Heart and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self And of which St. Paul hath given us the elogy in that admirable Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians which begins thus 1 Cor. 13.1 Tho' I spake all Languages even that of Angels themselves yet if I had not Charity I should be but like sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal The ways of Speaking are different according to the diversity of Persons spoken to The Scripture which is written for all the World expresses the Truths it contains in such Terms only as are authoris'd by the most common Use But he that would convince and inform the most obstinate Persons I mean those Men of strong Reason as they fancy themselves and those whom they call Philosophers People that find difficulties in every Thing must endeavour to explain his Sentiments by Terms that as far as may be are free from an equivocal Signification II. These Words Thou shalt Love God with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self are clear but it is chiefly to those who are inwardly Taught by the Unction of the Spirit For as to others they are more obscure than is commonly imagin'd To Love is an equivocal Term It signifies two Things among many others First to unite our selve by the Will to any object as to our Good or the cause of our Happiness and Secondly to wish Well to any one We may love God in the first Sense and our Neighbour in the Second But it would be Impiety or at least Stupidity or Ignorance to love God in the latter Sense and a kind of Idolatry to love our Neighbour in the former III. The word God is likewise Equivocal and much more than it is thought to be A Man may fancy he loves God when indeed he loves only a vast immense Phantom which he hath form'd to himself He may think he loves God when at the same time he lives in Disorder or without loving Order above all Things But he is mistaken for he is so far from loving him that he doth not so much as know him 1 Joh. 2.4 5. For he that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Lier and the Truth is not in him But whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected or he perfectly loves God v. 3. saith St. John Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments IV. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength The word all is clear enough but thy Strength may Minister occasion of Error to those who either have no Humility or a false and mistaken one The former may draw from it some ground of Vanity and the latter of a sinful Negligence And thy Neighbour as thy self Our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the Samaritan that all Mankind is our Neighbour So that the word Neighbour is not very clear and so we find the Jews always took it in a wrong Sense As thy self Certainly there are none but those that love the true and real good who fulfil this Commandment in loving their Neighbour as themselves For a Father who loves his Son with the greatest Tenderness and carefully procures for him all sensible good Things what love soever he may have for him is very far from loving him as God commands us to love our Neighbour V. These words then Thou shalt love the Lord thy God c. are obscure But in Truth they are obscure only to those who have a mind to Dispute or who will not retire into themselves to behold this Commandment written there with the Finger of God The Holy Scripture is a clos'd Book only to those who are not instructed by the unction of the Spirit For pious Men tho' never so Dull and Stupid understand this Precept very well They know that all the application of our Mind and all the motions of our Heart ought to tend toward God that we should employ our Thoughts on nothing but him as far as it is possible That we do not truly Love him if we are not nice and exact in doing our Duty And that to violate the order of Justice or the immutable Order is in effect to offend against the Divine Majesty They are so far from loving Men as capable of doing them Good that they are afraid to come near great Persons and are only pleas'd to be amongst those who stand in need of their Assistance They love Men not as their Good nor as capable of enjoying transitory Goods with them Goods which only serve to cause division every where But they Love them as Co-heirs of the true Goods true Goods because they are possess'd without division enjoy'd without satiety and lov'd without any fear of losing them like the Pleasures of this present Life The Father loves his Son but he had rather see him Deform'd than Disorderly He had rather see him Sick Dead or at the Gallows than see him Dead in the Eyes of him who never had a more agreable Sight than that of his only Son fasten'd to the Cross to re-establish Order in the World Pious Men understand the Law of God because they are instructed by the same Spirit that dictated it But because this Discourse is intended chiefly for Philosophers and it lies not in my Power to communicate that holy Unction which produces Light in the Minds of Men I think my self oblig'd to endeavour to prove by Reason and explain as far as I am able in clear Terms those Truths of which perhaps they are not sufficiently Convinc'd VI. I think then I may say that justifying Charity or that Vertue which renders the possessors of it truly Just and Vertuous is properly a ruling Love of the immutable Order But that I may clear those Obscurities which ordinarily attend abstract Ideas I must explain these Terms a little more at large VII I have already said that the immutable Order consists in nothing else but in those proportions or relations of Perfection which are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in the substance of the eternal Word Now we ought to esteem and love nothing but Perfection And therefore our esteem and love should be conformable to Order From hence it is evident that Charity or the love of God is a consequence of the love of Order and that we ought to esteem and love God not only more but infinitely more than all other Things for there can be no finite relation between infinite and finite VIII There are Two principal kinds of Love a Love of Benevolence and a Love which may be call'd Love of Vnion A sensual Man Loves the object of his Passion with a Love of Vnion because he looks upon that Object as the cause of his Happiness and therefore he desires to be united to it that it may act upon him and make him Happy He is carried towards it as well by the motion of his Heart or by his Affections as
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
the search of Truth what the Liberty of the Mind is to the Possession of the same Truth or at least to Infallibility or exemption from Error For by the use we make of the Strength of our Mind we discover Truth and by using the Liberty of our Mind we avoid Error The Strength and Capacity of the Mind being deficient Liberty was necessary for it that by suspending its Assent it might avoid Error and that the Author of its Being might not also be the Author of its Disorders For the Liberty of the Mind makes amends for its Weakness and Limitation and he that hath so much Liberty as to be always able to suspend his Assent tho' he cannot deliver himself from Ignorance a necessary Imperfection of all finite Spirits may yet avoid Error and Sin which render a Man contemptible and make him liable to Punishment IV. It is certain that if we always made use of our Liberty as far as we are able we should never assent but to Evidence which alone doth never deceive as I have prov'd elsewhere and which also obliges the Will to give its Assent For when the Mind sees clearly it cannot doubt that it sees when it hath examin'd every thing that there is to examine in order to the discovery of those Relations or Truths which it searches after it is necessary that it should rest there and give over its Enquiries In the same manner as to Sin he that loves nothing but what he evidently knows to be the true Good nothing but what he cannot help loving is not irregular in his Love He loves nothing but God for there is nothing else which we cannot without Remorse hinder our selves from loving There is nothing but God which we clearly and evidently know to be really Good to be the true Cause of Happiness a Being infinitely Perfect an Object capable of contenting the Soul which being made for the enjoyment of all Good may suspend its Assent of loving that which doth not contain every thing that is Good V. Strength and Liberty of Mind then are two Vertues which we may call General or to use the common Term Cardinal Vertues For since we ought never to Love any thing not do any Action without good Consideration we must make use of the Strength and Liberty of our Mind every moment These Vertues according to my Notion of them are not natural Faculties common to all Men There is nothing more rare nor is there any Man who possesses them perfectly I know well enough that Man is naturally capable of some Labour of Mind but that doth not make him have a strong Mind He can also suspend his Assent but his Mind is not therefore naturally free in such a manner as I mean The Strength and Liberty of Mind of which I speak are Vertues which are gotten by use But because these Vertues add Perfection to the Soul and restore it in some measure to its original State for before Sin the Mind was every way strong and free Men do not generally look upon them as Vertues For they imagine that Vertue instead of correcting and repairing Nature ought to change or destroy it Nay there are some People who think that Strength and Liberty of Mind are Faculties of the Soul subsisting in a kind of individual and judging of others by themselves they imagine that it is impossible to be attentive to those Subjects which frighten and discourage them and that it is Obstinacy not to Assent to Probabilities by which they are deceiv'd VI. But the Strength and Liberty of the Mind are unequal in all Men. There are no two Persons equally fit to retire into themselves nor equally capable of suspending their Assent Nay the same Person doth not long preserve the Strength and Liberty of his Mind in the same Condition If they do not encrease by Use and Exercise they must necessarily decrease for there are no Vertues more oppos'd by and more contrary to the continual Motions of Concupiscence Most Vertues agree well enough with Self-love for we may often perform a great many Duties with Pleasure and by a motive of Self-love But we cannot meditate long without Pain and much less suspend our Assent or the Judgment which determines the Motions of the Soul and Body When any Good discovers it self to the Soul and attracts it by its Charms it is not at ease if it remains unmov'd for there is no harder Labour than to keep our selves firm and steady in a Current when-ever we cease to act we are carried away with the Stream VII Thus we see there is scarce any Man that applies himself to Meditation and that those who undertake the search of Truth often want Strength and Courage to bring them to the place of its Habitation tir'd and dishearten'd they strive to content themselves with what they already possess or perhaps comfort themselves with a ridiculous contempt of what they cannot attain to or a cowardly and mean spirited Despair If they are deceiv'd they turn Deceivers if they are tir'd themselves they infect others with Sloth and Idleness and but to see them is enough to make one like themselves discourag'd with Labour and out of relish with Truth For such is the Nature of Men that they had much rather deceive one another than consult their common Master they are so credulous in respect of their Friends and so unbelieving or so little attentive to the Answers of the Truth within them that Opinion and Party are the general Rule of their Thoughts and Actions VIII In order to gain some Liberty of Mind and to accustom our selves to suspend our Assent we must continually reflect on the prejudices or pre-occupations of our Minds and the cause of them We fancy we comprehend things very well when we cease to admire them and their familiarity ridding us of all apprehension our Mind readily gives its assent because it hath no interest to with-hold it It signifies nothing to suspend our Assent if we have no design to examine for what matter is it if we do fall into Error But it is great and agreeable to judge of every Thing Now we cannot examine without Pain at least we must spend some time in Examination which the Soul created to be happy thinks lost when it is not kept in motion by Pleasure Vanity or Interest Hence it is that the ordinary Language is nothing but perpetual Jargon For every Man thinks he understands very well what he says himself or hears another say when he hath said it or heard it said a great many times over They are only new Terms which cause uneasiness and awaken the Attention and these new Terms tho' never so clear and free from equivocal Significations are always suspected because every one is capable of Suspicion and Apprehension but there are few People capable of Attention sufficient to discover Truth and free themselves from Apprehension I could fill whole Volumes with Examples of expressions which are
