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A51685 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.; Traité de morale. English Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715.; Shipton, James, M.A. 1699 (1699) Wing M319; ESTC R10000 190,929 258

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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
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
zealous Friends who Sacrifice their Kindred their Life and their eternal Salvation to the Passions of their Friends VI. We must not then confound Vertue with Duties by reason of a similitude of Names it is this that deceives Men. There are some who imagine they follow Vertue when they follow only a natural Inclination they have to perform some certain Duties and because they are not guided by Reason they are in truth Vicious in excess when they fancy themselves to be Heros in Vertue But the greatest part of Mankind being deceiv'd by this confusion of Terms and the splendour of Names rely upon and value themselves without Reason and often judge ill of the most Vertuous Persons because it is impossible that good Men should follow the Rules of Order any long time without failing according to outward appearance in some essential Duty For in short to be Prudent Good-natur'd and Charitable in the Eyes of the World a Man must sometimes commend Vice or at least hold his Tongue when he hears it commended To be esteem'd Liberal he must be Prodigal If he be not Rash he shall hardly be accounted Valiant and if he be not Superstitious or Credulous let his Piety be never so great he may perhaps pass for a Libertine in the Opinion of others VII It is certain that Universal Reason is always the same Order is immutable and yet Morality changes according to Places and Times It is a Vertue among the Germans to drink hard and a Man can have no conversation with them if he be not drunk It is not Reason but Wine that unites their Societies settles their Agreements and makes their Bargains 'T is reckon'd Bravery in a Gentleman to shed the Blood of him that gives him the Lie Duelling was for a long time a lawful Action amongst the French and as if Reason was not worthy to determine their Differences they decided them by Force They prefer'd the Law of Brutes or Chance before the Law of God himself Nor must we imagine that this Custom was in use only amongst the Men of the Sword it was in a manner general and if the Clergy did not fight themselves out of respect to their Character they had their Champions who represented them and maintain'd their Quarrel by shedding the Blood of their Adversaries Nay they imagin'd that God approv'd this manner of proceeding and whether their Differences were decided by the Sword or by Lot they did not doubt but that God sat as Judge in the Cause and gave it in favour of him that had Right on his side And indeed if we suppose God to act by particular wills where is the Impiety of believing either that he favours Injustice or that his Providence doth not extend to all things VIII But without going to seek for damnable Customs in the past Ages let any one by the Light of Reason judge of those that are at present kept up among us or let him only observe the Conduct of those very Persons who are appointed for Guides to others Without doubt we shall often find that every one of them hath his particular Morality his own private Religion and his favourite Vertue that one talks of nothing but Penance and Mortification another esteems only the Duties of Charity and a third cries up nothing but Meditation and Prayer From whence can this diversity proceed if the Reason of Man be always the same From hence no doubt that they leave off consulting Reason and suffer themselves to be guided by Imagination its Enemy in stead of observing the immutable Order as their inviolable and natural Law they frame to themselves Ideas of Vertue conformable at least in some things to their own Inclinations For there are some Vertues or rather Duties which have a relation to our Tempers or Humours there are shining and glittering Vertues proper for fierce and lofty Souls low and humble Vertues which are fit for timorous and fearful Minds and soft and effeminate Vertues if I may so call them which suit very well with Laziness and Inactivity IX It is true they agree that Order is the inviolable Law of Spiritual Beings and that nothing is regular if it be not conformable to it But they maintain a little too stifly that they are not capable of consulting this Law and tho' it be graven upon the Heart of Man so that he need only retire into himself to be instructed in it they think like the gross and carnal Jews that it is as hard to discover it as to climb up into Heaven or go down into Hell as the Scripture speaks X. I must confess that the immutable Order is not easie to be found it dwells within us but we are always roving abroad Our Senses unite our Soul to all the parts of our Body our Imagination and Passions extend it to all the Objects which surround us and often carry it into a World that hath no more reality than imaginary Spaces this is undeniably so But then we should endeavour to silence our Senses Imagination and Passions and not fancy that we can be reasonable without consulting Reason But this Order by which we ought to be govern'd is a Form too abstracted to serve as a Model for grosser Spirits I grant it Let us then give it a Body let us make it sensible let us cloath it in several Dresses to render it agreeable to carnal Men let us if I may so speak incarnate it yet so as it may be always known again Let us accustom Men to