in truth certain modifications of our own proper Being but unknown to us cause us to will in such a manner that this Volition seems to depend wholly on our selves for we will so freely and readily that we think nothing obliges us to do it It is true indeed that nothing obliges us to will but our selves but then that which we call Our Selves is not our Being purely natural or perfectly free in respect of Good and Evil but our Being dispos'd toward one of them by certain Modifications which either corrupt or perfect it and render us in the sight of God either Just or Sinners and these Dispositions we should encrease or destroy by Acts which are the natural Causes of Habits IV. But to do this we must farther suppose that other important Truth that the Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its predominant Habit. For it is evident that if a Man whose ruling Disposition is Avarice should never act but by some Motion of Avarice he would be so far from ever becoming Liberal that his Vice would continually augment according to that Principle which we have before laid down that Acts produce and fortifie Habits Nay we must allow that it is in the power of a vitious Man to perform some Acts of Vertue in order to free himself from his vitious Habits and to become a good Man but this Proposition requires a little further Explication V. I say then in respect of particular Habits First That a covetous Man for Example may act by a motive of Ambition this is neither difficult to believe nor prove Secondly That a covetous Man may do an Action contrary to Avarice by which he is govern'd for a covetous Man may be also Ambitious This being suppos'd I say that if his Passion for Riches be not mov'd and his Ambition be or if his Avarice be less excited than his Ambition in a reciprocal Proportion of the force of these two Passions it is certain that the covetous Man will do an act of Liberality if at that instant he determines himself to act which is certainly in his own power to do For a Man can will nothing but Good and at that instant the covetous Man will think it better to do that act of Liberality than not do it he will Sacrifice his love of Mony to that of Glory Thus it is evident that the Sinner may for Reasons of Self-love avoid following any certain determinate Motion of his Passions if he can but excite some contrary Passions and till then suspend the consent of his Will But still this is not sufficient to prove that he who Sins may help Sinning that the Sinner may rid himself of his vitious Habits and the just Man lose his Charity VI. Indeed the Case of particular Habits as Avarice or Liberality is not the same with that of the Love of Order or Self-love and tho' perhaps it may be granted that a covetous Man may do an act of Liberality yet without doubt it will not be so readily agreed that a Heathen can do an action conformable to Order or for Love of Order For my part I shall not dispute it but only endeavour to explain my own Sentiments clearly Let every one follow that which the Evidence of Reason and the Authority of Faith oblige him to believe and leave me when I go out of the Way which should lead me in the Search of Truth VII If Sinners or Heathens had no Love at all for Order they would be altogether incorrigible and if the Righteous had no Self-love they could not possibly Sin for according to my first Principle Habits are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. The Sinner being suppos'd to have no Love but for himself cannot act but by Self-love and therefore all his Actions must encrease the Corruption of his Heart On the other side if the righteous Man be suppos'd to have no Love but for Order he cannot act but by the Love of Order and then all his Actions must still encrease his Vertue So that upon this Supposition that a Sinner or a Heathen hath no Love but Self-love and a just Man no Love but the Love of Order the Sinner must be incorrigible and the just Man impeccable But I think I have sufficiently prov'd in the foregoing Chapter that the greatest Sinners have always some disposition to love Order and I think it cannot be doubted but that the best Men always retain some Relicks of Self-love VIII It is true indeed that a Heathen can never acquire Charity nor do any Action that may merit those Assistances that are necessary for obtaining the ruling Love of the immutable Order but he may do Actions conformable to Order he may perform good and meritorious Actions Chap. I. For a Heathen has always some Idea of Order this Idea is indeleble He hath always some Love for Order Chap. III. this Love is natural and immortal Now all Love is active when once it is excited And therefore if his Self-love do not oppose the Action of his Love of Order his Love of Order will act and produce its proper Acts Nay tho' his Self-love should oppose his Love of Order yet if his Love of Order be more excited than his Self-love in a reciprocal Proportion of the greatness of these two habitual Loves and their actual Motion his Love for Order would surmount his Self-love if at that instant he determin'd himself to act IX For instance an innocent Man is led to Execution This is contrary to Order A Heathen knows it and can by a word speaking prevent the breach of Order I suppose that his Self-love is not at all concern'd in the Life or Death of the Man Certainly he will prevent or at least will have Strength and Reason enough to speak and prevent this Offence against Order For my part I do not doubt upon the Supposition which I have made but that he would prevent it For all Men naturally love Order and are so united to it that one cannot violate Order without offending them in some measure The same things being suppos'd tho' this Man we speak of were covetous yet if his Passion for Mony were laid a sleep for a little while or tho' it were excited yet if only a Penny were desir'd of him to save the Life of that innocent Man certainly he would or at least might do an action contrary to his Self-love for in truth that opposition is but inconsiderable but it would be a very great Offence against Order which he is naturally dispos'd to Love if he should not offer that small Sacrifice to it X. Now those actions are good because they are conformable to Order and they are meritorious because they are accompanied with a Sacrifice of Self-love to the Love of Order But they are not meritorious in respect of the true Goods nor of any thing that leads to the Possession of them because those Sacrifices they offer are but inconsiderable and besides
do not first rid them of a great many false Maxims such as these for instance That if God concern'd himself with our Affairs the World would not go as it doth that Injustice would never be advanc'd to the Throne and that Bodies would not be rang'd so irregularly as they are that so deform'd and mishapen a World as this is can be nothing but the work of a blind and unintelligent Nature and that God doth not require of us vile Creatures Honours unbecoming his Nature that that which appears right and just to us is not so in it self or in the sight of God who if it were would often Punish those that he ought to Reward for many times we meet with the greatest Misfortunes when we are doing the best Actions I have elsewhere confuted these Principles and if the Reader doth not clearly comprehend what I am going to say he may read the first Eight of my Christian Meditations V. Wherefore that we may discover the Foundation and Original of our Duties it is not sufficient to consider the infinitely perfect Being without the relation it bears to us On the contrary we must above all things take notice that we depend on the Power of God that we are united to his Wisdom and that we have no Motion but from his Spirit from the Love which he bears to himself We depend on the Power of God for we have our Existence from that alone we act by that alone and can do nothing but by that We are united to the Wisdom of God for by that alone we are enlightned in that alone we discover Truth we are rational only by that for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Beings Lastly we have no Motion but from the Spirit of God for as God acts only by his own Will or by the Love which he bears to himself so all the Love which we have for Good is only an Effusion or Impression of that Love with which God loves himself We love nothing invincibly and naturally but God because we love and can love nothing but Good and Good I mean the cause of Happiness is no where but in God for no Creature can of it self Act on spiritual Substances I must explain these things more at large in order to deduce from them the Rules of our Conduct I begin with Power and the Duties we owe to it VI. Glory and Honour belong only to God 1 Tim. 1.17 All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him alone for in him alone Power resides All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual He alone who gives them their Beings can give them the Modes of their Beings for the different Modes of Beings are nothing but the same Beings in such and such particular Fashions or Dispositions nothing is more evident to one that can sedately and silently consult the inward Truth For what can be plainer than that if God for instance will keep any Body always in one place no Creature can remove it into another and that Man cannot so much as move his Arm but only because God is pleass'd to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth himself It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Beings If God creates or continues a Soul in the Modification of Pain no other Spirit can deliver it from that Pain nor make it feel Pleasure except God gives his Assent I am the Lord that is my Name 〈◊〉 Glory will not give to another Isa 42.8 and co-operates with it in the accomplishment of its desires By this extraordinary Concession and Liberality it is that God without losing any thing of his Power without diminishing his Greatness or lessening his Glory imparts to the Creatures his Glory Greatness and Power VII God hath subjected this present World to the Angels it is they that act and God that doth every thing He hath given to Jesus Christ as Head of the Church a Sovereign Power over all the Nations of the Earth Christ distributes the true Goods but it is God alone who sends them it is he alone that acts in our Souls and penetrates the hardness of our Hearts Christ as he is Man prays intercedes desires and performs the Office of Advocate Mediator and High-Priest But it is God alone that operates he only hath power he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things and ought to be the sole end All the Motions of our Souls should tend towards him and to him alone belong Glory and Honour This is that eternal necessary and inviolable Law which God hath establish'd by the necessity of his own Being by the love which he necessarily bears to himself a Love which is always conformable to Order and makes Order to be the inviolable Law of all spiritual Beings When God ceases to know himself to be what he is and to love himself as much as he deserves to act according to his own Light and by the Motion of his own Love when he ceases to observe this Law then it will be lawful for us to desire Glory our selves or give it to any other beside God then we may without fear delight in and make much of the Friendship of the Creatures we may love and be belov'd give and receive Worship and Adoration we may then shew our selves to the World to attract the Esteem and Love of the World we may exalt and expose our selves to View as Objects fit to employ those Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself we may then employ our selves either about our selves or the imaginary Power of the Creatures VIII There is nothing certainly more agreeable both to Christianity and Reason than this Principle That it is God alone who doth every thing and that he communicates his Power to the Creatures no otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by in such a manner as bears the Character of an infinite Wisdom an immutable Nature and an universal Cause in such a manner that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves is refer'd to the Creator alone when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them execute such Designs as were form'd before their Creation What is more holy than this Principle which clearly shews to such as are capable of rightly understanding it that in many Cases it is lawful for us to approach the Objects of our Senses by the Motion of our Body but that we must reserve all the Motions of our Soul for God alone For we may nay and many times ought to move toward the occasional Cause of our Sensations but we must never leave it We may join our selves to other Men but we must never adore them with the Motion of our Love either as our Good or as capable of procuring us any Good We must love and fear only the true Cause of Good and Evil We must love and fear
