necessary that in the order of Grace there be some occasional cause which establishes these Laws and determines the efficacy of them and this is that cause which we must endeavour to find out IV. Tho we never so little consult the Idea of Intelligible order or consider the sensible order which appears in the works of God we clearly discover that the occasional causes which determine the efficacy of the general Laws and establish them must necessarily have relation to the design for which God appoints these Laws For example we see by experience that God has not and Reason convinces us that he ought not to have made the motions of the Planets the occasional causes of the union of soul and body He could not have willed that our Arm shou'd be moved after such and such a manner nor the soul suffer the pain of the Tooth-ach at the time of the Moons conjunction with the Sun if this conjunction does not act upon the body The design of God being to unite the Soul to the Body he cou'd not give to the Soul the sentiments of grief but when some changes happen in the body which are contrary to it Thus we ought not to seek any where else but in the Soul and in the Body the occasional causes of their union V. Hence it follows that God having a design to form his Church by J. C. could not according to this design seek any where else but in J. C. and the Creatures united by reason to J. C. the occasional causes which serve to establish the general Laws of Grace by which the spirit of J. C. is shed upon his Members and communicates unto them his Life and Holiness Thus Grace is not showered down upon our hearts according to the divers scituation of the Stars nor according to the meeting of several bodies nor even according to the different motion of the animal spirits which give unto us motion and life No bodies can excite in us any motions and sentiments but what are purely natural for all that comes to the soul by the body is only for the body The Angels themselves are not made occasional causes of inward grace They are as well as we Members of that body of which J. C. alone is the Head they are Ministers of J. C. for the salvation of the Saints I grant that they may produce some change in the bodies which surround us and even in that which we animate and that thus they may remove some impediments of the efficacy of Grace But certainly they cannot distribute to men such a precious gift they have not immediate power over the minds of men which by their nature are equal to them To conclude St Paul teaches us Heb. 11.5 to believe that God has not subjected to them the future World or the Church of J. C. Thus the occasional cause of Grace cannot be found but in J. C. or in man VI. But seeing it is certain that grace is not granted to all those that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and it is often given to those who do not ask it it follows that even our desires are not the occasional cause of Grace For this kind of causes always have readily their effect and without them the effect is never produced For example the striking of bodies upon one another being the occasional cause of the change which happens in their motion if two bodies do not meet one another their motions are not changed and if they be changed we may be assured that they did The general Laws by which Grace is poured into our hearts do find nothing in our wills which may determine their efficacy like as the general Laws which govern the rains are not founded upon the dispositions of the places where it rains For whither Lands lye Fallow or whither they be cultivated it rains indifferently in all places even upon Sands and in the Sea VII We are then brought to maintain that since none but J. C. cou'd merit grace there is likewise none but he who cou'd give the occasions of the general Laws according to which it is given to men For the principle of the foundation of general Laws or that which determines their efficacy being necessarily either in us or in J. C. since it is certain it is not in us for the reasons above mentioned it must needs be found in J. C. Thus it was necessary that God after sin should have no regard to our wills Being all in disorder we cou'd no more be the occasion of Gods giving us Grace A Mediator therefore was necessary not only to give us access to God but also to be the natural or occasional cause of those favours we hope to receive from him VIII Since God designed to make his Son the Head of his Church it was convenient he should make him the natural or occasional cause of Grace which sanctifies it for it is from the Head that Life and motion ought to be given to the members And it was even with this foresight that God permitted sin for if man had continued in his Innocence without being assisted by the Grace of J. C. seeing his wills wou'd have merited Grace and even Glory God should have established in man the occasional cause of his perfection and happiness The inviolable Law of order requires this so that J. C. wou'd not have been the Head of his Church or such an Head whose influences the Members wou'd have had no need of IX If our soul had been in our body before it was form'd and all the parts which compose it disposed of according to our different wills with how many divers sentiments and motions wou'd she have been affected by all the effects which she would have known ought to have followed from her wills especially if she had had an extream desire to have made a more Vigorous and better form'd body Eph. I. 22 23. IV. 16. Col. 11.19 Act. IX 5. Col I. 24. 1 Cor. XII 27. c. Now the Holy Scripture does not only say that J. C. is the Head of the Church but it also teaches us that he begot it that he form'd it that he nourishes it that he suffered in it that he merits in it that he acts and influences it without ceasing The zeal which J. C. has for the glory of his Father and the love he bears to his Church inspires him continually with a desire of making it the most ample the most magnisicent and the most perfect he can possibly Thus seeing the soul of J. C. has not an infinite capacity and yet desires to give infinite beauties and ornaments to his Church we have all the reason to believe that there is a continual succession of thoughts and desires in his Soul in respect of his Mystical body which he continually forms X. Now these continual desires of the Soul of Jesus which sanctifie the Church and render it worthy of the Majesty of his Father
Ideas would doubtless have imagined that the first man had no sentiment of Objects and that to eat and nourish himself he studied to know the consiguration of the parts of the fruits of Paradise the relation they might have with those of his Body thereby to judge whether they would have been proper for his nourishment In all probality they would have believed that to walk Adam had thought on the Nerves which answered to his Legs and that he had continually conveyed to them such a quantity of Animal spirits to remove them and thus they would have judged of other Functions by which Mans life is preserved We very near do the same thing as to the manner in which J. C. forms his Church We will needs judge thereof according to our Ideas and yet perhaps we understand nothing thereof God united the Soul to the Body of the first Man after a much more wise and real manner than the Angels themselves could imagine For God advertised him by sentiments after a short and undoubted manner of what he ought to do and this without dividing as little as might be the capacity which he had of thinking upon his Sovereign good For then his Senses kept silence whensoever he desired it Man may still walk and meditate both together but the first man upon all occasions might and also ought without withdrawing himself from the presence of God to give unto his Body all that which was necessary for it Why may not God at present therefore give unto J. C. certain kinds of compendious knowledge whereof we have no Idea that he may thereby better facilitate the construction of his Church so that the relation which he has to us may not divide the capacity which he has of seeing God and enjoying his happiness God appointed certain general Laws of the union of Soul and Body that the first Man might preserve his Life without applying himself over-much to particular Objects Why may not God by making his Son the Head of the Church have established such like general Laws It may be this ought to have been so that God might act in such a manner as agrees best with the divine attributes and perhaps that apparent irregularity with which Grace is given unto men is in part a consequence of this marvelous invention of eternal wisdom Assuredly it may be the first Adam was even in this a figure of the second and that J.C. besides his knowledge and desires which we cannot deny to him without impiety hath still compendious ways worthy of an infinite wisdom by which as we by our sentiments and passions he acts in his mystical body without being diverted from his Sovereign good which he loves too much to lose the sight of or remove himself from its presence There are several passages in Scripture may countenance this opinion but I might well be accounted rash should I pretend to establish it as a point which ought to be believed That which I say may be true but I ought not to assert it as true before I am well convinced of it my self If this be not it may be or some such like thing as for my part I have not justified the Wisdom and Goodness of God but by leaving to J. C. as Architect of the Eternal Temple that we cannot take from him without offering violence to Reason and good Sense But I am glad to know that there are several ways of answering those who oppose the Quality which I give to J. C. of an occasional cause which determines the efficacy of the good will of God in respect to men and that all the Objections which can be made against me in this can upon no other account be hard to be resolved but because we are ignorant of a great many things which it would be necessary to know for the clearing them up XVII The divers desires of the Soul of J. C. giving Grace hence we clearly apprehend whence it is that it is not equally given to all men and that it falls upon certain persons at one time more than at another Since the Soul of J. C. does not think at the same time of sanctifying all men it has not at the same time all the desires of which it is capable Thus J. C. does not act upon his Members after a particular manner but by successive influences like as our Soul does not at the same time remove all the Muscles of our Bodies For the Animal Spirits go equally and successively into our Members according to the different impressions of Objects the divers motions of our passions and different Desires which we freely form in our selves XVIII It is true that all the just continually receive the influence of the Head that gives them life and that when they act by the Spirit of J. C. they merit and receive new graces tho it be not necessary that the Soul of J. C. has any particular desires which may be the occasional causes of them for the order which requires that all Merit be rewarded is not in God an Arbitrary Law it is a Necessary Law which depends not upon any occasional cause But tho he that has done a Meritorious Action may be rewarded for it and yet the soul of J. C. have actually no desires in respect of him nevertheless it is certain that he has not merited Grace but by the dignity and holiness which the Spirit of J. C. communicated to him For men are not acceptable to God and do nothing that is good John 15.4 but so far as they are united to his Son by Charity Additions Altho I say order requires that the Just Merit Grace it must not be understood of all Graces but only of those which are absolutely necessary for the vanquishing unavoidable temptations But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able says St. Paul Now Order requires that God should be faithful Quis autem dicat eum qui jam coepit credere ab illo in quem credit non mereri says St. Augustine de Praedest Sanct. Ch. 2. The just therefore may merit Grace by the assistance of Grace but he cannot in strictness merit those Graces which are not absolutely necessary for him This depends upon the good will of J. C. as he is the occasional cause of the order of Grace And in strictness good works perhaps merit only the reward of happiness But it is not necessary that I should stand to explain the different ways of understanding merit XIX Moreover it must be confest that they who observe the councels of J. C. by the esteem which they have for them and by the fear they have of future Punishments do solicite as I may say by their obedience the love of J. C. to think of them tho as yet they should act only by self-love But all their actions are not occasional causes neither of Grace since they are not infallibly attended therewith nor even of the
of the knowledge communicated to his mind Otherwise his distraction would not have been Voluntary nor his attention Meritorious Now Nature although corrupted is not destroyed God has not ceased to will that which he once willed the same Laws still remain Thus our different wills are still at this day the occasional or natural causes of the presence of Ideas to our minds Search after Truth 1. explic That God is not the Author of our concupiscence But because the union of the Soul with the Body is changed into a dependance by the natural consequence of sin and the immutability of the will of God as I have * elsewhere explained our Bodies at present disturb our Ideas and speaking so loudly in behalf of the goods which respect them that the mind rarely asks and distractedly hears the inward TRUTH XXXVIII Experience further teaches us every moment that our conversation with knowing Persons is capable of instructing by exciting our attention that Sermons reading converse and many such like occasions may raise in us good sentiments The death of a friend doubtless is able to make us think of Death if some great passion does not wholly imploy us And when an able Preacher undertakes to demonstrate a very plain truth and convince others of it it must be granted that he may perswade his Auditors thereof and even move their Conscience excite their hope and fear and such like passions in them which disposes them less to resist the efficacy of the Grace of J. C. Men being made to live in society one with another it was necessary that they might mutually communicate their thoughts and motions It was needful that they should be united by the Mind as well as the Body and that speaking by the Voice to the Ears and by writeing to the Eyes they should communicate knowledge and understanding to attentive minds XXXIX Now Knowledge what way soever it is produced in us whether by our particular desires or whether some accidents be the occasion thereof it may be called Grace especially when it very much concerns our salvation tho it should only be a consequence of the order of Nature because since sin God owes us nothing and all the good we have is only what J. C. has merited for us For even our very Being subsists not but by J. C. But this kind of Grace tho merited by J. C. is not the Grace of J. C. 'T is the Grace of the Creator because J. C. not being ordinarily the occasional cause thereof the cause of it must be sought for in the order of Nature XL. There are a great many natural effects which may reasonably be accounted Graces For example two Persons at the same time have very different desires of Curiosity The one would go to an Opera the other hear a fam'd Preacher If they satisfie their curiosity he who shall go to the Opera will find such objects as considering the present disposition of his mind will excite in him passions which will ruine him The other on the contrary may find in the Preacher so much clearness and strength that the Grace of Conversion being given at this moment may be very efficacious in him This being supposed a shower of rain or some other accident interveens which keeps them at home this rain doubtless is a natural effect since it depends upon the natural Laws of the communication of motions Nevertheless it may be said to be a Grace in respect of him whose Ruine it prevents and a Punishment to him whose Conversion it hinders XLI Grace being joyned with Nature all the motions of our Souls and of our Bodies have some relation to our Salvation Such a man is saved for having whilst he was in the state of Grace made a step which happily caused him to break his neck And is damn'd for having at some time unluckily escaped the ruines of an house ready to fall We know not what is beneficial for us but we very well know nothing is so indifferent in its self but that it has some relation to our salvation by reason of the mixture combination of the effects which depend on the general Laws of Nature with those of Grace XLII Since then Knowledge discovers the true good the means of obtaining it our duty towards God in a word the ways which we ought to follow since it is sufficient also for those who are animated with charity to make them act well merit new Graces vanquish certain temptations as I shall elsewhere Explain I think it may very deservedly be called by the name of Grace tho J. C. be only the meritorious cause of it And since the outward Graces which act not immediately upon the mind nevertheless enter into the order of predestination of Saints I also look upon them as true Graces In a word I think the name of Grace may be given to all natural effects when they relate to salvation when they are subservient to the Grace of J. C. and remove some impediments of its efficacy Nevertheless if any deny this I have no design to dispute upon words XLIII All these sorts of Graces if we will allow unto them this name being Graces of the Creator the general Laws of these Graces are the general Laws of Nature For it must be observed that sin hath not destroyed nature tho it has corrupted it the general Laws of the communication of motions are always the same and those of the union of soul and body are not changed excepting in this only that what was but a union in respect of the mind is changed into a dependance for reasons I have mentioned elsewhere For at present we depend upon Bodies to which by the institution of Nature we were only united XLIV Now the Laws of Nature are always very simple and very general For God acts not by particular wills except when order requires a Miracle I have sufficiently proved this truth in the first discourse Thus when a stone falls upon the Head of a good man and kills him it falls in consequence of the Laws of motions this happens not because God is just and would by a particular will reward him When a like accident knocks out the brains of a sinner this is not because God would actually punish him For God on the contrary would save all men but it becomes him not to change the simplicity of his Laws to suspend the punishment of a Criminal In like manner when knowledge is conveyed to the mind it is because we have desires which are the occasional causes thereof 't is because we hear some knowing Person and because our brain is supposed to receive the impressions of him that speaks 'T is not because God has any particular will in respect of us but because he follows the general Laws of Nature which he has prescribed to himself I see nothing mysterious in the distribution of these kinds of Graces and I shall not stand to draw the consequences which
which accompany certain effects that there is an occasional cause established to produce them it is sufficient to know that they are very common and relate to the principal design of the general cause to judge that they are not produced by a particular will For example the Rivers which water the Earth relate to the principle of Gods designs which is that men should not want necessaries for life This I suppose Moreover Rivers are very common therefore we ought to think that they are formed by some general Laws For as there is more wisdom required in executing designs by simple and general ways than by ways compounded and particular as I think I have sufficiently proved elsewhere we ought to give this Honour to God as to believe that his manner of acting is general uniform constant agreeable to the Idea which we have of his infinite wisdom These are the marks by which it may be judged whether an effect be or be not produced by a general will I shall now prove that God dispences Grace to Men by general Laws and that J. C. was the occasional cause of determining their efficacy I begin with the Proofs drawn from H. Scripture XI St. Paul teaches us Col. 2.19 that J. C. is the Head of the Church that he continually dispences to her the Spirit which quickens her that he forms the Members thereof and animates them as the Soul does the Body or to speak yet more clearly the H. Scriptures teaches us two things First That J. C. Prays continually for his Members Heb. 7.25 9.24 John 11.42 Second That his Prayers and Desires are always heard Whence I conclude that he is appointed by God the occasional cause of Grace and also that Grace is never given unto Sinners but by his means Occasional causes do always and very readily produce their Effect The Prayers or divers Desires of J. C. relating to the formation of his Body do always readily obtain their Effect God refuses nothing to his Son as J. C. himself has taught us The occasional causes don't produce their effect by their own efficacy but by the efficacy of the general cause It is also by the efficacy of the power of God that the soul of J. C. operates in us it is not by the efficacy of the humane will For this reason 't is that St. Paul represents J. C. as Praying continually to his Father for he is obliged to Pray that he may obtain The occasional causes are established by God to determine the efficacy of his general wills and J. C. according to the Scripture was appointed by God after his Resurrection to Govern the Church which he had purchased with his own blood For J. C. was the Meritorious cause of all Graces by his sacrifice but after his Resurrection he enter'd into the H. of Holies a Sovereign Priest of good things to come that he might appear in the presence of God and shed upon us the Graces which he had merited for us Thus he himself applyes and distributes his gifts as the occasional cause He disposes of all things in God's House as a well beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that God only is the true cause or acts by his own proper efficacy and that he doth not communicate his Power unto Creatures but by making them the occasional causes of producing certain effects I have proved for example that Men have no power to produce any motion in their bodies but because God hath made their wills the occasional causes of these motions and that fire has no power to cause pain in me but because God hath made the striking of one body upon another the occasional cause of the communication of motions and the violent shaking of the nerves of my Flesh the occasional cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have largely proved in Chap. III. Part 2. of Book IV. of the Search c. And in the Explication of the same Chapter and which they for whom I chiefly write do not deny Now 't is certain by Faith that Power is given to J. C. for forming his Church Mat. 28.18 Data est mihi omnis potestas in Coelo in terra This cannot be understood of J. C. according to his Divinity for in this respect he never received any thing 'T is certain therefore that J. C. according to his humanity is the occasional cause of Grace supposing it proved that God only can act upon Minds and that second causes have no efficacy of their own which they who would understand my Sentiments and judge of them ought first to examine XII I say moreover that no Person is sanctified but by the efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to J. C. by establishing him the occasional cause of Grace For if any sinner was Converted by Grace of which J. C. was not the occasional cause but only the meritorious the sinner having not received his new Life by the influence of J. C. he would not be a Member of the Body of which J. C. is the Head after that manner in which St. Paul expresses it Chap. 4.16 See Col. 11.19 in these words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head Christ from whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the body unto the edifying it self in love Which words do not meerly say that J. C. is the Meritorious cause of all Graces but do more distinctly express that Christians are the Members of the Body of which J. C. is the Head and that it is in him we encrease and live a life altogether new and that it is by his inward operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd that he was appointed by God the only occasional cause who by his divers desires and applications distributes those Graces which God as the true cause sends down upon men 'T is for this reason St. Coloss 2.7 Paul says that Christians are united to J. C. as to their root Radicati super aedificati in ipso 'T is for this reason likewise that J. C. compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches who receive their life in him Ego sum vitis vos palmites 'T is for this reason that St. Paul assures that J. C. lives in us and we in him that we are risen in our Head that our Life is hid with God in J. C. In a word that we already have eternal life in J. C. These and several other Expressions clearly shew that J. C. is not only the meritorious but also the occasional physical or natural cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and perfects the Body so J. C. as the occasional Cause
