizing we cannot doubt of the Solidity of his Philosophy For I have sufficiently shewn that he reasons but upon distinct and evident Ideas beginning with most Simple Things and afterwards passing on to the more Compound which depend on them Those who shall read the Works of that Learned Man will have plenary Conviction of what I say of him provided they read them with all the Application that is necessary to understand them And they will feel a secret Joy for being born in an Age and Country so fortunate as to free them from the Trouble of seeking a Master to teach them Truth among the past Ages of the Heathens and in the Extremities of the Earth among Barbarians and Strangers But as we ought not to be very sollicitous to know the Opinions of Men even though we were otherwise assur'd they had found out Truth so I should be very sorry if the Esteem I manifest for Monsieur des Cartes should prepossess any Man in his behalf and make him sit down satisfy'd with reading and retaining his Opinions without caring to be enlighten'd with the Light of Truth This would be preferring Man before GOD and consulting him in God's stead and acquiescing in the obscure Answers of a Philosopher which do not enlighten us to avoid the Trouble of Interrogating by our Meditation Him who answers and enlightens us both together 'T is a mean and unworthy thing to become the Partizan of any Sect and to look upon the Authors of it as infallible And thus Monsieur des Cartes chusing rather to make Men Disciples of Truth than Opinionated Followers of his Sentiments expressly forewarns them Not to take any thing he writes upon Trust and to embrace nothing but what the Force and Evidence of Reason should constrain them to believe He desires not like some Philosophers to be credited upon his Word He ever remembers that he is a Man and that disseminating his Light but by Reflexion he ought to direct the Minds of those who would be illuminated by him towards Him alone who can make them more perfect by the Gift of Understanding The principal Advantage that can be made of Application to Study is the rendring the Mind more accurate more illuminated more penetrating and fit for the Discovery of all the Truths we desire to know But such as read the Philosophers with Design of remembring their Opinions and factoring them to others approach not Him who is the Life and Nourishment of the Soul Their Mind grows blind and enervate by their Commerce with such as can neither strengthen nor enlighten them They are swell'd up with a spurious sort of Learning the Weight whereof overwhelms and the Glittering blinds them and fancying to themselves they are hugely learnâ—d when their Heads are cramm'd with the Opinions of the Antients they forget that they become their Disciples who St. Paul says became Fools by usurping the Name of Wise. Dicentes se esse Sapientes stulti facti sunt The Method I have given will if I mistake not be highly advantageous to those who desire to make use of their Reason or to receive of God the Answers he gives all those who can faithfully consult Him For I think I have said what is chiefly requir'd to corroborate and conduct the Attention of the Mind which is the natural Prayer we make to the true Master of all Men in order to be instructed But because this Natural Way of Searching out Truth is very painful and commonly impracticable except in
done by ways that seem most plain and simple Whereas the second Adam acting on the baptiz'd Infant 's Mind for one moment the contrary to what the first Adam produc'd in it before Regeneration is perform'd by the usual ways of acting which God takes in his sanctifying the Adult For the Infant at that moment being void of Sensations and Passions which divide its Thinking and Willing Capacity has nothing to encumber it and prevent its knowing and loving its true Good This is all I say at present because it is not necessary to know precisely how Regeneration of Infants is perform'd provided we admit in them a true Regeneration or an inward and real Justification caus'd by Acts or at least by Habits of Faith Hope and Charity My offering an Explication so repugnant to Prejudices is design'd for the Satisfaction of those who will not allow of Spiritual Habits and to prove to them the Possibility of the Regeneration of Infants For the Notion of Imputation seems to me to include a manifest Contradiction it being impossible That God should consider his Creatures as Righteous and actually love them whilst they are actually in Disorder and Corruption Though he may for his SON's sake have a Design to re-instate them in ORDER and love them when re-instated OBJECTIONS Against the Proofs and Explications of Original Sin OBJECTION against the first Article GOD wills Order it is true but 't is his Will that makes it it does not suppose it Whatever God wills is in Order purely for this Reason that God wills it If God wills that Minds should be subject to Bodies should love and fear them there is no disorder in all this If God will'd that two times two should not be four we should not speak false in saying two times two were not four For it would be a Truth God is the Principle of all Truth and the Master of all Order he supposes nothing neither Truth nor Order but makes all ANSWER Then all is thrown in Confusion There is no longer any Science nor Morality nor undeniable Proofs of our Religion Which consequence is evident to any Man who clearly comprehends this false Principle That God produces Order and Truth by a Will absolutely Free But this is not to answer it I Answer then that God can neither do nor will any thing without knowledge that therefore his Will supposes something but what it supposes is nothing of a created nature Order Truth Eternal Wisdom is the Exemplar of all the Works of God which Wisdom is not made God who makes all things never made it though he constantly begets it by the necessity of his Being Whatever God wills is in Order for that sole reason that he wills it No body denies it But this is because God cannot act against himself that is his Wisdom and his Knowledge He is at liberty not to produce any External Work but supposing he will act he cannot act otherways than by the immutable order of his Wisdom which he necessarily Loves For Religion and Reason teach me that he works nothing without his SON without his WORD without his WISDOM Therefore I fear not to affirm that God cannot positively will that the mind should be subject to the Body Because that Wisdom whereby God wills whatever he wills makes me clearly understand it is contrary to Order And I see this clearly in that same Wisdom because it is the Soveraign and Universal Reason which is participated by all Spirits for which all Intelligences are created and by which all Men are Reasonable For no Man is his own Reason Light and Wisdom unless it be when his Reason is Particular his Light an Ignis fatuus and his Wisdom Folly As the Generality of Men know not distinctly that it is only Eternal Wisdom which enlightens them and that Intelligible Ideas which are the Immediate object of their Mind are not created so they imagine that Eternal Laws and Immutable Truths receive their Establishment from a free will of God And this is what occasion'd M. des Cartes to say that God was able to effect that twice four should not be eight and that the three Angles of a Triangle should not be equal to two Rights Because there is no Order says he no Law no Reason Goodness or Truth but depends on God and that is he who from all Eternity has ordain'd and establish'd as supreme Legislator Eternal Truths This Learned Man did not observe that there was an Order a Law a Sovereign Reason Coeternal with God and necessarily lov'd by him and accordingly to which he must necessarily act supposing he will act For God is indifferent as to his External Workings but the manner of his working though he be perfectly free is not indifferent to him He always acts in the wisest and perfectest manner possible he constantly follows immutable and necessary Order Thus God is at liberty not to make either Spirits or Bodies but if he creates these two Kinds of Beings he must create them by the simplest ways and situate them in the most perfect Order He may for Example unite Spirits to Bodies but I maintain that he cannot subject them thereunto unless in pursuance of the Order which he always follows the Sin of Spirits obliges him to use them in that manner as I have already explain'd in the seventh Article and in the first Explication towards the end To anticipate some instances that might be urg'd against me I think it necessary to say that Men are to blame to consult themselves when they would know what God can do or will They are not to judge of his wills by the inward sense they have of their own Inclinations For otherwise they would often make him an unjust cruel sinful instead of an Almighty God They ought to lay aside the general Principle of their Prejudices which disposes them to judge of all things with reference to themselves and not to attribute to God what they do not clearly conceive to be included in the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect For they ought not to judge of things save by clear Ideas And then the God they worship will not be like those of Antiquity Cruel Adulterous Voluptious as the Persons who have imagin'd them nor will he resemble the God of some Christians who to make him as powerful as the Sinner wishes him ascribe to him an actual power of acting against all Order of leaving Sin unpunisht and of condemning to eternal Torments Persons never so righteous and Innocent Second OBJECTION against the First Article If God wills Order what is it that makes Monsters I say not amongst Men for they have sinned but amongst Animals and Plants What is the cause of the general corruption of the Air which breeds so many Diseases By what Order is it that the Seasons are so irregular and that the Sun and the Frost burn up and kill the Fruits of the Earth Is it to act with Wisdom and Order
to furnisâ— an Animal with parts quite useless and to congeal the Fruits after they are perfectly formed Is not this rather because God does what he pleases and that his power supersedes all Order and Rule For to mention things of greater Importance than the Fruits of the Earth wherewith he may do as he sees good the Clay whereof God makes Vessels of wrath is the same with that which he fashions Vessels of Mercy ANSWER These are the difficulties which serve only to obscure the Truth as proceeding from the darkness of the Mind We know that God is just we see that the wicked are Happy ought we to deny what wee see ought we to doubt of what we know because we may possibly be so stupid as not to know and so Libertine as not to believe what Religion teaches us of future Torments So we know that God is Wise and all that he does is Good mean while we see Monsters or defective Works What are we to believe that God is out of his aim or that these Monsters are not his handiwork Certainly if we have sence and constancy of Mind we shall believe neither the one nor the other For 't is manifest that God does all and that whatever he does is as perfect as possible with relation to the simplicity and fewness of the means he imploys in the Formation of his Work We must hold fast to what we see and not quit our ground for any difficulties impossible to be resolv'd when our Ignorance is the cause of that Impossibility If Ignorance must raise Difficulties and such like Difficulties overthrow the best establisht Opinions what will remain certain among Men who know not all things What Shall not the brightest Lights be able to disperse the least Darkness and shall any little shadow Eclipse the clearest and the liveliest Light But though the answering such sort of Difficulties might be dispenc'd with without Prejudice to the fore-establisâ—t Principle yet it is not amiss to show they are not unanswerable For the Mind of Man is so unjust in its Judgments that it may possibly prefer the Opinions which seem to