the Christians is quite different from that they deny not but Pain is an Evil and that it is hard to be separated from those things to which Nature has united us or to rid our selves from the Slavery Sin has reduc'd us to They agree that it is a Disorder that the Soul shall depend upon her Body but they own withall that she depends upon it and even so much that she cannot free her self from that Subjection but by the Grace of our Lord. I see saith St. Paul another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord shall do it The Son of God his Apostles and all his true Disciples command us above all to be Patient because they know that Misâ—ry must be the Expectâ—tion and Portion of the Righteous In short true Christians or true Philosophers say nothing but what is agreeable to sound Reason and Experience whereas all Nature continually impugns the proud Opinion and presumption of the Stoicks The Christians know that to free themselves in some manner from the Subjection they are under they must endeavour to deprive themselves of all those things that they cannot enjoy without Pleasure nor want without Pain it being the only means to preserve that Peace and Liberty of Mind which they owe to their Deliverer's Beneficence On the contrary the Stoicks following the false Notions of their Chimerical Philophy imagine that they are wise and happy and that they need but think upon Vertue and Independency to become Vertuous and Independent Sound Reason and Experience assure us that the best way not to feel the smart of stinging is to shun the Nettle but the Stoicks say Sting me never so much I shall by the strength of my Mind and the help of my Philosophy raise my self so high above my Body that all your pricking shall not reach me I can demonstrate that my Happiness depends not upon it and that Pain is not an Evil and you shall see by the Colour of my Face and by the whole deportment of my Body that my Philosophy has made me invulnerable Their Pride bears up their Courage however it hinders not but that they should suffer Pain with Vexation and be really miserable so that their Union with their Body is not destroyed nor their Pain vanished but all this proceeds from their Union with other Men strengthened by the desire of their Esteem which in some manner withstands the Union of their Soul with their Body The sensible view of the Spectators to whom they are united stops the Course of the Animal Spirits that should follow upon the pain and blots out the Impression they would make upon their Face for was there no body to look on them that Phantasm of Constancy and Liberty of Mind would presently vanish So that the Stoicks do only in some degree withstand the Union of their Soul to their Body by making themselves greater Slaves to other Men to whom they are united by a drift of Glory And 't is therefore an undoubted truth that all Men are united to all sensible things both by Nature and their Concupiscence which may sufficiently be known by Experience and of which all the Actions of Mankind are sensible demonstrations though Reason seems to oppose it Though this Union be common to all Men 't is not however of an equal Extent and Strength in all for as it proceeds from the Knowledge of the Mind so it may be said that we are not actually united to unknown Objects A Clown in his Cottage does not concern himself with the Glory of his Prince and Country but only with the honour of his own and the Neighbouring Villages because his Knowledge does not extend farther The Union with such Objects as we have seen is stronger than the Union to those we have only imagin'd or heard relation of because by Sensation we are more strictly united to sensible things as leaving deeper Impressions in our Brain and moving the animal Spirits in a more violent manner than when they are only imagin'd Neither is that Union so strong in those that continually oppose it that they may adhere to the Goods of the Mind as it is in those who suffer themselves to be carried away and inslav'd by their Passions since Concupiscence increases and strengthens that Union Last of all the several Employments and States of this Life together with the various dispositions of divers Persons cause a considerable difference in that sensible Union which Men have with Earthly Goods Great Lords have greater Dependencies than other Men and their Chains as I may call them are longer The General of an Army depends on all his Souldiers because all his Souldiers reverence him This Slavery is often the Cause of his Valour and the desire of being esteem'd by those that are Witnesses of his Actions often drives him to Sacrifice to it more sensible and rational desires The same may be said of all Superiours and those that make a great Figure in the World Vanity being many times the Spur of their Vertue because the love of Glory is ordinarily stronger than the love of Truth I speak here of the love of Glory