Duties It is principally the knowledge and love of the relations of Perfection or practical Truths wherein consist our Perfection Let us apply our selves then to know to love and follow Order Let us labour for our Perfection as for our Happiness let us leave that to the disposal of God on whom it wholly depends God is just and necessarily rewards Vertue Let us not doubt then but that we shall infallibly receive all the Happiness that we have deserv'd XX. The Obedience which we pay to Order and submission to the Law of God is Vertue in all Senses Submission to the divine Decrees or to the power of God is rather Necessity than Vertue A Man may follow Nature and yet walk irregularly for Nature it self is irregular On the other side he may resist the action of God without opposing his Orders for oftentimes the particular action of God is so determin'd by second or occasional Causes that it is not conformable to Order It is true indeed that God wills nothing but according to Order but he often acts contrary to it For Order it self requiring See the 7 and 8 Christian Medit. that God as the general cause should act in a constant and uniform manner according to certain general Laws which he hath establish'd the effects of that cause are many times contrary to Order He forms Monsters and is subservient as it were to the Wickedness of Men in this World by reason of the simplicity of those ways by which he executes his Designs So that he who should think to obey God in submitting to his Power and in following and observing the course of Nature would offend against Order and fall into Disobedience every Moment XXI If all the motions of Bodies were caus'd by particular acts of the Will of God it would be a sin to avoid the Ruins of a falling House by flight for we cannot without injustice refuse to render back to God that Life which he hath given us when he requires it again At this rate it would be an Affront to the Wisdom of God to alter the course of Rivers and to turn them to Places that want Water we should follow the Order of Nature and be quiet But since God acts in consequence of certain general Laws we correct his Work without injuring his Wisdom We resist his action without opposing his Will because he doth not will positively and directly every thing that he doth For example he doth not directly will unjust Actions tho' he alone gives motion to those that commit them And tho' it be only he who sends Rain yet every Man hath a liberty to shelter himself when it Rains For God doth not send Rain but by a necessary consequence of general Laws Laws which he hath establish'd not that such or such a Man should be wet through but for greater ends and more agreeable to his Wisdom and Goodness If the Rain fall upon Men upon the Sea or upon the Sand it is because he is not oblig'd to alter the uniformity of his Conduct for the uselessness or inconvenience of the consequences of it XXII The case is not the same between God and Men between the general cause and particulationes When we oppose the action of Men we offend them for since they act only by particular motions of the Will we cannot resist their action without opposing their Designs But when we resist the action of God we do not at all offend him nay we often promote his Designs For since God constantly follows those general Laws which he hath prescrib'd to himself the combination of those effects which are the necessary consequences of them cannot always be conformable to Order nor proper for the execution of his Work And therefore it is lawful for Men to divert these natural effects not only when they may be the occasion of their Death but also when they are inconvenient or disagreeable Our Duty then consists in submitting our selves to the Law of God and following Order For to submit to his absolute Power is necessity This Order we may know by our union with the Word so that the immutable Order may be our Law and our Guide But the Divine Decrees are absolutely unknown to us And therefore let us not make them our Rule Let us leave that chimerical Vertue of following God or Nature to the Sages of Greece and the Stoicks But let us consult Reason let us love and follow Order in all things for then we truly follow God when we submit to a Law which he invincibly loves XXIII But tho' the Order of Nature be not precisely our Law and a submission to that Order be by no means a Vertue we must observe nevertheless that we ought oftentimes to have a regard to it Yet still this is because the immutable Order so requires and not because the Order of Nature is an effect of the Power of God A Man that suffers Persecution or rather one that is tormented with the Gout is oblig'd to bear it with Patience and Humility because being a sinner Order requires that he should suffer besides other Reasons which need not here be produc'd But if Man were not subject to Sin and the immutable Order did not require that he should suffer to deserve his Reward certainly he might nay and ought to seek his ease and avoid all sorts of inconveniences tho' he were persecuted if that were possible by the inclemency of the Seasons and by the Miseries which Sin hath brought into the World And a Man tho' he be a sinner may shelter himself from the Rain and the Wind and avoid the action of an avenging God because Order requires that he should preserve his Strength and Health and especially the liberty of his Mind to think upon his Duty and search after Truth And because Rain and Wind being consequences of the general laws of the Order of Nature it doth not plainly appear that it is the positive Will of God that he should suffer that particular inconvenience For it would be a hainous Crime in us to avoid the Rain if God should make it Rain on purpose to wet and punish us As it was in our first Parent to eat of a Fruit because of the express Prohibition and his formal Disobedience But if Vertue consisted precisely in living in that condition wherein we are plac'd in consequence of the Order of Nature he that is born in the midst of pleasure and abundance would be vertuous without pain and Nature having been happily favourable to him he would follow it with pleasure But Virtue must be painful at present that it may be generous and meritorious A Man ought to sacrifice himself for the possession of God Pleasure is the Reward of Merit and therefore cannot be the foundation of it as I shall shew hereafter In a Word Truth it self informs us of one that was commanded to sell his Goods and distribute them to the Poor if he would be perfect which was
Merit of him that dwells in it they open them insensibly to behold the beauty that courts and enchants them and join to the Person of the owner all the Gold and Marble with which the House is adorn'd But a Christian Philosopher beholds without being mov'd the Magnificence which astonishes and prostrates weak Imaginations and being persuaded that that which belongs to Man is not the Man himself and that greatness of Mind is not consistent with Injustice and abuse of Power he sees nothing more monstrous and deform'd than a low and despicable Soul dwelling in a proud and lofty Building and admir'd by all the World And whether he thinks himself oblig'd by his quality and the custom of the World to appear splendid and magnificent in the Eyes of other Men or looks upon those vain Ornaments wherewith the rich endeavour to hide their wretched Mortality he is still sensible of his own and others weakness he contracts and as it were annihilates himself within himself and measures great Men only by the merit which he finds in them III. But besides that there are very few of these Philosophers how much a Philosopher soever any Man is he is often surpriz'd unawares by the sensible impression and unexpected Motions of a rebellious Imagination and the vanity which fills Mankind doth so much favour the natural Judgments which are form'd in us without our consent touching human greatness that Men always have and ever will judge of the Esteem which they owe to other Men by the Train the Magnificence and the Splendour that environs them Now these Judgments which every one pronounces within himself in favour of Persons of Quality or such as have the appearance of Persons of Quality these Judgments I say which are pronounc'd more strongly and definitively by a submissive Air and a respectful Behaviour than by Words swell Men with Pride and beget in them an Opinion of their own greatness This is it which makes them despise Vertue and Reason in those that are below them and esteem without distinction every thing that is heightned and set off to advantage by the Quality of the Persons This is the Reason that a haughty Lord looks upon his Vassals as Creatures of a despicable Species and that Servants hearken to their Masters as to Vertue it self and Reason incarnate In short this is the Cause that Superiours do not pay to those that are under them the Duties which are owing to their Nature and Inferiours think it meritorious to act contrary to the divine Law in obedience to the Commands that are impos'd on them IV. Human Nature being alike in all Men and created for Reason it is Merit alone that should distinguish and Reason that should govern them But Sin having left Concupiscence in those that first committed it and in all their Posterity Men tho' all equal by nature do not now join in a Society of equality under one common Law to wit Reason Force the Law of Brutes that which gives the Lion the command over the Beasts hath gotten the sovereign sway among Men and the Ambition of some and the Necessity of others hath oblig'd all Nations as I may say to cast off God their natural and lawful King and the universal Reason their inviolable Law and to choose them visible Protectors who by Force may defend them against Force It is Sin then which hath introduc'd into the World the difference of Qualities or Conditions for Sin or Concupiscence being suppos'd these differences must necessarily follow Reason it self requires that it should be so because Force is the Law that must keep those in their Duty who have cast off their Obedience to Reason In fine God himself approves this difference of Conditions as is plain from the Scriptures V. But the necssity of the Remedies shews the greatness of the Distempers We need not seek after them when we have no occasion for them and the esteem and use that ought to be made of Force is grounded only on the miserable necessity to which we are reduc'd by our universal Contempt of Reason Therefore those that have Authority to command other Men and to decide their Differences ought not to value themselves and to be proud of this Right They should rather be afraid of profaning their Power by making it subservient to their Pleasures for nothing is more Sacred nothing more Divine The Almighty their natural and lawful Sovereign will deal with them as they who are but subordinate Powers have dealt with their Subjects They hold their places but during his Pleasure They should continually reflect on this God can pull them down if they do not endeavour to set up Reason and sooner or later Death that cruel Enemy of their Power Riches and Pleasures will make them like other Men. It will present them before the living Law which penetrates the Heart and lays open all the folds and recesses of it and they will find the Reward or Punishment of their good or bad Actions written in eternal and indelible Characters in the immutable and necessary Order Wisd 6.5 6 8. Horribly and Speedily saith the wise Man shall he come upon you for a sharp Judgment shall be to them that are in high places For Mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty Men shall be mightily tormented a sore trial shall come upon the mighty Superiours therefore should look upon themselves as Lieutenants as I may say and Vicegerents of Reason the primitive and indispensable Law and should employ their Authority only against such as refuse to obey that Law They should never make use of Force the Law of Brutes but against Brutes against those that know not Reason and these that will not submit to it and should hearken to their Inferiours favourable calmly and charitably For if they confound their own desires with the immutable Order and the secret inspirations of their Passions with the dictates of the inward Truth that Truth which they slight and disregard shall be the Law by which they shall be judg'd by which they shall certainly be condemn'd and by the Efficacy of which they shall be eternally tormented VI. Eccles 32.1 2. If thou be made the Master of a Feast says the Son of Sirach lift not thy self up but be among them as one of the rest take diligent care for them and so sit down And when thou hast done all thy office take thy place that thou mayst be merry with them A Family a Community a Society whose Head applies himself wholly to maintain the Peace and supply the Necessities of it is in a continual Feast The Superiour ought not to take his place of Honour till he hath perform'd his devoirs nor put himself at the head of others but only to protect and defend them to reconcile their differences and to rejoice them with his presence Superiours and especially Princes are call'd in Scripture and in ancient Authors Shepherds of the People and the Governour of a
unite our selves to corporeal Objects and separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible p. 99. CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves p. 109. CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART Of Duties CHAP. I. GOod Men often do wicked Actions The Love of Order must be enlightned to make it regular Three Conditions requir'd to make an Action perfectly Vertuous We should study the Duties of Man in general and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular Page 1. CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments p. 4. CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason p. 14. CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that for Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Misery That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties p. 21. CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30. CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous p. 36. CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general Rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter p. 42. CHAP. VIII Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect We should procure all Men the true Goods and not relative Goods Who it is that fulfills the Duties of Benevolence The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportion'd to the greatness of participated Power p. 52. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects p. 61. CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife The Ground of these Duties Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality Parents should give their Children a good Example They should govern them by Reason They have no right to use them ill Children owe Obedience to their Parents in all Things p. 69. CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours p. 81. CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep p. 90. CHAP. XIII A Continuatian of the same Subject If we would be belov'd we must make our selves amiable The Qualities which make a Man amiable Rules for Conversation Of different Airs Of Christian Friendships p. 100. CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness p. 110. A TREATISE OF Morality PART I. CHAP. I. Vniversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct I. THE Reason of Man is the Word See the first and second Christian Meditation or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas Search after Truth Tom. 3. or the Wisdom of God himself for every Creature is a particular Being but the Reason of Man is Universal II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Beings for I am certain that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Beings No one can feel my Pain but my self but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Beings III. Thus by the means of Reason I have or may have some Society with God and all other intelligent Beings because they all possess something in common with me to wit Reason IV. This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word from which all Spiritual Beings may receive their Nourishment In
indirectly and which we are almost always concern'd to avoid that we may preserve in our Soul the Power and Liberty of loving the true Good and living according to Order For the different ways by which we avoid these Sensations make one of the principal parts of Morality and most of the Names of Vertue were invented only to express the acquir'd Dispositions of avoiding them CHAP. V. Of the Strength of the Mind Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquir'd Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses Imagination and Passions to Regulate our Studies and to Meditate only on clear Ideas I. WE are assur'd both by Faith and Reason That God alone is the true Cause of all Things But Experience teaches us That he never acts but according to certain Laws which he hath prescrib'd to himself and which he constantly observes For instance it is God alone that moves all Bodies which perhaps would require a great many Words to convince some People of But this being suppos'd as having been prov'd elsewhere it is evident from Experience that God never moves Bodies but when they strike against one another So that this Impulse of Bodies may be said to be the Occasional Cause which infallibly determines the Efficacy of that general Law by which God produces a vast Variety of Motions in his Workmanship II. Again it is God alone that diffuses Light in all spiritual Substances this is a Truth which I have sufficiently explain'd already But for the Occasional Cause which determines him to communicate it to us we must search no where but in our selves God by a general Law which he constantly observes and of which he hath foreseen all the consequences hath annex'd the presence of Ideas to the Attention of our Mind so that when we can command our Attention and make use of it the Light never fails to diffuse it self in us proportionably to our Labour This is so true that ungrateful and stupid Man makes it a ground of his Vanity he imagins himself to be the Cause of his Knowledge because God always answers his Desires so faithfully and constantly For having an inward Sense of his own Attention and no Knowledge of the operation of God he looks upon the endeavour of his desires Page 9. which should convince him of his Impotence as the true cause of those Ideas which accompany that endeavour III. Now God must have plac'd the occasional causes of our Knowledge in our selves for several Reasons the chief of which is that otherwise we should not have been Masters of our Wills For since our Wills must be enlightned before they can be mov'd if it were not in our power to Think it would not be in our power to Will We should not be perfectly free nor consequently in a condition to merit the true Goods for which we are Created IV. The attention of the Mind then is a kind of natural Prayer by which we obtain the illumination of Reason But since Sin enter'd into the World the Mind often finds it self in the midst of barren and dismal Solitudes it cannot Pray the labour of Attention wearies and disheartens it Indeed the Labour is at first very great and the recompense but small and besides we find our selves continually sollicited press'd and agitated by the Imagination and Passions whose inspiration and motions we follow with Pleasure However there is a necessity for it we must call upon Reason if we will be enlightned by it There is no other way to obtain Light and Understanding but by the labour of Attention Faith is a Gift of God which we cannot merit but Understanding is generally given only to merit Faith is purely Grace in all Senses But the understanding of Truth is Grace only in such a Sense that we must merit it by our own Labour or by cooperating with Grace V. Now those who are fitted to undergo this Labour and are always attentive to the Truth that should guide them have such a disposition as without doubt deserves a more magnificent Name than any of those that are given to the most splendid Vertues But tho' this Habit or Vertue be inseparably joyn'd to the love of Order it is so little known among us that I know not whether we have given it the honour of a particular Name I shall therefore take the liberty to call it by an equivocal Name Strength of Mind VI. For the obtaining this true Strength whereby the Mind is enabled to bear the Labour of Attention we must begin to Labour betimes for naturally we cannot acquire any Habits but by Acts we cannot gain Strength but by Exercise But perhaps the great difficulty lies in beginning We remember that we have begun and have been forc'd to leave off This disheartens us we think our selves incapable of Meditation and renounce Reason If this be the case whatever we can say to excuse our Sloth and Negligence we must also renounce Vertue at least in part For without the Labour of Attention we can never comprehend the greatness of Religion the sanctity of Morality the littleness of every thing but God the ridiculousness of our Passions and all our inward Miseries Without this Labour the Soul will be in continual Darkness and Disorder for there is naturally no other way to obtain the Light which should guide us we shall be eternally disquieted and strangly perplex'd for we are afraid of every thing when we walk in the Dark and think our selves environ'd with Precipices Faith indeed doth guide and support us but that is because it always produces some Light by the Attention which it stirs up in us For there is nothing but Light that can give us Courage and Assurance when we have so many Enemies to fear VII What must we do then to set about our Work without being discourag'd Let us see what it is that puts us out of Heart We meditate with Pain and without recompense The Pain on one side disheartens us and on the other the Reward does not sufficiently encourage us We must then make the Pain less and the Reward greater This is plain But there is nothing more difficult Nay it is impossible for the greatest part of Mankind And for this Reason it is that we need a more compendious way to be assur'd of the Truth and that the visible Authority of the Church is necessary for our Conduct For even those of the greatest Genius if they deviate from Faith or abandon the Analogy of Faith wander out of the way which leads to Understanding they break the Chain of Truths which are all link'd together in such a manner that one single Falshood being granted for truth a Man may overthrow all the Sciences if he knows how to argue by a deduction of Consequences VIII To lessen the Pain which we find in Meditation we