result from these imaginary Difficulties before certain Truths which no Man can doubt of but because he will and with that design ceases to examine them I say then that God wills order though there are Monsters and 't is moreover because God wills order that there are Monsters and this is my reason Order requires that the Laws of nature whereby God produces that infinite Variety so conspicuous in the World should be very simple and very few in number Now 't is the simplicity of these general Laws which in some particular Junctures and because of the Disposition of the subject produces irregular Motions or rather Monstrous Combinations and consequently God's willing order is the cause of these Monsters Thus God does not positively or directly will the Existence of Monsters but he positively wills certain Laws of the Communication of Motions whereof Monsters are the necessary consequences because these Laws though of a most simple kind are nevertheless capable of producing that variety of forms which can't be sufficiently admired For Example In consequence of the general Laws of the Communication of Motions there are some Bodies which are driven near the Centre of the Earth The Body of a Man or an Animal is one of these that which upholds him in the Air breaks under his Feet is it just or according to Order that God should change his general Will for that particular Case Surely it seems not probable That Animal therefore must necessarily break or maim its Body And thus we ought to argue about the generation of Monsters ORDER requires that all Beings should have what 's necessary to their Preservation and the Propagation of the Species provided this may be done by most simple Means and worthy the Wisdom of God And so we see that Animals as also Plants have general Means to preserve themselves and to continue their Species and if some Animals fail thereof in some particular Occasions 't is because these general Laws whereby they were form'd reach not these private Emergencies because they respect not Animals separately but generally extend to all Beings and that the Good of the Publick must be preferr'd before Particular Advantages 'T is evident That if God made but one Animal it would not be Monstrous But Order would require That he should not make that Animal by the same Laws that he at present forms all others for the Action of God must be proportion'd to his Design By the Laws of Nature he designs not the making one Animal but a whole World and he must make it by the simpliest Means as Order requires 'T is enough then that the World be not monstrous or that the general Effects be suitable to the general Laws to vindicate the Work of God from Censure and Reproach If for all particular Changes God had instituted so many particular Laws or if He had constituted in every Being a particular Nature or Principle of all the Motions that arrive in it I confess it would be hard to juâ—tifie his Wisdom against so visible Disorders We should perhaps be forc'd to confess either that God wills not Order or that he knows not how or is not able to rectifie Disorder For in short it seems to me impossible to ascribe an almost infinite Number of second Causes of natural Forces Vertues Qualities and Faculties to what we call the Sports and Disorders of Nature with a Salvo to the infinite Power and Wisdom of the Author of all things OBJECTION against the Second Article GOD can never act for Himself A wise Being will do nothing useless but whatever God should do for himself would be useless because he wants nothing God wills nothing for himself if by the Necessity of his Essence he has all the Perfection he can desire And if God desires nothing for himself he works nothing for himself since he works only by the Efficacy of his Will The Nature of Good is to be communicative and diffusive 't is to be useful to others and not to it self 't is to seek out 't is if it be possible to create Persons whom it may make happy Therefore it is a Contradiction for God who is essentially and supremely good to act for himself ANSWER GOD may be said to act for himself two ways either with intent to derive some Advantage from what he does or to the end his Creature may find its Happiness and Perfection in him I enquire not at present whether God acts for himself in the first sense and whether to receive an Honour worthy of himself he has made and restor'd all things by his SON in whom according to the Scripture all things subsist I only assert that God cannot create and preserve Spirits in order to know and love created Beings 'T is an Immutable Eternal and necessary Law That they should know and love God as I
resolv'd whether we may go to a Ball or a Play Whether we may in Conscience spend a great part of the Day in Sports and vain Conversation whether certain Conversations Studies and Employs are conformable to our Obligations Let us retire into our selves and hush our Senses and Passions and then see in the Light of God whether we can do for him any such Action Let us interrogate him who is the Way the Truth and the Life to know if the Road we pursue will not lead us to the Gates of Death And whether God being Essentially Just and necessarily oblig'd to punish what is not agreeable to Order and to reward all conformity to it we have reason to believe we are going to augment or ensure our Felicity by the Action we intend to do If it be our Love to God that leads us to the Ball let us go If Heaven is to be gain'd by playing let us play Day and Night If we have in prospect the Glory of God in our Employment let us exercise it Let us do all things with Joy for our Recompence shall be great in Heaven But if after having carefully examin'd our Essential Obligations we clearly discover that neither our Being nor the Time that measures it is at our own disposal and that we do an unjust thing which it necessarily lies upon God to punish when our only study is how to spend our time in Mirth and Pleasure If our Lord and Master CHRIST who has purchas'd us by his Blood â—eproaches our Inâ—idelity and Ingratitude in a most clear and intelligible manner for living after the Flesh and the World for Leading an Effeminate and Voluptuous Life and following Opinion and Custom Let us yield to his Voice and not harden our Hearts nor seek out such Spiritual Guides as comfort us under these Reproaches and secure us against these Menaces and involve in delightful Clouds that Light which strikes and pierces our very Soul When the Blind leads the Blind they both fall into the Ditch says the Evangelist But if God excuses not the Blind who commits himself to the Conduct of a Blind Leader will he excuse him who seeing clearly will yet willingly be guided by the Blind because he leads him pleasantly and entertains him by the way according to his Inclinations These voluntary Blind Men ought to know that God who never deceives frequently permits these Seducers in punishment to the corrupt Affections of those that seek them That Blindness is a penalty of Sin though it be often the cause of it and that it is just that he who cared not to hear Eternal Wisdom who spoke only for his good should at last suffer himself to be corrupted by Men whose deception is so much more dangerous as their Flatteries are more pleasing 'T is true 't is no easie thing to retire into our selves to silence our Senses and Passions and to distinguish the Voice of God from that of our Body For we most commonly take sensible Proofs for evident Reasons and on that account it is necessary to consult the Casuists But it is not always needful For we see our Duty on many occasions with the clearest Evidence and an undoubted certainty And then it is even dangerous to consult them unless it be done with the greatest Sincerity and by a Spirit of Humility and Obedience For these dispositions oblige God to prevent our deception or at least to keep us from deceiving our selves in any hurtful manner When it is convenient to advise with a Spiritual Guide such an one is to be chosen as understands Religion and reverences the Gospel and is acquainted with humane Nature We must take heed least the converse of the World has corrupted him least Friendship should make him too Gentle and Complaisant least he should be Brib'd by his hopes or fears of us We must choose one in a thousand says St. Theresia who as she relates her self had like to have lost her way to Heaven by the means of an Ignorant Guide The World is full of Deceivers I say of Well-Meaning Deceivers no less than others Those who Love us seduce us by their Complaisance Those who are below us flatter us out of Respect or Fear Those above us out of Contempt or Negligence overlook our necessities Besides all Men give us Counsel agreeable to the Breviates we give of our own Condition and we never fail to make the best of our Case insensibly laying our hand upon our sore when we are asham'd of it We often deceive our Counsellours that we may deceive our selves For we fancy our selves secure whilst we follow their Directions They do but conduct us whither we design'd to go and yet we would fain perswade our selves in spite of our Light and the Secret reproofs of our Reason that 't is our Obedience which determines us We seduce our selves and God permits us but we can never deceive him who Penetrates the Bottom of our Hearts And though we deafen our selves never so much to the Voice of Internal Truth we are sufficiently made sensible by the inward Reproaches we receive from the Supream Truth leaving us to our selves that it enlightens our Darkness and discovers all the Wiles and Stratagems of Self-Love 'T is therefore evident that our Reason must be consulted for the Health of our Soul as our Senses are to be advis'd with for the Health of our Body and that when the former cannot clearly resolve us we must apply to the Casuist as we must have recourse to the Physician when the latter are defective But this is to be done with Judgment since Ignorant Casuists may Murther our Soul as Vnskilful Physicians may Poison our Body Whereas I explain not in particular the Rules which may be given about the choice and use that 's to be made of Physicians and Casuists I desire my Sentiments may be candidly interpreted and that it may not be imagin'd I am against drawing all possible supplies from other Men. I know that a particular Blessing attends our submission to the Opinions of the Wise and Understanding And I am willing to believe this general Rule that 't is requisite to die in the usual Forms is surer for the common sort of Men than any I could establish for the Preservation of Life But because 't is of perpetual use to retire into our selves to consult the Gospel and to listen to JESUS CHRIST whether he speaks immediately to our Mind and Heart or by Faith declares himself to our Ears and Eyes I thought I might be allow'd to say what I have said For our Casuists deceive us when they go contrary to the Doctrine of our Faith and Reason And as we give Honour to God by believing that his Works have what is necessary to their preservation I thought I could make Men sensible their Machine was so admirably contriv'd that it 's own Nature can better furnish it with what 's necessary to it's safety than Science and even the