Philosophers according to their principles That God doth all that is real in the Creatures and that he permits nothing according to vulgar Ideas Principles which in my opinion it is impossible to overthrow and which I should be sorry to see overthrown because they are infinitely advantageous to Religion May I not make it appear that the word Permit bears a sense worthy of God which is not contrary to their Principles and yet destroys their Errors I cannot do it without taking another Method than St. Augustine has done May I not ought I not to quit the Reasons which he gives to silence the Manichees seeing that they are made use of by some Persons in defence of their Errors and insinuate them into the minds of Men provided that otherwise I use clear Principles and which at one blow overturns the Heresie of the Manichees as well as Libertinism For this I appeal to all equitable persons as Judges what esteem soever they have for St. Augustin I also appeal to * Epist 143 148. De Trin. Lib. 3. c. 1. St. Augustin himself when he directs his Readers how they ought to judge of his Writings Now 't is evident by my Principles that nothing is more ridiculous than the Manichees way of reasoning who pretended to prove the necessity of an Evil Principle by all those dismal effects which a beneficent and a wise God cannot directly and positively will and which he is said to permit rather than to have designedly brought them to pass tho ordinarily Men do not too well understand what they say when they assure us that God permits and doth not do them But if my Principles overturn the very Foundation of Manichism they also undeniably confute if I am not deceived the most dangerous Errours which the World is at present much more ready to embrace I say then without fear of blaspheming against the Power of God and in honour of his Wisdom that he doth not directly and positively will Monsters and that he doth not produce them but in consequence of his Laws the simplicity uniformity generality of which he ought not to disturb I boldly affirm with the Scripture that God hath no need of the wicked and that if he suffered the first Man to fall and to communicate to us his sin it is because * Treat of Nature and Grace Art 29 30 34. of the 2d Discourse Explicat of the 5th Chapter of the Search c. and of Original Sin Order required that he should not prevent it by the grace of sentiment seeing Adam had no concupiscence to overcome It is because God was obliged to cause Men to be born by the most simple ways of ordinary Generation that so his Conduct might agree with his Attributes and all his Works might have admirable relations to one another but by no means that Sin might be communicated and Monsters produced 'T is true it may be said against the Manichees that Monsters give a kind of Beauty to the World and that God makes use of the wicked and even Devils themselves for the execution of his purposes For all things even Disorder it self set forth the Order of Providence But Disorder always continues what it is God permits it because he can make it serve divers uses But he wills it not because he hath not established his Laws that it should happen and because he hath not made Man free that he should not love him Shadows are necessary in Painting and Dissonances in Musick Therefore Women ought to be abortive and bring forth Monsters What a Consequence is this I can confidently answer the Philosopers That these Monsters ordinarily come from modest Women and subsist but a few days So necessary are they to the beauty of the Vniverse There are many more wicked than good Men reprobate than elect So many Consonances are there in the Harmony of the Creatures Shall there be any Monsters in the future Church and wicked Men in the holy City Doubtless not Behold then the Painter's Cloth without Shades and an Harmony without Dissonances Thus all those dismal Effects which God permits in the World are not at all necessary to it And if there be Black with White Dissonances with Consonances this doth not give more * Force Boldness to the Picture or Sweetness to the Musick I mean this doth not at the bottom render the Work of God more perfect This on the contrary disfigures it and makes it disagreeable to all those who love Order For tho it may be said that Monsters give a kind of beauty to the World nothing is more evident than that this is only a beauty in appearance and that in truth the World is less perfect The weak sighted or the blind make the most stupid observe that they have two good eyes Thus blind Men serve to illustrate the perfection of Man But they do not I hope render Mankind more perfect Vice in respect of us makes Vertue more conspicuous but surely it neither adds to its perfection nor its merit God makes use of wicked Men for the tryal of the good but 't is because as I may say he finds them already made so to his hands for they are no ways necessary to him God did never positively and directly will such Shadows and such Dissonances tho he positively and directly wills that they shall be subservient to his Glory These are pretty Comparisons which please the Imagination but do not enlighten the Mind they are proper enough to inculcate that which is already believed but assuredly they cannot be used as a Principle whereby Libertinism may be destroyed with what Eloquence soever they may be laid forth This is what I should answer not to St. Augustin whose meaning was right and who deserves to be respected for his edifying Answers and such as were fitted to the capacity of those he desired to undeceive But this is what I would answer to those who abuse his Authority and draw from his Writings such Consequences as are fitted to overturn the very Foundations of Religion I grant with this holy Doctor that there is no Evil Principle which notwithstanding all the endeavours of a gracious God to the contrary proproduces all the irregularities of the Universe whether he will or no which was that which he designed to prove against the Hereticks of his time But I am not afraid to give new Proofs to convince the Hereticks of this Age that God sincerely wills that all Men should be saved that he is not the Author of Sin in a word that Monsters whether in Nature or Morality lessen the perfection of his Work that he wills them not and that if he permits them 't is because he wills that his Conduct should bear the Character of his Attributes I will never say that God had a direct and positive will to produce all those dismal effects which Piety and the Idea of a good wise and just God oblige us to say that he permits
A Treatise OF NATURE AND GRACE To which is Added The AUTHOR's Idaea of Providence AND His Answers to several Objections against the foregoing Discourse By the Author of The Search after Truth Translated from the Last Edition Enlarged by many Explications LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by John Whitlock near Stationers Hall 1695. MVNIFICENTIA REGIA 1715. GEORGIVâ— D.G. MAâ— BRâ—â—ET HI◠〈◊〉 F.D. Advertisement I Intreat those into whose hands this writing shall fall to believe that I chiefly undertook it to satisfie the difficulties of some Philosophers who had not as I thought all those Sentiments which Religion teaches to have of Gods goodness and were not sufficiently acquainted with the obligations which we have to Jesus Christ I desire it may be lookt upon only as an Essay that none will judge of it before they have examined it without prejudice and that they will not suffer themselves to be surprized by those motions of fear and suspition which every thing which seems to be new is apt naturally to excite in us Seeing I wrote for such Philosophers as pretend to be very just and exact in their Reasonings I was obliged to avoid those general terms which are ordinarily used for I could not content them but by using such terms as raise in their minds distinct and particular Ideas as far as the subject will permit it I presume that all Candid Readers will judge that I have no other design but to prove all ways possible those truths which Faith teaches and that I am not so rash as to doubt of that which is look't upon as certain in the Church and which Religion obliges us to believe But it has always been allowed to give new proofs of old truths to represent God Amiable to Men and to make it plain that there is nothing hard or unjust in the order which he observes for the establishment of his Church This Work is divided into Three Discourses In the First I represent God as doing all the good to his Creatures which his Wisdom permits In the Second I shew how the Son of God as incarnate Wisdom and Head of the Church communicates to his Members those Graces which he could not grant unto them as Eternal Wisdom And thus I do endeavour to represent the obligations and relations which we have to Jesus Christ Lastly In the Third I explain what is Liberty and how Grace acts in us without hurting it Seeing there are some Persons of so little Candour as to draw invidious Consequences even from Principles the most advantageous to Religion I beg that I may not be condemned upon their word and that before I be Judged Men will do me so much Justice as to understand me Certainly I ought not to be necessitated to make this request A TABLE OF The Treatise of Nature and Grace The First Discourse OF the Necessity of the General Laws of Nature and Grace Part I. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of Nature pag. 1. Part II. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of Grace p. 32. The Second Discourse Of the Laws of Grace in particular and of the occasional causes which govern and determine their efficacy Part I. Of the Grace of Jesus Christ. p. 63. Part II. Of the Grace of the Creator p. 101. The Third Discourse Of Grace and the manner by which it acts in us Part I. Of Liberty p. 123. Part II. Of Grace p. 140. The First Explication What it is to act by General Wills and what by Particular p. 160. Marks by which it may be judged whether an effect is produced by a General or by a Particular Will p. 162 163. Objection 1. and Answer p. 173. Object 2. and Answer p. 178 179. The Second Explication Where 't is proved that J. C. is figured every where in the Scriptures and that even by the events which were before the Sin of the first Man to teach us that the principal of God's Designs is the Incarnation of his Son p. 190. The Third Explication Where 't is proved that the chief of Gods Designs is J. C. and his Church and that God truly loves Men that he sincerely desires to save all that his Conduct is worthy of his Wisdom Goodness Immutability and other Attributes What is the order of the decrees which contain the Predestination of Saints p. 197. Object and Answer p. 206 207. The Last Explication The frequent Miracles of the Old Law do by no means shew that God often acted by particular Wills p. 217. The Author's Idea of Providence p. 228. Objections against the foregoing discourse with the Author's Answers Objection 1. and Answer p. 238. Object 2. and Ans p. 242. Object 3. and Ans p. 246 247. Object 4. and Ans p. 255 256. Object 5. and Ans p. 263 264. Object 6. and Ans p. 269 270. Object 7. and Ans p. 275. Object 8. and Ans p. 278 279. CORRECTIONS Page Line  5 4 AFter image ad of ib. 7 For there Lege their 10 13 For creation L. Incarnation 14 12 After absit add the Period stop 16 7 For capit L. cupit 17 28 For they L. men 23 17 For form L. forms 26 15 Dele not 33 26 For principle L. principal 38 10 The Comma after it 43 3 D. to after obliges 45 31 For all those L. any ib. 18 After proceedings this Punctation 81 13 D. of after think 85 19 After wisdom a Comma 87 11 For real manner L. sure way 89 23 D. the before order 93 33 After God add they 95 4 L. men's for men ib. ult L. efface for effuse 97 4 L. motions for motion 104 32 L. speak for speaking 106 ult After and add another 108 16 17 For God is just and would by a particular c. ib.  L. this Man is just God would by a particular c. 131 ult For whilst we love L. when we enjoy c. 134 4 After carries add him 138 6 For unusual L. unuseful 143 20 21 For pleasures L. pleasures 153 3 4 After and add it After sweetness and desolation this Punctation ib. 5  158 10 After besides add that ib. 12 After infinite only a Comma 162 19 Only a Comma after others For but L. that ib. 20 This Punctation after them 192 16 For but L. that 202 28 D. not 215 6 For pravisiones L. praevisione ib. 16 After fidei add regula In the Margin instead of Cap. 23. L. c. 13. 223 22 For Manada L. Mandata The First Discourse Of the Necessity of the General Laws of Nature and Grace First Part. The Necessity of the General Laws of Nature Advertisement I Think I ought to Advertise That they who are well acquainted with the Principle which I have proved in the Search after Truth and elsewhere need not to read the following Additions nor even the Explications which are at the end of this Treatise without which my Meaning may be very well understood But they may perhaps be usefull unto
suffer all men to be engaged in Sin that he might have mercy upon them all in Jesus Christ XXXV Thus since the first man was able by the strength of his Love to persevere in original righteousness it was not necessary that God shou'd keep him to his duty by preventing pleasures he having no concupiscence to overcome it was not fit that God shou'd prevent his free will by the delectation of his grace In short having all that was necessary for meriting his reward God who does nothing that is useless ought to have left him to himself tho he foresaw his fall since he intended to raise him up in Jesus Christ to confound free will and to make his mercy Illustrious Let us endeavour at present to find out the ways by which God executes his eternal purpose of Sanctifying his Church XXXVI For tho in the establishment of the future World God acts by ways very different from those by which he preserves the present nevertheless we ought not to imagine that this difference is such as that the Laws of grace do not carry in them the character of the cause which has established them Since God himself is the Author of the Order of Grace and of that of Nature it is necessary that these two Orders agree with one another in respect of all that which they have in them relating to the Wisdom and other Attributes of their Author Thus since God is a general cause whose wisdom has no limits it is necessary for reasons which I have already mentioned that in the Order of Grace as well as in that of Nature he should act as a general cause that having for his end his own glory by the raising of his Church he should establish the most simple and general Laws and which compared with their effect have the greatest proportion of Wisdom and Fruitfulness XXXVII The more any Agent has of knowledge the more extensive is his will A mind much limited every moment takes up new resolutions and when he undertakes to execute any one of them he uses several means some of which are always useless In a word a stinted mind does not sufficiently compare the means with the end the strength and the Action with the effect which they shou'd produce On the contrary anextensive and penetrating spirit compares and weighs all things He does not take up his resolutions but by the knowledge which he has of the means of executing them and when he sees that these means wisely relate to their effect he employs them The more simple any Machines are and the more different their effects the more Spiritual they are and more worthy of Esteem The great number of the Laws of any State often shews the want of penetration and comprehension of mind in the Law-Makers It being rather experience of the want of 'em than a wise foreknowledge which has ordained them God whose Wisdom has no bounds must make use of the most simple and most fruitful ways in the formation of the future World as well as for the conservation of the present He ought not to multiply his wills which are the executing laws of his purposes but so far as necessity obliges him thereunto He must act by general wills and thus establish a constant and regular order according to which he foresaw by the infinite comprehension of his Wisdom that such an admirable work as his is might be form'd Let us see the consequences of this principle and the application which may be made thereof for the explaining those difficulties which may appear sufficiently entangled Additions I don't think that any one can read this Article and those which go before with attention without granting that seeing God cannot be false to himself nor act by those ways which do not agree with his Attributes he is obliged to perform his designs by the most simple means the most general uniform and constant ways Therefore I shall net spend time to prove this in particular by the Idea of a being infinitely perfect and by all the natural effects of causes which we know Besides all that I am to say I have proved this principle several ways in the Search after Truth by overthrowing the pretended efficacy of second causes in the Med. Christ from the fourth to the eighth inclusively and also in the Explications which are at the end of this Treatise But let us see if the use which I am about to make of this principle for explaining the truth which faith teaches us does not at once demonstrate both this principle and these truths XXXVIII The H. Scripture teaches us on the one side that God wills that all men shou'd be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth and on the other that he doth all that he wills and yet nevertheless Faith is not given to all the World and that the number of those who Perish is even greater than of the Predestinated how shall we make this agree with his Power Additions It is because his Wisdom renders him unable For since it is that which obliges to him to act by the most simple ways it is not possible that all men shou'd be saved by reason of this simplicity of his ways XXXIX God from all eternity foresaw Original Sin and the infinite number of Persons whom this sin wou'd carry down to Hell Nevertheless he created the first Man in an Estate from which he knew he wou'd fall and also made such a relation between this Man and his Posterity as must communicate to them his sin and render them all worthy of his Aversion and his Anger How does this agree with his goodness Additions It is because God more loves his Wisdom than his work For since his Wisdom prescribes unto him the ways which best suit with his Attributes and since his ways require that Adam being otherwise able to persevere should not have had preventing Grace that which did happen ought to have happened to him XL God often communicates his Graces tho they have not the effect for which his goodness obliges us to think they were given He makes some persons to encrease in Piety till towards the end of their life and then sin reigns over them to their death and throws them into Hell He makes the dew of grace to fall upon hardn'd hearts as well as upon prepared Souls men resist it and render it useless for their Salvation In a word God unmakes and renews continually it seems as if he will'd and will'd not the same thing How can this agree with his Wisdom Additions It is because since God ought not to Sanctify men by particular wills he does not give Grace to such an one upon such an occasion to the end that it should have such a certain effect and nothing more It becomes limited Vnderstandings to act after this manner But God having an infinite understanding it became him to establish general Laws for the executing of his designs This is what I have
already so often said and shall further say in the following Articles XLI Behold as I think the great difficulties all the Oeconomy of Religion the Idea which we have of a good wise and powerful God constant in his designs regular in his actions a thousand places of Scripture supplying us with many more against that which we see come to pass every day in the order of Grace and tho very able men have answered them yet it seems to me they cannot be so easily resolved by their principles as by that I shall lay down XLII As for my self I have always believed that God in truth wills in general that all men should be saved Both Reason and Scripture has always hindred me from doubting thereof And tho some Authors for whom I have a great respect have in the foregoing Ages publish't divers explications of this Truth I never could easily admit of those which seem'd without any necessity to set bounds to the infinite goodness and mercy of God Thus consulting the Idea which all men have of God I entertained the Sentiment which I at present expose to the censure of all those who examine it with Attention and judge of it with Equity Additions We tempt God when we desire him to do that which he ought not to do that is to say that he should act after a particular manner and not in consequence of general Laws otherwise what harm wou'd it be for one to cast himself headlong as Satan desired J. G. to do If it be as wise for to sustain an heavy body in the Air as to make it fall upon the Earth we should not tempt him we should not engage him to do a thing unworthy of him when trusting in his goodness we should throw our selves out of the windows In a word provided a man has always a good design he can never want prudence XLIII God being obliged alway to act as becomes him by simple general constant and uniform ways in a word such as are agreable to the Idea which we have of a general cause whose Wisdom has no bounds it became him to establish certain Laws in the Order of Grace as I have prov'd he has done in that of Nature Now these Laws by reason of their simplicity have necessarily woful consequences in respect of us but these consequences do not oblige that God should change these Laws for those that are more Compounded For these Laws have a greater proportion of Wisdom and Fruitfulness to the work which they produce than all those which he could ordain for the same purpose since he always acts after the most wise and perfect manner It is true that God might prevent these sad consequences by an infinite number of particular wills but his Wisdom which he loves more than his Work the immutable and necessary order which is the rule of his will do not permit it The effect which wou'd happen from each of his wills wou'd not be worth the Action which shou'd produce it And consequently we ought not to find fault because God does not confound the order and simplicity of his Laws by miracles which wou'd indeed be very convenient for our necessities but very much opposite to the Wisdom of God which it is not lawful to tempt XLIV Thus seeing we ought not to be displeased that the rain falls into the Sea where it is useless and not upon Sown-grounds where it is necessary because the laws of the communication of motions are very simple fruitful and perfectly worthy of the wisdom of the Author and that according to these Laws it is not possible that the rain should fall rather upon the Land than the Seas so that we ought not to complain of that apparant irregularity whereby Grace is given to men It is the regularity wherewithal God acts it is the simplicity of the Laws which he observes it is the wisdom and uniformity of his Conduct which is the cause of this seeming irregularity It is necessary according to the Laws of Grace which God has established in favour of the Elect and for the building of his Church that this Heavenly rain should fall sometimes upon hardned Hearts as well as upon prepared Souls If therefore Grace is given sometimes to no purpose it is not because God acts without design much less that he acts with an intention to render Men more culpable by the abuse of his favours It is because the simplicity of the general Laws permits not that this grace inefficacious in respect of a corrupted heart shou'd fall upon another heart where it wou'd be efficacious This Grace not being given by a particular will but in consequence of the immutability of the general order of Grace it is sufficient that this order shou'd produce a work proportionable to the simplicity of his Laws to the end it might be worthy of the wisdom of its Author For to conclude the order of Grace wou'd be less Perfect less Admirable less Amiable if it was more Composed XLV If God should have given Grace by particular wills without doubt for the Conversion of a sinner who had four degrees of Concupiscence he would not have resolved to have given but three degrees of Spiritual pleasure supposing that these degrees of grace had not been sufficient to convert him He wou'd have deferred his bounty till the sinner should not have been in the presence of the Object that tempted him Or rather he wou'd have given this same grace of three degrees of strength to such an one whose Concupiscence should have been less active For what an odd design would it be to give three degrees of Spiritual delight to one to whom four are necessary and refuse them to him whom they wou'd have Converted Does this agree with the Idea which we have of the wisdom and goodness of God Is this to love Men Is this to will that all shall be saved Is this to do all that can be done for them Yet God crys out by his Prophet Inhabitans of Jerusalem and men of Judah Isa V. 3 4. judge between me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore had I not reason then to look for good Grapes when it brought forth wild Grapes What wisdom is it by particular wills to give so many inefficacious Graces to sinners supposing that God wills their Conversion as Scripture teaches us and that he has not that fatal design of rendring them by his gifts more Culpable and blame Worthy XLVI But if Grace be given to men by most simple and general Laws all these great difficulties vanish away The order of Grace which God hath establish't having more Wisdom and fruitfulness in respect to the work which it produces than any other God was obliged to chuse it for the establishment of his Church Thus we may be assured that God truly wills the salvation of all men that he hath done all for them that he