naturally Habits are got and maintain'd by Acts But we cannot frame a resolution of Sacrificing our predominant Passion without a lively Faith and a firm Hope especially when this Passion appears with all its Charms and Allurements And therefore since it is Light and Understanding which illuminates Faith strengthens Hope and discovers to the Mind the ridiculousness and deformity of the Passions we should continually meditate on the true Goods and seek and carefully lay up in our Memory the Motives which may induce us to love them and to despise transient Enjoyments and that with so much the greater diligence because the Light is subject to our Wills and if we live in Darkness it is most commonly our own fault I think I have sufficiently prov'd these Truths II. But when our Faith is not lively nor our Hope strong enough to make us resolve to Sacrifice a Passion which hath got such a Dominion over our Heart that it corrupts our Mind every Moment and draws it to its Party the only thing we ought to do and perhaps the only thing we can do in this Case is to seek for that in the fear of Hell and the just Indignation of an avenging God which we cannot find in the hope of an eternal Happiness and in the Motion which that Fear excites in us to pray to the Saviour of Sinners that he would encrease our Faith and Confidence in him not ceasing in the mean time to meditate on the Truths of Religion and Morality and on the Vanity of transitory Enjoyments for without this we cannot be sensible of our Miseries nor call upon our Deliverer Now when we find in our selves stâ—â—ngth enough to form an actual resolution of Sacrificing our Passions to the Love of Order then tho' according to the Principles which I have laid down in the foregoing Chapters we may through the assistance of Grace by repeating the like Acts absolutely acquire Charity or the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order yet it is better without delay to come to the Sacraments and in that actual Motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in us to wash away our Sins by Penance This is undoubtedly the most compendious and certain way to change the Act into a Habit the Act I say which is transient and doth not work Conversion into a Habit which remains and which justifies For God doth not Judge us according to that which is actual and transitory but according to habitual and permanent Dispositions and by the Sacraments of the New Testament we receive justifying Charity which gives us a Right to the true Goods and the assistances necessary for the obtaining of them These Truths I shall here explain either by certain Principles or by Evidence or by Faith III. I think I have shewn in several places and by several ways That God always executes his Designs by general Laws the Efficacy of which is determin'd by the action of occasional Causes I have prov'd this Truth by the Effects of those second Causes which are known to us and I think I have demonstrated it from the Idea of God himself because his Action ought to bear the Character of his Attributes And therefore I refer the Reader for this Matter to my other Writings But if Reason could not lead us to this Truth yet the Holy Scripture would not suffer us to doubt of it in relation to the Subject which I now treat of For the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ as Man is not only the meritorious but also the distributive or occasional Cause of all Graces that by his Sacrifice of himself he hath gain'd a Right over all the Nations of the World to make use of them as Materials in building the Spiritual Temple of the Church of which the stately Temple of Solomon was but a Shadow and a Figure and that now and ever since the day of his Ascension he makes use of that Right and raises that eternal Temple to the glory of his Father by the Power which he receiv'd from him in the day of his Victories when he was made High Priest of the true Goods after the irrevocable Order of Melchisedech Eph. 4.15 16. Christ is the Head of the Church he continually infuses into the Members of which it is compos'd 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Tâ—m 2.5 Eph. 5.23 Heb. 7.25 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Joh. 13.5 the Spirit which gives it Life and Holiness He is the Advocate the Mediator the Saviour of Sinners He is in the Holy of Holies always Living to make intercession for us and all his Prayers and Desires are heard In a word he himself tells us That all Power was given to him in Heaven and in Earth Now he did not receive this Power as God equal to the Father but as Man like unto us and God communicates his Power to the Creatures no farther than as he executes their Wills and by them his own Designs for God alone is the true Cause of every thing that is done both in Nature and Grace Thus it is certain from the Scripture that Jesus Christ as Man is the occasional cavse which determines the efficacy of that general Law whereby God would Save all Men in and by his Son IV. It is necessary that we should be well convinc'd of this Truth which is essential to Religion by reading the New Testament and particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews And having as I think sufficiently prov'd it in my Treatise of Nature and Grace and in my Christian Meditations I shall not insist any longer upon it I write for Philosophers but they are Christian Philosophers such as receive the Scripture and the infallible Tradition of the Universal Church and I endeavour to explain the Truths of Faith by clear and unequivocal Terms This makes me say that Jesus Christ as Man and High Priest of the true Goods is the occasional cause of Grace I might have call'd him the natural instrumental second distributive Cause or have made use of some other more common Term But the commonest Terms are not always the clearest Tho' People fancy they understand them perfectly yet commonly they scarce know what they say when they use them and if they would take the pains to examine these which I have mention'd they would find that the Term of natural Cause raises a false Idea that that of instrumental is obscure that of second so general that it gives no distinct Idea to the Mind and that of distributive at least equivocal and confus'd Whereas this which I have made use of the occasional cause of Grace hath I think none of these defects at least as to those Persons for whom alone I writ the Treatise of Nature and Grace tho' many others have taken upon them to judge of it who scarce understand the Principles which I have there laid down For this Term denotes precisely that God who doth every thing as the true cause which I think I have prov'd in several places imparts his
Bodies and by their means in the Souls wihch are united to them certain effects which may promote the efficacy of Grace and keep Men from those Stumbling-blocks which the Devils continually lay in their way For as the Psalmist saith Psal 91.11 12. He hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways They shall bear thee up in their Hands lest thou dash thy Foot against a Stone XIII So then we may pray to the Angels and desire their protection against that roaring Lion who as St. Peter saith walketh about seeking whom he may devour Eph. 6.12 Or to use St. Paul's words Against those Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World those Princes of the World full of Darkness and Error against spiritual Wickedness in high places those evil Spirits which are scatter'd through the Air For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood only But we must not look upon the Angels as distributive Causes of Grace nor give them that Worship which is due to Christ alone Col. 2.18 19. Be not deceiv'd saith St. Paul by those who in a voluntary Humility pay a superstitious Worship to Angels who meddle with those things which they do not understand being dazled by the vain Imaginations of their fleshly Mind and not keeping themselves united to the Head from which the whole body of the Church receives the Spirit which gives it Growth and Life v. 15. even to Jesus Christ who having spoil'd Principalities and Powers which he had vanquish'd by his Cross made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise I. IN the Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters I have spoken at large of the occasional Cause of Light and in the two last I have endeavoured to shew what is the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense and what we must do to obtain it And therefore seeing there is nothing beside Light and Sense which determines the Will or the tendency which the Soul hath toward Good in general all that now remains in relation to the Means of acquiring or preserving the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order is to explain the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body or the occasional Causes of all those lively and confus'd Sensations and those indeliberate Motions which unite us to our Body and by that to all the Objects which are about us For to make us love Order and to acquire Vertue it is not sufficient to obtain the Grace of Sense which alone can stir the Soul and put it in Motion toward the true Good but we must also manage our selves so that this Grace may work in our Hearts with its full Efficacy For this end we must carefully avoid the occasional Causes of those Sensations and Motions which resist the Operation of Grace and sometimes render it altogether ineffectual This is the most general Principle of all that I shall say in the First Part of this Discourse II. The Soul of Man hath two essential and natural Relations one to God the true Cause of all that passes within him the other to his Body the occasional Cause of all those Thoughts which relate to sensible Objects When God speaks to the Soul it is to unite it to himself when the Body speaks to it it is only for the Body to unite the Soul to sensible Good God speaks to the Soul to enlighten and render it perfect the Body only to darken and corrupt it in favour of it self God by the Light conducts the Soul to its Happiness the Body by Pleasure involves the whole Man in its ruin and throws him headlong into Misery In a word tho' it is God that doth every thing and tho' the Body cannot act upon the Soul no more than the Soul can upon the Body but as an occasional Cause in consequence of the Laws of their Union and for the Punishment of Sin which without medling with those Laws hath chang'd the Union into a Dependence yet we may say that it is the Body which darkens the Mind and corrupts the Heart for the Relation which the Soul hath to the Body is the Cause of all our Errors and Disorders III. Notwithstanding we should be throughly convinc'd of this and never forget it that the Soul can have no immediate Relation but to God alone and that it cannot be united directly to any thing but to him for the Soul cannot be united to the Body but as it is united to God himself It is certain for very many Reasons that if I feel for instance the pain of a Scratch it is God that acts in me tho' in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body for those Laws derive their force from the Operation of the Divine Will which alone is capable of acting in me But the Body by it self cannot be united to the Soul nor the Soul to the Body They have no Relation to one another nor any one Creature to another I speak of Relations of Causality such are those which depend on the Union of the Soul and Body It is God that doth every thing his Will is the Union of all Unions the Modifications of Substances depend on him alone who gives and preserves their Being This is an essential Truth which I think I have sufficiently prov'd in another place IV. But tho' the Soul cannot be united immediately to any Thing but God yet it may be united to the Creatures by the Will of God who communicates his Power to them in making them occasional Causes for the production of certain Effects My Soul is united to my Body because on one side my Will is made the occasional Cause of some changes which God alone produces on it and in the other because the changes which happen in my Body are made occasional Causes of some of those which happen in my Soul V. Now God hath establish'd these Laws for many Reasons which are unknown to us But of those which we do know one is that God in following them acts in a uniform and constant manner by general Laws by the most simple and wisest ways in a word he Acts in such a manner as admirably bears the Character of his Attributes Another Reason is because the Body of Man is his proper Sacrifice for it seems to Sacrifice it self by Pain and to be Annihilated by Death The Soul is in a State of Probation in the Body and God who desires in some measure to be merited and to proportion Rewards to Merits doth by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and
also in the Creatures Order or the Law of God is common to all spiritual Beings The Power of God is common to all Causes Therefore we cannot dispense with our Obedience to that Law because we cannot act but by the efficacy of that Power 10. We may nevertheless desire to be happy nay we cannot desire to be miserable But we must neither desire nor do any thing to make us happy but what Order allows of We shall never find Happiness if we seek it by the Power of God contrary to his Law It is an abuse of Power to use it against the Will of him that communicates it The voluptuous Man who desires to be happy in this World shall be so perhaps in part in consequence of the Laws of Nature But he shall be eternally miserable in the other in consequence of the immutable Order of Justice or by the necessity of the divine Law which requires that every abuse of divine Things should be eternally punish'd by the divine Power For we should take good notice that nothing is more holy more sacred and more divine than Power And he that attributes it to himself he that makes it subservient to his Pleasures his Pride or his own particular Desires commits a Crime the enormity of which God alone knows and can punish 11. It is an abominable piece of Injustice in any Man to be proud of his Nobility Dignity Quality Learning Riches or any other thing He that glorieth 2 Cor. 10.17 let him glory in the Lord and refer all things to him for there is no Greatness nor Power but in God A Man may set some value on himself and prefer himself before his Horse He may and ought to esteem other Men and all the Creatures God hath really imparted to them his Being But to speak properly and exactly he hath not imparted to them his Power and Glory God doth every thing that we think we do our selves He alone deserves all the Honour which is given to his Creatures He alone deserves all the motions of our Souls So that he who would be belov'd honour'd and fear'd by other Men would put himself in the place of the Almighty and share with him the Duties which belong to Power 12. In like manner he that fears loves and honours the Creatures as real Powers commits a kind of Idolatry and his Crime becomes very hainous when his fear or love runs to that excess that they rule in his Heart above the fear and love of God When he is less dispos'd to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures by a disposition acquir'd by his own choice or by free and voluntary Acts he is an abomination in the sight of God 13. All the time that we lose or do not employ for God who is the sole cause of the duration of our Being is a Robbery or rather a kind of Sacrilege For since God acts for his own Glory and not for our Pleasure we do then as much as in us lies render his Action unserviceable to his Designs 14. In general every Gift that God bestows on us which we render useless in relation to his Glory is a Robbery and God by the necessity of his Law will call us to an account for it 15. Lastly the Power by which God Creates us and all our Faculties every Moment gives him an unquestionable Right over all that we are and over all that belongs to us which certainly belongs to us no otherwise than that we may return it to God with all possible fidelity and thankfulness and by the Gifts of God merit the possession of God himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and Head who takes us out of our prophane state to sanctify us and make us fit to honour God worthy to enter as his adopted Children into the communion of good Things with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit to all eternity CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason I. HAving discover'd the principal Duties which we owe to the Power of God we must next examine those which we owe to his Wisdom which tho' less known are no less due Every Creature depends essentially on the Creator Every spiritual Being is also essentially united to Reason No Creature can act by its own Strength And no spiritual Being can be illuminated by its own Light For all our clear Ideas come from the universal Reason in which they are contain'd as all our Strength proceeds wholly from the efficacy of the general cause which alone hath Power He that fancies himself to be his own Light and his own Reason is no less deceiv'd than he that thinks he really possesses Power And he that gives thanks to his Benefactor for the Fruits of the Earth which serve only to Feed the Body is very ungrateful very proud or at least very stupid if he refuse to acknowledge himself indebted to God for the true and solid Goods the knowledge of Truth which is the Food of the Soul II. The Soul of Man hath two essential Relations It is united to the universal Reason and by that it hath or may have a correspondence with all intelligent Beings even with God himself It is united to a Body and by that it hath or may have a communication with all sensible Objects The Power of God is the sole efficacious Principle or the bond of these two Unions But impotent and stupid Man imagines that it is by the efficacy of his own Will that he is Wise and Powerful that he unites himself to the intellectual World whose Relations he contemplates and to the visible World whose Beauties he admires III. It is God alone who in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body causes in Man all those bodily Motions which carry him to or remove him from sensible Objects But the occasional cause of these Motions being only the different desires of his Will he attributes to himself the Power of doing that which God alone operates in him nay the very endeavour which accompanies his Desires that painful endeavour which is a certain mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless and ineffectual an endeavour which God puts into him to beat down his Pride and make him deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades him that he hath Strength and Efficacy He feels within himself a Will to move his Arm but doth not see nor feel the divine Operation in him and therefore the more exact and punctual God is in answering his Desires the more disingenuous Man is in not acknowledging the favour and goodness of God IV. In like manner it is God alone who in consequence of the natural Laws of the
