produce in us contrary Pleasures and Aversions to those of Concupiscence Pleasures for the True and Aversions or Dislikes for sensible Goods Thus the Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the Occasional Cause and which he incessantly sheds on us as Head of the Church is not a Grace of Light though he has merited that Grace likewise for us and sometimes may communicate it as I shall say by and by But 't is a Grace of Sensation 't is the preventing Delectation which begets and nurses Charity in our Hearts For Pleasure naturally produces and cherishes the Love of those Objects which cause or seem to cause it 'T is likewise the Disgust which sometimes sensible Objects give us which create an Aversion to them and capacitate us to guide the Motions of our Love by Light or Knowledge XXXII We must oppose the Grace of Sensation to Concupiscence Pleasure to Pleasure Dislike to Dislike that the Influence of Jesus Christ may be directly opposite to the Influence of the First Man The Remedy must be contrary to the Disease that it may cure it For illuminating Grace cannot heat an Heart that is wounded by Pleasure this Pleasure must cease or another succeed it Pleasure is the Weight of the Soul and naturally bears it along with it and sensible Pleasures weigh it down to Earth In order to her determining her self these Pleasures must vanish or delectable Grace must raise her up towards Heaven and instate her well-nigh in Equilibrio Thus it is the New Man may war against the Old the Influence of our Head may resist that of our Progenitor and Jesus Christ may conquer in us all our Domestick Enemies The First Man being free from Concupiscence before his Sin needed not to be invited to the Love of the True Good by preventing Delectation He knew clearly that God was his Good and there was no Necessity he should have the Sense of it 'T was not fit he should be allur'd by Pleasure to the Love of him since nothing withstood this Love and he knew him perfectly deserving it But after the Sin the Grace of Delectation was necessary to counterpoize the continual Struggle of Concupiscence Therefore Light is the Grace of the Creator Delectation is that of the Restorer Light is communicated by Jesus Christ as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Light in its Original was mere Nature Delectation has ever been Pure Grace Light after the Sin was granted us only for the Merits of Jesus Christ. Delectation is granted both for the Merits and by the Efficacy of the same Jesus Lastly Light is shed into our Souls according to our own several Volitions and various Applications as I shall explain by and by But the Delectation of Grace is infus'd into our Hearts according to the diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus Christ. XXXIII 'T is true Pleasure produces Light because the Soul is more attentive to Objects that give her Pleasure Since most Men despise or neglect the Truths of Religion because abstract or unaffecting it may be said that the Delectation of Grace instructs them For that rendring these Truths more sensible they more easily learn them by the Attention they afford And for this Reason St. John says That the Unction we receive from Jesus Christ teaches all things and that those who have receiv'd it have need of no Instructor XXXIV Yet it must be observ'd That this Unction does not produce Light immediately and by its self it only excites our Attention which is the Natural or Occasional Cause of our Knowledge So we see that Men of the greatest Charity are not always the most Understanding All Men being not equally capable of Attention all the Receivers of the same Unction are not equally instructed by it Therefore though Light may be shed on the Soul by a supernatural Infusion and Charity often produces it yet we are always to look upon this kind of Grace but as a Natural Effect For ordinarily Charity produces not Light in the Mind save in proportion to the Inducement it gives the Soul to desire the Knowledge of what she loves For in fine the diverse Desires of the Soul are the Natural or Occasional Causes of the Discoveries we make on any Subject whatsoever But these things we must explain more at large in the Second Part of this Discourse PART II. Of the Grace of the CREATOR XXXV I Know but two Principles that directly and of themselves determine the Motion of our Love Light and Pleasure Light to discover our several Goods and Pleasure to make us tast them But there is a great difference betwixt Light and Pleasure the former leaves us absolutely to our selves and makes no Intrenchment on our Liberty It does not efficaciously carry us to Love nor produce in us Natural or Necessary Love but only induces us to carry our selves to the loving with a Love of choice the Objects it discovers or which is the same thing only causes us to determine to particular Goods the general Impression of Love God constantly gives us for the General But Pleasure effectually determines our Will and as it were conveys us to the Object which causes or seems to cause it It produces in us a Natural and Necessary Love weakens our Liberty divides our Reason and leaves us not perfectly to our own Conduct An indifferent Attention to the Sense we have of our internal Motions will convince us of these Differences Thus Man before the Sin being perfectly free and having no Concupiscence to hinder him from prosecuting his Light in the Motions of his Love and knowing clearly that God was infinitely amiable ought not to be determin'd by preventing Delight as I have already said or by any other Graces of Sensation which might have lessen'd his Merit and induc'd him to love by Instinct the Good which should only be lov'd by Reason But after he had sinned he besides the Grace of Light had need of that of Sensation to resist the Motions of Concupiscence For Man having an invincible Desire for Happiness cannot possibly sacrifice his Pleasure to his Light his Pleasure which makes him actually Happy and subsists in him in spight of his Resistance to his Light which subsists but by a painful Application of Thought and dies at the presence of the least actual Pleasure and lastly which promises no solid Happiness till after Death which to the Imagination seems a perfect Annihilation Light therefore is due to Man to conduct him in the quest of Happiness and belongs to Natural Order and supposes neither Corruption nor Reparation in Nature But Pleasure which relates to the true Good is pure Grace For naturally the true Good ought not to be belov'd otherwise than by Reason Therefore the Occasional Causes of the Graces of Sensation ought to be found in Jesus Christ because he is the Author of this Grace But the Occasional Causes of Light ought to be ordinarily found in the Order of Nature because Light is
no Pain in discharging his Duty But God is withdrawn from us since the Fall of Adam he is no more our Good by Nature but only by Grace we feel now no Delight and Satisfaction in the Love of him and he rather thrusts us from than draws us to him If we follow him he gives us a Rebuff if we run after him he strikes us and if we be obstinate in our Persuit he continues to handle us more severely by inflicting very lively and sensible Pains upon us And when being weary of walking through the rough and stony Ways of Vertue without being supported by the Repast of Good or strengthned by any Nourishment we come to feed upon sensible Things he fastens us to them by the relish of Pleasure as though he would reward us for turning back from him to run after counterfeit Goods In short since Men have sinn'd it seems God is not pleas'd that they should love him think upon him or esteem him their only and sovereign Good It is only by the delectable Grace of Christ our Mediator that we sensibly perceive that God is our proper Good For Pleasure being the sensible Mark of Good we then perceive God to be our Good when the Grace of our Redeemer makes us love him with Pleasure Thus the Soul not knowing her own Good either by a clear View or by Sensation without the Grace of Jesus Christ she takes the Good of the Body for her own she loves it and closes to it with a stricter Adhesion by her Will than ever she did by the first Institution of Nature For Corporeal Good being now the only one left that is sensible must needs operate upon Man with more Violence strike his Bâ—ain livelier and consequently be felt and imagined by the Soul in a more sensible manner And the Animal Spirits receiving a more vehement Agitation the Will by consequence must love it with a greater Ardency and Pleasure The Soul might before Sin blot out of her Brain the too lively Image of Corporeal Good and dissipate the sensible Pleasure this Image was attended with The Body being subject to the Mind the Soul might on a sudden stop the quavering Concussion of the Fibres of the Brain and the Commotion of the Spirits by the meer Consideration of her Duty But she lost that Power by Sin Those Traces of the Imagination and those Motions of the Spirits depend no more upon her whence it necessarily follows that the Pleasure which by the Institution of Nature is conjoin'd to those Motions and Traces must usurp the whole Possession of the Heart Man cannot long resist that Pleasure by his own Strength 't is Grace that must obtain a perfect Victory Reason alone can never doe it None but God as the Author of Grace can overcome himself as the Author of Nature or rather exorate himself as the Revenger of Adam's Rebellion The Stoicks who had but a confused Knowledge of the Disorders of Original Sin could not answer the Epicures Their Felicity was but Ideal since there is no Happiness without Pleasure and no Pleasure to be sensibly perceiv'd by them in Vertuous Actions They might feel indeed some Joy in following the Rules of their phantastick Vertue because Joy is a natural Consequence of the Consciousness our Soul has of being in the most convenient State That Spiritual Joy might bear up their Spirits for a while but was not