have neither strength nor even desire to cultivate it LII But if God should act in the order of Grace by particular wills if he should efficaciously cause in all men their good motions and all their good works with a particular design I do not see how it could be maintained that he acts by the most simple Laws When I consider all the turnings by which men come whither God leads them for I doubt not at all but that God often gives to a man more than an Hundred good thoughts in one day Neither can I any more comprehend how his Wisdom and Goodness can be made to agree with all those inefficacious graces which the Malice of men resists For God being good and wise is it not evident that he must proportion his assistance to our needs if he granted them with a particular design of encouraging us Additions It appears by these Articles that my principle does still perfectly well agree with the Counsels of Jesus Christ and that as the Husbandmen ought on their part to Cultivate Plow and Sow their Lands so men on theirs should endeavour to remove the impediments of the efficacy of Grace But that as the labours of men are not the cause of rain so Grace likewise is not given to natural merits since its distribution depends upon certain general Laws like as the ordinary rain is the natural consequence of the general Laws of the communication of motions LIII God causes the weeds to grow with the Corn till the day of Harvest he makes it to rain on the just and on the unjust because grace falling on men by general Laws is often given to such as make no use thereof whereas if others had received it they wou'd have been converted by it If Jesus Christ had preached to the Tyrians and Sydonians as well as to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida Corazin they wou'd have Repented in Sackcloath and Ashes If the rain which falls upon the Sands was shed upon well-managed Land it would have rendred it fruitful But whatsoever is regulated by general Laws does not agree with particular designs That these Laws be wisely established it is sufficient that being extreamly simple they bring to perfection the great work for which God appointed them LIV. But tho I do not think that God has infinite particular designs in reference to each of the Elect so that he every day gives a great number of good thoughts and good motions by particular wills Yet nevertheless I deny not but they are all predestinated by the good will of God towards them for which they ought to be eternally thankful See how I explain these things LV. God discovers in the infinite treasures of his wisdom an infinite number of possible works and at the same time the most perfect way of producing each of them Amongst others he considers his Church J. C. who is the Head thereof and all persons who in consequence of certain general laws must compose it In short having in mind Jesus Christ and all his members he established his laws for his own glory This being so is it not evident that J. C. who is the principle of all that glory that comes to God from his work is the first of the predestinated That all the Elect also are truly and freely beloved and predestinated in J. C. because they may honour God in him that lastly they are all infinitely obliged to God who without considering their merit hath established the general Laws of Grace which must sanctify the Elect and bring them to that glory which they shall eternally possess Additions Man is a strange creature he is as full of pride as he is worthy of contempt He is not satisfied with God if God does not go out of his way to please him He looks upon himself as the Centre of the Vniverse he refers all things to his own particular even God himself and his Eternal Attributes God is not good but as he is good to him and even the incarnation of J. C. is a work useless and ill managed if it do not deliver him from his miseries But on Gods side what excess of bounty It seems as if God to render himself Amiable to those who are most in love with themselves favours this prejudice by his way of speaking unto men God so loved the World says J. C. himself that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in him shou'd have eternal life What! is J. C. in the eternal designs of God made Man only for mens salvation No doubtless On the contrary men were made for Jesus Christ They are the materials wherewith he is to build the Eternal Temple and this Temple is only for God This is the design of the uncreated Wisdom J. C. is the Head of the Church now the Members are for the Head and not the Head for the Members J. C. is the first in all things In omnibus primatum tenens But he himself is for God Omnia vestra sunt vos autem Christi Christus autem Dei Let us be satisfied that God who has no need of us was pleased to create us in Jesus Christ for his own glory He might have left us in our nothing yet he has loved us in J. C. before the creation of the world But let us not flatter our selves it is because we have J. C. as our Head that we can render unto him divine Honours For God cannot act but for his own glory Omnia propter semetipsum operatus est Dominus But he cannot find it except in himself Because a prophane World a Temple a Worship a Priesthood which is not consecrated by the eternal Spirit has no proportion with the Holiness of God God after sin might have reduced us to nothing and yet on the contrary he hath made us his adopted Sons in J. C. He will give us a part in the inheritance of his well beloved Son How thankful should we be for such an extream kindness It is true that they who shall be thus happy are not chosen by an absolute and rash will it is because the simplicity of the general Laws of the order of Grace is favourable unto them and that herein God acts after such a manner as may be most worthy of him But what shall not God be amiable to men if he does not forsake his wisdom to love them with a blind love Should Nothing exalt its self and not be content with its Creator if he does not without reason prefer it before the rest of his creatures shall he not rather put himself in the condition of so many sinners nations abandon'd to error whom God leaves therein without help he who has sworn by his Prophets that hedesires their Conversion and Sanctification God desires the Salvation of a sinner and yet he suffers him to dye in his sin God searches the hearts and turns them as he pleases and without injuring their liberty and yet all the
passages of Scripture which agree with this Idea we correct the sence of some other places which ascribe unto God members or passions like unto ours So when we wou'd speak exactly of the manner of Gods acting in the order of Nature or grace we ought to explain the passages which make him act as a man or a particular cause by that Idea which we have of his wisdom and his goodness and by other places of Scripture which are agreable to this Idea For in conclusion if the Idea which we have of God permits nay obliges to say that he does not cause every drop of rain to fall by particular wills tho this sentiment is authorized by the natural sence of some places of Scripture there is the like necessity to think that notwithstanding certain authorities of the same Scripture God does not give to some sinners by particular wills all those good motions which are of no effect to them and yet to several others wou'd be effectual because otherwise it seems impossible to me to make the Holy Scripture agree either with reason or with its self as I think I have proved LIX If I thought that what I have already said was not sufficient to convince considering persons that God acts not by particular wills as particular causes or limited understandings do I should proceed to shew that there are few truths whereof more proofs may be given supposing it granted that God governs the World and that the Nature of HEATHEN PHILOSOPHERS is but a Chimaera For in truth nothing is done in the World which doth not prove this sentiment Miracles only excepted which nevertheless wou'd not be Miracles different from the effects which are called natural if it was true that God ordinarily acts by particular wills since Miracles are not such but because they happen not according to general Laws Thus do Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the sentiment which I have laid down but as for ordinary effects they clearly and directly demonstrate general Laws or Wills For example if a stone be let fall upon the head of one that passes by the stone will always fall with equal swiftness without distinguishing either the piety or the quality the good or evil dispositions of the passenger If any other effect be examined we shall see the same constancy in the action of the cause which produces it But no effect proves that God acts by particular wills tho men often imagine that God works Miracles every moment for their sakes Since the way by which they wou'd have God to act is agreable to ours since it flatters self-love which refers all things to its self since it comports well with the ignorance we are in of the combination of occasional causes which produce extraordinary effects it naturally enters into the mind when we do not sufficiently study Nature and consult with attention enough the abstracted Idea of an infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being infinitely perfect Additions Let me be permitted to desire of the Reader that he do meditate some time upon this first Discourse before he reads that which follows The Second Discourse Of the Laws of Grace in particular and of the Occasional Causes which Govern and Determin their Efficacy First Part. Of the Grace of Jesus Christ Additions Before this 2d Dis read 3d. C. of 2d P. of Search after Truth and the Expli of the same C. where the Author opposes the Efficacy of pretended second causes I Have proved in the First Discourse the necessity of Occasional Causes in the Order of Grace as well as in that of Nature and I don't think that which I have written can be distinctly understood but it must be granted But now I am about to prove by those arguments which Faith supplies that Jesus Christ is this cause Since this is of the greatest consequence clearly to understand the principles of Religion and to make us draw near with confidence to the true Propitiatory or the occasional cause which never fails to determine the efficacy of the general Law of Grace I think I may require the Reader to Meditate upon this Second Discourse with all diligence and without prejudice I. Since there is none but God who acts immediately and by himself upon Spirits who produces in them all the different Modifications whereof they are capable it is he alone who enlightens our minds and inspires us with certain sentiments which determine our divers wills Thus there is none but God who can as the * By the true cause I understand the Cause which Acts by its own strength true cause produce grace in our Souls For the principle of all the regular motions of our love is necessarily either knowledge which teaches us or a sentiment which convinces us that God is our happiness since we never begin to love any object if we do not either clearly see by the light of Reason or confusedly feel by the taste of pleasure that the object is good I mean capable of rendring us more happy than we are II. But seeing all men are engaged in Original sin and all even by their nature infinitely below God it is only J. Christ who by the dignity of his Person and the holiness of his Sacrifice could have access to his Father reconcile us to him and merit his favours for us Thus it is J. C. only who cou'd be the Meritorous cause of Grace These truths are agreed on But we do not seek after the cause which Produces Grace by its proper efficacy nor that which merits it by his sacrifice and good works we seek after that which regulates and determines the efficacy of the general cause that which may be called the second particular and occasional III. For that the general cause may act by general Laws or Wills and that his action may be regular constant and uniform it is absolutely necessary that there be an occasional cause which determines the efficacy of these Laws and serves to establish them If the percussion of bodies or some such thing did not determine the EFFICACY of general LAWS of the Communication of motions it would be necessary that God should move bodies by particular wills The Laws of the union of the Soul and Body are made efficacious only by the changes which happen in each of these substances For if God should make the Soul feel a pungent pain tho the body was not pricked or if the brain shou'd not be moved as if the body was pricked he wou'd not act by the general Laws of the union between Soul and body but by a particular will If it shou'd rain upon the Earth any other ways but by the necessary consequence of the general Laws of the communication of motions the rain and the fall of each drop that composes it would be the effect of a particular will Insomuch that if order did not require that it should rain this will would be altogether unworthy of God It is therefore
God hath made the occasional causes of the efficacy of the general Laws of Grace For Faith teaches us that God hath given to his Son an absolute power over Men by making him the Head of his Church and this cannot be conceived if the different wills of J. C. be not followed by their effects For it is visible I should have no power over mine arm if it should move it self whether I would or no and if when I desire to move it it should remain as if it was dead and without motion XI J. C. has merited his Sovereign power over men and this quality of Head of the Church by the Sacrifice he offered upon Earth and after his Resurrection he took full possession of this right Ioh. VII 39. 'T is upon this account that he is now Sovereign Priest of future good things and that by his many intercessions he continually prays unto the Father in the behalf of men Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8.34 1 Joh. II. 1. Joh. XI 42. And seeing his desires are occasional causes his prayers are always heard his Father denies him nothing as the Scripture teaches us Nevertheless he must pray and desire that he may obtain For the occasional physical natural causes for all these words signifie the same thing have no power of themselves to do any thing and all creatures even J. C. himself considered as man are in themselves nothing but weakness and impotence Additions I don't think that hitherto there is any difficulty if it be not in this last Article where I say that J. C. prayeth unto his Father for there are some Persons whom this very much offends For I speak as St. Paul to the Romans and to the Hebrews and as Jesus Christ himself I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter which is to be understood of J. C. after his resurrection according to these words of St. John The spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified For the Spirit fell not upon the Apostles till Ten days after J. C. was entered into the Holy of Holies a Sovereign Priest of true good things In all these Articles I speak only of J. C. as to his humanity according to which he received all power in Heaven and Earth because all his prayers or his desires which certainly are in his power or otherwise he has no power are executed in consequence of his qualities as Sovereign Priest of the House of God King of Israel Architect of the Eternal Temple Mediator betwixt God and men Head of the Church or to speak like the Philosophers for whom I chiefly write this Treatise the occasional natural or distributive cause of Grace The cause which Determines the Efficacy of the general Law by which God wou'd save all men in his Son XII J. C. having then successively divers thoughts in relation to the divers dispositions whereof Souls in general are capable these divers thoughts are accompanyed with certain desires in relation to the Sanctification of these Souls Now these desires being the occasional causes of Grace they must pour it down upon those persons in particular whose dispositions resemble that upon which the Soul of J. C. actually thinks And this Grace must be so much the stronger and more abundant as these desires of J. C. are greater and more lasting XIII When a person considers any part of his body which is not form'd as it ought to be he has naturally certain desires in relation to this part and the use he desires to make of it in common life and these desires are followed by certain insensible motions of the animal Spirits which tend to give that proportion or disposition to this part which we desire it shou'd have When the Body is altogether form'd and the flesh firm the motions change nothing in the construction of the parts they can only give them certain dispositions which are called Corporeal habits But when the body is not altogether form'd and the flesh is very soft and tender these motions which accompany the desires of the Soul do not only give the body certain particular dispositions but may also change the construction thereof This sufficiently appears by Children in the Womb for they are not only moved with the same passions as there Mothers but they also receive the marks of these passions in their bodies from which yet the Mothers are always free XIV The Mystical body of J. C. is not yet a perfect man Eph. IV. 13. it will not be so till the end of the world J. C. forms it continually for it is from the Head the whole body joyned together receives nourishment by the efficacy of his influence according to the measure which is proper to every one to the end it may be form'd and edified in love These are the truths which St Paul teaches us Now since the soul of J. C. has no other action but the divers motions of its heart 't is necessary that these desires be succeeded by the influence of grace which only can form J. C. in his Members and give them that beauty and proportion which must be the eternal object of the divine Love XV. The divers motions of the soul of J. C. being the occasional causes of Grace we ought not to be surprised if it be sometimes given to great sinners or those who make no use of it For the soul of J. C. designing to raise a Temple of vast extent and infinite beauty may desire that Grace may be given to the greatest sinners and if in this moment J. C. thinks actually for example upon Covetous persons the Covetous shall receive Grace Or else J. C. having need of Spirits of a certain merit for the construction of his Church which is not ordinarily acquired but by those who suffer certain persecutions of which the passions of men are the natural principle In a word J. C. having need of Spirits of a certain character for bringing to pass certain effects in his Church may in general apply himself to them by this application bestow upon them the Grace which sanctifies In like manner as the mind of an Architect thinks in general upon square stones for example when these sort of stones are actually necessary for his building XVI But as the soul of J. C. is not a general cause there is reason to think that it often has particular desires in respect of certain particular persons When we pretend to speak exactly of God we ought not to consult our selves and make him act as we do we ought to consult the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect and make him act according to this Idea but when we speak of the action of the soul of Jesus we may consult our selves we may suppose it to act as particular causes would act which yet are joyned to eternal wisdom We have reason for example to believe that the calling of St. Paul was the effect of the efficacy of a particular
