rather than Vnderstanding Pag. 63. SECT II. The Measures of Love of Concupiscence all reduced to these two general Heads what we must desire and what we may desire The Measures of these both in general and in Particular Whether Sensual Pleasure be in its self evil with an Account of the true Notion of Original Concupiscence and of Mortification pag. 73. SECT III. The Measures of Love of Benevolence particularly of Self-love p. 112. SECT IV. The Measures of Common Charity p. 118. SECT V. The Measures of Friendship pag. 124. Motives to the Study and Practice of Regular Love by way of Consideration pag. 135. PART I. SECT I. The general designe of this undertaking and its great usefullness to the whole drift of Morality 1 THE Subject of these Contemplations is Love. A thing that has employ'd many curious pens to little purpose and has been perhaps the most and withall the worst written upon of any Subject in the world 'T is I confess strange that men should write so darkly and Confusedly of that which they feel and experiment so intimately but I must take the boldness to say that what I have hitherto seen upon this Subject has been so Confused ambiguous and indistinct that I was thereby rather distracted than inform'd in my Notions concerning it 2 Finding therefore no Satisfaction in advising with Books I was fain to shut my Eyes and set my self a Thinking without having any regard to what others had observ'd upon the same matter so as to be in the least sway'd or determin'd in my Conclusions by it A method that would tend more to the discovery of Truth and to the Advancement of all Notional Learning than that narrow straitlaced humour of adhering to the Dictates of those who have nothing more to recommend them but only the luck of being born before us 3 My design therefore here is to employ my Meditations about two things 1 st the Theory of Love according to its full Latitude and Comprehension and 2 ly the Measures of its Regulation The discharge of which double undertaking will thoroughly exhaust the Subject and answer the Ends both of Speculation and Practise 4 I think it requisite to begin with the Theory of Love. For since the Physitian thinks it necessary to know the Anatomy of that Body which he is to Cure and the Logician to open the nature of those Intellectual operations which he is to direct I know not why the Moralist should not think himself equally concern'd to frame a just Theory of that Affection of the Soul which he is to regulate 5 The whole work I conceive to be of great usefulness and general importance to all the purposes of Morality nay indeed to contain the whole Sum and Substance of it For what is the grand intendment and final upshot of Morality but to teach a man to Love regularly As a man Loves so is he Love is not only the Fulfilling but also the Transgressing of the Law and Vertue and Vice is nothing else but the Various Application and Modification of Love. By this a Good man is distinguish'd from a bad and an Angel of Light from an Angel of Darkness This is that which discriminates the Orders of men here and will consign us to different Portions hereafter according to that of St. Austin Faciunt Civitates duas Amores duo Hierusalem facit Amor Dei Babylonem Amor Saeculi Interroget ergo se quisque quid Amet inveniet unde sit Civis The two Loves make the two Cittys The Love of God makes Hierusalem the Love of the World Babylon Let every one therefore ask himself what 't is he Loves and he will find to which Citty he belongs 6 He therefore that shall rightly state the Nature and prescribe due Measures for the Regulation of Love not only serves the Cause of Morality but may be truely sayd to discharge the whole Province of a Moralist This I take to be a Sufficient Apology for the undertaking it self and if the Performance come up to the Moment of the Design whereof the world is to judge I know of nothing wanting to render it both Serviceable and acceptable to the Public SECT II. Of the dignity and Nature of Love in general and of the first and great Division of it 1 LET us make Man in our Image after our own likeness sayd God. Now among other instances of Resemblance wherein man may be likened to God such as the Internal Rectitude of his Nature or Self-dominion and his External dominion over the Creatures and the like this I think may be Consider'd as one and perhaps as the Chiefest of all that as in the Divine nature there are two Processions one by way of Intellect which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or word and the other by way of Love which is the H. Spirit so likewise in the Humane nature there are as it were two Processions and that of the same kind too as in the Divine Vnderstanding and Love. 2 These are the two Noble Facultys that branche out from the Soul of man and whereby he becomes a little Image of the Trinity And altho' we generally value our Selves most upon the Former yet I know not whether there be not an Equality in these as there is in the Divine Processions and whether it be not as much the Glory of man to be an Amorous as to be a Rational Being 3 Sure I am that in the Gentile Theology and in the most refined Philosophy of the Ancients the preheminence is given to Love. Socrates in Plato's Symposion says Concerning Love that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eldest and most honorable of the Gods. And we know Love is made the first Hypostasis in the Platonic Triad The Holy Scripture goes yet higher and does not only in several places set forth Love as the Flower of the Divinity and magnify the Divine Essence chiefly from that Excellence but seems to resolve all the Perfection of the Deity into this one Point For when it defines God it does not say he is Wisdom or Power no not so much as Wise or Powerfull but seems to overlook all his other Perfections and says in the Abstract that he is Love. They are great words of St. Iohn and such as make much for the great Dignity of this Divine Affection God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. So Noble a thing is Love and so deserving of our most intense Theory and Inspection 5 And indeed it needs it as well as deserves it For there is nothing that darken's the Nature of things and obscures the Clarity of our Conceptions more than Ambiguity of Terms and I know nothing that is more Equivocal and full of Latitude than this word Love. It is given to things whose Ideas are Notoriously different and men seem to have agreed together not to detect the Fallacy and from the Identity of the name to conclude the Identity of the
thing To give one instance out of many what is there that passes for an Axiom of a more simple certain and uniform Signification than that Common Proposition in Divinity that we must love God for himself and our Neighbor for God's sake But now when we come to examin what Ideas we have under these words 't is plain that that Idea which is express'd by Love in the first part of the Proposition is not the same with that which is express'd by Love in the Second For Love in reference to God Signifys Simple Desire and in reference to our Neighbor wishing well to which Ideas are as different as East and West and yet because of the Commonnes of the Name and the Jingling turn of the Proposition this passes smoothly and unquestionably for one and the same Love. 5 But tho' this word Love be used to signify Ideas so very different that they seem to have nothing in Common but the Name yet I think there is one thing wherein they all agree and whereof they all partake and which may therefore be acknowledg'd as the General and Transcendental Notion of Love. And that is A motion of the Soul towards good This I say is the first and most general Notion of Love and which runs throughout all the Species of it But then this includes two things For as in the motion of Bodys we first Conceive Gravity or a Connaturality to a certain Term of motion and then the motion it self which is consequent upon it so also in Love which is the motion of the Soul order requires that we first conceive a certain Connaturality or Coaptation of the Soul to good whence arises all the variety of its actual motions and tendencys toward it This I take to be that peculiar Habitude of the Soul to good which the Schools call Complacentia boni a Complacence a Liking or Relish of good which I consider as really distinct from and antecedent to its actual motion towards it For as 't is observ'd by Aristotle with more than Ordinary Nicenes in his 3 d de Anima The motion of Love is in a Circle First good moves and acts upon the Soul and then the Soul moves and exerts it self towards good that so there may be the End whence was the Rise of its motion This first Alteration of the Soul from good answers to Gravity in Bodys and may be call'd for distinction sake the Moral Gravity of the Soul the Second to Gravitation or actual Pressure and may as fitly be call'd the Moral Gravitation of the Soul. 6 I further Consider that this Moral Gravity is impress'd upon the Soul primarily and Originally by good in general or by the universal good or Essence of good that is by God himself who is the Sum and Abstract of all goodness and the Centre of all Love. So that this Moral Gravity of the Soul will be its Connaturality to all good or good in general that is to God as its primary and adequate object and to particular goods only so far as they have somthing of the Common Nature of good something of God in them Whence it will also follow that the Moral Gravitation of the Soul does Naturally and Necessarily respect good in Common or God as the Term of its motion and Tendency So that upon the whole to speak more explicitly the most general and Comprehensive Notion of Love will be found to be A Motion of the Soul towards God. 7 But now in this motion there is great difference For God having unfolded his Perfections in the Creation with almost infinite Variety and as it were drawn out himself into a numerous issue of Secondary goods our Love becomes also Multiplied and divides its cours among several Chanels and tho' after all its turnings and windings we may at last trace it up to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speaks the greot Sea of Beauty and Head fountain of all Being and Perfection For we love Particular goods only as they carry some impress of the universal or to speak more properly we love the universal good in the Particulars yet it must be acknowledg'd that the immediat object of our Love becomes hereby more various and Multiplied and Consequently our Love too as receiving its Specification from it 8 Nor does our Love receive lesse variety and diversity from the manner of its Motion or Tendency Motion being Specify'd from the manner of it as well as from its Term. And it may be also lastly diversify'd according to the nature of the Part moved whether it be the Superiour or the Inferiour part of the Soul. From these three the Term of Motion the manner of Motion and the nature of the part moved arise all the different kinds of Love such as Divine and Worldly Spiritual and Carnal Charity and Friendship Love of Concupisccnce and Love of Benevolence Intellectual and Sensitive Natural Animal and Rational Love with several others which I shall not stand to enumerate 9 But notwithstanding this variety I believe all will be comprehended under these two in general Concupiscence and Benevolence This I take to be the First and great Division of Love to which all the several kinds of it may be aptly reduced For when I Consider the Motion of Love I find it tends to two things namely to the good which a man wills to any one whether it be to himself or to another and to him to whom this good is will'd So that the Motion of Love may be Consider'd either barely as a Tendency towards good or as a willing this good to some person or Being If it be consider'd in the first way then 't is what we call Concupiscence or Desire if in the second then 't is what we call Benevolence or Charity 10 For there is the same Proportion in Love that there is in Hatred which also involves a double Motion Either a declining or tending from evill which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Fuga in our own language Aversion or Abhorrence or else a willing evil to some person or other which we call Malice or Malevolence Concupiscence or Desire answers to the former of these and Benevolence or Charity to the Latter 11 There is indeed this difference to be observ'd between the Motions of Love and the Motions of Hatred that those of Hatred are not necessarily Concomitant For there may be a simple Aversion without any Malice or wishing ill to tho' perhaps the latter can hardly be conceiv'd without the former But now in Love these Motions are always concomitant and reciprocal There is no Desire without Benevolence and no Benevolence without Desire For every thing that is desired is desired to some body and so again desiring to some body implies and supposes simple Desire And this I suppose has been the occasion of that great confusion which has been generally incurr'd in this matter men being very apt from union and