because he knows not what it was that depriv'd him of this necessary thing or because being unworthy of his Hatred it could not excite it 'T is true this Man Hates the Privation of the Good which he Loves But it is manifest that this kind of Hatred is really Love For he Hates the Privation of Good meerly because he Loves Good and since to fly the Privation of Good is to tend towards Good Is is evident that the Motion of his Hatred is not different from that of his Love Therefore his Hatred if he have any being not contrary to his Love and Sorrow being always contrary to Joy it is evident that his Sorrow is not his Hatred and consequently Joy is different from Love Lastly It is evident that Sorrow proceeds from the Presence of something which we hate or rather from the Absence of something which we Love Therefore Sorrow supposes Hatred or rather Love but 't is very different from them both I know St. Austin defines Pain to be an Aversion the Soul conceives from the Bodies being disposed otherwise than she would have it and that he often confounds Delectation with Charity Pleasure with Joy Pain with Sorrow Pleasure and Joy with Love Pain and Sorrow with Aversion or Hatred But there 's great Probability this Holy Father in all this follow'd the common way of speaking of the Vulgar who confound most of those things which occur in them at one and the same time Or it may be did not examine these things in so Nice and Philosophical a manner as he might have done Yet I think I both may and ought to say that to me it seems necessary exactly to distinguish these things if we would explain our selves clearly and without Equivocation upon most of the Questions handled by him For even Men of a quite opposite Opinion use to build upon the Authority of this great Man because of the various Senses and Constructions his Speech will afford which is not always Nice and accurate enough to reconcile Persons who are perhaps more eager to dispute than desirous to agree THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Second PART of the Sixth BOOK Concerning the Efficacy ascribed to Second Causes EVER since the Transgression of our first Parent the Mind rambling constantly abroad forgets both it self and Him who pierces and enlightens it and is so absurdly pliant to the Seducements of its Body and those about it as to imagine its own Happiness and Perfection is to be found in them He that alone is able to act in us is at present hidden from our Eyes His Operations are of an insensible kind and though he produces and preserves all Beings yet the Mind whilst the earnest Enquirer of the Cause of all things cannot easily know him though it meets him every moment Some Philosophers chuse rather to imagine a Nature and particular Faculties as the Causes of those which we term Natural Effects than to render to God all the Honour that is due to his Power And though they have no Proof nor even clear Idea of this pretended Nature and Faculties as I hope to make appear they had rather talk without knowing what they say and reverence a purely imaginary Power than by any Essay of Thought to discover that Invisible Hand which works all in all things 'T is unavoidable for me to believe that one of the most deplorable Consequences of Original Sin is our having no Taste nor Sense for God or our Incapacity of Tasting or Meeting him without a sort of Dread and Abhorrence We ought to see God in all things to be sensible of his Power and Force in all Natural Effects to admire his Wisdom in the wonderful Order of his Creatures In a word to Worship to Fear to Love Him only in all his Works But in our present State there is a Secret Opposition between Man and GOD Man conscious of his being a Sinner hides himself flies the Light and is afraid to meet his Maker and therefore had rather imagine in surrounding Bodies a blind Power or Nature with which he can be familiar than find in them the terrible Power of an Holy and Just GOD who knows and Operates all in all I confess there are very many Persons who from another Principle than that of the Heathen Philosophers follow their Opinion about Nature and Second Causes But I hope to convince them in the Process of this Discourse that they fall into this Sentiment out of a Prejudice which 't is impossible to shake off without those Succours which are furnish'd by the Principles of a Philosophy that has not always been sufficiently known For in all likelihood this is what has kept them from declaring for an Opinion which I think my self oblig'd to espouse I have a great many Reasons which will not let me attribute to Second or Natural Causes a Force Power or Efficacy to produce any thing whatever The chief whereof is That this Opinion is to me utterly inconceivable Though I use all possible Endeavours to comprehend it I cannot find in my self the Idea to represent to me what can be that Force or Power ascrib'd to the Creatures And I need not fear passing a rash Judgment in affirming that those who hold that the Creatures are endued with a Force and Power advance what they do not clearly conceive For in short if the Philosophers clearly conceive that Second Causes have a true Force to act and produce their Like I being a Man as well as they and participating of the same Sovereign Reason might in all probability discover the Idea which represent to them that Force But all the efforts that my Mind can make can discover no other Force Efficacy or Power than in the Will of the Infinitely perfect Being Besides when I think upon the different Opinions of Philosophers upon this subject I can no longer doubt of my assertion For if they saw clearly what this Power of Creatures was or what was in them truly powerful they would agree in their Opinion about it When Men cannot accord though they have no private Interest to hinder them 't is a certain Sign they have no clear Idea of what they say and that they understand not one another especially if they dispute on subjects that are not of a Complex Nature and of difficult discussion like this before us For there would be no difficulty to resolve it if Men had a clear Idea of a created Force or Power Here then follow some of their Opinions that we may see how little agreement there is among them There are Philosophers who maintain that second Causes act by their Matter Figure and Motion and these in one sense are right enough Others by their substantial form Many by Accidents or Qualities some by Matter and Form others by Form and Accidents and others still by certain vertues or faculties distinct from all this There are of them who affirm that the substantial Form produces Forms
and the Accidental Form Accidents Others say that the Forms produce both other Forms and Accidents Others still that bare Accidents are not only capable of producing Accidents but even Forms But it must not be imagin'd that those for instance who say that Accidents can produce Forms by vertue of the Form they are join'd to understand it the same way For one part of them will have Accidents to be the very Force or Virtue of the Substantial Form Another that they imbibe into them the Influence of the Form and only act so by vertue of it A Third lastly will have them to be but Instrumental Causes But neither are these latter sort altogether agreed about what is meant by Instrumental Cause and the vertue they receive from the Principal Nor can the Philosophers compromise about the Action whereby second Causes produce their Effects For some of them pretend that Causality ought not to be produc'd since it is this which produces Others will that they truly act by their own Action But they are involv'd in so many Labyrinths in explaining precisely wherein this Action consists and there are so many different Opinions about it that I cannot find in my Heart to recite them Such is the strange variety of Opinions though I have not produc'd those of the Ancient Philosophers or that were born in very remote Countries But we have sufficient Reason to conclude that they are no more agreed upon the subject of second Causes than those before alledg'd Avicenna for instance is of Opinion that Corporeal Substances cannot produce any thing but Accidents This according to Ruvio is his Hypothesis He supposes that God produces immediately a most perfect Spiritual Substance That this produces another less perfect and this a third and so on to the last which produces all Corporeal Substances and Corporeal Substances Accidents But Avicembrom not able to comprehend how Corporeal Substances which cannot penetrate each other should cause alterations in them supposes that there are Spirits which are capable of acting on Bodies because they alone can penetrate them For these Gentlemen not admitting the Vacuum nor the Atoms of Democritus nor having sufficient knowledge of the subtil matter of M. des Cartes could not with the Gassendists and Cartesians think of Bodies which were little enough to insinuate into the pores of those that are hardest and most solid Methinks this diversity of Opinions justifies this thought of ours that Men often talk of things which they understand not and that the Power of Creatures being a Fiction of Mind of which we have naturally no Idea every Man makes it and imagines it what he pleases 'T is true this Power has been acknowledg'd for a Real and True by most Men in all Ages but it has never yet been prov'd I say not demonstratively but in any wise so as to make an impression upon an Attentive thinking Man For the confus'd Proofs which are built only upon the fallacious Testimony of the Senses and Passions are to be rejected by those who know how to exercise their Reason Aristotle speaking of what they call Nature says it is Ridiculous to go about to prove that Natural Bodies have an inward Principle of Motion and Rest because says he it is a thing that 's Self-Evident He likewise does not doubt but a Bowl which strikes another has the force of putting it in Motion This is witnessed by his Eyes and that 's enough for him who seldom follows any other Testimony than of the Senses very rarely that of his Reason and is very indifferent whether it be intelligible or not Those who impugn the Opinion of some Divines who have written against Second Causes say like Aristotle that the Senses convince us of their Efficacy And this is their first and principal Proof 'T is evident say they that the Fire burns that the Sun shines that Water cools and he must be out of his Senses who can doubt of it The Authors of the other Opinion says the great Averroes are out of their Wits We must say almost all the Peripateticks use sensible Proofs for their Conviction who deny this Efficacy and so oblige them to confess we are capable of acting on them and wounding them 'T is a judgment which Aristotle has already pronounc'd against them and it ought to be put in Execution But this pretended Demonstration cannot but create Pity For it gives us to know the Weakness of an Humane Mind And that the Philosophers themselves are infinitely more sensible than Reasonable It evinces that those who glory in being the Inquirers of Truth know not even whom they are to consult to hear any News of it Whether Soveraign Reason which never deceives but always speaks things as they are in themselves or the Body which speaks only out of Interest and with reference to the preservation and convenience of Life For in fine what prejudices will not be justified if we set up our Senses for Judges to which most of them owe their Birth As I have shown in The Search after Truth When I see a Bowl shock another my Eyes tell me or seem to tell me that it is the True Cause of the motion it impresses for the true cause that moves Bodies is not visible to my Eyes But if I interrogate my Reason I evidently see that Bodies having no Power to move themselves and their moving force being nothing but the Will of God which preserves them successively in different places they cannot communicate a Power which they have not nor could communicate if they had it For 't is plain that there must be Wisdom and that Infinite to regulate the communication of motions with that exactness Proportion and Uniformity which we see A Body cannot know that infinite multitude of impuls'd Bodies round about it and though we should suppose it to have knowledge yet it would not have enough so proportionably to regulate and distribute at the instant of protrusion the moving force it self is carried with When I open my Eyes the Sun appears to me splendidly glorious in Light And it seems not only to be visible it self but to make all the World so too Methinks 't is he that arrays the Earth with flowers and enriches it with Fruits That gives Life to Animals and striking by His Heat into the very Womb of the Earth impregnates Her with Stones Marbles and Metalls But in consulting my Reason I see nothing of all this And if I faithfully consult it I plainly discover the seducement of my Senses and find that God Works all in all For knowing that all the changes which accrue to Bodies have no other principle than the different Communications of Motions which occur in visible and invisible Bodies I see that God does all since 't is his Will that causes and his Wisdom that regulates all these Communications I suppose that Local Motion is the principle of Generations Corruptions Alterations and Universally of all the changes