not as a simple Inclination but a Passion since that love may become sensible and is often attended with very lively and violent Commotions of the Animal Spirits Again the different Ages and Sexes are primary Causes of the difference of Passions Children love not the same things as adult and old Men or at least love them not with that Force and Constancy Women depend only on their Family and Neighbourhood but the dependencies of Men extend to their whole Country because 't is their part to defend it and that they are mightily taken up with those great Offices Honours and Commands that the State may bestow upon them There is such a variety in the Employments and Engagements of Men that it is impossible to explain them all The disposition of Mind in a Married Man is altogether different from that of a single Person for the former is in a manner wholly taken up with the care of his Family A Fryar has a Soul of another make and depends upon fewer things than the Men of the World and even than Secular Ecclesiasticks but he is stronger fastned to those few things One may argue in the same manner concerning the different States of Men in general but the little sensible engagements cannot be explain'd because they differ almost in every private Person it often hapning that men have particular Engagements altogether opposite to those that they ought to have in reference to their condition But though the different Genius and Inclinations of Men Women Old Men Young Men Rich Poor Learned and Ignorant in short of all the different Sexes Ages and
principal part of his Brain Order will'd it so and consequently He whose Will always conforms to Order and who can do nothing against It though He be Almighty Thus Man might on certain Occasions suspend the Natural Law of the Communication of Motions seeing he was not tainted with Concupisence nor did he feel in himself any involuntary and rebellious Motions VII But Adam lost that Power by sinning Order would have it so for it is not reasonable that in Favour of a Sinner and a Rebel there should be any other Exceptions to the general Law of the Communication of Motions than what are absolutely necessary to the Preservation of our Life and Civil Society Therefore the Body of Man being continually shaken by the Action of sensible Objects and his Soul agitated by all the Concussions of the principal part of his Brain he is become a dependent on the Body to which he was only united and over which he had a Sovereignty before his Fall VIII Let us see now how the first Man was capable of sinning It is natural to love Pleasure and to tast it and this was not forbidden Adam The Case is the same with Joy one may rejoice at the sight of his Natural Perfections That is not evil in it self Man was made to be happy and 't is Pleasure and Joy which actually beatifie and content Adam therefore tasted Pleasure in the use of sensible Goods and he felt a Joy upon viewing his own Perfections For 't is impossible to consider ones self as happy or perfect and not be possess'd with it He felt no such Pleasure in his Duty for though he knew God was his Good it was not in a sensible way as I have prov'd in several places So the Joy he might find in his Duty was not very sensible which being suppos'd we conclude That whereas the first Man had not an infinite Capacity of Mind his Pleasure or his Joy weakned its clear sight which gave him to know That God was his Good and that he ought only to love him For Pleasure is in the Soul and the Modification of it and therefore fills up our Capacity of Thought proportionably as it affect and works on us this is a thing which we learn by Experience or rather from that inward Sensation we have of our selves We may then conceive That the first Man having insensibly suffer'd the Capacity of his Mind to be possess'd or divided by the lively Sense of a presumptuous Joy or it may be some Love or sensible Pleasure the Presence of God and the Consideration of his Duty were eras'd from his Mind for neglecting couragiously to pursue his Light in the Search of his True Good so this Distraction made him capable of falling For his principal Grace and strength was his Light and the clear Knowledge of his Duty forasmuch as then he had no need of preventing Delights which are now necessary to oppose to Concupisence IX And it must be observ'd that neither the preventing Sense of Pleasure which Adam felt in the use of the Goods of the Body nor the Joy that possess'd him when reflecting on his own Happiness or Perfection was the true Cause of his Fall for he knew very well that none but God could give him that Sense of Pleasure or Joy and so he in Duty should have lov'd him only forasmuch as none merits our Love save the true Cause of our Felicity As nothing perturbated his Knowledge and Light whilst he strove to keep it pure and incorrupt so he might and ought to have expung'd from his Mind those Sensations which