strong enough to withstand Pain and overcome Pleasure Secret Pride and not Joy made them keep their Countenance for when no body was present all their Wisdom and Strength vanished just as Kings of the Stage lose all their Grandeur in a Moment It is not so with those Christians that exactly follow the Rules of the Gospel Their Joy is solid because they certainly know that they are in the most convenient State Their Joy is great because the Good they possess through Faith and Hope is Infinite for the Hope of a great Good is always attended with a great Joy and that Joy is so much livelier as the Hope is stronger because a strong Hope representing the Good as present necessarily produces Joy as also that sensible Pleasure which ever attends the Presence of Good Their Joy is not restless and uneasie because grounded on the Promises of God confirm'd by the Blood of his Son and cherished by that inward Peace and unutterable Sweetness of Charity which the Holy Ghost sheds into their Hearts Nothing can separate them from their true Good which they relish and take Complacency in by the Delectation of Grace The Pleasures of Corporeal Good are not so great as those they feel in the Love of God They love Contempt and Pain They feed upon Disgraces and the Pleasure they find in their Sufferings or rather the Pleasure they find in God for whom they despise all the rest to unite themselves to him is so ravishing and transporting as to make them speak a new Language and even boast as the Apostles did of their Miseries and Abuses when they departed from the presence of the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of JESUS Such is the Disposition of Mind in true Christians when they are most basely affronted for the Defence of Truth CHRIST being come to restore the Order which Sin had overthrown and that Order requiring that the greatest Goods be accompanied with the most solid Pleasures it is plain that things ought to be in the manner we have said But we may farther confirm and strengthen Reason by Experience for 't is known that as soon as any Person has formed but the bare Resolution to despise all for God he is commonly affected with a Pleasure or internal Joy that makes him as sensibly and lively perceive that God is his Good as he knew it evidently before The true Christians assure us every Day that the Joy they feel in an unmixt loving and serving God is inexpressible and 't is but reasonable to believe the Relation they make of what happens within them On the contrary the Impious are perpetually vexed with horrible Disquietudes and those that are shar'd betwixt God and the World partake of the Joys of the Just and of the Vexations of the Impious They complain of their Miseries and 't is reasonable to believe that their Complaints are not groundless God strikes Men to the Quick and through the very Heart when they love any thing besides him and 't is this Stroke that causes a real Misery He pours an exceeding Joy into their Minds when all their Adherencies are to him only and that Joy is the Spring of true Felicity The Abundance of Riches and Elevation to Honours being without us cannot cure us of the Wound God makes and Poverty and Contempt that are likewise without us cannot hurt us under the Almighty's Protection By what we have said 't is plain That the Objects of the Passions are not our Good that we must not follow their
were true that God acted by particular Wills since Miracles are such only from their not happening by General Laws Therefore Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the Opinion I have establish'd But as to ordinary Effects they clearly and directly demonstrate General Laws or Wills If for Instance a Stone be dropp'd upon the Head of Passengers it will continually fall with equal speed not distinguishing the Piety or Quality or Good or Ill Disposition of those that pass If we examine any other Effect we shall see the same Constancy in the Action of the Cause of it But no Effect proves that God acts by particular Wills though Men commonly fancy God is constantly working Miracles in their Favour That way they would have God to act in being consonant to their own and indulgent to Self-love which centers all things on themselves and very proportionate to their Ignorance of the Complication of Occasional Causes which produce extraordinary Effects naturally falls into Mens Thoughts when but greenly studied in Nature and consult not with sufficient Attention the abstract Idea of an Infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being Infinitely Perfect CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE II. Of the Laws of GRACE in particular and of the Occasional Causes which regulate and determine their Efficacy PART I. Of the Grace of JESVS CHRIST I. SINCE none but GOD can act immediately and by himself on Minds and produce in them all the various Motions they are capable of 'T is he alone who sheds his Light within us and inspires us with certain Sensations which determine our diverse Volitions And therefore none but he can as a True Cause produce Grace in our Souls For Grace or that which is the Principle or Motive of all the Regular Motions of our Love is necessarily either a Light which instructs us or a confus'd Sensation that convinces us that God is our Good since we never begin to love an Object unless we see clearly by the Light of Reason or feel confusedly by the tast of Pleasure that this Object is good I mean capable of making us happier than we are II. But since all Men are involv'd in Original Sin and even by their Nature infinitely beneath the Majesty of God 'T is Jesus Christ alone that can by the Dignity of his Person and the Holiness of his Sacrifice have access to his Father reconcile him to us and merit his Favours for us and consequently be the meritorious Cause of Grace These Truths are certain But we are not seeking the Cause which produces Grace by its own Efficacy nor that which merits it by its Sacrifice and Good Works We enquire for that which regulates and determines the Efficacy of the General Cause and which we may term the Second Particular and Occasional III. For to the end the General Cause may act by General Laws or Wills and that his Action may be regular constant and uniform 't is absolutely necessary there should be some Occasional Cause to determine the Efficacy of these Laws and to help to fix them If the Collision of Bodies or something of like Nature did not determine the Efficacy of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions it would be necessary for God to move Bodies by particular Wills The Laws of Union of the Soul and Body become efficacious only from the Changes befalling one or other of these two Substances For if God made the Soul feel the Pain of pricking tho' the Body were not prick'd or though the same thing did not happen in the Brain as if it were he would not act by the General Laws of Union of the Soul and Body but by a particular Will If Rain fell on the Earth otherwise than by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws of Communication of Motions the Rain and the Fall of every Drop that composes it would be the Effect of a particular Will So that unless Order requir'd it should rain that Will would be absolutely unworthy of God 'T is necessary therefore that in the Order of Grace there should be some Occasional Cause which serves to fix these Laws and to determine their Efficacy And this is the Cause we must endeavour to discover IV. Provided we consult the Idea of intelligible Order or consider the sensible Order which appears in the Works of God we shall easily discover that Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of General Laws and are of use in fixing them must necessarily be related to the Design for which God has establish'd them For Example Experience evidences that God has not made and Reason certifies that he ought not to make the Courses of the Planets the Occasional Causes of the Union of our Soul and Body He ought not to will that our Arm should be mov'd in such or such a manner or that our Soul should feel the Tooth-ake when the Moon shall be in conjunction with the Sun if so be this Conjunction acts not on the Body God's Design being to unite our Soul to our Body he cannot in prosecuting that Design give the Soul Sensations of Pain save when there happen some Changes in the Body repugnant to it Wherefore we are not to seek out of our Soul or Body the Occasional Causes of their Union V. Hence it follows that God designing to form his Church by Jesus Christ could not according to that Design seek the Occasional Causes which serve to settle the General Laws of Grace by which the Spirit of Jesus diffus'd through his Members communicates Life and Holiness to them except in Jesus Christ and in the Creatures united to him by Reason Thus the Rain of Grace is not deriv'd to our Hearts by the diverse situations of the Stars nor by the Collision of certain Bodies nor even according to the different Courses of the animal Spirits which give us Motion and Life All that Bodies can do is to excite in us Motions and Sensations purely Natural For whatever arrives to the Soul through the Body is only for the Body VI. Yet as Grace is not given to all that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and is granted to those who do not ask it it thence follows that even our Desires are not the Occasional Causes of Grace For this sort of Causes have constantly and most readily their Effect and without them the Effect is not produc'd For Instance the Collision of Bodies being the Occasional Cause of the Change which happens in their Motion if two Bodies did not meet their Motions would not alter and if they alter'd we may be assur'd they met The general Laws which shed Grace upon our Hearts find nothing therefore in our Wills to determine their Efficacy as the general Laws which regulate the Rains are not founded on the Dispositions of the Places rain'd upon For it indifferently rains upon all Places on hollow and manur'd Grounds even on the Sands and the Sea it self VII We are therefore reduc'd to confess that