distinguish true Vertue from Vice from seeming Vertues and from simple Duties which a Man may often perform without Vertue and not set before them Phantoms or Idols which attract their Admiration and Respect by the sensible Splendour and Pomp that surrounds them For in short if we are not guided by Reason if we are not animated by the Love of Order how exact soever we may be in the performance of our Duties we can never be solidly Vertuous XI But say they Reason is corrupted it is liable to Error it must submit to Faith Philosophy is but a Servant we ought to distrust the Light which that affords All equivocal Terms Man is not his own Light Religion is the true Philosophy It is not I confess the Philosophy of the Heathens nor that of those great Talkers who speak to others before Truth has spoke to them Reason is immutable incorruptible infallible and ought always to govern God himself follows it In a word we ought never to shut our Eyes against the Light but we should accustom our selves to distingush it from Darkness or false Glares from confus'd Sensations from sensible Idea's which appear bright and shining Lights to those who are not accustom'd to distinguish Truth from Probability Evidence from Instinct and Reason from its Enemy Imagination Certainly Understanding is preferable to Faith for Faith will have an end but Understanding will remain for ever Faith is indeed a very great good but it
by the motion of his Body The Love which we bear to Persons of Worth and Merit is a love of Benevolence for we love them even when they are not in a condition to do us any good We Love them because they have more Perfection and Vertue than other Men. So that the power to do us Good or that kind of perfection which relates to our Happiness in one Word Goodness excites in us a love of Vnion and all other perfections a love of Benevolence Now God only is Good He alone hath the Power of acting on us He doth not really communicate that Perfection to his Creatures but only makes them occasional Causes for the producing of some Effects For true and real Power is Incommunicable Therefore all our love of Union ought to tend toward God IX We may for Instance bring our Body to the Fire because Fire is the occasional cause of Heat which is necessary for it But we cannot love it with a love of Vnion without offending against Order because the Fire is so far from having any power over that part of us which is capable of Loving that it hath no Power at all The same may be said of all other Creatures even Angels and Devils we ought to love none of them with a Love of Union with that Love which is an Honour given to Power for all of them being absolutely impotent we should by no means love them When I speak of loving I mean also fearing and hating them I mean that the Soul should remain unmov'd in their Presence The Body by a local Motion may come near the Fire or avoid the Fall of a House but the Soul must fear and love nothing but God at least it must love none but him with a love of Freedom Choice and Reason For since the Union of the Soul and Body is chang'd into a dependance it is hardly in our power to hinder sensible Goods from exciting in us some love for them The motions of the Soul naturally answer those of the Body and the Object which makes us fly from it or attracts us to it almost always begets in us Aversion or Love X. But the Case is not the same with the Love of Benevolence as with the Love of Union God is infinitely more amiable with this sort of Love than all his Creatures together But as he hath really communicated to them some Perfection as they are capable of Happiness they really deserve our Love and Esteem Order it self requires that we should esteem and love them according to the measure of Perfection which they enjoy or rather according to that which we know to be in them For to esteem and love them exactly in proportion to their being amiable is utterly impossible because many times their Perfections are unknown to us and we can never know exactly the proportions that are between Perfections for we cannot express them either by Numbers or incommensurable Lines Nevertheless Faith takes away a great many difficulties in this matter For since a finite Being by the relation it hath to infinity acquires an infinite Value it is evident that we ought to love those Creatures which have or may have a great relation to God infinitely more than those which do not bear his Image or which have no immediate union with or relation to him It is plain that all other things being equal one righteous Man one member of Jesus Christ deserves more of this kind of Love than a thousand wicked Men and that God who judges truly and exactly of the Value of his Creatures prefers one of his adopted Children before all the Nations of the Earth XI It is certain that our Duties ought to be regulated by the Love of Esteem or Benevolence but yet we must not imagine that we always owe more Duties to righteous Men than to Sinners to the Faithful than to Hereticks or even Heathens themselves For we must observe that there are Perfections of several sorts some Personal or Absolute and others Relative Personal Perfections ought to be the immediate Object of the Love of Esteem and Benevolence but relative Perfections do not deserve either this or any other kind of Love but only the Object to which these Perfections have a relation We should love and honour Merit where-ever we find it for Merit is a personal Perfection which ought to regulate our Love of Esteem and Benevolence but it ought not always to regulate the greatness and quality of our Duties On the contrary we owe a great