this sensual Love. And accordingly Plato in his symposion distinguishing between his two Cupids Intellectual and sensual Love stiles the Latter by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar or Epidemical Love. 19 Indeed this is a very strange Affection and has so universally prevail'd as to turn all other Love almost out of the World. This is a Passion that has made more slaves than the greatest Conquerours more stir and disturbance in the world than either Ambition Pride or Covetousness and has caused more Sin and Folly than the united force of all the Powers of Darkness It has wounded almost as many as Death and devour'd like a Contagion or the Grave It makes no distinction the wise man is as little secure from it as the Fool Age submits to it as well as youth the strong as well as the weak the Hero as well as the Coward In fine this one Passion sets on fire the whole course of Nature rages and spreads with an unlimited Contagion and is an Image of the universal Conflagration 20 And that which increases the wonder is the vilenes of that structure which is made the Object of this sensual Love. 'T is not indeed much to be wonder'd that we should love Corporeal Pleasure all Pleasure being in its Proportion lovely but that the imbracing such poor Materials should afford any that 's the wonder Should one Angel fall in love with the pure and refined Vehicle of another tho' Matter even in its highest Exaltation is but a poor sort of Being there would however be somthing of Proportion in this but to see a man Idolize and dote upon a Masse of Flesh and Blood that which the Apostle calls our Vile Body Or as 't is in the Original more Emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body of our Humiliation that is at present the Reversion of Worms and may the very next Minute be a Carcase this is indeed so strange to one that thoughtfully considers it that one would think all Mankind were intoxicated with some general Philtrum or Love Potion that has thus Charm'd them into this most stupid and Wretched degree of Idolatry So that whether we consider the greatness of the Effects or the slenderness of the Cause this Kind of sensual Love is of all the most wonderfull and unaccountable 21 One thing more I have to observe concerning this Kind of sensual Love the Desire of Corporal Contact occasion'd by the Aspect of sensible Beauty and that is that this is a Passion peculiar to Man. Brutes are below it and Angels are above it For Man being a middle sort of Creature between an Angel and a Beast 't is requisite he should have somthing to distinguish him from each and that in his Appetitive as well as in his Intellective Part. And thus it is in his Intellective part he has Reason and Discourse which is above sensible knowledge and short of Intuition And so likewise in his Appetitive there is this Desire of Corporal Contact arising from the sight of Beauty which is a mixt Love partly Intellectual and partly sensual and is thereby distinguish'd from the Love of Brutes which is purely sensual for they are not affected with Beauty and the love of Angels which is purely Intellectual So great Harmony and Proportion is there in the works of him who made all things in Number Weight and Measure SECT V. Of the Second Great Branch of Love viz. Love of Benevolence its division into Self-Love and Charity where also 't is enquired whether all Love be Self-Love 1 HAving dispatch'd the First great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence or Desire with the several Kinds of it I come now to consider the Second viz. Love of Benevolence By this I understand a desiring or willing of good to some Person or Being that is Capable of it And herein 't is differenc'd from Love of Concupiscence The Idea of Love of Concupiscence is A simple Tendency of the Soul to good not at all considering whether it wills it to any Person or Being or no. But the Idea of Benevolence is A desiring or willing this good to some Being or other As far as 't is a Desiring or willing of good it agrees with Love of Concupiscence but it is distinguish'd from it in that it wishes well too 2 For as in Physical Motion a Body may be consider'd either as simply moving towards another or as moving this other to some Certain Body so in Love which is a Moral Motion the Soul may be consider'd either as simply desiring or willing good which is Concupiscence or as desiring or willing it to some Capable Being and this is that Species of Love which we call Benevolence 3 And I further Meditate that as in Motion the Body that moves another may either move it towards it self as in Circular Motion or towards some other Body as in Direct Motion So in the Love of Benevolence this wishing well to may either be a willing of good to ones self or to some other Being If to ones self then 't is that special sort of Benevolence which we call self-love If to another then 't is what we call Charity 4 Then again as to Charity this may be consider'd either as extended to all men in Common grounded upon one Common Consideration viz. Similitude of Nature and a Capacity of being benefitted which is Common Charity Or as confined to one or two and as Mutual and as Mutually known and withall as in a special degree of Intensness and Application and then 't is Friendship which differs not from Common Charity but as 't is qualify'd by the preceding modifications 5 But this our Division is in danger of being closed up again by some who contract all these kinds of Benevolence into one by telling us that all Love is self-Love Thus the Epicureans of old who by this Plea thought to evade the necessity of owning a Providence For when you argue from the Perfections of God that the world is cared for and govern'd by him No say they the quite contrary follows For all Love is self-Love and proceeds from Indigency if therefore God be such a Full and Perfect being as you suppose he cannot be concern'd for any thing abroad as having no self-interest to serve 6 And indeed the Conclusion would be right were the Principle so For if all Benevolence did proceed from Indigence it would certainly follow that the more perfect and self-sufficient any being is the less he must needs regard the good of others and consequently a being that is absolutely perfect must necessarily be utterly void of all Benevolence or Concern for anothers welfare 7 But to hear an Epicurean Maintain this Principle is no wonder Even Plato himself in some places seems to look favourably towards it particularly in his Lysis where purposely treating of Friendship he concludes toward the end of the Dialogue that Friendship arises from Indigence necessity and privation The same he
rather than understanding For the Happiness of life is not so much concern'd in the Acts of our understanding as in the Acts of our Love indeed not at all in our understanding any further than as our understanding affects our Love and opinion influences practise And then indeed it is which is the ground of that Obligation to Orthodoxy which we are under as to those Articles of Faith which are call'd Fundamental Otherwise in matters of pure Speculation the happiness of Society is not at all concern'd in what we think as for instance in that Celebrated Mathematical Problem whether the pertual Approximation of some lines be consistent with the impossibility of their Concourse what does it signify to the good estate of Society which way this be held 'T is indifferent therefore which side we take But now we can't advance one step in the Motion of Love but something or other comes on 't in relation to Political Happiness as there is not the least Motion in Nature but what tends either to Generation or Corruption For the difference is this the Acts of our understanding are Immanent and ineffective of any alteration upon things without us but the Acts of Love are Transient and leave external and permanent effects behind them in the course of things and for this reason Love as Dirigible is made the Immediate and proper subject of Moral consideration and understanding is here no otherwise concern'd than as it influences and determines our love What the Measures of regulating our love are I come now to define SECT II. The Measures of Love of Concupiscence all reduced to these two general Heads what we must desire and what we may desire The Measures of these both in general and in Particular Whether sensual Pleasure be in its self evil with an account of the true Notion of Original Concupiscence and of Mortification 1 BEing now to define the Measures of Love I shall first begin with Love of Concupiscence And here I consider that Duty and Liberty divide between them the Bounds of Morality which ought wholely to be taken up in the consideration of these two things what we must or ought to do and what we may do without being Peccant And accordingly I shall reduce all the Measures of Love of Concupiscence to these two general Heads what we must desire and what we may desire 2 Concerning the first all that we must desire will I suppose be comprehended under these three God the good of the Community and all those things which have a Natural Connexion with it God as the greatest and last End Absolutely and Simply the good of the Community as the greatest of Subordinate Ends and all those things which have a Natural Connexion with it as Means without which 't is not to be obtain'd Wherein is also comprehended the obligation of not desiring or avoiding whatever has naturally a contrary or opposite Tendency 3 The first thing which we must love or desire is God. But now God may be loved two waies either confusely and implicitly or distinctly and explicitly The confuse and implicit Love of God is Natural and necessary for t is the same with the love of good in common or Happiness to which our Nature is Originally and invincibly determin'd and consequently cannot be Morally obliged But that which we are here obliged to is to love or desire him distinctly and explicitly that is to contract and concentre that Natural and Original Love which we have to good in general or happiness upon God as being the true and only cause of all that happiness to which we so blindly and necessarily aspire 4 The love of God therefore to which we are obliged includes two things a Desire and an Explicit desire of him And this indeed is the only Love of him to which we can be Morally obliged For as to loving him confusely that we can't be obliged to because 't is necessary and unavoidable and as to loving him with love of Benevolence or wishing well to that we cannot be obliged to because 't is unpracticable The former we cannot be obliged to because of the condition of our own Nature and the latter we cannot be obliged to because of the Nature of God. I know very well that I am singular in this Point and that nothing is more common among those that treat of the love of God than to talk of it as of a love of Benevolence and accordingly they alwaies express our Love to God and our Love to our Neighbour under the same common Appellation of Charity as if they were both one and the same love whereby we love God and whereby we love our Neighbour But there is I remember an old Rule that we may talk with the Many but must think with the Few and I think t is very applicable in this case For however we may use the word Charity in respect of God to comply with popular modes of speaking yet I cannot see how in strictness and propriety of Notion God may be lov'd with Love of Benevolence For certainly as Indigence in the Lover is the ground of his loving with love of Concupiscence so Indigence in the Person lov'd is the ground of our loving him with love of Benevolence But now what can we wish to God that he has not already My goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints which are in the Earth sayes the Psalmist and to speak truely we can no more love God with love of Benevolence than he can love us with love of Desire God is as much above this our Love as he is above our understanding He can indeed wish well to us but we can only Desire him 6 And I observe that in Scripture our Love of God is set forth in such expressions as import not any Benevolence to him but a Desire of him As when the Psalmist saies like as the Hart desireth the Water-brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God And again My Soul is a thirst for God when shall I come to appear before the Presence of God And again My Soul breaketh out for fervent Desire Again whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I Desire in Comparison of thee And so again in the Canticles which express the very Soul and Spirit of Divine Love saies the inamour'd Spouse the Church Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth for thy love is better than Wine Again Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest But most emphatically of all when She saies I charge you O Daughters of Ierusalem if ye find my Beloved tell him that I am sick of Love. Thus again the Angel expresses the Seraphic temper of Daniel by calling him A man of Desires For so the Hebrew Criticks chuse to read it I shall mention but one place more and that is in the 2 of Tim. where the Apostle describing a sort of