unequally supplied there 's all Reason to believe the Diversity of their Graces must proceed from him who is the Chief of Angels as well as Men and who under that Character has merited by his Sacrifice all the Graces which God has given his Creatures but has variously applied them by his different Desires It being undeniable that Jesus Christ long before his Birth or Meriting might be the Meritorious Cause of the Graces given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it ought methinks be granted that by his Prayers he might be the Occasional Cause of the same Graces long before they were demanded For indeed there is no necessary Relation between Occasional Causes and the Time of Production of their Effects and though commonly these sort of Causes are follow'd by their Effects at the Time of their Action yet their Action being not of it self efficacious since its Efficacy depends on the Will of the universal Cause there 's no necessity of their actual Existence for the producing their Effect For Instance Suppose Jesus Christ at this present time should desire of his Father that such a Person might receive such a Supply of Grace at certain Moments of his Life that Prayer of Jesus Christ would infallibly determine the Efficacy of the General Will God has of saving all Men in his Son This Person will receive these Assistances though the Prayer of Jesus Christ be pass'd and his Soul actually think on another thing and never think again on that which he requir'd for him But the past Prayer of Jesus Christ is no more present to his Father than a future For all that must happen in all Times is equally present to God Thus God loving his Son and knowing he shall have such Desires with respect to his Ancestors and those of his own Nation and likewise to the Angels which must enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and constitute the Body whereof he is the Head ought to accomplish the Desires of his Son before they were made that the Elect which preceded his Nativity and which he purchas'd by the Merit of his Sacrifice might as peculiarly belong to him as others and that he might be their Head as really as he is ours I acknowledge it is fit that Meritorious and Occasional Causes should rather precede their Effects than follow them and that Order would have Causes and their Effects exist together For 't is plain that all Merit ought to be instantly recompenc'd and every Occasional Cause actually to produce its Effect provided nothing hinders bâ—t it may or ought be done But Grace being absolutely necessary to Angels and Patriarchs could not be deferr'd But as for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament since that might be deferr'd 't was fit that God should suspend its Accomplishment till Jesus Christ should ascend into Heaven be constituted High Priest over the House of God and begin to exercise the Sovereign Power of Occasional Cause of all Graces merited by his Labours upon Earth Therefore we are to believe that the Patriarchs entred not Heaven till after Jesus Christ their Head Mediator and Fore-runner But though it should be granted that God had not appointed an Occasional Cause for all the Graces afforded the Angels and Patriarchs I see not how it can be thence concluded that Jesus Christ does not at present endue the Church with the Spirit which gives it Increase and Life that he does not pray for it or that his Prayers or Desires are not effectually heard in a word that he is not the Occasional Cause which applies to Men the Graces he has merited I grant if you 'll have it so that God before Jesus Christ gave Grace by particular Wills the Necessity of Order requiring it Whilst by Order the Occasional Cause could not be so soon establish'd and the Elect were very few in Number But now when the Rain of Grace falls not as heretofore on a small Number of Men but is shower'd on all the Earth and Jesus Christ may or ought be constituted the Occasional Cause of the Goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe God works so many Miracles as he gives us good Thoughts For in short all that is done by particular Wills is certainly a Miracle as not being a Result of the General Laws he has ordain'd whose Efficacy are determin'd by Occasional Causes But how can we imagine that in order to save Men he works so many Miracles useless to their Salvation I would say affords them all these Graces which they resist because not proportion'd to the actual Force of their Concupiscence St. John teaches us That Christians receive from the Fulness of Jesus Christ Graces in abundance For says he the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. For indeed the Graces which preceded him were not comparable to those he distributed after his Triumph If they were Miraculous we are to suppose they were extremely rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given them could not come in comparison with those they receiv'd when the High Priest of future Goods having entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies had obtain'd by the Force of his Prayers and sent through the Dignity of his Person the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The unaccountable Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Notions their frequent Relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles sufficiently manifest their disregard for true Goods and the dispiritedness of the Apostles before they had received the Holy Ghost is a sensible Proof of their Weakness So that Grace in those Days was extremely rare because our Nature in Jesus Christ was not yet establish'd the Occasional Cause of Graces Jesus Christ was not yet fully consecrated Priest after the Order of Melchisedech nor had his Father given him that Immortal and Glorious Life which is the particular Character of his Priesthood For 't was necessary that Jesus Christ should enter the Heavens and receive the Glory and Power of Occasional Cause of true Goods before he sent the Holy Spirit according to the Words of St. John The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified And according to others of Jesus Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go I will send him unto you Now it cannot be imagin'd that Jesus Christ consider'd as God is the Head of the Church as Man he has obtain'd that Quality The Head and Members of a Body must be of the same nature Jesus Christ as Man intercedes for Men as Man he receiv'd from God a Sovereign Power over his Church For as he is God he intercedes not as God he has not receiv'd a Name which is above every Name but he is equal to the Father
which all the things and words they see and hear stand in to one another For though these things depend mostly on the Memory yet 't is very evident they make great use of their Reason in the manner of their Learning their Language But since that Aptness and Facility there is in the Fibres of a Child's Brain to receive the Pathetick Impressions of sensible Objects is the cause of our judging them incapable of Speculative Science it is easie to be redressed For it must be acknowledg'd that were the Fears Desires and Hopes of Children removed or prevented were they never caus'd to suffer Pain and removed as far as possible from their little Pleasures they might be taught as soon as they could speak things most difficult and abstract or at least sensible Mathematicks Mechanicks and such like Sciences as are necessary in the conduct of their Life But they have but little concern for applying their Minds to abstract Sciences whilst they are hurried with Desires or molested with Fears which is worth while to be well considered For as a Man of Ambition who had just lost his Estate or Honour or was suddenly rais'd to an unexpected Preferment would not be in a Capacity of resolving Metaphysical Questions or Aequations of Algebra but only to do those things to which he was influenced by his present Passion So Children in whose Brain an Apple or a Sugar-plumb makes as deep an Impression as a great Post a Title or Preferment in that of a Man of Forty Years old are not qualified to attend to abstracted Truths that are taught them So that we may affirm there is nothing so opposite to Children's Advancement in Science as those continual Diversions we give them as Rewards and the Pains we constantly are inflicting and threatning them withal But that which is infinitely more considerable is that the fears of Correction and the desires of sensible Gratifications which fill the Capacity of a Child's Mind utterly alienate him from the sense of Piety and Religion Devotion is still more abstract than Science it has less of the relish of corrupted Nature in it The Mind of Man is strongly enough inclin'd to Study but has no Inclination to Piety at all If then great Agitations will not give us leave to Study though we Naturally find Pleasure in it how is it Possible for Children whose Thoughts are continually intent and busied about sensible Pleasures wherewith they are rewarded and sensible Pains with which they are affrighted to preserve amongst all these Avocations a Liberty of Mind to relish the things belonging to Religion The Capacity of the Mind is very strait and limited 't will contain but a little furniture and when once 't is full it has no farther room for any Novel Thoughts unless it empties it self first of the former to receive them But when the Mind is filled with sensible things it does not evacuate it self at its Pleasure In order to conceive this it must be considered that we are all incessantly carried towards Good by our Natural Inclinations and that Pleasure being the Character whereby we distinguish it from Evil Pleasure must unavoidably be more our concern and business than all things besides Pleasure therefore being conjoyn'd to the use of Sensible things because they are the Goods of the Body of Man there is