Good his Love can be no other but Love of himself His end is himself and can be nothing but himself Therefore he doth not produce in spiritual Beings a Love which hath a different tendency from his own for the love of Good in spiritual Beings proceeds only from the Will of God which is nothing else but the Love he bears to himself But further there are not Two or more true Goods there is but one alone for there is but one true Cause Therefore there is nothing amiable I mean with a love of Union but God So then since God cannot will that we should Love that which is not amiable or not Love that which is amiable supposing that we are capable of Loving our Love proceeding from God must necessarily according to the primitive institution of its Nature tend toward him and be refer'd to him alone III. God having created our Souls with a design to make them happy continually imprints on them a Love for Good and as he acts only for himself and Good neither is nor can be in any but in him this natural Love of Good doth of it self carry them toward God alone For this Love is like that which God bears to himself It is also invincible and irresistible because it is a powerful and continual Impression of the divine Love and it is the same thing with our Will for it is only by the particular determinations of this Love that we are capable of loving all Objects that have the appearance of Good IV. From hence it is plain that we cannot love Evil and that we have no Motion ordain'd for that end Notwithstanding we may mistake Evil for Good and so we may love Evil by loving Good we may love Evil out of choice by loving Good naturally we may love Evil or rather that which is neither Good nor Evil by a horrid abuse of that love for Good which God continually imprints on us to make us Love him as being our only Good or alone capable of making us happy For we must take particular notice that the Creatures tho' they are all Perfect or Good in themselves are neither Good nor Evil in respect of us because they have not really the power to do us either Good or Harm As they are occasional causes of Good or Evil of Pleasure or Pain we may unite our selves to them or separate our selves from them by the motion of our Body But we cannot reasonably Love or Fear them because every Motion which doth not tend toward God the beginning and end of it is irregular and if it be free and voluntary deserves to be Punish'd V. It is also evident that we cannot hate Good for since we invincibly desire to be happy we cannot separate our selves from that which makes us so but we may mistake Good for Evil and so hate Good from the hatred we have for Evil. And even this hatred is at the bottom a motion of Love We fly from Evil only by the motion of the Love we have for Good For God having created us to be happy by loving him hath given us no motion to separate us from him but only to unite us to him The wicked or the damn'd hate God with an invincible and irreconcilable Hatred but this proceeds from the very Love which God hath given them for himself For since God is not their Good but their Evil or the cause of their Punishment according to the Psalmist Psal 18.26 With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure and with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward they hate him by that irresistible Motion which God who is immutable in his proceeding gives then for their Happiness VI. For the right understanding of this it is sufficient to observe that actual Pleasure is the formal cause of actual Happiness as Pain is of Misery Now the Damn'd feel Pain the harden'd Sinner fears it The Damn'd know that God alone is the cause of Pain the Sinner believes he is Therefore both of them from the very desire they have to be Happy must of necessity make a wrong use of that Motion which God gives them to unite them to himself and must separate themselves from him for the more they are united to God the more God acts on them the more sensible they are of their Misery The Blessed on the contrary for a like reason cannot cease to love God And those that have access to God those that expect to find their Happiness in him Sinners who by Faith in Christ have hope of returning and finding favour with God may by the invincible desire of Happiness love and fear God This is our condition in this Life VII Now that the natural Love which God continually imprints on us may still continue Love and not be turn'd into Hatred that the love of Happiness may make us Happy that it may carry us toward God and unite us to him instead of separating us from him In a word that God may be or continue Good in respect of us and not become Evil our Love must always be conformable to or resembling the divine Love we must love Perfection as well as Happiness we must remain united to the wisdom of God as well as to his Power For God when he created Man gave him in the love of Good and by the impression of the Love which he bears to himself as it were two sorts of Love one of Happiness and the other of Perfection By the love of Happiness he united him to his Power which alone can make him Happy and by the love of Perfection he united him to his Wisdom by which alone as his inviolable Law he ought to be govern'd God if I may so say is divinely inspir'd with both these Loves They are inseparable in him and they cannot be separated in us without destroying us utterly For the power of God is Wise and Just His Wisdom is all Powerful and he that thinks to retain the love of his Happiness without the love of his Perfection without the love of Wisdom Justice and the immutable Order that love of Happiness will only serve to make him eternally Miserable God by his Power will not be the Good of Men but their Evil if by his Wisdom he is not their Law or the principle of their inward Reformation For Happiness is a Reward It is not enough to desire the enjoyment of it but we must also deserve it And we cannot deserve it if we do not govern the motions of our Heart by the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings and regulate them according to the Model by which Man was first form'd and by which he must be form'd anew In a word the love of Conformity which relates to the immutable Order or the Wisdom of God must always be joyn'd with the love of Union which relates to his Power that so our Love being like the divine Love may carry us to all the Happiness and all the Perfection that
A TREATISE OF Morality In Two Parts Written in French by F. MALBRANCH AUTHOR of The Search after Truth And Translated into English By JAMES SHIPTON M. A. LONDON Printed for Iames Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. THE Author's LETTER TO MONSIEUR **** SIR I Have sent you the Treatise of Morality which you desire of me with so much importunity It is divided into two Parts In the First I have examin'd wherein Vertue doth precisely consist and laid down the means of acquiring and preserving it The Second contains the Duties of it I know not what Censure you will pass on this Book you Sir who are so nice a Judge for I confess to you that there are many things in it which I have not explain'd with that exactness which you require of Authors But I desire you to consider two Things The First is that having no clear Idea of the Soul you understand what I mean the greatest part of the Terms of Morality can express only its Sensations The Second is that Books ought to be proportion'd as far as it is possible to the Capacity of the generality of Mankind and that if I had been too nice and scrupulous in explaining the signification of the Terms which I make use of I should have extremely tir'd the Attentions of my Readers for People are soon weary of reading a Book that doth not raise agreable Sensations in their Mind Perhaps I may think it necessary hereafter to add some Illustrations which may clear those Difficulties which the common Phrase of Speech cannot remove The success that this Treatise meets with will determine my Resolution in that Point I am c. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART CHAP. I. VNiversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Sin and Error God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct Page 1. CHAP. II. There is no other Vertue but the Love of Order and Reason Without this Love all Vertues are false We must not confound Duties with Vertue We may discharge our Duties without Vertue 'T is for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs Faith serves or conducts to Reason For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Beings p. 12. CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power or to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to persoâ—â—â— Merit as our Duties to relative Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God So that Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order p. 21. CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The method us'd in the explication of these means p. 23. CHAP. V. Of the Strength of the Mind Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquir'd Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses Imagination and Passions to Regulate our Studies and to Meditate only on clear Ideas p. 40. CHAP. VI. Of the Liberty of the Mind We should suspend our Assent as much as we can which is the great Rule By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin as by the Strength of the Mind we free our selves from Ignorance The Liberty of the Mind as well as the Strength of it is a Habit which is confirm'd by use Some instances of its Vsefulness in Physicks Morality and Civil Life p. 51. CHAP. VII Of Obedience to Order The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it It cannot be done without Grace How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it by the Light it produces in us by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination p. 61. CHAP. VIII The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace we must call upon him with confidence When we come to the Sacraments the actual Love of Order is chang'd into habitual in consequence of the permanent desires of Christ The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners The fear of Hell is as good a Motive as the desire of eternal Happiness We must not confound the Motive with the End The desire of being Happy or Self-love should make us conformable to Order or obedient to the Law of God p. 71. CHAP. IX The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son and why We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints but not as occasional causes of inward Grace The Angels and even the Devils have power over Bodies as occasional causes By this means the Devils may tempt us and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace p. 83. CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise p. 91. CHAP. XI What kind of death we must die to see God to be united to Reason and to deliver our selves from Concupiscence It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism and alive in Christ by his Resurrection Of the Mortification of the Senses and the use we should make of it We should
unite our selves to corporeal Objects and separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible p. 99. CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves p. 109. CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART Of Duties CHAP. I. GOod Men often do wicked Actions The Love of Order must be enlightned to make it regular Three Conditions requir'd to make an Action perfectly Vertuous We should study the Duties of Man in general and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular Page 1. CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments p. 4. CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason p. 14. CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that for Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Misery That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties p. 21. CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30. CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous p. 36. CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general Rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter p. 42. CHAP. VIII Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect We should procure all Men the true Goods and not relative Goods Who it is that fulfills the Duties of Benevolence The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportion'd to the greatness of participated Power p. 52. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects p. 61. CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife The Ground of these Duties Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality Parents should give their Children a good Example They should govern them by Reason They have no right to use them ill Children owe Obedience to their Parents in all Things p. 69. CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours p. 81. CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep p. 90. CHAP. XIII A Continuatian of the same Subject If we would be belov'd we must make our selves amiable The Qualities which make a Man amiable Rules for Conversation Of different Airs Of Christian Friendships p. 100. CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness p. 110. A TREATISE OF Morality PART I. CHAP. I. Vniversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct I. THE Reason of Man is the Word See the first and second Christian Meditation or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas Search after Truth Tom. 3. or the Wisdom of God himself for every Creature is a particular Being but the Reason of Man is Universal II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Beings for I am certain that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Beings No one can feel my Pain but my self but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Beings III. Thus by the means of Reason I have or may have some Society with God and all other intelligent Beings because they all possess something in common with me to wit Reason IV. This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word from which all Spiritual Beings may receive their Nourishment In