many Duties to our Prince to our Parents and to all those that are in Authority for Authority is necessary for the preservation of Order in States which is the most valuable thing in the World But the Honour which we pay to them the Love which we bear them ought to terminate in God alone Colos 3.23 As to the Lord and not unto Men saith St. Paul The Honour which we give to Power must be refer'd to God and not to Men for the power of Acting is in God alone In like manner if a Man have such natural endowments as may be serviceable for the Conversion of others tho' he have no personal Merit or Vertue we ought to love him with a love of Esteem which hath a relation to something else and we are oblig'd to many more Duties towards him than towards another Man who hath a great deal of personal Merit but is not capable of being useful to any but himself But I shall explain this matter-more at large in another place what I have said of it here is only to prevent the Reader from running insensibly whither I have no design to lead him XII Self-Love the irreconcileable Enemy of Vertue or a ruling Love of the immutable Order may agree with the Love of Union which is refer'd to and honours a Power capable of acting on us for it is sufficient for that purpose that this Self-love be enlightned Man invincibly desires to be happy and he sees clearly that God alone is able to make him so This being suppos'd and all the rest excluded of which I do not speak it is evident that he may desire to be united to God For to take away every thing that may be equivocal I do not speak of a Man who knows that God rewards only Merit and who finds none in himself but I speak of one who considers only the Power and Goodness of God or one to whom the Testimony of his Conscience and his Faith give a free access as I may so say to draw near to God and join himself to him XIII But the case is different with the Love of Esteem or Benevolence which a Man ought to bear to himself Self-love makes it always irregular Order requires that the Reward should be proportionable to the Merit and the Happiness to the Perfection of the Soul which it hath gain'd by a good use of its Liberty but Self-love can endure no bounds to its Happiness
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 ●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
it Thus there is a mutual Correspondence between certain Thoughts of the Soul and certain Modifications of the Body in consequence of those natural Laws which God hath establish'd and which he condantly observes Herein consists the Union of the Soul and Body The Imagination may raise other Ideas of all this But this Correspondence is undeniable and is sufficient for my purpose So that I neither do nor ought to build on uncertain Foundations XIV Secondly I suppose it to be known that the Soul is not join'd immediately to all the parts of the Body but only to one part which answers to all the rest and which I call without knowing what it is the Principal Part so that notwithstanding the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body a Man may have his Arm cut off and yet have no thought arise in his Soul Correspondent to it but it is not possible that the least change should happen in the Principal Part of the Brain without causing also some alteration in the Soul This is verified by Experience for sometimes parts of the Body are cut off without being felt because then the Motion of the Amputation doth not communicate it self to the Principal Part. As on the contrary those that have lost an Arm often feel a real pain in that very Arm which they have not because there is the same Motion in the Principal Part of the Brain as if the Arm was hurt XV. The first Man before his Sin had an absolute power over his Body at least he could when he pleas'd hinder the Motion or Action of Objects from communicating it self to the principal part of the Brain from the Organs of the Senses which might be touch'd by those Objects and this he did probably by a kind of revulsion somewhat like that which we make in our selves when we would fix our Attention on those Thoughts which disappear in the presence of sensible Objects XVI But I suppose in the Third place that we have not now that power and therefore to obtain some Liberty of Mind to think on what we will and love what we ought it is necessary that the principal part should be calm and without agitation or at least that we should still be able to stop and turn it which way we please Our Attention depends on our Will but it depends much more on our Senses and Passions It is a very difficult thing not to look upon that which touches not to love that which pleases that which touches I say and pleases the Heart The Soul is never sooner tir'd than when it fights against Pleasure and makes it self actually Miserable XVII Fourthly I suppose it to be known that the principal part is never touch'd or shaken in an agreeable or disagreeable manner but it excites in the animal Spirits some Motion proper to carry the Body toward the Object which acts upon it or to separate it from it by flight so that those Motions of the Fibres of the Brain which relate to Good or Evil are always follow'd by such a course of the Spirits as disposes the Body rightly with relation to the present Object and at the same time those sensations of the Soul which are correspondent to those agitations of the Brain are follow'd by such motions of the Soul as answer to this course of the Spirits For the impressions or motions of the Brain are in respect of the course of the Spirits what the sensations of the Soul are in respect of the Passions