divided it and which endanger'd its falling off and losing sight of him who strengthened and enlightned it He ought to have well remembred that if God offer'd himself not to his Sense but only his Vnderstanding as his Good it was to afford him a readier way to merit his Reward by a continual Exercise of his Liberty Supposing then That Adam and Eve have sinn'd and consequently thereupon felt in themselves involuntary and rebellioâ—s Motions I say That their Children must needs be born Sinners and subject as they were to Motions of Concupiscence See my Reasons for it X. I have prov'd at large in the Chapter that occasion'd this Discourse that there is such a Communication between the Brain of the Mother and that of the Child that all the Motions and Traces excited in the former are stirr'd up in the latter Therefore as the Soul of the Infant is united to its Body at the very instant of its Creation it being the Conformation of the Body which obliges God in consequence of his general Will to inform it with a Soul 't is plain that at the very moment of this Soul's Creation it has corrupt Inclinations and turns towards the Body since it has from that same moment â—nclinations answerable to the Motions that are actually in the Brain it is united to XI But because it is a Disorder That the Mind should propend to Bodies and expend its Love upon them the Infant is a Sinner and in Disorder as soon as out of the Hands of his Maker God who is the Lover of Order hates him in this Estate notwithstanding his Sin is not free and eligible But his Mother conceiv'd him in Iniquity because of the Communication establish'd by the Order of Nature betwixt her Brain and the Brain of her Infant XII Now this Communication is very good in its Institution for several Reasons First Because useful and it may be necessary to the Conformation of the Foetus Secondly Because the Infant by this means might have some Intercourse with his Parents it being but reasonable that he should know to whom he was oblig'd for his Body which he animated Lastly He could not but by help of this Communication know external Occurrences and think of them as he should do Having a Body 't was fit he should have Thoughts relating to it and not be hood-wink'd to the Works of God amongst which he liv'd There are likely many other Reasons for this Communication than those I have given but these are sufficient to justifie it and to cover His Conduct from Censure and Reproach every Will of whom is necessarily conformable to ORDER XIII However there is no Reason that the Infant in spight of his Will should receive the Traces of sensible Objects If the Souls of Children were created but one moment before they were united to their Bodies if they were but an instant in a State of Innocence and Order they would have plenary Right and Power from the necessity of Order or of the Eternal Law to suspend that Communication just as the first Man before his Sin stopt when he pleas'd the Motions which arose in him Order requiring That the Body should be obedient to the Mind But whereas the Souls of Children were never well-pleasing to God it was never reasonable that God on their behalf should dispence with the Law of the Communication of Motions and
of the Body is the Cause but of gross Vices such as Intemperance and Vncleanness and not of those which are call'd Spiritual as Pride and Envy and I am persuaded there is that Correspondence between the Disposition of our Brain and those of our Soul as that there is not perhaps any corrupt Habit in the Soul but what has its Principle in the Body St. Paul in several places terms by the Name of the Law the Wisdom the Desires and the Works of the Flesh whatever is contrary to the Law of the Spirit He speaks not of Spiritual Vices He reckons amongst the Works of the Flesh Idolatry Heresies Dissentions and many other Vices which go by the Name of Spiritual To give way to Vain-glory Wrath and Envy is in his Doctrine to follow the Motions of the Flesh. In short It appears from the Expressions of that Apostle That all Sin proceeds from the Flesh not that the Flesh commits it or that the Spirit of Man without the Grace or Spirit of CHRIST can do good but because the Flesh acts upon the Spirit in such a manner that the latter works no evil without being sollicited to it by the former Hear what St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Romans I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward Man But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members And a little lower So then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin He speaks after the same manner in several places of his Epistles So that Concupiscence or the Rebellion of the Body not only disposes us to Carnal of shameful Vices but likewise to those which are thought to be Spiritual I here shall endeavour to prove it by a sensible manner When a Man 's in Conversation it is certain