discover it self sensibly as Concupiscence doth we cannot be assur'd of the state we are in Therefore we ought always to distrust our selves without desponding and to Labour even till Death to destroy Self-love and Concupiscence which continually renews it self and to fortify the love of Order which is weakned or destroy'd when we cease to keep a watch over our selves XVIII For the right understanding of what follows we must observe that the acts of Love are of two sorts natural or purely voluntary Acts and free Acts. All Pleasure infallibly produces in the Soul the natural motion of Love or makes us love the Object which causes or seems to cause that Pleasure with a natural necessary or purely voluntary Love But every Pleasure doth not produce a free Love for free Love is not always conformable to the natural Love This Love doth not depend upon Pleasure alone but upon Reason upon Liberty upon the Power which the Soul hath to resist any Motion that presses it It is the consent of the Will which makes the essential difference of this species of Love Now these two different acts of Love produce two different Habits The natural Love begets in the Soul a disposition toward natural Love And the love of Choice leaves in it a Habit of that Love For when a Man hath consented several times to the love of any Good he hath an inclination or facility to consent to it again XIX We must know then that every disposition of Love whether natural or free corrupts the Soul and renders it odious to God if the object of it be a Creature but if it be applied to the Creator it makes the Soul righteous and acceptable to God Provided nevertheless that the disposition of natural Love be alone in the Heart for if there be two Habits of Love of different kinds in the Heart God doth not regard the natural Love but only that which is free XX. For Example an Infant at his first coming into the World is a Sinner and deserves the wrath of God because God loves Order and the Heart of that Infant is irregular or turn'd toward the Body by an habitual disposition of a natural necessary or merely voluntary Love †See l. 2. c. 1. of the Search after Truth and the Notes upon that Chap. which he derives from his Parents without any consent on his part Adam at the first instant of his Creation was Just because his Heart was dispos'd to love God tho' he had not as yet acquir'd a habit of consenting to that Love So that a natural disposition or habit when it is alone corrupts or justifies the Soul For when there is but one habitual Love in the Heart if that love be Good there is nothing in it but what is amiable in the Eyes of him who loves Order and the contrary if that Love be evil But when there are two habits of Love of different kinds God hath no regard but to that which is free It is probable that the Just have a much greater facility and natural disposition to love the Goods of the Body than the true and real ones The Pleasures of Sense being almost continually before them and the preventing delight of Grace much more rare they are more strongly disposs'd by this sort of Habit which is a natural consequence of Pleasure to love sensible Objects than the true Good This is evident by what happens to them in Sleep or when they are not upon their Guard but act without Reflection For then they most commonly follow the motions of Concupiscence But these irregularities do not corrupt them because the Habit of Vertue is not chang'd for those acts which are not free cannot change free Habits but only the Habits of the same kind From what hath been said it is plain that the love of Order which justifies us in the sight of God must be an habitual free and ruling Love of the immutable Order And therefore where I speak of the love of Order in the sequel of this Discourse I generally understand by it this kind of habitual Love and not an actual not an habitual natural Love not a love which is not predominant nor any other motion or disposition of the Soul CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The methodus'd in the explication of these means I. THat I may give a clear explication of the means of acquiring or preserving the ruling Love of the immutable Order I shall lay down two fundamental Truths belonging to the first Part of this Treatise First that Vertues are generally acquir'd and fortified by Acts. Secondly that when we act we do not always produce the acts of the ruling Vertue What I say of Vertue must be also understood of all Habits good or bad and even of the Passions which are natural to us II. Every one is sufficiently convinc'd by his own Experience that those Habits which have a relation to the Body are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. Thus it is universally agreed that by the acts of Dancing Playing on an Instrument or speaking a Language those Habits may be acquir'd Most People are persuaded that Men get a Habit of Drunkenness by drinking much that the company of Women makes a Man soft and effeminate and that those who converse with Souldiers become generally Stout or Brutish But there are few who seriously consider that the Soul it self by its own Acts gets such Habits as it cannot easily get rid of A Mathematician is apt to imagine that it is in his own power not to love the Mathematicks and to give over the Study of them An ambitious Man foolishly persuades himself that he is not a slave to his Passion And every one believes that tho' he be in a miserable subjection to some vitious Habit he is able whenever he pleases to break the Chains that hold him in Captivity It is upon this Principle that Men still delay their Conversion for seeing there is nothing more requir'd to Conversion than to despise those Enjoyments which they own to be vain and contemptible and to love God who certainly alone deserves to be lov'd every one persuades himself that he hath and always shall have Reason and Strength enough to form and put in Execution a Design so just and reasonable III. Besides as the Will is never forc'd we imagine that whatsoever we will we will just so only because we will We do not consider that the acts of the Will are produc'd in us in consequence of our inward Dispositions which Dispositions being
the search of Truth what the Liberty of the Mind is to the Possession of the same Truth or at least to Infallibility or exemption from Error For by the use we make of the Strength of our Mind we discover Truth and by using the Liberty of our Mind we avoid Error The Strength and Capacity of the Mind being deficient Liberty was necessary for it that by suspending its Assent it might avoid Error and that the Author of its Being might not also be the Author of its Disorders For the Liberty of the Mind makes amends for its Weakness and Limitation and he that hath so much Liberty as to be always able to suspend his Assent tho' he cannot deliver himself from Ignorance a necessary Imperfection of all finite Spirits may yet avoid Error and Sin which render a Man contemptible and make him liable to Punishment IV. It is certain that if we always made use of our Liberty as far as we are able we should never assent but to Evidence which alone doth never deceive as I have prov'd elsewhere and which also obliges the Will to give its Assent For when the Mind sees clearly it cannot doubt that it sees when it hath examin'd every thing that there is to examine in order to the discovery of those Relations or Truths which it searches after it is necessary that it should rest there and give over its Enquiries In the same manner as to Sin he that loves nothing but what he evidently knows to be the true Good nothing but what he cannot help loving is not irregular in his Love He loves nothing but God for there is nothing else which we cannot without Remorse hinder our selves from loving There is nothing but God which we clearly and evidently know to be really Good to be the true Cause of Happiness a Being infinitely Perfect an Object capable of contenting the Soul which being made for the enjoyment of all Good may suspend its Assent of loving that which doth not contain every thing that is Good V. Strength and Liberty of Mind then are two Vertues which we may call General or to use the common Term Cardinal Vertues For since we ought never to Love any thing not do any Action without good Consideration we must make use of the Strength and Liberty of our Mind every moment These Vertues according to my Notion of them are not natural Faculties common to all Men There is nothing more rare nor is there any Man who possesses them perfectly I know well enough that Man is naturally capable of some Labour of Mind but that doth not make him have a strong Mind He can also suspend his Assent but his Mind is not therefore naturally free in such a manner as I mean The Strength and Liberty of Mind of which I speak are Vertues which are gotten by use But because these Vertues add Perfection to the Soul and restore it in some measure to its original State for before Sin the Mind was every way strong and free Men do not generally look upon them as Vertues For they imagine that Vertue instead of correcting and repairing Nature ought to change or destroy it Nay there are some People who think that Strength and Liberty of Mind are Faculties of the Soul subsisting in a kind of individual and judging of others by themselves they imagine that it is impossible to be attentive to those Subjects which frighten and discourage them and that it is Obstinacy not to Assent to Probabilities by which they are deceiv'd VI. But the Strength and Liberty of the Mind are unequal in all Men. There are no two Persons equally fit to retire into themselves nor equally capable of suspending their Assent Nay the same Person doth not long preserve the Strength and Liberty of his Mind in the same Condition If they do not encrease by Use and Exercise they must necessarily decrease for there are no Vertues more oppos'd by and more contrary to the continual Motions of Concupiscence Most Vertues agree well enough with Self-love for we may often perform a great many Duties with Pleasure and by a motive of Self-love But we cannot meditate long without Pain and much less suspend our Assent or the Judgment which determines the Motions of the Soul and Body When any Good discovers it self to the Soul and attracts it by its Charms it is not at ease if it remains unmov'd for there is no harder Labour than to keep our selves firm and steady in a Current when-ever we cease to act we are carried away with the Stream VII Thus we see there is scarce any Man that applies himself to Meditation and that those who undertake the search of Truth often want Strength and Courage to bring them to the place of its Habitation tir'd and dishearten'd they strive to content themselves with what they already possess or perhaps comfort themselves with a ridiculous contempt of what they cannot attain to or a cowardly and mean spirited Despair If they are deceiv'd they turn Deceivers if they are tir'd themselves they infect others with Sloth and Idleness and but to see them is enough to make one like themselves discourag'd with Labour and out of relish with Truth For such is the Nature of Men that they had much rather deceive one another than consult their common Master they are so credulous in respect of their Friends and so unbelieving or so little attentive to the Answers of the Truth within them that Opinion and Party are the general Rule of their Thoughts and Actions VIII In order to gain some Liberty of Mind and to accustom our selves to suspend our Assent we must continually reflect on the prejudices or pre-occupations of our Minds and the cause of them We fancy we comprehend things very well when we cease to admire them and their familiarity ridding us of all apprehension our Mind readily gives its assent because it hath no interest to with-hold it It signifies nothing to suspend our Assent if we have no design to examine for what matter is it if we do fall into Error But it is great and agreeable to judge of every Thing Now we cannot examine without Pain at least we must spend some time in Examination which the Soul created to be happy thinks lost when it is not kept in motion by Pleasure Vanity or Interest Hence it is that the ordinary Language is nothing but perpetual Jargon For every Man thinks he understands very well what he says himself or hears another say when he hath said it or heard it said a great many times over They are only new Terms which cause uneasiness and awaken the Attention and these new Terms tho' never so clear and free from equivocal Significations are always suspected because every one is capable of Suspicion and Apprehension but there are few People capable of Attention sufficient to discover Truth and free themselves from Apprehension I could fill whole Volumes with Examples of expressions which are