ill grounded and unreasonable And then as to the shame which naturally attends the acting of this sensual pleasure in all its instances though it may in the first place be question'd whether this shame be from Nature or no and not rather from Education and Arbitrary usages yet for the present I will suppose it natural and the Account of it I conceive must be this it being a thing of vast consequence and Moment to the interest of Sociable life that man should be propagated in a decent and regular way and not as Brutes are God thought it convenient for this purpose to imbue our Natures with this impression of shame with respect to venereal pleasure in general Not because this sensual delectation is in its own nature simply evil but lest our Inclination to sensual pleasure in general should betray us into those instances of it which are so Which this natural impression was intended as a curb to prevent By all which it plainly appears notwithstanding all the intricacy wherewith some confused Thinkers have entangled this matter that Sensual even the grossest sensual pleasure cannot be in its own nature and as such evil and consequently that it may be desired by us in such convenient Circumstances wherein no higher good is opposed 39 Now from this Hypothesis it will follow first that Original Concupiscence must be far otherwise stated than usually it is It is commonly understood to be a vicious disposition or Depravation of Nature whereby we become inclined to evil Now if you ask what evil They tell you t is Carnal or sensual pleasure But now as it has been abundantly demonstrated this is not simply and in its own nature evil but only as 't is Circumstantiated And this original Concupiscence is not so particular as being a blind Appetite as to point to sensual pleasure in this or that Circumstance but is carried only to sensual pleasure in common or as such Which being not evil neither can the inclination that respects it be evil or sinful every Act or Inclination being specified from its Object It must not be said therefore that this Originary Concupiscence or natural Impression toward sensible good is formally evil and sinful the most we can allow is that it is an Occasion of evil the strong tendency we have to sensual pleasure in common being very apt to betray us to consent to the enjoyment of it in inconvenient Instances and Circumstances 40 Another Consequent from the Premises is this that the Duty and vertue of Mortification does not consist as 't is vulgarly apprehended in removing and killing the natural Desire of sensual pleasure For the natural Desire of sensual pleasure is not evil its Object not being so and consequently not to be eradicated But that it consists in such a due Repression and Discipline of the Body that our natural desire of sensual pleasure in Common may not carry us to the express willing of it in such instances as are against Order and the good of Society SECT III. The Measures of Love of Benevolence particularly of Self-love 1 HAving prescribed some general Measures for the Regulation of the first great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence I come now to set bounds to the other Arm of the same great Sea Love of Benevolence And because this is first divided into self-Self-love and Charity or wishing well to ones self and wishing well to some other Being I shall in the first place state the Measures of regulating self-love 2 This sort of Love is generally the most irregular of any and that which causes irregularity in all the rest We love our selves First and last and most of all Here we alwaies begin and here we most commonly end and so immoderate are we in it that we prosecute our own private interest not only without any respect to the Common good but oftentimes in direct Opposition to it and so we can but secure to our selves a Plank care not what becomes of the Vessel we sail in This is the great Sucker of Society and that which robbs the Body Politick of its due nourishment and drains the Common Fountain to feed our own lesser Streams Nay so foolishly immoderate and inordinate are we in the love of our selves that we prefer our own little interest not only before greater of the Public but before greater of our own and love our Bodyes better than our Souls a lesser interest that 's present better than a greater that's distant tho equally sure ond infinitely greater In short t is from the inordinateness of this one Principle self-Self-love that we ruin the good of the Community here and our own selves both here and hereafter Here therefore is great need of Regulation 3 Now I suppose the Measures of Self-love may all be reduced to this one in general viz. that self-love is never culpable when upon the whole matter all things being taken into the Account we do truely and really love our selves It is then only culpable when we love our selves by halves and in some particular respects only to our greater disadvantage in others of more importance And because this we generally do hence it comes to pass that self-self-love is commonly taken in a bad sense as if 't were a thing evil and irregular in it self But that 's a mistake Self-love is a Principle and Dictate of Nature and the Instrument of attaining to that Happiness which is the End of our Creation and consequently can never be faulty when upon the whole matter all things consider'd it is a true Love of our selves 4 Now to make it so three things are required First that we do not mistake our true selves by wishing well to or consulting the welfare of our worser part in prejudice to our better by feeding the Brute and starving the Man. This would be to love our selves in a little and to hate our selves in much and would therefore upon the whole better deserve the name of self-hatred than self-self-love If therefore we would love our selves truely and regularly we must learn in the first place not to mistake our true selves 5 The next requisite is that we do not mistake our true Interest by willing to our selves a lesser good when the having it will cost us the loss of a greater This is properly that Foolish Exchange condemn'd by our B. Saviour 'T is to gain a World and loose a Soul and what gain 's that This is indeed the Bargain of Fools and Madmen and yet such Bargains we usually make and what adds to the folly think that we love our selves all the while But this is not to love our selves truely and therefore not Regularly 6 The third and last Requisite for the Regulation of self-self-love is that we do not will any good to our selves that is not consistent with the good of the Community And that not only because the Publick good is of greater Consequence than any Private good can be but also because that which is against
the good of the Community cannot be upon a final Consideration of things really for the good of any Particular Person in it For the good of the whole is the good of the Part and the evil of the whole is the evil of the Part and all private Interest is so twisted complicated and imbarqued with the Publick that there is no prejudicing this without prejudicing that This indeed may not be the present and immediate effect but 't will prove so in the consequence and final upshot For Society is like an Arch in a Building where one Stone supports another and in supporting others they support themselves And so on the contrary should they undermine one another they would at length by consequence undermine themselves He therefore that out of love to himself prosecutes any private interest to the Prejudice of Society trespasses against his own good as well as that of the Community and when all is computed cannot be said truely and really to love himself The Sum is to make our self-self-love Regular and according to Order we must take care not to mistake our true selves nor our true Interest and that we don't prejudice the Publick welfare and then we can never love our selves too much SECT IV. The Measures of Common Charity 1 COncerning Common Charity I consider that the Measures of it may all breifly be absolv'd in these two the Object of it and the Order of it As to the Object of Charity 't is of a very great and diffused latitude and takes in first all men whether good or bad Friends or Enemies Neighbours or Strangers and in all Respects whether as to Soul or Body name or goods c. It extends also in some Measure to the very Irrational Creatures it being one of the Characters of a good man in Scripture to be Merciful to his Beast Nay it reaches to the Angelical Natures themselves and indeed to the whole Intellectual Rational and Sensitive world that are capable of the least degree of Benefit 2 In all this there is no Difficulty only it may be here question'd whether the Devils and Damn'd Spirits are to be comprehended within the Sphere of our Charity To which I answer that there are two things that may render any Being uncapable of being an Object of our Charity or wishing well to Either Perfect Fulness or Perfect Indigence Now 't is the Perfection of Indigence to be reduced to such a Degree of want as not to be in a Capacity of ever being releiv'd The former is the Condition of God which makes him uncapable of being made the object of our Benevolence as was observ'd before the latter is the case of Devils and Damn'd Spirits And for this reason we cannot will any good to them as not being capable of any For we cannot exert any act of Love which we know to be in vain and to no purpose at all let the incapacity proceed either from extream Fulness or extream Indigence for what is there that should excite any such Act And besides if we could possibly wish well to such Beings yet I don't see how we may do it lawfully and Regularly For our will would not be then conformable to Gods but directly opposite to it and besides we should disapprove at least tacitly and interpretatively the Iustice of his waies by thus loving them whom he extremely hates and Blessing them whom he curses and abandons for ever 3 Thus far of the Object of our Charity Now concerning the Order of it let these general Measures be observ'd First that we wish well to him most who is most likely to be serviceable to the Publick supposing the good which we will him to be such as by the having it he become more capable of serving the Publick Thus had I the Disposal of an Ecclesiastical Benefice which is a thing wherein the good of the Publick is highly concern'd I ought certainly to bestow it upon him who I thought would do most good in it Tho at the same time I had never so many Friends or Relations that wanted it For this is a sure and never failing Rule that the good of the Publick is alwaies to be prefer'd before any Private interest whatever 4 Secondly that of two that are equally serviceable to the Publick we will this good wherein the Publick is concern'd to him that is most Indigent for after the Publick exigence is provided for private necessity comes in to be regarded But if both equally serviceable and equally Indigent then we are to will it to him that is most our Neighbour Friend or Relation or any other way indear'd to our Affection 5 But thirdly supposing the good to be such that the Interest of the Public is not concern'd who has it then I am only to consult the good of the Person to whom I will it and consequently here Equity will require that the Preference be given to those that are near me before strangers and among those that are near to those that are nearest whether by Nature Choice or Place or in any other Respect And among strangers 't is equitable that the Indigent be prefer'd in our Charity before the Rich the good before the Bad and the more good before the less good and the like But still with this necessary Reserve that all other things be equal between them 6 For 4ly 't is utterly unreasonable that I should prefer the Convenience of my Friend before the Necessity of my Enemy No I ought to do the contrary and prefer the Necessity of my worst enemy before the Convenience even of my Dearest Friend Thus I would leave my Friend in the Mire to save my enemy from drowning For in this and such like cases the greatness of the Necessity compensates for the want of merit in the Person 7 The last general Measure that I shall prescribe is that as we ought not to prefer any man's convenience before another man's necessity so neither ought we to prefer any man 's own convenience before his own necessity My meaning is that we ought to consider our Neighbours true and best Interest will and do him that good which he stands most in need of and not do him a little kindness which will end in a greater mischief Hence it follows that we ought to tender the Interest of his Soul more than the good of his Body the Direction of his conscience more than the ease and security of it that we stick not to prick and launce him in order to his Cure and when both can't be done that we chuse rather to proffit him than to please him For this is true Charity tho a severer sort of it and he is a Fool who when saved from drowning complains of being pluckt out of the water by the hair of his head SECT V. The Measures of Friendship 1 I Am now come to my last Stage where I am to give Measures to the greatest Rarity and the greatest Excellency in all the world For
Concomitancy to infer indistinction and Identity But notwithstanding this Connexion the Ideas of Desire and Benevolence are very distinct as will easily and Clearly appear to any close and attentive Thinker SECT III. The Analogy between Love and Motion particularly with the Motion of the Heart with a further Illustration of the First and Great Division of Love. 1 HAving in the foregoing Section fix'd the general Idea of Love in the Motion of the Soul towards good and this being a Term somwhat Metaphorical and withall not so often applied by Scholastic Writers to this purpose I thought it concern'd me to draw here a short Parallel between Love and Physical Motion and to shew the admirable Agreement and Correspondency that is between them whereby 't will appear that the general Idea of Love could not have had a more convenient Representation 2 The excellent Monsieur Malebranche undertaking to describe the Nature of the Mind and considering its Idea to be very abstract and such as did not fall within the Sphere of Imagination thought it best to Shadow it forth by the two Eminent Propertys of matter viz. that of receiving various Figures and that of Motion or Mobility To the Property of receiving various Figures he resembles that Faculty of the mind which we call understanding And to Motion or Mobility he liken's the Will. The first of these Parallels he persues and illustrates in many Particulars but when he comes to the last he gives only this one instance of resemblance that as all Motions Naturally proceed in a right line unless by the interposition of external and particular causes they are otherwise determin'd so all the Inclinations which we have receiv'd from God are Right and would tend only to the true good were they not turn'd aside to ill ends by the impulse of some forreign cause 3 This indeed is finely observ'd by this Ingenious and Learned Theorist but for an inlargement of the Parallel I consider further that as in the Motion of Bodys Gravity precedes Actual Gravitation that is we necessarily conceive a certain Congruity or Connaturality of a Body to a certain Term before its actual Tendency thither so in the Soul there is a Natural Complacency or liking of good before its actual exerting it self towards it for we desire nothing but what we like or relish as convenient and agreeable to us But this I have touch'd upon already and shall therefore no longer insist upon it 4 Further therefore as this Affection call'd Gravity in Bodys is nothing else but that first