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
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
do not first rid them of a great many false Maxims such as these for instance That if God concern'd himself with our Affairs the World would not go as it doth that Injustice would never be advanc'd to the Throne and that Bodies would not be rang'd so irregularly as they are that so deform'd and mishapen a World as this is can be nothing but the work of a blind and unintelligent Nature and that God doth not require of us vile Creatures Honours unbecoming his Nature that that which appears right and just to us is not so in it self or in the sight of God who if it were would often Punish those that he ought to Reward for many times we meet with the greatest Misfortunes when we are doing the best Actions I have elsewhere confuted these Principles and if the Reader doth not clearly comprehend what I am going to say he may read the first Eight of my Christian Meditations V. Wherefore that we may discover the Foundation and Original of our Duties it is not sufficient to consider the infinitely perfect Being without the relation it bears to us On the contrary we must above all things take notice that we depend on the Power of God that we are united to his Wisdom and that we have no Motion but from his Spirit from the Love which he bears to himself We depend on the Power of God for we have our Existence from that alone we act by that alone and can do nothing but by that We are united to the Wisdom of God for by that alone we are enlightned in that alone we discover Truth we are rational only by that for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Beings Lastly we have no Motion but from the Spirit of God for as God acts only by his own Will or by the Love which he bears to himself so all the Love which we have for Good is only an Effusion or Impression of that Love with which God loves himself We love nothing invincibly and naturally but God because we love and can love nothing but Good and Good I mean the cause of Happiness is no where but in God for no Creature can of it self Act on spiritual Substances I must explain these things more at large in order to deduce from them the Rules of our Conduct I begin with Power and the Duties we owe to it VI. Glory and Honour belong only to God 1 Tim. 1.17 All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him alone for in him alone Power resides All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual He alone who gives them their Beings can give them the Modes of their Beings for the different Modes of Beings are nothing but the same Beings in such and such particular Fashions or Dispositions nothing is more evident to one that can sedately and silently consult the inward Truth For what can be plainer than that if God for instance will keep any Body always in one place no Creature can remove it into another and that Man cannot so much as move his Arm but only because God is pleass'd to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth himself It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Beings If God creates or continues a Soul in the Modification of Pain no other Spirit can deliver it from that Pain nor make it feel Pleasure except God gives his Assent I am the Lord that is my Name 〈◊〉 Glory will not give to another Isa 42.8 and co-operates with it in the accomplishment of its desires By this extraordinary Concession and Liberality it is that God without losing any thing of his Power without diminishing his Greatness or lessening his Glory imparts to the Creatures his Glory Greatness and Power VII God hath subjected this present World to the Angels it is they that act and God that doth every thing He hath given to Jesus Christ as Head of the Church a Sovereign Power over all the Nations of the Earth Christ distributes the true Goods but it is God alone who sends them it is he alone that acts in our Souls and penetrates the hardness of our Hearts Christ as he is Man prays intercedes desires and performs the Office of Advocate Mediator and High-Priest But it is God alone that operates he only hath power he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things and ought to be the sole end All the Motions of our Souls should tend towards him and to him alone belong Glory and Honour This is that eternal necessary and inviolable Law which God hath establish'd by the necessity of his own Being by the love which he necessarily bears to himself a Love which is always conformable to Order and makes Order to be the inviolable Law of all spiritual Beings When God ceases to know himself to be what he is and to love himself as much as he deserves to act according to his own Light and by the Motion of his own Love when he ceases to observe this Law then it will be lawful for us to desire Glory our selves or give it to any other beside God then we may without fear delight in and make much of the Friendship of the Creatures we may love and be belov'd give and receive Worship and Adoration we may then shew our selves to the World to attract the Esteem and Love of the World we may exalt and expose our selves to View as Objects fit to employ those Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself we may then employ our selves either about our selves or the imaginary Power of the Creatures VIII There is nothing certainly more agreeable both to Christianity and Reason than this Principle That it is God alone who doth every thing and that he communicates his Power to the Creatures no otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by in such a manner as bears the Character of an infinite Wisdom an immutable Nature and an universal Cause in such a manner that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves is refer'd to the Creator alone when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them execute such Designs as were form'd before their Creation What is more holy than this Principle which clearly shews to such as are capable of rightly understanding it that in many Cases it is lawful for us to approach the Objects of our Senses by the Motion of our Body but that we must reserve all the Motions of our Soul for God alone For we may nay and many times ought to move toward the occasional Cause of our Sensations but we must never leave it We may join our selves to other Men but we must never adore them with the Motion of our Love either as our Good or as capable of procuring us any Good We must love and fear only the true Cause of Good and Evil We must love and fear
none but God in the Creatures Jer. 17.7 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his Arm. IX This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy than that which the Heathens have left us In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was that she makes this Prayer to God and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart Deliver us O Lord with thine hand Esther 14.14 c. and help me that am desolate and which have no other helper but thee Thou knowest all things O Lord thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised and of all the Heathen Thou knowest my necessity for I abhor the sign of my high Estate which is upon mine Head in the days whereon I shew my self and that I wear it not when I am private by my self And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present but in thee O Lord God of Abraham This great Queen takes God to witness That she had no joy but in him alone Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures yet she despises her Greatness and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul Thine Hand-maid never had any joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham What constancy of Mind what greatness of Soul This is it which the Law of God teaches us and this also is demonstrated by that Principle that God alone doth every thing and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendor which seems to environ them and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them But the Duties we owe to Power which is in none but God require a more particular Explication X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgments and Motions of the Soul as I said before For God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind This clear Perception That God alone hath Power obliges us to form the following Judgments 1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being 2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being or of our Time 3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge 4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will 5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations Pleasure Pain Hunger Thirst c. 6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body 7. That neither Men nor Angels nor Devils nor any other Creature can of themselves do us either good or harm That they may nevertheless as Occasional Causes determine God in consequence of certain general Laws to do us good or harm by means of the Body to which we are united 8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength but only oblige God by our practical Desires in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body to do good or harm to other Men For we indeed have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them XI These Judgments require of us the following Motions 1. To love none but God with a Love of Vnion or Conjunction because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness either small or great transitory or durable I say with a Love of Vnion for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good or the Cause of our Happiness but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us The word Love is equivocal and therefore we must take care of it 2. To have no joy but in God alone for he that rejoyces in any other thing judges that that other thing can make him happy which is a false Judgment and can cause only an irregular Motion 3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws to promote Iniquity 4. Not to unite our selves to them without a particular necessity for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve besides the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body fortify Concupiscence disturb the Mind and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance 5. To fear none but God because he alone can Punish us We must fear God in this life to keep us from offending him The happy day will come which excluding Sin shall also banish Fear 6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable He that grieves at the loss of a false Good gives Honour to it and considers it as a true Good And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy afflicts himself in vain Self-love enlightned is griev'd only for its own Disorders and Charity for those of others 7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable yet we must not hate him tho' we may fear him Only he that is harden'd in Sin hates God out of Self-love for being sensible that he will not obey God or knowing as the damn'd do that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with he hath no means of access or return to God the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery 8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery We may separate our selves from them But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God 9. We should will nothing but what God wills because we can do nothing but what God doth If we have not the Power to act it is plain that we should not have the Will to act Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power not only in God but