we are capable of VIII For we must observe that in the condition we are now in our Happiness and our Perfection often clash and we cannot avoid engaging on one side or the other either we must Sacrifice our Perfection to our Happiness or our Happiness to our Perfection the Love of Order to our Pleasure or our Pleasure to the Love of Order Now when we Sacrifice our Happiness to our Perfection or our Pleasure to the Love of Order we Merit for then we obey the Divine Law though we suffer by it and thereby we give Honour to the Wisdom of God or the universal Reason we leave that to God which depends wholly on him our Happiness and by that Submission we give Honour to his Power For Obedience to the Divine Law is partly in our own Power but the enjoyment of Happiness no way depends on us Therefore we should give up our Happiness to the disposal of God and to apply our selves wholly to our Perfection giving this honour also to God to believe him on his Word to rely on his Justice and Goodness and to live contented by Faith in the Strength of our Hope according to those words of the Scripture Heb. 10.38 Justus 〈…〉 Virg Lat. The just shall live by Faith God is certainly just and faithfull he will give us all the Happiness we deserve our Patience shall not be Fruitless But how great soever our Desire be and our Application in the Search of our Happiness yet this will not move God to give us the Enjoyment of it without we deserve it This excessive Desire will perhaps one day render us unworthy of it according to those admirable Words of our Saviour himself Mat. 16 24. If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whoever will save his †Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then shall he reward every Man according to his Works IX Now this contrariety which we find at present between our Happiness and our Perfection proceeds from the Union of the Soul and Body which is chang'd into a Dependance as a Punishment of Sin For the involuntary Motions of the Fibres of the principal part of the Brain are the occasional Causes of our pleasant or painful Sensations and consequently of our Happiness or Misery The Body to which we are join'd hath not the same Interests with Reason It hath its particular Wants to be supplied it makes its Demands with boldness and insolence and treats the Soul roughly if it refuses to grant them Whereas Reason uses only Threatnings and Reproaches which are not so lively and pressing as actual Pleasure and Pain We must therefore bravely resolve to be miserable in this Life that we may retain our Perfection and Integrity we must Sacrifice our Body or rather our actual Happiness that we may remain inseparably united to Reason and obedient to the Divine Law being contented with a foretaste of the true Enjoyments and having a firm hope that that Divine Law that Reason which was made Flesh sacrificed and glorified in our Nature or our Nature in that will certainly restore to us all that we have lost for our Obedience to it X. This clear perception that our Will or the natural and necessary Motion of our Love is only a continual Impression of the Love of God who unites us to his Power to make us conformable to his Wisdom or obedient to his Law obliges us to form these Judgments 1. That every Motion of Love which doth not tend toward God is prejudicial and leads to Evil or makes the Cause of our Good to be the Cause of our Evil. 2. That every Motion of Love not conformable to the immutable Order which is the inviolable Law both of the Creatures and of the Creatour himself is irregular and since God is Just that Motion obliges him to become our Evil or the Cause of our Misery 3. That we cannot unite our selves to God as our Good if we do not conform our selves to him as our Law The Converse of this is also true we cannot conform our selves to the Law of God and by that conformity become Perfect but we must also unite our selves to his Power and by that Union be made Happy XI This Truth may be also express'd thus according to the Analogy of Faith We have no way of access to God no society with him no share in his Happiness but by the universal Reason the eternal Wisdom the divine Word who was made Flesh because Man was become Carnal by his Flesh was made a Sacrifice because Man was become a Sinner and by the offering up of his Sacrifice was made a Mediatour because Man being corrupted and no longer able to consult or obey Reason purely intellectual it could not be the Bond of the Society between God and Him But yet we must take particular notice That Reason by becoming incarnate did not at all change its Nature nor lose any thing of its Power It is immutable and necessarily exists it is the only inviolable Law of spiritual Beings and hath the sole Right to command them Faith is not contrary to Truth it leads us to Truth and by it establishes ur Society with God for ever We must conform our selves to the Word made Flesh because the intellectual Word the Word without Flesh is a Form too abstracted too sublime and too pure to fashion or new-mould gross Spirits and corrupt Hearts Spirits that can take hold of nothing but what hath a Body and are disgusted at every thing that doth not touch and sensibly affect them Every High Priest is ordain'd to offer Gifts and Sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that the Man have somewhat also to offer Heb. 8.3 The Word was made a Sacrifice because without a Sacrifice he had nothing to offer he could not be a Priest nor give Sinners any Communion with God without an Atonement and an Oblation We must be conformable to him in this Circumstance also for besides that it is we who are the Criminals we are also a part of the Sacrifice which must be purified consecrated and offer'd up before it can be glorified and consummated in God to all Eternity But the life of Christ is our Pattern only because it was conformable to Order our indispensable Pattern and our inviolable Law We must follow Christ even to the Cross because Order requires that this Body of Sin should be destroy'd for the Honour of Reason and the Glory of him from whom it separates us Order requires that by voluntary Pain of which the Body is the occasion we should deserve
Mind to the true Power a respect or outward submission to an occasional Cause and a simple esteem of any thing in respect of the excellency of its Nature or the perfection which it doth or may possess IX That kind of Honour which consists in a submission of the Miâ—â— to the true Power is due to God alone 〈…〉 none but God directly and absolutely in the Powers which he hath ordain'd And tho' we are oblig'd exactly to pay to our lawful Superiors those outward honours and submissions which humane Laws and Customs have establish'd yet all the submission of the Soul must be refer'd to God alone It is mean and abject to fear the most excellent of created Beings It is God alone whom we must fear in it Nevertheless we should esteem every thing proporticnably to the excellence of its Nature or the perfection which it possesses or is capable of possessing So that the love of Benevolence respect or relative and outward Submission and simple Esteem are as I take it the Three general Heads to which all the Duties that we owe to Men may be reduc'd X. There is this difference between the Duties which Religion obliges us to pay to God and those which Society requires us to pay to Men that the principal Duties of Religion are inward and spiritual because God searches the Hearts and absolutely speaking hath no need of his Creatures whereas the Duties of Society are almost all external For besides that Men have no other way to know our inward Sentiments of them but by outward and sensible marks they all stand in need of one another either for the preservation of their Life or their particular instruction or innumerable other things which absolutely require a mutual assistance XI Therefore to expect from other Men inward and spiritual Duties which are due to God alone a pure and uncompounded Spirit the searcher of Hearts the only independent and self-sufficient Being is a diabolical Pride this is to affect Dominion over spiritual Substances to attribute to our selves the quality of searcher of Hearts and in a Word to exact that which is no way our due and which is wholly useless to us For what signifies our inward adoration to other Men or what good can theirs do us If they faithfully perform what we desire of them what can we complain of If they respect God himself if they love and fear him in our Person certainly we attribute to our selves power and independence if we are not satisfied with this Servants Col. 3.22 saith S. Paul obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but in singleness of Heart fearing God It is God that they must fear v. 23. And whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto Men to God who hath the power of rewarding and not unto Men whose Wills are of themselves altegether ineffectual v. 24. Knowing as the Apostle goes on that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the Inheritance For ye serve the Lord Christ Ye are bought with a Price 〈…〉 7.23 be not ye the Servants of Men. XII There is so strict an union between the Soul and the Body and such a mutual relation betwixt the Motions of these two Substances that it is very difficult to draw near by the motion of our Body to any Object which is the occasional cause of Pleasure without uniting our selves to it by the motion of our Love as if it were the true cause of that Pleasure So likewise when the Imagination being dazled with the splendour which envirous the Great falls down and prostrates it self before them it is difficult for the Soul not to follow that Motion or at least not to bow and lower it self It should indeed prostrate it self but then it must be before the power of the invisible God which it must honour in the Person of the Prince where that Power visibly resides XIII When the Body feeds on a delicious Fruit the Soul which finds it self in some measure happy by the Pleasure it enjoys should then be affected with Love but that Love should be address'd only to God who alone doth and can act on it But our Senses being grown rebellious by Sin dislurb our Mind they insolently withdraw us from the presence of God and fix all our Thoughts on that impotent matter which we hold in our Hands and crush between our Teeth They make us believe that the Fruit it self contains and communicates that grateful Tast which delights us and because the power of God doth not appear visible to our Eyes we see nothing but the Fruit to which we can attribute the cause of our present Happiness Our Senses were given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being What matter is it then to them from whence the Fruit comes so they have it or from whence the Pleasure proceeds so they enjoy it XIV So likewise when we are in the presence of our Sovereign our Imagination soon dissipates all those abstract Ideas of an invisible Power The divine Law the immutable Order Reason is a Fantom which vanishes and disappears when the Prince Commands or when he speaks with Authority The Majesty of the Prince the sensible splendor of Greatness that Air of respect and awe which every one doth and ought to put on so shake the Brain of an ambitious Man and indeed of most Men whose Passions are then excited that there are but few People who have so much constancy and resolution as to consult the divine Law to think on the power of the invisible God to retire into themselves and to hearken to the Judgments pronounc'd within them by him who presides immediately over all spiritual Beings XV. This strict union of the Soul and Body which Sin hath chang'd into a dependnece is the cause that there is nothing more dangerous than the Conversation and Business of Courts and that a Man ought to have a particular call and strong and extraordinary reasons to make him engage in it The Societies which are generally form'd there are such whose beginning and end is Ambition and Pleasure and being govern'd not by Reason or Faith but by inconsistent and irregular Passions they break every Day and plunge Men in the greatest Miseries Therefore such as have not Courage and Constancy enough to perform their Duties to God in the presence of their Prince in the hurry and perplexity of Business or when they have too many People looking on them in a Word such as suffer themselves to be dazled stunn'd and born down by the Conversation of the World whatever it may be ought to avoid it and to place themselves in a Station where they may without constraint honour and love the true Power conform themselves to the divine Law and render to God the inward and spiritual Duties These are indispensable Duties and certainly we owe nothing to our Neighbour which may hinder us
from paying to God that which we indispensably owe him XVI But besides there is scarce any thing to be got by Men Their Language is as corrupt as their Heart It raises only false Ideas in the Mind and excites only a love of sensible Objects But their example is yet more dangerous For besides that it is not so conformable to Reason as their Discourse it is a living and a moving Language which irresistibly persuades those that do not stand upon their Guard We often hear a thing said whithout any Thoughts of doing it But we are so prone to Imitation that we do mechanically what we see others do There is no obligation on a Man to do what he only hears talk'd of and doth not see practis'd but it is a violation of Society 't is the way to become Odious or Ridiculous to be counted Whimsical and Capricious in short 't is look'd upon as a kind of Schism to condemn the general practice of the World by a singular Conduct XVII Nevertheless Charity and our natural Constitution oblige us many times to live in Society Every Man cannot bear a retir'd and solitary Life and those least of all to whom the Conversation of the World is most dangerous They must See and be Seen they must Talk and hear others Talk Conversation without Passions refreshes and strengthens the Mind Therefore there is a necessity of living amongst Men. But then we should choose such as are Reasonable or at least such as are capable of hearing Reason and submitting to Faith that so we may labour together for our mutual Sanctification For we must build in this Life for Eternity we must begin the eternal Society here below we must make hast while it is call'd to Day to enter into the rest of the Lord and cause others to enter too that our Society may be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Ghost by an immortal Love proceeding continually in relation to us from the power and wisdom of God the perpetual influence of which will be the efficacious cause of our Perfection and eternal Happiness CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter I. THE Three general Heads to which all the particular Duties that we owe to other Men may be reduc'd are as I said in the foregoing Chapter simple Esteem which ought to be proportion'd to the excellence or persection of every Being Respect or a relative submission of the Mind proportionable to the subordinate Power of intelligent occasional Causes and the love of Benevolence which is due to all that are capable of enjoying those Goods which we may possess in common with them II. Simple Esteem is a Duty which we owe to all Mankind Contempt is an Injury and the greatest of Injuries There is nothing contemptible but nothing for every real Being deserves esteem And as Man is the noblest of the Creatures it is a false Judgment and an irregular Motion to despise any Man let him be what he will The lowest of Men may be exalted to the sovereign Power and the two first Kings which God gave to the Israelites were taken as I may say from the Dregs of the People Saul of the lowest Family of the least of the twelve Tribes found the Kingdom in seeking his Father's Asses 1 Sam. 9.21 Am not I a Benjamite saith he to Samuel who promis'd him the Kingdom of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel And my Family the least of all the Families of the Tribe of Benjamin And David the youngest of the Sons of Jesse was taken as he saith himself from the Flocks to be put at the head of God's chosen People Psal 78.71 From following the Ews great with Young he brought him to Feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance III. But the Gospel gives us yet another prospect of Things It teaches us that the Poor are the Members and the Brethren of Christ Mat. 25.40 Luk. 6 20. Luk. 16.9 That the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them And that they have power to receive their Friends into everlasting Habitations For tho' the Rich as well as the Poor are wash'd by Baptism in the Blood of the Lamb yet they defile themselves so many ways with Pleasure which inebriates them and with Ambition which makes them forget their Title of Children of God that Christ is always angry with them and continually denounces woes against them in the Gospel Luk. 6.24 Wo unto you that are Rich For you have receiv'd your Consolation Let the Brother of low Degree saith S. James Jam. 1.9 1â— rejoyce in that he is exalted But the Rich in that he is made low because as the Flower of the Grass he shall pass away Go to now ye rich Men c. 5.1 2 3. Weep and Howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten Your Gold and Silver is canker'd and the rust of them shall be a Witness against you and shall Eat your Flesh as it were Fire Ye have heaped Treasure together for the last Days IV. Nor must we Esteem and give outward marks of our Esteem to the Poor only and to the lowest of Men but also to Sinners and to those who commit the greatest Crimes Their Life is abominable their practice is odious and contemptible we must never approve it tho' it be set off with all the splendor of Greatness But still their Person merits our Esteem For nothing deserves contempt but nothing and Sin which is truly nothing which corrupts Man's Nature annihilates his Merit but doth not destroy the excellence of his Person The greatest of Sinners may by the assistance of Heaven become pure and holy as the Angels He may enjoy eternal Happiness with us and take place of us in the Kingdom of God We should have compassion of his Misery not that which afflicts and makes him uneasy but that which corrupts him not of his pains but of his disorders which put him out of a capacity of actually possessing with us those good Things which he may enjoy without depriving us of them V. But besides what right have we to judge of Mens secret Intentions It is God alone who searches the Hearts He that commits a Crime doth it perhaps against his Will his Mind is weak and disturb'd his flaming and outragious Passions have it may be depriv'd him in a moment of the use of his Liberty But supposing him to have acted freely his contrite and penitent Heart hath perhaps obtain'd pardon of his Sin or will obtain it to morrow a