a kind of necessity these Goods should fill up the whole extent of our Mind till GOD diffuses some bitterness upon them which creates in us a dislike and aversion by given us through his Grace a Sensation of those Heavenly Delights which extinguish all Earthly Enjoyments Dando menti Coelestem delectationem quâ omnis terrena delectatio superatur But because we are as much inclin'd to fly Evil as to love Good and Pain is the Character which Nature has affix'd to Evil all that has been said of Pleasure ought in a contrary sense to be understood of Pain Seeing therefore the things which make us sensible of Pleasure and Pain fill the capacity of the Mind and 't is not in our Power to quit them and to be unconcern'd about them when we wou'd 'T is plain that we cannot give Children a relish of Piety no more than we can any other Men unless we begin according to the Precepts of the Gospel with a Deprivation of all those things which affect the Senses and promote great Desires and Fears Since all the Passions obnubilate and extinguish Grace and that internal Delectation which GOD makes us sensible of in our Duty The least Children are instructed with Reason no less than perfect Men though they want Experience They have too the same Inclinations though they are carried by them unto different Objects They should then be accustomed to follow the conduct of Reason since they have it in them and they ought to be excited to their Duty by a dexterous management of their good Inclinations 'T is the way to extinguish their Reason and to debauch their best Inclinations to hold them to their Duty by sensible Impressions They seem to be in the performance of their Duty but they are only so in shew and appearance Vertue is not at the bottom of their Heart or Mind their Moral or their Intellectual Part They know Vertue very little but they love it much less Their Minds abound with nothing but Fears and Desires with Aversions and sensible Fondnesses which they cannot get rid of to come to the use of their Liberty and Exercise of their Reason Thus Children who are Educated in that dis-spirited and slavish manner grow harden'd by degrees and become insensible to all the Sentiments of an Honest Man and a Christian which insensibility cleaves to them all their day And when they are in hopes of securing themselves from the Lash by their Authority or their management they give themselves up to every thing that flatters their Concupiscence and their Senses because indeed they know no other Goods than the Goods of the Senses It is true there are some particular Junctures in which it is necessary to instruct Children by their Senses but this ought never to be done but where Reason is defective They ought at first to be perswaded by Reason of what their Duty is and if they have not Light enough to discover their Obligations to it it seems best to let them alone for some time For this would not be to instruct them to force them upon an External Performance of what they do not conceive their Duty Since 't is the Mind which ought to be instructed and not the Body But if they refuse to do what Reason tells them they ought to do they are no longer to be born with But rather Severity should be used to some excess For in such Conjunctures He that spares his Son according to the Wise Man has a greater degree of hatred than of love for him If Chastisements be not instructive to the Mind nor conducive to the love for Vertue they
constantly impresses on our Will is The Love of our selves and Our own Preservation We have already said That GOD loves all his Works and that it is only his Love which preserves them in their Being and that 't is his Will that all Created Spirits should have the same Inclination with his own 'T is his Will therefore that they all have a natural Inclination for their own Preservation and that they love themselves So that Self-love is reasonable because Man is really amiable in as much as GOD loves us and would have us love our selves but it is not reasonable to love our selves better than GOD since GOD is infinitely more lovely than we are It is injust for us to place our ultimate End in our selves and to centre our Love there without reference to GOD since having no real Goodness or Subsistence of our selves but only by the participation of the Goodness and Being of GOD we are no farther amiable than we stand related to him Nevertheless the Inclination we should have for GOD is lost by the Fall and our Will now has only an infinite Capacity for all Goods or Good in general and a strong Inclination to possess them which can never be destroy'd But the Inclination which we ought to have for our own Preservation or our Self-love is so mightily increas'd that 't is at last become the absolute Master of our Will It has even chang'd and converted the Love of GOD or the Inclination we have for Good in general and that due to other Men into its own nature For it may be said that the Love of our selves at present ingrosses all because we love all things but with relation to our selves whereas we should love GOD only first and all things after as related to him When Faith and Reason certifie us that GOD is the sovereign Good and that he alone can fill us with Pleasures we easily conceive it our Duty to love him and readily afford him our Affections but unassisted by Grace Self-love always is the first Mover All pure and defecate Charity is above the strength of our corrupt Nature and so far are we from loving GOD for himself that Humane Reason cannot comprehend how 't is possible to love him without Reference to our selves and making our ultimate End our own Satisfaction Self-love therefore is the only Master of our Will ever since the Disorders of Sin and the Love of GOD and our Neighbour are only Consequences of it since we love nothing at present but with the hopes of some Advantage or because we actually receive some Pleasure therein This Self-love branches into two sorts viz. Into the Love of Greatness and the Love of Pleasure or into the Love of ones Being and the Perfection of it and into the Love of Well-being or Felicity By the Love of Greatness we affect Power Elevation Independency and a Self-subsisting Being We are after a sort ambitious of having a Necessary Being and in one sense desire to be as Gods for GOD only has properly Being and Necessary Existence for that every Depending Nature exists only by the Will of its Upholder Wherefore Men in desiring the Necessity of their Being desire Power and Independency which may set them beyond the reach of the Power of others But by the Love of Pleasure they desire not barely Being but Well-being Pleasure being the best and most advantageous Mode of the Soul's Existence For it must be noted That Greatness Excellency and Independency of the Creature are not Modes of Existence that render it more happy of themselves for it often happens that a Man grows miserable in proportion to his growing great But as to Pleasure 't is a Mode of Existence which we cannot Actually receive without being Actually more happy Greatness and Independency are commonly External Modes consisting in the relation we have to things about us But Pleasures are in the very Soul are real Modes which modifie her and are naturally adapted to content her And therefore we look upon Excellency Greatness and Independency as things proper for the Preservation of our Being and useful sometimes by the order of Nature to the continuance of our Well-being But Pleasure is always a Mode of the Mind's Existence which of it self renders it Happy and Content So that Pleasure is Well-being and the Love of Pleasure the Love of Well-being Now this Love of Well-being is sometimes more powerful and strong than the Love of Being and Self-love makes us desire Non-existence because we want Well-being This Desire is incident to the Damn'd for whom it were better according to the Saying of our SAVIOUR not to be at all than to be so ill as they are because these Wretches being the declar'd Enemies of him who contains in himself all Goodness and who is the sole Cause of all the Pleasures and Pains we are capable of 't is impossible they should enjoy any Satisfaction They are and will be eternally miserable because their Will shall ever be in the same Disposition and Corruption Self-love therefore includes two Loves that of Greatness Power and Independence and generally of all things thought proper for the preservation of our Being and that of Pleasure and of all things necessary to our Well-being that is to our being Happy and Content These two Loves may be divided several ways whether because we are compounded of two different parts of a Soul and Body by which they may be divided or because they may be distinguish'd or specify'd by the different Objects that are serviceable to our Preservation But I shall insist no longer upon this because designing not a Treatise of Morality there is no need of making an exact Disquisition and Division of all the things relating to us as our Goods Only this Division was necessary to reduce into some order the Causes of our Errours First I shall speak to the Errours that are caus'd by the Inclination we have for Greatness and whatever sets our Being free from Dependence upon others In the next place I shall treat of those which proceed from our Inclination to Pleasure and whatever meliorates our Being as much as possible and contents us most CHAP. VI. I. Of the Inclination we have for whatever elevates us above others II. Of the false Judgments of some Religious Persons III. Of the false Judgments of the Superstitious and Hypocrites IV. Of Voetius Mr. Des Cartes's Enemy WHatever tends to exalt us above others by making us more perfect as Science and Vertue or gives us Authority over them by rendring us more powerful as Honours and Riches seems to put us in a sort of Independence All those that are below us reverence and fear us are always prepar'd to execute what we please for our Preservation and are afraid of offending us or resisting our Desires which makes Men constantly endeavour to be Masters of these Advantages which elevate them above others for they don't consider that their Being and