gain this fix'd and ruling Disposition of governing all the motions of our Heart and all the actions of our Lives by the known Order What we are to do for this end is evident from that which hath been said in the fourth Chapter Habits are form'd by Acts We must therefore frequently make firm and constant resolutions of obeying Order and sacrificing every thing to it For by often repeating these actual Resolutions and pursuing them at least in part we may by degrees gain some kind of habitual Disposition This is easy enough to be conceiv'd but it is by no means easy to be practis'd For which way can we frame this heroick Resolution of sacrificing even our predominant Passion to the divine Law Certainly it is not possible to be done without the assistance of Grace A Man without Grace may kill himself he may desire to return again into Nothing But Nothing is not so terrible as that disconsolate condition of living without that which we love Nothing is a middle state between Happiness and Misery So that we may wish not to be when we are miserable and desperate in our Misery But we cannot wish to be miserable because the desire of Happiness is invincible and irresistible And therefore without a firm Faith and the hope of enjoying a Happiness more solid than that which we part with Self-love tho' never so much enlightned cannot beget in us a bare resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion This is without Dispute III. Now that this Faith and Hope are the Gifts of God 〈◊〉 be prov'd by several Reasons the chief of which I take to be this That it is naturally impossible for a Man who is continually distracted by Objects which please his Senses and excite his Passions to have so much command over himself as to examine the Truths of Religion with that attention and perseverance which is necessary to be fully convinc'd of them and submit to them unless God by a particular favour make him find some delight in this kind of application Nevertheless since we may make Nature subservient to Grace a great many ways we should out of a Principle of Self-love enlightned endeavour to retire into our selves to confirm our Faith and encrease our Hope But these Truths require a fuller explication IV. Every Man invincibly desires to be Happy but with a solid and durable Happiness No Man would be deceiv'd especially in a matter of so great consequence as eternal Salvation And therefore every Man who hath already gain'd some force and liberty of Mind or indeed every Man who is not so much a Slave to Sin and so much in subjection to actual Pleasure that he cannot make any reflection on the way which leads ' to Life should and may satisfy himself once for all whether his Being is immortal or not whether there be a jealous and inexorable God whether Order is an inviolable Law and whether every Action conformable or contrary to that Law shall be infallibly rewarded or punish'd Self-love enlightned and the desire of being substantially happy is without doubt a sufficient Grace to incline us to make some examination of the Truths of Religion We may deprive our selves for a moment of a slight Pleasure to look after the enjoyment of a solid and durable one For nothing is more reasonable and more agreeable to Self-love enlightned than to be willing to cease from being actually happy for some time that we may be solidly happy to all eternity V. It is not in a Man 's own choice to have the Gospel preach'd to him It doth not depend on his own election to happen into a Conversation or to light of a Book which may convince and convert him by means of the favourable circumstances of Grace and of his present Condition But it is or hath been in his own power to preserve some strength and liberty of Mind and not suffer his Imagination to be corrupted to that degree as to render Grace when it is given him ineffectual and to make him in a manner insensible of the tast of true Good and spiritual Delight through the abundance the sprightliness and force of sensible Pleasures which disturb and captivate him For as I have already said it is by the means of this spiritual Delight that the Truths of Religion make a lively impression on the Mind Without this we read the Scripture like the Jews with a Vail over our Eyes The Preacher speaks to the Ears Miracles and Prodigies astonish the Senses but God doth not speak to the Heart It is Attention that is the natural cause of Light But most commonly as soon as Pleasure ceases the Attention also fails at least that kind of favourable Attention which renders the Light agreeable and lovely and prepares the Soul for a tendency toward Good because Pleasure is the natural Characteristick of Good and the Soul invincibly desires to be always happy VI. Nevertheless as we desire to be solidly happy we may in some measure sacrifice false Pleasures tho' present to solid Pleasures tho' future Nay we may seek the latter rather than the former when the actual hope and the actual appearance of Good are in a reciprocal proportion to each other Experience teaches us these Truths for we often quit a slight Pleasure when we hope to enjoy one more solid But because we invincibly desire to be happy and to be actually happy we cannot long resist the actual and continual allurement of sensible Pleasures how great Strength and Liberty of Mind soever we have acquir'd We cannot be willing to put off our Happiness till after Death which the Imagination looks upon as a true annihilation the Imagination I say which without Grace is always the Mistress of Reason the Governess of the Passions and the inward Principle of all the violent Motions which shake the Soul Thus it is evident that on the one side he that commits Sin and doth not labour to maintain the Strength and Liberty of his Mind deserves Punishment and on the other that neither the most enlightned Law nor the clearest Philosophy can impart to the Soul corrupted and weaken'd by original Sin sufficient soundness and strength to walk in the way which leads to Happiness This St. Paul shews all through his Epistle to the Romans VII It is necessary then that Man who is capable of Reason and Happiness should make use of all the Strength and Liberty of Mind that is left him to inform himself of those things that may encrease his Faith and strengthen his Hope which may put him in the way to Happiness and without which as I have shewn it is not possible for him so much as to form a Resolution of Sacrificing his predominant Passion But what must we Sacrifice our predominant Passion to be happy This is a Contradiction at least it is very harsh and terrible It is so but that is when our Passion appears drest in all its Charms we must therefore strip it
the Passion which hath once reign'd in us for the Wounds which the Brain hath receiv'd from the Action of Objects and the Motion of the Spirits are not easily cur'd the animal Spirits flowing naturally to those parts of the Brain which are most open or lie most ready to receive them it is impossible to heal the Wounds of the Imagination but by continually turning the Course of the Spirits which renews them as it is impossible for a Wound in the Body to close up if you thrust the Sword which made it every moment into it or any thing which renews and enflames it XIII But the Spirits do not only of themselves and as it were fortuitously flow into the Wounds which the Brain hath receiv'd from the Action of sensible Objects they are determin'd also to pass thither continually by the Pleasure which the Soul receives from thence and especially by the admirable Construction of the Machine which goes on in its Motion without expecting the Orders of the Will and many times by reason of Sin contrary to them So that whenever we cease to resist and divert the Course of the Spirits the Passions renew and encrease their Strength Now the only way to make a Diversion and Revulsion in the Spirits is to set before our Minds those Objects and employ our selves in those Thoughts to which different courses of the animal Spirits are joyn'd by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body For the Course of the Spirits doth not depend immediately on our Will but only because the Thoughts which determine the Motion of the Spirits depend on it as I have shewn in the Fifth Chapter It is impossible then to deliver our selves from our Passions if we do not carefully avoid the Objects which excite them and employ our Minds in such Thoughts as are proper to make them ridiculous and contemptible But I shall treat of this more particularly hereafter XIV To make Men reflect yet farther on the Truths which I have here set down I think my self oblig'd to add this in particular That neither the Prayer of Invocation nor good Works no nor the Grace of Jesus Christ doth heal the Wounds which the Brain receives from the violent and irregular Motion which the Passions excite in the animal Spirits No the most sublime Grace of Christ that of Baptism that which the Soul receives in the Holy Communion when it comes to it with the most sanctified Dispositions do not cure this kind of Distempers without a Miracle It is true indeed that the Grace of Justification gives us a Right to those Succours which are necessary to resist the actual Assault of the Passions but it doth not deliver us from their Attacks it doth not close the Wounds which the Brain hath receiv'd from the Action of sensible Objects God doth not work Miracles on our Body when he justifies us he still leaves us all our Weaknesses Baptism doth not free us from our Concupiscence and the new Christian who is tormented with the Gout or disquieted with any Passion doth not find himself cur'd of those troublesome Distempers he only receives the assistance necessary to make him bear patiently the Pain which afflicts him and uneasily tho bravely the Caresses of the Passion which Courts and Flatters him XV. The same thing almost may be said of Prayer and good Works they obtain of God the Succours necessary for the Fight but they do not deliver us from our Miseries unless it be that continual fighting and resisting naturally makes the Spirits take another Course and then the Wounds close up and heal of themselves for to cure the Wounds of the Brain as well as those of the other parts of the Body it is sufficient that there be nothing to hinder the separated parts from reuniting XVI Now the Reason why Grace doth not deliver us from our Passions nor Baptism from the continual Assaults of our Concupiscence is because the power of the Grace of Christ appears much more by the continual Victories which the Just obtain over their Domestick Enemies the Merit of the Saints by this means becomes more pure and illustrious and since Glory is proportion'd to Merit the holy City the eternal Temple the great work of Christ receives innumerable Beauties which it would not have if our Passions did not give us continual Assaults St. Paul was just but yet he found in his Flesh a Law opposite to that of the Spirit by which he was animated He often besought Christ that he would deliver him from that which he calls A Thorn in the Flesh But Christ answers him 2 Cor. 12. v. 8 9. My Grace is sufficient for thee for it is in Weakness that my Power appears and that Vertue purifies it self Therefore St. Paul gloried in Infirmities in Persecutions in Reproaches that the Power of Christ as he saith might rest upon him XVII Let us not wonder therefore if the Sacraments leave the Body in the same condition in which they found it and strengthen only the inward Man of which we have no perfect Knowledge nor let us despair because we see our selves still insulted and ill-us'd by sinful Passions if we always continue stedfast in our Faith contented with our Hope and thereby unshaken in our Resolution of Sacrificing all Things to God But if we would as indeed we ought for we ought always to avoid Dangers if we would I say deliver our selves from those troublesome Motions which the Passions excite in us we must absolutely make use of that Remedy which I have prescrib'd and fill our Minds with such Thoughts as may make a Diversion and Revulsion in the animal Spirits and render the Passions ridiculous and contemptible there is no other way But those who either upon Philosophical grounds or by motives of Self-love enlightned condemn the Passions as Criminal must not presently imagine that they are just in the sight of God nor too hastily esteem themselves above their Brethren We must as much as we can make Nature subservient to Grace but we must still remember that Nature doth not justify and that Grace many times operates in Mens Minds and converts them and yet they perceive no alteration in them CHAP. VIII The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace we must call upon him with confidence When we come to the Sacraments the actual Love of Order is chang'd in 〈◊〉 habitual in consequence of the permanent desires of â—rist The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners The fear of Hell is as good a motive as the desires of eternal Happiness We must not confound the Motive with the End The desire of being Happy or Self-love should make us conformable to Order or obedient to the Law of God I. WE cannot obtain nor preserve Vertue or the Love of Order but by actual resolutions of Sacrificing every Thing to it because
addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