special a regard as to give it all things necessary to its preservation and likewise a Seed for perpetuating it's kind This proves second causes no more than the Plurality of Causes of contrary Principles of Good and Evil which the Manichees imagin'd to account for these effects But 't is a certain Sign of the Grandeur Wisdom and Magnificence of God For God does no works unbecoming an infinite Wisdom and he does them with that profusion as is a manifest proof of his Power and Greatness Whatever is destroy'd is repair'd again by the same Law that destroy'd it So great is the Wisdom Power and Fecundity of that Law God prevents not the destruction of Beings by any new Will not only because the first suffices to restore them but especially because his Wills are of much greater value than the Reparation of these Beings They are far more valuable than all that they produce And God had never made this World since not worthy of the Action by which it was produc'd unless he had other prospects than are known by the Philosophers and knew how to honour himself in JESUS CHRIST with an honour which the Creatures are not capable of giving him When a House falls and crushes an Honest Man to death a greater Evil happens than when one Beast devours another or when a Body is forc'd to rebound by the shock it receives from the Encounter of another But God does not multiply his Wills to redress either the true or apparent Disorders which are the necessary Consequences of natural Laws God ought not to correct nor change these Laws though they sometimes produce Monsters He is not to confound the Order and simplicity of his Ways He must neglect mean and little things I would say he must not have particular Wills to produce effects which are not equivalent to or worthy of the Action of the Producer God works not Miracles save when Order which he constantly follows requires it which Order requires that he should act by the most simple ways and make no exceptions to his general Wills but when 't is absolutely necessary to his designs or on particular occasions which we are absolutely ignorant of Though we are all united to Order or the Wisdom of God yet we know not all the Rules of it We see in it what we ought to do but we cannot discover in it what God ought to Will nor is it our business to be very sollicitous to know it A great instance of what I have said we have in the Damnation of an infinite number of Persons whom God suffer'd to perish in times of Ignorance and Error God is infinitely Good He loves all his Works He wills that all Men should be sav'd and come to the Knowledge of the Truth for he has made them to injoy him And yet the greatest number are Damn'd They live and die in blindness and will remain in it to all Eternity Comes not this from his acting by the simplest means and his following Order We have shown that according to Order God ought not to prevent by Indeliberate Pleasures the will of the first Man whose Fall has disorder'd Nature It was requisite that all Men should descend from one not only because that is the most simple way but for several too Theological and abstract Reasons to be here explain'd In fine we ought to believe this conformable to the Order which God follows and to the Wisdom he always consults in the intention and execution of his designs The first Man's Sin has produc'd infinite Evils I confess but certainly Order requir'd that God should permit it and that he should instate Man in a peccable condition God minded to repair his laps'd Work seldom gives Victorious Graces that prevail over the malice of the greatest Sinners Sometimes he gives Graces useless to the conversion of the Receiver though he foresees their inutility and sometimes sheds them in great Plenty yet with little effect Commonly he acts as it were by degrees giving Men secret inspirations of Self-denial and Repentance as formerly he gave them Counsels in his Gospel Thus he prepares them for the grace of Conversion and last of all bestows it Why all these round-about Methods and ways indirect Would it not have been enough for him to have positively Will'd the Conversion of a Sinner to have effected it in an efficacious and irresistible manner But is not it visible that this proceeds from his acting by the simplest Methods and Orders willing it though we do not always see it For God must necessarily follow Order and Wisdom in his actings though these are Unfathomable Abysses to the Mind of Man There are certain most simple Laws in the Order of Grace by which God for the most part acts For this Order has its Rules as well as that of Nature though we know them not as we see those of the Communications of Motions Only let us follow the Counsels which are given us in the Gospel by him who perfectly knows the Laws of Grace This I say to pacify the unjust Complaints of Sinners who despise the Counsels of JESUS CHRIST and charge their Malignity and disorders upon God They would have God show Miracles in their behalf and dispense with the general Laws of Grace They lead their Life in Pleasures they seek out for Honours and daily renew those wounds which sensible Objects have given their Brain and add more to them and after this expect God should cure them by a Miracle Not unlike wounded Men who in the excess of their Pain tear their Cloaths renovate their Wounds and when in the sight of approaching Death complain of the cruelty of their Surgeons They would have God to save them because say they God is Good Wise Powerful and needs but determine it to make us happy Why did he make us to damn and destroy us They ought to know that God Wills they should be sav'd and to that intent has done all that could be done by Order and Wisdom which he consults We cannot believe that he deserts us whilst he gives us his own Son to be our Mediator and Sacrifice Yes God is willing that all Mankind should be sav'd but by ways that we ought to study with care and follow with caution and weariness God is not to consult our Passions in the Execution of his designs He can have no regard but to his Eternal Wisdom nor follow any other rule than the Divine Order which Order will have us imitate JESUS CHRIST and obey his Counsels for our Sanctification and Salvation But if God has not predestin'd all Men to be conformable to the Image of his Son who is the Model and Exemplar of the Elect 'T is because herein God acts by the most simple means with reference to his designs which all make for his Glory 'T is because God is an universal Cause which ought not to act like particular Causes which have particular Volitions for all they do 'T
is because his Wisdom which in this respect is an Abyss to our apprehensions Wills it so Lastly 't is because this Conduct is more worthy of God than could be any other more favourable for the Reprobate For even they are condemn'd hy an Order as worthy our Adorations as that whereby the Elect are sanctified and sav'd And nothing but our Ignorance of Order and our Self-love make us blame a Conduct which the Angels and Saints eternally admire But let us return to the proofs of the efficacy of second Causes ARGUMENT V. If Bodies had not a certain Nature or Force to act with and if God did all things there would be nothing but what was Supernatural in the most ordinary effects The distinction of Natural and Supernatural which has been so well receiv'd in the World and establisht by the universal approbation of the Learn'd would be Chimerical and Extravagant ANSWER I answer that distinction is absurd in the Mouth of Aristotle since the Nature he has establisht is a meer Chimera I say that distinction is not clear in the mouth of the Vulgar part of Men who judge of things by the Impression they make upon their Senses For they know not precisely what they mean when they say the Fire burns by it's Nature I say that this distinction may pass in the mouth of a Divine if he means by natural Effects the consequences of the General Laws which God has settled for the production and preservation of all things And by supernatural Effects those which are independent on these Laws In this sense the Distinction is true But the Philosophy of Aristotle together with the Impression of the senses makes it as I think dangerous because it may divert from God the too respectful admirers of the Opinions of that wretched Philosopher or such as consult their senses instead of retiring into themselves to consult the Truth And therefore that distinction is not to be made use of without an Explication St. Austin having us'd the word fortune retracted it though there are few that could be deceiv'd by it St. Paul speaking of meats offer'd to Idols advertises that an Idol is nothing If the Nature of the Heathen Philosophy be a fiction if that nature be nothing it should be precaution'd for that there are many who are abus'd by it And more than we suppose who inconsiderately attribute to it the Works of God who are taken up with this Idol or fiction of the Humane mind and pay it those Honours which are only due to the Divinity They are willing to let God be Author of Miracles and some Extraordinary effects which in one sense are little worthy of his Greatness and Wisdom and they refer to the Power of their Imaginary nature those constant and regular Effects which none but the Wise know how to admire They suppose too that this so wonderful disposition which all living Bodies have to preserve themselves and beget their like is a production of their Nature For according to these Philosophers the Sun and Man beget a Man We may still distinguish between supernatural and natural Order several ways For we may say that the supernatural relates to future Goods that it is establish't upon consideration of the merits of CHRIST that it is the first and principal in the designs of God and other things enough to preserve a distinction which they are vainly apprehensive should fall to the ground ARGUMENT VI. The main proof which is brought by the Philosophers for the Efficacy of second Causes is drawn from the will and liberty of Man Man wills and determines of himself But to Will and Determine is to Act. 'T is certainly Man who commits Sin God not being the Author of it any more than of Concupiscence and Error Therefore Man acts ANSWER I have sufficiently explain'd in several Places of the Treatise about the Search of Truth what is the Will and Liberty of Man and especially in the first Chapter of the first Book and in the first Illustration upon it so that it is needless to repeat it again I acknowledge Man Wills and Determines himself in as much as God causes him to Will incessantly carries him towards good and gives him all the Idea's and Sensations by which he determines his Impression I know likewise that Man alone commits Sin But I deny that therein he does any thing For Sin Errour and even Concupiscence are nothing I have explain'd my self upon this Point in the first Illustration Man wills but his Volitions are impotent in themselves they produce nothing and God works all notwithstanding them For 't is even God that makes our Will by the Impression he gives us towards Good All that Man has from himself are Errour and Sin which are nothing There is a great difference between our Minds and Bodies that are about us I grant Our Mind in one sense Wills Acts and Determines it self Our own inward Consciousness is an evident Conviction If we were destitute of Liberty there could be no future Recompence and Punishment for 't is our Liberty that makes our Actions good or bad and without it Religion would be but a Phantasm and a Dream But that which we cannot see clearly is That Bodies have a force of Acting This it is we cannot comprehend and this we deny when we deny the Efficacy of Second Causes Even the Mind acts not in that measure which is imagin'd I know that I will and that I Will freely I have no Reason to doubt of it which is stronger than that inward feeling I have of my self Nor do I deny it but I deny that my Will is the true Cause of the Motion of my Arm of the Idea's of my Mind and of other things which accompany my Volitions For I see no Relation between so different things Nay I most clearly see there can be no Analogy between my Will to move my Arm and the Agitation of some little Bodies whose Motion and Figure I do not know which make choice of certain Nervous Canals amongst a Million of others unknown to me in Order to cause in me the Motion I desire by a World of Motions which I desire not I deny that my Will produces in me my Idea's I cannot see how 't is possible it should for since it cannot Act or Will without Knowledge it supposes my Idea's but does not make them Nay I do not so much as know precisely what an Idea is I cannot tell whether we produce them out of nothing and send them back to the same nothing when we cease to perceive them I speak after the Notion of some Persons I produce you 'll say my Idea's by the Faculty which God gives me of Thinking I move my Arm because of the Union which God has establish'd between my Mind and Body Faculty Vnion are Logical Terms of loose and indeterminate Signification There is no particular Being nor Mode of Being which is either Faculty or Vnion Therefore