and these Impressions are to the Sensations what the motion of the Spirits is to the motion of the Passions XVIII Fifthly I suppose that Objects never strike the Brain without leaving some marks of their Action nor the animal Spirits without leaving some Tracks of their Course that these Tracks or Wounds are not easily clos'd up or effac'd when the Brain hath been often or forcibly struck and when the Course of the Spirits hath been violent or hath often begun again in the same manner That Memory and corporeal Habits consist in nothing else but those Tracks or Impressions which cause in the Brain and other parts of the Body a particular facility of obeying the Course of the Spirits and that by this means the Brain is hurt and the Imagination polluted when we have had the enjoyment of Pleasures without apprehending the danger of Familiarity with sensible Objects XIX Lastly I suppose that we conceive distinctly that when many of these Tracks have been made at the same time we cannot open any one of them without opening all the rest in some Measure whence it comes to pass that there are always many accessory Ideas which present themselves confusedly to the Mind having a Relation to the principal Ideas to which the Mind particularly applies it self There are also many confus'd Sensations and indirect Motions that accompany the principal Passion which moves the Soul and carries it toward some particular Object There is nothing more certain than this connection of Impressions with one another and with the Senses and Passions Any one that hath but the least Knowledge of the Nature of Man and will make but the least reflection on the inward Sense he hath of what passes within himself may discover more of these Truths in an Hour than I can tell him in a Month provided he doth not confound the Soul with the Body in making the Union betwixt them and carefully distinguishes the Properties of which the thinking Substance is capable from those which belong to the extended Substance And I think it necessary to Advertise the Reader That this kind of Truths is of very great importance not only for the distinct Conception of what I have hitherto said and shall hereafter say but generally for all the Sciences that have any Relation to Man Having handled this Subject at large in the Search of Truth particularly in the Second Book I thought not to have said any thing of it here and if these Suppositions seem obscure to the Reader and do not give him light enough to comprehend clearly what I shall say in the remaining part of this Treatise I must refer him to that Book for I cannot persuade my self to give a long Explication of the same thing over and over 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 or 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 I. DEath is a compendious way to be deliver'd from Concupiscence and to break off at once that unhappy Union which hinders us from being reunited to our Head
unfortunate Treatise of Nature and Grace which tho' it were written only for those who had a distinct conception of the Truths which I had before sufficiently explain'd as I then declar'd underwent so furious a Censure that those very Heresies were charg'd upon me which I had there overthrown in their first Principles 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 I. THo' the Senses are the first original of our Disorders or the foundation of that union of the Soul and Body which now separates the Soul from God yet it is not sufficient to regulate the use of them that Grace may operate in us with its full Strength but we must also silence our Imagination and Passions The Imagination doth depend indeed on the Senses as well as the Passions but it hath its particular Malignity When it is stir'd up by the Senses it produces of it self extraordinary effects And many times tho' the Senses do not actually move it it acts by its own Strength Nay sometimes it disturbs all the Ideas of the Soul by the Phantoms which it produces and enrages the Passions by the violence of the Motions which it excites But for fear lest some Persons may not clearly comprehend these Truths I must give a more distinct explication of them II. This Term Imagination is very much us'd in the World But yet I can hardly believe that all those who pronounce the Word distinctly joyn a distinct Idea to it I have said already and say again for there is no harm in reflecting on it more than once that the commonest Words are the most confus'd and that Men's ordinary Discourse is many times nothing but an empty sound of Words without Sense which they hear and repeat like Echo's If a Conversation doth but entertain them agreably and serves them to communicate their Affections and to create a mutual esteem of one another they are satisfied with it They make the same use of Words as they do of a Man's Air and outward Behaviour They unite themselves to one another by the Senses and Passions and many times Reason hath no other share in the Society than to promote their unjust Designs For Truth is of no use in this World Those that employ themselves in the search of it are Enthusiasts singular and dangerous Persons who must be shun'd like an infectious Air. Thus Words whose chief use should be to represent the pure Ideas of the Mind generally serve only to express Ideas of Sense and those motions of the Soul which are but too apt to communicate themselves by the outward demeanour the Air of the Face the Tone of the Voice and the Posture and Motion of the Body III. Imagination is one of those Terms which Use hath made current without clearing the signification of it For common Use explains