intelligent Being to another 3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions in consequence of our own Desires or Attention But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form the Idea and the immediate Object of them The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth It may by the action of God upon it be sensible of its own Pain Pleasure Perception and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable but it cannot engross to it self the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Beings For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational Wise Just and compleatly Perfect 4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them 5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors 6. When we retire into our selves it is not we that answer our selves but the inward Master which dwells in us which presides immediately over all spiritual Beings and gives them all the same answers XI Mat. 23.8 See S Augustincts Treathe De Mâ—gistro All those may be reduc'd to that general proposition of our Saviours that we have but one Master even Christ himself who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light when we retire into our selves and solidly instructs us by Faith when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited XII From this great Principle the following Duties are deriv'd 1. Not to value our selves on our Knowledge but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it 2. To retire into our Selves as much as we can and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men. 3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason and the infallible Authority of the Church 4. Whenever Men speak to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears with that which Reason answers to our Mind never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact and that too with a kind of saving and reservation 5. Never to speak to them at least not with an air of Confidence before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence 6. To speak to them always as Monitors not as Masters to question them often and in different manners and to lead them insensibly to our common Master the universal Reason by obliging them to retire into themselves There is no way to instruct them but this 7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake nor even to propose Truth to others when the Company they are in Passion or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand that they will not retire into themselves to hear the decision of the impartial Judge 8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it and useful to our selves either to conduct us to Good or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind 9. To lay up carefully in our Memory as far as it is possible to be done none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences none but necessary Truths or the precious answer of the inward Truth 10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact especially those that have no certain Rules to be judg'd by such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind and often corrupt the Heart 11. Our inviolable Law is Order not Custom which is many times opposite to Order and Reason To follow Example without confronting it with Order is to act like Brutes and by Mechanism only Nay it is better tho' that be bad enough to make our own Pleasure our Law than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear 12. We should set no value on Subtilty Beauty or even Strength of Imagination nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World An over-nice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination and whenever the Body speaks it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded 13. To confirm us in this dis-esteem we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies We should very seldom regard Mens outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World 14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God and wanders among the Creatures A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty 15. We should ardently love Truth Wisdom or the universal Reason We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it Wis 7.9 All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention My delights were with thâ— Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 We should place our whole Delight in consulting it in hearing its Answers and obeying its Commands as that delights to converse with us and to be always among us CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that to be Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Miseries That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties I. WE depend on the power of God and do nothing but by his Efficacy We are united to his Wisdom and know nothing but by his Light But this is not all we are also animated and inspir'd by his Love in such a manner that we are not capable of loving any Good but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself This is what I must now explain in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself He cannot Will but by his own Will and his Will is not like ours an impression proceeding from and tending toward something else As he is his own
Good his Love can be no other but Love of himself His end is himself and can be nothing but himself Therefore he doth not produce in spiritual Beings a Love which hath a different tendency from his own for the love of Good in spiritual Beings proceeds only from the Will of God which is nothing else but the Love he bears to himself But further there are not Two or more true Goods there is but one alone for there is but one true Cause Therefore there is nothing amiable I mean with a love of Union but God So then since God cannot will that we should Love that which is not amiable or not Love that which is amiable supposing that we are capable of Loving our Love proceeding from God must necessarily according to the primitive institution of its Nature tend toward him and be refer'd to him alone III. God having created our Souls with a design to make them happy continually imprints on them a Love for Good and as he acts only for himself and Good neither is nor can be in any but in him this natural Love of Good doth of it self carry them toward God alone For this Love is like that which God bears to himself It is also invincible and irresistible because it is a powerful and continual Impression of the divine Love and it is the same thing with our Will for it is only by the particular determinations of this Love that we are capable of loving all Objects that have the appearance of Good IV. From hence it is plain that we cannot love Evil and that we have no Motion ordain'd for that end Notwithstanding we may mistake Evil for Good and so we may love Evil by loving Good we may love Evil out of choice by loving Good naturally we may love Evil or rather that which is neither Good nor Evil by a horrid abuse of that love for Good which God continually imprints on us to make us Love him as being our only Good or alone capable of making us happy For we must take particular notice that the Creatures tho' they are all Perfect or Good in themselves are neither Good nor Evil in respect of us because they have not really the power to do us either Good or Harm As they are occasional causes of Good or Evil of Pleasure or Pain we may unite our selves to them or separate our selves from them by the motion of our Body But we cannot reasonably Love or Fear them because every Motion which doth not tend toward God the beginning and end of it is irregular and if it be free and voluntary deserves to be Punish'd V. It is also evident that we cannot hate Good for since we invincibly desire to be happy we cannot separate our selves from that which makes us so but we may mistake Good for Evil and so hate Good from the hatred we have for Evil. And even this hatred is at the bottom a motion of Love We fly from Evil only by the motion of the Love we have for Good For God having created us to be happy by loving him hath given us no motion to separate us from him but only to unite us to him The wicked or the damn'd hate God with an invincible and irreconcilable Hatred but this proceeds from the very Love which God hath given them for himself For since God is not their Good but their Evil or the cause of their Punishment according to the Psalmist Psal 18.26 With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure and with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward they hate him by that irresistible Motion which God who is immutable in his proceeding gives then for their Happiness VI. For the right understanding of this it is sufficient to observe that actual Pleasure is the formal cause of actual Happiness as Pain is of Misery Now the Damn'd feel Pain the harden'd Sinner fears it The Damn'd know that God alone is the cause of Pain the Sinner believes he is Therefore both of them from the very desire they have to be Happy must of necessity make a wrong use of that Motion which God gives them to unite them to himself and must separate themselves from him for the more they are united to God the more God acts on them the more sensible they are of their Misery The Blessed on the contrary for a like reason cannot cease to love God And those that have access to God those that expect to find their Happiness in him Sinners who by Faith in Christ have hope of returning and finding favour with God may by the invincible desire of Happiness love and fear God This is our condition in this Life VII Now that the natural Love which God continually imprints on us may still continue Love and not be turn'd into Hatred that the love of Happiness may make us Happy that it may carry us toward God and unite us to him instead of separating us from him In a word that God may be or continue Good in respect of us and not become Evil our Love must always be conformable to or resembling the divine Love we must love Perfection as well as Happiness we must remain united to the wisdom of God as well as to his Power For God when he created Man gave him in the love of Good and by the impression of the Love which he bears to himself as it were two sorts of Love one of Happiness and the other of Perfection By the love of Happiness he united him to his Power which alone can make him Happy and by the love of Perfection he united him to his Wisdom by which alone as his inviolable Law he ought to be govern'd God if I may so say is divinely inspir'd with both these Loves They are inseparable in him and they cannot be separated in us without destroying us utterly For the power of God is Wise and Just His Wisdom is all Powerful and he that thinks to retain the love of his Happiness without the love of his Perfection without the love of Wisdom Justice and the immutable Order that love of Happiness will only serve to make him eternally Miserable God by his Power will not be the Good of Men but their Evil if by his Wisdom he is not their Law or the principle of their inward Reformation For Happiness is a Reward It is not enough to desire the enjoyment of it but we must also deserve it And we cannot deserve it if we do not govern the motions of our Heart by the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings and regulate them according to the Model by which Man was first form'd and by which he must be form'd anew In a word the love of Conformity which relates to the immutable Order or the Wisdom of God must always be joyn'd with the love of Union which relates to his Power that so our Love being like the divine Love may carry us to all the Happiness and all the Perfection that
the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