impression or alteration made upon them by the various actings of those Effluviums or streames of Particles which issue out from the womb of the great Magnet the Earth so that if there were either no such Magnetic Body or a Vacuum to intercept its influences there would be no such thing as Gravity so in the like manner this radical Complacency and Connaturality of the Soul towards good which I call her Moral Gravity is nothing else but that first Alteration or Impression which is made upon her by the streaming influences of the Great and Supreme Magnet God continually acting upon her and attracting her by his active and powerfull Charms So that if either there were no God or this his influence never so little a while intercepted there would be no such thing as this Complacency or Moral Gravity of the Soul. 5 Again as this Physical Gravity causes in Bodys an actual Effort or Tendency toward the Centre and that with such necessity that they cannot but tend thither even while violently detain'd and when at liberty hasten with all possible speed to this last Term of their Motion so by Vertue of this Moral Gravity the Soul actually puts forth and exerts her self towards the great Magnet good in general or God and that with as much necessity as a stone falls downwards And tho' detain'd violently by the interposition of her Body yet still she endeavours towards her Centre and is no sooner set at liberty but she hastens away to it and unites her self with it For the will notwithstanding all her Soveraignty and Dominion acts according to Nature and Necessity when she tends to her Perfection Nay I take this Necessity to be such that I think it absolutely Impossible for God to Create a Soul without this Tendency to himself and that not only because 't is against Order and Decorum that he should do so but also because this Moral Gravity of the Soul whence proceed all her actual Tendencys is caused by the continual acting of God upon her by this attractive and Magnetic Influences For God is the first Mover in Moral as well as in Natural Motions and whatever he moves he moves to himself 6 Again I consider that as the Gravitation or actual endeavour of Bodys towards the Centre is always alike and uniform however their real Progress may be hinder'd or the swiftness of it resisted by accidental Letts and impediments so is this Moral Gravitation or actual indeavour of the Soul towards good in general or God always equal and uniform for a man does not desire to be Happy more at one time than at another as I have elsewhere shewn I say this endeavour of the Soul towards good is always equal however her real advancing to it be hinder'd or resisted by the Interposition of the Body 7 Again I consider that as Natural Motion is a Tendency or Translation of a Body from an undue and incongruous place to a place of Rest and Acquiescence whereby it acquires as it were a new Form of Perfection so Love is Extatical and carries a man out from himself as insufficient to be his own good towards good without him which by union he endeavours to make his own and so to better and improve his Being till at length his Desire be swallow'd up in the Fruition of the universal good and Motion be exchanged for Rest and Acquiescence 8 This Parallel between Love and Motion in general might be carried on much further but besides that 't is convenient to leave somthing for the Contemplative Reader to work out by himself I have also another Parallel to make between Love and a certain Particular Motion namely that of the Heart wherein as there is as much Harmony and Correspondency in other respects so there is this peculiar in it that this is a Motion perform'd within a man's self and depending upon an intrinsic and vital Principle as well as the other 9 First then we may Consider that the Heart is the great Wheel of the Humane Machine the Spring of all Animal and vital Motion and the Head-fountain of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates somwhere calls it and that its Motion is the First and Leading Motion of all that it begins as soon as the Flame of Life is Kindled and ends not till the vital Congruity be quite dissolv'd And thus 't is in Love. This is the great wheel of the Intellectual
frame as the other is of the Natural this is the Spring and Ferment of the Soul that gives her Life and Energy and without which she would be utterly torpid and unactive Love is the first and Mother Motion that both prevents and actuates all the rest 'T is from her that all the Inclinations and Passions of the Soul take their rise and did we not first love we should neither Hope nor Fear nor hate nor be Angry nor Envy nor be any other way affected Nay we Love and Desire before we can Apprehend Judge Reason or Discourse nay our Love is then Commonly most impetuous and high-set we love long before we know what 't is to Love nay before we know whether we love or no even as soon as we receive the Breath of Life And as 't is the First so it is also the Last Motion 'T is the Vltimum Moriens of the Intellectual as the Heart is of the Natural Structure This is the Motion that out lives and sees the Funeral of all the other Operations of the Soul. For when either Age or sickness by disturbing the Crasis of the Body has also untuned and disorder'd the Facultys of the Soul when the man can no longer understand nor Discourse nor Remember when all his Rational Facultys are as 't were benumm'd and death-struck yet still he Loves and inclines towards Happiness with as much weight as ever for Love is strong as Death and as Importunate as the Grave many waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it 10 Again we may consider that as by the Pulsation of the Heart the Arterial blood is transmitted to the Brain whereby are generated those Animal Spirits which are the Instruments of Motion throughout the Body and which very Animal Spirits do again return and assist the Motion of the Heart by Contracting its Muscular Fibres and so straitning its Ventricles to expel the blood contain'd in them into the Arteries the same Reciprocation may we observe in the Motion of Love. That Moral Gravity and Gravitation of the Soul impress'd on her by the universal Good acting attractively upon her and whereby she stands inclined to good in general first moves the understanding which as the Schools allow is moved by the will quoad exercitium actus tho' not quoad specificationem And then the understanding Moves the will as to particular and actual Volitions concerning particular Goods For as to these we will nothing but what we first know and judge pro hic nunc fit to be will'd Which by the way may give great light to that intricate and perplex'd Controversy whether the will moves the understanding or the understanding the will. For they both move one another tho' in different respects Even as the Heart by its Motion sends Spirits to the Brain and is by those very Spirits assisted in her Motion This indeed is a wonderful instance of Resemblance and the more I consider it the more strange I think it and full of Mystery 11 Again as by the Continual Reciprocation of the Pulse there is caused a Circulation of the Blood which is expell'd out of the Heart into the Arteries out of these into the parts which are to be Nourish'd from whence 't is imbibed by the Capillary Veins which lead it back to the Vena Cava and so into the Heart again and same may in proportion be applied to Love. This is the Great Pulse of the Body Politic as the other is of the Body Natural 'T is Love that begets and Keeps up the great Circulation and Mutual Dependence of Society by this Men are inclined to maintain Mutual Commerce and intercourse with one another and to distribute their Benefits and Kindnesses to all the parts of the Civil Body till at length they return again upon themselves in the Circle and Reciprocation of Love. 12 And if we further Meditate upon the Motion of the Heart we shall find that it is not only an apt Embleme of Love in General but that it also Mystically points out to us the two great Species of Love Concupiscence and Benevolence The Motion of the Heart we know is Double Dilatation and Contraction Dilatation whereby it receives blood into its Ventricles and Contraction whereby it expels it out again And is it not so also in this great Pulse of the Soul Love Is there not here also the like double Motion For we desire good which answers to the Dilatation and immission of the Blood and we also wish well to which answers to the Contraction and Emission of it 13 I know not what some may think of this and I know there are a sort of men in the world that never think themselves and look with Scorn and Contempt upon such Notions as are not to be found out without more than Ordinary Thinking But for my part I must needs own that I stand amazed at this wonderful Harmony and Correspondence and that I am thereby the more Confirm'd in that Celebrated Notion of the Platonists that as the Soul is the Image of God so the Body is the Image of the Soul and that this Visible and Material is but the Shadow or as Plotinus will have it the Echo of the Invisible and Immaterial World. SECT IV. Of the First Great Branch of Love viz. Love of Concupiscence or Desire with the several Kinds of it 1 WE have Consider'd the Nature of Love in general and have shewn it to Consist in a Motion of the Soul towards Good whence we took occasion to represent the Analogy between Love and Physical Motion which we find to be exact and Apposite even to Surprise and admiration We have also discover'd the double Motion of this Mystical Pulse and accordingly have branch'd out Love into two General Parts Love of Concupiscence and Love of Benevolence I come now to treat of each of these severally 2 And first of Love of Concupiscence or Desire The general Idea of which I conceive to be A simple Tendency of the Soul to good not at all considering whether it wills it to any Person or Being or no. Not that there is or can be any desire without wishing well to For as I observ'd before these are always inseperable Concomitants but their Ideas being very distinct I think I may very well abstract from the one when my business lies only to consider the other 3 Concerning this Love of Desire I further consider that the Primary and Adequate object of it is the same that is of all Love namely good in general or God. For we desire good as good or good in Common before we desire this or that good in particular And when we do desire any particular good 't is still for the sake of the universal good whereof it partakes and according to the degree of this Participation either real or apparent so we measure out and dispence our Love. So that good in general is the Primary and Adequate object of Desire 4
But now this general or universal good being variously participated by Particular Beings hence it comes to pass that our Desire has many Subordinate and Secondary objects which it tends to with more or less Inclination according as the Marks and Footsteps of the universal good appear in them more or less discernable For the universal good is so Congenial and Connatural to the Soul as always acting upon it and attracting it to it self that we love every thing that carries the least image or semblance of it 5 There is this difference only between the love of the universal and the love of Particular goods Our love to the universal good is Natural necessary and unavoidable We have no more Command over this love than we have over the Circulation of our Blood or the Motion of our Pulse For God is the Centre of Spirits as the Earth is of Bodys and in our love of him we are as much determin'd as Fire is to burn or a stone to descend And the Blessed in Heaven Love him with the highest degree of Necessity and Determination But now we are not thus determin'd to the Love of Particular goods I say not thus determin'd For it must be acknowledg'd that there is a sort of determination even here also For good being desirable as good and consequently in every degree of it so far as we consider any thing as good we must needs Love it with a Natural Inclination that which the Schools term a Velleity or Voluntas Naturae or a loving a thing Secundum quid according to a certain respect But it being possible that this Lesser Particular good may in some circumstances come into Competition with a greater Particular good or with the greatest of all the universal good and so upon the whole become evill 't is not necessary nor are we determin'd to love it absolutely thoroughly and efficaciously but may nill and decline it Absolutely tho' still we retain a Natural Love or Velleity towards it as before 6 For the case is the same here as 't is in Evill We necessarily hate evill as evill and the greatest evill we hate Absolutely as well as necessarily But for particular and lesser evills tho' we necessarily hate them too by a Natural Aversion as far as we Consider them as evill yet 't is not necessary that we should always hate them Absolutely but may in some Circumstances Absolutely will them as a means either to avoid a greater evil or to obtain a greater good And in the same proportion as any evil less than the greatest tho' it be necessarily nill'd and declined in some respect may yet be Absolutely will'd and embraced so any Particular good tho' it be in some respect necessarily lov'd may yet Absolutely be nill'd and refused 7 Indeed the Excellent Monsieur Malebranche in his Treatise of Nature and grace asserts this non Determination of our Love to Particular goods in more large and unlimited terms when he tells us that the Natural Motion of the Soul to good in general is not invincible in respect of any Particular good And in this non Invincibility he places our Liberty or Free will. But in my Judgement this Proposition of his must either be Corrected or better explain'd For without this our Distinction it will not hold true Our Love to Particular good is Invincible Secundum quid or as to a certain respect but Absolutely and simply speaking it is not