only those Words that excite sensible Ideas Those by which it expresses pure and intellectual Ideas are all of them either equivocal or confus'd Thus the Imagination not being sensible but only by its Effects and the nature of it being hard to understand every one makes use of the same Word without having the same Idea nay perhaps many People have no Idea of it at all IV. The Imagination may be consider'd in a twofold respect either as to the Body or as to the Soul In relation to the Body it consists of a Brain capable of Impressions and of animal Spirits fit to make these Impressions We may conceive the animal Spirits to be whatever we will Fancy them provided we understand them to be Bodies which by their motion are capable of acting in the substance of the principal part of the Brain In relation to the Soul the Imagination consists of Images that answer to the Impressions and of Attention capable of forming these Images or sensible Ideas For it is our Attention which as the occasional cause determines the course of the Spirits whereby the Impressions are form'd to which Impressions the Ideas are annex'd And all this in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body V. These Images or Impressions which are form'd as well by the strength of the Imagination as by the action of Objects dispose the Brain the Store-house of the Spirits in such a manner that the course of these Spirits is determin'd toward certain Nerves some of which run to the Heart and other Viscera and cause there Fermentation or Refrigeration or in short produce different Motions according to the quality of the Object which is present to the Senses or the Imagination The rest of the Nerves answer to the external Parts and by them the Body is plac'd in such a Position and dispos'd to such a motion as the present Object requires VI. The course of the animal Spirits toward those Nerves which answer to the internal parts of the Body is accompanied with Passions on the part of the Soul Which Passions arising originally from the action of the Imagination do by the great abundance of Spirits which they send up to the Head fortify the Impression and Image of the Object which produc'd them For the Passions excite support and strengthen the Attention the occasional cause of that course of the Spirits whereby the Impression of the Brain is form'd which Impression determines another course of the Spirits toward the Heart and other parts of the Body to keep up the same Passions all this proceeds also from the admirable constitution of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body This is sufficient to give a slight Idea of the Imagination and of the relation it hath to the Passions I have handled this matter more at large in another place But this I think is sufficient to make attentive Readers understand in some measure what I mean by Imagination in general VII In particular by a defil'd and corrupt Imagination I understand a Brain which hath receiv'd some Impressions so deep as to carry the Soul and thereby the Body to Objects unworthy of and unbecoming the dignity of Man's Nature and by purity of Imagination I mean a sound and entire Brain without any of those vitious Impressions which corrupt the Mind and Heart By a weak and tender Imagination I mean a Brain whose principal part on which the course of the Spirits depends is easy to be penetrated and shaken By a nice and curious Imagination I understand a Brain whose Fibres are of so fine and curious a Texture that they receive and preserve the least Impressions made between them by the course of the Spirits By a strong and lively Imagination I mean that the animal Spirits which form the Impressions are too much agitated in
hurries him away But Christ very rarely bestows such Favours and that Man is very senseless who throws himself into a Precipice in expectation that God should work a Miracle to save him from death XII What then must we do to moderate our Passions I have already spoke of this in the Seventh Chapter and elsewhere but I shall sum it up here in few words I. We should avoid the Objects which excite them and mortify our Senses II. We should keep our Imagination within the bounds of that respect which it ows to Reason or makes a continual revulsion in the animal Spirits which by their Course keep up and fortify the sinful Impressions III. We should seek after the means to make our Passions appear ridiculous and contemptible we should examine them by the Light confront them with Order and use our utmost endeavours to discover the foulness injustice and irregularity of them and their fatal consequences as well in respect of this life as the other IV. We should form no Design when they are excited nor ever enter upon any Business by their direction or influence V. We should get a Habit and lay an Obligation on our selves of consulting Reason in every thing and whenever we have neglected to do it either by surprize or for any other reason we should change our manner of proceeding and at least take upon us the shame we deserve for having acted like Brutes by the construction and motion of the Machine much less should we justify the foolish step we have made by continuing in a vitious and sinful Course VI. We should labour to augment the strength and liberty of our Mind that we may be able to undergo the labour of Attention and to suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us Without these two Qualifications we cannot receive from Reason any certain Rules for the Government of our selves VII Lastly that we may be in a capacity to follow those Rules which destroy the Passions we should above all