Father out of too much Indulgence to his Children who are debauch'd or prone to debauchery furnishes them with Mony he is the cause of their disorders and wrongs the Poor who stand in need of his assistance As he that gives a Sword to a mad Man or a Man transported with Passion is really the cause of the Murder that ensues The Prodigal robs the Poor and by his indiscreet Liberalities kills the Souls of his riotous Companions And he that gives a drunken Servant the liberty to drink as much as he pleases doth him a kindness which is forbidden by the Laws of Charity and Benevolence In a Word he that gives any power to impotent Minds which can neither consult nor follow Reason is the cause of their destruction and of all the Mischiefs which spring from the abuse of Power IV. These are undeniable Truths and the reason of them is plain Mony for instance is not properly a Good because we cannot truly possess or enjoy it for spiritual Subitances cannot possess Bodies It is such a Good as cannot be communicated without division and therefore the love of Benevolence should distribute it in such a manner that it may be useful and become a Good or rather a proper means of acquiring Good to those who receive it For otherwise there is a double breach of our Duty toward our Neighbour We hurt those to whom we give it and we injure all those who by the Laws of Charity have a just title to it to whom we do not give it V. But Pain and Disgrace which in themselves are real Evils become good in many cases and the love of Benevolence which we owe to all Men obliges us to inflict them on those that deserve it over whom we have authority to reclaim them from their disorders by the fear of Punishment She is a cruel Mother that will not suffer a gangren'd Arm of her Child to be cut off But she is much more cruel that suffers his Mind and Heart to be corrupted by Ease and Pleasure He that sees his Friend ruin'd by underhand Intrigues and takes no notice of it or for his own advantage enters into a correspondence in prejudice of the Friendship he hath vow'd is a perfidious Friend and not fit for humane Society But he is much more perfidious who for fear of grieving and displeasing us suffers us to fall into Hell or by gratifying our Passions joyns with the only Enemies we have to blind and destroy us VI. Who then is he that can render to his Neighbour the Duties of Charity or Benevolence Certainly he that knows the vanity of transitory Enjoyments and the solidity of the future Goods the stability of the heavenly Jerusalem built on that immoveable Rock the well beloved Son of the Almighty He that compares Time with Eternity and following the great principle of Christian Morality measures the Duties of Civil Friendship and Society by the Rules of that Society which is joyn'd here upon Earth by Grace and cemented for ever in Heaven by the perpetual communion of a Good which shall be given whole and entire to all and entire to every one of us He in fine that continually meditates on that divine Society which we ought to have with the Father by the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit the mutual love of the Father and the Son and the Fountain of that happy Love which shall for ever unite us to God He and he alone is capable of paying to his Neighbour the Duties of Benevolence All other Men are destitute of Charity and are so far from loving us with the love which is due to us and is contain'd in the Second great Commandment of the Christian Law that they do not so much as know their essential Obligations toward us The Corespondence they have with us their Friendship their Society will rather be the fatal cause of our Misery than the happy foundation of our Joy and Tranquility VII Let People say what they will that we ought to separate the Laws of civil Society from those of Christian Charity to me they seem inseparable in the practical part The Citizen of my earthly City is already by Grace a Citizen of the holy City the Subject of my Prince is a Domestick of the House of God Now ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners Eph. 2.19 saith S. Paul but Fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and are built upon the Foundarion of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone in whom all the Building fitly fram'd together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. Shall I then engage in the designs of a Friend who seeks to advance his Fortunes here upon Earth and hazards the possession which he hath in Heaven Shall I by my Counsels and Friends favour his Ambition and advance one who wants that constancy and resolution that are necessary for subordinate Governments to a station which all wise and understanding Men are afraid of A Friend trembles for his Friend when he beholds him in the midst of dangers A Mother is frighted when she sees her Child clambring up a steep Place And shall not I be in fear for a Relation for a dear Friend in Christ whom I see environ'd on all sides with dreadful precipices and yet still climbing higher to a place that makes the strongest Heads giddy VIII The present Life should be consider'd with relation to that which is to follow and shall be follow'd by no other The Society which we now form is no otherwise durable than as it is the beginning of that which shall never have an end It is for this second Society that the First is ordain'd It is to merit Heaven that we live upon Earth I repeat this Truth often because it is necessary that we should be throughly convinc'd of it We should engrave it deeply on our Memory We should incessantly revolve it in our Mind for fear lest the continual action of sensible Objects should blot out the remembrance of it If we are fully convinc'd of this Truth if we make it the Rule of our Judgments and desires we shall not be concern'd at the want of those things which we shall not much esteem We shall not then take such measures as tend only to make us happy upon Earth and before the time of recompence but such as lead us whither we ought to direct our aim to that perfection which makes us acceptable in the sight of God and worthy to enter into an eternal Society with him through Christ our Lord. IX But because Men have but a weak and abstracted Idea of the greatness of future Goods they seldom think on them and when they do they are not affected with them for only sensible Ideas shake the Soul only the presence of Good and Evil touches and puts it in Motion On the contrary the Imagination and Senses being continually and forcibly struck by the Objects which are
round about us we are constantly thinking on them and always with some motion of Passion and as we naturally judge of the solidity of any good by the impression it makes on our Mind we look upon them with Esteem we desire them with Impatience and embrace them with Pleasure And therefore we think that those Persons have no Kindness nor Friendship for us who stop us in our career instead of joyning with us to catch the Prey which escapes out of our Hands X. Observe but a pack of Dogs when they are going out a Hunting how they rejoyce and as it were caress and congratulate one another Eager for the sport they mechanically excite each other and many times the Huntsman himself by leaping and jumping motions which reciprocally require the like for all Machines at least those of the same Species are narnrally made to imitate one another If there be any one hotter than the rest that ranges too wide and starts the Game too far off him they shut up and leave him behind But what a howling and crying there is What sensible expressions of an extreme Grief All this is but Mechanism and Clock-work Just so it is with those that know not the true Good when any Passion possesses them If you do not assist and further their designs if you thwart and oppose them they will always be reproaching and exclaiming against you that you neglect the Duties of Society of Friendshâ—p and Affinity that you make them miserable and profess your self their Enemy If you endeavour to convince them by Reason presently you are a Stoick a Cato If you go about to restrain them by considerations of Religion then you are precise and bigotted The Wheels of the Machine are set a going and will go on a long time Devout and pious Men will still be Whimsical and Capricious without Breeding Friendship or Civility They will always be shun'd as not fit for humane Society For indeed there can be no Society but between such as hope for the same kind of advantages But pious Men seek after the true Goods for which those others have no inclination who have no tast no sense of any thing but the objects of their Passions XI Good Men being truly animated by Charity never break Friendship with those that live disorderly out of anger or resentment They still hope to reclaim them by their Example their Patience and their Counsels favour'd and assisted by Grace As they are convinc'd of the Truth of their own Sentiments and throughly affected with the sweetness of the true Goods of which they have already a kind of foretast they think of nothing but to make others see what they see themselves They would fain make them relish the inexhaustible Fountain of all Pleasures The abhorrence which they have for Vice inspires and animates them and makes them speak in such a Dialect as sâ—rikes a damp on those that really find themselves happy when they follow the agreeable motion of their Passions This is the cause that a vitious and debauch'd Man and by debauch'd I mean all those that do not look upon the immutable Order as their Law or the inviolable Rule of their Actions those that think Reason an insupportable Yoke This I say is the cause that a debauch'd Man considers those of a regular Life as his Enemies that he avoids their Conversation with a kind of aversion and abhorrence and will have no Correspondence with them being inwardly persuaded that they will not quit the solid and substantial Goods to engage in his designs and joyn with him in the pursuit of Fantoms which vanish and disappear at the Moment that they are embrac'd XII These sort of People are always complaining that the Laws of Religion are confounded with those of Nature that devout and godly Men are good for nothing in the World and that they are obstinate and ill-bred People They would have Folks converse with them like kind Relations faithful Friends or true-hearted Country-men and not like Men prepossess'd with Notions which they do not relish nor approve But this is not possible to be done A Man cannot act but according to his own Light Shall he that sees clearly suffer a blind Man to fall into a Precipice and not call out to him and stop him And would the blind Man think you have reason to complain of the kindness that is done him and say to his Friend let me alone Do you think you see better than I We are all blind Believe me you are prejudic'd Am not I more concern'd in my own preservation than you You had better go blindly along with me for I am sure I am in the finest way in the World XIII If I serve my Friend according to his desires I ruin him and my self too This is the prejudice that blinds me Perhaps he hath some reason to complain of me but he is unreasonable if he imagines that I renounce his Friendship or if he renounces mine If my Friend were not a Christian or not capable of being one if our whole Being were to be annihilated by Death then I could converse with him in such a manner as he desires and have the same Friendship for him that he hath for me I could then be a good Relation a good Friend or a good Country-man according to the Idea he hath of those Qualities But Eternity changes the Face of things and it is the greatest madness in the World not to have a regard to it XIV A Christian a Priest a Gentleman and a Friend are not four different Persons When the Gentleman is in Hell what will become of the Priest and the Friend If these Qualities are inseparable in the same Person it is evident that the Priest is deceiv'd if he thinks he hath a right to act the part of the Gentleman And if I give him different Advice according to his different Qualities certainly I mislead and abuse him When Qualities are inseparable the most excellent of them should govern all the rest and tho' we may abstract and distinguish them when we only reason in the air yet when we come to act we must joyn them all together XV. Whether therefore we give Alms to the Poor visit the Sick or those that are in Prison instruct the Ignorant assist our Friends with our Counsels or do any other action of Charity or Duty we should refer all to the Salvation of our Neighbour we should always consider that we live among Christians and therefore that we ought to do such Actions as are requir'd of us by the eternal Society which we all have in Christ Jesus We should give our assistance to Sinners Hereticks and even Heathens themselves because they are capable of entring into this blessed Society And we should be more concern'd for those that are excluded out of it than for those that are in slavery in a strange Country We should be more sollicitous to make them come into it than to preserve to
The Mind clearly sees all this And what then must our Self-love enlightned our invincible and insatiable desire of Happiness conclude from hence but that if we would be solidly happy we must submit our selves entirely to the divine Law This is evident in the highest degree V. Our Self-love then is the motive which being assisted by Grace unites us to God as our Good or the cause of our Happiness and subjects us to Reason as our Law or the model of our Perfection But we must not make the motive our End or our Law We must truly and sincerely love Order and unite our selves to God by Reason We must prefer the divine Law before all things Because we cannot slight it and cease to conform our selves to it without losing the liberty of access to God which we enjoy by it We must not desire that Order should accommodate it self to our Will It is impossible to be done for Order is immutable and necessary We must not wish that God would not punish our Iniquities God is a Judge that cannot be corrupted These desires corrupt us These foolish and insignificant Wishes are injurious to the Purity the Justice and Immutability of God they strike at the essential Attributes of the divine Nature We should abhor our own Corruptions and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order We should revenge on our selves the injuries done to the honour of Order or at least we should humbly submit to the divine Vengeance For he who wishes that God would not punish Theft or Drunkenness doth not love God and tho' the strength of his Self-love enlightned may keep him from Stealing or Drinking yet he is not Righteous He makes that the end which should be only the motive of his desires He must call upon the Saviour of Sinners who alone can change his Heart But he that had rather there should be no God than such an one as delights to make eternally miserable even those that truly love Order and Reason is a just Man For that chimerical Deity that unjust and cruel God is not amiable Grace it self doth not destroy Self-love but only regulates it and makes it subject to the divine Law It makes us love the true God and despise that Irregularity and Injustice which a disturb'd Imagination may attribute to the divine Nature VI. From what hath been said it is evident First that we must enlighten our Self-love to the end it may excite us to Vertue Secondly that we must never follow the motion of Self-love only Thirdly that in obeying Order inviolably we labour effectually for the contentment of our Self-love In a word since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure we ought to submit our selves to his Law and labour for our Perfection leaving it to his Justice and Goodness to proportion our Happiness to our Merits and to those of Christ in whom ours deserve an infinite Reward VII I have explain'd in the first Part of this Treatise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection or to acquire and preserve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order in which our Duties toward our selves consist They are these in general VIII We should accustom our selves to the labour of Attention and thereby procure some strength of Mind We should never assent but to evidence and so preserve the liberty of our Mind We should continually study Mankind in general and our selves in particular that we may gain a perfect knowledge of our selves We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law that we may obey it exactly We should compare our selves with Order to humble and despise our selves We should reflect on the divine Justice to fear it and awaken our selves We should think upon our Mediator to call upon him and comfort our selves We should look upon Christ as our Model love him as our Saviour and follow him as our Strength our Wisdom and the Fountain of our eternal Happiness The World seduces us by our Senses It troubles our Mind by our Imagination it carries us away and plunges us in the depth of Misery by our Passions We should break off the dangerous correspondence which we hold with it by our Body if we would strengthen the union which we have with God by Reason For these two unions of the Soul with God and with the Body are incompatible We cannot unite our selves perfectly to God without abandoning the interests of the Body without despising sacrificing and destroying it IX Notwithstanding we are not allow'd to procure our own Death nor to ruin our Health For our Body is not our own It belongs to God to our Country our Family and our Friends We must keep up its strength and vigour according to the use we are oblig'd to make of it But we must not preserve it contrary to the command of God and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the publick good and not fear to weaken ruin and destroy it in executing the commands of God And so likewise for our Honour and our Fortunes Every thing we have belongs to God and our Neighbour and must be preserv'd employ'd and sacrific'd to the honour of the divine Law the immutable and necessary Order and with a dependence on it I shall not enter into the particulars of this matter for my design was only to lay down those general Principles by which every Man is oblig'd to govern his Life and Actions if he would arive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure FINIS BOOKS sold by James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-yard A New Voyage round the World Describing particularly the Isthmus of America several Coasts and Islands in the West-Indies the Isles of Cape Verd the Passage by Terra del Fuego the South-Sea Coasts of Chili Peru and Mexico the Isle of Guam one of the Ladrones Mindanao and other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia China Formosa Luconia Celebes c. New-Holland Sumatra Nicobar Isles the Câ—pe of Good Hope and Santa Hellena Their Soil Rivers Harbours Plants Fruits Animals and Inhabitants Their Customs Religion Government Trade c. By William Dampier Illustrated with particular Maps and Draughts The Third Edition Corrected Capt. Dampier's Voyages Vol. II. in Three Parts First the Supplement of his Voyage round the World being that part that relates to Tonquin Acâ—in Malacca and other Places in the East-Indies Second his Voyage to the Bay of Campeacâ—y in the West-Indies Third his Observations about the Winds and Weather in all parts of the Ocean between the Tropicks with a General Index to both Volumes Octavo Illustrated with particular Maps A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America giving an Account of the Author's abode there the Form and Make of the Country the Coasts Hills Rivers c. Woods Soil Weather c. Trees Fruit Beasts Birds Fish c. The Indian Inhabitants their Features
A TREATISE OF Morality In Two Parts Written in French by F. MALBRANCH AUTHOR of The Search after Truth And Translated into English By JAMES SHIPTON M. A. LONDON Printed for Iames Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. THE Author's LETTER TO MONSIEUR **** SIR I Have sent you the Treatise of Morality which you desire of me with so much importunity It is divided into two Parts In the First I have examin'd wherein Vertue doth precisely consist and laid down the means of acquiring and preserving it The Second contains the Duties of it I know not what Censure you will pass on this Book you Sir who are so nice a Judge for I confess to you that there are many things in it which I have not explain'd with that exactness which you require of Authors But I desire you to consider two Things The First is that having no clear Idea of the Soul you understand what I mean the greatest part of the Terms of Morality can express only its Sensations The Second is that Books ought to be proportion'd as far as it is possible to the Capacity of the generality of Mankind and that if I had been too nice and scrupulous in explaining the signification of the Terms which I make use of I should have extremely tir'd the Attentions of my Readers for People are soon weary of reading a Book that doth not raise agreable Sensations in their Mind Perhaps I may think it necessary hereafter to add some Illustrations which may clear those Difficulties which the common Phrase of Speech cannot remove The success that this Treatise meets with will determine my Resolution in that Point I am c. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART CHAP. I. VNiversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Sin and Error God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct Page 1. CHAP. II. There is no other Vertue but the Love of Order and Reason Without this Love all Vertues are false We must not confound Duties with Vertue We may discharge our Duties without Vertue 'T is for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs Faith serves or conducts to Reason For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Beings p. 12. CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power or to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to persoâ—â—â— Merit as our Duties to relative Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God So that Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order p. 21. CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The method us'd in the explication of these means p. 23. CHAP. V. Of the Strength of the Mind Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquir'd Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses Imagination and Passions to Regulate our Studies and to Meditate only on clear Ideas p. 40. CHAP. VI. Of the Liberty of the Mind We should suspend our Assent as much as we can which is the great Rule By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin as by the Strength of the Mind we free our selves from Ignorance The Liberty of the Mind as well as the Strength of it is a Habit which is confirm'd by use Some instances of its Vsefulness in Physicks Morality and Civil Life p. 51. CHAP. VII Of Obedience to Order The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it It cannot be done without Grace How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it by the Light it produces in us by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination p. 61. CHAP. VIII The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace we must call upon him with confidence When we come to the Sacraments the actual Love of Order is chang'd into habitual in consequence of the permanent desires of Christ The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners The fear of Hell is as good a Motive as the desire of eternal Happiness We must not confound the Motive with the End The desire of being Happy or Self-love should make us conformable to Order or obedient to the Law of God p. 71. CHAP. IX The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son and why We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints but not as occasional causes of inward Grace The Angels and even the Devils have power over Bodies as occasional causes By this means the Devils may tempt us and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace p. 83. CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise p. 91. CHAP. XI What kind of death we must die to see God to be united to Reason and to deliver our selves from Concupiscence It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism and alive in Christ by his Resurrection Of the Mortification of the Senses and the use we should make of it We should