Invincible And if in this Absolute non Invincibility he will have our Liberty or Free will to consist I readily agree with him and do think the Notion to be very sound and good 8 And thus the Difference between our Love of the universal and our Love of Particular goods is clear and apparent Our Love to the universal good is Primary and Immediate but our Love to Particular good Secondary and Mediate Our Love to the universal good is invincible Absolutely and Simply we will it necessarily and we will throughly but our love to Particular good is invincible only in some certain respect We do not always love it thoroughly and effectually tho' we must always love it In short our love to the universal good is like the Motion of our Blood within our veins which we have no manner of empire or Command over but our Love to Particular good is like the Motion of Respiration partly necessary and partly Free. We cannot live without Breathing at all and yet we can suspend any one turn of Respiration in particular but yet not without a natural inclination to the Contrary And so in like manner we can't live without loving some particular good or other but when we point to this or that particular good there is not one but what we may nill and refuse Absolutely and simply tho' yet in some respect we must love it too with a Natural Love. 9 Thus far I have Consider'd the general nature of this First great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence or Desire I come now to the Kinds of it For the right distribution of which I consider first that any Motion of the Soul is specify'd from the Quality of the Object or Term to which it tends Now the Object of Desire being good it follows that the Kinds of Desire must receive their distinction from the Kinds of good Now good is Relative and the Relation that it implies is a Relation of Convenience either to the Soul or Body that is either to the Soul Directly and Immediately or Indirectly and by the Mediation of Bodily sensations So that all good is either Intellectual or sensual and consequently the same Members of Divisition will be the adequate Distribution of Desire That is an Intellectual Desire whose Object is an Intellectual good and a sensual Desire is that whose Object is a sensual good 10 But I further observe that this same denomination of Intellectual and sensitive may be taken from the Nature of the part moved as well as from the quality of the Object The Appetitive Faculty in man is double as well as the Cognoscitive and consists of a Superiour and Inferiour of a Rational and sensitive part For as in the Cognoscitive part there is Pure Intellect whereby Ideas are Apprehended without any Corporeal Image and Imagination whereby objects are presented to our minds under some Corporeal Affection so also in the Appetitive there is a pure and mere act of Tendency or Propension to the agreeable object which answers to Pure Intellect and is what we call Will or Volition and there is also such a propension of the Soul as is accompany'd with a Commotion of the Blood and Spirits and this answers to Imagination and is the same with what we usually term the Passion of Love. And 't is in the divided Tendency or Discord of these two wherein consists that Lucta or Contention between the Flesh and Spirit That which our B. Lord intimated when he sayd The Spirit truly is willing but the Flesh is
weak and which St. Paul calls the Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members I say in the Divided Tendency of these two Because sometimes the Intellectual and Sensitive Appetite may both point one way and conspire in the same object as it does either in men very wicked who sin with unity and intireness of Consent without any Check or Remorse from the Superiour part or in men Eminently good who have reduced even their very bodily Inclinations to the order of the Spirit and have attain'd to the highest degree of Mortification and simplification of Desire 11 And it may yet be observ'd further that so far as this Denomination of Intellectual and Sensitive is taken both from the quality of the Object and from the part moved our Desire may be at the same time both Intellectual and Sensitive For that Desire which is Intellectual in respect of the Part may be also sensitive in respect of the Object For we may Will a sensual good as well as Passionately Desire it and so on the other side that Desire which is sensitive in respect of the Part may be Intellectual in respect of the Object For there may be a sensitive Appetite of an Intellectual good and we may love even God himself Passionately as well as Rationally 12 Thus is Love of Desire divided in general into Intellectual and sensual But as for the particular kinds under these they are almost infinite and therefore I shall not offer at a distinct recital of them I shall only remarque some few things concerning Intellectual Love and by the way shall also briefly touch upon the principal and most eminent species of sensual Love and so end this Section 13 And first concerning Intellectual Love I consider that the general Object of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Beauty For Intellectual Love is that whose object is an Intellectual good and an Intellectual good is that which pleases the Intellect and the Intellect is pleas'd with nothing but as 't is Proportionable Harmonious and some way or other Beautifull Whence it follows that Intellectual Love has Beauty in general for its proper Object 14. But then this Beauty which is the proper Object of Intellectual Love is either the First and Original Beauty or Created and Derivative Beauty if the First and Original Beauty then the love of it is Divine Love and if this be in a very high degree such as is the Product of an intense Contemplation then 't is what we call Seraphic Love which is the greatest Exaltation and Perfection of Intellectual Love and withall the greatest Happiness the Soul of man is capable of in this State as I have shewn at large in another Treatise 15 But if it be Created and Derivative Beauty then I consider that either we Ascend by and from the love of it to the love of the First and Originary Beauty or else we stick there or we Descend to the desire of Corporal Contact and the delight arising from it If we take Occasion to Ascend then 't is what we call Platonic Love which as I have elsewhere more at large explain'd the Notion is the Ascent of the Soul to the love of the Divine Beauty from the Aspect of Beauty in Bodys But if we terminate and stick in this sensible Form or Pulchritude tho' this Affection be not so noble and generous as that which ascends higher yet still this is pure Intellectual Love so long as 't is free from all desire of Corporal Application and for distinction's sake may be call'd the Love of Abstracted Beauty 16 And let not any one think it strange that I make this Abstract Love of sensitive Beauty an Intellectual Love. For Beauty let the subject of its inherence be what it will consists in Harmony and Proportion which is the immediate good of the Soul that only being capable both of understanding it and of being primarily affected with it And tho we give it the name of Sensible Beauty yet that is only because the senses are the Instruments of Conveiances not as being the part primely affected and to distinguish it from those Beautys which are immediately Intelligible such as the Beauty of Truth the Beauty of Vertue and the like But in reference to the Part directly and immediately affected all Beauty even Sensible Beauty is an Intellectual good and is one of the fainter Rays of the Divine glory one of the remoter Mirours that reflect the Supreme and Original Beauty 17 The Sublime Platonist Marsilius Ficinus has a fine Notion to this purpose He takes the First Beauty to be nothing else but the Splendour of Gods Glory and of this he says there is a threefold Reflection For he supposes Angelical Minds Rational Souls and Beautiful Bodys as three Glasses of different Colours which reflect this one and the same light after different Manners His words are Ipsa certe Pulcritudo Prima nihil aliud est quam Splendor Gloriae penes Patrem luminum Figura Substantiae ejus Vnde triplex emicat Pulcritudo Prima quidem per Angelicos Intellectus secunda vero per Intellectuales animas tertia per Corpora ubique formosa quasi lumen unum per tria quaedam vitra Coloribus inter se varia ideoque varium ex Primo Splendorem subinde reddentia The First Beauty Certainly is nothing else but the Splendour of Glory with the Father of Lights and the Figure of his substance Whence there shines forth a threefold Beauty The First through the Angelical Minds the second thro' Intelligent Souls the third thro' Beautifull Bodys which reflect the same Light as it were through three Glasses of diferent Colours and accordingly they successively reflect a different splendour from the First So that sensible and Corporeal Beauty is one of the Glasses that reflect and represent the First Beauty and tho' it must be confess'd that we see through this Glass darkly yet still it represents according to its proportion and is only as a Picture remotely drawn after several Copies a weaker and further projected Ray of God. And therefore it must needs be an Intellectual good and Consequently the Love of it if abstracted from Corporal Applications must also be a pure Intellectual Love. 18 But if we do not stick and terminate here but are by the aspect of sensible Beauty precipitated down to the desire of Corporal Contact and the pleasure thence arising then this is sensual Love that is a desire of a sensual good I may add of the greatest sensual good and Consequently that this is the most sensual Love. And 't is so Common with men thus to descend rather than love Platonically or Abstractedly that the name of love is almost wholely appropriated to this Affection and to be in Love signifies as much as to be inclined to Corporal Contact by the Occasion of Corporeal Beauty As if there were no other good but this Kind of sensual good and no other love but
again insinuates in his symposion when he makes Penia Indigence or Poverty to be the Mother of Love. But the Roman Plato Cicero in his book of Friendship will by no means allow this Notion but contends that Love proceeds rather from Nature than from Indigence or Imbecility 8 There is in the other opinion somthing of Truth and somthing of Errour or rather 't is either true or false as 't is understood How far true and how far false I shall determin in the following Conclusions And first I do acknowledge that all Love of Concupiscence does proceed from Indigence and ends in self-Love For all desire is in order to further Perfection and Improvement and did we not want something within we should not endeavour towards any thing without And accordingly God the self-sufficiency of whose Nature excludes all want of Indigency is by no means capable of Love of Concupiscence 9 Again I acknowledge that even Love of Benevolence or Charity may be and such is our Present Infirmity is for the most part occasion'd by Indigence and when unravel'd to the bottom concludes in self-love Our Charity not only begins at home but for the most part ends there too For it must be confess'd that we generally love others with respect to our own interest and dispense kindnesses upon the consideration of common Infirmity and that both the Condition and the Releif may be our own another day 10 I do also further acknowledge that things are so happily twisted and complicated together that a man cannot benefit another without doing some kindness to himself either in the Consequence final issue of things or in the very act of Benefaction it being not only a Pleasure to do good to others but perhaps one of the greatest pleasures in the world And this Pleasure is withal inseparable from acts of kindness so that 't is as impossible for a man to bestow a kindness to his Neighbour without having it some way or other redound to himself as 't is for the Sun to shine upon the Earth without having his light reflected back again toward his own Orb. 11 All this is true and thus far I grant that Love proceeds from Indigence and that all love is self-self-love But if the Meaning of the Assertion be that all love of Benevolence does so necessarily depend upon Indigence and so necessarily point to self interest that were not a man Indigent himself and had an eye to his own advantage he could not possibly wish well or do well to another in this sense I deny that all love is self love And I think not without just reason For first there is nothing in the Nature of the thing to hinder but that there may be a pure and disinteressed Benevolence For I consider that the good of another consider'd as anothers may be the object of volition as well as ones own For the object of Volition is good in common or that which is agreeable to any Intellectual being whether ones self or any other But now good as anothers or to another is good as well as ones own and therefore may be the object of Volition and consequently we may will good to another independently on our own Interest 12 If it be objected that there is no such thing as Pure Malice for when we wish ill to another we consider his evil as making for own good and therefore why should there be any such thing as Pure Benevolence I answer the difference lies in this That in Malice the thing which we wish to another is evil Now evill being not any way desireable whether to ones self or another as evil it must in order to eligibility be considerd under the formality of good in some respect or other But now it cannot have the formality of good with respect to our Neighbor for to him we wish it as Evil. It must therefore appear good with reference to our selves That is we consider anothers evil as making for our good some way or other and so will it to him But now in Charity or Benevolence the thing which we will to another being supposed to be good already there is no cessity that in order to the willing of it we should further