things have recourse to Prayer and with confidence and humility draw near to him who came to deliver us by the strength of his Grace from that Body of Death or that Law of the Flesh which rebels every moment against the Law of the Spirit For I have often said already and do not stick to repeat it here again because I think there is no fear of reflecting on it too much That neither Reason by it self nor all the helps which Philosophy affords us can without the influence of the second Adam deliver us from the malignity of the first XIII The sum of what hath been said relating to the First Part of this Moral Essay is this First I shew'd that Vertue consists precisely in an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order Then I spoke of the two principal Qualities necessary for the acquisition of Vertue After that I laid open the occasional Causes of Light and inward Sense without which we cannot acquire or preserve the Love of Order And lastly I examin'd into the occasional Causes of certain Sensations which are contrary to those of Grace and abate the Force and Efficacy of them that we may avoid them So that I think I have omitted nothing necessary for the acquisition and conservation of Vertue in general I come now to the Second Part which treats not of Vertues but of the Duties of Vertue For I know of but one single Vertue which renders those that possess it truly and substantially Vertuous namely an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order A TREATISE OF Morality PART II. Of DVTIES 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 I. THE Actions of those that have attain'd to the true and solid Vertue are not therefore all solidly and substantially Vertuous There is in a manner always some deficiency or imperfection in them nay many times they are really sinful The reason of this is because a Man doth not always Act by the influence of his predominant Habit but sometimes by the operation of the Passion which is actually excited in him For if the predominant Habit be asleep as I may say and the rest awake the Actions of a good Man may be many ways sinful But besides tho' the predominant Habit of the Love of Order be actually excited in a good Man yet at the same time his Actions may be defective and imperfect and even directly opposite to Order which he actually loves and designs to follow For beside the difficulty of paying an exact Obedience to the Order which we do know indiscreet and ill govern'd Zeal often makes us Act contrary to the Order which we do not know Wherefore that an Action may be compleatly Vertuous it is not sufficient that it proceed from a good Man nor from a Man actually mov'd by the Love of Order but it must also be conformable to Order in all its Circumstances and that too not by a kind of Chance luckily determining the actual Motion of the Soul but by the strength of Reason guiding and governing us in such a manner as to make us fulfill all our Duties II. So then tho' it be sufficient to make us just and acceptable to God that the Love of Order be our predominant Habit yet if we would be perfect and compleat we must be able to govern this Love by an exact Knowledge of our Duties Nay I may say that he who neglects or slights this Knowledge what Zeal soever he may find within himself for Order his Heart is by no means rightly dispos'd For Order would be lov'd by Reason and not altogether by the Heart and fervency of Instinct which often fills with indiscreet Zeal those whose Imagination is too brisk and lively who are not us'd to retire into themselves but are continually apt to mistake the secret inspirations of their Passions for the infallible Answers of the inward Truth III. Indeed those whose Mind is so weak and their Passions so strong that they are not capable of giving Counsel to themselves or rather of taking Counsel of him who enlightens all Men are excusable before God if they sincerely desire and follow the Advice of such as they believe to be the best and wisest Men. But those who have or pretend to have Wit and Sense are guilty in the sight of God if they undertake any Design without consulting him that is without consulting Reason how fervent soever the Zeal may be which transports them For we must distinguish the Answers of the inward Truth which illuminates the Mind by the Evidence of its Light from the Language and secret Inspirations of the Passions which confound and deceive it by such Sensations as are indeed lively and agreeable but always obscure and
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
The Mind clearly sees all this And what then must our Self-love enlightned our invincible and insatiable desire of Happiness conclude from hence but that if we would be solidly happy we must submit our selves entirely to the divine Law This is evident in the highest degree V. Our Self-love then is the motive which being assisted by Grace unites us to God as our Good or the cause of our Happiness and subjects us to Reason as our Law or the model of our Perfection But we must not make the motive our End or our Law We must truly and sincerely love Order and unite our selves to God by Reason We must prefer the divine Law before all things Because we cannot slight it and cease to conform our selves to it without losing the liberty of access to God which we enjoy by it We must not desire that Order should accommodate it self to our Will It is impossible to be done for Order is immutable and necessary We must not wish that God would not punish our Iniquities God is a Judge that cannot be corrupted These desires corrupt us These foolish and insignificant Wishes are injurious