is because it leads to Understanding and without it we cannot deserve the Understanding of some necessary and essential Truths without which it is impossible to attain either to solid Vertue or everlasting Happiness Nevertheles Faith without Understanding I speak not here of Mysteries of which we can have no clear Idea Faith I say without any Light if that be possible cannot make a Man solidly Vertuous It is the Light which perfects the Mind and regulates the Heart and if Faith did not enlighten a Man and lead him to some Understanding of the Truth and some Knowledge of his Duty without doubt it would not have those Effects which are attributed to it But Faith is a Term as equivocal as that of Reason Philosophy and human Sciences XII I grant then that those who have not Light enough to guide themselves may attain to Vertue as well as those who can retire into themselves to consult Reason and contemplate the Beauty of Order because the Grace of Sense or preventing delectation may supply the want of Light and keep them firm and stedfast in their Duty But that which I maintain is First That supposing all other things equal he that enters farthest into himself and hearkens to the Truth within him in the greatest silence of his Senses Imagination and Passions is the most solidly Vertuous Secondly That such a Love of Order as hath for its Foundation more of Reason than of Faith that is more of Light than of Pleasure is more solid meritorious and valuable than another Love which I suppose equal For indeed the true good the good of the Soul should be lov'd by Reason and not by the instinct of Pleasure But the condition to which Sin hath reduc'd us makes the Grace of Delight necessary to counterpoise the continual endeavours of our Concupiscence Lastly I assert That if a Man should never I say never retire into himself his imaginary Faith would be wholly useless to him For the Word became sensible only to render Truth intelligible Reason was made incarnate for no other end but to guide Men to Reason by their Senses and he that should do and suffer all that Jesus Christ did and suffer'd would be neither reasonable nor a Christian if he did it not in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Order and Reason But there is no cause to fear this for it is absolutely impossible that any Man should be so far separated from Reason as never to retire into himself to consult it And tho' there are many People who perhaps know not what it is to retire into themselves yet it is impossible but that they must do it sometimes and must sometimes hear the Voice of Truth notwithstanding the continual Noise of their Senses and Passions It is impossible but that they must have some Idea of Order and some Love for it which without doubt they cannot have but from something which dwells in them and renders them so far just and reasonable for no Man is himself the ground of his Love nor the Spirit that inspires animates and guides it XIII Every Man pretends to Reason and yet every Man renounces it This may seem a Contradiction but there is nothing more true Every Man pretends to Reason because every Man hath this engraven on the very Foundation of his Being that it is an essential Right of human Nature to have a share of Reason But all Men renounce Reason because they cannot unite themselves to it and receive from it Light and Understanding without a sort of Labour which is very discouraging because it hath nothing that pleases the Senses And therefore since they invincibly desire to be happy they quit the Labour of Attention which renders them actually unhappy but yet when they quit it they commonly fancy they do it by Reason The voluptuous Man thinks he ought to prefer the actual Enjoyment of Pleasures before a barren and abstracted View of Truth which costs him nevertheless abundance of Pains The ambitious Man imagines that the object of his Passion is something real and that intellectual Enjoyments are nothing but Phantoms and Illusions for commonly Men judge of the Solidity of good things by the Impression they make on the Imagination and Senses Nay there are some Persons of Piety who prove by Reason That we ought to renounce Reason That we are not to be guided by Light but by Faith alone and that blind Obedience is the principal Vertue of a Christian The Laziness of Inferiours and their proness to Flatter is often satisfied with this fancied Vertue and the Pride of Superiours is always very well pleas'd with it So that perhaps there may be some Persons who will be offended with me for giving so great an Honour to Reason as to set it above all other Powers and think me a Rebel against lawful Authorities because I take the part of Reason and maintain that it belongs to Reason to decide and govern But let the Voluptuous follow their Senses let the Ambitious suffer themselves to be carried away by their Passions let the generality of Mankind live by Opinion or follow wherever their own Imaginations lead them But let us endeavour to still that confus'd Noise which sensible Objects cause in us let us retire into our selves and consult the inward Truth yet let us take great care not to confound its Answers with the malignant Influences of our corrupted Imagination For it is better infinitely better for a Man to obey the Passions of those who have a right to command and guide him than to be wholly his own Master to follow his own Passions and voluntarily to blind himself by assuming such an Air of Confidence in Error as only the discovery of Truth ought to give him I have elsewhere laid down the Rules which we ought to observe for avoiding this Miscarriage but I shall say something of it also in this Discourse for without this we cannot be solidly and rationally Vertuous CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to personal Merit as our Duties to relative Merit Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order I. THO' I have not express'd the Principal or Mother Vertue by the authentick name of Charity I would not have any one imagine that I pretend to deliver to Men any other Vertue than that which Christ himself hath establish'd in these Words All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Mat. 22.37 with all thy
discover it self sensibly as Concupiscence doth we cannot be assur'd of the state we are in Therefore we ought always to distrust our selves without desponding and to Labour even till Death to destroy Self-love and Concupiscence which continually renews it self and to fortify the love of Order which is weakned or destroy'd when we cease to keep a watch over our selves XVIII For the right understanding of what follows we must observe that the acts of Love are of two sorts natural or purely voluntary Acts and free Acts. All Pleasure infallibly produces in the Soul the natural motion of Love or makes us love the Object which causes or seems to cause that Pleasure with a natural necessary or purely voluntary Love But every Pleasure doth not produce a free Love for free Love is not always conformable to the natural Love This Love doth not depend upon Pleasure alone but upon Reason upon Liberty upon the Power which the Soul hath to resist any Motion that presses it It is the consent of the Will which makes the essential difference of this species of Love Now these two different acts of Love produce two different Habits The natural Love begets in the Soul a disposition toward natural Love And the love of Choice leaves in it a Habit of that Love For when a Man hath consented several times to the love of any Good he hath an inclination or facility to consent to it again XIX We must know then that every disposition of Love whether natural or free corrupts the Soul and renders it odious to God if the object of it be a Creature but if it be applied to the Creator it makes the Soul righteous and acceptable to God Provided nevertheless that the disposition of natural Love be alone in the Heart for if there be two Habits of Love of different kinds in the Heart God doth not regard the natural Love but only that which is free XX. For Example an Infant at his first coming into the World is a Sinner and deserves the wrath of God because God loves Order and the Heart of that Infant is irregular or turn'd toward the Body by an habitual disposition of a natural necessary or merely voluntary Love †See l. 2. c. 1. of the Search after Truth and the Notes upon that Chap. which he derives from his Parents without any consent on his part Adam at the first instant of his Creation was Just because his Heart was dispos'd to love God tho' he had not as yet acquir'd a habit of consenting to that Love So that a natural disposition or habit when it is alone corrupts or justifies the Soul For when there is but one habitual Love in the Heart if that love be Good there is nothing in it but what is amiable in the Eyes of him who loves Order and the contrary if that Love be evil But when there are two habits of Love of different kinds God hath no regard but to that which is free It is probable that the Just have a much greater facility and natural disposition to love the Goods of the Body than the true and real ones The Pleasures of Sense being almost continually before them and the preventing delight of Grace much more rare they are more strongly disposs'd by this sort of Habit which is a natural consequence of Pleasure to love sensible Objects than the true Good This is evident by what happens to them in Sleep or when they are not upon their Guard but act without Reflection For then they most commonly follow the motions of Concupiscence But these irregularities do not corrupt them because the Habit of Vertue is not chang'd for those acts which are not free cannot change free Habits but only the Habits of the same kind From what hath been said it is plain that the love of Order which justifies us in the sight of God must be an habitual free and ruling Love of the immutable Order And therefore where I speak of the love of Order in the sequel of this Discourse I generally understand by it this kind of habitual Love and not an actual not an habitual natural Love not a love which is not predominant nor any other motion or disposition of the Soul CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The methodus'd in the explication of these means I. THat I may give a clear explication of the means of acquiring or preserving the ruling Love of the immutable Order I shall lay down two fundamental Truths belonging to the first Part of this Treatise First that Vertues are generally acquir'd and fortified by Acts. Secondly that when we act we do not always produce the acts of the ruling Vertue What I say of Vertue must be also understood of all Habits good or bad and even of the Passions which are natural to us II. Every one is sufficiently convinc'd by his own Experience that those Habits which have a relation to the Body are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. Thus it is universally agreed that by the acts of Dancing Playing on an Instrument or speaking a Language those Habits may be acquir'd Most People are persuaded that Men get a Habit of Drunkenness by drinking much that the company of Women makes a Man soft and effeminate and that those who converse with Souldiers become generally Stout or Brutish But there are few who seriously consider that the Soul it self by its own Acts gets such Habits as it cannot easily get rid of A Mathematician is apt to imagine that it is in his own power not to love the Mathematicks and to give over the Study of them An ambitious Man foolishly persuades himself that he is not a slave to his Passion And every one believes that tho' he be in a miserable subjection to some vitious Habit he is able whenever he pleases to break the Chains that hold him in Captivity It is upon this Principle that Men still delay their Conversion for seeing there is nothing more requir'd to Conversion than to despise those Enjoyments which they own to be vain and contemptible and to love God who certainly alone deserves to be lov'd every one persuades himself that he hath and always shall have Reason and Strength enough to form and put in Execution a Design so just and reasonable III. Besides as the Will is never forc'd we imagine that whatsoever we will we will just so only because we will We do not consider that the acts of the Will are produc'd in us in consequence of our inward Dispositions which Dispositions being
universally receiv'd and yet their Sense is undetermin'd and confus'd But every Man should take delight to joyn clear Ideas if he can to his ordinary Discourse for there are few Employments more agreeable than this or more proper to free us from our Prejudices and to procure us some Liberty of Mind IX By the same Principle it is that most Men imagine they know well enough the Causes of those natural Effects which are common and ordinary and when you ask the reason of them they think you must be satisfied tho' they tell you nothing but what you know already for they believe that we ought to give over our Enquiries when we cease to wonder and that we should assent to every thing if we have nothing to fear or hope How comes an Egg to produce a Chicken 'T is the Heat of the Hen which Hatches it This is clear there is nothing more common you must be satisfied with this What is it that causes a Grain of Wheat to shoot out and make way thro' the Earth to spread its Root there and produce the Ear 'T is the Rain that does all this What would you have more Or if you be not contented with these or the like Answers those who pass for Philosophers will tell you that Heat and Moisture Terms clear enough in all Conscience are the fruitful Principles of the generation and corruption of all Things They will tell you that the little Animals are engender'd of Corruption and Putrefaction that the great ones preserve their Species by certain seminal or prolifick Powers which form and rank all the parts of the Foetus But that the Sun and Moon preside over all or it may be a Primum Mobile which gives motion to all the Bodies which it contains These fine Things or the like we have heard when we were Boys from grave Men whom we call'd our Masters And because we could never learn if we did not believe without Examination retain and repeat well we have believ'd and repeated these Impertinences so many times that afterwards we cannot hinder our selves from believing them and teaching them to others X. If an Ox or any Animal of a new Species should drop from the Clouds all the Virtuoso's and curious Wits would make abundance of Reflections on a thing that very little deserv'd their application But that all Animals should come out of the Womb of their Mothers in a uniform manner and according to infinitely wise Laws this is a thing too common to be the subject of their Reflections and Enquiries 'T is Nature that doth all those wonderful Things This great Word explains every Thing We rest satisfied with it we do not suspend our Judgment We believe But what is it that we believe Why that Nature does every Thing Nothing is plainer Shall we doubt of this Shall we examine things that we have said and heard a Thousand and a Thousand times And what will this bring us to To meditate No that costs too much Pains To go to School and learn No that Time 's past We are now ask'd our Opinion And therefore our Province is now to determine and to judge XI There would be no Atheists or Libertines if Men would reflect a little I will not say on themselves but on the least considerable of the Works of God on a Leaf a Grain or a Fly But they have seen these Wonders when they were Children They have been us'd to them before they could think in Order before they could reflect and suspend their Assent They have been taught to slight and pass them by without regard Thus they are surrounded with wonderful Works and do not know it They are themselves the Master-piece of God's Workmanship and yet they think the least of any thing of examining what they are XII But the advantage of suspending our Assent is much greater in matters of Morality than in any other ' Case whatsoever For that which relates to Manners is very little known and very difficult to be known exactly because the Principles and Idea's which we have of that matter are obscur'd by the Passions which leave us no liberty of Mind but in respect of those Truths which do not much concern us So that in matters of Morality we avoid Error almost as often as we suspend our Assent and these Errors are always of Consequence Not but that we are often oblig'd to act before we know clearly what we ought to do But whatever we ought to do we ought never to believe before Evidence obliges us to it Nor do I say that we must always remain in doubt For there are infinite differences between doubting and believing which have no particular Names We doubt when every thing is equally probable We believe when every thing is evident But as there are innumerable degrees of Probability greater and less the Mind must place every thing in it's proper Rank if it would judge rightly And its decisions ought always to be guided by Light and Evidence For tho' a Principle be not evident yet perhaps it is evident that this Principle is probable And therefore the Mind should suspend its Assent and examine it if the time permits It should look upon it as probable and give it that degree of probability which Light and Evidence allow it For in fine the Judgments of the Will ought not to have a greater latitude than the perceptions of the Mind We should follow the Light step by step and not go before it When we judge upon no other ground but because we will judge and before we are oblig'd to it by Evidence this Judgment being of our own production and not proceeding from the action of God within us is liable to Error and tho' it may by Chance be right yet it is not rightly made because as I have said several times we should make use of our Liberty as much as we can XIII Let a Man spend but one Year in the Conversation of the World hearing every thing that is said and believing nothing retiring every Moment into himself to hearken whether the Truth within him speaks the same Language and still suspending his Assent till the Light appear I shall reckon such a Man more learned than Aristotle wiser than Socrates and more illuminated than the Divine Plato Nay I esteem the facility which he will thereby gain of meditating and suspending his Assent more than all the Vertues of the greatest Men among the ancient Heathens for if he cultivates a Soil that is not ungrateful he will gain by his Labour more strength and liberty of Mind than can be imagin'd What a vast difference there is betwixt Reason and Opinion betwixt the Sovereign within which convinces by Evidence and Men who persuade by Instinct by their Gestures Voice Air and Behaviour betwixt Men both deceivers and deceiv'd and the eternal Wisdom Truth it self Let those who have not reflected on these things condemn me if they please and let them begin