least Motion to Matter This Philosophy I say perfectly Accommodates with Religion whose end is to Unite us to God in the strictest Bonds 'T is Customary with us to Love only those things which are capable of doing us some Good This Philosophy therefore Authorises only the Love of God and Condemns the Love of every thing else We ought to fear nothing but what is able to do us some Evil. Therefore this Philosophy approves the fear of God and absolutely Condemns all other Thus it justifies all the just and Reasonable Motions of our Soul and Condemns all those that are contrary to Reason and Religion For we can never justifie the Love of Riches the desire of Greatness the Extravagance of Debauchery by this Philosophy by the Principles whereof the Love for Bodies is absurd and ridiculous 'T is an indisputable Truth 't is a Natural Opinion 't is even a Common Notion that we ought to Love the cause of our Pleasure and to Love it proportionably to the Felicity it either Actually does or is able to possess us with 'T is not only just but as it were necessary that the cause of our happiness should be the Object of our Love Therefore this Philosophy will teach us to Love God only as being the only Cause of our Felicity That surrounding Bodies cannot Act upon that we Animate and consequently much less upon our Mind That 't is not the Sun which enlightens us and gives us Life and Motion Nor that fills the Earth with Fruits and Beautifies it with Flowers and supplies us with Food and Nourishment This Philosophy seconding the Scripture teaches that 't is God alone who gives us Rain and Regulates the Seasons that fills our Bodies with Food and our hearts with Joy that he alone is able to do us good and thereby has given a perpetual Testimony of what he is though in the ages passed he suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways According to the Language of this Philosophy we must not say that 't is Nature that fills us with good nor that it is God and Nature together But that it is God alone speaking thus without Ambiguity for fear of deceiving the Ignorant For we must distinctly acknowledge one cause of our happiness if we we make it the only Object of our Love 'T is likewise an undeniable Truth That we ought to fear things that are able to harm us and to fear them in Proportion to the Evil they can do us But this Philosophy teaches us that God only can do us evil that 't is he as says Isaiah who forms the Light and creates Darkness who makes Peace and creates Evil and there is no Evil but what he does as says the Prophet Amos. Therefore it is he only that is to be fear'd We must not fear either Plague or War or Famine or our Enemies or even Devils themselves But God alone We ought to shun the Sword when we see a Blow a coming we are to fly the Fire and avoid a ruinous House that 's ready to crush us but we must not fear these things We may fly from those Bodies which are the Occasional or Natural Causes of Evil but we must fear God as the true Cause of all the misfortunes of Sinners and hate only Sin which necessarily provokes the cause of our Happiness to become the Cause of our Misery In a Word all the Motions of our Mind must center upon God since he alone 's above it and the Motions of our Body may relate to the Bodies round it This is what we learn from that Philosophy that admits not the Efficacy of Second Causes But this Efficacy being suppos'd I cannot see but we have reason to fear and Love Bodies and that to regulate our Love by Reason we need but prefer God before all things the First and Vniversal to every Second and Particular Cause We can see no need of Loving him with all our Strength Ex totâ mente ex toto corde ex totâ animâ ex totis viribus as says the Scripture Yet when a Man contents himself in preferring God to all things and adoring him with a Worship and a Love of Preference without making a continual Effort to Love and Honour him in all things It often fortunes that he deceives himself that his Charity vanishes and is lost And that he is more taken up with sensible than the supream Good For should it be demanded of the greatest Sinners and even Idolaters whether they preferr'd the universal to particular Causes they would make no scruple to answer amidst their Debauches Errours and Extravagance that they are not wanting to their essential Duty and that they are very sensible of what they owe to God 'T is acknowledg'd that they are deceiv'd But take away the Efficacy of Second Causes and they have no probable Pretext left to justifie their Conduct and Behaviour whilst if it be granted them they will think and Discourse with themselves in the following manner when blinded by their Passions and attentive to the Testimony of their Senses I am made for Happiness Neitheir can I nor indeed ought I to supersede my Love and Respect for whatever can be the Cause of my Felicity Why then must not I Love and respect sensible Objects if they be the true Causes of the Happiness I find in their Enjoyment I acknowledge the Sovereign Being as only worthy of Sovereign Worship and I prefer Him before all the World But since I see not that He requires any thing from me I enjoy the Goods he affords by Means of Second Causes to which he has subjected me And I pay not my Gratitude to him which perhaps would be to his Dishonour As he gives me no Blessing immediately and by himself or at least without the Assistance of his Creatures 't is a Sign he requires not the immediate Application of my Mind and Heart at least that he desires the Creatures should partake with him in the Acknowledgments and Resentments of my Heart and Mind Seeing he has communicated Part of his Power and Glory to the Sun has environ'd him with Splendour and Majesty and has given him the Supremacy in all his Works and seeing from the Influence of this great Luminary we receive all the necessary Blessings of Life Why should we not employ a part of this indebted Life in rejoicing in his Light and testifying the Sense we have of his Greatness and his Benefits Wou'd it not be the most shameful Ingratitude to receive from that excellent Creature abundance of all things and yet to shew no Sense of Gratitude to him for them And should we not be unspeakably blind and stupid to be unmov'd with Fear and Veneration in Respect of him whose Absence freezes us to Death and whose too near Approach can burn and destroy us I say it again that God is preferable to all things and infinitely more estimable than his Creatures But we are to fear and Love
his Creatures also For hereby we pay Legitimate Honour to their Creatour Merit his good Graces and oblige him to shower new Benefits upon us 'T is manifest he approves of the Honour that is given to his Creatures since they partake of his Power and all Power deserves to be honour'd But because Honour ought to be Proportion'd to Power and that the Power of the Sun and all other sensible Objects is such as derives to us all sorts of Goods 't is reasonable we should Honour them with all our Strength and next to God Consecrate to them all our Being These are the Natural Reasonings a Man would fall into that should ground upon the Prejudice of the Efficacy of Second Causes and probably such was the Arguing of the first Founders of Idolatry Take here his Sense of it who passes for the most Learned of all the Jews He Prefaces a a Treatise he wrote about Idolatry with these Words In the days of Enos Men fell into strange Illusions and the Wise Men of that Age quite lost their Sense and Reason Enos himself was one of those deluded Persons whose Errours were these Since God said they has created the Heavens and Stars to govern the World has constituted them on â—igh and invested them with Glory and Lustre and employs them in executing his Commands 't is just that we should honour them and pay them our Deference and Homage 'T is the Will of our God that Honour should be given to those whom he has exalted and enthron'd in Glory as a Prince requires that his Ministers should be â—onour'd in his Presence because the Honour which is given to them redounds to himself When once this Notion had entred their Head they fell to building Temples in Honour of the Stars gave them Sacrifice and Praises and even prostrated themselves before them thereby imagining to purchase the favour of Him that created them And this was the Original of Idolatry It is so Natural and just to have grateful Resentments in Proportion to the Goods we receive that almost all Nations have ador'd the Sun because they all concluded him the Cause of the Blessings they enjoy'd And if the Aegyptians ador'd not only the Sun and Moon and River Nile because its overflowing caus'd the Fertility of their Country but even the vilest of Animals 'T was as Cicero relates from the Emolument they receiv'd from them Therefore as we cannot and indeed ought not to Extirpate from Men's Minds their Natural Inclination for the true Causes of their Happiness 't is evident there is at least some danger in ascribing Efficacy to Second Causes though we conjoyn the necessity of an immediate Concourse which has methinks I know not what of incomprehensible purport and which strikes in as an after-game to justifie our imbib'd Prejudices and Aristotle's Philosophy But there 's no danger in speaking only what we see and of Attributing only to God Efficacy and Power since we see nothing but His Wills which have an absolutely necessary and indispensible connexion with Natural Effects I own that now adays Men are Wise enough to avoid those gross Errors of Heathens and Idolaters but I fear not to say our Mind is still dispos'd or rather our Heart is often bent like that of the Heathens and that there will ever be in the World some kind of Idolatry until the Day in which JESUS CHRIST shall restore up His Kingdom to God his Father having first destroy'd all Empire Dominion and Power that God may be All in all For is it not a kind of Idolatry to make a God of ones Belly as speaks S. Paul Is not he an Idolater to the God of Riches who labours Night and Day to acquire them Is this to render to God the Worship we owe Him Is this to adore Him in Spirit and in Truth to have our Hearts fill'd with some sensible Beauty and our Mind struck and dazled with the Lustre of some imaginary Grandeur Men fancying to themselves that Circumambient Bodies afford the pleasures they enjoy in the use of them Unite to them