Bodies and by their means in the Souls wihch are united to them certain effects which may promote the efficacy of Grace and keep Men from those Stumbling-blocks which the Devils continually lay in their way For as the Psalmist saith Psal 91.11 12. He hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways They shall bear thee up in their Hands lest thou dash thy Foot against a Stone XIII So then we may pray to the Angels and desire their protection against that roaring Lion who as St. Peter saith walketh about seeking whom he may devour Eph. 6.12 Or to use St. Paul's words Against those Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World those Princes of the World full of Darkness and Error against spiritual Wickedness in high places those evil Spirits which are scatter'd through the Air For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood only But we must not look upon the Angels as distributive Causes of Grace nor give them that Worship which is due to Christ alone Col. 2.18 19. Be not deceiv'd saith St. Paul by those who in a voluntary Humility pay a superstitious Worship to Angels who meddle with those things which they do not understand being dazled by the vain Imaginations of their fleshly Mind and not keeping themselves united to the Head from which the whole body of the Church receives the Spirit which gives it Growth and Life v. 15. even to Jesus Christ who having spoil'd Principalities and Powers which he had vanquish'd by his Cross made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise I. IN the Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters I have spoken at large of the occasional Cause of Light and in the two last I have endeavoured to shew what is the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense and what we must do to obtain it And therefore seeing there is nothing beside Light and Sense which determines the Will or the tendency which the Soul hath toward Good in general all that now remains in relation to the Means of acquiring or preserving the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order is to explain the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body or the occasional Causes of all those lively and confus'd Sensations and those indeliberate Motions which unite us to our Body and by that to all the Objects which are about us For to make us love Order and to acquire Vertue it is not sufficient to obtain the Grace of Sense which alone can stir the Soul and put it in Motion toward the true Good but we must also manage our selves so that this Grace may work in our Hearts with its full Efficacy For this end we must carefully avoid the occasional Causes of those Sensations and Motions which resist the Operation of Grace and sometimes render it altogether ineffectual This is the most general Principle of all that I shall say in the First Part of this Discourse II. The Soul of Man hath two essential and natural Relations one to God the true Cause of all that passes within him the other to his Body the occasional Cause of all those Thoughts which relate to sensible Objects When God speaks to the Soul it is to unite it to himself when the Body speaks to it it is only for the Body to unite the Soul to sensible Good God speaks to the Soul to enlighten and render it perfect the Body only to darken and corrupt it in favour of it self God by the Light conducts the Soul to its Happiness the Body by Pleasure involves the whole Man in its ruin and throws him headlong into Misery In a word tho' it is God that doth every thing and tho' the Body cannot act upon the Soul no more than the Soul can upon the Body but as an occasional Cause in consequence of the Laws of their Union and for the Punishment of Sin which without medling with those Laws hath chang'd the Union into a Dependence yet we may say that it is the Body which darkens the Mind and corrupts the Heart for the Relation which the Soul hath to the Body is the Cause of all our Errors and Disorders III. Notwithstanding we should be throughly convinc'd of this and never forget it that the Soul can have no immediate Relation but to God alone and that it cannot be united directly to any thing but to him for the Soul cannot be united to the Body but as it is united to God himself It is certain for very many Reasons that if I feel for instance the pain of a Scratch it is God that acts in me tho' in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body for those Laws derive their force from the Operation of the Divine Will which alone is capable of acting in me But the Body by it self cannot be united to the Soul nor the Soul to the Body They have no Relation to one another nor any one Creature to another I speak of Relations of Causality such are those which depend on the Union of the Soul and Body It is God that doth every thing his Will is the Union of all Unions the Modifications of Substances depend on him alone who gives and preserves their Being This is an essential Truth which I think I have sufficiently prov'd in another place IV. But tho' the Soul cannot be united immediately to any Thing but God yet it may be united to the Creatures by the Will of God who communicates his Power to them in making them occasional Causes for the production of certain Effects My Soul is united to my Body because on one side my Will is made the occasional Cause of some changes which God alone produces on it and in the other because the changes which happen in my Body are made occasional Causes of some of those which happen in my Soul V. Now God hath establish'd these Laws for many Reasons which are unknown to us But of those which we do know one is that God in following them acts in a uniform and constant manner by general Laws by the most simple and wisest ways in a word he Acts in such a manner as admirably bears the Character of his Attributes Another Reason is because the Body of Man is his proper Sacrifice for it seems to Sacrifice it self by Pain and to be Annihilated by Death The Soul is in a State of Probation in the Body and God who desires in some measure to be merited and to proportion Rewards to Merits doth by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and
For the fuller the Brain is of Spirits the more rebellious the Imagination is the Passions are the more violent the Body speaks in a higher Tone which never speaks but in favour of the Body to unite and subject the Soul to the Body and to separate it from him who alone is able to give it that perfection it is capable of We should therefore endeavour to silence our own Imagination and be upon our guard against those that please and excite it We should as much as is possible avoid the Conversation of the World For when the Lust either of Pride or Pleasure is actually provok'd Grace cannot operate in us with its full efficacy XXII Man is subject to Two sorts of Concupiscence one of Pleasure and the other of Grandeur This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of When a Man enjoys sensual Pleasures his Imagination is polluted and carnal Concupiscence exerts and fortifies it self In like manner when he goes abroad into the World and seeks to advance himself in it when he procures Friends and gains Reputation the Idea which he hath of himself stretches and grows larger in his Imagination and the concupiscence of Pride gains new and greater Strength There are some impressions in the Brain naturally form'd for maintaining civil Society and advancing a Man 's private Fortune as there are others relating to the preservation of his Life and the propagation of his Species We are united to other Men by a thousand Relations as really as we are to our own Body and every union with the Creatures disunites us from God in the State we are now in because the impressions of the Brain are not subject to our Wills XXIII All Men are well enough convinc'd of the pravity of carnal Concupiscence they have some fear and abhorrence of it and in some measure avoid every thing that may provoke it But there are very few that seriously reflect on the concupiscence of Pride or apprehend the danger of raising and augmenting it Every one rashly throws himself into the Conversation of the World and embarks without fear on that tempestuous Sea as S. Augustine calls it We suffer our selves to be govern'd by the Spirit that reigns in the World we aspire to Greatness and pursue Honour For indeed how is it possible to remain unmov'd in the mid'st of that Torrent of People that surrounds us who insult and domineer over us if they leave us behind them In fine we get a Name but it is such a Name as makes a Man the more a Slave the more Pains he hath taken to deserve it a Name which straitly unites us to the Creatures and separates us from the Creator a Name illustrious in the esteem of Men but a Name of Pride which God will destroy CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. I. THE Senses Imagination and Passions go always in company together We cannot examine and condemn them apart That which I have said of the Senses and Imagination naturally reaches the Passions also So that the Reader may easily judge what I am going to say by what I have already said For I shall only explain a little more at large what I have been already oblig'd to say in part by reason of the close union that is between all the parts of our Being II. By the Passions I do not mean the Senses which produce them nor the Imagination which excites and keeps them up But I mean those notions of the Soul and animal Spirits which are caus'd by the Senses and Imagination and act reciprocally on the cause which produc'd them For all this is nothing but a continual circulation of Sensations and Motions which mutually produce and fortify one another If the Senses produce the Passions the Passions in return by the Motion which they excite in the Body unite the Senses to sensible Objects If the Imagination stirs up the Passions the Passions by a Counter-motion of the Spirits raise the Imagination and each of them is reciprocally supported or produc'd anew by the effect of which it is the Cause so admirable is the oeconomy of Man's Body and the mutual Relation of all the parts which compose it But this matter deserves a fuller Explication in respect of the Consequences which we should draw from it III. The Passions are Motions of the Soul which accompany that of the Spirits and the Blood and produce in the Body by the mechanical Frame and Constitution of it all the dispositions necessary to support and keep up the Cause from whence they arise At the sight of any Object which moves the Soul we will suppose that Object to be some Good the animal Spirits which come from the Brain to the other parts of the Body divide themselves into two Branches or Courses One of these Courses runs or hath a tendency to run to the external parts the Legs and Arms or if they are unserviceable then to the Lungs and Organs of the Voice in order to dispose us and those that are with us to unite us to the Object The other part of the Spirits goes into the Nerves belonging to the Heart Lungs Liver and other Viscera to proportion the Fermentation and Course of the Blood and Humours to the quality of the present Good By this means the Impression which the presence of any Good or the Imagination forms in the Brain and which determines the two Courses of the Spirits is preserv'd and maintain'd by new Spirits with which the latter Course endeavours to supply the Brain by the repeated and violent Shocks wherewith it shakes the Nerves that encompass the Vessels containing the Humours and Blood the Matter of which the Spirits are continually made IV. The Nerves which are distributed into the Limbs being full of Spirits from their origine in the Brain even to their extremities and the Impression of the Object forcibly driving the Spirits into all the parts of the Body to give them a violent and extraordinary Motion or put them into a forc'd Position the Blood must of necessity ascend up to the Head speedily and in great abundance by the Action of the Nerves which surround and compress or dilate the Vessels wherein it is contain'd For if the Brain did not send a sufficient quantity of Spirits into the Members of the Body we could not long preserve the Air Posture and Motion necessary for the acquisition of Good and the avoidance of Evil. Nay we should fall into Swounings and Faintings for this constantly happens when the Brain wants Spirits and when the Communication which it hath by their means with the other parts of the Body is interrupted V. Thus the Body is an admirable Machine compos'd of an infinite number of Pipes and Cisterns which have all innumerable communications with one another The wonderful operation of this Machine depends wholly on the Course of the Spirits which is differently determin'd by the