of them I do not say that we must Sacrifice it with all those Ornaments which disguise it On the contrary seeing we would not be deceiv'd seeing we would be solidly happy I say we must endeavour to know it for what it really is to discover the Ridiculousness of it which may make us despise it or the Deformity of it which may create in us an aversion for it This I say that we should and may by the Strength of our Hope and Faith bring our Mind to such a Temper that with the help of Grace it may perform this Sacrifice which appears so terrible with Pleasure or at least with Joy and Satisfaction After all there is a necessity for it We must either unavoidably perish together with our imaginary Riches or throw them over-board to arrive happily at the Port where we shall find solid and substantial Wealth not subject to Storms and Tempests VIII For this end we must study the Nature of Man we must know our Selves our Greatness our Weakness our Perfections and Inclinations we must be fully satisfied of the Immortality of our Being we must carefully examine the difference between the two Parts of which Man is compos'd and the admirable Laws of their Union from thence we must raise our Minds to the Author of these Laws and the true Cause of all that passes within our selves and in the Objects that are about us We must contemplate God in those Attributes which are contain'd in the vast and boundless Idea of an infinitely perfect Being and never judge of him with relation to our selves but support the View of our Mind if there be occasion in so abstracted and profound a Subject by the visible Effects of the universal Cause Above all we must examine the Relations which the Conduct of God hath to the Divine Attributes and find out how his Conduct ought necessarily to be the Rule of ours Finally we must penetrate into his eternal Designs and know at least that he is himself the end of his working and that the immutable Order is his Law Then we must go back again to our selves compare our selves with Order and discover that we are wholly corrupted we must be sensible and asham'd of our low and unworthy Inclinations and condemn our selves as guilty as Enemies of our God as not engaging in his Designs as not obeying his Law but the filthy Law of Flesh and Blood we must humble our selves and tremble before a God jealous of his Glory and a punisher of Crimes we must dread his just and terrible Vengeance Death and Hell seek for a Mediator with the greatest concern and find him at length in the Person of Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was once offer'd as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Sins of the World and is now seated at the right hand of the living God made Lord of all things and consecrated a High Priest of the true Goods once put to death as a Malefactor without Jerusalem and now within the Temple in the Holy of Holies before his Face of the Father always living to make intercession for Sinners and to shower down Blessings and Graces upon them but after all their inexorable Judge in the day of the Vengeance of the Lord that eternal Day which shall put an end to all Time and fix the measures of Good and Evil to all Eternity IX Can we think of these great Truths and be convinc'd of them by frequent Meditations and yet find our Passions still the same Can that sensible Pomp and those Charms which surround them can they I say bear that strong and penetrating Light which diffuses it self in the Mind when we think of Death and Hell and the World to come that heavenly Jerusalem enlightned with the Splendor of God himself and environ'd with the River of his Pleasures Certainly the thought of Death alone must change the whole Face of things in those who have any Sense left or retain any Strength and Liberty of Mind But that unavoidable Alternative of two Eternities so opposite to each other which succeed our latest Moments must needs break all the Designs and blot out all the Ideas which our Passions represent to us at least they cannot possibly justify their Extravagancies and Irregularities in these times of Reflection X. If to those Truths which Reason discovers when it is guided by Faith we add that which Reason by it self informs us of the difference between the Soul and the Body and of the Laws of the Union of these two Substances it will not be so difficult to discover the Malignity of the Passions and to despise their flattering Caresses which irresistibly seduce weak Minds For when we reflect seriously on the movement and working of our Machine we sometimes choose rather to govern the Springs of it our selves than to be carried along with its Motions and when we are fully convinc'd that all the Splendor and all the Charms of sensible Objects depend only on the manner in which the Fermentation of the Blood and other Humours represent them to us the desire which we have of being solidly happy carries our Thoughts another way and sometimes makes us loath and abhor those vain Objects vain and contemptible without doubt as well because the Splendor of them vanishes when the Fermentation abates or when the Circulation of the Blood supplies the Brain with Spirits of a different Quality as for a great many other Reasons which need not here be alledg'd they pass away and that is sufficient But they pass away in such a manner that they draw along with them those that fasten themselves to them and destroy them for ever XI Let every one then examine his predominant Passion by the Principles of the true Philosophy and those Truths which Faith teaches him of which he ought to satisfy himself by a good use of Grace and Liberty for nothing is more reasonable than Religion tho' we stand in need os some help to make us throughly comprehend it and submit our selves to it let every one I say examine by the Light of Reason and of Faith the Passion which holds him in Captivity and he will find in himself some desire at least to be deliver'd from its Tyranny The Enchantmens which bewitch'd him will vanish by degrees he will be asham'd of himself for being so easily seduc'd and if the Fermentation of the Blood and Humours ceases for a little while and the animal Spirits change their Course he will find himself so displeas'd with the Object of his Inclinations that he will not be able so much as to endure the Presence of it XII But notwithstanding this we must not cease to watch over our selves to distrust our own Strength and to meditate on those Subjects which render out Passions ridiculous and contemptible for we must not imagine our selves at liberty because we are not actually ill us'd by them Our Imagination remains a long time polluted by the impression of
addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
Body a simple general uniform and constant Method furnish us with various ways of Sanctifying our selves and Meriting the true Goods I have explain'd these Truths elsewhere but it is necessary to remember them here VI. This kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to the Creatures is look'd upon by many People as a groundless Imagination For the Operation of God not being sensible we think we answer and reprove our selves when it is the universal Reason which answers and reproves us in the most secret part of our selves It is certain that he who knows not what Truth and Order is knows not this Union tho' perhaps it may act in him as he who doth not love Truth nor obey Order breaks the Union tho' perhaps he knows it VII But as for that kind of Union of the Soul with God which relates to the Creatures we believe it real but we have a wrong Notion of it For we imagine that we receive from the Objects that which comes from God alone The Cause of this Mistake is the same with that of the former The Divine Operation not being visible we attribute to the Objects which strike our Senses all that we feel in their Presence tho' they are no otherwise present to the Soul than as God who is more present to us than we are to our selves represents them to us in his own Substance which is the only intellectual Substance the only Substance capable of acting on us and of producing in us all those Sensations which render intellectual Ideas sensible and make us judge confusedly not only that there are Bodies but also that they are those Bodies which operate on us and make us happy which is the most general Cause of all our Miscarriages VIII We would always be happy and never miserable Actual Pleasure causes actual Happiness and Pain Misery Now we feel Pleasure and Pain in the presence of corporeal Objects and believe those Objects to be the true Causes of them So that there is a necessity almost that we should fear and love them Nay tho' we are convinc'd by Metaphysical and certain Demonstrations that God alone is the true Cause yet this doth not give us Strength enough to slight and disregard them when we actually enjoy them For the judgments of the Senses work more powerfully on us than the most solid Reasons because it is not Light so much as Pleasure which stirs the Soul and puts it in Motion IX So then it is evident that to preserve a ruling Love of the immutable Order we must on the one hand use all our endeavours to strengthen this kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to sensible Objects and on the other we must slacken as much as we can that kind of Union which relates to Bodies Substances inferiour to ours which are so far from being able to make us perfect that they have no power to act on us nor corrupt us but only because the Sin of our first Parent hath brought in Concupiscence which consists wholly in the Loss we have sustain'd of the power to stop or suspend the Laws of the Communication of those Motions by which the Bodies that are about us act on that Body which we animate and by that on our Mind in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body X. Christian Meditat 13 14 c. I think I have sufficiently prov'd already at least as to some Persons that since all the Motions of the Soul depend on Light and Sense to excite in us that Motion which carries us toward God and keeps us united to him it is necessary that we should continually exercise our selves in the Labour of Attention the occasional Cause of Light and frequently call upon Jesus Christ the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense I shall now examine the Means whereby we may diminish the Union that is between Us and the Creatures and hinder them from having any share with God in our Mind and Heart For we are so plac'd between God and corporeal Objects that we cannot move toward them without departing from God and the breaking off our Correspondence with them is sufficient to unite us to God through the continual influence which Christ sheds on his Members XI That which I shall say of this matter is not so necessary for those that have read and consider'd the Principles which I have laid down in the Search of Truth And if all Men were capable of so much Reason as to think methodically or at least had so much Justice as to believe that an Author hath thought of the Subject he treats of more than they I should not be oblig'd to repeat in general what I have already said or prov'd in other places and in various manners No body reads Apollonius or Archimedes that hath not learnt Euclid because he can understand nothing of Conical Sections without knowing the common Elements of Geometry and in Geometrical matters when a Man doth not understand a thing he knows he doth not understand it But in matters of Morality or Religion every one I know not why thinks himself sufficiently capable of comprehending whatever he reads So that everyone takes upon him to judge without considering that Morality for instance I mean Morality demonstrated or explain'd by Principles is to the Knowledge of Man what the Science of curve Lines is to that of strait Lines XII Wherefore I think it requisite in this place to suppose certain Principles which I have prov'd elsewhere and which are necessary for the sequel of this Discourse This will perhaps illustrate many Things which I have said and which I very much fear have not well been understood but these suppositions are not design'd for those who have consider'd the Principles which I have elsewhere explain'd or fully comprehend what I have said hitherto They may go on to the next Chapter and save themselves a needless Labour XIII First then I take it for granted that to have a right Notion of the Union of the Soul and Body we must not confound the Ideas of these two Substances as most do who join them together by extending the Soul to all the parts of the Body and attribute to the Body all the Sensations which belong to the Soul The Union of the Soul and Body consists in the mutual and reciprocal Action of these two Beings in consequence of the Operations of the Divine Will which alone can change the modifications of Substances The Soul thinks and is not exended The Body is extended and doth not think Therefore the Soul cannot be united to the Body by Extension but only by Thinking nor the Body to the Soul by Sensation but only by Situation and local Motion The Body is wounded but the Soul feels it The Soul fears an Evil and the Body flies from it The Soul would move the Arm the Arm immediately moves it self and the Soul sees and feels
the Soul which should never be determin'd by confus'd Sensations they ought to be guided by Reason and not by Instinct It is indifferent to the Body whether the Soul loves Bread or not If we Eat it without loving it the Body will nevertheless be nourish'd by it and if we love it without eating it the Body will be never the stronger but the Soul will thereby be corrupted and disorder'd For every motion of the Soul which instead of tending towards him who continually imprints this Motion on it that it may love him alone tends toward Bodies dead inferiour and impotent Substances is blind irregular and sensual These are not abstracted Chimeras but necessary Truths immutable Laws and indispensable Obligations XII But what Can we unite our selves to Bodies without loving them Can we fly from our Enemy without fearing him Yes without doubt we may For I speak principally of free and voluntary Motions which certainly we may hinder from following the natural Motions But supposing we could not What then must we conclude from thence but that the Heart of Man is so Corrupted that his Disease is incurable and that he cannot make use of his Senses without inflaming and renewing his Wounds and consequently that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary thing in the World in that condition to which Man is reduc'd For after all can it be doubted that God acts only for himself that he imprints no motion on the Soul but for himself alone that all love of corporeal Objects is Vitious and Irregular in a Word that we are indispensably oblig'd to love God with all our Heart with all our Soul and with all our Strength XIII When the Soul is penetrated with the presence of God and beholds him Working continually in the Objects which strike the Senses when the Mind is actually convinc'd of the impotence of the Creatures in general and applies it self to govern the Heart according to the Light it hath receiv'd without doubt it may at that instant unite it self to Bodies or separate it self from them without loving or fearing them Indeed this time of Reflection cannot last long The Mind is soon tir'd with attention to its Duty and when the Senses come to be touc'h with any Object that pleases them the Soul being struck with the first appearance of Good and contented with it constantly follows by its own Motion that of the Humours and Blood All Pleasure excites and determines the natural motion of the Soul and because Man would always be happy the free motion of the Will readily conforms it self to the natural Motion which is excited by the Senses We must resist if we would not follow that Motion But we are soon tir'd with resisting we lose our beloved ease and become Miserable when we cease to follow the attraction of Pleasure which makes us happy XIV It is better to get out of a Stream which carries us away with it if we cease but one Moment to strive against it than to remain there in continual action at least this is the surest way It is better to break off as far as we can the correspondence which we maintain by the Senses with sensible Objects than to expose our selves to innumerable Dangers by relying on our own Strength which is vain and deceitful The Imagination may magnify it the Pride of Man may defend it but Experience overthrows it Faith condemns it and makes it weak and despicable At least let us take the safest course The thing in question is Eternity the dreadful alternative of the Felicity of the Saints or the punishments of the Devils for infinite Ages We may successfully stop the Passages by which this dangerous Correspondence between the Senses and false Goods is maintain'd The motion of our Hands and Feet is subject to our Will It is in our own Power to bend our Eyes downward to turn our Head and Fly Thus we may avoid the Blow level'd at us by a murtherous Object But if we stand to receive it it wounds the Brain it defiles the Imagination it penetrates and corrupts the Heart Whatever effects the force of that Blow produces in the Brain and in the Nerves which excite the Passions they are in no wise subject to our Will So that we may without much difficulty prevent the Mischief by the mortification of our Senses but we cannot cure it without infinite Conflicts How happy should we be if we would learn so much Wisdom by costly Experience as to hinder it from spreading and throwing us headlong into Hell XV. Let us endeavour then to convince our selves throughly that our Senses are false Witnesses which constantly give their Testimony against us in favour of our Passions That if we are permitted to hearken to them for the good of the Body nothing is more dangerous than to consult them for the good of the Soul That if it be very ridiculous to go to prove by Reason that Gold for instance or precious Stones are not proper for Nourishment it is also contrary to Order and good Sense to examine by the Tast whether Wine be an Object worthy of our Love and Application That the motions of the Soul should be govern'd by Light and the motions and position of the Body by Pleasure and Instinct That Light never deceives and that it leaves the Mind at liberty without driving it forcibly toward the Good which it presents that so the Mind may love it with Freedom and Reason that Pleasure on the contrary is always deceitful that it takes away or abridges the liberty of the Mind and carries it naturally not toward God the true Author of that Pleasure but toward the sensible Object which seems to be the cause of it Let us remember these Principles and draw this consequence from them that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary exercise for him that designs to live by Reason to follow Order to labour for Perfection and to secure to himself a solid Happiness and an eternal Felicity XVI Having prov'd at large in the first Book of the Search of Truth that our Senses generally speaking deceive us in every thing I think I need not insist any longer on demonstrating what I have here laid down I rather fear that those who have read and consider'd my other Writings will find Fault with me for repeating the same things over and over But this Treatise being design'd for all sorts of People it could not be avoided For all these Truths have a connexion and relation to one another We must know the Nature of Man and his Diseases at least in some measure before we can comprehend the Remedies of them and understand Morality by Principles If I should lay down as known all those Truths which I have elsewhere prov'd every Reader would not understand what I meant by them many perhaps would be afraid of them as dangerous and this Book would in all probability have the same Fate with the