with all the Powers of their Soul and thus the Principle of their Corruption lies in the sensible Conviction of the Efficacy of Second Causes 'T is only Reason that assures them none but God Acts in them But besides that this Reason speaks so low that it is scarce Audible and that the Contradicting Senses cry so loud that their Clamour Stunns and Stupefies them they are yet farther confirm'd in their Prejudice by Reasons and Arguments that are so much dangerous as they have more External Characters and sensible marks of Truth The Philosophers but especially the Christian Philosophers ought to wage an uninterrupted War with Prejudices or the Judgements of their Senses and particularly those of so dangerous importance as that of the Efficacy of Second Causes And yet there are Men whom I extremely honour as I have just Reason who from I know not what Principle endeavour to confirm this Prejudice and to make so holy so pure and solid a Doctrine as this which owns no other true Cause than God pass for Superstitious and Extravagant Opinion They will not have us to Love and Fear God in all things but to Love and Fear all things with reference to God We ought say they to Love the Creatures since they are good to Love and respect our Father to give Honour to our Prince and Superiours since God Commands it Nor do I deny it but I deny that we are to Love the Creatures as our Goods though they be good or perfect in themselves I deny that we are to pay service and respect to Men as to our Masters Or to explain my self more clearly I say we must not serve our Master obey our Father or Prince with any other design than to serve and obey God S. Paul who became all things to all Men and was complaisant in all things for the Salvation of those he Preach'd to speaks thus Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your Heart as unto CHRIST not with Eye-Service as Men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the Will of God from the Heart with good Will doing Service AS TO THE LORD AND NOT TO MEN. And in another Epistle Not with Eye-Service as to MEN but in singleness of Heart fearing GOD. And whatever ye do do it Heartily AS TO THE LORD and NOT VNTO MEN. We must therefore obey our Father serve our Prince and Honour our Superiours AS UNTO GOD AND NOT UNTO MEN. This is manifest and can have no Evil consequences For hereby Superiours would always be more honour'd and better serv'd But I think it may be said That a Master who would be honour'd and serv'd as having in himself another Power than that of God would be a Devil and that those who serv'd him under that apprehension would be
Posterity as must communicate his Sin and render them all worthy His Aversion and His Anger How is this to be reconcil'd with His Goodness God often sheds abroad His Graces without having the Effect for which His Goodness obliges us to believe He gives them He increases Piety in Persons till towards the End of their Days and Sin triumphs over them at Death and throws them headlong into Hell He makes the Rain of His Grace to fall on hardned Hearts as well as on prepar'd Grounds which Men resist and render ineffectual In a word God continually does and undoes and seems to will and nill again How shall this be reconcil'd with His Wisdom Lo here great Difficulties And the whole oeconomy of Religion the Idea we have of a Good Wise Powerful God constant in His Designs regular in His Action and a thousand places in Scripture furnish us with several others contrary to what we experimentally find every Day in the Order of Grace and though very Learned Men have answer'd them to me they seem incapable of a satisfactory and clear Resolution without the fore-establish'd Principle XLII For my own part I always believ'd that God would have all Men saved Reason and Scripture will not suffer me to doubt it And though the Authors whom I honour with a very profound Reverence have in the preceding Ages given out various Explications of this Truth I have ever been uneasie to receive such as without any Necessity seem'd to me to give Bounds to the Extent of God's Goodness and Mercy Therefore consulting the Idea which all Men have of God I enter'd on this Opinion which I now expose to the Censure of all those who shall be willing to examine it attentively and pass an equitable Judgment on it XLIII God being oblig'd to act always in a manner that becomes Him by ways Simple General Constant and Uniform In a word suitable to the Idea we have of a General Cause whose Wisdom has no Bounds ought to settle certain Laws in the Order of Grace as I have prov'd He has done in the Order of Nature Which Laws by Reason of their Simplicity must necessarily have unhappy Consequences in reference to us But these Consequences are not of such Account as should cause God to change these Laws for more compounded as having a greater Proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity to the Work they produce than all that could be establish'd for the same Design since he always acts in the wisest and perfectest manner 'T is true God could redress these unhappy Consequences by an infinite Number of particular Wills But Order will not suffer him The Effect producible by each Will would not countervail the Action that should produce it And consequently God is not to be blam'd for not disturbing the Order and Simplicity of his Laws by Miracles which would be very welcome to our Exigencies but very repugnant to the Wisdom of God whom it is not lawful to tempt XLIV Therefore as 't would be unreasonable in us to be angry at the Rain's falling in the Sea where 't is useless and escaping Seeded Grounds where 't is necessary since the Laws of Communication of Motions are most Simple most Exuberant and perfectly worthy of their Author's Wisdom and that by these Laws it is impossible the Rain should fall rather on the Earth than Sea so we ought not to complain of the seeming Irregularity by which Grace is given to Men. 'T is the Regularity wherewith God works 't is the Simplicity of the Laws he observes 't is the Wisdom and Uniformity of his Conduct which is the Cause of that seeming Irregularity 'T is necessary by the Laws of Grace establish'd by God in favour of his Elect and for the Construction of his Church that Celestial Rain should fall as well on hardn'd as prepar'd Hearts and if it be shed in vain 't is not because God acts without Design much less with Design of making Men more culpable by the Abuse of his Favours But because the Simplicity of General Laws permits not that Grace which is lost in a corrupt Heart to fall upon another where it would have been effectual Since this Grace is not given by a particular Will but in pursuance of the Immutability of the General Order of Grace if this Order produces a Work proportion'd to the Simplicity of its Laws it suffices to render it worthy of the Wisdom of its Author For in short the Order of Grace would be less perfect less admirable and amiable if it were more complex'd XLV If God gave Grace by particular Wills doubtless he would never go to convert a Sinner who had four Degrees of Concupiscence by giving him three Degrees of Spiritual Election supposing these Degrees insufficient for his Conversion He would defer his Liberality till the Sinner was absent from the tempting Object or rather would bestow the same Grace of three Degrees Strength to him whose Concupiscence was less lively For to what Purpose is it to give three Degrees of Spiritual Delectation to one that wants four and to deny them him whom they were sufficient to convert Is this suitable to the Idea we have of the Wisdom and Goodness of God Is this to love Men to will they should be sav'd and to do for them all he can Nevertheless God cries out by his Prophet O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah judge I pray ye betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I look'd that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes What Wisdom is there in giving by particular Wills so many fruitless Graces to Sinners if we suppose God wills their Conversion as we are taught by Scripture and has no fatal Design of rendring them more culpable and criminal by his Gifts XLVI But if Grace be bestow'd on Men by most Simple and General Laws all these great Difficulties vanish The settled Order of Grace having a greater proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity to the Work which God produces than any other ought to be chosen for the Establishment of His Church Thus we may affirm That God truly wills the Salvation of all Men that He does for them all that 's possible whilst he acts as becomes him that if there were any Order of Grace as simple but more fecund as worthy of his Wisdom and more advantageous to Men he would have chosen it and that therefore he saves as many as it 's possible to save whilst acting by the adorable Rules prescrib'd by his Wisdom XLVII Let Men therefore love and adore not only the Good Will of God by which the Elect are sanctify'd but also the secret Judgments of his Justice by which so great a Number are rejected 'T is the same Order of Wisdom they are the same Laws of Grace which produce these so different Effects God is equally adorable and amiable in all he does his Conduct
they had committed in murthering our Saviour it was fit that Jesus Christ should come into the World about the Reign of Herod supposing that People by the necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature was to be divided about that time that Civil Wars and perpetual Seditions were to weaken them and that lastly the Romans were to ruine and disperse them with the total Destruction of their City and Temple 'T is true there seems to be something extraordinary in the Desolation of the Jews But as it shews greater Wisdom in God to produce so surprizing Effects by the most simple and general Laws of Nature than by particular Wills which are always Miracles I question whether on that Occasion we are to fly unto a Miracle But for my part I dispute it not here since 't is a Fact that we cannot easily nor need we explain our selves upon And I produce this Instance only to make some Application of my Principles and to make them more easily intelligible to others I have I think said enough of Nature and Grace to satisfie all equitable and moderate Persons about an infinite Number of Difficulties which disturb only their Minds who must needs judge of God by themselves For if Men would consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being of a General Cause of an Infinite Wisdom and if they would consent to the Principles I have establish'd conformable to that Idea I believe they would neither be surpriz'd nor offended at the Conduct of GOD and that they would change their Murmurs and Censures into Wonder and Adoration CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE III. Of the Manner of GRACE's acting in us PART I. Concerning Liberty I. THERE is nothing more rude and unform'd than the Substance of Spirits if we separate it from God For what 's a Mind void of Understanding and Reason destitute of Motion and Love Yet it is the Word and Wisdom of God which is the universal Reason of Minds and 't is the Love whereby God loves himself that gives the Soul the Motion she has towards Good If the Mind knows Truth 't is by its Natural and Necessary Union with Truth it self If it is reasonable 't is so through supreme Reason Lastly If it be a Spirit or Intelligence 't is in one sense because its Substance is enlightned penetrated and perfected by the Light of God himself These Truths I have explain'd in another Place So likewise the Substance of the Soul is not capable of loving Good save by its Natural and Necessary Union with the Eternal and Substantial Love of the Supreme Good it advances not towards Good any farther than convey'd by God it is volent only from the Motion it continually receives from him it lives only through Charity and wills merely through the Love of Good which God makes it participate though it abuses it For in fine God making