to the Purity the Justice and Immutability of God they strike at the essential Attributes of the divine Nature We should abhor our own Corruptions and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order We should revenge on our selves the injuries done to the honour of Order or at least we should humbly submit to the divine Vengeance For he who wishes that God would not punish Theft or Drunkenness doth not love God and tho' the strength of his Self-love enlightned may keep him from Stealing or Drinking yet he is not Righteous He makes that the end which should be only the motive of his desires He must call upon the Saviour of Sinners who alone can change his Heart But he that had rather there should be no God than such an one as delights to make eternally miserable even those that truly love Order and Reason is a just Man For that chimerical Deity that unjust and cruel God is not amiable Grace it self doth not destroy Self-love but only regulates it and makes it subject to the divine Law It makes us love the true God and despise that Irregularity and Injustice which a disturb'd Imagination may attribute to the divine Nature VI. From what hath been said it is evident First that we must enlighten our Self-love to the end it may excite us to Vertue Secondly that we must never follow the motion of Self-love only Thirdly that in obeying Order inviolably we labour effectually for the contentment of our Self-love In a word since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure we ought to submit our selves to his Law and labour for our Perfection leaving it to his Justice and Goodness to proportion our Happiness to our Merits and to those of Christ in whom ours deserve an infinite Reward VII I have explain'd in the first Part of this Treatise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection or to acquire and preserve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order in which our Duties toward our selves consist They are these in general VIII We should accustom our selves to the labour of Attention and thereby procure some strength of Mind We should never assent but to evidence and so preserve the liberty of our Mind We should continually study Mankind in general and our selves in particular that we may gain a perfect knowledge of our selves We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law that we may obey it exactly We should compare our selves with Order to humble and despise our selves We should reflect on the divine Justice to fear it and awaken our selves We should think upon our Mediator to call upon him and comfort our selves We should look upon Christ as our Model love him as our Saviour and follow him as our Strength our Wisdom and the Fountain of our eternal Happiness The World seduces us by our Senses It troubles our Mind by our Imagination it carries us away and plunges us in the depth of Misery by our Passions We should break off the dangerous correspondence which we hold with it by our Body if we would strengthen the union which we have with God by Reason For these two unions of the Soul with God and with the Body are incompatible We cannot unite our selves perfectly to God without abandoning the interests of the Body without despising sacrificing and destroying it IX Notwithstanding we are not allow'd to procure our own Death nor to ruin our Health For our Body is not our own It belongs to God to our Country our Family and our Friends We must keep up its strength and vigour according to the use we are oblig'd to make of it But we must not preserve it contrary to the command of God and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the publick good and not fear to weaken ruin and destroy it in executing the commands of God And so likewise for our Honour and our Fortunes Every thing we have belongs to God and our Neighbour and must be preserv'd employ'd and sacrific'd to the honour of the divine Law the immutable and necessary Order and with a dependence on it I shall not enter into the particulars of this matter for my design was only to lay down those general Principles by which every Man is oblig'd to govern his Life and Actions if he would arive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure FINIS BOOKS sold by James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-yard A New Voyage round the World Describing particularly the Isthmus of America several Coasts and Islands in the West-Indies the Isles of Cape Verd the Passage by Terra del Fuego the South-Sea Coasts of Chili Peru and Mexico the Isle of Guam one of the Ladrones Mindanao and other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia China Formosa Luconia Celebes c. New-Holland Sumatra Nicobar Isles the C●pe of Good Hope and Santa Hellena Their Soil Rivers Harbours Plants Fruits Animals and Inhabitants Their Customs Religion Government Trade c. By William Dampier Illustrated with particular Maps and Draughts The Third Edition Corrected Capt. Dampier's Voyages Vol. II. in Three Parts First the Supplement of his Voyage round the World being that part that relates to Tonquin Ac●in Malacca and other Places in the East-Indies Second his Voyage to the Bay of Campeac●y in the West-Indies Third his Observations about the Winds and Weather in all parts of the Ocean between the Tropicks with a General Index to both Volumes Octavo Illustrated with particular Maps A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America giving an Account of the Author's abode there the Form and Make of the Country the Coasts Hills Rivers c. Woods Soil Weather c. Trees Fruit Beasts Birds Fish c. The Indian Inhabitants their Features