none but God in the Creatures Jer. 17.7 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his Arm. IX This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy than that which the Heathens have left us In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was that she makes this Prayer to God and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart Deliver us O Lord with thine hand Esther 14.14 c. and help me that am desolate and which have no other helper but thee Thou knowest all things O Lord thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised and of all the Heathen Thou knowest my necessity for I abhor the sign of my high Estate which is upon mine Head in the days whereon I shew my self and that I wear it not when I am private by my self And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present but in thee O Lord God of Abraham This great Queen takes God to witness That she had no joy but in him alone Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures yet she despises her Greatness and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul Thine Hand-maid never had any joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham What constancy of Mind what greatness of Soul This is it which the Law of God teaches us and this also is demonstrated by that Principle that God alone doth every thing and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendor which seems to environ them and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them But the Duties we owe to Power which is in none but God require a more particular Explication X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgments and Motions of the Soul as I said before For God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind This clear Perception That God alone hath Power obliges us to form the following Judgments 1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being 2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being or of our Time 3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge 4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will 5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations Pleasure Pain Hunger Thirst c. 6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body 7. That neither Men nor Angels nor Devils nor any other Creature can of themselves do us either good or harm That they may nevertheless as Occasional Causes determine God in consequence of certain general Laws to do us good or harm by means of the Body to which we are united 8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength but only oblige God by our practical Desires in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body to do good or harm to other Men For we indeed have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them XI These Judgments require of us the following Motions 1. To love none but God with a Love of Vnion or Conjunction because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness either small or great transitory or durable I say with a Love of Vnion for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good or the Cause of our Happiness but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us The word Love is equivocal and therefore we must take care of it 2. To have no joy but in God alone for he that rejoyces in any other thing judges that that other thing can make him happy which is a false Judgment and can cause only an irregular Motion 3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws to promote Iniquity 4. Not to unite our selves to them without a particular necessity for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve besides the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body fortify Concupiscence disturb the Mind and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance 5. To fear none but God because he alone can Punish us We must fear God in this life to keep us from offending him The happy day will come which excluding Sin shall also banish Fear 6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable He that grieves at the loss of a false Good gives Honour to it and considers it as a true Good And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy afflicts himself in vain Self-love enlightned is griev'd only for its own Disorders and Charity for those of others 7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable yet we must not hate him tho' we may fear him Only he that is harden'd in Sin hates God out of Self-love for being sensible that he will not obey God or knowing as the damn'd do that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with he hath no means of access or return to God the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery 8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery We may separate our selves from them But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God 9. We should will nothing but what God wills because we can do nothing but what God doth If we have not the Power to act it is plain that we should not have the Will to act Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power not only in God but
also in the Creatures Order or the Law of God is common to all spiritual Beings The Power of God is common to all Causes Therefore we cannot dispense with our Obedience to that Law because we cannot act but by the efficacy of that Power 10. We may nevertheless desire to be happy nay we cannot desire to be miserable But we must neither desire nor do any thing to make us happy but what Order allows of We shall never find Happiness if we seek it by the Power of God contrary to his Law It is an abuse of Power to use it against the Will of him that communicates it The voluptuous Man who desires to be happy in this World shall be so perhaps in part in consequence of the Laws of Nature But he shall be eternally miserable in the other in consequence of the immutable Order of Justice or by the necessity of the divine Law which requires that every abuse of divine Things should be eternally punish'd by the divine Power For we should take good notice that nothing is more holy more sacred and more divine than Power And he that attributes it to himself he that makes it subservient to his Pleasures his Pride or his own particular Desires commits a Crime the enormity of which God alone knows and can punish 11. It is an abominable piece of Injustice in any Man to be proud of his Nobility Dignity Quality Learning Riches or any other thing He that glorieth 2 Cor. 10.17 let him glory in the Lord and refer all things to him for there is no Greatness nor Power but in God A Man may set some value on himself and prefer himself before his Horse He may and ought to esteem other Men and all the Creatures God hath really imparted to them his Being But to speak properly and exactly he hath not imparted to them his Power and Glory God doth every thing that we think we do our selves He alone deserves all the Honour which is given to his Creatures He alone deserves all the motions of our Souls So that he who would be belov'd honour'd and fear'd by other Men would put himself in the place of the Almighty and share with him the Duties which belong to Power 12. In like manner he that fears loves and honours the Creatures as real Powers commits a kind of Idolatry and his Crime becomes very hainous when his fear or love runs to that excess that they rule in his Heart above the fear and love of God When he is less dispos'd to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures by a disposition acquir'd by his own choice or by free and voluntary Acts he is an abomination in the sight of God 13. All the time that we lose or do not employ for God who is the sole cause of the duration of our Being is a Robbery or rather a kind of Sacrilege For since God acts for his own Glory and not for our Pleasure we do then as much as in us lies render his Action unserviceable to his Designs 14. In general every Gift that God bestows on us which we render useless in relation to his Glory is a Robbery and God by the necessity of his Law will call us to an account for it 15. Lastly the Power by which God Creates us and all our Faculties every Moment gives him an unquestionable Right over all that we are and over all that belongs to us which certainly belongs to us no otherwise than that we may return it to God with all possible fidelity and thankfulness and by the Gifts of God merit the possession of God himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and Head who takes us out of our prophane state to sanctify us and make us fit to honour God worthy to enter as his adopted Children into the communion of good Things with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit to all eternity CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason I. HAving discover'd the principal Duties which we owe to the Power of God we must next examine those which we owe to his Wisdom which tho' less known are no less due Every Creature depends essentially on the Creator Every spiritual Being is also essentially united to Reason No Creature can act by its own Strength And no spiritual Being can be illuminated by its own Light For all our clear Ideas come from the universal Reason in which they are contain'd as all our Strength proceeds wholly from the efficacy of the general cause which alone hath Power He that fancies himself to be his own Light and his own Reason is no less deceiv'd than he that thinks he really possesses Power And he that gives thanks to his Benefactor for the Fruits of the Earth which serve only to Feed the Body is very ungrateful very proud or at least very stupid if he refuse to acknowledge himself indebted to God for the true and solid Goods the knowledge of Truth which is the Food of the Soul II. The Soul of Man hath two essential Relations It is united to the universal Reason and by that it hath or may have a correspondence with all intelligent Beings even with God himself It is united to a Body and by that it hath or may have a communication with all sensible Objects The Power of God is the sole efficacious Principle or the bond of these two Unions But impotent and stupid Man imagines that it is by the efficacy of his own Will that he is Wise and Powerful that he unites himself to the intellectual World whose Relations he contemplates and to the visible World whose Beauties he admires III. It is God alone who in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body causes in Man all those bodily Motions which carry him to or remove him from sensible Objects But the occasional cause of these Motions being only the different desires of his Will he attributes to himself the Power of doing that which God alone operates in him nay the very endeavour which accompanies his Desires that painful endeavour which is a certain mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless and ineffectual an endeavour which God puts into him to beat down his Pride and make him deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades him that he hath Strength and Efficacy He feels within himself a Will to move his Arm but doth not see nor feel the divine Operation in him and therefore the more exact and punctual God is in answering his Desires the more disingenuous Man is in not acknowledging the favour and goodness of God IV. In like manner it is God alone who in consequence of the natural Laws of the
intelligent Being to another 3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions in consequence of our own Desires or Attention But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form the Idea and the immediate Object of them The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth It may by the action of God upon it be sensible of its own Pain Pleasure Perception and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable but it cannot engross to it self the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Beings For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational Wise Just and compleatly Perfect 4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them 5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors 6. When we retire into our selves it is not we that answer our selves but the inward Master which dwells in us which presides immediately over all spiritual Beings and gives them all the same answers XI Mat. 23.8 See S Augustincts Treathe De Mâ—gistro All those may be reduc'd to that general proposition of our Saviours that we have but one Master even Christ himself who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light when we retire into our selves and solidly instructs us by Faith when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited XII From this great Principle the following Duties are deriv'd 1. Not to value our selves on our Knowledge but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it 2. To retire into our Selves as much as we can and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men. 3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason and the infallible Authority of the Church 4. Whenever Men speak to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears with that which Reason answers to our Mind never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact and that too with a kind of saving and reservation 5. Never to speak to them at least not with an air of Confidence before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence 6. To speak to them always as Monitors not as Masters to question them often and in different manners and to lead them insensibly to our common Master the universal Reason by obliging them to retire into themselves There is no way to instruct them but this 7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake nor even to propose Truth to others when the Company they are in Passion or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand that they will not retire into themselves to hear the decision of the impartial Judge 8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it and useful to our selves either to conduct us to Good or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind 9. To lay up carefully in our Memory as far as it is possible to be done none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences none but necessary Truths or the precious answer of the inward Truth 10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact especially those that have no certain Rules to be judg'd by such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind and often corrupt the Heart 11. Our inviolable Law is Order not Custom which is many times opposite to Order and Reason To follow Example without confronting it with Order is to act like Brutes and by Mechanism only Nay it is better tho' that be bad enough to make our own Pleasure our Law than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear 12. We should set no value on Subtilty Beauty or even Strength of Imagination nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World An over-nice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination and whenever the Body speaks it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded 13. To confirm us in this dis-esteem we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies We should very seldom regard Mens outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World 14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God and wanders among the Creatures A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty 15. We should ardently love Truth Wisdom or the universal Reason We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it Wis 7.9 All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention My delights were with thâ— Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 We should place our whole Delight in consulting it in hearing its Answers and obeying its Commands as that delights to converse with us and to be always among us CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that to be Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Miseries That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties I. WE depend on the power of God and do nothing but by his Efficacy We are united to his Wisdom and know nothing but by his Light But this is not all we are also animated and inspir'd by his Love in such a manner that we are not capable of loving any Good but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself This is what I must now explain in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself He cannot Will but by his own Will and his Will is not like ours an impression proceeding from and tending toward something else As he is his own