desire of J. Christ We may also look upon the desires of the soul of J. C. which generally relate to all the minds of one certain character as particular desires tho they comprehend many persons because these desires change every moment as those of particular causes do But the general Laws by which God acts are always the same because his wills must be firm and constant seeing his wisdom is infinite as I have shewn in the first Discourse Additions I think I have demonstrated that J. C. as man is the occasional cause of Grace Now since God acts not if Order doth not require or some occasional cause determine him thereunto and that in respect of Grace altogether free Order never requires that God shou'd give it seeing it cannot be merited 'T is evident that all the difficulties which we find in the distribution of Grace must be ascribed to J. C. as man This is that which I have already done in a general way for it was not at all necessary that I should particularly justifie the wisdom and goodness of God which was my only design in the construction of his Church as I did at first advertise But that the minds least able to discern the usefulness of the principles laid down may not fail to apprehend it I shall endeavour as clearly as possibly I can to shew the consequences which may be drawn from these principles There are many difficulties in vindicating Gods Conduct in his way of distributing the rain of Grace as well as in that by which he sends down the ordinary rain the chief of which are that it is not always proportioned to the need of sinners and that even in respect to the just tho it answer their necessities yet it does not always hinder them from falling into disorder God is wise he wills the conversion of sinners he has sworn so by his Prophet A Being infinitely wise proportions the means to the end How then can it be that the Grace which the sinner receives shou'd not be strong enough to make him quit his sin Or to take away all equivocation Why shou'd not such an Infant be Baptised Why should there be so many Nations who know not J. C. It is easily comprehended by what I have said in the first Discourse that this is a consequence of the simplicity of Gods ways and must proceed from the occasional cause which God has established for the executing his design after such a manner as best resembles his Divine Attributes For if it rains upon the High-ways upon the Sand upon the Sea as well as upon the Sown Lands it is because these rains are necessary consequences of the simplicity of those ways which God has established for making the Earth Fruitful But whence does it proceed that J. C. who is an intelligent occasional cause abandons so many sinners and so many nations Or to come to the greatest difficulty Whence is it that J. C. forsakes even the just the members of his body who are straight united to him by charity For as to sinners and they who do not call upon him it may be said that he neglects them as unworthy of his care But whence comes it to pass that he gives to the just exposed to temptation such a Grace which he well foresaw notwithstanding his assistance wou'd be overcome This Grace was altogether sufficient I grant and that it only depended upon the just to make it efficacious But why did not J. C. give it more force since he foresaw the fall of one of his well-beloved Children If my principle can clear up these difficulties without injuring the love of J. C. towards men as well as it defends the wisdom and goodness of God against the reasonings of Libertines certainly the consequences thereof will be very advantageous to Religion This is that which I am about to examine J. C. may be considered according to two respects one as Architect of the Eternal Temple the other as Head of the Church I have partly explained the manner after which J. C. acts as Architect because this manifested the fruitfulness and necessity of my principle But I wou'd not speak of the way by which he acts as Head of the Church by reason of the difficulty of the fall of the just which supposes certain things whereof I thought not then to speak That I may explain more particularly the manner after which J. C. acts as Architect upon the materials which do not as yet make part of his Temple and as Head in respect of the Just who are members of his Body I am obliged to say what I think concerning the holy Soul of J. C. which regulates all his desires with respect nevertheless to the divine Law the immutable and necessary order for the wills of J. C. are always agreeable to those of his Father Tho several of the * Athan. Orat. 4. in Arianos S. Iren Lib. V. S. Basil Ep. 391. ad Amphil. S. Greg. Naz. Orat 36. S. Cyr. of Alex. Thres lib. 9. C. 4. Theod Tom. 4. p. 731. Fathers and those especially who wrote against the Arrians as Athanasius were contented to attribute to Jesus Christ as God the knowledge of all things and expounded concerning J. C. as man that which St. Mark reports The Day of the Lord knoweth no Man no not the Son of Man himself and some of them feared not even to say that Ignorance is one of the defects of Humane Nature which J. C. took for our sakes Nevertheless I am far from this thought For I am perswaded that J. C. as man knows all Sciences and hath a perfect knowledge of all things that he not only knows all the Beings which God hath created with all their Modifications and all their relations but also upon much greater reason all those which God can create In a word all that which God contains in the immensity of his Being I say that J. C. knows upon much greater reason all possible Creatures than the existence and relation of those which God hath made because he knows the first by the right which his union with the Word which contains them as the Word gives him whereas he knows not the other but by a kind of a Revelation as I shall shew hereafter I believe then that J. C. as man knows all things but it ought to be observ'd that there is a great difference between knowing all things habitually and knowing all things actually between knowing all things and thinking of all things which is almost always confounded There is no man but knows that two and two make four and yet there are but few who actually think of it A Geometrician knows his Enclid but he is often a long time without thinking of any of the propositions of this Author A man knows a truth or Science when by his Labour or otherwise he has gain'd a right thereunto insomuch that he can no sooner think of these things but they immediately present
themselves to his mind very clearly without putting him to any trouble Now the soul of J. C. is personally united to the Word and the Word as the Word contains all possible being with their relations he contains all immutable necessary eternal truths J. C. as man can no sooner think of any truths but they are instantly discovered to his mind J. C. therefore knows all Sciences he knows all possible things since he may without any effort of mind see all that the Word contains as the Word For the same reason J. C. knows all the divine Perfections since the Word is a substantial representation of the divine Nature and the Father communicates to his Son all his Substance He knows even the Existence the Modifications the relations of the Creatures but by a kind of revelation which the Father gives to him whensoever he desires him according to those words of J. C. himself I know O Father that thou always hearest me For since the creatures are not the necessary emanations of the Divinity the Word as the Word does truly represent their Nature or Essence but not their Existence for their Existence depends upon the free will of the Creator which the Word meerly as the Word does not contain seeing the Divine Decrees are common to all the three Persons Thus the Existence of the Creatures cannot be known but by a kind of Revelation J. C. therefore as man knows all things In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God but he does not actually think upon all things and this is evident For the soul of J. C. has not the capacity of an infinite mind And those who maintain that there are no succession of thoughts in J. C. and that he always knows whatsoever he does know thinking to attribute to the soul of J. C. a sort of immutability which is due only to God they necessarily make him liable to very great ignorance See the proof of this It is certain that natural effects are combined amongst themselves and with those of Grace after an infinitely infinite manner and that these combinations are every moment changed after infinite ways by reason of the mutability of Mens wills and the irregular course of the animal Spirits which change all our traces and all our Ideas in consequence of the Laws of Union of Soul and Body Now the capacity of thinking which the Soul of J. C. has as Man is finite Therefore if he knew or always actually thought upon that which he knows he must necessarily be ignorant of an infinite number of things Furthermore it is certain that the properties of numbers are not only infinite but infinitely infinite That in respect of Figures there may be for example an infinite number of Triangles of different kinds each of their sides being capable of being lengthned or shortned to infinity Now to say that J. C. knows not the properties of such Triangles or the relation of one of their sides or its Square or its Cube or its Quadrata-quadrate c. with other Sides or their Squares or their Cubes or their Quadrata-quadrates c. this is to suppose that J. C. is ignorant of that which the Geometricians know But if it be maintained that J. C. as Man always actually knows every thing that he knows it is necessary that he be ignorant of an infinite number of the properties of these Triangles Nevertheless let us suppose that Natural effects are not combined with the effects of Grace and that likewise all the thoughts of men their circumstances their combinations were something finite which the mind of man might discern all at once certainly to suppose that the Soul of J. C. does always think of them is to give unto him a very useless and troublesome knowledge It is troublesome for that which renders the soul of J. C. happy is the contemplation of the perfection of the Sovereign good Now the knowledge of all the Chimaeraes which do have and shall pass in our minds according to this supposition continually distracting the capacity of the soul of J. C. otherwise entertain'd in beholding the Beauties and tasting the sweetness of the chief Good would not be very agreeable to him For it must be observed that it is one thing to see God and another thing to see the Creatures and their modifications in God I think I have demonstrated that we see all in God in this life but this is not to see God or to enjoy him Thus it cannot be said that J. C. sees all our thoughts without dividing his capacity of thinking because he sees them all in God This actual knowledge therefore which some wou'd give to J. C. is troublesome for it is very irksome to think actually upon those things upon which we do not desire to think of A Geometrician who should have found out the Squaring of a Circle or any other more surprising Truth wou'd be very miserable should it be always present to his mind J. C. has an Object more worthy of his application than the modification of the Creatures therefore always to have an actual knowledge of our thoughts and needs pass'd and future would be very troublesome Moreover it would be altogether useless to him and to us Certainly it is sufficient that J. C. thinks of assisting me when I shall have need without thinking thereof for two or three Thousand years or rather from all Eternity For J. C. must actually think thereof from all Eternity if there be no succession of thoughts in his soul As in the Treatise of Nature and Grace which I composed for those Persons who are not over credulous I resolved not to propose any Principles which might be contested and since if I had supposed that the soul of J. C. had actually known all things my supposition might have been opposed by the reasons which I have produced and perhaps by others better I have therefore only supposed that J. C. has a clear Idea of the soul and the modifications of which it is capable to produce a noble effect in the Temple which he builds to the glory of his Father that which Reason and Faith do demonstrate Thus I suppose J. C. to act in consequence of this only supposition in the XIII XIV XV XVI Articles where I compare him to an Architect and to a Soul which should have power to form all the parts of its Body For as an Architect may form a Design and build an Edifice without concerning himself from whence the materials come he employs therein so J.C. by his union with the Word may form his designs and desires without thinking on the actual dispositions of all men He hath admonished them by his Counsels in his Gospel to put themselves in such a condition that Grace may not be useless to them It becomes him not to order his desires the distributive causes of his Graces according to the negligence or wickedness of men but according to the condition
wherein he finds the Work he is to build according to the designs he continually forms according to the beauty wherewith he intends to Adorn his Church Now this way after which I suppose J.C. might act wou'd be sufficient to justifie Gods Conduct and make it in general comprehended whence it is that the rain of Grace is sent down without effect upon hardned hearts at such unseasonable times after such an unequal manner and almost always so little answerable unto the concupiscence of those who receive it For this reason I ought not to enter particularly upon the fall of the Just under an Head who has so much love for sinners Nevertheless I shall at present endeavour to explain it to satisfie the most difficult Whilst J.C. acts as Architect he only regulates his desires according to his designs It is indifferent to him to have in his Temple Paul or John if both the one and the other resemble the Idea which determines his desires As it is indifferent to an Architect who needs only a square stone or a pillar to have that which is on the right hand or on the left if they be altogether alike Thus the desire of J. C. bestowing Grace which moves men to come unto him and cast themselves in his hands those who come first and are most watchful are they whom he employs in his building But men having once followed the motion of Grace I think it is certain that J. C. is advertised of their dispositions and that when he has plac'c them in his Temple or made them parts of his Body no need no temptation happens to them which he has not notice of and which he doth not provide for When Bread is once become part of our flesh it cannot be touched without hurting us When a stone is wrought and laid in the building it cannot be broken without offending the Architect J. C. considered as Head of the Church is therefore advertised of all our necessities even before he particularly desires to know them Herein his Father prevents his Charity It seems to me that order requires this Perhaps he may even actually know the effect which the assistance he gives us will have even before it be given and this is that which makes all the difficulty For J. C. loves the just he tenderly cherishes those who are united unto him by Charity Now he has notice of a Temptation which solicits one of his Members and he may give him Victorious Graces If therefore he foresaw that with such assistance the Just tho he might have overcome would nevertheless be vanquished Why did he not augment this assistance He desires the just should be Victorious Why therefore doth he not proportion the means to the end if he actually knew the relation of the means to the end For my part I had rather believe that J. C. as man or the occasional cause of Grace doth not actually know the future determination of the will of the just to whom he gives assistance than think that he in any sense wants Goodness and Charity for his Members I grant that J.C. as man may know all the future determination of our wills as I know that two and two are four But I doubt whether he actually thinks thereon and I do not believe that he always thinks thereon that he may regulate the distribution of Graces according to this knowledge These are my Reasons J. C. does not see in the Word precisely as the Word whether the just will follow or will not follow the motion of his Grace He cannot know it unless God discover it to him by a sort of revelation as I have already said Now it seems to me that he ought not always to demand what effect his Grace will have because it seems clear to me that Order which is his Rule and his Law doth not require that he shou'd proportion his gifts to mens future negligence but only to their necessities for his own proper designs J.C. must act as man or as the occasional cause that God may build up his Church by the most simple ways Now none but God can dive in mens hearts and see the free determinations of their wills J. C. therefore before he acts ought not to desire of his Father to reveal to him whether the just being tempted will or will not be vanquished by such or such a degree of Grace For thus his action would not bear the Character of an occasional cause If God should by himself give unto the just Grace to vanquish Temptations being by nature Searcher of Hearts his Conduct ought to comport with this Character and if the just should be vanquished it might be believed that God designed to forsake him But Order requiring that J. C. as Man should act as Man his action is not to bear the Character of Searcher of Hearts For God intending to make his wisdom his fore-sight the infinite extension of his knowledge to appear in the construction of his great work he was obliged to form it by the most simple ways For in conclusion what marvel would it be if J. C. should make a beautiful work and save even all men if on the one side he acted by particular wills and on the other his action did not carry in it the character of an Occasional cause but of an infinite Wisdom certainly GOD ought not to appoint an Occasional Cause if this Occasional cause must act as God and not as man He ought to do all immediately by himself But how shou'd we have justified his wisdom and goodness seeing so many Monsters among Bodies so many irregularrities among Spirits so much disproportion in his action in relation to his Attributes so much rain upon the Sand and in the Sea so many Graces given to hardned Hearts Graces which serve only to make them more culpable and more criminal Ezek. 33.2 Eccles. 15.12 which yet cou'd not have been given with a design so unworthy of Gods goodness who desires the Conversion of sinners and to whom the wicked were never necessary If that which I have said of the fall of the just and the manner after which Jesus Christ forms his Church be clearly understood perhaps it would be found to be probable enough But I think I ought to say that this is no ways necessary in order to defend my principles and the manner by which I have justified the wisdom and goodness of God For it may be that God has given to J. C. as man a particular kind of knowledge and power in relation to his design by establishing him the occasional cause of the general Law of Grace To make my thought understood by a comparison let us imagine that as soon as Adam was formed God acquainted the Angels that he had united a Spirit to a Body to the end that it might take care thereof without informing them any thing of the Laws of this union According to this supposition the Angels reasoning according to their
motions of the Soul of J. C. in their behalf since these same motions never fail of giving it Thus the desires of J. C. alone have infallibly their effect as occasional causes because God having made J. C. Head of the Church it is only by him that the Grace which sanctifies the Elect ought to be given XX. Now we may consider in the Soul of J. C. two sorts of desires actual transient and particular desires the efficacy of which continue but a little time constant and permanent desires which consist in a firm and lasting disposition of the soul of J. C. in relation to certain effects which tend to the execution of his design in general If our soul by its different motions did communicate to our bodies all that which is necessary to form and make it grow we might distinguish therein two kinds of desires for it would send into the Muscles of the Body the Spirits that give it certain dispositions in respect of the present Objects or actual thoughts of the mind by actual and transient desires But it would give to the Heart and the Lungs the natural motions which serve for respiration and circulation of the Blood by stable and permanent desires It would also by such like desires digest its nourishment and distribute it to all the parts which have need thereof because this sort of action is at all times necessary for the preservation of the body XXI By these actual transient and particular desires of the soul of J. C. Grace is given to persons who are not prepared and after a manner which hath something singular and extraordinary in it But it is given regularly by permanent desires to those who worthily receive the Sacraments For the Grace which we receive by the Sacraments is not given meerly by the Merit of our Action tho we receive with fit dispositions it is because of the merits of J.C. which are freely applyed to us in consequence of his permanent desires We receive by the Sacraments much more Grace than our preparation can deserve and it is even sufficient for the receiving some influence thereby that we do not put any impediment But it is also to abuse that which is most holy in Religion to receive them unworthily Additions Since J. C. as man does not act but by his desires and the Grace of the Sacraments is permanent it is evident that the Grace which he communicates to those who receives them worthily comes not from J. C. as the occasional cause If there be not in J. C. a permanent desire or a constant will to do good unto those who come unto the Sacraments there would be no great mistery in them XXII Among the actual and transient desires of the Soul of Jesus there are certainly some which are more lasting and frequent than others and the knowledge of the desires is of very great use in morality Doubtless J. C. thinks oftner upon them who observe his councels than on other men The motions of love which he has for the Faithful are more frequent and lasting than those which he hath for the Libertine and the Wicked And since all the Faithful are not equally disposed to enter into the Church of the predestinated the desires of the Soul of J. C. are not in respect of them all equally lively frequent abiding Man more earnestly desires those fruits which are more proper to nourish his Body he thinks oftner upon Bread and Wine than on those Meats which are difficultly digested J. C. having a design to form his Church ought therefore to concern himself more for those who may easily enter therein than for those who are very far from it Thus the H. Scripture teaches us that the humble the poor the penitent receive greater Graces than other men because they who dispise Honours Riches and Pleasures are much fitter for the Kingdom of God They who according to the example of J. C. have learnt to be meek and humble in heart shall find rest to their souls The yoak of J. C. which the Proud can't bear will become easie and light by the assistance of Grace For God hears the Prayers of the Humble he will comfort them he will justifie them he will save them he will heap Blessings upon them but he will bring down the Haughtiness of the Proud Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven But Cursed are the Rich for they have received their Consolation in this World How hard is it says J C. for the Rich to enter into the Kingdom of GOD It is easier for a Camel to pass thro' the eye of a Needle Which cannot be without a Miracle As for them who like David humble their souls with Fasting put on Sack-cloath In a word afflict themselves at the sight of their Sins and the Holiness of God will become fit objects for the compassion of J. C. for God never will dispise an humble and a contrite Heart We always disarm his wrath when we prefer the interests of God before our own and take vengeance upon our selves XXIII Since the will of J. C. is altogether agreeable to Order of which all men have naturally some Idea it may further be discern'd by Reason that the soul of J. C. has more thoughts and desires in respect of some Persons than others For Order requires that J. C. should bestow more Graces for example upon those who are called to H. Orders than those whose vocation necessarily engages them in the business of the World In a word upon those who make the principal parts of the body of the Church Militant than they who have not the oversight of any or are engaged in the Ecclesiastical Function and raise themselves above others by ambition or interest For if it be fit that J. C. give Graces unto these in respect of the Persons whom they govern yet they don't deserve such as may sanctify them in that state which they have chosen by self-love They may have the gift of Prophecy without having that of Charity as Scripture teaches us XXIV We have proved that the different desires of the soul of J. C. are the occasional causes of Grace and we have endeavoured to discover something of these desires Let us now see of what kind of Grace they are the occasional causes For tho J. C. be the Meritorious cause of all graces it is not necessary he should be the occasional cause of the graces of knowledge and certain outward Graces which prepare the heart for conversion but cannot effect it for J. C. is always the occasional or necessary cause according to the order established by God in respect of all Graces which conduce to men salvation XXV Distinctly to understand what is the grace which J. C. as Head of his Church bestows upon his Members we must know what is the concupiscence which the first man has communicated to all his Posterity For the second Adam came to cure the disorders which