as I think that some Tracks are machinally produc'd in his Brain and Motions excited in his Animal Spirits that beget in his Soul corrupt Thoughts and Inclinations Our Thoughts on these Occasions are not naturally conformable to Truth nor our Inclinations to Order They rise in us for the Good of the Body and of the present Life because 't is the Body that exites them So they obliterate the Presence of God and the Thoughts of our Duty out of our Mind and tend only to recommend us to other Men and make them consider us as worth their Affection and Esteem Therefore this secret Pride which kindles in us on such Occasions is a Spiritual Vice whose Principle is the Rebellion of the Body For Example If the Persons in whose Presence we are are rais'd to Honorary Posts and Titles the Lustre of their Grandeur both dazzles and dejects us And as the Traces which their Presence imprints on our Brain are very deep and the Motions of the Spirits rapid they radiate as I may say through all the Body they spread themselves on the Face and give a sensible Testimony of our Reverence and Fear and our most latent Sentiments Next These Traces by the sensible Expressions of our inward Motions work upon the Person that observe us whom they dispose to Sentiments of Candour and Civility by the Traces which our respectful and timorous Deportment machinally produce in his Brain which Traces rallying on his Face and disarm him of that Majesty which appear'd in 't and give the rest of his Body such an Air and Posture as at length rid us of our Concern and re-embolden us Thus by a mutual and frequent Repercussion of these sensible Expressions our Air and Behaviour at last settles in that fashion which the governing Person wishes But as all the Motions of the Animal Spirits are attended with Motions of the Soul and the Traces of the Brain are pursu'd by Thoughts of the Mind 't is plain that since we are depriv'd of the Power of expunging these Traces and stopping these Motions we find our selves sollicited by the over-ruling Presence of the Person to embrace his Opinions and submit to his Desires and to be wholly devoted to his Pleasure as he indeed is dispos'd to study ours but in a very different manner And for this Reason worldly Conversation quickens and invigorates the Concupiscence of Pride as dishonest Commerce feasting and enjoying sensible Pleasures strengthen Carnal Concupiscence which is a Remark very necessary for Morality 'T is of great Use and Advantage that there are Traces in the Brain which incessantly represent Man to himself to make him careful of his Person and that there are others which serve to make and preserve Society since Men are not made to live alone But Man having lost the Power of erasing them when he pleas'd and when convenient they perpetually provoke him to Evil. As he cannot hinder their representing him to himself he is continually sollicited to Motions of Pride and Vanity to despise others and center all things in himself And as he is not Master of those Traces which importune him to keep up Society with others he is agitated by Motions of Complaisance Flattery Jealousie and the like Inclinations as it were in spight of him Thus all those which go by the Name of Spiritual Vices derive from the Flesh as well as Vnchastness and Intemperance There are not only in our Brain Dispositions which excite in us Sensations and Motions with reference to the Propagation of the Species and the Preservation of Life but it may be a greater Number that stir up in us Thoughts and Passions with respect to Society to our own private Advancements and to those of our Friends We are by Nature united to all surrounding Bodies and by them to all the things that any way relate to us But we cannot be united to them save by some Dispositions in our Brain Having not therefore the Power of withstanding the Action of these natural Dispositions our Union turns into Dependence and we grow subject through our Body to all kind of Vices We are not pure Intelligences all the Dispositions of our Soul produce respective Dispositions in our Body and those in our Body mutually excite others like them in our Soul Not that the Soul is absolutely incapable of receiving any thing except by the Body but because as long as She is united to It she cannot admit any Change in her Modifications without making some Alteration in the Body 'T is true she may be enlightned or receive new Ideas and the Body need not have any hand in it but that 's because pure Ideas are not Modifications of the Soul as I have prov'd in another place I speak not here of sensible Ideas because these include a Sensation and every Sensation is a mode of the Souls existing The Second OBJECTION against the Eleventh and Twelfth Articles If Original Sin descends by reason of the Communication which is found between the Brain of the Mother and that of