great and solid Truth which they have rendred familiar and which bears 'em up and strengthens them in all Occasions CHAP. IX Of Love and Aversion and their principal Species LOve and Hatred are the Passions that immediately succeed Admiration for we dwell not long upon the Consideration of an Object without discovering the Relations it hath to us or to something we love The Object we love and to which consequently we are united by that Passion being for the most part present as well as that which we actually admire our Mind quickly and without any considerable Reflection makes the necessary Comparisons to find out the Relations they have to each other and to us or else is naturally aware of them by a preventing Sense of Pleasure and Pain Then it is that the Motion of Love we have for our selves and for the beloved Object extends to that which is admired if the Relation it has immediately to us or to something united to us appear advantageous either by Knowledge or Sensation Now that new Motion of the Soul or rather that Motion of the Soul newly determin'd join'd to that of the Animal Spirits and followed with the Sensation that attends the new Disposition that the same new Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Love But when we feel by any Pain or discover by a clear and evident Knowledge that the Union or Relation of the admired Object would prove disserviceable to us or to something united to us then the Motion of the Love we have for our selves or for the Thing united to us terminates in us or cleaves to the united Object without following the View of the Mind or being carried to the admired Thing But as the Motion towards Good in general which the Author of Nature continually imprints on the Soul carries her to whatever is known and felt because what is either intelligible or sensible is Good in it self so it may be said that the Resistance of the Soul against that natural Motion which attracts it is a kind of voluntary Motion which terminates in Nothingness Now that voluntary Motion of the Soul being join'd to that of the Spirits and Blood and followed by the Sensation that attends the new Disposition which that Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Aversion or Hatred That Passion is altogether contrary to Love and yet 't is never without Love It is altogether contrary to it because Aversion separates and Love unites the former has most commonly Nothingness for its Object and the latter has always a Being The former resists the natural Motion and makes it of no effect whereas the latter yields to it and makes it victorious However Aversion is never separated from Love because Evil the Object of the former is the Privation of Good so that to fly from Evil is to fly from the Privation of Good that is to say to tend to Good And therefore the Aversion of the Privation of Good is the Love of Good But if Evil be taken for Pain the Aversion of Pain is not the Aversion of the Privation of Pleasure because Pain is as real a Sensation as Pleasure and therefore is not the Privation of it But the Aversion of Pain being the Aversion of some internal Misery we should not be affected with that Passion should we not love our selves Lastly If Evil be taken for what causes Pain in us or for whatever deprives us of Good then Aversion depends on Self-love or on the Love of something to which we desire to be united So that Love and Aversion are two Mother-Passions opposite to each other but Love is the First the Chief and the most Universal As at that great Distance and Estrangement we are from God since the Fall we look upon our Being as the Chief Part of the Things to which we are united so it may be said in some sense that our Motion of Love for any thing whatsoever is an Effect of Self-love We love Honours because they raise us our Riches because they maintain and preserve us our Relations Prince and Country because we are concern'd in their Preservation Our Motion of Self-love reaches to all the Things that relate to us and to which we are united because 't is that Motion which unites us to them and spreads our Being if I may so speak on those that surround us proportionably as we discover by Reason or by Sensation that it is our Interest to be united to them And therefore we ought not to think that since the Fall Self-Love is only the Cause and Rule of all other Affections but that most part of other Affections are Species of Self-love For when we say that a Man loves any new Object we must not suppose that a new Motion of Love is produc'd in him but rather that knowing that Object to have some Relation or Union with him he loves himself in that Object and that with a Motion of Love coeval to himself For indeed without Grace there is nothing but Self-love in the Heart of Man The Love of Truth of Justice of God himself and every other Love that is in us by the first Institution of Nature have ever since the Fall been a Sacrifice to Self-love There is no doubt however but the most wicked and barbarous Men Idolaters and Atheists themselves are united to God by a natural Love of which consequently Self-love is not the Cause for they are united to him by their Love to Truth Justice and Vertue they praise and esteem good Men and do not love them because they are Men but because they see in them such Qualities as they cannot forbear to love because they cannot forbear to admire and judge them amiable And therefore we love something besides our selves but Self-love over-rules all the rest and Men forsake Truth and Justice for the smallest Concerns For when by their natural Force they venture their Goods and Lives to defend oppress'd Innocence or on any other Occasion their greatest Spur is mere Vanity and the hopes of getting a Name by the seeming Possession of a Vertue which is reverenc'd by all the World They love Truth and Justice when on their side but never against themselves because without Grace they cannot obtain the least Victory over Self-love There are many other sorts of natural Love We naturally love our Prince Country Relations those that have any Conformity of Humour Designs and Employments with us But all those sorts of Love are very weak as well as the Love of Truth and Justice and Self-love being the most violent of all conquers them so easily as to find no other Resistance but what it creates against it self Bodies that strike against others lose their Motion proportionably as they communicate it to the stricken and after having moved many other Bodies may at last entirely lose their own Motion It is not so with Self-love It determines every
so it is just that Infants should be born Sinners and in Disorder And the Order of Nature which is just and equitable was not the Cause of their Sin but the Sin of their Progenitors In which sence it is not just and reasonable that a sinful Father should procreate Children perfecter than himself or that they should have a Dominion over their Bodies which their Mother has not over her own XIV 'T is true That after the Sin of Adam which ruin'd and corrupted all things God might by changing something in the Order of Nature have remedied the Disorder which that Sin had caus'd But God changes not his Will in that manner He wills nothing but what is just and what He once wills He ever wills He never corrects himself nor repents of what he does but his Will is constant and immutable His Eternal Decrees depends not on the inconstant Will of Man nor is it just they should be submitted to it XV. But if it may be permitted to dive into the Councels of the Almighty and to speak our Thoughts upon the Motives which might determine him to establish the Order now explain'd and permit the Sin of Adam I can't see how we can conceive a Notion more worthy the Greatness of God and more consonant to Reason and Religion than to believe his principal Design in his External Operations was the Incarnation of his SON That God establish'd the Order of Nature and permitted the Disorder which befel it to help forward his Great Work that He permitted all Men to be subject to Sin that none might glory in himself and suffer'd Concupiscence in the Perfectest and Holiest of Men lest they should take a vain Complacency in their own Persons For upon considering the Perfection of one's Being 't is difficult to despise it unless at the same time we contemplate and love the Supreme Good before whom all our Perfection and Greatness dissolves and falls to nothing I own That Concupiscence may be the occasion of our Merit and that 't is most just the Mind should for a Season follow Order with Pain and Difficulty that it may merit to be eternally subject to it with Ease and Pleasure I grant That upon that Prospect God might have permitted Concupiscence when he foresaw the Sin But Concupiscence not being absolutely necessary to our Meriting if God permitted it it was That Man might be able to do no good without the Aids which JESUS CHRIST has merited for him and that he might not glory in his own strength For 't is visible That a Man cannot encounter and conquer himself unless animated by the Spirit of Christ who as Head of the Faithful inspires them with quite opposite Sentiments to those of Concupiscence deriv'd to them from the Original Man XVI Supposing then That Infants are born with Concupiscence 't is plain they are effectively Sinners since their Heart is set upon Bodies as much as it is capable there is as yet in their Will but one Love and that disorder'd and corrupt and so they have nothing in them that can be the Object of the Love of God because he cannot love Disorder XVII But when they have been regenerated in JESUS CHRIST that is when their Heart has been converted to God either by an actual Motion of Love or by an internal Disposition like that which remains after an Act of Loving God then Concupiscence is no more a