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
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
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
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
Motive which regulates the Heart but the love of Order Every Motive is grounded on Self-love on that invincible desire of being happy which God continually inspires into us in a Word on our own Will for we cannot Love but by our Will And a Man that burn'd with a desire of enjoying the presence of God to contemplate his Perfections and have a share in the felicity of the Saints would still deserve the punishment of Hell if he had a disorder'd Heart and refus'd to sacrifice his predominant Passion to Order As on the contrary one that was indifferent as to eternal Happiness if that were possible but in all other things was full of Charity or the love of Order in which Charity is comprehended or of the love of God above all other things he I say would be a just Man and solidly Vertuous for as I have already prov'd at large true Vertue or a conformity to the Will of God consists wholly in an habitual and ruling Love of the eternal and divine Law the immutable Order XV. A Man ought to love God not only more than this present Life but also more than his own Being Order requires it But he cannot be excited to this love any other way than by the natural and invincible love which he hath for Happiness He cannot love but by the love of Good or his own Will Now he cannot find his Happiness in himself He can find it only in God because there is nothing but God alone capable of acting on him and making him happy Again it is better not to be than to be Miserable It is better then not to be than to be out of favour with God Therefore we ought to love God more than our selves and pay him an exact Obedience There is a difference between the Motives and the End We are excited by the Motives to act for the End It is the greatest Crime imaginable to place our End in our selves We should do every thing for God All our Actions should be refer'd to him from whom alone we have the power to do them Otherwise we violate Order we offend God and are guilty of Injustice This is undeniable But we should seek for the motives which may make us love Order in that invincible Love which God hath given us for Happiness For since God is Just we cannot be happy if we are not obedient to Order It matters not whether those Motives be of Fear or of Hope if they do but animate and support us The most lively the most strong solid and durable are the best XVI There are some People that make a Thousand extravagant Suppositions who for want of a true Idea of God suppose for instance that he hath design'd to make them eternally Miserable And in this Supposition they think themselves oblig'd to love this Chimera of their own Imagination above all Things This perplexes them extremely For indeed how is it possible to love God when they deprive themselves of all the rational Motives of loving him or rather when instead of him they represent to themselves a terrible Idol with nothing in it capable of being Lov'd God would have us Love him such as he is and not such as it is impossible for him to be We must love an infinitely perfect Being and not a dreadful Phantom an unjust God a God powerful indeed absolute and supreme such as Men wish to be but without Wisdom or Goodness Qualities which they do not much esteem For the ground of these extravagant Fancies which frighten those that form them is that they judge of God by the inward sense which they have of themselves and without considering imagine that God may form such Designs as they find themselves capable of forming But they have no Reason to fear if there were such a God as they Fancy the true God who is jealous of his Honour would forbid us to adore and love him They should endeavour to satisfy themselves that perhaps there is more danger of offending God in giving him so horrible a form than in despising that Phantom of their own We should continually seek for those Motives which may preserve and encrease in us the love of God such as are the Threatnings and Promises which relate to the immutable Order Motives proper for Creatures who invincibly desire to be happy and of which the Scripture also is full and not destroy those reasonable Motives and render the Fountain of all Good odious For the reason why the Devils cannot love God is because they have now through their own fault no motive to Love-him It is decreed and they know it that God will never be good in respect of them For since it is impossible to love any thing but Good or that which is capable of giving Happiness they have no motive to love God but they have to hate him with all their power as the true but most just cause of the Miseries which they suffer They cannot love God and yet they are oblig'd to love him because Order requires it Order I say which is the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings in what state soever they be Happy or Miserable Therefore since they deserve that which they suffer they are in a state of disorder and will be incorrigible in their Wickedness to all eternity What I have said of this matter is only to shew that nothing can be Evil nor ought to be rejected which may make us love God have recourse to Jesus Christ and live according to Order If I am deceiv'd I desire to be better inform'd for this is a matter of great consequence 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 I. JESUS CHRIST consider'd in his humane Nature being alone the true Propitiatory or the occasional cause of Grace as I have shewn in the former Chapter it is evident that we must apply our selves to him alone for the obtaining of it Nevertheless we may call upon God nay we must Worship or call upon none but him as the true cause of our Good We may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints not as true causes nor as occasional or distributive causes of Grace but as Friends of God or intercessors with Jesus Christ We may also Pray to the Angels as our protectors against the Devil or as occasional causes of certain effects which may dispose us to receive inward Grace profitably But I must explain those Truths more at large for they are of the greatest Importance for regulating our Prayers our Worship and all our Duties II. The Church being guided by the Spirit of Truth generally addresses her Prayers to the Father by the Son and when she
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