Father MALEBRANCHE HIS TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH The Whole WORK Complete To which is Added The AUTHOR's TREATISE OF Nature and Grace BEING A Consequence of the PRINCIPLES contained in the SEARCH Together with His ANSWER to the ANIMADVERSIONS upon the First Volume His DEFENCE against the ACCUSATIONS of Monsieur De la Ville c. Relating to the same Subject All TRANSLATED by T. TAYLOR M. A. Late of Magdalen College in OXFORD The SECOND EDITION Corrected with great Exactness With the ADDITION of A Short Discourse upon LIGHT and COLOURS By the same AUTHOR Communicated in Manuscript to a Person of Quality in ENGLAND And never before Printed in any Language LONDON Printed by W. Bowyer for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon and T. Leigh and W. Midwinter at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. THE PREFACE THE Mind of Man is as it were by its Nature situated between its Creator and Corporeal Creatures nothing according to St. Austin being above it but GOD nor beneath it but Body But as the great Elevation it obtains above all Material Beings is no hindrance to its uniting with them and even to its Depending after a sort upon a Piece of Matter so notwithstanding the infinite distance between the Sovereign Being and the Humane Mind the latter is immediately and most intimately united with the former This last Union exalts the Mind above all things 't is this which gives it Life and Light and all its Happiness And of this Union it is St. Austin speaks in very many Places of his Works as of that which is most Natural and Essential to it On the contrary the Union it has with the Body extremely debases it and is at this Day the Principal Cause of all its Errours and its Miseries I do not wonder that the vulgar part of Men or that the Heathen Philosophers should only consider in the Soul its Relation and Union with the Body without acknowledging any Union or Relation that it has to GOD But I admire that the Christian Philosophers who ought to prefer the Spirit of GOD to the Mind of Man Moses to Aristotle St. Austin to any wretched Commentatour upon an Heathen Philosopher should regard the Soul rather as the Form of the Body than as made in and for the Image of GOD that is according to St. Austin for Truth to which alone She is immediately united 'T is true the Soul is united to the Body and is naturally the Form of it but 't is likewise true that she is united to GOD in a much stricter and more essential manner The Relation she has to her Body might have not been But her Relation to GOD is so essential that 't is impossible to conceive GOD should create a Spirit without it It is evident that GOD can have no other End of acting than Himself that He cannot create Spirits but to know and love Him that he can neither give them any Knowledge nor impress upon them any Love but what is for and tends to Himself but He might have refus'd to unite to Bodies those Spirits which He has united Therefore the Relation of our Minds to GOD is Natural Necessary and absolutely Indispensible But their Relation to our Bodies though Natural is not of absolute Necessity nor of indispensible Obligation This is not a proper place to alledge all the Authorities and Arguments which might induce us to believe That it 's more essential to the Mind to be united to GOD than to a Body That would carry us out too far To expose this Truth in its just Light it would be necessary to overthrow the principal Foundations of Pagan Philosophy to explain the Corruptions of Sin to encounter what is falsly named Experience and to argue against the Prejudices and Delusions of the Senses So that to give the common sort of Men a perfect Knowledge of it is not so easie a Task as may be undertaken in a Preface However 't is not difficult to make it out to Attentive Persons and such as are skill'd in True Philosophy For they need only be put in Mind That since the Will of GOD Regulates the Nature of all things it is more congenial to the Nature of the Soul to be united to GOD by the Knowledge of Truth and by the Love of Good than to be united to the Body since 't is certain as is abovesaid that GOD created Spirits more for the Knowledge and Love of Him than for the Informing Bodies This Argument is instantly able to startle Minds any whit enlightned to render them attentive and afterwards to convince them But 't is morally impossible for Minds immers'd in Flesh and Blood whose Knowledge goes no farther than their Senses to be ever convinc'd with such kind of Reasonings No Proofs will serve these People but such as may be even felt and handled since every thing seems Chimerical that makes not some Impression on their Senses The First Man's Sin has so weakned the Union of our Mind with GOD that none but those whose Heart is purify'd and Mind enlightned can perceive it For 't is an imaginary Union in their Opinions who blindly follow the Judgments of the Senses and Motions of the Passions On the contrary