proportion to the consistence of the Fibres of the Brain By a large and spacious Imagination I understand such an abundance of Spirits as is able to keep wide open a great many Tracks or Impressions of the Brain at once By a regular and well order'd Imagination I mean a Brain whose principal part which should obey the attention of the Mind hath none of its Fibres broken by the Passions or any other accident By an Enthusiast or visionary I mean one whose attention doth indeed determine the course of the Spirits but cannot moderate their force nor stop their motion He thinks on what he pleases but he sees nothing as it is For the Impressions being too large or too deep nothing appears to him in its natural shape Whatever he saith must always be taken with some allowance or deduction In this sense every Man is an Enthusiast in respect of some Things Those that know them best are the Wisest By a senseless and stupid Man I mean one whose Attention can neither stop nor determine the course of the Spirits By a contagious and headstrong Imagination I understand such an abundance of animal Spirits and those so agitated that they diffuse over all the Body especially the Face an Air of Confidence which persuades others All Men when they are mov'd with any Passion and Enthusiasts at all times have this kind of Imagination VIII The substance and disposition of the Fibres of the Brain being different in different Persons and in the same Persons at different Ages and the animal Spirits being more or less subtle in greater or less quantity more or less agitated it may easily be judg'd that there are a great many more sorts of Imaginations than those I have here mention'd and that we have not Terms enough to denote exactly the differences of them For this word Imagination is a comprehensive Term expressing not only many Ideas but also an infinite number of Relations arising from the comparison of these Ideas which relations make the particular character of the several sorts of Imaginations The Brain of it self in such or such a disposition consider'd without the relation it hath to the motion abundance or solidity of the Spirits doth not make such or such a particular sort of Imagination but the relation which arises from the quality of the Spirits compar'd with the substance of the Fibres of the Brain For a Man that hath a great abundance of Spirits very much agitated and very solid hath not therefore a lively and spacious Imagination if the Fibres of his Brain are too solid too moist too much interwoven one within another c. IX These things being granted I say that the Imagination produces as dangerous effects as the Senses and consequently that it is necessary to keep it silent if we desire that Grace should operate in us with all its efficacy X. For First the Imagination as well as the Senses speaks only for the good of the Body for naturally whatsoever comes to the Soul by the Body is only for the Body This is a great and Fundamental Principle XI Secondly the Imagination when it is heated continually interrupts the Soul It often forces the Mind to answer and discourse with it to the prejudice of Reason Besides we may easily avoid the action of sensible Objects and by that means make our Senses silent For it is in our own Power to shut our Eyes or betake our selves to Flight But we cannot easily dispel the Phantoms rais'd by the Imagination the Mind cannot avoid contemplating whatever passes in the Brain XII Thirdly the Senses represent sensible Objects near enough to the Life But the Imagination extends and enlarges them in such a manner that the Mind is sometimes charm'd and sometimes terrified with them A Man whose Heart is corrupted by the irregular desires which the Imagination of its self hath stir'd up in him sometimes finds him self cur'd by the accomplishment of those Desires The actual enjoyment of the Object of his disorders delivers him at least for some time from a Passion which ow'd all its force and vehemence to the Imagination XIII Fourthly the Senses joyn us only to certain Objects that lie round about us and are within their Sphere But the Imagination makes the Mind a Slave to every thing It unites it to the past present and future to Realities and Chimeras to possible Beings and to those which neither God himself can create nor the Mind comprehend It forms dreadful Phantoms and then is scar'd at them It raises delightful Apparitions and is pleased with them It alters and destroys the nature of all Beings and forms a Thousand extravagant Designs in a World of its own making compos'd of Realities and Fictions XIV Lastly the Imagination without going so far as downright Madness disturbs and dissipates all the true Ideas and corrupts the Heart by innumerable ways It would be too long to set down the different effects of the several kinds of Imagination But that which is most opposite to the efficacy of the Grace of Christ is that which in the Language of the World is call'd Wit for the better the Imagination is furnish'd the more dangerous it is subtilty delicacy vivacity and spaciousness of Imagination great qualities in the Eyes of Men are the most prolifick and the most general causes of the blindness of the Mind and the corruption of the Heart What I here assert being a Paradox I must not expect to be believ'd without Proof XV. The Soul is rational only by Reason It is regular only by Order It derives its perfection wholly from the immediate and direct union it hath with God On the contrary its union with the Body fills it with Darkness and puts it in disorder Because in our present Condition we cannot strengthen this union without weaking that which is opposite to it Now it is by the Imagination that the Soul dilates and spreads it self over the Creatures for it is united to Truth only by pure Ideas free from all imaginary and fantastical Appearances So that the more strength vivacity and extent the Imagination hath the more the Mind employs it self about sensible Objects all this I have said before Now when the Imagination is beautiful easy clear and sprightly the Images which it forms are lively animated and delightful always drawn to the Life and even beyond it Thus he who by the strength of his Imagination raises a great variety of different Objects in his Mind who makes his Phantoms always appear in a fashionable Dress and puts them into certain regular and harmonious Motions which give an agreeable agitation to the whole Brain He I say is charm'd with his own productions and instead of contemplating things as they are in themselves and as their Ideas represent them delights continually in seeing his own Farces acted and applauds the Fictions of his own Brain XVI It is natural for all Men to seek Admirers and the Man of Wit never fails of them
confus'd IV. The Love of Order therefore requires of us three Conditions to make any of our Actions conformable to it First That we examine the Action in it self and all its Circumstances as far as we are able Secondly That we suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us or the Execution till Necessity obliges us to defer it no longer Thirdly That we readily exactly and inviolably obey Order as far as it is known to us Strength of Mind must make us couragiously undergo the labour of Attention Liberty of Mind must moderate and wisely govern the desire of Assent Submission of Mind must make us follow the Light step by step without ever going before it or forsaking it and the Love of Order must animate and quicken these three Faculties by which tho' it be hid in the bottom of our Heart it discovers it self to the Eyes of the World and sanctifies all our Actions in the sight of God V. But since it is impossible for a Man that is not vers'd in the Science of Morality to discover the Order of his Duties in sudden and unexpected Occasions tho' he have never so great strength and liberty of Mind it is necessary for him to provide against those Occasions which leave him no time for Examination and by a prudent foresight to inform himself of his Duties in general or of some certain and undeniable Principles to govern his Actions by in particular Cases This study of a Man's Duties ought without doubt to be prefer'd before all others Its End and Reward is Eternity He that applies himself to Languages to the Mathematicks to Business and neglects the study of the general Rules for the Government of his Life is like a foolish Traveller who loiters by the way or rambles out of it and is overtaken by the Night an eternal Night which will deprive him for ever of the sight of his Country fill him with immortal despair and leave him expos'd to the dreadful wrath of the Lamb and the power of the Devils or rather the justice of an avenging God VI. He that should go about to examine in particular all the Duties belonging to the several conditions of Men would undertake a Work which he could never finish how indefatigable soever he were For my part I am too sensible of my own weakness to engage in so vast and difficult a Design and all that I here pretend to is to set down in general and that chiefly for my own private use the Duties which all Men as far as they are able ought to pay to God their Neighbour and Themselves Every Man must examine his own particular Duties himself as they relate to the general and essential Obligations and according to Circumstances which vary every moment We should set apart some time for this every day and not expect to find in Books nor it may be in other Men so much Certainty and Light as we may in our selves if we consult the inward Truth sincerely faithfully and in the motion of the Love of Order CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments I. THe immutable and necessary Order requires that the Creature should depend on the Creator that every Copy should answer to its Original and that Man being made after the Image of God should live in Obedience to God united to God and like God as far as is possible obedient to his Power united to his Wisdom and perfectly like him in all the motions of his Heart Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect saith our Saviour to his Disciples even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Indeed we shall not be truly like God till being swallowed up in the contemplation of his Essence we shall be wholly penetrated with his Light and Pleasure But thither it is that we must tend it is that which Faith gives us a Right to hope for that to which it conducts us that which it gives us an earnest of by the inward Reformation which the Grace of Christ works in us For Faith leads us to the understanding of the Truth and merits for us the Grace of Charity Now Understanding and Charity are the two essential strokes which draw our Minds anew after our Original who is call'd in the Scriptures Truth and Love Beloved saith St. John 1 John 3.2 3. now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart saith Christ himself for they shall see God II. To discover the Duties which we owe to God we must attentively consider all his Attributes and consult our selves in reference to them Especially we must examine his Power Wisdom and Love and on our own part our Judgments and Motions For it is only by the Judgments and Motions of our Minds that we render to God that which we owe him as it is chiefly on the account of his Power Wisdom and Love that we indispensably owe him the greatest Duties III. When in thinking on God we consider him only as a Being of infinite Reality or Perfection we are convinc'd that Order requires us to esteem him infinitely But we do not naturally conclude from this alone that we ought to worship fear or love him c. The consideration of God barely in himself or without any relation to us doth not excite those Motions in the Soul which carry it towards Good or the cause of its Happiness and produce in it fit dispositions to receive the influence of that Good There is nothing more evident than that a Being infinitely perfect ought to be infinitely esteem'd No one can refuse God this speculative Duty for it consists only in a simple Judgment which no one can suspend when the Evidence is full and convincing And therefore wicked Men those that have no Religion those that deny the Providence of God willingly pay him this Duty But as they imagine that God doth not concern himself with our Affairs that he is not the true and immediate Cause of every thing that is done here below and that we can have no Communication no Society no Union with him neither by a Reason nor a Power in some sort common both to him and us they brutishly follow the agreeable Motions of their Passions and pay those Duties to a blind Nature which are due only to the Wisdom and Power of the Creatour IV. These mistaken Men argue and conclude right enough but it is from false Principles and you cannot easily make them understand that God requires any Duties of his Creatures if you
none but God in the Creatures Jer. 17.7 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his Arm. IX This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy than that which the Heathens have left us In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was that she makes this Prayer to God and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart Deliver us O Lord with thine hand Esther 14.14 c. and help me that am desolate and which have no other helper but thee Thou knowest all things O Lord thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised and of all the Heathen Thou knowest my necessity for I abhor the sign of my high Estate which is upon mine Head in the days whereon I shew my self and that I wear it not when I am private by my self And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present but in thee O Lord God of Abraham This great Queen takes God to witness That she had no joy but in him alone Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures yet she despises her Greatness and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul Thine Hand-maid never had any joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham What constancy of Mind what greatness of Soul This is it which the Law of God teaches us and this also is demonstrated by that Principle that God alone doth every thing and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendor which seems to environ them and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them But the Duties we owe to Power which is in none but God require a more particular Explication X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgments and Motions of the Soul as I said before For God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind This clear Perception That God alone hath Power obliges us to form the following Judgments 1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being 2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being or of our Time 3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge 4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will 5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations Pleasure Pain Hunger Thirst c. 6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body 7. That neither Men nor Angels nor Devils nor any other Creature can of themselves do us either good or harm That they may nevertheless as Occasional Causes determine God in consequence of certain general Laws to do us good or harm by means of the Body to which we are united 8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength but only oblige God by our practical Desires in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body to do good or harm to other Men For we indeed have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them XI These Judgments require of us the following Motions 1. To love none but God with a Love of Vnion or Conjunction because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness either small or great transitory or durable I say with a Love of Vnion for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good or the Cause of our Happiness but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us The word Love is equivocal and therefore we must take care of it 2. To have no joy but in God alone for he that rejoyces in any other thing judges that that other thing can make him happy which is a false Judgment and can cause only an irregular Motion 3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws to promote Iniquity 4. Not to unite our selves to them without a particular necessity for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve besides the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body fortify Concupiscence disturb the Mind and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance 5. To fear none but God because he alone can Punish us We must fear God in this life to keep us from offending him The happy day will come which excluding Sin shall also banish Fear 6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable He that grieves at the loss of a false Good gives Honour to it and considers it as a true Good And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy afflicts himself in vain Self-love enlightned is griev'd only for its own Disorders and Charity for those of others 7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable yet we must not hate him tho' we may fear him Only he that is harden'd in Sin hates God out of Self-love for being sensible that he will not obey God or knowing as the damn'd do that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with he hath no means of access or return to God the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery 8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery We may separate our selves from them But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God 9. We should will nothing but what God wills because we can do nothing but what God doth If we have not the Power to act it is plain that we should not have the Will to act Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power not only in God but
union of the Soul with Reason discovers to Man all the Ideas which enlighten him and leads him as I may say into the Country of Truth the Habitation of the Soul to shew him the Beauties and Wonders of it But the occasional cause of the presence or absence of Ideas being only the different desires of our Will we inconsiderately attribute to our selves the Power of doing that which proceeds from the sole operation of God in us And even the endeavour which accompanies our Attention that painful endeavour the certain Mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless an endeavour which God excites in us to punish our Pride and make us deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades us like that which we make to move the parts of our Bodies that we our selves are the Authors of that Knowledge which accompanies our Desires For having no perception at all of the operation of God and having an inward Sense of our own Attention we look upon this Attention to be the true cause of those effects which constantly and faithfully attend or follow it for the same reason as we attribute to our own Wills the power of moving Bodies and the sensible Qualities wherewith we are affected to the Objects which occasion them V. He that by the motion of his Body approaches toward sensible Objects or withdraws himself from them feeling the Bodies which he meets with in that Motion strike upon him easily believes that he himself is the cause of the removal of his own Body but certainly he never thinks that he gives Being to those Bodies that surround him But he that by the application of his Mind leaves the Body as it were and unites himself wholly to Reason imagines that the Truths he contemplates are of his own production He fancies that he gives a Being to the Ideas he discovers and that he forms as I may say out of his own Substance that intellectual World in which he loses himself Because the things which he then beholds do not affect his Senses he imagines they have no real Existence but in himself For People judge of the reality of Beings as they do of the solidity of Bodies by the impression they make on their Senses VI. It is certain that Man is not his own Wisdom and his own Light There is an universal Reason which enlightens all spiritual Beings an intellectual Substance common to all intelligent Natures an immutable necessary and eternal Substance All spiritual Beings contemplate it without disturbing one another They all possess it without prejudicing one another They all feed of it without diminishing any thing of its abundance It communicates it self whole and entire to them all and entire to every one of them For all of them may as it were grasp the same Idea at the same time in different places they may all possess it equally they may all penetrate or be penetrated by it VII But two Men cannot eat the same Fruit nor embrace the same Body they cannot at a distance from one another hear the same Voice nor many times see the same Objects The Creatures are all particular Beings and therefore cannot be one general and common Good He that possesses these particular Goods deprives others of them and thereby provokes their hatred or envy against him But Reason is a common Good which unites those that possess it in a perfect and durable Friendship It is a Good that is not divided by possession it is not confin'd to space nor becomes the worse for using Truth is indivisible wisd 6.12.7.10 infinite eternal immutable and incorruptible Wisdom never fadeth away The Light that cometh from her never goeth out VIII Now this general and immutable Wisdom Prov. 8. this universal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself by which and for which we are made For God created us by his Power that he might unite us to his Wisdom and thereby give us the Honour of entring into an eternal Society with him of conforming our Thoughts and desires to his and by that means of becoming like him as far as a created Being is capable of it Wisd 7.27 28. Wisdom remaining in her self maketh all things new saith the wise Man and in all Ages entring into holy Souls she maketh them Friends of God and Prophets For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom We have no way of access to God no Society with him but by his Son his Word the universal and intellectual Reason which was incarnate in the fulness of time and made visible to enlighten gross and carnal Minds and to lead them by the Senses by Faith and by a sensible Authority to Knowledge and Understanding But still it is Reason still Wisdom Light and Truth For he that rejects the universal Reason rejects the Author of Faith who is that very Reason made sensible and proportion'd to the weakness of Men who now hear only by their Senses Without doubt nothing is more agreeable to Reason than that which Faith teaches us The more we think on it the more we are convinc'd provided that Faith conduct all the steps of the Mind and the Imagination do not cross it in its way and by vain Chimeras or humane Thoughts dispel the Light which Faith diffuses in us IX Now to find out our Duties toward God as he is Wisdom or the universal Reason of intelligent Beings it is not sufficient to be throughly convinc'd of the union of the Soul with God but we must also carefully examine the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body For we are so situated between God and Bodies that as the union between the Soul and Body is augmented and strengthned so the union of the Soul with God is weakened and diminish'd and on the contrary the less the Body acts on the Soul the more the Soul is at liberty to consult the inward Truth I shall not here set down the particular Laws of the union of the Soul and Body they may be learnt elsewhere But we must remember in general that our Senses cause our Soul to extend it self to our own Body and make it attentive to the necessities thereof and that our Imagination and Passions stretch to all those that are about us That the Body never speaks to the Soul but for the Body and that it insolently draws us away from the Presence of our inward Master who never speaks to us but for the good or perfection of our Being In a Word that our union with Reason is now so weak and tender that the least Sensation which strikes us breaks it intirely tho' we endeavour never so much to retire into our selves and to retain our Ideas which scatter and disappear X. The Judgments which we ought to form in honour of the universal Reason are these 1. There are not more Wisdoms or more Reasons than one 2. No Man is Wisdom and Light to himself or any other nor one