Sin in them because it does not solely possess the Heart nor domineer any longer in it Habitual Love which remainâ— in them through the Grace of Baptism in our LORD is more free or more strong than that which is in them through the Contagion of Concupiscence deriv'd from Adam They are like the Just who in their Sleep obey the Motions of Concupiscence yet lose not the Grace of their Baptism because their Consent to these Motions is involuntary XVIII It should not be thought strange That I believe it possible for Children to love God with a Love of Choice at the time of their Baptism For since the Second Adam is contrary to the First why should he not at the time of Regeneration deliver Children from the Servitude of their Body whereunto they are subjected by the First That being enlightned and quickned by a lively and efficacious Grace to the loving of God they may love him with a free and rational Love without being obstructed by the first Adam You say it is not observable that their Body for a moment leaves acting on the Mind But is that such a Wonder that we can't see what is not visible One single Instant is sufficient for the Exercise of that Act of Love And as it may be perform'd in the Soul without imprinting any Footsteps in the Brain 't is no more to be admir'd that the Adult in their Baptism do not always mind it for we have no Memory of things which are not registred in the Traces of the Brain XIX St. Paul teaches us That the Old Man or Concupiscence is crucify'd with JESUS CHRIST and that we are dead and buried with him by Baptism What means this but that then we are deliver'd from the Warring of the Body against the Mind and that Concupiscence is as it were Mortify'd in that moment 'T is true it revives but having been destroy'd and thereby left Children in a State of loving God it can do them no harm by its reviving For when there are two Loves in the Heart a Natural and a Free Order will that the Free be only respected But if Infants in Baptism lov'd God by an Act in no wise free and afterwards lov'd Bodies by many Acts of the same Species God could not perhaps according to Order have more respect to one single Act than to many which were all natural and without Liberty Or rather if their contrary Loveâ— were equal in force he must have respect to that which was last by the same Reason that when there has been successively in an Heart Two Free-Loves contrary to each other God has always respect to the Last since Grace is destroy'd by any one Mortal Sin XX. Nevertheless it cannot be deny'd but God may justifie the Infant without interrupting the Dominion of his Body over his Mind or convert his Will towards him by depositing in his Soul a Disposition like that which remains after an Actual Motion of our Loving God But that way of acting I doubt seems less Natural than the Other for it cannot clearly be conceiv'd what these remaining Dispositions can be 'T is true that ought not to be much admir'd since having no clear Idea of our Soul as I have elsewhere prov'd we need not wonder if we know not all the Modifications it is capable of But the Mind cannot be fully satisfied upon things which it does not clearly conceive and without recourse to an extraordinary Miracle we cannot see what can give the Soul these Dispositions without a preceding Act surely it cannot be
them which by the Efficacy of the same Law giving the Elasticity to visible Bodies oblige them to rebound and hinder them from observing it But this I ought not to explain more at length XVII Now these two Laws are so Simple so Natural and at the same time so Fruitful that though we had no other Reason to conclude they are observ'd in Nature we should be induc'd to believe them establish'd by Him who works always by the simplest Ways in whose Action there is nothing but what 's so justly uniform and wisely proportion'd to his Work that He does infinite Wonders by a very small Number of Wills XVIII It fares not so with the General Cause as with the Particular with infinite Wisdom as with limited Understandings GOD foreseeing before the Establishment of Natural Laws all that could follow from them ought not to have constituted them if He was to disannul them The Laws of Nature are constant and immutable and general for all Times and Places Two Bodies of such degrees of Magnitude and Swiftness meeting rebound so now as they did heretofore If the Rain falls upon some Grounds and the Sun scorches others if a seasonable Time for Harvest is follow'd by a destructive Hail if an Infant comes into the World with a monstrous and useless Head growing from his Breast that makes him wretched this proceeds not from the particular Wills of GOD but from the Settlement of the Laws of Communication of Motions whereof these Effects are necessary Consequences Laws at once so simple and so fruitful that they serve to produce all we see Noble in the World and even to repair in a little time the most general Barrenness and Mortality XIX He that having built an House throws one Wing of it down that he may rebuild it betrays his Ignorance and he who having planted a Vine plucks it up as soon as it has taken root manifests his Levity because he that wills and unwills wants either Knowledge or Resolution of Mind But it cannot be said that GOD acts either by this Freakishness or Ignorance when a Child comes into the World with superfluous Members that make him leave it again or that an Hail-stone breaks off a Fruit half ripe If he causes this 't is not because he wills and unwills for GOD acts not like particular Causes by particular Wills nor has he establish'd the Laws of the Communications of Motions with design to produce Monsters or to make Fruit fall before Maturity it not being their Sterility but Fecundity for which He will'd these Laws Therefore what He once will'd He still wills and the World in general for which these Laws were constituted will eternally subsist XX. 'T is here to be observ'd That the Essential Rule of the Will of GOD is Order and that if Man for example had not sinn'd a Supposition which had quite chang'd the Designs then Order not suffering him to be punish'd the Natural Laws of the Communications of Motions would never have been capable to incommodate his Felicity For the Law of Order which requires that a righteous Person should suffer nothing against his Will being Essential to GOD the Arbitrary Law of the Communication of Motions must have been necessarily subservient to it XXI There are still some uncommon Instances where these General Laws of Motions ought to cease to produce their Effect not that GOD changes or corrects His Laws but that some Miracles must happen on particular Occasions by the Order of Grace which ought to supersede the Order of Nature Besides 't is fit Men should know that GOD is so Master of Nature that if He submits it to His Laws establish'd 't is rather because He wills it so than by an absolute Necessity XXII If then it be true that the General Cause ought not to produce His Work by particular Wills and that GOD ought to settle certain constant and invariable Laws of the Communication of Motions by the Efficacy whereof He foresaw the World might subsist in the State we find it in one Sense it may be most truly said that GOD desires all his Creatures should be perfect that He wills not the Abortion of Children nor loves monstrous Productions nor has made the Laws of Nature with design of causing them and that if it were possible by ways so simple to make and preserve a perfecter World He would never have establish'd those Laws whereof so great a Number of Monsters are the necessary Results But that it would have been unworthy His Wisdom to multiply His Wills to prevent some particular Disorders which by their Diversity make a kind of Beauty in the Universe XXIII GOD has given to every Seed a Cicatricle which contains in Miniature the Plant and Fruit another Cicatricle adjoining to the former which contains the Root of the Plant which Root contains another Root still whose imperceptible Branches expand themselves into the two Lobes or Meal of the Seed Does not this manifest that in one most real Sense He designs all Seeds should produce their like For why should He have given to those Grains of Corn He design'd should be barren all the Parts requisite to render them Fecund Nevertheless Rain being necessary to make them thrive and this falling on the Earth by General Laws which distribute it not precisely on well manur'd Grounds and in the fittest Seasons all these Grains come not to good or if they do the Hail or some other mischievous Accident which is a Necessary Consequence of these same Natural Laws prevents their earing Now GOD having constituted these Laws might be said to will the Fecundity of some Seeds rather than others if we did not otherwise know that it not becoming a General Cause to work by Particular Wills nor an infinitely wise Being by Complicated Ways GOD ought not to take other Measures than He has done for the Regulating the Rains according to Time and Place or by the Desire of the Husbandman Thus much is suffiâ—ient for the Order of Nature Let us explain that of Grace a little more at large and especially remember that 't is the same Wisdom and the same Will in a word the same GOD who has establish'd them both PART II. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of GRACE XXIV GOD loving Himself by the Necessity of His Being and willing to procure an Infinite Glory and Honour on all Hands worthy of himself consults His Wisdom for the accomplishing His Desires This Divine Wisdom fill'd with Love for Him from whom He receives His Being by an Eternal and Ineffable Generation seeing nothing in all possible Creatures worthy of the Majesty of His Father offers Himself to establish to His Honour an Eternal Worship and to present Him as High Priest a Sacrifice which through the Dignity of His Person should be capable of contenting Him He represents to Him infinite Models for the Temple to be rais'd to His Glory and at the same time all possible Ways to execute His Designs