The Mind clearly sees all this And what then must our self-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-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 Câ—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 Acâ—in Malacca and other Places in the East-Indies Second his Voyage to the Bay of Campeacâ—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
unite our selves to corporeal Objects and separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible p. 99. CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves p. 109. CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART Of Duties CHAP. I. GOod Men often do wicked Actions The Love of Order must be enlightned to make it regular Three Conditions requir'd to make an Action perfectly Vertuous We should study the Duties of Man in general and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular Page 1. CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments p. 4. CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason p. 14. CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that for Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Misery That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties p. 21. CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30. CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous p. 36. CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general Rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter p. 42. CHAP. VIII Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect We should procure all Men the true Goods and not relative Goods Who it is that fulfills the Duties of Benevolence The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportion'd to the greatness of participated Power p. 52. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects p. 61. CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife The Ground of these Duties Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality Parents should give their Children a good Example They should govern them by Reason They have no right to use them ill Children owe Obedience to their Parents in all Things p. 69. CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours p. 81. CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep p. 90. CHAP. XIII A Continuatian of the same Subject If we would be belov'd we must make our selves amiable The Qualities which make a Man amiable Rules for Conversation Of different Airs Of Christian Friendships p. 100. CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness p. 110. A TREATISE OF Morality PART I. CHAP. I. Vniversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct I. THE Reason of Man is the Word See the first and second Christian Meditation or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas Search after Truth Tom. 3. or the Wisdom of God himself for every Creature is a particular Being but the Reason of Man is Universal II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Beings for I am certain that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Beings No one can feel my Pain but my self but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Beings III. Thus by the means of Reason I have or may have some Society with God and all other intelligent Beings because they all possess something in common with me to wit Reason IV. This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word from which all Spiritual Beings may receive their Nourishment In
to change his state and condition Perfection then or Vertue doth not consist in following the Order of Nature but in submitting wholly to the immutable and necessary Order the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings CHAP. II. There is no other Vertue but the Love of Order and Reason Without this Love all Vertues are false We must not confound Duties with Vertues We may discharge our Duties without Vertue 'T is for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs Faith serves or conducts to Reason For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Beings I. THE Love of Order is not only the chief of all moral Vertues but the only Vertue It is the Mother Vertue the fundamental universal Vertue the Vertue which alone makes the Habits or Dispositions of our Minds vertuous He that bestows his Goods on the Poor out of Vanity or natural Compassion is not liberal because it is not Reason that guides him nor Order that governs him it is nothing but Pride or Mechanism Officers that voluntarily expose themselves to Dangers are not brave if it is Ambition that animates them nor Soldiers if it is only an abundance of Spirits and the Fermentation of the Blood This imaginary noble Ardour is nothing but Vanity or Clock-work A little Wine oftentimes is sufficient to produce a great deal of it He that bears the Injuries that are offer'd him many times is neither moderate not patient 'T is his Slothfulness that makes him immoveable or his ridiculous and stoical Bravery that bears him up and in imagination sets him above his Enemies It may be nothing but the disposition of the Machine want of Spirits coldness of Blood Melancholy and perhaps above all some contagious Distemper of a strong Imagination The same may be said of all the other Vertues If the love of Order be not the foundation of them they are false and vain and altogether unbecoming a reasonable Nature which bears the Image of God himself and hath a communication with him They derive their Original from the Body only they are not form'd by the Holy Ghost and whoever makes them the Object of his Desires and the Foundation of his Glory hath a base and abject Mind a mean Spirit and a corrupted Heart But whatever a rebellious Imagination may think it is not mean nor servile to submit to the Law of God himself nothing is more just than to be conformable to Order nothing is more great and noble than to obey God nothing is more brave and generous than to follow the Party of Reason with an unshaken Constancy and inviolable Fidelity not only when one may follow it with Honour but then more especially when the circumstances of Times and Places are such that one cannot do it without the greatest Shame and Disgrace For he that passes for a Fool in following Reason loves Reasom more than himself But he that follows Order only when it shines and sparkles in the Eyes of the World seeks only Glory and though he may appear very Glorious in the Eyes of Men he is an Abomination in the Sight of God II. I know not whether I may be mistaken or no but I believe there are abundance of People that do not rightly know what true Vertue is and even those that have writ of Morality do not always speak very clearly and exactly of it It is certain that all those great Names which they give to Vertues and Vices produce rather confus'd Sensations in the Mind than clear Ideas But because these Sensations affect the Soul and abstracted Ideas tho' clear in themselves do not diffuse their Light but in attentive Minds Men most commonly rest satisfied with these words which please the Senses but leave the Mind in the dark They fancy that a Discourse the more briskly it strikes upon the Imagination the more Solid it is and look upon those exact Reasonings which disappear when Attention is wanting as Spectres and Illusions like Children who judging of Objects by the Impression they make on their Senses imagine that there is more Matter in Ice than in Water in Gold and heavy and hard Metals than in the Air which surrounds them almost without being felt III. Besides whatever is familiar to us doth not surprise us we never stand to examine it we think we conceive very well what we have said our selves or heard others say a great many times tho' we have never examin'd it But the most solid and evident Truths always create Distrust in us when they are new Thus a Word of an obscure and confus'd Signification seems clear and obvious how equivocal soever it be if common use hath made it current but a Term which contains nothing equivocal in it seems obscure and dangerous if we have never heard it us'd by those Persons whom we love and esteem This is the cause that the Terms of Morality are the most obscure and confus'd and especially those which we look upon as the most clear because they are the most common Every one for Example imagines he understands very well the Signification of these Terms Loving Fearing Honouring Charity Humility Generosity Pride Envy self-Self-love and if a Man should join clear Ideas to these Terms and to all the Names which are given to Vertues and Vices besides that this supposes more Knowledge than is generally believ'd he would certainly take the most confus'd and perplex'd way to treat of Morality For it will appear in the sequel of this Discourse that to define these Terms rightly he ought first clearly to comprehend the Principles of that Science and to be well vers'd in the Knowledge of Human Nature IV. One of the greatest Defects observable in the Moral Writings of some Philosophers is that they confound Duties with Vertues or that they give the name of Vertues to simple Duties So that tho' properly there be but one Vertue to wit the love of Order they make an infinite number of them This is it which causes such Confusion and so perplexes that Science that it is very hard to understand throughly what a Man must do to be perfectly Good and Vertuous V. It is evident that Vertue ought to render him Virtuous that possesses it and yet a Man may acquit himself of his Duty and with ease perform acts of Humility Generosity or Liberality without any of these Vertues So that a disposition or facility of performing such Duties is not properly Vertue without the love of Order When a Man discharges his Duty he is Vertuous in the Eyes of Men when he bestows part of his Goods on his Friend he appears Liberal and Generous But Men are not always such as they seem to be and he that never neglects the outward Offices of Friendship but when they are contrary to the inviolable Order tho' he may sometimes seem guilty of Infidelity is a truer and more faithful Friend at least he is a more Vertuous Man and more worthy of Love than those hot and
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
Spiritual and consequently not Rational This is Life eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ his only Son To have Sentiments worthy of the divine Attributes and Motions agreable to those Sentiments To know Jesus Christ who alone gives us access to the Father and diffuses Charity in our Hearts To be fully convinc'd that he alone is the High-Priest of the true Goods or the occasional cause of Grace that so we may draw near to him with Confidence and by his assistance excite in our selves such Motions as are suitable to the knowledge he hath given us of the true Worship which honours the divine Majesty But instead of this every one frames to himself a Theology a Religion or at least a Devotion apart of which Self-love is the Motive Prejudice and Possession the Foundation and Beginning and sensual Goods the End The Worship of God consists many times only in outward Sacrifices in verbal Prayers in Ceremonies which were at first ordain'd to raise the Mind to God but now serve only by their splendor and magnificence to refresh the Imagination in most People when they are tir'd and out of relish with the performance of their Duties to God Custom human Considerations or Hypocrisy carry their Bodies into the Church But their Minds and Hearts never come there And while the Priest offers up Jesus Christ to God in their Presence or rather while Christ offers up himself to his Father for their Sins on our Altars they on their part Sacrifice to Ambition Avarice or Pleasure spiritual Sacrifices in all the places whither their Imagination carries them CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous I. HAVING explain'd in general the Duties which we owe to God we must now examine those which we owe to other Men as God hath made us to live in Society with them under the same Law the universal Reason and in a dependance on the same Power that of the King of Kings and supreme Lord of all things II. We are capable of forming Two sorts of Society with other Men A Society for some Years and an eternal Society A Society of Commerce and a Society of Religion