consider it under the formality of being our own The Nature of good in Common being sufficient for that And this I conceive to be the reason that although there cannot be a Pure and uninteressed Malice yet there may be a Pure and uninteressed Charity 13 Besides this Love of Benevolence is frequently exercised without any design of Prospect nay sometimes where there is no possibility of any self advantage This is plain in God who as he is the most self-sufficient and unbenefitable so is he also the most Beneficient and Communicative Being And I question not but that it may be so in Men also For not to mention our doing kindnesses to those whom we are certain never to see again to dying persons who cannot live to requite us or to the living when we our selves are dying and can't live to be requited and the like I only consider that we often rejoice at the Happiness of those who were born and lived before us and hear with pleasure the successes of good Men with whom as being of another Age our Interest cannot be at all concern'd Now what we rejoice at we do implicitly and vertually Will for nothing can be matter of Ioy which is not according to our will. 14 Lastly I consider that if all Benevolence did necessarily spring from Indigence and self-love then it would certainly follow that our Inclination to do good would be continually abated as our Fortune rises and we make nigher advances to Full-ness and Self-sufficiency But now I dare appeal to Common Observation and Experience whether there be not many generous Spirits who retain the same Propension to be beneficial when they are set at the greatest distance from Poverty as they had before when at the lowest Ebb which yet could never be if Benevolence did necessarily depend on Indigence More I might add but this I thing sufficient to shew that all Love is not as some pretend resolvable into self-Self-love or Founded upon Indigence and consequently that my Division of Benevolence into Self Love and Charity is sufficiently accurate and contra-distinct THE SECOND PART Of the Discourse WHICH CONTAINS THE MEASURES whereby our Love is to be regulated Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed Job 38.11 PART II. SECT I. That Love requires some Measures of Regulation and why love as Dirigible is made the subject of Morality rather than understanding 1 HAving finish'd the Theory of Love I come now to consider the Measures of its Regulation A great and important work this for next to the Regulating of our Love I know nothing either more difficult or more useful and necessary than to prescribe Measures how it ought to be Regulated Indeed it is very Necessary to
six the Bounds of Regulating our Love and that both because of the Difficulty of Loving Regularly and because of the Moment and Consequence of it 2 For the Difficulty as t is impossible not to love at all so is it one of the Hardest things in the world to love well Solus sapiens scit Amare says the Stoic The wise man only knows how to Love. And there are very few of these wise Men in the World and to love regularly is oftentimes more than the wisest of us all can do For first the Appetite which we have to good in General is so strong and Craving that it hurries us on to all sorts and degrees of Particular good and makes us fasten wherever we can trace the least Print or Foot-step of the universal good Now this Promiscuous and Indefinite prosecution of Particular goods must needs oftentimes engage us in sin and irregularity For though these particular objects of Love separately considered are good as being Participations of the universal good yet consider'd as they stand in relation either to one another or to the universal they may become evil in as much as there may be a Competition and the the lesler may hinder the greater As for instance The pleasure of sense as indeed all Pleasure singly and separately consider'd is good but the enjoyment of it may in some circumstances be against a greater good the good of Society and then 't is evil as in Fornication or Adultery But now we are so violently push'd on to Particular good by that General Thirst after good in Common that we don't mind how things are in Combination but only how they are singly and separately in themselves For to observe how things are in Combination requires thought and Reflexion which in this Hurry we are not at leisure to make but to find how things are Singly in themselves there needs nothing but direct Tast and natural sensation Whence it comes to pass that we more readily do the one than the other and so are very apt to transgress order and to love irregularly 3 This is one ground of the Difficulty of Loving well and as I conceive a very considerable one tho' no one that I know of did ever assign this as the cause of this difficulty But there is also another For as from the love of good in general we are eagerly carried out to Particular goods so from the Original Pravity and Degeneracy of our Nature among all these Particular goods that which we most eagerly propend to is sensual good The Lower life is now highly invigorated and awaken'd in us the Corruptible Body as the wise man complains presses down the Soul and the Love which we have to good in general does now by the Corruption of our Nature almost wholly display and exert it self in the prosecution of this one Particular good the good of Sense 4. Now though good of Sense be as truely good as good of the Intellect as being a Rivulet of the same Sea and a Ray of the same Sun yet as I said before it may in some Circumstances and Combinations cross and thwart some higher Interest and so become Evil. And the strong inclination which we now have to the good of Sense in general will often betray us into the love and enjoyment of it in those particular circumstances wherein it is evil and against Order And that oftentimes even when we consider it as Evil that is when we do not only mind it as it is singly in it self but as it is in a certain Combination For this Sensual Concupiscence in us may be so strong that though we do actually consider a sensual pleasure so circumstantiated as Evil yet we may for that time think it a lesser Evil than to deny our selves the gratification of so importunate an Appetite and so chuse it and be guilty of an exorbitant and irregular Love. 5 And if we further consider how we are perpetually sorrounded with sensible goods which by Troops thrust themselves upon us while those that are Intellectual require our Search and Inquisition how early they attack us and what deep impressions they make upon our then tender Faculties how much the Animal part is aforehand with the Rational that we live the life of Plants and Beasts before we live the life of men and that not only in the sense of Aristotle while we are in the Womb but long after we have beheld the Sun that the Seducer Eve is Form'd while Adam sleeps and that sensuality comes to be Adult and Mature when our Discourses are but young and imperfect So that by that time we arrive to some competent use of our Reason there has been laid in such a stock of Animal impressions that 't is more than work enough for our riper Age even to unravel the prejudices of our youth and unlive our former life I say if we consider this the Difficulty of Regular love will appear so great that instead of admiring at the ill course of the World one should rather be tempted to wonder that men love so regularly as they do So great Reason had the Stoic to say The wise man only knows how to love 6 But were it onely a piece of Difficulty to steer the Ship right and were there not also danger of splitting against Rocks and of other ill Contingencys the Pilot might yet be secure and unconcern'd commit himself to his Pillow and his Vessel to the Winds But 't is otherwise there is Moment and Consequence in Loving regularly as well as Difficulty No less a thing than Happiness depends upon it private Happiness and publick Happiness the Happiness of single Persons and the the Happiness of the Community the Happiness of this world and the Happiness of the next 7 For as Motion is in the Natural so is Love in the Moral world And as the good state of the Natural World depends upon those Laws of Regular Motion which God has establish'd in it in so much that there would need nothing else to bring all into confusion and destruction but the irregular Motion of those Bodies which it consists of so does the welfare and happy state of the Intellectual world depend upon the Regularity of Love. According as this Motion proceeds so is the Moral world either an Harmonical Frame or a disorderly Chaos and there needs nothing but the Irregularity of Love to undermine the Pillars of Happiness and to put the Foundations of the Intellectual World out of Course And accordingly we see that God who loves Order and takes care for the perfection of both worlds has prescribed both Laws of Motion and Laws of Love. And for the same reason 't is a thing of great importance and necessity to state these Laws and Measures the welfare of the Moral world being as much concern'd in Love as that of the natural is in Motion 8 And this is the Reason why Love as Dirigible is made the subject of Morality
wicked men saies of them that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of Pleasure more than Lovers of God. Which plainly intimates that our Love of God is of the same sort with that love wherewith we love Pleasure But now we don't love Pleasure with Love of Benevolence but only with Love of Desire and consequently that is the Love wherewith we love God. 7 If it be here objected that though there be no room for wishing well to God Formally and Directly yet we may rejoyce and take a Complacency in those Perfections of his which make him uncapable of our more express Benevolence which will amount as was urged before to an implicit and vertual willing them to him I answer that what we rejoyce at we do implicitly will if it be in a Being who either might not have had that Happiness or holds it precariously and may hereafter be deprived of it For here is still some Indigence in the Person to make him capable of our good wishes But now the Happiness of God is as necessary as his Existence and consequently however we may rejoyce in his being Happy we can no more will him to be Happy than we can will him to exist For to will him to be happy necessarily supposes that he has not the perfect Possession of that Happiness which we will him for if he has why do we yet will it to him Here therefore is no room for Benevolence Nay I do not conceive how we can wish well to God so much as ex Hypothesi on supposition that he were not happy in that respect wherein we would wish well to him For the Supposition is impossible and takes away the very Subject of our Benevolence For if God were not completely Happy he would not be what he is but some other Being 8 I would by no means straiten or retrench our Love to God but am rather for inlarging and multiplying its Chanels as much as may be and therefore if any think that God may be lov'd with Love of Benevolence Let them enjoy and if they can act according to their Notion For my part I cannot bring my self to any clear conception of it and I am very scrupulous in venturing upon any thing whereof I have no distinct Idea Which ought to be Apology sufficient for me if I make Love of Desire to be the only Love wherewith we are obliged to love God. 9 And that we are obliged thus to love him I shall briefly make out from the consideration of our own Nature and from the Nature of God. As to our own Nature I consider that our Thirst after good or Happiness in general is so natural so necessary and so vehement that as at present we can neither suspend nor moderate nor in the least interrupt it so we can never expect fully to quench or extinguish it but in the enjoyment of that Object which has all that happiness in it on which the whole Bent of our Soul is so strongly set 10 From the strength and invincible necessity of this our Inclination to good in general I conceive 't will follow that 't is highly Reasonable that that Being wherein is all this happiness to which we indefinitely are inclined ought to be lov'd and desired expressly by us and not only so but with the very same love wherewith we love happiness it self For otherwise we should contradict our first and grand Appetite and act against the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature 11 This admitted I consider secondly that God is that Full and rich Being that has all this happiness in him He is not only the Cause of all good but the very Essence and Nature of it He is as the Divine Philosopher stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good it self Lovely it self and Desirable it self He is indeed the First Desirable as well as the First Intelligible and as we see and understand all things in him so in him we desire all that we desire In short he is the Complement and perfection of good the End and the Centre of the whole Intelligent Creation and all that we can desire or enjoy and consequently as we cannot Love beyond him so we ought not to love short of him St. Austin has words to this purpose worth Citing Summa Bonorum Deus Neque infra remanendum nobis est neque ultra quaerendum Alterum enim periculosum alterum nullum est God is the Sum of all good We are neither to fix on this side of him nor to seek any thing beyond him the former is dangerous and the latter is nothing 12 And as we are obliged to love God so ought we to love him beyond all other things whatsoever We cannot indeed love him as he is lovely at all nor can we love him to our utmost till we shall see him as he is but we may must now prefer him in our love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul with all thy mind and with all thy strength so runs the Commandment And very just we should For if even in Particular goods Order requires that the most lovely should be loved most much more ought we to love him who is the very Essence of good good it self beyond all Derivative and secondary good For there is here no Proportion or Comparison at all 13 And for the same cause we can never love God too much As moderation has here no excellence so excess has here no place An Infinite Desirable can never be too much desired God is the Measure of all Love every thing being lovely only so far as it participates of him and consequently the Measure of loving him is to love him without Measure The Philosopher sayes well in his Politics that the Appetite of the End is alwaies without end or Term and that bounds and stints are only in those things that are in order to the End. God therefore being our End we can never love him to excess no nor the Angels in Heaven neither Indeed the thing is Absolutely as well as Relatively impossible for as the Narrowness of our Nature will hinder us from loving him enough so the infinite Fulness of his own makes him uncapable of being lov'd too much 14. And thus much for the Love of God. The next thing that we are to desire is the good of the Community This next to God is the greatest possible good For 't is the good of the whole than which nothing can be greater The good of the Community is the End the Measure the Accomplishment and the final result of all private goods Hither they all point and here they all conspire and concentre And consequently this is the greatest Beauty the greatest Order and the greatest Harmony that can possibly result from the Creature and is the very next Resemblance of the Perfection of God who is all in all 15 This therefore being the greatest Delectable good in it self it