Posterity as must communicate his Sin and render them all worthy His Aversion and His Anger How is this to be reconcil'd with His Goodness God often sheds abroad His Graces without having the Effect for which His Goodness obliges us to believe He gives them He increases Piety in Persons till towards the End of their Days and Sin triumphs over them at Death and throws them headlong into Hell He makes the Rain of His Grace to fall on hardned Hearts as well as on prepar'd Grounds which Men resist and render ineffectual In a word God continually does and undoes and seems to will and nill again How shall this be reconcil'd with His Wisdom Lo here great Difficulties And the whole oeconomy of Religion the Idea we have of a Good Wise Powerful God constant in His Designs regular in His Action and a thousand places in Scripture furnish us with several others contrary to what we experimentally find every Day in the Order of Grace and though very Learned Men have answer'd them to me they seem incapable of a satisfactory and clear Resolution without the fore-establish'd Principle XLII For my own part I always believ'd that God would have all Men saved Reason and Scripture will not suffer me to doubt it And though the Authors whom I honour with a very profound Reverence have in the preceding Ages given out various Explications of this Truth I have ever been uneasie to receive such as without any Necessity seem'd to me to give Bounds to the Extent of God's Goodness and Mercy Therefore consulting the Idea which all Men have of God I enter'd on this Opinion which I now expose to the Censure of all those who shall be willing to examine it attentively and pass an equitable Judgment on it XLIII God being oblig'd to act always in a manner that becomes Him by ways Simple General Constant and Uniform In a word suitable to the Idea we have of a General Cause whose Wisdom has no Bounds ought to settle certain Laws in the Order of Grace as I have prov'd He has done in the Order of Nature Which Laws by Reason of their Simplicity must necessarily have unhappy Consequences in reference to us But these Consequences are not of such Account as should cause God to change these Laws for more compounded as having a greater Proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity to the Work they produce than all that could be establish'd for the same Design since he always acts in the wisest and perfectest manner 'T is true God could redress these unhappy Consequences by an infinite Number of particular Wills But Order will not suffer him The Effect producible by each Will would not countervail the Action that should produce it And consequently God is not to be blam'd for not disturbing the Order and Simplicity of his Laws by Miracles which would be very welcome to our Exigencies but very repugnant to the Wisdom of God whom it is not lawful to tempt XLIV Therefore as 't would be unreasonable in us to be angry at the Rain's falling in the Sea where 't is useless and escaping Seeded Grounds where 't is necessary since the Laws of Communication of Motions are most Simple most Exuberant and perfectly worthy of their Author's Wisdom and that by these Laws it is impossible the Rain should fall rather on the Earth than Sea so we ought not to complain of the seeming Irregularity by which Grace is given to Men. 'T is the Regularity wherewith God works 't is the Simplicity of the Laws he observes 't is the Wisdom and Uniformity of his Conduct which is the Cause of that seeming Irregularity 'T is necessary by the Laws of Grace establish'd by God in favour of his Elect and for the Construction of his Church that Celestial Rain should fall as well on hardn'd as prepar'd Hearts and if it be shed in vain 't is not because God acts without Design much less with Design of making Men more culpable by the Abuse of his Favours But because the Simplicity of General Laws permits not that Grace which is lost in a corrupt Heart to fall upon another where it would have been effectual Since this Grace is not given by a particular Will but in pursuance of the Immutability of the General Order of Grace if this Order produces a Work proportion'd to the Simplicity of its Laws it suffices to render it worthy of the Wisdom of its Author For in short the Order of Grace would be less perfect less admirable and amiable if it were more complex'd XLV If God gave Grace by particular Wills doubtless he would never go to convert a Sinner who had four Degrees of Concupiscence by giving him three Degrees of Spiritual Election supposing these Degrees insufficient for his Conversion He would defer his Liberality till the Sinner was absent from the tempting Object or rather would bestow the same Grace of three Degrees Strength to him whose Concupiscence was less lively For to what Purpose is it to give three Degrees of Spiritual Delectation to one that wants four and to deny them him whom they were sufficient to convert Is this suitable to the Idea we have of the Wisdom and Goodness of God Is this to love Men to will they should be sav'd and to do for them all he can Nevertheless God cries out by his Prophet O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah judge I pray ye betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I look'd that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes What Wisdom is there in giving by particular Wills so many fruitless Graces to Sinners if we suppose God wills their Conversion as we are taught by Scripture and has no fatal Design of rendring them more culpable and criminal by his Gifts XLVI But if Grace be bestow'd on Men by most Simple and General Laws all these great Difficulties vanish The settled Order of Grace having a greater proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity to the Work which God produces than any other ought to be chosen for the Establishment of His Church Thus we may affirm That God truly wills the Salvation of all Men that He does for them all that 's possible whilst he acts as becomes him that if there were any Order of Grace as simple but more fecund as worthy of his Wisdom and more advantageous to Men he would have chosen it and that therefore he saves as many as it 's possible to save whilst acting by the adorable Rules prescrib'd by his Wisdom XLVII Let Men therefore love and adore not only the Good Will of God by which the Elect are sanctify'd but also the secret Judgments of his Justice by which so great a Number are rejected 'T is the same Order of Wisdom they are the same Laws of Grace which produce these so different Effects God is equally adorable and amiable in all he does his Conduct
them Amongst which he considers his Church Jesus Christ who is the Head of it and all the Persons which in consequence of some General Laws establish'd ought to compose it In brief upon Consideration of Jesus Christ and all his Members he constitutes Laws for his own Glory Which being so is it not evident that Jesus Christ who is the Principle of all the Glory redounding to God from his Work is the first of the Predestinate and that all the Elect are likewise truly lov'd and predestined gratis in Jesus Christ because they may honour God in his Son That lastly they are all under infinite Obligations to God who without regard to their Merit has settled the General Laws of Grace which ought to sanctifie them and conduct them to the Glory they shall eternally possess LV. You 'll say perhaps that these Laws are so simple and exuberant that God must prefer them to all other and that since he only loves his own Glory his Son ought to become incarnate and so has done nothing purely for his Elect. I confess God has done nothing purely for his Elect For St. Paul teaches us that he has made his Elect for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for himself If God cannot be rendred amiable to Men unless we make him act purely for them or not in the wisest manner I had rather be silent Reason teaches me that we render God amiable by shewing him to be infinitely perfect and by representing him so full of Love for his Creatures as not to produce any one with Design of making him miserable For if all are not so happy as to enjoy his Presence 't is because Order requiring that so great a Good should be merited all do not deserve it for the Reasons I have given Surely this is to make God lovely to represent him such as even the Reprobate cannot choose but adore his Conduct and repent them of their Negligence LVI Yet for their Satisfaction who will have God to predestine every of his Elect by a particular Will it may be said with a Salvo to the foregoing Hypothesis That God before he created Souls to unite them to Bodies foresaw all that could befall them by the General Laws of Nature and Grace and all that they should do in all possible Circumstances Therefore being able to create as is suppos'd the Soul of Paul or of Peter and to unite it to a Body which he foresaw should be that of a Predestinate Person he resolved from all Eternity to create the Soul of Paul by a Benevolent Will had for him and to predestine him by this Choice to Life Eternal whereas he creates the Soul of Peter not for any Benevolent Will had to him but by a kind of Necessity by Reason of the Laws of Union which he has most wisely establish'd betwixt Souls and Bodies by which he is oblig'd as soon as Bodies are form'd to unite Souls to them which would have been advantageous to all if Man had not sinned But the Body of Peter being begotten of an Heathen Father or of one that is careless of his Children's Education or Lastly Peter being engag'd by the Fortune of his Birth Places Times Employments which induce him to Evil will infallibly be one of the Reprobate Yet Peter shall be useful to the Designs of God For though he himself shall not enter into the Number of the Predestinate yet he shall by some of his Posterity He shall be subservient to the Beauty and Grandeur of the Church of Jesus