elastick force of the several Springs and the opening and shutting of the Passages by the Action of Objects on the Senses and the Motion of the principal part of the Brain which Motion depends partly on the Will and partly on the Course of the Spirits excited by the Impressions of the Imagination and Memory VI. But that which I would have chiefly observ'd here is That the Course of the Spirits in the Nerves belonging to the Viscera which drives the Blood up into the Head for the production of Spirits necessary to dispose the outward parts of the Body with relation to the present Object acts with choice and furnishes the Brain only with such Humours as are proper for the preservation of that Impression by which the Passion is excited or which comes all to one the Blood and Humours which ascend up to the Head divide themselves in such a manner that so much of them as is fit for the production of Spirits agreable to the prevailing Passion remains there and the rest returns by the circulation to the places from whence it came These Spirits being made are presently determin'd toward the Impression which is the original Cause of all these Motions to preserve it and also to revive all the accessory Impressions which may any way fortify and confirm it From those Impressions both the Principal one and the Accessories the new Spirits do also receive their direction and are divided as the first were into two Branches one for the outward and the other for the inward parts of the Body For as long as the Passion lasts this admirable Circulation of the Spirits and Blood is continually made which sets the Machine a going according as the present Object requires with a wonderful Regularity and Order VII From hence it appears that the Passions which are most wisely ordain'd with relation to their proper end namely the preservation of Health and Life the conjunction of Man and Woman Society Commerce and the acquisition of sensible Goods are extremely opposite to the acquisition of the true and spiritual Goods the Goods due to Vertue and Merit VIII For 1. The Passions are not subject to our Wills Nothing is more difficult than to govern them because we have lost that Power by Sin which otherwise we should have had over our Bodies 2. They are so contrary to Vertue and Merit that a Man must sacrifice and destroy them if he would deserve the Name and Reward of a truly vertuous Man or a perfect Christian 3. Every Motion which they naturally excite in the Soul is only for the good of the Body according to this Maxim That whatever happens to the Soul by the Body is only for the Body 4. When they are rais'd they take up the whole content of the Mind and Heart The impressions and agitation of the Brain which they fortify by the Contributions they draw from the Intestines and send up speedily and abundantly into the Head disturb all our Ideas and the Shock and Motion they give the Will by that lively and agreeable Sensation which accompanies them corrupts our Hearts and throws us into innumerable disorders But 5. when their Agitation is ceas'd yet the Imagination remains polluted by the Impressions which they have made on the Brain whose Fibres have been bent or broken by the violence of the Spirits which they have put in Motion These Impressions often dissipate the attention of the Mind and generally revive the same Passions which produc'd them when the Blood is impregnated again with Particles fit to raise such a Fermentation as may produce abundance of Spirits agreeable to the nature of those Passions 6. The Passions by their rapid Course make a smooth and easy way for themselves into the Nerves which go to the Heart and other inward parts of the Body and there excite such Motions as are proper to revive them again so that the least thing that shakes the Brain is capable of renewing them 7. Lastly all the Passions justify themselves in such a manner that it is not possible at the time that they agitate the Mind to make a solid and impartial Judgment of the Objects which excite them for such is their malignant quality that they are not satisfied if Reason too doth not give Judgment in favour of them IX For I. They confirm the Judgment of the Senses tho' they are so far from being competent Judges in the Eye of Reason that they are false Witnesses II. They shew only the wrong side of Objects and always represent them in that deceitful Shape which suits best with their Interest III. They revive all those Impressions and accessory Ideas which side with them and suppress all the rest IV. They cover their irregular Proceedings and vitious Designs with the specious appearances of Reason Justice and Vertue The covetous Man for instance conceals from himself the Shamefulness Injustice and Cruelty of his Avarice He disguises his Passion with notions of Temperance Moderation Prudence Penance or it may be of Charity Liberality and Magnificence by forming imaginary Designs which he will never put in execution for the Passions are cunning enough to make even the Vertues opposite to them serve for their Justification V. Lastly the Passions are always accompanied with a certain pleasant Sensation which bribes their Judge and if he favours them pays him to his content whereas if he condemns them they handle him very cruelly For what Present can be offer'd more grateful and charming to one that irresistibly desires to be happy than Pleasure when it is actual Pleasure that gives actual Happiness And what Treatment can be more rough than that which the Soul receives from the Passions when it would Sacrifice them to the Love of Order We cannot strike them without wounding our selves for when they are upon their Guard the blow which we aim at them if it takes away their Life only for a little while recoils back upon our selves and mortally Wounds us or rather reduces us to such a condition as often seems worse than Death it self X. So then it is evident that those who are so far from moderating their Passions that they do all they can to gratify them who live by Humour and act by Inclination and judge of every thing by Fancy in a word those who follow all the motions of the Machine and suffer themselves to be led without knowing who it is that leads them or whither they go are continually departing from their true good and by degrees lose sight of it quite they blot out the very Remembrance of it and blindly run head-long into the Abyss where all Evils dwell and the eternal Privation of all Good XI It is true indeed that sometimes Grace is strong enough to stop in his full career one that abandons himself to the motions of his Passions and that God in goodness speaks to the Soul in Thunder and Lightning and with a terrible Voice which overthrows the Man and the Passion that