intelligent Being to another 3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions in consequence of our own Desires or Attention But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form the Idea and the immediate Object of them The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth It may by the action of God upon it be sensible of its own Pain Pleasure Perception and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable but it cannot engross to it self the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Beings For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational Wise Just and compleatly Perfect 4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them 5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors 6. When we retire into our selves it is not we that answer our selves but the inward Master which dwells in us which presides immediately over all spiritual Beings and gives them all the same answers XI Mat. 23.8 See S Augustincts Treathe De Mâ—gistro All those may be reduc'd to that general proposition of our Saviours that we have but one Master even Christ himself who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light when we retire into our selves and solidly instructs us by Faith when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited XII From this great Principle the following Duties are deriv'd 1. Not to value our selves on our Knowledge but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it 2. To retire into our Selves as much as we can and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men. 3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason and the infallible Authority of the Church 4. Whenever Men speak to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears with that which Reason answers to our Mind never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact and that too with a kind of saving and reservation 5. Never to speak to them at least not with an air of Confidence before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence 6. To speak to them always as Monitors not as Masters to question them often and in different manners and to lead them insensibly to our common Master the universal Reason by obliging them to retire into themselves There is no way to instruct them but this 7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake nor even to propose Truth to others when the Company they are in Passion or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand that they will not retire into themselves to hear the decision of the impartial Judge 8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it and useful to our selves either to conduct us to Good or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind 9. To lay up carefully in our Memory as far as it is possible to be done none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences none but necessary Truths or the precious answer of the inward Truth 10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact especially those that have no certain Rules to be judg'd by such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind and often corrupt the Heart 11. Our inviolable Law is Order not Custom which is many times opposite to Order and Reason To follow Example without confronting it with Order is to act like Brutes and by Mechanism only Nay it is better tho' that be bad enough to make our own Pleasure our Law than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear 12. We should set no value on Subtilty Beauty or even Strength of Imagination nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World An over-nice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination and whenever the Body speaks it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded 13. To confirm us in this dis-esteem we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies We should very seldom regard Mens outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World 14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God and wanders among the Creatures A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty 15. We should ardently love Truth Wisdom or the universal Reason We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it Wis 7.9 All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention My delights were with thâ— Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 We should place our whole Delight in consulting it in hearing its Answers and obeying its Commands as that delights to converse with us and to be always among us CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that to be Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Miseries That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties I. WE depend on the power of God and do nothing but by his Efficacy We are united to his Wisdom and know nothing but by his Light But this is not all we are also animated and inspir'd by his Love in such a manner that we are not capable of loving any Good but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself This is what I must now explain in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself He cannot Will but by his own Will and his Will is not like ours an impression proceeding from and tending toward something else As he is his own
the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
in them any qualification which the World esteems and only make a Jest and a Diversion of their greatest and most material Imperfections such as discover to those that are skill'd in the knowledge of Man an abominable pravity and corruption And if a Tutor tho' never so good a Christian and a sensible Man should go about to extinguish their Pride and Self-love the Approbation of a peremptory Father or a fond Mother shall beget in them such a hatred and contempt of him as shall make him incapable of ever doing them any good * The greatest Reverence and Respect should be shew'd to Children Maxima debetur puero reâ—erentia saith a judicious Author Example and outward Behaviour irresistibly persuade young People when they suit with the corruption of their Nature And he that without saying a Word doth Evil in their Sight with an Air of Pleasure and Satisfaction speaks to them more strongly and forceably than he that discourses to them coldly of Vertue and exhorts them to follow it This is a matter that deserves the greatest consideration with respect to the instruction and education of Youth XVIII There are some Fathers who always use their Children Arbitrarily and Tyrannically They never do them Justice They are severe to them without cause and instead of enlightning them by Reason and making them submit to it they fancy that the Will of a Father is the inviolable Law of a Child But when the Father is Dead what then will be the Law of the Son Without doubt his own Will For he hath never been told that there is an eternal Law the immutable Order He hath not been accustom'd to obey it Nay he will not stay till his Father be Dead or grown Old and unable to keep him in Slavery any longer before he prescribes a Law to himself He will naturally find it in his Pleasures For this unjust and brutish Law is better perhaps than the will of an unreasonable Father I am sure it is more agreable and easy A young Man will quickly be satisfied of this when once he hath tasted the sweetness of it And then whether the Father be dead or alive the Son will easily find means to obey this Law and yield to its Enchantments He will look upon his Father as an Enemy and a Tyrant if he hath yet Strength and Vigour enough left to interrupt him in his Pleasures and disturb him in his Debauches and Being persuaded by the example and conduct of his Father that every thing ought to obey his own Will and Pleasure he will employ all his Power and all those Persons over whom he hath any Authority in gratifying his desires For he will find himself actually happy in giving himself up to his Pleasures and will not have Education and Experience enough to apprehend the fatal Consequences of them Children therefore should be govern'd by Reason as far as they are capable of it They have â—ll the same Inclinations with grown Men tho' the Objects of their desires are different and they will never be solidly Vertuous if they are not accustom'd to obey a Law which shall never perish if their Mind which was form'd after the universal Reason be not form'd anew after the same Reason made sensible by Faith XIX A Father must not imagine that his quality of Father gives him an absolute and independent Sovereignty over his Son He is a Father only by the Efficacy of the Power of God and therefore he ought not to command his Son but according to the Law of God He is a Father in consequence of a bruâ—ish Action in which he knows not what he doth for it is only Experience which teaches him that in gratifying his Passion he also preserves his Species What Right can he have over the Mind and Heart of another Man from an Action like that of Brutes an Action which he ought to blush at and which I am asham'd to mention A Mother carries her Burden with a great deal of Trouble and Hardship and brings it into the World with extreme Pains But she doth not give it Shape and Growth much less doth she give a Being to the Soul which animates her Child Therefore she hath no Right to command him but in Subordination to the universal Reason because she had no power to conceive him but by the Efficacy of the divine Power XX. Nevertheless a Son should stand in fear of his Parents when they are angry with him for God who gives and preserves his Being God who can throw him headlong into Hell God who hath all manner of Authority over him commands him by his Law to obey them and by that command gives them a Right to command him But Parents should not make use of this Right against the Will of him from whom they receive it They should not assume it to themselves as a Reward of a sinful or at least an indecent and beastly Action They should employ it in promoting the great Design of God the eternal Temple the end and master-piece of all his Works in labouring not for Time but for Eternity and preserving in the Members of Christ the Spirit of Holiness which they receiv'd at their Baptism And Children on their part should pay Obedience to their Parents as to God himself whose Person they represent They should shew a Respect in their presence as in the presence of the Almighty They should endeavour all they can to please them and further their designs as far as Order permits Perhaps they shall not live ever the longer upon Earth for this was the Reward of the Jews but they shall live eternally happy in Heaven with the well-beloved Son of God who was obedient to his Father unto death even the shameful and cruel death of the Cross CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours I. IT is certain that the difference of Conditions amongst Men is a necessary consequence of original Sin and that many times their Nobility Riches and Grandeur are deriv'd from the Injustice and Ambition of their Ancestors But the iniquity of their Forefathers being buried in Oblivion and the lustre which their Riches and Honours have left in their Families still remaining we are dazled with the splendour of their Quality which appears bright and shining to our Senses and strikes our Imagination but we never think of the Injustice which perhaps is the original of that splendour because it is not visible and apparent II. The generality of Men who judge of things by the impression which they make on their Senses look upon those that go attended with a magnificent Train as something more than Men and instead of shutting their Eyes in sight of a stately Palace that they may make a sound judgment of the personal
form'd anew Christ crucified is our holy Sacrifice and the perfect Model of the Sacrifice which we must offer up of our Self-love to the Love of Order but being rais'd from the dead consummated in God and made an High-Priest after the eternal Order of which Melchisedech was the Figure he is the inexhaustible source of those Celestial influences which alone can teach us how to Sacrifice as he did our corrupt Nature and thereby to merit a divine Being a glorious and incorruptible Transformation to be perfectly reunited to our Original and to live wholly on the intellectual Substance of Reason by divine Chatity in perpetual Peace and in an everlasting Society XI If we are true Christians here on Earth we shall be faithful Friends and we shall find faithful Friends no where but amongst those that have solid Piety For there can be no true and constant Friendship but in the immutability of Reason and we cannot in our present condition constantly follow Reason but by the strength which Reason incarnate gives us We cannot sacrifice our own interests to the Laws of Friendship but by a Charity unknown to Nature and which derives its original and efficacy from the true Tabernacle where Christ exercises the Office of High-Priest Your worldly and licentious Friend hath been always faithful to you It may be so For he always found his advantage in it or hopes one time or other to repay his Self-love But would he serve you do you think to his own prejudice or without the hope of a return when even the Righteous themselves are most commonly excited to serve God or other Men only by the hope of a reward which is so much the more grateful to their enlightned Self-love as it infinitely exceeds the greatness of their Services XII There are really no such things as disinterested Friends They alone may be reckon'd as such who do not expect their reward from us They alone can truly be our Friends who desire nothing in this tottering and unstable World They alone are our good Friends our sincere faithful and serviceable Friends who do us Service because Reason and Charity command them to do it and expect from God alone those good Things which are capable of contenting their Self-love the only enlightned generous and lawful Self-love Let us therefore make choice of such Friends and for those Friendships which we have already contracted let us endeavour to fix and settle them on the immutability of Reason and to purify them by the Sanctity of Religion Let us make our selves amiable only to make the Law of God belov'd and let us look upon the Salvation of our Brethren as the reward of the Services we do them This reward will soon be follow'd by another And the Glory which we shall receive for having wrought under Christ in the finishing of his Building shall endure for ever The Society of the World should tend only to establish an eternal Society in Christ We should converse with Men only that we may labour for their Sanctification and they for ours Certainly God hath sent us into the World with no other design Happy then infinitely more happy than we can imagine shall we be if by engaging in this just Design of our common Master we make our selves worthy through Christ our forerunner to enter into his rest and to enjoy his Glory and Pleasure to all Eternity CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness I. THE Duties which we owe to our selves as well as those which we owe to our Neighbour may be reduc'd to this general Head of labouring for our Happiness and Perfection Our Perfection which consists chiefly in a perfect conformity of our Will with the immutable Order And our Happiness which consists wholly in the enjoyment of Pleasure I mean solid and substantial Pleasure capable of contenting a spiritual Substance made for the possession of the supreme Good II. The perfection of the Mind consists chiefly in the conformity of the Will to Order For he that loves Order above all things hath Vertue He that obeys Order in all things fulfils his Duty And he that sacrifices his present Pleasure to Order that suffers Pain and despises himself out of respect to the divine Law merits a solid Happiness the genuine and suitable Reward of a tried and approv'd Vertue That almighty and all righteous Law shall judge his Cause and shall reward him to all Eternity III. To seek after Happiness is not Vertue but Necessity For Vertue is free and voluntary but the desire of Happiness is not in our own Choice Self-love properly speaking is not a quality which may be encreas'd or diminish'd We cannot cease to Love our selves tho' we may cease to Love ourselves amiss We cannot stop the motion of Self-love but we may regulate it according to the divine Law We may by the motion of Self-love enlightned supported by Faith and Hope and govern'd by Charity we may I say sacrifice present to future Pleasure and make our selves Miserable for a time to escape the eternal Vengeance of the righteous Judge For Grace doth not destroy Nature The motion which God continually imprints on us toward Good in general never stops The Wicked and the Righteous equally desire to be happy They equally tend toward the source of their Felicity Only the Righteous doth not suffer himself to be deceiv'd and corrupted by pleasing appearances The foretast of the true Goods supports him in his course But the Sinner being blinded by his Passions forgets God his Rewards and Punishments and employs all the motion which God gives him for the true Good in the pursuit of Fantoms and Illusions IV. Self-love therefore or the desire of being happy is neither Vertue nor Vice But it is the natural motive to Vertue and in wicked Men becomes the motive to Vice God alone is our end He alone is our Good Reason alone is our Law And Self-love or the invincible desire of being happy is the motive which should make us love God unite our selves to him and submit to his Law For we are not our own Good nor our own Law God alone possesses Power therefore he alone is to be lov'd and fear'd We invincibly desire to be happy Therefore we should inviolably obey his Law For we cannot imprint this too deeply on our Minds that the Almighty is also Just that every Disobedience shall be punish'd and every act of Obedience rewarded In the present state of things wickedness and disorder is attended with Happiness The exercise of Vertue is hard and painful And it is necessary it should be so to try our Faith and to give us means of acquiring true and genuine Merit But it must not nor cannot continue so always If the Soul be not immortal if the Face of things shall not one Day be chang'd then there is no God For an unjust God is a mere Chimera