ought to be so also to us who are to love and desire this good of the Community beyond all private good whatsoever Nay we ought to desire private good no further than as 't is conducive to or at least consistent with the Public Interest For I consider Society as a Musical Instrument consisting of variety of strings of different sizes and strain'd up to different pitches some of whose Sounds though ungrateful in some junctures are yet Musical as they stand in relation to others and in order to a Common design Now tho 't is Natural to desire the grateful sound of every string singly were this equally conducing to the harmony of the whole yet certainly no body is so unreasonably absurd as to desire that this or that Discord should be turned into a sound singly more grateful to the prejudice of the general harmony which is of infinitely greater Consequence than the single gratefulness of one or two Particular Strings 16 And this is the Case of us men in Society and this ought to be our measure We ought to consider our selves as so many strings of one great Instrument and not affect any Pitch or Degree more grateful to our selves to the prejudice of the common harmony the good of the Community which is the most delectable good and ought by us to be most Cordially tender'd and Principally regarded Especially considering that this is the good which God himself cheifly proposes and principally regards both in the Creation and government of the nniverse 17 And now since the Desire of the End necessarily includes the Desire of the Means the next Object of our Desire must be all things which have a Natural Connexion with the good of the Community And here 't is supposed in the first place that there are some things that have this Natural connexion with it And 't is necessary so to suppose For as God cannot make a natural World according to any particular system whatsoever but there will necessarily arise upon it some certain Relations and habitudes of agreement and disagreement some Motions will naturally make for its order and Perfection and some against it So is it impossible for God to make an Intellectual word that is to constitute Society in any particular condition Scheme or posture but Relations of agreeable and disagreeable will naturally and necessarily arise some things will naturally make for its order and convenience and some things will be as naturally contrary to it And this without any arbitrary interposition of God by the mere natural result and necessity of things For to recur again to the instance of a Musical Instrument let an Instrument be so and so made so and so strung and so and so tuned and some certain strokes upon it will necessarily be harmonical and other some as necessarily disharmonical But now let the Instrument be tuned another way and the Relations of convenience and disconvenience will alter the same strokes that were before disharmonical may be now harmonical and so on the contrary But yet still some strokes will be naturally agreeable and some disagreeable let the Instrument be set which way you please The Application of this to Society is too obvious to insist upon 18 To proceed therefore it being supposed that there are some things which have a natural connexion with the good of the Community the next obligation of our Love will be that whatsoever has this natural connexion be will'd and desired by us For as the good of the Community is the greatest Delectable good so that which has a natural Connexion with it is the greatest Proffitable good and is therefore to be lov'd with the same love wherewith we love the good of the Community it self wherein is also implied that whatever has an opposite Relation is in the same manner to be hated and abhorred For this is the general Reason of Moral good and Evil of Vertue and Vice and the Prime Fundamental Law of Nature which never can cease of expire however the Particular Instances may change according to the variation of the Intellectual Systeme As I have more fully shewn in another Discourse and shall therefore here no further enlarge upon it 19. And now because with relation to the present posture of the Intellectual world there are some particular things in Specie which have this natural connexion with the interest of the Community such as Justice Temperance Fortitude Patience Humility Veracity Fidelity and the like hence it comes to pass that these are to be lov'd and will'd by us by vertue of that general Canon that whatever naturally serve to the good of the Community is to be loved to which these are reduced as special Instances and exemplifications 20 But I do not think my self obliged to descend to a particular prosecution of these or any other vertues it being not my design to insist upon Particulars but only to lay down such general Principles upon which a more Particular Scheme of Morality may be erected or into which those Particular Morals which are already extant may and ought to be resolv'd And besides having brought the Reader into the Road I think I may now be excused from attending him any further and shall therefore advance to some other Theoryes of more remote and uncommon observation 21 Having therefore fix'd the general Bounds of Duty by shewing what we must desire I proceed to consider the Bounds of Liberty by shewing what we may desire Now the Measures of this are either General or Particular The general Measures are two The First is that we may desire any thing that is not contrary to what we must desire From this arises the second general Measure which is that we may desire any thing that is not contrary or Prejudicial to the good of Society 22 Now as to the Particular Measures there is too much variety in them to be all minutely and punctually consider'd And besides it would be a needless as well as a tedious undertaking I shall therefore only touch upon the more considerable Instances and such as have not been made the subject of ordinary speculation And the first Instance of our Liberty which I shall consider is that we may desire Pleasure First because the Desire of it is Necessary and invincible implanted in us by the Author of our Nature and which we can no more devest our selves of than we can of any the most essential part of our constition 2ly Because pleasure as such in the common Nature of it is singly and simply good and in no respect or combination evil It is singly and simply good because convenient and agreeable and in no respect or combination evil because as such not against the good of the Community 23 For if pleasure as such were against the good of the Community then every Particular pleasure would be so because every particular Pleasure partakes of the common nature of pleasure which would then be enough to render it evil the
indeed among all Human enjoyments nothing is so Rarely acquired so Dearly possess'd and so unhappily lost as a True Friend 2 Indeed true Friendship is so great a Rarity that I once thought it hardly worth while to prescribe Measures to a thing that so seldom happens and when it does those few excellent Persons that are fit for so Sacred a union can never want to be instructed how to conduct it But then considering withal the great excellency and usefulness of it to human life I could not forgive my self so considerable an Omission as the passing by the Regulation of so noble a Charity 3 I call it Charity for 't is a special Modification of it and differs no otherwise from common Charity than as 't is qualify'd by some particular Modifications and Circumstances as was above described It is a Sacred Inclosure of that Benevolence which we owe to all Mankind in Common and an Actual exercise of that kindness to a few which we would willingly shew to all were it practicable and consistent with our Faculties Opportunities and Circumstances 'T is indeed a kind of Revenging our selves upon the Narrowness of our Faculties by exemplifying that extraordinary Charity upon one or two which we both owe and are also ready and disposed but by reason of the scantiness of our condition are not sufficiently able to exercise towards all We are willing that even this our love should be as extensive and diffused as the Light as for Common Charity that must and ought to be so but then finding that the Rayes of it would be too faint and weak to give any body any considerable warmth when so widely spread and diffused we are fain to contract them into a little compass to make them burn and heat and then our Charity Commences Friendship 4 Now as to the Measures of Friendship these have been already so amply and excellently stated by the Seraphic Pen of a great Prelate of our Church in a just Discourse upon this Occasion that there needs nothing to be further added nor should I offer to write an Iliad after such an Homer did I not think it more necessary to the Intireness of this work in general than to make up any defect in this Particular Part which that excellent Author has not supplied I shall therefore be the more brief and sparing in this Account 5 Now I suppose all that is necessary for the Regulation of Friendship may conveniently be reduced to these three general considerations First what Measures are to be observed in the Contracting of Friendship 2ly What Measures are to be observ'd in the conducting or maintaining it 3ly What Measures are to be observ'd in the dissolving of it 6 In the contracting of Friendship our first care must be to make such a choice as we shall never have cause to repent of For when ever we cease to love a Friend 't is great odds if we do not mortally hate him For 't is hard to maintain a Mediocrity and nothing can reflect more upon our Prudence and Discretion than to hate him whom we once thought worthy of our highest love 7 Now that we may not repent of our Choice the Measures to be observ'd are these First that the Person whom we mark out for a Friend be a good and vertuous Man. For an ill man can neither long love nor be long belov'd Not by a good man to be sure nor indeed by one as bad as himself For this is a true Observation that however men love evil in themselves yet no man loves it in another and tho a man may be a Friend to Sin yet no body loves the Sinner And accordingly we find that the Friendships of wicked men are the most temporary and short-lived things in the world and indeed are rather to be call'd Conspiracies than Friendships And besides their Interests will draw them several waies and so distract and divide their union for vice is full of Variety and Contradiction sets one and the same man at odds with himself much more with another But now Virtue is a thing of oneness simplicity and uniformity and indeed the only solid Foundation for Friendship 8 The next Measure is that we chuse a Person of a sweet liberal and obliging humour For there are a thousand little endearments and compliances in the exercise of Friendship that make good Nature and necessary as rigid virtue and Honesty Strict vertue in Friendship is like the exact Rules of Mathematicks in Musical compositions which indeed are necessary to make the Harmony true and regular but then there must be something of Ayre and Delicacy in it too to sweeten and recommend it or else 't will be but flat and heavy 9 The next Measure to this purpose is that we chuse a Person of a humour and disposition as nigh our own as we can This will make our friendly Communications both more pleasant and more lasting The other qualities are as the Materials in Building this answers to Figure and shape And unless the Materials be of an agreeable and correspondent figure though otherwise never so good the structure will neither be sightly to the eye nor hold long together 10 One thing more I would have remember'd in the contracting of friendship and that is that we don't make our selves over to too many Marriage which is the strictest of Frienships admits but of one and indeed inferiour Friendship admits not of many more For besides that the Tide of Love by reason of the contractedness of our faculties can't bear very high when divided among several channels 't is great odds but that among many we shall be deceiv'd in some and then we must be put upon the inconvenience of Repentance and retractation of choice which in nothing is so uncomely and inconvenient as in friendship Be kind therefore to all but Intimate only with a few 11 Now the Measures of conducting and maintaining friendship may be such as these 1. That we look upon our Friend as another self and treat him accordingly 2. That we love him fervently effectually and constantly 3. That we use his conversation frequently and alwaies prefer it 4. That we trust him with our Secrets and most important concerns 5. That we make use of his help and service and be not shy of being obliged to him 6. That we don't easily entertain any Jealousies or Suspicions of him 7. That we defend his Reputation when we hear it wrongfully charged 8. That we wink at those small faults which he really has 9. That we take the Freedom to advise and if need be to reprove him and that we be well contented to take the same usage from him again 10. That we freely pay him that Respect and just Acknowledgment that 's due to his Merits and that we shew our selves pleased when the same is done by others 11. That we do not envy him when advanced above us nor despise him when fallen beneath us 12. That we relieve him