and preserving Minds only for himself inclines them towards him as long as he preserves their Being and communicates the Love of Good to them whilst they are capable of receiving it Now that natural and continual Motion of the Soul towards Good in general towards Good indefinite towards God is what I here call Will Since 't is that Motion which capacitates the Substance of the Soul to love different Goods II. This Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is invincible for 't is not in our Power not to will to be happy We necessarily love what we clearly know and lively feel to be our Good All Minds love God by the Necessity of their Nature and if they love any thing else by a Free Choice of their Will 't is not because they seek not God or the Cause of their Felicity but because they are deceiv'd 'T is because perceiving by a confus'd Sensation that surrounding Bodies make them happy they consider them as good and by an Ordinary and Natural Consequence love them and unite to them III. But the Love of all these particular Goods is not naturally invincible Man consider'd in his Original State might supersede loving those Goods that fill'd not the whole Capacity of his Affection There being but one Good which includes all others he might sacrifice every other Love to the Love of this For God having made Minds only for himself cannot invincibly carry them to the loving any thing besides him or without relation to him Lastly our own inward Consciousness informs us that we can reject a Fruit though we are inclin'd to take it Now that Power of loving or not loving particular Goods the Non-invincibility which is found in the Motion which carries Minds to the loving what does not seem every way inclusive of all Goods That Power or Non-invincibility is what I call Liberty Thus placing the Definition instead of the thing defin'd that Expression our Will is free signifies that the Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is not invincible in point of Good in particular To the Word Free the Idea of Voluâ—tary is commonly annex'd but in the Sequel of this Discourse I shall take the Word in the Sense I have observ'd as being the most Natural and Ordinary IV. The Word Good is equivocal and may signifie either Pleasure which makes formally happy or the true or seeming Cause of Pleasure In this Discourse I shall constantly take the Word Good in the second Sense because indeed Pleasure is imprinted on the Soul that she may love the Cause that makes her happy that she may advance towards it by the Motion of her Love and may strictly unite to it to be perpetually happy When the Soul loves nothing but her own Pleasure she in effect loves nothing distinct from her self For Pleasure is only a Condition or Modification of the Soul which renders her actually happy and content But whilst the Soul cannot be the Cause of her own Pleasure she 's unjust ungrateful and blind if she loves her Pleasure and forgets to pay the Love and Devotion which is due to the true Cause that produces it in her As none but God can act immediately and by himself on the Soul and make her sensible of Pleasure by the actual Efficacy of his all-potent Will so he alone is truly Good However I term the Creatures Good which are the seeming Causes of the Pleasures we feel occasionally from them For I am unwilling to deviate from the customary way of Speaking any farther than is necessary to explain my self clearly All Creatures though Good in themselves or Perfect with reference to the Designs of God are not Good with reference to us They are not our Good nor the true Cause of our Pleasure or Felicity V. The natural Motion which God constantly imprints on the Soul to carry it to love him or to make use of a Term which is the Abridgement of several Ideas and can be no longer equivocal or confus'd after the Definition I have given of it the Will is determin'd towards particular Goods either
if God caus'd it to rain on this Meadow by a particular Benevolence to the Owner this Rain would not fall on the River where 't is insignificant since it could not fall there without a Cause or Will in God which has necessarily some End VII But we have still more Reason to think an Effect is produc'd by a general Will when this Effect is contrary or even useless to the Design which we are taught by Faith or Reason the Cause propos'd For Instance The End which God proposes in the various Sensations he affords the Soul in our tasting different Fruits is that we may eat those which are fit for Nourishment and reject the rest I suppose thus Therefore when God gives a grateful Sensation at the Instant of our eating Poisons or empoison'd Fruits he acts not in us by particular Wills So we ought to conclude since that agreeable Sensation is the Cause of our Death whilst the End of God's giving us diverse Sensations is to preserve our Life by a convenient Nourishment for I once more suppose thus For I speak only with reference to the Grace which God gives us doubtless to convert us so that 't is visible God showers it not on Men by particular Wills since it frequently renders them more Culpable and Criminal For God cannot have so Fatal a Design God gives us not therefore agreeable Sensations by particular Wills when we eat poisonous Fruits But because a poisonous Fruit excites in our Brain Motions like those produc'd by wholsome Fruits God gives us the same Sensations by reason of the general Laws which unite the Soul to the Body that she might be wakeful for its Preservation So likewise God gives not those who have lost an Arm Sensations of Pain relating to it but by a general Will For 't is useless to the Body of this Man that his Soul should suffer Pain relating to an Arm that 's lost 'T is the same case with Motions produc'd in the Body of a Man in the Commission of a Crime Finally supposing we are obliged to think that God scatters his Rain upon the Earth witâ— Intent to make it fruitful we cannot believe he distributes it by particular Wills since it falls upon the Sands and in the Sea as well as on plow'd Lands and is often so excessive on seeded Ground as to extirpate the Corn and frustrate the Labours of the Husbandman Thus it is certain that Rains which are useless or noxious to the Fruits of the Earth are necessary Consequences of the general Laws of the Communications of Motions which God has establish'd for the producing better Effects in the World supposing which I again repeat that God cannot will by a particular Volition that Rain should cause the Barrenness of the Earth VIII Lastly When an Effect happens which has something extraordinary 't is reasonable to believe it is not produc'd by a general Will. Nevertheless 't is impossible to be sure of it If for Example in the Procession of the Holy Sacrament it rains on the Assistants save on the Priests and those which carry it we have reason to think this proceeds from a particular Will of the universal Cause yet we cannot be certain because an occasional intelligent Cause may have this particular Design and so determine the Efficacy of the general Law to execute it IX When the preceding Marks are not sufficient for us to judge whether a certain Effect is or is not produc'd by a general Will we are to believe it is if it be certain there is an Occasional Cause establish'd for the like Effects For Example We see it rain to some Purpose in a Field we do not examine whether this Rain falls or not in the great Roads we know not whether it be noxious to the bordering Grounds nay we suppose it only does good and that all the attending Circumstances are perfectly accommodated to the Design for which we are oblig'd to believe that God would have it rain Nevertheless I say that we ought to judge this Rain is produc'd by a general Will if we know that God has setled an Occasional Cause for the like Effects For we must not have recourse to Miracles without Necessity We ought to suppose that God acts herein by the simplest ways and though the Lord of the Field ought to return Thanks to God for the Bounty yet he ought not to imagine it was caus'd in a miraculous manner by a particular Will The Owner of the Field ought to thank God for the Good he receives since God saw and will'd the good Effect of the Rain when he establish'd the general Laws whereof it is a necessary Consequence and that it was for the like Effects they were establish'd On the contrary if the Rains are sometimes hurtful to the Earth as it was not to render them unfruitful that God establish'd the Laws which make it rain since Drought suffices to make them barren 't is plain we ought to thank God and to adore the Wisdom of his Providence even when we do not â—eel the Effects of the Laws establish'd in our Favour X. But to conclude when we cannot be certified by the Circumstances which accompany certain Effects that there is an Occasional Cause establish'd to produce them 't is sufficient to know they are very common and relate to the principal Design of the general Cause in order to judge they are produc'd by a general Will. For Example The Springs which water the Surface of the Earth are subservient to the principal Design of God which is that Mâ—n should not want things necessary to Life I suppose so Besides these Fountains are very common therefore we ought to conclude they are foâ—m'd by some General Laws For as there is much more Wisdom in executing his Designs by Simple and General Means than by Complicated and Particular as I think I have sufficiently prov'd elsewhere We owe that Honour to God as to believe his way of acting is general uniform constant and proportion'd to the Idea we have of an infinite Wisdom These are the Marks by which we are to judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a general Will. I now come to prove that God bestows his Grace on Men by general Laws and that Jesus Christ has been establishâ—d the Occasional Cause to determine their Efficacy I begin by the Proofs of Holy Scripture XI St. Paul teaches us That Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church That he constantly influences it with Spirit and Life That he forms the Members and animates them as the Soul animates the Body or to speak still more clearly the Holy Scripture teaches us two things The first that Jesus Christ prays continually for his Members The second that his Prayers or Desires are always heard Whence I conclude that he was constituted by God the Occasional Cause of Grace and likewise that Grace is never given to Sinners but through his Means The Occasional Causes have constantly and readily