the first had caused and there is such a relation between the Sinful and Earthly Adam and the Innocent and Heavenly Adam that St. Rom. V. 14 17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15 48. Paul looks upon the first communicating sin to his Ofspring by his disobedience as the figure of the second giving to Christians by his obedience righteousness and holiness XXVI Order requires that the soul should govern the body and that she should not be distracted whither she will or no with all those sentiments and all those motions which turn her to sensible Objects Thus the first man before sin was so much Master of his sences and his passions that they were silent whensoever he desired it nothing was able to turn him from his duty against his will and all the pleasures which then prevented his reason did only respectfully after a gentle easie manner advertise him of what he was to do for the preservation of his life But after sin he lost all at once the power he had over his body so that not being able to stop the motions nor effuse those traces which sensible Objects made in the principal part of his brain his soul by the Order of Nature and as a punishment of his disobedience became miserably subject to the Law of Concupiscence to that Carnal Law which continually fights against the mind and every moment inspires it with the Love of sensible goods and rules over it by passions so strong and lively and yet at the same time so sweet and agreeable that it cannot nay will not make all necessary endeavours to break the bonds which captivates it For the infection of sin is communicated to all the Children of Adam by an infallible consequence of the Order of Nature as I have else where Explained XXVII The Heart of Man is always a slave to pleasure and when Reason teaches us it is not convenient to enjoy it yet we do not avoid it but that we may find another more sweet or solid We willingly sacrifice lesser pleasures to greater but the invincible impression which we have for our own happiness permits us not all our lives long to deprive our selves of that sweetness which we taste when we suffer our selves to follow our passions Additions In the third discourse you will see how this ought to be understood XXVIII It is certain that pleasure makes him happy who enjoys it at least while he does enjoy it Thus men being made to be happy pleasure always gives a touch to the will and moves it towards that object which causes it or seems to cause it The contrary must be said of grief Now Concupiscence consists only in a continual succession of sentiments motion which prevent reason which are not subject thereunto of pleasures which coming from the objects about us inspire us with the love of them of griefs which making the exercise of vertue harsh and painful give us an abhorrence of them It therefore became the second Adam that he might cure the disorders of the first to produce in us pleasures and aversions contrary to those of concupiscence pleasures with respect the true goods and horrors or aversions in respect of sensible goods Thus the grace whereof J. C. is the occasional cause and which as Head of the Church he continually bestows upon us is not the Grace of knowledge tho he has merited this Grace and tho he may sometimes communicate it as I shall shew by and by but it is the Grace of sentiments It is this previous delectation which produces and entertains the love of God in our hearts for pleasure naturally produces and entertains the love of those objects which cause or seem to cause it It is likewise the horror which sometimes accompanies sensible objects which gives us an aversion to them and makes us capable of governing the motions of our love by our knowledge XXIX The Grace of sentiment should be opposed to concupiscence pleasure to pleasure horror to horror that the influences of J. C. might be directly opposed to the influence of the first man The remedy that it may cure the disease must be contrary thereto For the Grace of knowledge cannot heal an Heart wounded with pleasure to this end this pleasure must either cease or another succeed in its room Pleasure is the weight of the soul which naturally enclines it towards it self sensible pleasures weigh it down towards the Earth That the soul may determine it self either these pleasures must be dissipated or the delectation of Grace raise her towards Heaven and put her almost in Equilibrio 'T is thus that the new Man opposes the old that the influences of our Head resists the influences of our Father Adam that J. C. overcomes all our domestick Enemies Since Man had no concupiscence before his sin it was not necessary he should be carried to the love of good by a previous delectation He clearly knew that God was his good it was not necessary that he should feel it There was no need that he should be drawn by pleasure to love him whom to love nothing hindred and who he knew was perfectly worthy of his love but after sin the Grace of delectation was necessary to him to counter-ballance the continual effort of concupiscence Thus knowledge is the Grace of the Creator delectation the Grace of the Redeemer Knowledge is communicated by J. C. as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Knowledge in its original was no more than Nature Delectation was always pure Grace Knowledge after Sin was not granted to us but through the Merits of J. C. Delectation is given to us through the Merits and by the Efficacy of the power of J. C. In short Knowledge is sent down upon our minds according to our different desires and applications as I shall Explain But the Delectation of Grace is not shed upon our Hearts but according to the various desires of the Soul of J. C. Additions That the Healing Grace of J. C. consists in a preventing Delectation is a thing so much out of doubt with St. Augustine that F. Deschamps who has so Learnedly confuted Jansenius and is so opposite unto him agrees with him in this Point tho they differ from one another as to the manner in which Grace acts in us See Jansenius de Grat. Chr. Lib. IV. c. 1. and Deschamps Lib III. Disp III. c. 16. 19. I cannot perswade my self to continue the Explication of those things which to me seem clear of themselves Insomuch that what follows either needs it not or is not particular to me My Principles are sufficiently confirm'd by what has been said and if they be clearly understood I dont think there will be any difficulty in what follows XXX It is true that pleasure produces Knowledge because the soul gives more attention to the Objects from which she receives more pleasure Since the generallity of men dispise or neglect the truths of Religion because these
abstracted truths do not affect them it may be said that this delectation of Grace doth instruct them for making these truths sensible they learn them more easily by the attention which they bring to them 1 Joh. 11.72 'T is upon this account that St. John says the unction we receive from J. C. teaches us all things and that they who have this unction have no need to be instructed It is true that concupiscence such as we feel is not necessary in order to merit Jesus Christ whose sufferings were infinite was not at all subject to it But altho he was absolute Master of his Body he willingly suffered the most troublesome motions and sentiments to be excited therein that he might thus merit all thereby which was prepared for him Of all the sentiments that of Grief is the most contrary to a soul which desires and deserves to be happy and yet he willingly suffered the most tormenting Pleasure makes him actually happy who actually enjoys it and yet he willingly depriv'd himself thereof Thus as we ought he has offered an infinite number of Sacrifices by a Body which he took like unto ours but these his Sacrifices differed from those of the greatest Saints because he willingly excited in himself all those painful sentiments which in the rest of Men are the necessary consequences of sin and that thus these Sacrifices being altogether voluntary in him were more Pure and more Meritorious XXXI Nevertheless it must be observed that this Unction doth not of its self produce knowledge it only excites our attention which is the natural or occasional cause of our knowledge Thus we see that they who have the most Charity have not always the most Knowledge All men not being equally capable of attention the same unction doth not equally instruct all those who receive it Thus tho knowledge may be communicated to the Soul by a supernatural infusion and it may often be produced by Charity nevertheless this Grace ought often to be accounted as a natural effect because Charity does not ordinarily produce knowledge in the minds of Men but proportionally as it causes the soul to desire the knowledge of that which she loves For to conclude the various desires of the soul are the natural or occasional causes of the discoveries we make in any subject whatsoever But these truths I must explain more at length in the Second Part of this Discourse THE SECOND PART Of the Grace of the Creator XXXII I Know but two Principles which determine directly and by themselves the motions of our Love Knowledge and Pleasure Knowledge by which we discern different goods Pleasure by which we taste them But there is great difference betwixt Knowledge and Pleasure Knowledge leaves us altogether to our selves it makes no attempt upon our liberty it does not force us to love any thing it does not produce in us a natural or necessary love it only puts us in a condition of determining our selves and loving the objects which it discovers to us with a love of choice or which is the same thing of fixing the general impression of Love which God continually gives us upon particular goods But Pleasure efficaciously determines the will it transports it as I may say towards the object which causes it or seems to cause it it produces in us a natural and necessary love it diminishes our liberty distracts our reason and does not leave us wholly to our selves A small attention to our inward sentiments may convince of these differences XXXIII Thus Man before sin having a perfect freedom and no Concupiscence which might hinder him from following his Knowledge in the motions of his Love and since he clearly saw that God was infinitely amiable it was not expedient he should have been determined by a preventing Delectation as I have already said nor by other Graces of Sentiment which might have diminished his merit and have engaged him to have loved by instinct that good which ought to be loved only by Reason But since sin besides Knowledge the Grace of sentiment has been necessary that he might thereby resist the motions of Concupiscence For Man invincibly desiring to be happy it is impossible he should continually sacrifice his Pleasure to his Knowledge his Pleasure which renders him actually happy which subsists in himself notwithstanding he never so much resists it to his knowledge which subsists not but by a troublesome application of mind which the least actual pleasure distracts which lastly doth not promise actual happiness till after death which to the imagination seems to be a real Annihilation XXXIV Knowledge therefore is necessary to Man for guiding him in the search after that which is good It is the Effect of natural order It supposes neither the Corruption nor the Restoration of Nature But Pleasure which draws us to true happiness is pure Grace for naturally what is truly good ought only to be loved by reason Hence the occasional causes of the Graces of sentiment must be found in J. C. because he is the Author of Grace But the occasional causes of Knowledge must ordinarily be found in the order of Nature because it is the Grace of the Creator Let us endeavour to find out these causes XXXV In the order established by Nature I only see two occasional causes which distribute knowledge to Spirits and thus determine the general Laws of the Grace of the Creator The one in us which in some sort depends upon us the other which is to be found in the relation we have to the things about us The first is nothing else but the different motions of our wills The second is the concourse of sensible objects which act upon our mind in consequence of the Laws of union of the Soul with the Body XXXVI The inward sentiment which we have of our selves teaches us that our desires produce or excite knowledge in us and that attention of mind is the natural prayer by which we prevail with God to enlighten us for all who apply themselves to truth discover it proportionably to their attention And if our prayer was not interrupted if our attention was not disturbed if we had any Idea of what we ask and if we asked it with necessary perseverance we should never fail to obtain as far as we are capable to receive But our prayers are continually interrupted if they be not preingaged by pleasure Our senses and our imagination trouble and confound all our Ideas and tho the truth we consult answers our request yet the confused noise of our passions hinders from understanding its answers or causes us presently to forget them XXXVII If it be considered that Man before sin was animated with Charity that he had in himself all that was necessary for his perseverance in Righteousness and that he ought by his perseverance and application to have merited his reward it may easily be apprehended that the various desires of his Heart were to be made the occasional causes
may be inferred from these Truths XLV It must be observed that J. C. who alone is the meritorious cause of the good things which God gives us according to the order of Nature is sometimes the occasional cause of knowledge as well as of sentiment Nevertheless I believe that this is very rare because in truth it is not necessary J. C. as much as is possible makes Nature serve Grace For besides that Reason teaches us that order requires this as being the most simple way this sufficiently appears by his management upon Earth and by that order which he has founded and still preserves in his Church J. C. made use of preaching the Word for to enlighten the World and sent forth his Disciples two by two to prepare the people to receive him Luke X. 1. Eph. IV. 12. 12. He hath appointed Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctours Bishops Priests for the Edification of the Church Is not this to make Nature serviceable to Grace and to communicate the knowledge of Faith to the minds of Men by the most simple and natural ways In truth it did not become J. C. upon Earth to enlighten Men by particular wills since he might instruct them as inward Truth and eternal Wisdom by the most simple and most fruitful Laws of Nature XLVI That which seems most dark in the order which God hath observed in founding his Church is doubtless the times the place and other circumstances of the Incarnation of his Son and the preaching of the Gospel For why should J. C. for whom the world was created be made man 4000. years after its creation Why should he be born among the Jews who was to reprove this miserable Nation Why chosen to be the Son of David when the House of David was fall'n from its Glory and not the Son of any of the Emperours who commanded all the Earth since he came to convert and enlighten all the World Why did he chuse low mean and ignorant persons for his Apostles and Disciples Preach to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida and Corazin who were resolved to continue in their incredulity and pass by Tyre and Zidon who would have been converted if they had had the same favour Hinder St. Paul from Preaching the word of God in Asia and command him to pass into Macedonia These and a thousand other circumstances which attended the preaching of the Gospel doubtless are Mysteries whereof 't is not possible to give clear and evident reasons neither is this my design I would only lay down some principles which may give some light to these and such like difficulties or at least make it appear that from them nothing can be concluded against what I have hitherto said concerning the Order of Nature and of Grace XLVII It is certain that natural effects are combined and mixed after infinite ways with the effects of Grace And that the order of Nature encreases or lessens the efficacy of the effects of the order of Grace according to the different manners by which these two orders are mixed one with another The Death which according to the general Laws of Nature sometimes happens to a good or evil Prince to a good or an evil Bishop causes a great deal of good or evil to the Church because such like accidents make great change in the consequence of effects which depend upon the order of Grace Now God would save all men by the most simple ways Therefore it may and it ought to be said in general that he hath chosen the times the place the manners which in succession of time and according to the general Laws of Nature and Grace will caeteris paribus cause the greatest number of the Predestinated to enter into the Church God does all for his Glory Therefore amongst all the possible combinations of Nature with Grace he by the infinite extension of his knowledge has chosen that which must make the Church most perfect and most worthy of his Majesty and Wisdom XLVIII It seems to me this already suffices to answer all difficulties relating to the circumstances of our Mysteries For if it be said that J. C. ought to have been born of a Roman Emperour and have wrought Miracles in the Capital City of the World that so the Gospel might have been more easily spread in the farthest distant Countries to this it may be answered boldly that whatsoever men think thereof this combination of Nature with Grace would not have been so worthy of the Wisdom of God as that which he hath chosen I grant that Religion would thus at first have been spread with more ease but its establishment would not have been so divine and so extraordinary and consequently not such an invincible proof of its solidity and certainty Thus according to this combination Religion perhaps would have been at present either destroyed or less spread in the World Moreover when it is said that God acts by the most simple ways an equality is always supposed in all things else especially in the glory which must redound to God by his Work Now the Church would not have been so perfect nor so worthy of the greatness and holiness of God if it had been form'd with so much ease For the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem consisting in the different rewards due to the different combate of Christians it was expedient that the Martyrs should shed their Blood as well as J. C. to enter into the glory which they possess In a word this principle that amongst all the infinite combinations of the orders of Nature and Grace God has chosen that which would produce an effect most worthy of his Majesty and Wisdom is sufficient in general to answer all the difficulties which may be made concerning the circumstances of our Mysteries In like manner to justify the orders of Nature and Grace in themselves it s enough to know that God being infinitely Wise he does not form his designs but upon the admirable relation of Wisdom and fruitfulness which he sees in the ways capable to execute them as I have already shewn in the first Discourse XLIX Since the generality of men judge of God by themselves they imagine that he first resolves upon a design and afterwards consults his Wisdom how to bring it to effect for our wills every moment go before our reason so that our designs are scarce ever perfectly reasonable For God does not act as Men do Behold how he acts if I have well consulted the idea of an infinitely perfect being God by the infinite knowledge of his wisdom and in the same wisdom sees all possible works and at the same time all ways of producing each of them He sees all the relation of the means to their ends he compares all things by an eternal immutable necessary foresight and by the comparison which he makes of relations of the wisdom and fruitfulness which he discovers betwixt his designs and the ways of executing them he freely forms the design But the
better understood It seems to me that what I have hitherto said of Nature and Grace is sufficient to satisfie all equitable and moderate Persons concerning an infinite number of Difficulties which disturb the Minds of those only who judge of God by themselves For if we do faithfully consult the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being of a general Cause of an infinite Wisdom and if the Principles I have establish'd of this Idea be granted I believe none will be surprized or offended with God's Conduct and that instead of condemning or murmuring at it Men will not forbear to admire and adore it The Third Discourse Of Grace and the Manner by which it Acts in us The First Part. Of Liberty I. THere is nothing more uncomely than the substance of Spirits if they are separated from God For what is a Mind without Understanding and Reason without Motion and Love In the mean time the Word and Wisdom of God is the Universal Reason of Spirits it is the Love by which God loves himself which gives to the Soul all the motion that it has towards happiness The Mind cannot know the Truth but by its natural and necessary union with Truth its self it cannot be reasonable but by reason in short it cannot in some sence be a Mind and Understanding but because its Substance is enlightned penetrated and perfected by the Light of God himself I have elsewhere explain'd these Truths Book III. of the Searchafter Truth and in the Explication of the Nature of Ideas As the substance of the Soul is not capable of loving that which is good but by its natural and necessary union with the eternal and substantial Love of the Soveraign Good so it moves not towards that which is good but so far forth as God carries it it is not Will but by the motion which God continually imprints upon it it lives not but by charity it wills not but by the love of good which God imparts unto it tho' it abuses it For in truth as God neither makes nor preserves Minds but for himself so he carries them towards himself as long as he preserves their being he communicates the love of happiness to them as far as they are capable Now this natural and continual motion of the Soul towards good in general towards good undetermined that is towards God is that which I here call the Will because it is this motion which makes the Soul capable of loving different goods II. This natural motion of the Soul towards good in general is invincible for it is not in our power to chuse not to be happy We necessarily love that we clearly know and sensibly feel to be the true good All minds love God by the necessity of their nature and if they love any thing but God by the free choice of the will it is not because they do not seek after God or the cause of their happiness but because having a confused sence that Bodies about them make them happy they look upon them as their Goods and by a natural and ordinary consequence love them and unite themselves to them III. But the love of all these particular goods is not naturally invincible Man considered as God made him may hinder himself from loving those goods which do not fill the whole capacity he has of loving Seeing there is a good which contains all others Man may sacrifice to the love of this good all other loves for God having made minds for himself he cannot engage them invincibly to love any thing but himself or with relation to himself The inward sentiment which we have of our selves teaches us that we may for example refuse any fruit tho we are inclin'd to receive it Now this power of loving or not loving particular goods this non-invincibility which is in that motion which carries the minds to love that which does not seem to them to contain all goods this power this non-invincibility is that which I call liberty Thus by putting the definition in the place of the thing defin'd this expression Our will is free signifies that the natural motion of our Soul towards good in general is not invincible in respect of any particular good We do also to this word free joyn the Idea of voluntary but hereafter I shall take this word in the sense which I have observ'd because this is most natural and most ordinary IV. The word good is equivocal it may signifie either pleasure which makes Men formally happy or else the true or apparent cause of pleasure I shall in this Discourse always take the word good in the second sense because in truth pleasure is imprinted upon the Soul to the end that she may love the cause of her happiness that by the motion of her love she may be carried towards it and be straitly united thereunto and so be continually happy When the Soul loves nothing but her pleasure she truly loves nothing but her self for pleasure is only a condition or modification of the Soul which renders her actually happy Now since the Soul cannot be to her self the cause of her happiness she is unjust she is ungrateful she is blind if she loves her pleasure without paying that love and respect which is due to the true cause which produces it in her Since there is none but God who can immediately and by himself act upon the Soul and make her feel pleasure by the actual efficacy of his Almighty Will there is none but he who can be truly good Nevertheless I call the creatures which are the apparent causes of those pleasures which they occasion in us by the name of goods For I would not avoid the ordinary way of speaking but as far as it is necessary clearly to express my self All the creatures tho good in themselves and perfect in respect of God's designs are not good in respect to us I mean they are not our good because they are not the true causes of our pleasure or our happiness V. The natural motion which God continually imprints upon the Soul to engage it to love him or to use a term which expresses several Ideas and which can neither be equivocal nor confused after the definition I have given thereof the will is determined towards particular goods either by clear and distinct knowledge or by a confused sentiment which shews us these goods If the mind neither sees nor tastes any particular good the motion of the Soul continues as it were undetermin'd it tends towards good in general But this motion receives a particular determination as soon as the mind has an idea or sentiment of any particular good for the Soul being incessantly moved towards good indetermin'd she must be moved as soon as any object seems to be good to her VI. Now when the good which is present to the Understanding and Senses does not altogether fill these two faculties when it appears under the idea of a particular good which does not contain all