A Society maintain'd by the Passions and subsisting in a communion of particular and perishing Goods whose end is the preservation and welfare of the Body and a Society govern'd by Reason supported by Faith and subsisting in the communion of the true Goods whose end is a happy Life to all eternity III. The great or indeed the only design of God is the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem where Truth and Justice inhabit All other Societies shall Perish tho' God be immutable in his Designs But this spiritual Society shall continue for ever The Kingdom of Christ shall have no end His Temple shall be eternal His Priest-hood shall never the chang'd Psal 110.3 The Lord hath Sworn and will not Repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The House of God is built on an unshaken Foundation on that belov'd Son in whom God is well-pleas'd and by whom all things shall subsist to the Glory of him who gives them their Being IV. When we procure any settlement here below for our selves or our Friends we build on the Sand we place our Friends in a tottering House it will sink under us at the Hour of Death to be sure But when we enter our selves as Workmen in the building of the Temple of the true Solomon and cause others to come in we then labour for Eternity This Work shall last to all Ages This then is the good which we ought to procure for our selves and other Men This is the chief end of all our Duties toward them This is that holy Society which we must begin here below by the love which we owe to one another For since the design of God in these temporary and perishing Societies is only to furnish Christ the Architect of the eternal Temple with fit Materials for the building of his Church we cannot fail of performing essential Duties when we engage in the designs of him who would have all Men to be sav'd and employ all our Faculties in hastning his great Work and in procuring to Men those good things for which they were created V. So when our Saviour bids us Love one another we must not imagine that he absolutely commands us any other thing than to procure one another the true and spiritual Goods What kind of Blessings were those which he showr'd on his Apostles and Disciples Did he give them the fading and perishing Goods such as the pretended Friends of this World give to those that gratify their Passions Did he constantly deliver them out of the Hands of their Persecutors No certainly-Therefore the principal Duties of our Charity do not consist in such things as these We must assist our Neighbour and preserve his Life as we are oblig'd to preserve our own but we must prefer the Salvation of our Neighbour before his and our own Life VI. To Love therefore is an equivocal Term. It signifies Three very different things which we must carefully distinguish To unite our selves by our Will to an Object as our Good or the cause of our Happiness To conform our selves to any thing as our pattern or the rule of our Perfection And to wish well to any Person or to desire that he may be happy and perfect The love of Union is due only to the power of God The love of Conformity is due only to the law of God the immutable Order No Creature is capable of acting on us No Person can be our living Law or our perfect Model Christ himself tho' he was without Sin tho' he was Reason incarnate did some things which we must not do because the circumstances not being the same the intellectual Reason the inviolable Law the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings forbids us to do them VII So then we must not love our Neighbour with a love of Union nor with a love of Conformity But we may and ought to Love him with a love of Benevolence We must Love him in that sense of the Word which signifies to desire his Happiness and Perfection and as our practical desires are the occasional causes of certain effects which conduce to that end we must use all our endeavours to procure him solid Vertue that he may merit the true Goods which are the reward of it This is the obligation that truly and absolutely lies upon us from that Commandment which our Saviour hath given us in the Gospel to Love one another as ourselves and as he hath loved us VIII To Honour is also an equivocal Word It denotes a submission of the
it self is absolutely incomprehensible XIII In like manner that a Beast is more valuable than a Stone and less valuable than a Man is true because a Beast bears a greater proportion or relation of perfection to a Stone than a Stone doth to a Beast and a Beast hath a less proportion of perfection compar'd to a Man than a Man hath compar'd to a Beast And he that sees these Relations sees such Truths as ought to regulate his esteem and consequently that sort of Love that is determin'd by esteem But he that esteems his Horse more than his Coachman or thinks that a Stone is in it self more valuable than a Flie or than the very least of organiz'd Bodies doth not see that which perhaps he thinks he doth it is not universal Reason but his own particular Reason that makes him judge after that manner It is not the love of Order but self-love which inclines him to love as he doth That which he thinks he sees is neither visible nor intelligible 't is a false and imaginary Relation And he that governs his esteem or love by this or the like Relation must necessarily fall into Error and Irregularity XIV Since Truth and Order are Relations of greatness and perfection real immutable and necessary relations relations comprehended in the substance of the Divine Word he that sees these relations sees that which God sees He that regulates his Love according to these Relations observes a Law which God invincibly Loves So that there is a perfect conformity of Mind and Will between God and him In a word seeing he knows that which God knows and loves that which God loves he is like God as far as he is capable of being so So likewise since God invincibly loves himself he cannot but esteem and love his own Image And as he loves things in proportion to their being amiable he cannot but prefer it before all those Beings which either by their nature or corruption are far from resembling him XV. See the 3. Discourse of the Treatise of Nature and Grace Man is a free Agent and I suppose him to have all necessary assistances In respect of Truth he is capable of searching after it notwithstanding the difficulty he finds in Meditation and in respect of Order he is able to follow it in spite of all the efforts of Concupiscence He can sacrifice his Ease to Truth and his Pleasures to Order On the other side he can prefer his actual and present Happiness before his Duty and fall into error and disorder In a word he can deserve well or ill by doing good or evil Now God is just he loves his Creatures as they are worthy of Love or as they resemble him His Will therefore is that every good action should be rewarded and every evil one punished that he who hath made a good use of his Liberty and by that means hath render'd himself in part perfect and like God should be in part happy as he is and the contrary XVI See the Remarks upon the seeming efficacy of second Causes or the 5 and 6 Christian Meditations It is God alone that acts upon his Creatures at least he hath a power of acting on them and can do what he pleases with them He hath power therefore to make spiritual Beings happy or miserable happy by the enjoyment of Pleasure and miserable by the suffering of Pain He can exalt the just and perfect above other Men he can communicate his Power to them for the accomplishment of their desires and make them occasional causes for himself to act by in a Thousand manners He can pull down the wicked and make them subject to the action of the lowest Beings This Experience sufficiently shews for we all as we are Sinners depend upon the action of sensible objects XVII He therefore that labours for his Perfection and endeavours to make himself like God labours for his Happiness and Advancement If he doth that which in some sort depends upon himself that is to say if he deserves well by making himself perfect God will do that which in no sort depends upon him in making him happy For since God loves all Beings proportionably as they are amiable and the most perfect Beings are the most amiable the most perfect Beings shall be the most powerful the most happy and the most contented He that incessantly consults his Reason and loves Order having a share in the Perfection of God shall have also a share in his Happiness Glory and Greatness XVIII Man is capable of three Things Knowing Loving and sensibly Perceiving of knowing the true Good of loving and enjoying it The knowledge and love of Good are in a great measure in his own power but the enjoyment of it doth not at all depend upon himself Nevertheless seeing God is just he that knows and loves him shall also enjoy him God being just must of necessity give the pleasure of enjoyment and by it Happiness to him that by a painful application seeks the knowledge of the Truth and by a right use of his Liberty and the strength of his Resolution conforms himself to the Law of God the immutable Order notwithstanding all the efforts of Concupiscence enduring Pain despising Pleasure and giving that Honour to his Reason as to believe it upon its Word and to comfort himself with its Promises It is a strange thing Men know very well that the enjoyment of Pleasure and avoiding of Pain do not depend immediately on their Desires They find on the contrary that it is in their own power to have good Thoughts and to love good Things that the light of Truth diffuses it self in them as soon as they desire it and that the loving and following of Order depends on themselves * This Age is so ill-natured or so nice that there are somethings which it is not sufficient for a Man not to say but he must also assure the World and that more than once that he doth not say them And therefore my Readers must pardon me if I seem to distrust their equity I still suppose those necessary assistances which are never wanting to those who have Faith but through their own negligence And yet they seek after nothing but Pleasure and neglect the foundation of their eternal Happiness that knowledge and love which resemble the knowledge and love of God the knowledge of Truth and the love of Order for as I said before he that knows Truth and loves Order knows as God knows and loves as he loves XIX This then is our first and greatest Duty that for which God hath created us the love of which is the Mother of all Vertue the universal the fundamental Vertue the Vertue which makes us just and perfect and which will one Day make us happy We are rational Creatures our Vertue and Perfection is to love Reason or rather to love Order For the knowledge of speculative Truths or relations of Greatness doth not regulate our