since it rather respects Morals and Politicks than our Subject And whereas this Inclination is always accompany'd with the Passions it might perhaps be more appositly treated of in the next Book But 't is not of so great concern to be so nicely methodical in this Case That we may rightly comprehend the Cause and Effects of this Natural Inclination it is requisite to know that GOD loves all his Works and that he strictly unites them to one another for their mutual Preservation For Loving incessantly the Works he produces it being his Love that produces them he also continually impresses on our Heart a Love for his Works that is he produces constantly in our Heart a Love like his own And to the intent the Natural Love we have for our selves might not swallow up or too much infringe upon that which we have for exteriour things but on the contrary that these two Loves which GOD puts in us might cherish and strengthen each other he has so artfully united us with all things about us and especially with those Beings of the same Species as our selves that their Evils naturally afflict us their Joy rejoyces us their Rise their Fall or Diminution seem to augment or diminish respectively our own Being The new Honours of our Relations or Friends the fresh Atchievements of those who have the nearest Engagements to us The Conquests and Victories of our Prince and even the late Discoveries of the New World give as it were an additional growth to our Substance Belonging to all these things we rejoyce at their Grandure and Extent We gladly would that even the World was without Bounds and that Notion of some Philosophers that the Works of GOD are infinite not only seems worthy of GOD but most agreeable to Man who can conceive nothing nobler than the being a part of Infinity whilst as inconsiderable as he is in himself he fancies he feels himself infinitely enlarg'd by an expansion of Thought into the infinite Beings that surround him 'T is true the Union we have with all those Bodies that rowl in the vast spaces is not very binding and consequently insensible to the greatest part of Men and there are some who interess themselves so little in the Discoveries made in the Heavens that one would think they had no natural Union to them did we not know that it was for want of Knowledge or for their too applicative Adherencies to other things The Soul though united to the Body which she animates is not always sensible of the Motions that occur in it or if she be yet she does not always actually consider them The Passion whereby she 's acted being often greater than the Sensation wherewith she 's affected makes her seem to have a stricter Adherence to the Object of her Passion than to her own Body For 't is chiefly by the Passions that the Soul expands her self abroad and finds she is actually related to all surrounding Beings as it is especially by Sensation that she expands through her own Body and finds she is united to all the Parts that compose it But as we are not to conclude that the Soul of a Man in a Passion is not united to his Body because he exposes himself to Death and is unconcern'd for his own Preservation so it ought not to be imagin'd we are not naturally engag'd to all things because there are some we are not at all concern'd for Would you know for instance whether Men have any Adhesions to their Prince or their Country Enquire out such as are acquainted with the Interests of them and have no particular Engagements of their own to take them up and you will then see how earnest they are for News how impatient to hear of Battels how joyful for a Victory and how melancholy upon a Defeat And this will convince you how strictly Men are united to their Prince and their Country In like manner would you know whether Men are united to China Japan the Planets or Fix'd Stars Enquire out or only imagine to your self some whose Country or Family enjoy a settl'd Peace who have no particular Passions and that are not actually sensible of the Union that binds them to nearer Objects than the Heavens and you will find if they have any Knowledge of the Magnitude and Nature of these Stars they will rejoyce at the Discovery of any of them will consider them with Pleasure and if they have Art enough will willingly be at the pains of observing and calculating their Motions Such as are in the hurry of Business have little Curiosity for the Appearance of a Comet or the Incidence of an Eclipse but Men that have no such Dependencies to nearer things find themselves considerable Employment about such Events because indeed there is nothing but what we are united to though we have not always the Sense of this Union as a Man does not always feel the Soul united I don't say to his Arm or Hand but to his Heart and Brain The strongest Natural Union which GOD has establish'd between us and his Works is that which cements and binds us to our Fellow-Brethren Men. GOD has commanded us to love them as our Second-selves and to the end that Elective Love with which we prosecute them might be resolute and constant he supports and strengthens it continually with a Natural Love which he impresses on us and for that purpose has given us some invisible Bonds which bind and oblige us necessarily to love them to be watchful for their as our own Preservation to regard them as parts necessary to the whole which we constitute together with them and without which we could not subsist There is nothing more admirably contriv'd than those Natural Correspondencies observable between the Inclinations of Men's Minds between the Motions of their Bodies and again between these Inclinations and these Motions All this secret Chain-work is a Miracle which can never be sufficiently admir'd nor can ever be understood Upon the Sense of some sudden surprizing Evil or which a Man finds as it were too strong for him to overcome by his own Strength he raises suppose a loud Cry This Cry forc'd out frequently without thinking on it by the disposition of the Machine strikes infallibly into the Ears of those who are near enough to afford the Assistance that is wanted It pierces them and makes them understand it let them be of what Nation or Quality soever for 't is a Cry of all Nations and all Conditions as indeed it ought to be It makes a Commotion in the Brain and instantly changes the whole Disposition of Body in those that are struck with it and makes them run to give succour without so much as knowing it But it is not long before it acts upon their Mind and obliges their Will to desire and their Understanding to contrive means of assisting him who made that Natural Petition provided always that urgent Petition or rather Command be just and according
to the Rules of Society For an indiscreet Out-cry made upon no occasion or out of an idle Fear produces in the Assistants Indignation or Laughter instead of Pity because to cry without cause is to abuse things establish'd by Nature for our Preservation That indiscreet Cry naturally produces Aversion and the desire of Revenging the Affront that was offer'd Nature that is The settled Order of things if he that made it without cause did it wilfully But it ought only to produce the Passion of Derision mingled with some Compassion without Aversion and desire of Revenge if it were a Fright that is a false Appearance of a pressing Exigency which caus'd the Clamour For Scoff or Ridicule is necessary to re-assure and correct the Man as Fearful and Compassion to succour him as Weak 'T is impossible to conceive any thing better order'd I pretend not to explain by an Example what are the Springs and Movements or secret Combinations in Men's Brain as in that of all other Animals whereby the Author of Nature maintains the Concordance and Union necessary to their Conservation I only make some Reflexion upon these Contrivances to put Men upon considering them and diligently searching and discovering not how these Engines play or how their Movement is communicated through the Air the Light and all the little Bodies that surround us for that 's near incomprehensible and not necessary but what Effects they have By several different Observations we find there are Ties which unite us together but we cannot accurately discern how it is perform'd We easily see that a Watch points out the Hour but it requires time to find out the Reasons of it And there are so many different Movements in the Brain of the least of Animals as far surpass the most compound Clock-work in the World As the perfect Knowledge of our Machinal Constructure is not possible so it is not absolutely necessary but the Effects its Springs and Movements are capable of producing are indispensibly necessary to be known for the well-managing our selves There is no necessity of knowing how a Watch is made to make use of it but to use it in measuring out our Time 't is at least necessary to know that it shews the Hours Yet there are Men so little capable of Reflexion that we might almost compare them with Machines purely inanimate They feel not in themselves the Elaterium which slackens upon the sense of Objects They are frequently toss'd and agitated without perceiving their own Motion are Slaves and yet insensible of their Bonds Finally they are conducted a thousand different ways without perceiving the hand of their Conductor They fancy themselves the sole Authors of the Motions which they perform and not distinguishing what passes within them pursuant to a free Act of their Will from what the Impression of surrounding Bodies produces they think they are their own Guides even when they are guided by another But this is not a place proper for the Explication of these things Those Alliances which Nature's Author has founded between our Natural Inclinations in order to unite us to one another seem yet more worthy our Application and Enquiries than those between Bodies or between Minds with reference to Bodies For all things are so admirably dispos'd that those very Inclinations which seem most repugnant to Society are the most useful to it when they are somewhat moderated The Desire for Instance which all Men have of Greatness directly tends to the Subversion of all Societies Nevertheless this Desire is so temper'd by the Order of Nature that it conduces more to Publick Welfare than many other weak and languid Inclinations For it breeds Emulations it provokes Men to Vertue it bears up their Courage in the Services pay'd to their Country and so many Conquests would not be obtain'd did not the Soldiers and especially the Officers aspire to Glory and great Commands So that all the Particulars that constitute Armies labouring only for their private Interests fail not to procure Happiness to their Countries Which evidences how highly advantageous it is to the Publick Good that all Men should have a secret Ambition for Greatness and Promotion provided it be moderated But if all the Particulars should seem what they really are should they frankly confess to others they design'd to be the principal Parts of the Body they compose and never to be the meanest this would not be the means to unite them together All the Members of a Body cannot be the Head and Heart there must be Feet and Hands Little as well as Great Members to Obey as well as to Command And if every Member of a Society should openly say he would Command and never Obey as in effect every one naturally wishes 't is visible that all Politick Bodies would fall to Ruine and Confusion and Injustice would reign on Earth It was necessary therefore that those who have the most Sense and are the fittest to command as the topmost and noblest Parts of a Community should be naturally Civil that is should be dispos'd by a secret Inclination to express to others by their Behaviour and by the Civility and Courtesie of Expression how unworthy they think themselves of any Consideration and that they are the meanest of all but that those they address to are worthy of all sorts of Honours and that they pay them the greatest Esteem and Veneration Lastly to supply the Defect of Charity and Love of Order it was needful for those that command others to have the Art of deceiving them by an imaginary Abasement consisting in external Civilities and good Words that they might enjoy an unenvy'd Preheminence which is necessary in all Bodies For by that means each Particular possesses after a sort the Grandeur he desires The great possess it really and the Little and Weak only in Imagination being in a measure persuaded by the Compliments of others that they are not consider'd as they are that is the Lowest and Meanest of the People By the way it is easie to conclude from what we have said that 't is a great Offence to Civility to speak often of one's self especially to one 's own Advantage though we had all possible Accomplishments it being not allow'd to speak to Persons we converse with as if we look'd down upon them unless in some Circumstances and when certain external Characters give us a sensible Preheminence For Contempt is the greatest of Injuries 't is that which is most capable of dissolving Society and we can never hope that a Man whom we have given to understand we think beneath us will associate with us because no Man can endure to be thought the meanest Member of the Body he is of The Inclination therefore Men have to Complimenting is the fittest to counterbalance that other for Esteem and Elevation and to soften that internal Pain those feel who are the lowest Parts of the Body-Politick Nor can we doubt but the Mixture of these two Inclinations