natural strength or by the ordinary graces for in short Nature may be made serviceable to Grace a thousand ways THE SECOND PART Of Grace XVIII THE inequality which is to be found in the liberty of different persons being clearly understood it will not in my opinion be difficult to comprehend how Grace acts in us if to the word Grace we joyn clear and particular Ideas and if the difference between the Grace of the Creator and the Grace of the Redeemer be observ'd I have already said in the foregoing Discourse that there is this difference betwixt Knowledge and Pleasure that Knowledge leaves us intirely to our selves but Pleasure makes an attempt upon our Liberty For Knowledge is without us it does not touch or modifie our Souls it does not push us on towards the Objects it discovers it only makes us capable to determine our selves or to consent with freedom and reason to the impression which God gives us towards Happiness The knowledge of our Duty the clear Idea of Order separated from all sentiment the dry abstracted altogether pure and intelligible sight of good that is to say without taste or foretaste leaves the Soul in a perfect liberty But Pleasure is in the Soul it touches and modifies it Thus it lessens our liberty it makes us love good rather by the love of Instinct and unaccountable Passion than by the love of Choice and Reason it transports us as I may say towards sensible Objects Nevertheless this is not to be understood as if Pleasure was the same thing with Love or the motion of the Soul to good but because it produces it or determines it towards the object which renders us happy Since none but those Truths whereof we have clear Ideas can be demonstrated and since we have none such of our inward sentiments it is impossible that I should demonstrate that which I here maintain as the consequences which depend upon common Notions are demonstrated Every one therefore must consult the inward sentiment which he has within himself if he would be convinc'd of the difference there is betwixt Knowledge and Pleasure he must also carefully observe that ordinarily Knowledge is accompanied with Pleasure from which nevertheless it ought to be separated that we may judge solidly thereof XIX If then it be true that Pleasure naturally produces Love and that it is as it were a weight which makes the Soul incline to the good which causes it or seems to cause it it is visible that the Grace of J.C. or the Grace of Sentiment is efficacious in its self For tho the preventing delectation when it is weak may not wholly convert the Hearts of those who have very lively Passions nevertheless it always has its effect in that it always carries Men towards God it is always efficacious in some sense but it has not always all the effect which it might have because concupiscence opposes it XX. For example In one of the Scales of a Balance there is a Weight of ten Pounds and a Weight of six Pounds only in the other this last Weight truly weighs for if enough be put therein or taken out of the other Scale or lastly if the Balance be hung nearer the Scale which has more weight in it this weight of six Pound will turn the Balance But tho this Weight weighs it is plain that its effect always depends upon the Weights which resist it and the manner after which they resist it Thus the Grace of Sentiment is always efficacious in its self it always lessens the effort of Concupiscence because Pleasure naturally excites Love for the cause which produces it or seems to produce it But tho this Grace be always efficacious in its self it depends or rather its effect depends upon the actual dispositions of him to whom it is given The Weights of Concupiscence resist it and sensible Pleasures which tie us to the Creatures which seem to produce them in us hinder the Pleasures of Grace from uniting us strictly to him who is only capable to act in us and render us happy XXI But it is not the same of the Grace of Knowledge or of the Grace of the Creator It is not efficacious of its self it does not transport the Soul it does not give it any motion it leaves it freely to its self But tho it be not efficacious of its self it fails not to be attended with many effects when it is great and animated with some grace of sentiment which gives it vigour and strength or else when it finds no contrary pleasure which do much resist it This is the difference betwixt the Grace of the Creator and the Grace of the Redeemer betwixt Knowledge and Pleasure betwixt the Grace which doth not suppose Concupiscence and the Grace which is given to counter-balance the Pleasures of Concupiscence The one is sufficient to a Man perfectly free and fortified by Charity the other is efficacious in a weak Man to whom Pleasure is necessary that he may be drawn to the love of the true good XXII But the strength and efficacy of Grace ought always to be compar'd with the action of Concupiscence with the light of Reason and especially with the degree of Liberty that Person hath to whom it is given And it ought not to be imagined that God dispenses it by particular Wills with a design it should produce in us certain effects and nothing more For when it is said that Grace always produces in the Heart the effect for which God gave it we are deceived if we suppose that God acts like Men with particular designs God dispenses his Grace with a general intention that it may sanctifie all those who receive it or as the occasional cause determines him to dispense it nevertheless he sees very well that in some Persons it will not have all the effect it will have in others not only by reason of the inequality of strength in respect of Grace but also the inequality of resistance in respect of Concupiscence XXIII Since Concupiscence has not altogether destroy'd Humane Liberty the Grace of J.C. as efficacious as it is is not absolutely invincible Sensible Pleasure may be overcome whilst it is weak The judgment of Love may be suspended when a Man is not hurried along by some violent Passion and when he yields to the courtship of this false Pleasure he is to be blamed for the ill use of his liberty In like manner the delectation of Grace is not ordinarily invincible the good Motions which it inspires and which separate us from the false good we love may be oppos'd This Grace does not so sill the Soul as to draw it along towards the true good without choice without understanding without free consent Thus when a Man resigns himself to its motion when a Man goes faster as I may say than it invincibly drives when he sacrifices the pleasures which lessen its efficacy or in short when he acts by reason or loves the true
by his Body as the occasional or natural cause receiving a great number of divers sentiments he might sacrifice himself as an Holocaust in Honour of the true good by suffering afflictions and the privation of sensible Pleasures XXXIV That I may not leave in some Persons an imperfect Idea of the Grace of J. C. I think I ought further to say that it doth not consist in delectation alone for all Grace of sentiment is the Grace of J. C. Now of this sort of Grace there are several kinds and of each kind infinite degrees God sometimes gives disgust and bitterness to the objects of our passions he weakens their sensible perswasives or causes us to have an horror of them and this kind of grace of sentiment has the same effect as delectation It re-establishes and fortifies our Liberty it puts us almost in Equilibrio so that by this means we are in a condition of following our Knowledge in the motion of our love For to put a Ballance in a perfect Equilibrio or to change the inclination it is not necessary to increase the Weights which are too weak it is sufficient to take something from those which weigh too much Thus there are Graces of Sentiment of several kinds and each kind is capable of infinite degrees for there are Pleasures Horrors and Disgusts greater and lesser to infinity That which I have hitherto said of delectation may be easily applyed to other kinds of Graces of Sentiment I only took pleasure or delectation as a particular example that I might explain my self more clearly and without equivocation If there be any other principle of our determinations to good besides the Grace of Sentiment and that of Knowledge I confess to me they are altogether unknown and it is upon this account that I have explained the effects which are necessary to the conversion of the heart only by these two Principles lest I should have been accused of having spoken in general terms and such as only excite confused Ideas which I have avoided with all possible care But tho I have explained my self only in such terms as all Men understand since there is no person who knows not that Knowledge and Sentiment of good are the principles of our determinations nevertheless I don't pretend to oppose those who not making use of these clear Ideas say in general that God works in the souls of Men their Conversion by a particular action different perhaps from all that I have said here * First Explicat of the Search after Truth and elsewhere that God doth in us Since I experience nothing in my self but Motion towards good in general and Knowledge or Sentiment which determines this Motion I ought to suppose nothing else if by this alone I can give a reason of all that which the Scripture and the Councils have defined concerning the subjects of which I treat In a word I am sure that Knowledge and Sentiment are the Principles of our determinations but I declare that I know not whether there may be something else of which I have no knowledge XXXV Beside Grace efficacious in it self and the Grace the effect of which depends intirely upon the good dispositions of the Mind besides the Grace of Sentiment and the Grace of Knowledge the Just also have Habitual Grace which makes them agreeable to God and puts them in a condition of doing actions Meritorious of Salvation This Grace is Charity the Love of God the Love of Order Love which is not properly Charity if it be not stronger and greater than all other Loves As it is Pleasure which ordinarily produces the love of the object which cause it or seems to cause it so it is the delectation of Grace which produces the love of God It is the enjoyment of sensible pleasures which encreases Concupiscence It is also the Grace of Sentiment which augments Charity Concupiscence diminishes by the privation of sensible Pleasures and then Charity is easily preserved and encreased Charity also diminishes by the privation of the actual Grace of J. C. and Concupiscence is easily encreased and fortified For these two loves of Charity and Concupiscence continually engage one another and strengthen themselves by the weakness of their Enemy XXXVI All that proceeds from Charity is agreeable to God but Charity does not always act in the just themselves To the end it may act it ought at least to be enlightned for Knowledge is necessary to determine the motion of Love Thus the Grace necessary for every good work relating to Salvation is the Grace of Sentiment in those who begin their Conversion it is the Grace of Knowledge it is some motion of Faith and Hope in those who are animated by Charity For the Just may do good works without the Grace of delectation yet they have always need of some actual succours to determine the motion of their Charity But tho Charity without Delectation is sufficient to vanquish many temptations nevertheless the Grace of Sentiment is necessary in many occasions For Men cannot without the continual assistance of the second Adam resist the continual action of the first They cannot persevere in righteousness if they be not often assisted by the particular Grace of J. C. which produces augments and sustains Charity against the continual efforts of Concupiscence XXXVII The effects of Pleasure and all the sentiments of the Soul depend a thousand ways upon the actual dispositions of the Mind The same weight has not always the same effects Its action depends upon the machine by which it is applyed with respect to the contrary weights If a ballance be unequally hung the force of the weights being unequally apply'd the weaker may turn the stronger It is the same of the weights of pleasure they act one upon another and determine the motion of the Soul as they are differently applyed Pleasure must have more effect in one who has already a love to the Object which causes the pleasure than in him who has an aversion to it or who loves the opposite goods Pleasure forcibly determines him who clearly sees or lively imagines the advantages of the good which seems to produce it and it acts weakly upon the mind of him who knows this good only confusedly or contemns it In conclusion pleasure acts with all its force in him who blindly follows that which flatters Concupiscence and may perhaps have no effect in him who has attain'd to some habit of suspending the Judgment of his love XXXVIII Now the different degrees of Knowledge Charity Concupiscence and the degrees of Liberty being every moment combin'd after infinite ways with the different degrees of actual pleasures and these pleasures not having their effect but according to the relation which they have to the dispositions of the mind and heart It is plain that no finite mind can judge with any assurance what effect any particular Grace will produce in us For besides the Combination of all that which concurs to make it efficacious
distributes to his Members those Graces which by his sacrifice he hath merited for his Church For my part I cannot comprehend how any one can doubt of these Reasons nor upon what foundation a Truth so very edifying and as ancient as the Religion of J. C. can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions may be new but this is because they appear'd to me very proper distinctly to explain a truth which I could only have confusedly demonstrated by too general terms The words Occasional Causes and General Laws appear to me necessary to make those Philosophers for whom I wrote the Treatise of Nature and Grace distinctly comprehend that which the generality of Men are content to know only confusedly Since new Expressions are not dangerous but when they cover something which is equivocal or may occasion some thought contrary to Religion to arise in the mind I do not think that any candid persons and who are skill'd in St. Paul's Divinity will be offended because I explain my self after a particular manner since it tends only to make us adore the Wisdom of God and to unite us strictly unto J. C. Objection I. XIII It is objected against what I have said That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament received Grace in consequence of the desires of the Soul of Jesus since this Holy Soul was not as yet and thus tho J. C. be the meritorious cause of all Graces he is not the occasional which distributes them to Men. Answer In respect of Angels I answer That there is some probability that Grace was given to them once only So that if we consider things in this respect I confess that nothing oblig'd the Wisdom of God to establish an occasional cause for the sanctification of Angels But if these blessed Spirits be considered as Members of the Body whereof J. C. is Head or if it be supposed that they were unequally assisted I believe there is reason to think that the diversity of their Graces came from him who-is Head of Angels as well as Men and that in this capacity he by his sacrifice not only merited all Graces which God gave to his Creatures but also diversly applied these same Graces to them by his different desires Since it cannot be denied that J. C. along time before he was born or could merit was the meritorious cause of Graces which were given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it must in my opinion be granted that by his Prayers he might have been the occasional cause of the same Graces a long time before they were ask'd For there is no necessary relation between occasional causes and the time of their producing their effects and tho ordinarily these sorts of causes do produce their effects at the very time of their action nevertheless since their action is not efficacious in its self seeing its efficacy depends upon the will of the universal cause it is not necessary that it should actually exist that they may produce their effects Suppose for example That J. C. to day asks of his Father that such an one may receive such an assistance at certain times of his life the Prayer of J. C. will infallibly determine the efficacy of the general Will of God which is to save all Men in his Son This person shall receive these assistances tho the Soul of J. C. actually thinks of quite another thing and tho it should never more think of that which it desired for him Now the Prayer of J. C. which is already pass'd is not more present to his Father than the future for whatsoever happens in all times is equally present to God Thus since God loves his Son and knows that his Son will have such desires in respect of his Ancestors and the People of his own Nation and also in respect of Angels who were to enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and compose the Body of which he is the Head he seems to have been obliged to accomplish the desires of his Son before they were made to the end that the Elect who were before his birth and whom he purchased by the merit of his sacrifice should as particularly belong to him as others and he should be their Head as truly as he is ours I confess it is convenient that meritorious and occasional causes should go before their effects rather than follow them and even order its self requires that these causes and their effects do exist at the same time For 't is clear that all merit should be presently rewarded and that every occasional cause should actually produce its effect provided that nothing hinder but that this may and ought to be so But since Grace was absolutely necessary to the Angels and to the Patriarchs it could not be differ'd As for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament seeing it might be delay'd it was expedient that God should suspend its accomplishment till J. C. was ascended into Heaven and made an High-Priest over the House of God and began to use the soveraign power of an occasional cause of all Graces which he had merited by his Labours upon Earth Thus we believe that the Patriarchs did not enter into Heaven till J. C. himself their Head their Mediator and their Fore-runner was therein entred Nevertheless tho it should be granted that God should not have appointed an occasional cause for all Graces given to the Angels and the Patriarchs I do not see how it can be concluded that at present J. C. does not dispense to the Body of the Church that Spirit which gives it increase and nourishment that he prays not for it or that his Desires or Prayers do not infallibly obtain their effect or in a word that he is not the occasional cause which applies those Graces to to Men which he has merited for them Before J. C. God gave Grace by particular Wills This I grant if it be desired the necessity of Order requires it the occasional Cause could not regularly be so soon establish'd the Elect were but very few But at present when the rain of Grace is generally sent upon all the World when it falls not as heretofore upon a very few Men of one chosen Nation when J. C. may or ought to be establish'd the occasional cause of the goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe that God should still work Miracles as often as he gives good Sentiments For certainly all that God does by particular Wills is a Miracle since it happens not by the general Laws which he has established and whose efficacy is determin'd by occasional causes But how can we think that to save Men he should work all those Miracles which are useless to their salvation I mean that he should give all those Graces which they resist because they are not proportioned to the actual strength of their concupiscence St. John teaches us that Christians receive