plentifully and liberally when reduced to any streights or exigencyes And lastly that we alwaies prefer the good of his Soul before any other interest of his and make it our strictest concern to promote his Happy condition in the other world This indeed is the most excellent and necessary Office of Friendship and all without this is but of little signification 12. And thus much for the Conducting of Friendship I proceed now to the Measures that are to be observ'd in the Dissolution of it And here two things come to be consider'd the Cause and the Manner of dissolving it And first 't is supposed that there may be a Cause for the Dissolution even of Friendship The wise man tells us that for some things every Friend will depart and Marriage which is the strictest Frindship has its Divorce For t is with the union of two Friends as with the union of Soul and Body There are some degrees of distemperature that although they weaken and disturb the union yet however they are consistent with it but then there are others again that quite destroy the Vital Congruity and then follows Separation 13 Now as to the Cause that may justify a Dissolution of Friendsh it can be no other than something that is directly contrary to the very Design and Essence of Friendship such as a notorious Apostacy to vice and wickedness notorious Perfidiousness deliberate Malice or the like To which were I to speak my own sense I would add a desperate and resolv'd continuance in all this For I think as long as there is any hopes of amendment the man is rather to be Advised than Deserted 14 But if hopeless and irreclaimable we may and must desert him But let it be with all the tenderness imaginable with as much unwillingness and reluctancy as the Soul leaves her over-distemper'd Body And now our greatest care must be that our former Dearness turn not to inveterate Hatred There is great danger of this but it ought not to be so For tho the Friend be gone yet still the Man remains and tho he has forfetted my Friendship yet still I owe him common Charity And 't were well if we would rise a little higher and even yet pay him some little respect and maintain a small under-current of Affection for him upon the stock of our former dearness and Intimacy For so the deceased Ghost loves to hover for a while about her old Companion though by reason of its utter discongruity it be no longer fit for the mutuall intercourses of Life and Action MOTIVES TO THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF REGULAR LOVE By way of Consideration 1. COnsider O my Soul that the very Essence of the most Perfect Being is Regular Love. The very same Apostle that saies God is Love saies also in another place that God is Light and that in him there is no darkness at all Joh. 1.5 God therefore is both Love and Light Light invigorated and actuated by Love and Love directed and regulated by Light. He is indeed a Lucid and Bright act of Love not Arbitrary Love but Love regulated by the exactest Rules and Measures of Essential Perfection For how Regular a Love must that needs be where the same Being is both Love and Light 2. Consider again my Soul that the Material World the Offspring and Emanation of this Lucid Love is altogether conformable to the Principle of its production a perfect Sample and Pattern of Order and Regularity of Beauty and Proportion the very Reflexion of the first Pulchritude and a most exact Copy of the Divine Geometry And if thou could'st but see a draught of the Intellectual world how far more Beautiful and delightsom yet would that Orderly Prospect be And wilt thou my Soul be the only Irregular and Disorderly thing among the Productions of God Wilt thou disturb the Harmony of the Creation and be the only jarring String in so Composed and well-tuned an Instrument As thou wilt certainly be if thou dost not Love Regularly For 3 Consider My Soul that 't is Regular Love that makes up the Harmony of the Intellectual world as Regular Motion does that of the Natural That Regularity of the understanding is of no other Moment or Excellency than as it serves to the Regulating of Love. That herein lies the Formal Difference between good and bad Men in this world and between the good and bad Spirits in the other Brightness of understanding is Common to both and for ought we know in an equal Measure but one of these loves Regularly and the other does not and therefore one we call an Angel and t'other a Devil For 't is Regular Love upon which the welfare and Civil Happiness of Society depends This is in all respects the same to the Moral world as Motion is to the Natural And as this is maintain'd in its Course by Regularity of Motion so must the other be upheld by Regularity of Love. And therefore further 4. Consider O my Soul that the God of Order he that is both Light and Love has prescribed two sort of Laws with respect to the two worlds Laws of Motion and Laws of Love. Indeed the Latter have not their Effect as Necessarily and determinately as the former for the Laws of Motion God executes by himself but the Laws of Love he has committed to the execution of his Creatures having endow'd them with choice and Liberty But let not this my Soul be used as an Argument to make thee less Studious of Loving Regularly because thou art not irresistibly determin'd and necessitated to Love according to Order but art left to thy own Choice and Liberty Neither do thou fancy God less concern'd for the Laws of Love than for the Laws of Motion because he has not inforced those with the same Necessity as he has these For 5. Consider yet further My Soul that God has taken as much care for the Regulation of Love as is consistent with the Nature of Free Agents For has he not prescribed Laws of Regular Love And has he not furnish'd thee with a stock of Natural Light and understanding of Reason and Discourse to discern the Antecedent Equity and Reasonableness of these Laws And lest thou should'st be negligent in the use of this Discursive Light has he not as a farther security of thy Regular Love against the danger either of Ignorance or Inconsideration furnish'd thee with certain Moral Anticipations and Rational Instincts which prevent all thy Reasonings and Discoursings about what thou oughtest to Love and point out the great Lines of thy Duty before thou art able and when thou dost not attend enough to see into the Natural grounds of it And left all this should prove insufficient or ineffectual has he not bound thy Duty upon thee by the most weighty Sanctions and most prevailing Ingagements of Rewards and Punishments of Eternal Happiness and Eternal Misery And to make all this efficacious does he not assist thee by the Graces of his
Spirit in the Regulation of thy Love And what can God do more with the safety of his own Wisdom and of thy Liberty And lest thou should'st fancy that 't is either in vain or unnecessary to apply thy self to the Study of Regular Love 6. Consider yet further My Soul that the great Mystery of godliness is nothing else but a Mysterious Expedient for the promotion of Regular Love. As it proceeded from Love so does it wholly tend to the Regulation of it 'T was to attone for the Irregularities of Love that the Son of God became a Sacrifice to his Father To attone for it so far that all the Lapses and Misapplications of our Love should be forgiven provided we return to the Regularity of Love for the future Had he not done so much to return to Regular Love had been in vain and had he done more it had been Needless But herein is the Mystery of Godliness that by the wise dispensation of God the matter is so order'd that Happiness is attainable by the Order of Love and not without it And can there be a stronger ingagement O my Soul to perswade thee to the Study of Regular Love or to convince thee that God is not less concern'd for the Harmony of the Moral than of the Natural world for the Order of Love than for the Order of Motion Be wise then O my Soul and consult the Ends of God the Harmony of the World and thy own Eternal Happiness And that these thy Considerations may be the more effectual apply thy self with all possible elevation of spirit to the God of Light and Love. THE PRAYER O God of Order and Beauty who sweetly disposest all things and hast establish'd a Regular course in the visible World who hast appointed the Moon for certain Seasons and by whose decree the Sun knoweth his going down let the Moral world be as Regular and Harmonious as the Natural and both conspire to the declaration of thy Glory And to this End grant that the Motion of our Minds may be as orderly as the Motion of Bodyes and that we may move as regularly by Choice and free Election as they do by Natural instinct and Necessity O God of Light and Love warm and invigorate my Light and direct and regulate my Love. In thy Light let me see Light and in thy Love let me ever Love. Lord I am more apt to err in my Love than in my understanding and one Errour in Love is of worse Consequence than a thousand in Judgment O do thou therefore watch over the Motions of my Love with a peculiar governance and grant that I my self may keep this Part with all diligence seeing hence are the issues of Life and Death O Spirit of Love who art the very Essence Fountain and Perfection of Love be thou also its Object Rule and Guide Grant I may Love thee and what thou love'st and as thou love'st O Clarify and refine inlighten and actuate my Love that it may mount upward to the Center and Element of Love with a Steddy Chast and unfullied Flame make it unselvish universal liberal generous and Divine that loving as I ought I may contritribute to the Order of thy Creation here and be perfectly Happy in loving thee and in being lov'd by thee Eternally hereafter Amen Letters Philosophical and Moral to D r Henry More with the Doctor 's Answers Advertisment to the Reader THe Publication of this Correspondence was almost extorted from me by the importunity of some friends who would not endure to think that any Remains of so great and extraordinary a Person should be lost And truely when I consider'd how curious and busy some men are in recovering a few broken Fragments of some old dull Author that had scarce any thing to recommend him but only that he lived a great while ago I began to think there was some force in the Argument and that I should be unkind to the world as well as to the Memory of my deceased Friend should I detain in obscurity such rich Treasures of excellent Theory as are contain'd in these Letters To the publishing of which I was yet the less unwilling to consent because of that near Relation which some of them have to the Matter of some part of this Book which may receive some further Light from what is herein contain'd But there is more in the business yet I had formerly in a Discourse at first printed by it self and dedicated to the Doctor but now inserted in my Collection of Miscellanies lately publish'd laid down an Hypothesis concerning the Root of Liberty which whether for its novelty and singularity or because not well understood underwent a great deal of Censure at its first appearing And the Excellent Dr. himself was pleased to animadvert upon it And I think has urged all that can be said against it But I think I have sufficiently vindicated the truth of the Notion and was therefore willing it should now appear to the world in its full strength and evidence which could not have been more abundantly confirm'd to me than in its being able to stand the shock of so severe a Speculatist Epistola prima ad Clarissimum Virum Henricum More Vir eximie QUum eruditionem tuam Humanitatem ex scriptorum tuorum genio pari passu ambulare animadvertam insuper in ipso Libri tui Vestibulo te Coram profitentem audiam te non tibi soli laborare sed etiam pro omnibus iis qui exquirunt sapientiam eousque mihi nativus exolevit pudor ut ad te ignotum licet Oraculi vice de quibusdam Arduis sciscitatum mitterem Duo igitur sunt ut apud virum horarum quam parcissimum Compendio agam quae animum meum suspensum tenent In Enchiridio tuo Metaphysico demonstrare satagis immobile quoddam extensum à Mobili materia distinctum existere Quod demonstrationum tuarum nervis adductus non solum Concedere paratus sum sed etiam firmissime Credo Illud tantum me male habet quod dimensionem istam incorpoream quam spatii nomine designare solemus in infinitum porrigas undequaque immensam statuas Hoc equidem ut admittam nondum à facultatibus meis impetrare potui Quum enim spatium illud sit Quantitas permanens cujus omnes partes quotquot sunt vel esse possunt simul existunt contradictoria mihi videtur affirmare quisquis illud infinite extensum dixerit Infinitum enim esse tamen secundum omnes partes actu existere repugnant Nam secundum omnes partes actu existere est certis limitibus claudi Eodem modo ac quilibet numerus quantuscunque assignetur continetur sub certa specie numeri proindeque finitus concludi debet Fateor aliter se rem habere in quantitate successiva cujus partes existunt aliae post alias quae quoniam post quantamcunque appositionem incrementi ulterius capax est suo modo cenferi possit