in truth certain modifications of our own proper Being but unknown to us cause us to will in such a manner that this Volition seems to depend wholly on our selves for we will so freely and readily that we think nothing obliges us to do it It is true indeed that nothing obliges us to will but our selves but then that which we call Our Selves is not our Being purely natural or perfectly free in respect of Good and Evil but our Being dispos'd toward one of them by certain Modifications which either corrupt or perfect it and render us in the sight of God either Just or Sinners and these Dispositions we should encrease or destroy by Acts which are the natural Causes of Habits IV. But to do this we must farther suppose that other important Truth that the Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its predominant Habit. For it is evident that if a Man whose ruling Disposition is Avarice should never act but by some Motion of Avarice he would be so far from ever becoming Liberal that his Vice would continually augment according to that Principle which we have before laid down that Acts produce and fortifie Habits Nay we must allow that it is in the power of a vitious Man to perform some Acts of Vertue in order to free himself from his vitious Habits and to become a good Man but this Proposition requires a little further Explication V. I say then in respect of particular Habits First That a covetous Man for Example may act by a motive of Ambition this is neither difficult to believe nor prove Secondly That a covetous Man may do an Action contrary to Avarice by which he is govern'd for a covetous Man may be also Ambitious This being suppos'd I say that if his Passion for Riches be not mov'd and his Ambition be or if his Avarice be less excited than his Ambition in a reciprocal Proportion of the force of these two Passions it is certain that the covetous Man will do an act of Liberality if at that instant he determines himself to act which is certainly in his own power to do For a Man can will nothing but Good and at that instant the covetous Man will think it better to do that act of Liberality than not do it he will Sacrifice his love of Mony to that of Glory Thus it is evident that the Sinner may for Reasons of Self-love avoid following any certain determinate Motion of his Passions if he can but excite some contrary Passions and till then suspend the consent of his Will But still this is not sufficient to prove that he who Sins may help Sinning that the Sinner may rid himself of his vitious Habits and the just Man lose his Charity VI. Indeed the Case of particular Habits as Avarice or Liberality is not the same with that of the Love of Order or Self-love and tho' perhaps it may be granted that a covetous Man may do an act of Liberality yet without doubt it will not be so readily agreed that a Heathen can do an action conformable to Order or for Love of Order For my part I shall not dispute it but only endeavour to explain my own Sentiments clearly Let every one follow that which the Evidence of Reason and the Authority of Faith oblige him to believe and leave me when I go out of the Way which should lead me in the Search of Truth VII If Sinners or Heathens had no Love at all for Order they would be altogether incorrigible and if the Righteous had no Self-love they could not possibly Sin for according to my first Principle Habits are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. The Sinner being suppos'd to have no Love but for himself cannot act but by Self-love and therefore all his Actions must encrease the Corruption of his Heart On the other side if the righteous Man be suppos'd to have no Love but for Order he cannot act but by the Love of Order and then all his Actions must still encrease his Vertue So that upon this Supposition that a Sinner or a Heathen hath no Love but Self-love and a just Man no Love but the Love of Order the Sinner must be incorrigible and the just Man impeccable But I think I have sufficiently prov'd in the foregoing Chapter that the greatest Sinners have always some disposition to love Order and I think it cannot be doubted but that the best Men always retain some Relicks of Self-love VIII It is true indeed that a Heathen can never acquire Charity nor do any Action that may merit those Assistances that are necessary for obtaining the ruling Love of the immutable Order but he may do Actions conformable to Order he may perform good and meritorious Actions Chap. I. For a Heathen has always some Idea of Order this Idea is indeleble He hath always some Love for Order Chap. III. this Love is natural and immortal Now all Love is active when once it is excited And therefore if his Self-love do not oppose the Action of his Love of Order his Love of Order will act and produce its proper Acts Nay tho' his Self-love should oppose his Love of Order yet if his Love of Order be more excited than his Self-love in a reciprocal Proportion of the greatness of these two habitual Loves and their actual Motion his Love for Order would surmount his Self-love if at that instant he determin'd himself to act IX For instance an innocent Man is led to Execution This is contrary to Order A Heathen knows it and can by a word speaking prevent the breach of Order I suppose that his Self-love is not at all concern'd in the Life or Death of the Man Certainly he will prevent or at least will have Strength and Reason enough to speak and prevent this Offence against Order For my part I do not doubt upon the Supposition which I have made but that he would prevent it For all Men naturally love Order and are so united to it that one cannot violate Order without offending them in some measure The same things being suppos'd tho' this Man we speak of were covetous yet if his Passion for Mony were laid a sleep for a little while or tho' it were excited yet if only a Penny were desir'd of him to save the Life of that innocent Man certainly he would or at least might do an action contrary to his Self-love for in truth that opposition is but inconsiderable but it would be a very great Offence against Order which he is naturally dispos'd to Love if he should not offer that small Sacrifice to it X. Now those actions are good because they are conformable to Order and they are meritorious because they are accompanied with a Sacrifice of Self-love to the Love of Order But they are not meritorious in respect of the true Goods nor of any thing that leads to the Possession of them because those Sacrifices they offer are but inconsiderable and besides
they proceed from a corrupted Heart where Self-love hath an absolute Dominion XI A Man can have no Right to the true Goods if he be not just in the sight of God and he cannot be just before God if he be not more dispos'd to love Order than to love any Thing and even his own self or if he be not dispos'd not to love himself but according to Order So that tho' we should suppose a Heathen to love Order above all other Things with an actual Love which cannot be done but by the Motion of Grace yet God who judges the Soul not according to that which is transient in it but according to its six'd and permanent Dispositions could not look upon him as Just and Holy For one single Act of loving God above all Things cannot naturally change an inveterate Habit of Self-love This cannot be done without †I shall explain this in Chap. 8. the use of the Sacraments which Christ hath instituted for our Justification whereby one single Act of the love of God hath power to produce a Habit of it which alone gives us a Right to the true Goods And therefore none of the Philosophers not Socrates nor Plato nor Epictetus how enlightned soever they were in respect of their Duties nor even those who may be suppos'd to have shed their Blood for the Order of Justice can be saved if they did not receive that Grace which is to be obtain'd by Faith alone because God the just Judge could not judge them but according to the permanent Disposition of their Wills and tho' it were naturally possible for a Man to lay down his Neck by an actual Motion of the love of Justice yet this alone would not change the natural and inveterate Habit of his Self-love a Habit confirm'd and augmented every moment by the Motions of Concupisence during the whole Course of his Life XII Nevertheless since Heathens always retain some love for Order they may avoid the Sin which they commit by reviving that Love by declining every thing that may excite Self-love and by not consenting before they are forc'd to it as I shall shew hereafter but indeed they cannot fulfill the Commandments of God they cannot love Order more than themselves in all Cases This Reason may convince us of and Faith informs us that it is impossible for them to do only those who have Faith can do this and even amongst them all have not an equal Power there are none but the Just to whom nothing is wanting for the rest they may have recourse to Prayer if they are sensible of their own Weakness they may by the assistance of their Faith and in consequence of the Promises of Jesus Christ not by the necessity of the immutable Order of Justice merit the next degree of Power to keep the Commandments of God upon all Occasions XIII I shall repeat in a few words those essential Truths which I have here prov'd and which are necessary for the right understanding of the sequel of this Discourse Habits are acquir'd and confirm'd by Acts the ruling Habit doth not always act A Man may do such Acts as have no relation to it and sometimes such as are contrary to it and therefore he may alter his Habits XIV Again there is no Man let him be never so vitious who hath not some disposition to love Order And therefore every free and rational Man may I do not say become just but correct and amend himself XV. But supposing the assistance of Grace every Man may become just For the ruling Love of the immutable Order which justifies us in the sight of God is a fix'd and permanent Disposition it is a Habit. Now we may acquire this Habit by the assistance of Grace not only because we may by the help of actual Grace freely perform so many or such vigorous Acts of the love of Order above all Things as will produce the Habit of it but with more ease and certainty because we may come to the Sacraments by the motion of this Love and the Sacraments of the New Testament infuse into our Hearts justifying Charity XVI All then that we have to do to acquire and preserve the ruling Love of the immutable Order or in shorter terms the love of Order consists in searching diligently what are the things that excite this Love and make it produce its proper Acts and what those are that can stop the actual Motion of Self-love Now I know but two Principles which determine the natural Motion of the Will and stir up the Habits to wit Light and Sense Without one of these Principles no Habit is form'd naturally and those which are form'd remain unactive If any one will take the pains to consult what he finds within himself he will easily be satisfied that the Will never actually loves any good except the Light discovers it or Pleasure renders it present to the Soul And if we consult Reason we shall be convinc'd that it must be so for otherwise the Author of Nature would imprint useless Motions on the Will XVII There is nothing then but Light and Pleasure which produce any actual Motion in the Soul Light discovers to it the Good which it loves by an irresistible impression and Pleasure assures it that that Good is actually present for the Soul is never more fully convinced of its Good than when it finds it self actually touch'd with the Pleasure which makes it happy Let us therefore enquire into the Means by which we may cause the Light to diffuse it self in our Minds and make our Hearts be touch'd with such Sensations as are suitable to our Design which is to produce in us the Acts of the Love of Order or to hinder us from forming those of Self-love for it is evident that all the Precepts of Morality absolutely depend on these Means In this enquiry I shall observe the following Method XVIII First I shall examine by what Means we may be enlightned as to our Duties For the Light ought always to go first and besides the discovery of Good depends much more upon our selves than the relish of it For generally our Wills are the occasional direct and immediate Causes of our Knowledge but never of our Sense Afterwards I shall enquire into the occasional Causes of our Sensations and the power we have over them that by their means we may dispose the Author of Grace and Nature to affect us in such a manner that the Love of Order may be excited in us and quicken us and Self-love or Concupiscence may remain without Motion XIX I shall first speak of those Sensations which God produces in us in consequence of the Order of Grace because these have power to produce in us such Acts of the Love of Order as are capable of forming the Habit of it After that I shall treat of those Sensations produc'd in us by God in consequence of the Order of Nature which cannot weaken our vitious Habits but
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