of J. C. John 1.17 abundant Graces because says he the Law was given by Moses but true Grace by Jesus Christ. For in truth the Graces which were before J. C. ought not to be compared to those which he distributed after his triumph If they were miraculous it must be thought they were very rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given to them was not to be compared with those which they received when the Soveraign Priest of good things to come being entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies by the strength of his Prayers obtain'd and by the dignity of his Person sent the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The strange Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Sentiments their frequent relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles do sufficiently shew they had scarce any love for true goods and the fearfulness of the Apostles before they received the Holy Spirit is a sensible mark of their weakness Thus Grace in this time was very rare because as yet our Nature was not made in J. C. the occasional cause of our Graces as yet J. C. was not fully consecrated a Priest according to the Order of Melchisedech and his Father had not yet given him that immortal and glorious Life Heb. 5.5 10. Heb. 7.16 17. which is the particular character of his Priesthood For it was necessary that J. C. should enter into the Heavens and receive the glory and power of being the occasional cause of all goods before he sent the Spirit according to the words of St. John John 7.39 John 16.7 The Spirit was not yet given because J. C. was not yet glorified And according to these words of Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go For if I go not the Comforter will not come But if I go I will send him unto you Now it is not to be imagined that J. C. considered as God is the Head of the Church He has obtain'd this honour as Man the Head and the Members ought to be of the same nature It is as Man that J. C. interceeds for Men it is as Man that he has received of God soveraign power over his Church For since God does not interceed at all he as God has not received that Name which is above every Name he is equal to the Father and absolute Master of all things by right of his birth These Truths are evident and J. C. himself assures us of them John 5.22 to 27. since he says that his Father gave him power to judge Men because he was the Son of Man Thus we must not think that those Expressions of Scripture which teach us that J. C. is the Author of Grace ought to be understood of J. C. considered according to his Divine Person For if this was so I confess I should not have demonstrated that he is the occasional cause of it he would have been only the true cause thereof But since it is certain that the three Persons of the Trinity are equally the true causes of Grace seeing all the outward Operations of God are common to the three Persons my Arguments cannot be denied since the Holy Scripture says of the Son and not of the Father nor of the Spirit that he is the Head of the Church and that under this character he communicates Life to all the Members which compose it Object II. XIV It is God who gives to the Soul of J. C. all Thoughts and Motions which it has in the formation of his Mystical Body So that if on one hand the Wills of J. C. as natural and occasional Causes determine the efficacy of God's general Will on the other hand it is God himself who determines the divers Wills of J. C. Thus it comes to the same thing for assuredly the Wills of J. C. are always conformable to those of his Father Answer I confess that the particular wills of J. C. are always conformable to those of the Father but this is not because the Father has particular wills which answer to those of the Son and determine them This is only because the wills of the Son are always conformable to Order in general which is necessarily the rule of the divine wills and of those which love God For to love Order is is to love God it is to will what God wills it is to be Just Wise Regular in his love The Soul of J. C. would form to the Glory of his Father the most Sacred Magnificent and Perfect Temple that can be Order requires this for nothing can be made too great for God All the divers desires of this Soul ever intent upon the Execution of its design come also to it from God or the Word to which it is united But the occasional causes of all these thoughts most certainly are its divers desires for it thinks on what it will Now these divers desires are sometimes altogether free probably the thoughts which excite these desires do not always invincibly determine the Soul of J. C. to form and resolve to execute them It is equally advantagious to the design of Jesus Christ whether it be Peter or John who does that which the regularity of his work requires It is true that the soul of Jesus Christ is not indifferent as to what respects the glory of his Father or that which Order necessarily requires but it is altogether free in every thing else nothing out of God invincibly determines its love Thus it ought not to be wonder'd if it have particular wills tho there are no such wills in God which determine those of the soul of Jesus Christ But I grant that the wills of Jesus Christ are not free I grant that his knowledge determines him to will and always to will after a certain manner in the construction of his Church But it must be Eternal Wisdom to which his soul is united which determines these wills if it is not necessary for this end to suppose particular wills in God It must be observ'd that the wills of the soul of J. C. are particular or have not any occasional cause which determines their efficacy no not the will of God For the soul of J. C. not having an infinite capacity of thinking his knowledge and consequently his wills are limited Thus 't is necessary that his wills be particular since they change according to his divers thoughts and applications For it seems to me that the soul of J. C. otherwise employ'd in contemplating the beauties and tasting the infinite sweetness of the true good ought not according to the rule of Order to think at the same time upon all the Ornaments which it designs to bestow upon his Church and the different means of executing each of his intentions J. C. desiting to render the Church worthy of the infinite Majesty of his Father he desires also to adorn it with infinite beauties and that by such means as are most
conformable to Order It is therefore necessary that he continually change desires infinite wisdom is only able to prescribe general Laws for executing his designs Now seeing the suture world must subsist eternally and be infinitely more perfect than the present World it was expedient that God should establish an intelligent occasional cause and enlightned with divine wisdom to the end that it might correct the defects which necessarily happen in works formed by general Laws The striking of Bodies upon one another which determines the efficacy of the general Laws of Nature is an occasional cause without Understanding and without Liberty Thus it cannot be but there must be Defects and Monsters in the World which Defects it would be unworthy of the Wisdom of God to correct by particular wills But J. C. being an intelligent occasional cause enlightned by Divine Wisdom and capable of particular wills as the particular necessities of his work require it is plain that the future World will be infinitely more Perfect than the present that the Church shall be without deformity as Scripture teaches us and that this work will be altogether worthy of the esteem of GOD himself After this manner it is that the Eternal Wisdom renders as I may say to the Father that which it had taken from him for not permitting him to act by particular wills it seems as if it rendred him impotent But being incarnate it left God to act as became him by the more simple and general ways Ut innotescat principalibus potestatibus in coelestibus per Ecclesiam multisormis Sapientia Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet produced a work in which the most enlightned understanding shall never be able to observe the least defect XV. After having proved by the Authority of Scripture that the divers motions of the Soul of J. C. are the occasional causes which determine the general efficacy of the Law of Grace by which God would save all Men in his Son 't is necessary further in general to prove by reason that we ought not to believe that God in the Order of Grace acts by particular wills For tho by Reason without Faith it cannot be demonstrated that God has established the wills of a God man as the occasional cause of his gifts it may nevertheless be known that he does not distribute them to Men by particular wills and that by two ways a Priori and a Posteriori that is to say by the Idea which we have of God and by the effects of Grace for there is nothing but proves this Truth See the proof a Priori A wise Being must act wisely God cannot falsifie himself His actions must bear the Character of his Attributes Now God knows every thing and foresees every thing his understanding has no bounds Therefore his manner of acting must bear the character of an infinite understanding Now to chuse occasional causes and establish general Laws for executing any work denotes a knowledge infinitely more extended than to change wills every moment or to act by particular wills God therefore executes his designs by general Laws the efficacy of which is determined by the occasional causes Certainly it requires a more comprehensive understanding to make a Watch which according to the Laws of Mechanism shall go always and regularly whether a Man carries it about with him or hangs it up or gives it what shake he will than to make one which cannot go truly if he who made it does not every moment change something in it according to the different postures in which he puts it For surely when there are a great many relations to compare and combine with one another there needs a greater understanding To see all the consequences which may happen from a general Law an insinite understanding is requisite but nothing of all this is to be foreseen when one changes his wills every moment Therefore to establish general Laws and chuse the most simple and at the same time the most fruitful is a way of acting worthy of him whose Wisdom has no bounds On the contrary to act by particular wills shews a limited understanding and which cannot compare the consequences or effects of causes less fruitful The same truth may further be demonstrated a Priori by some Attributes of God as his immutibility by which Mr. de Cartes proves that every thing in motion describes a right line and that there is always an equal quantity of motion in the World and other Truths But these proofs a Priori are too abstract to convince the generality of Men of the truth which I propose It is expedient to prove it by the signs which I have heretofore given for discerning the effects which are produced by particular wills from those which are the consequences of some general Law XVI God being infinitely wise neither wills nor does any thing without end Now Grace often falls upon hearts so disposed that it is unfruitsul Therefore it does not fall upon hearts by a particular will but only by a necessary consequence of general Laws for the same reason that rain falls upon the Sand and on the Sea as well as on Sown ground Tho God may punish sinners or make them more miserable than they are he cannot design to make them more culpable or more criminal Now Grace sometimes renders Persons more culpable and more criminal and God certainly knows that according to their actual dispositions the Grace which he gives them will have this sad effect Therefore these Graces do not fall upon corrupted hearts by the particular will of God but by a necessary consequence of general Laws which he has established to produce better effects for the same reason that too much rain sometimes spoils and putrifies the Fruits of the earth tho God by his general will causes it to rain to make them grow and encrease XVII If God intended that certain Lands should be barren he need only to cease to will that the rain should water them In like manner if God would that the hearts of some sinners should be hardned it would suffice that the rain of grace did not water them he needed only to leave them to themselves they would soon be corrupted Why should we attribute to God a particular will to make so severe a use thereof and so irreconcileable with the price of the Blood of his Son But some may say God never had this design when he gave his Grace to sinners This doubtless will appear more reasonable but if God gives his Grace by a particular will he has a particular design Now seeing his Grace has this sad effect God is frustrated in his intention since he gave it with a particular design to do good to this sinner For I speak not here of the Graces or rather of the Gifts which St. Paul explains in 1 Cor. Chap. 12. Ver. 9. I speak of the Grace which God gives for the Conversion of him to whom it is given and not
as 't is written in the book of wisdom of a Saint dying in his Infancy Let every one seek after the best reasons of this and if he shall find any other besides this which I have given which renders a reason that is probable and according to the Analogy of Faith let him embrace it and if it shall be imparted to me I shall embrace it with him The Author of the calling of the Gentiles Lib. 1. c. 13. seq observes the same way of proceeding that St. Augustine doth He every where says that the Judgments of God are unsearchable because he opposes the same errors and that Faith doth not suffer us to give a reason of Gods choice of Men from the difference of their natural Merits * Lib. 2. c. 23. If for example he asks himself whence it is that all Children are not Baptized He is not afraid to say that if this came from any ill use of the general Grace given to the Parents that * C. 24. if all received Baptism the Parents were too negligent not fearing lest their Children should be surprized with Death He says that such answers would give some ground to believe that the grace of Baptism was due to the innocence of age and to deny original sin When the question is about excluding natural merits he cries out that the Judgments of God are unsearchable but yet he nevertheless doth not fail to give some general Reasons thereof upon other occasions * Lib. 2. c. 30. His principle is that a Reason of all the Designs and Works of God cannot be given Tertia Definitio temperanter sobrie protestatur non omnem voluntatis Dei comprehendi posse rationem multas divinorum operum causas ab humana intelligentia esse subductas An undeniable principle But neither he nor St. Augustine nor I believe any of the Fathers ever maintain'd that the Judgments of God were so unsearchable as that it should be a crime to seek and give some general Reasons of them They never forbad Men to represent God Amiable and Adorable by justifying his Conduct by that Idea which we have of a Being infinitely Perfect and by the Truths Faith teach us That which I have endeavoured in The Treatise of Nature and Grace The Last Explication The frequent Miracles of the Old Law do by no means shew That God often acted by particular Wills I Do not well understand how Persons who grant that God does all and that therefore he communicates not his power to Creatures but by making them the occasional causes of producing certain effects can Imagine that the Conduct which he observed in respect of the Jews should be contrary to that which I think I have demonstrated several ways viz. That God acts not by particular wills but when the necessity of Order requires him They are always saying as a thing extraordinary that the Old Testament is full of Miracles that God had promised to the Jews Plenty and Prosperity proportionably to their sidelity and obedience and that it was not possible that nature and morality should be so exactly combin'd together that the Holy-Land should abound in fruits proportionably as its Inhabitants did in virtue and good works For my part I willingly grant all this But I do not yet see how this opposes my sentiments if it be not supposed that I acknowledge no other general Laws by which God executes his designs but those of the communication of motions How troublesome is it for a Man not to be able to explain his thoughts but by words which popular use has introduced and which every one interprets according to his prejucices and temper and above all to have for ones judges such Persons who tho they are nimble and quick yet often want equity and penetration of mind Certainly they do not do me justice who say that I think Manna fell every day of the Week among the Israelites except Saturday by a necessary consequence of the Laws of the communication of motions He who is of this opinion must needs be very foolish and impious I am perswaded that the greatest part of the miraculous effects of the Ancient Law was done in consequence of some general Laws since the general cause ought not to execute his purpose by particular wills and for many more Reasons which I might add to those already mentioned But I am far from believing that these extraordinary effects were only the consequences of the natural Laws of the communication of motions I grant that they may be looked upon as Miracles and that there are more such in the World than we imagine But I must explain my self after what manner that I may not be thought to have changed J. C. as Man received all Power in Heaven and in Earth because God executes all the desires of his holy Soul by the general Law of Grace by which he would save all Men in his Son The Father has given to the Son after this manner all the Nations of the World as Materials which he is to employ in the Building of his Church as I have said elsewhere Supposing then that J. C. for the executing of his designs desires a certain degree of Grace for one of his Members or rather that he desired that the fire which sacrificed St. Lawrance should lose its heat it is certain this would be what we call a Miracle nevertheless God would not work this Miracle by a particular will but in consequence of the general Law the efficacy of which is determined by the actual desires of the Soul of J. C. According to the general Laws of the communications of motions heavy bodys fall towards the Earth my arm is heavy yet nevertheless I lift it up to Heaven whensoever I desire it Certainly God who determines the motion of the Animal spirits for the lifting up my arm according to my desires does not then act but in consequence of the general Law of the union of the Soul and Body by which Law I have power to move my arm nevertheless this motion wou'd be accounted miraculous if we did not own some other natural Laws than those of the communication of motions Now I think I am able to demonstrate by the Authority of the Holy Scripture that the Angels have received from God Power over the present World and that thus God executes their desires and by them his own designs according to certain general Laws so that all which appears miraculous in the Old Testament does no wise prove that God may often act by particular wills St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews intending to exalt J. C. above Angels says that God had not subjected the World to come to them as he had to J. C. He believed then as a thing whereof those to whom he wrote had no doubt that God had subjected the present World to Angels If the Angels had had power over nothing it would have been much more easy for
St. Paul to have exalted J. C. above them Writing to the Ephesians he assures us that even the Devils exercise their power over Infidels Eph. 2.2 he calls them as J. C. had done the Princes of this World that is to say of those who live in the darkness of Idolatry tenebrarum harum If the Devils themselves exercise power over Idolaters if they are Princes of this World shall the Angels have no power over it The Arch-Angel Michael is called in Daniel the Prince of the Jews because he fought for them against the Prince of the Persians Can any one fight without Strength and Power The Angels are sent as the Ministers of God to Minister to those who are to be the Heirs of Salvation A weak Ministry if God had not communicated to them his Power A useless mission if God had not established the general Law whose efficacy is determined by their desires There are in the Old Testament a great many Passages which clearly prove that the Angels had care of the Israelites they rewarded the observers of the Law and punished others it is not necessary that I should relate them But it is more to the purpose to shew that even from those passages which attribute to God certain effects without making any mention of Angels it cannot be concluded that God produced these effects by himself without the Ministry of Angels because the Angels acting only by the power of God and doing nothing but what was good the Holy Scripture attributes to God himself that which he did by their means The greatest example of this may be drawn from the manner after which the Law was given to the Jews To read only the Old Teastament it seems as if God had by himself spoken to Moses in the Burning-Bush and that he gave him the Law upon Mount Sinai without the Ministry of Angels 'T is God always who speaks even JEHOVAH that Name which is not given to Creatures And yet St. Stephen assures us that God sent Moses to deliver his People under the conduct and power of the Angel which had appeared unto him in the Burning-Bush and that he conversed also with the same Angel upon Mount Sinai St. Paul delivers the same thing in two of his Epistles and 't is upon this account that intending in his Epistle to the Hebrews to exalt the New Law above the Old he begins this Epistle with a continual comparison of J. C. the Minister of Grace with the Angels the Ministers of the Jewish Law It is evident if the Law had not been given by Angels that which St. Stephen and St. Paul assures us of would be absolutely false But the Angels having given it that which Moses says doth not ever the less cease to be true For God always as the true cause executes that which his Creatures do as the occasional causes to whom God communicates his Power according to certain Laws And because 't is God only who enlightens Spirits by the manifestation of necessary and immutable order which is the inviolable rule of his own will it is truly he who speaks to us and commands us when he who speaks to us from him does not do it till he has consulted the Eternal Laws which his wisdom contains that which the Blessed Angels never fail to do J.C. as Man is Head of the Church dispences to his Members Grace which Sanctifies them But because he has not this Power but in consequence of a general Law which God has established in him to execute by him his great design the Eternal Temple 't is very truly said that God alone gives inward Grace tho he does not in truth give it but by the Ministry of J.C. who as Man determines by his prayers or his desires the efficacy of the Divine will And 't is upon this account that Scripture often attributes to God alone the conversion of hearts In like manner the Angels had power to lead to conduct and punish the Israelites they may at present give us the outward preparations of Grace they may remove out of our way occasions of Sin and Scandal yet all that they do may in general be attributed to God as the true cause for they act only by the Power which God has given them Thus I believe that the defeat of Senacharib the Plague which David brought upon the People for numbring them the rain of Manna which fell so regularly in the Wilderness and a thousand such like effects were miraculous But I believe then since Scripture assures us thereof in several places that God did not do the greatest part of these Miracles but by the action that is to say the desires of the Angels which God chose to conduct his People after he had informed himself by his wisdom that this way would be better than any other in relation to his principal work And that it would spare as I may say a great number of particular wills I believe also that these desires were govern'd as well as the Divine wills by the necessary and immutable order the inviolable rule of all understandings by the light of the Word the fountain of all Wisdom and of all Laws both Temporal and Eternal according to these words Fons sapientiae Verbum in excelsis ingressus illius Manada Aeterna To be convinced of that which I have said supposing that God does all it is enough to endeavour clearly to understand the sence of any one of those passages which attribute to the Angels the Power of defending or punishing the Israelites See one of these passages God or rather the Angel or Prince of the Angels St. Exod. 23.20 Michael says in Gods stead to Moses after he had given him the Law Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him By this passage 't is evident that an Angel conducted the People and had power to punish them if they did not obey him now 't is supposed that God does all The Angel their Conducter had not his Power but because God made it as I may say a Law to himself to obey him like as I have not the power to remove mine Arm but because God has established the Laws of union betwixt the Soul and Body And the Angel does nothing actually but because God actually executes his desires and thereby his Eternal purposes as I do not actually move mine Arm but because God only does what I actually desire and what I think to do Thus the Miracles of the Old Testament are only consequences of the general Laws which God made to communicate his Power to the Arch-Angel Michael or the Angel that guided them Senacharib's Army was defeated by the Angel the revenger of Gods glory Manna was bread made by the hands of Angels nevertheless God did