we are capable of VIII For we must observe that in the condition we are now in our Happiness and our Perfection often clash and we cannot avoid engaging on one side or the other either we must Sacrifice our Perfection to our Happiness or our Happiness to our Perfection the Love of Order to our Pleasure or our Pleasure to the Love of Order Now when we Sacrifice our Happiness to our Perfection or our Pleasure to the Love of Order we Merit for then we obey the Divine Law though we suffer by it and thereby we give Honour to the Wisdom of God or the universal Reason we leave that to God which depends wholly on him our Happiness and by that Submission we give Honour to his Power For Obedience to the Divine Law is partly in our own Power but the enjoyment of Happiness no way depends on us Therefore we should give up our Happiness to the disposal of God and to apply our selves wholly to our Perfection giving this honour also to God to believe him on his Word to rely on his Justice and Goodness and to live contented by Faith in the Strength of our Hope according to those words of the Scripture Heb. 10.38 Justus 〈…〉 Virg Lat. The just shall live by Faith God is certainly just and faithfull he will give us all the Happiness we deserve our Patience shall not be Fruitless But how great soever our Desire be and our Application in the Search of our Happiness yet this will not move God to give us the Enjoyment of it without we deserve it This excessive Desire will perhaps one day render us unworthy of it according to those admirable Words of our Saviour himself Mat. 16 24. If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whoever will save his †Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then shall he reward every Man according to his Works IX Now this contrariety which we find at present between our Happiness and our Perfection proceeds from the Union of the Soul and Body which is chang'd into a Dependance as a Punishment of Sin For the involuntary Motions of the Fibres of the principal part of the Brain are the occasional Causes of our pleasant or painful Sensations and consequently of our Happiness or Misery The Body to which we are join'd hath not the same Interests with Reason It hath its particular Wants to be supplied it makes its Demands with boldness and insolence and treats the Soul roughly if it refuses to grant them Whereas Reason uses only Threatnings and Reproaches which are not so lively and pressing as actual Pleasure and Pain We must therefore bravely resolve to be miserable in this Life that we may retain our Perfection and Integrity we must Sacrifice our Body or rather our actual Happiness that we may remain inseparably united to Reason and obedient to the Divine Law being contented with a foretaste of the true Enjoyments and having a firm hope that that Divine Law that Reason which was made Flesh sacrificed and glorified in our Nature or our Nature in that will certainly restore to us all that we have lost for our Obedience to it X. This clear perception that our Will or the natural and necessary Motion of our Love is only a continual Impression of the Love of God who unites us to his Power to make us conformable to his Wisdom or obedient to his Law obliges us to form these Judgments 1. That every Motion of Love which doth not tend toward God is prejudicial and leads to Evil or makes the Cause of our Good to be the Cause of our Evil. 2. That every Motion of Love not conformable to the immutable Order which is the inviolable Law both of the Creatures and of the Creatour himself is irregular and since God is Just that Motion obliges him to become our Evil or the Cause of our Misery 3. That we cannot unite our selves to God as our Good if we do not conform our selves to him as our Law The Converse of this is also true we cannot conform our selves to the Law of God and by that conformity become Perfect but we must also unite our selves to his Power and by that Union be made Happy XI This Truth may be also express'd thus according to the Analogy of Faith We have no way of access to God no society with him no share in his Happiness but by the universal Reason the eternal Wisdom the divine Word who was made Flesh because Man was become Carnal by his Flesh was made a Sacrifice because Man was become a Sinner and by the offering up of his Sacrifice was made a Mediatour because Man being corrupted and no longer able to consult or obey Reason purely intellectual it could not be the Bond of the Society between God and Him But yet we must take particular notice That Reason by becoming incarnate did not at all change its Nature nor lose any thing of its Power It is immutable and necessarily exists it is the only inviolable Law of spiritual Beings and hath the sole Right to command them Faith is not contrary to Truth it leads us to Truth and by it establishes ur Society with God for ever We must conform our selves to the Word made Flesh because the intellectual Word the Word without Flesh is a Form too abstracted too sublime and too pure to fashion or new-mould gross Spirits and corrupt Hearts Spirits that can take hold of nothing but what hath a Body and are disgusted at every thing that doth not touch and sensibly affect them Every High Priest is ordain'd to offer Gifts and Sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that the Man have somewhat also to offer Heb. 8.3 The Word was made a Sacrifice because without a Sacrifice he had nothing to offer he could not be a Priest nor give Sinners any Communion with God without an Atonement and an Oblation We must be conformable to him in this Circumstance also for besides that it is we who are the Criminals we are also a part of the Sacrifice which must be purified consecrated and offer'd up before it can be glorified and consummated in God to all Eternity But the life of Christ is our Pattern only because it was conformable to Order our indispensable Pattern and our inviolable Law We must follow Christ even to the Cross because Order requires that this Body of Sin should be destroy'd for the Honour of Reason and the Glory of him from whom it separates us Order requires that by voluntary Pain of which the Body is the occasion we should deserve
the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
Father out of too much Indulgence to his Children who are debauch'd or prone to debauchery furnishes them with Mony he is the cause of their disorders and wrongs the Poor who stand in need of his assistance As he that gives a Sword to a mad Man or a Man transported with Passion is really the cause of the Murder that ensues The Prodigal robs the Poor and by his indiscreet Liberalities kills the Souls of his riotous Companions And he that gives a drunken Servant the liberty to drink as much as he pleases doth him a kindness which is forbidden by the Laws of Charity and Benevolence In a Word he that gives any power to impotent Minds which can neither consult nor follow Reason is the cause of their destruction and of all the Mischiefs which spring from the abuse of Power IV. These are undeniable Truths and the reason of them is plain Mony for instance is not properly a Good because we cannot truly possess or enjoy it for spiritual Subitances cannot possess Bodies It is such a Good as cannot be communicated without division and therefore the love of Benevolence should distribute it in such a manner that it may be useful and become a Good or rather a proper means of acquiring Good to those who receive it For otherwise there is a double breach of our Duty toward our Neighbour We hurt those to whom we give it and we injure all those who by the Laws of Charity have a just title to it to whom we do not give it V. But Pain and Disgrace which in themselves are real Evils become good in many cases and the love of Benevolence which we owe to all Men obliges us to inflict them on those that deserve it over whom we have authority to reclaim them from their disorders by the fear of Punishment She is a cruel Mother that will not suffer a gangren'd Arm of her Child to be cut off But she is much more cruel that suffers his Mind and Heart to be corrupted by Ease and Pleasure He that sees his Friend ruin'd by underhand Intrigues and takes no notice of it or for his own advantage enters into a correspondence in prejudice of the Friendship he hath vow'd is a perfidious Friend and not fit for humane Society But he is much more perfidious who for fear of grieving and displeasing us suffers us to fall into Hell or by gratifying our Passions joyns with the only Enemies we have to blind and destroy us VI. Who then is he that can render to his Neighbour the Duties of Charity or Benevolence Certainly he that knows the vanity of transitory Enjoyments and the solidity of the future Goods the stability of the heavenly Jerusalem built on that immoveable Rock the well beloved Son of the Almighty He that compares Time with Eternity and following the great principle of Christian Morality measures the Duties of Civil Friendship and Society by the Rules of that Society which is joyn'd here upon Earth by Grace and cemented for ever in Heaven by the perpetual communion of a Good which shall be given whole and entire to all and entire to every one of us He in fine that continually meditates on that divine Society which we ought to have with the Father by the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit the mutual love of the Father and the Son and the Fountain of that happy Love which shall for ever unite us to God He and he alone is capable of paying to his Neighbour the Duties of Benevolence All other Men are destitute of Charity and are so far from loving us with the love which is due to us and is contain'd in the Second great Commandment of the Christian Law that they do not so much as know their essential Obligations toward us The Corespondence they have with us their Friendship their Society will rather be the fatal cause of our Misery than the happy foundation of our Joy and Tranquility VII Let People say what they will that we ought to separate the Laws of civil Society from those of Christian Charity to me they seem inseparable in the practical part The Citizen of my earthly City is already by Grace a Citizen of the holy City the Subject of my Prince is a Domestick of the House of God Now ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners Eph. 2.19 saith S. Paul but Fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and are built upon the Foundarion of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone in whom all the Building fitly fram'd together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. Shall I then engage in the designs of a Friend who seeks to advance his Fortunes here upon Earth and hazards the possession which he hath in Heaven Shall I by my Counsels and Friends favour his Ambition and advance one who wants that constancy and resolution that are necessary for subordinate Governments to a station which all wise and understanding Men are afraid of A Friend trembles for his Friend when he beholds him in the midst of dangers A Mother is frighted when she sees her Child clambring up a steep Place And shall not I be in fear for a Relation for a dear Friend in Christ whom I see environ'd on all sides with dreadful precipices and yet still climbing higher to a place that makes the strongest Heads giddy VIII The present Life should be consider'd with relation to that which is to follow and shall be follow'd by no other The Society which we now form is no otherwise durable than as it is the beginning of that which shall never have an end It is for this second Society that the First is ordain'd It is to merit Heaven that we live upon Earth I repeat this Truth often because it is necessary that we should be throughly convinc'd of it We should engrave it deeply on our Memory We should incessantly revolve it in our Mind for fear lest the continual action of sensible Objects should blot out the remembrance of it If we are fully convinc'd of this Truth if we make it the Rule of our Judgments and desires we shall not be concern'd at the want of those things which we shall not much esteem We shall not then take such measures as tend only to make us happy upon Earth and before the time of recompence but such as lead us whither we ought to direct our aim to that perfection which makes us acceptable in the sight of God and worthy to enter into an eternal Society with him through Christ our Lord. IX But because Men have but a weak and abstracted Idea of the greatness of future Goods they seldom think on them and when they do they are not affected with them for only sensible Ideas shake the Soul only the presence of Good and Evil touches and puts it in Motion On the contrary the Imagination and Senses being continually and forcibly struck by the Objects which are