said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye do remit they are remitted unto them c. From whence it is manifest first that the Apostles and consequently Priests have power to forgive Sins this I think cannot be denied Secondly that this Sacrament as also all those of the New Testament tho' for other Reasons than these which I here make use of do confer justifying Charity or an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order For God doth not judge of a Man by that which he knows to be transient and actual in him but by fix'd and permanent Dispositions Therefore an actual love of Order doth not justify but only an habitual Love For God who inviolably loves Order cannot love a Heart that is irregular and more dispos'd toward evil than toward good Now the Priest hath power to forgive Sins Therefore he hath power to render a Sinner acceptable to God His Absolution then changes the Act into a Habit and a permanent Disposition For the Priest cannot judge of the state of the Penitent but only of his actual Resolution He cannot judge of the Penitent but only by the declaration which the Penitent himself makes to him and the Penitent himself cannot tell whether the love which he hath for Order be habitual or not For a Man cannot judge of himself but by the inward sense he hath of himself and this sense represents to him only the acts which he actually perceives and not the Habits if they be not form'd in him XI From hence it is evident that it is a pernicious Error to believe that the Absolution of the Priest delivers the Penitent only from the eternal Punishment due to Sin For the Priest having no way to be morally assur'd that a Penitent is justified in the sight of God could never give Absolution but at a venture if the Sacrament did not change the Act or the actual resolution of which we have an inward sense into an habitual Disposition which is not perceiv'd And besides how could this be a power of forgiving Sins to leave the Sinner in the Death of Sin and to do good only to the Righteous It is certain then that there is in Jesus Christ a permanent and efficacious desire in consequence of the power which God hath given him by making him the occasional cause of Grace that the state of the Penitent is chang'd by the absolution of the Priest and that he is deliver'd from the guilt of Sin as well as from the eternal Punishment which is due to it XII Certainly if we compare God's two Covenants with Men together to discover their several relations the Blessings promis'd by the Law with those which Christ hath merited for us and of which he is the dispenser we shall see plainly that as the Author of the Law gave a Right by his promises to temporal Goods so Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant must also give a Right to real and eternal Goods And therefore our Sacraments must operate in those who receive them Grace or justifying Charity which alone gives a Right to these true Goods For it is certain that God who loves Order cannot give Heaven to those who are more dispos'd to Evil than to Good and are actually in Disorder After all the Council of Trent hath determin'd the same thing which I here assert Sess 7. Can. 8 Sess 14. Chap 4. Cap. 5. It is an Article of our Faith that the Sacraments of the New Testament operate Grace or justifying Charity and that the Sinner who comes to the Sacrament of Penance by the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in him a motion which doth not justify for the Holy Ghost doth not yet dwell in him as the Council declares and for those reasons which I have set down that the Sinner I say truly receives the habitual Charity of Justification by the efficacy of the Sacrament which the Saviour of Sinners hath instituted to deliver them from the captivity of Sin XIII So then it is evident that the Sinner who is made contrite by any motive whatsoever for it matters not what it is when he feels himself touch'd with Repentance and hath obtain'd by his Prayers or otherwise sufficient strength to form the generous resolution of sinning no more or of renouncing his predominant Passion ought speedily to have recourse to Penance that so he may receive by this Sacrament that which in all probability he could never obtain by the ordinary way of Prayer XIV I know very well that many People condemn the fear of Hell as a motive of Self-love which can never produce any Good Notwithstanding I have made use of it as being the most lively and the most common Motive to excite us to do those things which may contribute to our Justification I know that they reject this motive as useless and on the contrary approve only of the hope of an eternal Reward as a holy and reasonable Motive by which most good Men are animated to Vertue according to those Words of David who was always so full of Fervour and Charity I have enclin'd my Heart to perform thy Statutes alway †Psal 119.112 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. propter retribuionem Vulg. Lat. because of the Reward Notwithstanding to desire to be Happy or to desire not to be Miserable is the same thing there is nothing more easy to be conceiv'd than this The fear of Pain and the desire of Pleasure are both of them but motions of Self-love Now Self-love in it self is not Evil. God continually produces it in us He irresistibly enclines us to Good and by the same Motion irresistibly diverts us from Evil. We cannot hinder our selves from desiring to be Happy and consequently from desiring not to be Miserable So then the fear of Hell and the hope of Heaven are two Motives equally Good Only that of Fear hath this advantage over the other that it is more lively strong and efficacious because generally supposing all other things equal we fear Pain more than we desire Pleasure Of this every Man may consult himself Nor let any one say that the eternal Reward comprehends in it the vision of God and therefore the hope of Reward is a good Motive For the same Reason will serve for Fear Hell excludes the Vision of God and the fear of not enjoying God is the same thing with the desire or hope of enjoying him So that if we compare Pleasure with Pain the loss of God with the enjoyment of him fear is as good a Motive as desire or hope But besides it hath this advantage that it is proper to awaken the most drowsy and stupid and for this reason it is that the Scripture and the Fathers make use of this * By Motive I understand that which excites in the Soul any actual motion of that kind of Love which I call'd befor love of Union Motive upon all occasions For after all it is not properly the
Body a simple general uniform and constant Method furnish us with various ways of Sanctifying our selves and Meriting the true Goods I have explain'd these Truths elsewhere but it is necessary to remember them here VI. This kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to the Creatures is look'd upon by many People as a groundless Imagination For the Operation of God not being sensible we think we answer and reprove our selves when it is the universal Reason which answers and reproves us in the most secret part of our selves It is certain that he who knows not what Truth and Order is knows not this Union tho' perhaps it may act in him as he who doth not love Truth nor obey Order breaks the Union tho' perhaps he knows it VII But as for that kind of Union of the Soul with God which relates to the Creatures we believe it real but we have a wrong Notion of it For we imagine that we receive from the Objects that which comes from God alone The Cause of this Mistake is the same with that of the former The Divine Operation not being visible we attribute to the Objects which strike our Senses all that we feel in their Presence tho' they are no otherwise present to the Soul than as God who is more present to us than we are to our selves represents them to us in his own Substance which is the only intellectual Substance the only Substance capable of acting on us and of producing in us all those Sensations which render intellectual Ideas sensible and make us judge confusedly not only that there are Bodies but also that they are those Bodies which operate on us and make us happy which is the most general Cause of all our Miscarriages VIII We would always be happy and never miserable Actual Pleasure causes actual Happiness and Pain Misery Now we feel Pleasure and Pain in the presence of corporeal Objects and believe those Objects to be the true Causes of them So that there is a necessity almost that we should fear and love them Nay tho' we are convinc'd by Metaphysical and certain Demonstrations that God alone is the true Cause yet this doth not give us Strength enough to slight and disregard them when we actually enjoy them For the judgments of the Senses work more powerfully on us than the most solid Reasons because it is not Light so much as Pleasure which stirs the Soul and puts it in Motion IX So then it is evident that to preserve a ruling Love of the immutable Order we must on the one hand use all our endeavours to strengthen this kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to sensible Objects and on the other we must slacken as much as we can that kind of Union which relates to Bodies Substances inferiour to ours which are so far from being able to make us perfect that they have no power to act on us nor corrupt us but only because the Sin of our first Parent hath brought in Concupiscence which consists wholly in the Loss we have sustain'd of the power to stop or suspend the Laws of the Communication of those Motions by which the Bodies that are about us act on that Body which we animate and by that on our Mind in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body X. Christian Meditat 13 14 c. I think I have sufficiently prov'd already at least as to some Persons that since all the Motions of the Soul depend on Light and Sense to excite in us that Motion which carries us toward God and keeps us united to him it is necessary that we should continually exercise our selves in the Labour of Attention the occasional Cause of Light and frequently call upon Jesus Christ the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense I shall now examine the Means whereby we may diminish the Union that is between Us and the Creatures and hinder them from having any share with God in our Mind and Heart For we are so plac'd between God and corporeal Objects that we cannot move toward them without departing from God and the breaking off our Correspondence with them is sufficient to unite us to God through the continual influence which Christ sheds on his Members XI That which I shall say of this matter is not so necessary for those that have read and consider'd the Principles which I have laid down in the Search of Truth And if all Men were capable of so much Reason as to think methodically or at least had so much Justice as to believe that an Author hath thought of the Subject he treats of more than they I should not be oblig'd to repeat in general what I have already said or prov'd in other places and in various manners No body reads Apollonius or Archimedes that hath not learnt Euclid because he can understand nothing of Conical Sections without knowing the common Elements of Geometry and in Geometrical matters when a Man doth not understand a thing he knows he doth not understand it But in matters of Morality or Religion every one I know not why thinks himself sufficiently capable of comprehending whatever he reads So that everyone takes upon him to judge without considering that Morality for instance I mean Morality demonstrated or explain'd by Principles is to the Knowledge of Man what the Science of curve Lines is to that of strait Lines XII Wherefore I think it requisite in this place to suppose certain Principles which I have prov'd elsewhere and which are necessary for the sequel of this Discourse This will perhaps illustrate many Things which I have said and which I very much fear have not well been understood but these suppositions are not design'd for those who have consider'd the Principles which I have elsewhere explain'd or fully comprehend what I have said hitherto They may go on to the next Chapter and save themselves a needless Labour XIII First then I take it for granted that to have a right Notion of the Union of the Soul and Body we must not confound the Ideas of these two Substances as most do who join them together by extending the Soul to all the parts of the Body and attribute to the Body all the Sensations which belong to the Soul The Union of the Soul and Body consists in the mutual and reciprocal Action of these two Beings in consequence of the Operations of the Divine Will which alone can change the modifications of Substances The Soul thinks and is not exended The Body is extended and doth not think Therefore the Soul cannot be united to the Body by Extension but only by Thinking nor the Body to the Soul by Sensation but only by Situation and local Motion The Body is wounded but the Soul feels it The Soul fears an Evil and the Body flies from it The Soul would move the Arm the Arm immediately moves it self and the Soul sees and feels