these Miracles but by general wills for if they had been performed by particular wills the Angels could not have wrought them by a power which God gave them of conducting his people Thus St. Michael and his Angels were to the Jews that which J.C. is to the Christians The Angels gave the old Law J.C. is the Angel of the new Law as the Prophet Malachy calls him Chap. III. 1. The new Convenant promises true goods therefore the Mediator of this Covenant must be the occasional or distributive cause of that Grace which gives a right to the possession of these goods But the Old Covenant promised only Temporal goods because the Angel the Minister of the Law could only bestow these goods All that relates to Eternity both goods and evils ought to be reserved to J.C. The Angels who are pure Spirits ought according to Order to have power over Bodies inferiour substances and by them upon the minds of Men For since sin the Soul depends upon the Body they may prepare for Grace as in St. John and remove the occasions of falling Lastly the Angel or rather the Arch-Angel St. Michael represented J.C. as the Old Law represents the New the Synagogue the Church Temporal goods Eternal Thus it appears that to prove the New Covenant more excellent than the Old St. Paul was obliged to prove as he has done in the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews that J.C. who is the Minister thereof is infinitely exalted above the Angels It must therefore be granted from the arguments which I have drawn from the Idea of a Being infinitely Perfect from a thousand a thousand experiences that God executes his designs by general Laws But it is not easie to demonstrate that God acts upon such and such occasions by particular wills tho the H. Scripture which accommodates its self to our weakness represents God sometimes as a Man and often makes him act like Men. For tho all that which I have said of Angels should be absolutely false I might nevertheless suppose and should even have all reason to believe that God wrought the Miracles of the Old Law by certain general Laws tho I had no knowledge of them for we ought not to reject a truth clearly known because of some objections which may be drawn from our ignorance of many things Thus God forms and preserves the purely material World by the Laws of the communication of motions and makes the Bodies themselves the occasional causes which determine these Laws for 't is the striking of bodies upon one another which determine their efficacy A Body is never moved but when another strikes upon it and a Body is always moved when it is struck upon God preserves the life of Men and likewise Civil Society by the general Laws of the Union of Soul and Body and makes something in these two substances the occasional causes which determine the efficacy of these Laws Mine Arm is moved according to my desires my Soul suffers pain when a Thorn pricks me God builds up his great Work by the general Laws of Grace according to which he would save all Men in his Son and because all Men are born sinners God draws the occasional causes which determine the efficacy of his general Laws only from J.C. who is the Head which influences his Members the Mediator betwixt God and Men the Sovereign Priest of good things the true Solomon who has received Wisdom without measure to make a Work whereof the Jewish Temple was but the figure how Magnificent soever it was To Conclude God governed the Jews by general Laws the efficacy of which was determined by the Action of St. Michael and his Angels In truth intelligent Beings are necessary to conduct Men to reward and punish them that by the Laws of the communication of motions the Hail knocks down the Fruit which the Rain had made to grow this is not properly a disorder Bodies are not capable of good or evil of happiness or misery But to adjust Rewards and Merits one with another intelligent Beings are necessary In a word God has established all Powers second Causes visible and invisible Hierarchies immediately by himself or by the mediation of other powers that he may execute his designs by general Laws whose efficacy is determined by the action of these same Powers For he acts not like the Kings of the Earth who give out their Orders and do nothing else God in general doth all that which second causes do Matter has not in it self any moving virtue upon which depends its efficacy and there is no necessary connexion betwixt the wills of spirits and the effects which they produce God doth all but he acts by Creatures because he was pleased to communicate his power to them that he might accomplish his work by ways most worthy of himself Thus has God done all things with Wisdom I say with Wisdom for an infinite Wisdom is requisite to understand all the consequences of general Laws to rank and combine them one with another after the exactest manner and foresee that from thence would proceed a work worthy of himself 'T is an evidence of limited understandings to be able to do nothing but by compounded ways But a God who knows all things ought not to disturb the simplicity of his ways an immutable Being must always be uniform in his conduct a General Cause ought to act by particular wills God's Conduct must carry in it the Character of his Attributes if the immutable and necessary order of Justice do not oblige him to change For Order is an inviolable Law in respect of God himself He invincibly loves it and will always prefer it to the Arbitrary Laws by which he executes his Designs THE END THE Author's Idea of Providence SEcond causes of what nature soever have no proper efficacy of their own But All their power is communicated unto them by God in consequence of those general Laws which he has establish't Now All Philosophers and Divines agree that God governs the World and takes care of all things by second causes Therefore The Providence of God is Executed by general Laws Nevertheless his Providence is not blind and subject to chance For by his infinite Wisdom he knows the consequences of all possible general Laws And As Searcher of Hearts He foresees all the future determinations of free causes Therefore He proportions the means with the end free Causes as well as necessary with the effects which he intends they shall produce Therefore He combines Nature with Morality and with Divinity after the wisest manner that can be So that the effects of the combination and connection of causes may be most worthy of his Wisdom Goodness and other Attributes for God wills in particular all the good effects which he produces by general ways Nevertheless the immutable Order of Justice which God owes to himself and his own attributes requires or permits that he should sometimes act by particular wills But
ordinarily it is then only and in those circumstances when one only Miracle i. e. an effect which cannot be the consequence of natural Laws doth happily adjust a great many events and the most that can be For his prescience being infinite he doth not work two Miracles when one will suffice So that in the Divine Providence there is nothing that is not Divine or which doth not bear the character of the Divine Attributes for God acts according to what he is He is wise his foreknowledge is infinite Now to establish general Laws and to foresee that from thence a work will arise worthy of these Laws is a mark of such a Wisdom as hath no bounds and to act by particular wills is to act as Men who can foresee nothing Therefore God acts by general Laws God is the Searcher of Hearts Now to make use of free Causes for the execution of his designs without determining these Causes after an invincible manner is to be the Searcher of Hearts and it is not necessary to have this quality for the execution of his designs if he did determine causes after an invincible manner Therefore God ordinarily leaves J.C. Angels and Men to act according to their natures He doth not communicate to them his power that he may destroy their liberty He gives them part in the glory of his work and thereby augments his own For leaving them to act according to their natures and nevertheless executing by them designs worthy of himself he makes it admirably appear that he is Searcher of Hearts Nevertheless the limitation of Angels the malice of Devils and both these qualities in good and evil Men and many other reasons may oblige God to act sometimes by particular wills For a limited spirit tho perfectly united to Order cannot foresee the connection of free causes which is necessary to bring the work of God to its perfection So that where Order permits God must determine Angels by particular wills and make even the sins of Men and the malice of Devils to enter into the order of his Providence And proportionably the same must be said of Jesus Christ considered as Man and Head of the Church and as Architect of the Eternal Temple God is immutable now immutability in his Conduct imports immutability in his nature to change Conduct every moment is a mark of inconstancy So that God must follow general Laws with respect to this attribute if none of his other attributes do otherwise require that he cease to observe it For God acts not but for himself but for that love which he bears unto himself but to Honour his attributes both by the Divinity of his ways and the Perfection of his work In a word the immutable Order of Justice which he owes to himself and his own perfections is a Law with which he never can dispence Thus experience teaches us that God governs the purely Corporeal World by the general Laws of the communications of motions By these it is that he makes the admirable Vicissitude of Night and Day Summer and Winter Rain and Fair weather By them also it is that he covers the Earth with Fruits and Flowers that he gives to Animals and Plants their growth and nourishment Experience also teaches us that God governs Men by the general Laws of Union of Soul and Body For by these Laws he doth not only unite the Soul to the Body for the conservation of Life but thereby he also diffuses it as I may say over all his works and so makes it admire the beauties thereof It is by these that he forms Societies and makes as I may say but one body of all People It is by them that he teaches Men the truths of Religion and Morality And Lastly by them it is that he makes Christians absolves Penitents Sanctifies the Elect and makes them merit all those degrees of glory which makes up the beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem When I say that it is by them he doth all this it is easily perceived that I mean they are subservient thereunto in the Order of Divine Providence For it is cheifly by the general Laws which give power to J.C. and the Angels that GOD doth build his Church Further Faith teaches us that it is by general Laws that God punishes and rewards men since Angels who are the distributers of Temporal goods have no efficacy of their own It is by them that God provides for the necessities of his Elect and resists the pernicious use which Wicked Men and Devils make of that Power which they have to tempt and afflict us in consequence also of certain general Laws But all Powers are submitted to that which J.C. has in consequence of the general Laws of the Order of Grace for at present the Angels themselves who command others for there is a certain subordination among them according to the most probable and received opinion are submitted to J.C. their Head and Lord. It is under him that they labour in the building of his Temple They do not now as under the Law proportion Rewards to Merits For the treasures of Grace are opened by the entrance of J.C. into the Sanctuary For it is true that by afflictions the Saints are purified So that it is better that J.C. give unto Men true goods than that Angels should deliver them from their miseries for if good Men were not afflicted in this World J.C. could not give them the form they must necessarily have to be placed in his building Lastly further yet it is by general Laws that God exercises his Providence over his Church that is to say by the Laws which make the Order of Grace Laws which give unto J.C. as Man Sovereign power in Heaven and in Earth It is by J. C that God hath established the different orders which do externally govern his Church 'T is by him that he spreads abroad inward Grace in Souls It is by him that he sanctifies his chosen people that he will govern them in Heaven and recompence them according to their deserts It is by him that he will judge the Devils and the Damned and condemn them to that fire whose eternal efficacy shall only be the effect of general Laws which shall be observed for ever more By him I say enlightned to this end by eternal wisdom and also subsisting in this wisdom by him being advertised by a revelation whose Laws are unknown of all that which Order requires that he should know and of all that he desires to know of what passes in the World to bring his work to its perfection by him lastly acting by practical desires by prayers by endeavours or actions of an infinite merit but of a limited virtue and proportionable to a finite and a stinted work but by him perfectly free absolutely Master of his desires and actions submitted only to immurable Order the inviolable rule of his will as well as of his Fathers and if I be not deceived very rarely determined after
Because God might have dispensed with himself from observing the Laws which he hath established for its preservation provided that Order would permit But supposing that God resolved to act I maintain that he will do it after the wisest manner he can or after such a manner as best comports with his Attributes I hold that this is not arbitrary or indifferent to him For God necessarily loves himself he cannot belye himself The immutable Order which consists in the necessary relation which is betwixt his Divine Perfections is his inviolable Law and the Rule of all his wills because God cannot will or act but by the love which he bears unto himself Love in God is not as in us an impression which comes from without or carries him to any thing without himself He is as I may say the Eternal and Necessary Principle of it he is also the end thereof by the necessity of his Being This is clearly seen in the Idea of a Being infinitely Perfect which I have consulted and which I think ought to be Consulted least we should speak of the Divine providence too much after the manner of men Thus in this Idea we clearly see that God can neither will nor act but according to order but by the love which he bears to himself and his eternal attributes but according to what he is but after such a manner as best suits with his Wisdom his Immutability his Prerogative of being the searcher of hearts and his other attributes as I have elsewhere explained It is indeed indifferent to him to act or not but by no means to act well or ill He may indifferently chuse his ways of acting when order permits it that is to say when the ways of acting equally agree with his attributes the different relations of which make that order which is his inviolable Law because he necessarily loves himself but he cannot chuse those ways of acting which are less wise or less worthy of his attributes there being an equality in other things because he cannot falsisie himself because he infinitely loves his Wisdom and after such a manner that it renders him happily impotent that is uncapable of making an ill choice which it may blame a choice which may not be worthy thereof which shall not be infinitely wise nor perfectly worthy of his divine attributes See the 50 51 52 53 and 54 Article of the Second Discourse of this Treatise the 3d Explication the 11th Christian Meditation the 1st Chapter of the Treatise of Morality See also the 19 20 and 21 of this Treatise with the Additions It would be to no purpose to send the Reader to other places of my Books to make it appear that they who make this Objection do not take my Sentiments aright It must be observed that God is not free or indifferent as Men are He is free in a quite opposite sense Men are free in the choice of the means of their Happiness They may take the worse This argues a want of understanding And they are not free as to the end They invincibly seek after their Happiness from without This is because they are not self-sufficient But God is fully sufficient to himself it is indifferent to him to act or not outwardly And seeing his Understanding has no bounds and he sees his own Law in himself supposing that he resolves to act he cannot but resolve also to act like himself because he invincibly loves his Wisdom and his other Attributes against which he cannot offend He is not indifferent in his choice but when there is on all sides a perfect equality in the relations of the different ways with their different works When I said That sometimes tho very rarely the general Laws of Motions ought not to produce their effect I gave this reason thereof Because the Order of Grace to which that of Nature ought to be subservient requires that Miracles should be wrought upon some occasions And I only add by way as it were of Subscription Besides that it is expedient Men should know that God is so much Master of Nature that if he submits to the Laws which he hath established 't is rather because he willingly doth so than by any absolute necessity I did not mean by these last words that the observation of the Natural Laws was arbitrary in God in this sense that he could without reason neglect them that he might work Miracles but that it was expedient God should make Nature serviceable to Grace and let Men know that he is superiour to that which they call Nature For Men look upon Nature and its Laws as something necessary and independent The Mind of Man is naturally disposed towards Manichism The reason of which is because natural or occasional Causes are visible whereas the continual Operation of God in them has nothing in it which strikes the Senses Thus when God works Miracles which astonish the World one reason amongst others is to vindicate himself and hinder Men from being deceived and from having a mean Idea of his power as I have said in the Addition to Art 21. This he doth also to teach them who know that the nature of things is nothing but the will of their Author that God is not absolutely necessitated to do what he doth and that if he follows his Laws 't is because he chuses to do so For the only Law which is not arbitrary to God is immutable Order and whether he follows his Laws or dispenses with them it is because Order requires it It is because God always acts after such a manner as most honours his Perfections the intelligible Relations of which make that which I call immutable Order as I have explain'd it in several places Object II. God acts not as Men. He doth not well consult the Idea of God who judges of his Conduct by theirs Men indeed are to govern their Designs according to their Strength they must compare the Means with the End the Ways with the Works but this is because they are weak It is enough for God to will that things may be The Ways of God are his own Wills So that he doth not compare the Ways with the Works that he may determine his choice after he has compared the simplicity of the Ways with the perfection of the Work But he resolved to give to the World what Perfection he pleased without troubling himself about the Ways because his Ways are nothing but his Wills and all his Wills are efficacious To understand this Objection well I desire the Reader to consult the 13th Article of the first Discourse against which it is made Answer I grant that God doth not form his designs as Men do He doth not as they do compare the means with the end through weakness He is not like unto an Architect who has not Money enough to finish his Edifice He compares the designs with the ways in wisdom with respect to his attributes and in that love which he
bears to himself All the ways of executing his designs are equally easie to him but they are not equally wise equally simple equally divine A wise Man will never undertake a design which dishonours him how easily soever it may be executed And of two designs the execution of which will unequally honour him he will always chuse that which will honour him the most because his self-love is always inlightened by his Wisdom Thus tho God be Almighty he neither doth nor can act but by the love which he bears to himself and his own attributes he always chuses both the work and the ways which all together do most honour him But 't is said the ways of God are his wills It is enough for him to will that what he wills may be done I confess it The ways of God are nothing but his practical wills 'T is sufficient for him to will the doing of any thing to the end it may be done But God cannot have two practical wills when one is enough God cannot will when 't is not wise to will And upon this account it is that the practical wills of God are not ordinarily any other than general wills whose efficacy is determined by the action of occasional causes God loves Men. He would save them all He desires that all should know and love him For order requires this and order is his law This will is agreeable to his attributes But God will not do all that is necessary to the end that all may infallibly be brought to know and love him because order permits him not to have such practical wills as are proper to this end It is because he ought not to disturb the simplicity of his ways 't is because he must fit his ways to the work and chuse the work and the ways which honour him the most Altho God need only to will that the Church should be formed to the end it might be so tho he needed only to will that Men should receive grace to the end they might receive it yet nothing is more certain than that 't is by J. C. he sanctifies Men and forms his Church as it is also that he governs the Nations by Angels and produces Animals and Plants by other second Causes At present God acts no more as he did at the Creation immediately by himself This is undeniable He acts by Creatures in consequence of that power which he has communicated unto them by the establishment of his general Laws Thus his Laws or his general practical Wills are his Ways and his Ways are simple uniform and constant they are perfectly worthy of him because they are perfectly agreeable with his Attributes as I have often repeated When God created the World Men Animals Plants organized Bodies which contain in their Seeds wherewithal to furnish all Ages with their kind he did this by particular wills This was convenient for several reasons and indeed this could not be otherwise For particular wills were necessary to begin the determination of motions But seeing this way of acting was as I may say mean and servile because in one sense it resembled that of a limited understanding God quitted it as soon as he could dispense with himself from following it as soon as he could pitch upon another more simple and Divine way for the goverment of the World At present he rests not that he ceases to act but because he doth no more act after a servile manner something like unto that of his Ministers Because he acts most agreeably to his Divine attributes Thus tho God be Almighty and all his wills efficacious it doth not follow that he ought not to compare the simplicity of the ways with the perfection of the works for 't is not to Honour his Power but to Honour his Wisdom and his other Attributes that he doth all things immediately by himself In truth what wisdom wou'd it be even to save all Men and to make a World infinitely more Beautiful than that which we inhabit if he had made and govern'd it by particular wills What should we think of his Goodness and other Attributes there being in it so many Miserable Persons so many Sinners so many Monsters so many Disorders so many Damned In a word things being as we see they are he saith that he has no need of the Wicked and yet the World is full of them He hath not made Death and yet all Men are subject thereunto 'T is the sin it may be said of the first Man by which it entred into the World Very well But why did not he hinder his Fall Why did he not prevent it Why did he establish those natural relations betwixt Eve and her Children which communicate sin unto them Why did he make all descend from corrupted Parents In a word why did he not form our bodies by particular wills or by such wills did not suspend the general Laws by which the brain of the Mother acts upon that of her Child and thereby * See the Explicat of Original Sin in the Search after Truth corrupts its mind and makes its heart irregular Why I say did he not do this if it be indifferent to God to act or not to act by particular wills This is that which the Libertines demand and this is what Christian Philosophers should explain to them to stop their Mouths Reason as much as may be should be reconciled with Religion Hence it is that I Maintain it to be more worthy not of the Power but of the Wisdom and other Divine Attributes that the World should be governed and the future Church formed by the general Laws which God hath established for this end than by an infinite number of particular wills Hence it is that I assert that God has not made the World absolutely as perfect as it might have been but as perfect as he could with relation to the ways most worthy of his Attributes but has chosen the work and the ways which do most Honour him For God cannot and ought not to act but to Honour his Perfections both by the simplicity of his ways and the excellency of his work Object III. Whence is it then that a thing so evident was never perceived by any of the Fathers or the most subtil Divines Whence is it that St. Augustine who has written so much against the Manichees made no use of this Reason that God acts not by particular wills that thereby he might have proved that there is no necessity of attributing the destruction of his works one by another the generation of Monsters or other effects which are thought to disfigure his Work to an evil principle On the contrary it is certain that never any person did more than this Father own that nothing was done in all this but by Gods particular orders c. Answer 'T is not just to urge the Fathers and the Divines against me when neither the one nor the other are against me If St. Augustine