naturally Habits are got and maintain'd by Acts But we cannot frame a resolution of Sacrificing our predominant Passion without a lively Faith and a firm Hope especially when this Passion appears with all its Charms and Allurements And therefore since it is Light and Understanding which illuminates Faith strengthens Hope and discovers to the Mind the ridiculousness and deformity of the Passions we should continually meditate on the true Goods and seek and carefully lay up in our Memory the Motives which may induce us to love them and to despise transient Enjoyments and that with so much the greater diligence because the Light is subject to our Wills and if we live in Darkness it is most commonly our own fault I think I have sufficiently prov'd these Truths II. But when our Faith is not lively nor our Hope strong enough to make us resolve to Sacrifice a Passion which hath got such a Dominion over our Heart that it corrupts our Mind every Moment and draws it to its Party the only thing we ought to do and perhaps the only thing we can do in this Case is to seek for that in the fear of Hell and the just Indignation of an avenging God which we cannot find in the hope of an eternal Happiness and in the Motion which that Fear excites in us to pray to the Saviour of Sinners that he would encrease our Faith and Confidence in him not ceasing in the mean time to meditate on the Truths of Religion and Morality and on the Vanity of transitory Enjoyments for without this we cannot be sensible of our Miseries nor call upon our Deliverer Now when we find in our selves stâ—â—ngth enough to form an actual resolution of Sacrificing our Passions to the Love of Order then tho' according to the Principles which I have laid down in the foregoing Chapters we may through the assistance of Grace by repeating the like Acts absolutely acquire Charity or the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order yet it is better without delay to come to the Sacraments and in that actual Motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in us to wash away our Sins by Penance This is undoubtedly the most compendious and certain way to change the Act into a Habit the Act I say which is transient and doth not work Conversion into a Habit which remains and which justifies For God doth not Judge us according to that which is actual and transitory but according to habitual and permanent Dispositions and by the Sacraments of the New Testament we receive justifying Charity which gives us a Right to the true Goods and the assistances necessary for the obtaining of them These Truths I shall here explain either by certain Principles or by Evidence or by Faith III. I think I have shewn in several places and by several ways That God always executes his Designs by general Laws the Efficacy of which is determin'd by the action of occasional Causes I have prov'd this Truth by the Effects of those second Causes which are known to us and I think I have demonstrated it from the Idea of God himself because his Action ought to bear the Character of his Attributes And therefore I refer the Reader for this Matter to my other Writings But if Reason could not lead us to this Truth yet the Holy Scripture would not suffer us to doubt of it in relation to the Subject which I now treat of For the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ as Man is not only the meritorious but also the distributive or occasional Cause of all Graces that by his Sacrifice of himself he hath gain'd a Right over all the Nations of the World to make use of them as Materials in building the Spiritual Temple of the Church of which the stately Temple of Solomon was but a Shadow and a Figure and that now and ever since the day of his Ascension he makes use of that Right and raises that eternal Temple to the glory of his Father by the Power which he receiv'd from him in the day of his Victories when he was made High Priest of the true Goods after the irrevocable Order of Melchisedech Eph. 4.15 16. Christ is the Head of the Church he continually infuses into the Members of which it is compos'd 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Tâ—m 2.5 Eph. 5.23 Heb. 7.25 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Joh. 13.5 the Spirit which gives it Life and Holiness He is the Advocate the Mediator the Saviour of Sinners He is in the Holy of Holies always Living to make intercession for us and all his Prayers and Desires are heard In a word he himself tells us That all Power was given to him in Heaven and in Earth Now he did not receive this Power as God equal to the Father but as Man like unto us and God communicates his Power to the Creatures no farther than as he executes their Wills and by them his own Designs for God alone is the true Cause of every thing that is done both in Nature and Grace Thus it is certain from the Scripture that Jesus Christ as Man is the occasional cavse which determines the efficacy of that general Law whereby God would Save all Men in and by his Son IV. It is necessary that we should be well convinc'd of this Truth which is essential to Religion by reading the New Testament and particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews And having as I think sufficiently prov'd it in my Treatise of Nature and Grace and in my Christian Meditations I shall not insist any longer upon it I write for Philosophers but they are Christian Philosophers such as receive the Scripture and the infallible Tradition of the Universal Church and I endeavour to explain the Truths of Faith by clear and unequivocal Terms This makes me say that Jesus Christ as Man and High Priest of the true Goods is the occasional cause of Grace I might have call'd him the natural instrumental second distributive Cause or have made use of some other more common Term But the commonest Terms are not always the clearest Tho' People fancy they understand them perfectly yet commonly they scarce know what they say when they use them and if they would take the pains to examine these which I have mention'd they would find that the Term of natural Cause raises a false Idea that that of instrumental is obscure that of second so general that it gives no distinct Idea to the Mind and that of distributive at least equivocal and confus'd Whereas this which I have made use of the occasional cause of Grace hath I think none of these defects at least as to those Persons for whom alone I writ the Treatise of Nature and Grace tho' many others have taken upon them to judge of it who scarce understand the Principles which I have there laid down For this Term denotes precisely that God who doth every thing as the true cause which I think I have prov'd in several places imparts his
Grace only by Jesus Christ the Sacrifice once offer'd on the Cross and now glorified and consummated in God the High Priest of good Things to come the Head of the Church and the Architect of the eternal Temple It clearly denotes that the general Law of the Order of Grace is that God would Save all Men in and by his Son A Truth which S. Paul repeats upon all occasions as being the Foundation of the Religion which we profess It may be I have not light on the proper Word to express clearly that which Faith teaches us concerning Jesus Christ But let not any one therefore be offended with me I am willing to be Taught and shall never contend with Heat and Obstinacy for Terms When any one will give me better I will make use of them But I think that the clearest are the best For we should consider that Words are design'd only to express our Thoughts So that those Words which clearly express false Conceptions are in themselves preferable to those which express the most solid Thoughts confusedly Especially when Men make use of them as I do with a design to explain and prove clearly those Truths which Philosophers themselves do not very well comprehend V. But I desire that the World would do me that Justice or have so much Charity for me as to believe that my introducing some Ideas which I make use of in this Treatise proceeds neither from a resentment against any Persons nor from a desire of justifying my own Notions or ways of Expression I believe that those who have not done me Justice had no design to injure me and that if they judg'd a little too hastily of my Opinion from Terms which they do not understand it was their love to Religion which prompted them to it A Love which cannot be too great and which is hard to be kept within Bounds when it is so fervent as I know it to be in some of my Adversaries The Reader will pardon this short Digression I return to my Subject VI. God never acts without Reason and there are but two general Reasons which determine him to act Order which is his inviolable Law and those general Laws which he hath establish'd and which he constantly observes that so his Actions may bear the Character of his Attributes Therefore seeing that nothing happens in the Creatures which God doth not do and that as to Sinners the immutable order of Justice doth not require that God should do any good to them the Sinner cannot obtain any Good much less Grace without having recourse to the occasional cause which determines the true cause to communicate it to Men. So that there is a kind of necessity that we should know distinctly and precisely what is that occasional cause that so we may make our applications to it with confidence and obtain those assistances without which as I have shew'd it is not possible so much as to form a resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion to the Law of God VII When a sick Man is in fear of Death and is fully satisfied that there is but one certain Fruit which can restore him to his Health again his Fear is sufficient to make him use some endeavours to get that Fruit. The first Man was immortal only because he knew that the Fruit of the Tree of Life could preserve vigour and give Immortality and that it was in his power to Eat of it So when we are in fear of Hell and know distinctly that Christ is the Tree of Life whose Fruit gives Immortality or to speak clearly and unequivocally to Philosophers when we know that Christ is the occasional cause of Grace the actual fear of eternal Death is sufficient to make us call upon him and pray that he would with relation to us form such desires as may determine God the true cause to deliver us from our Miseries VIII I say once again for we cannot imprint this Truth too deeply in our Minds that Jesus Christ as Man is alone the occasional cause of Grace and it is more certain that his desires procure for us the Spirit which quickens us than it is that to Morrow the Sun will diffuse its Light or the Fire its Heat and Motion The Fire hath sometimes respected the Bodies of Martyrs the Sun is often eclips'd and every Night leaves us in Darkness But Christ never pray'd in vain For if before he had compleated his Sacrifice by which he merited the Glory he now possesses speaking to his Father Joh. 11.42 he said of himself I knew that thou hearest me always Certainly now that he is entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies and is ordain'd a High Priest of true Goods it would be a very great infidelity to want confidence in him But it may be objected that the Fire communicates its Heat by the necessity of natural Laws and that we cannot come near it without feeling its action whereas on the contrary it depends on the Will of Christ whether he will Pray for those which call upon him This difference is true But what Shall we doubt of the goodness of Christ Can we forget that he bears the Character of the Saviour of Sinners Shall we distrust the promises which he hath made us in so many places of his Gospel Heb. 4.14 15 5 9. Let us remember that we have in him a High Priest who hath experienc'd our Miseries and sympathizes with our Infirmities That he desires nothing so much as to finish his great Work the eternal Temple of which we should be living Stones Luk. 15.7 and that as he saith himself there is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth And in those Thoughts let us approach with Confidence the Throne of his Grace the true Mercy-seat Let us ask and we shall receive Let us seek and we shall find let us knock and we shall at last have leave to enter Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be Sav'd Joel 2.32 The Scripture teaches us these Truths IX So then supposing that a Man fears the terrible Judgments of the living God believes in Christ and calls upon him as his Saviour and that in fine he hath receiv'd from him sufficient Strength to form that noble resolution of renouncing his predominant Passion That which he ought to do in this case is to come without delay and throw himself at the Feet of the Priest that by the Sacrament of Penance he may receive absolution of his Sins and justifying Charity which Sinners receive by this Sacrament when they come to it in the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires tho' he doth not yet dwell in them X. To prove the Truth of what I here assert I say that Christ after his Resurrection appear'd to his Apostles and said to them Peace be unto you Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and