Christ by the infinite Relations he shall have to the Elect. Furthermore he shall not be miserable but in proportion to the wrong use he has made of his Liberty since God punishes with Pain only voluntary Disorders This is what may be offer'd for the Satisfaction of some Persons Inclination though I cannot clearly see how it can be altogether rely'd on LVII Such as ascribe to God particular Designs and Wills for all the particular Effects produc'd in Consequence of General Laws commonly employ the Authority of Scripture to justifie their Opinion But being the Scripture is made for all the World for the Simple as well as the Intelligent it abounds with Anthropologies It not only ascribes to God a Body a Throne a Chariot and Equipage Passions of Joy Sorrow Wrath Repentance and other Motions of the Soul but also attributes to him the customary Ways of humane Actings that it may speak to the Simple in a more sensible manner If Jesus Christ became Man 't was in part to satisfie the Inclination of Men who love what is like them and are studious of what affects them 'T was by this real and true kind of Anthropology to persuade Men of those Truths they were incapable to comprehend any other way Thus St. Paul to accommodate himself to the World speaks of the Sanctification and Predestination of the Saints as if God continually work'd in them by particular Wills and even Jesus Christ speaks of his Father as if he took care by such like Wills to adorn the Lilies and to preserve every Hair of the Head of his Disciples Because in truth the Goodness of God to his Creatures being extreme these Expressions afford a great Idea of it and recommend God to the Affections of the grossest Souls and such as are most infected with Self-love Yet as by the Idea we have of God and by the Passages of Scripture conformable to that Idea we correct the Sense of other Texts which attribute to God Members and Passions like ours so when we would speak with Exactness of the manner of God's acting in the Order of Grace or Nature we ought to explain those Passages which make him act as a Man or a particular Cause by the Idea we have of his Wisdom and Goodness and other Scripture Passages comporting with that Idea For in fine if we may say or rather if we are oblig'd to say from the Idea we have of God that he causes not every drop of Rain to fall by particular Wills though the natural Sense of some Scripture Passages authorises that Opinion there is the same Necessity to think notwithstanding some Authorities of the Scripture that God gives not by particular Wills to some Sinners all those good Motions which are useless to them and which would be useful to several others For otherwise I see not how 't is possible to reconcile the Holy Scripture either with Reason or it self as I think I have prov'd If I thought what I have said insufficient to convince attentive Persons that God acts not by particular Wills like particular Causes and finite Understandings I would proceed to shew that there were very few Truths that would admit of greater Probation on Supposition that God governs the World and that the Nature of the Heathen Philosophers is nothing For indeed every thing in Nature proves this Opinion except Miracles which yet would not be Miracles or different from those we call Natural Effects if it
the Light of Reason that God is its Good and has a lively Sense of him by the Tast of Pleasure 't is not possible to avoid loving him For the Mind desires Happiness and then nothing hinders it from following the agreeable Motions of its Love It feels no Remorses which oppose its present Felicity nor is it withheld by Pleasures contrary to that which it enjoys The Delight of Grace is then invincible nor is the Love it produces meritorious unless it be greater than its Cause I say that the Love which is merely a Natural or Necessary Effect of the Delectation of Grace has nothing meritorious though it be good in it self For whilst we move no farther than we are driven or rather when we advance no longer than we are paid in hand we have no Claim to any Recompence When we love God but so far as we are attracted or because we are attracted we love him not by Reason but by Instinct we love him not on Earth as he requires and deserves from us But we merit only when we love God by Choice by Reason by the Knowledge we have of his being amiable We merit in proceeding on as I may say towards Good when Pleasure has determin'd the Motion of Love XXV This sole Reason demonstrates either that the first Man was not invited to the Love of God by the blind Instinct of Pleasure or at least that this Pleasure was not so lively as what he felt in reflecting on his own Natural Perfections or in the actual use of sensible Goods For 't is evident such a Pleasure would have made him impeccable it would have put him in a State like that of the Blessed which merit no longer Not because they are out of a Wayfaring State for Merit always follows from meritorious Actions and God being Just must necessarily reward them But they merit not because the Pleasure they find in God is equal to their Love that they are throughly imbued with it and that being freed from all sort of Pain and all Motions of Concupiscence they have nothing left to sacrifice to God XXVI For that which makes us impeccable is not precisely that which incapacitates us to merit Jesus Christ was impeccable and yet he merited his Glory and that of the Church whereof he is the Head Being perfectly free he lov'd his Father not by the Instinct of Pleasure but by Choice and Reason He lov'd him because he intuitively saw how amiable he was For the most perfect Liberty is that of a Mind which has all possible Light and is not determin'd by any Pleasure because all Pleasure preventing or other naturally produces some Love and unless we resist it it efficaciously determines towards the agreeable Object the Natural Motion of the Soul But Light though conceiv'd never so great leaves the Mind perfectly free supposing this Light be consider'd alone and separate from Pleasure XXVII As Jesus Christ is nothing but the Word or Reason Incarnate certainly he ought not to love Good with a blind Love with the Love of Instinct with the Love of Sensation but by Reason He ought not to love an infinitely amiable Good and which he knew perfectly worthy of his Love as we love Goods that are not amiable and which we cannot know as worthy of Love He ought not to love his Father by a Love in any respect like that wherewith we love the vilest Creatures wherewith we love Bodies His Love to be pure at least to be perfectly meritorious ought to be no wise produc'd by preventing Pleasures For Pleasure may and must be the Recompence of a Legitimate Love as in effect it is in the Saints and Jesus Christ himself But it cannot be the Principle of Merit nor ought it to precede Reason unless debilitated But Reason in Jesus Christ was no ways weakned Supreme Reason supported the Created Jesus Christ who was free from the Motions of Concupiscence had no need of preventing Delight to counterbalance sensible Pleasures which surprize us Nay it may be he refus'd to tast the Pleasure of Joy which was a natural Result of the Knowledge he had of his Vertue and Perfections that being deprived of all sorts of Pleasures his Sacrifice might be more holy more pure and more disinteress'd Lastly Beside the Privation of all Pleasures preventing and others 't is likely he inwardly suffer'd unspeakable Droughts not better expressible by Souls fill'd with Charity than by the Dereliction of God according to these Words of our Saviour on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But if we will absolutely have it that Jesus Christ was carried by preventing Pleasures to the Love of his Father 't is necessary to say according to the Principles I have laid down either that his Love was more intense than his Pleasure since Natural Love produc'd by the Instinct of Pleasure is no ways meritorious or at least we must say he merited by sensible Pains by the continual Sacrifice which he freely and voluntarily offer'd to his Father For 't was necessary he should suffer to enter in Possession of his Glory as we are taught by Scripture XXVIII Though the Delectation of Grace without relation to any contrary Pleasure infallibly gains the Consent of the Will yet it is not so with the Pleasures of Concupiscence These Pleasures consider'd in themselves without respect to other actual Pleasures are not always insurmountable The Light of Reason condemns them the Remorse of Conscience makes us abhor them and we may commonly suspend our Consent Therefore the Grace of Jesus Christ is stronger than Concupiscence and we may call it Victorious since the former always masters the Heart when equal to the latter For when the Balance of our Heart is perfectly in Equilibrio by the even Weights of contrary Pleasures that which is most solid and reasonable has the Advantage because Light adds some Grains to its efficacy and the Remorses of Conscience withstand the Influence of a counterfeit Pleasure XXIX We must conclude from what we have said that we always merit when we love the true Good by Reason and that we merit not at all when we love it by Instinct We merit always when we love the true Good by Reason because Order will have the true Good lov'd in that manner and that mere Light does not convey us or invincibly determine us to the Good discover'd by it We merit not when we love the true Good by Instinct or as much as we are invincibly mov'd and determin'd by Pleasure Because Order requires that the true Good or the Good of the Mind should be lov'd by Reason by a free Love a Love of Choice and Judgment whilst the Love which is produc'd by Pleasure is a Blind Natural and Necessary Love I own that when we advance farther than Pleasure forces us we merit But that 's because we therein act by Reason and in the way that Order would have us For Love so much as it
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them