confus'd IV. The Love of Order therefore requires of us three Conditions to make any of our Actions conformable to it First That we examine the Action in it self and all its Circumstances as far as we are able Secondly That we suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us or the Execution till Necessity obliges us to defer it no longer Thirdly That we readily exactly and inviolably obey Order as far as it is known to us Strength of Mind must make us couragiously undergo the labour of Attention Liberty of Mind must moderate and wisely govern the desire of Assent Submission of Mind must make us follow the Light step by step without ever going before it or forsaking it and the Love of Order must animate and quicken these three Faculties by which tho' it be hid in the bottom of our Heart it discovers it self to the Eyes of the World and sanctifies all our Actions in the sight of God V. But since it is impossible for a Man that is not vers'd in the Science of Morality to discover the Order of his Duties in sudden and unexpected Occasions tho' he have never so great strength and liberty of Mind it is necessary for him to provide against those Occasions which leave him no time for Examination and by a prudent foresight to inform himself of his Duties in general or of some certain and undeniable Principles to govern his Actions by in particular Cases This study of a Man's Duties ought without doubt to be prefer'd before all others Its End and Reward is Eternity He that applies himself to Languages to the Mathematicks to Business and neglects the study of the general Rules for the Government of his Life is like a foolish Traveller who loiters by the way or rambles out of it and is overtaken by the Night an eternal Night which will deprive him for ever of the sight of his Country fill him with immortal despair and leave him expos'd to the dreadful wrath of the Lamb and the power of the Devils or rather the justice of an avenging God VI. He that should go about to examine in particular all the Duties belonging to the several conditions of Men would undertake a Work which he could never finish how indefatigable soever he were For my part I am too sensible of my own weakness to engage in so vast and difficult a Design and all that I here pretend to is to set down in general and that chiefly for my own private use the Duties which all Men as far as they are able ought to pay to God their Neighbour and Themselves Every Man must examine his own particular Duties himself as they relate to the general and essential Obligations and according to Circumstances which vary every moment We should set apart some time for this every day and not expect to find in Books nor it may be in other Men so much Certainty and Light as we may in our selves if we consult the inward Truth sincerely faithfully and in the motion of the Love of Order CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments I. THe immutable and necessary Order requires that the Creature should depend on the Creator that every Copy should answer to its Original and that Man being made after the Image of God should live in Obedience to God united to God and like God as far as is possible obedient to his Power united to his Wisdom and perfectly like him in all the motions of his Heart Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect saith our Saviour to his Disciples even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Indeed we shall not be truly like God till being swallowed up in the contemplation of his Essence we shall be wholly penetrated with his Light and Pleasure But thither it is that we must tend it is that which Faith gives us a Right to hope for that to which it conducts us that which it gives us an earnest of by the inward Reformation which the Grace of Christ works in us For Faith leads us to the understanding of the Truth and merits for us the Grace of Charity Now Understanding and Charity are the two essential strokes which draw our Minds anew after our Original who is call'd in the Scriptures Truth and Love Beloved saith St. John 1 John 3.2 3. now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart saith Christ himself for they shall see God II. To discover the Duties which we owe to God we must attentively consider all his Attributes and consult our selves in reference to them Especially we must examine his Power Wisdom and Love and on our own part our Judgments and Motions For it is only by the Judgments and Motions of our Minds that we render to God that which we owe him as it is chiefly on the account of his Power Wisdom and Love that we indispensably owe him the greatest Duties III. When in thinking on God we consider him only as a Being of infinite Reality or Perfection we are convinc'd that Order requires us to esteem him infinitely But we do not naturally conclude from this alone that we ought to worship fear or love him c. The consideration of God barely in himself or without any relation to us doth not excite those Motions in the Soul which carry it towards Good or the cause of its Happiness and produce in it fit dispositions to receive the influence of that Good There is nothing more evident than that a Being infinitely perfect ought to be infinitely esteem'd No one can refuse God this speculative Duty for it consists only in a simple Judgment which no one can suspend when the Evidence is full and convincing And therefore wicked Men those that have no Religion those that deny the Providence of God willingly pay him this Duty But as they imagine that God doth not concern himself with our Affairs that he is not the true and immediate Cause of every thing that is done here below and that we can have no Communication no Society no Union with him neither by a Reason nor a Power in some sort common both to him and us they brutishly follow the agreeable Motions of their Passions and pay those Duties to a blind Nature which are due only to the Wisdom and Power of the Creatour IV. These mistaken Men argue and conclude right enough but it is from false Principles and you cannot easily make them understand that God requires any Duties of his Creatures if you
the Woman for it expresly figures the Union of Chirst with his Church It is an indissoluble Union for God being immutable in his Designs the Marriage of Christ and his Church shall continue for ever it is a natural Union and the two Sexes by their particular constitution in consequences of the admirable Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body have the most violent of all the Passions for each other because the love of Christ to his Church and that of the Church to her Lord her Saviour and her Husband is the greatest love that can be imagin'd as appears from the Canticles For in short the Man and the Woman are made for one another And if we can conceive that God in creating them had not a design to join them together then we may also conceive that the Incarnation of the Word was not necessary and that the principal or the only design of God which is figur'd by the marriage of the Man and the Woman more particularly than by any other thing is not the establishment of his Church in Jesus Christ who is the Basis and Foundation of it in whom also the whole Universe subsists who brings the whole Work of God out of its prophane State and by his quality of Son renders it worthy of the Majesty of the Father III. This Principle sufficiently shews that the mutual Duties of Christ and his Church are the Model of those of Husbands and Wives and that the Marriage of Christians like that of the first Man and Woman being the figure of the marriage of Christ and the Church ought not to differ in any of its consequences or circumstances from the reality which it represents And therefore St. Paul derives from this very Principle the mutual Duties of the Husband and Wife His Words are these IV. Eph. 5.22 Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord. For the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the Body Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church for we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and shall be join'd unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband V. From these admirable Words of St. Paul we see that the Duty of a Husband is to maintain his Wife and to supply her abundantly with all things necessary for her subsistence to assist and guide her by his Wisdom and Counsels and to comfort her in her Afflictions and Infirmities in a word to love her as himself and after the example of Christ to expose his life for her defense And that the Wife on her part ought to obey her Husband as her Lord to fear and respect him to seek to please none but him and to govern the Family in subordination to his Authority and with a dependence on his Designs provided they are agreeable or at least not contrary to the designs of God VI. Now the design of God in the institution of Marriage is not only to supply the State with Members to compose the Body of it and to defend and maintain its Honour and Reputation but more especially to furnish Christ with Materials for the external Temple with Members of the Church and perpetual Worshippers of the divine Majesty For married Persons are not only the Figures but also the natural Ministers of Christ and the Church God hath join'd them together not only to express his great design but also to act in it It is true since Sin came into the World they beget Children only for the Devil and by an action altogether brutish and if it were not for Christ our Mediatour it would be a hainous Crime to communicate to a Woman that miserable fertility of bringing forth an Enemy of God to damn a Soul for ever to labour for the Glory of Satan and the establishment of the infernal Babylon But Christ came to remedy the disorders of Sin and it is permitted by the Sacrament of Marriage the Figure of his eternal Alliance to give our Children as I may say to the Devil that Christ may have the glory to snatch them out of his Hands and having wash'd them in his own Blood to make them enter into his Building VII Now the principal Duty of Parents is to educate their Children in such a manner that they may not lose their Baptismal Innocence and Purity Married Persons may live in continence as Adam and Eve did before their Sin Christ doth not want Materials for the building of his Temple How many Nations are there still that are ignorant of the Mystery of our Reconciliation But that Parents by their Ambition their Avarice their disorderly course of Life their ill Example nay by barely neglecting to instruct their Children should deprive them of the possession of the true Goods and make them fall again into the slavery of the Devil in which they were Born and from which they had been once deliver'd this is the greatest Crime that Men are capable of committing VIII A Father may educate his Children so as to be the Honour of his Family the delight of their Country and the support of the State he may leave them the peaceable enjoyment of large Possessions and all possible Splendour Yet still he is a cruel and unnatural Father and the more cruel because he charms their Maladies in such a manner that they will not be sensible of them till they are past remedy He is Impious and Wicked and so much the more because with that which he pulls down from the sacred Temple of the living God he builds up the prophane Babylon He is Senseless and stupid and the more because there cannot be a greater degreee of Folly a more gross Stupidity a more brutish and surious Despair than that of a Father who is regardless of the inevitable alternative of Two very different Eternities which shall succeed our latest Moments who builds for himself and his Family on the Brow of a Precipice expos'd to Storms and Tempests and just ready to bury for ever the