it has so strengthned the Soul's Union with the Body as to make us think these two parts of our selves but one single Substance or rather has so enslav'd us to our Senses and Passions as to persuade us our Body is the Principal of the Two Parts whereof we are compos'd If we consider the different Occupations of Men we shall have all the Reason in the World to believe they have this so mean and gross a Notion of themselves For whereas they all love Felicity and the Perfection of their Being and are constantly labouring to grow happier or more perfect could it be suppos'd they set not a greater value on the Body and the Goods of it than on the Mind and the Goods of that when we find them almost always employ'd about things relating to the former and seldom or never thinking on those that are absolutely necessary to the perfection of the latter The greatest part of Mankind lay themselves out with so much Industry and Pains merely for the Support of a wretched Life and to leave their Children some necessary Sustenance for the Preservation of their Bodies Such as by their good Fortune or Chance of Birth are freed from that Necessity do no better manifest by their Business and Employments that they look upon the Soul as the Nobler pâ—ri of their Being Hunting Dancing Gaming Feasting are their ordinary Occupations Their Soul grown the Slave of their Body esteems and cherishes all these Divertisements though wholly unworthy of Her But because their Body is related to all things sensible the Soul is not only the Slave of their Body but through its means and for its sake of all things sensible likewise For 't is by the Body that
they are united to their Relations their Friends their City their Office and all sensible Goods the Preservation of which seems as necessary and valuable as that of their own Being Thus the Care of their Fortunes and the Desire of increasing them their Passion for Glory and Grandeur busies and imploys them infinitely more than the Perfection of their Soul Even Men of Learning and Dealers in Wit spend more than one half of their Life in Actions purely Animal or such as give us Reason to think their Health their Estates and Reputations are of dearer Concern than the Perfection of their Minds They study more to acquire a Chimerical Grandeur in the Imagination of others than to give their Mind greater Force and Comprehension They make a kind of Wardrobe of their Brain wherein they huddle without Order or Distinction whatever bears a certain Character of Learning I mean whatever can appear but Rare and Extraordinary and provoke others to admire them Their Ambition lies in resembling those Cabinets fill'd with Relicks and Curiosities which have nothing truly Rich or Valuable but derive their Worth from Fancy Passion or Chance and they rarely labour to make their Mind accurate and to regulate the Motions of their Heart Yet it should not be thought from hence that Men are intirely ignorant that they have a Soul and that this their Soul is the Principal part of their Being They have too been again and again convinc'd both by Reason and Experience that 't is no so considerable an Advantage to live in Reputation Affluence and Health the space of a few Years and in general that all Corporeal Goods all that are possess'd by Means and for the sake of the Body are Imaginary and Corruptible Goods They know 't is better to be Just than Rich to be Reasonable than Learned to have a Lively and Penetrating Mind than to have a Brisk and Active Body These are Truths indelibly imprinted on the Mind and infallibly discover'd whenever Men please to attend to them Homer for Instance who extols his Hero for his Swiftness might have perceiv'd if he would that 't was an Elogy fitter for a Race-Horse or a Greyhound Alexander so celebrated in History for his Illustrious Robberies heard sometimes from his most Retir'd Reason the same Reproaches as Villains and Thieves in spight of the confus'd Noise of a surrounding Crowd of Flatterers and Caesar when he pass'd the Rubicon could not help manifesting how these inward Lashes terrified him when at last he had resolv'd to sacrifice the Liberty of his Country to his Ambition The Soul however united very strictly to the Body is nevertheless united to GOD and at that very time of her receiving by her Body the lively and confus'd Sensations her Passions inspite into her she receives from the Eternal Truth presiding over her Understanding the Knowledge of her Duty and Irregularities When her treacherous Body deceives her GOD undeceives her When it indulges He wounds her When it gives her Incense and Applauses He strikes her inward with smarting Remorses and condemns her by the Manifestation of a more Pure and Holy Law than that of the Flesh which she has obey'd Alexander needed not that the Scythians should have come to teach him his Duty in a strange Language He knew from Him who teaches the Scythians and the most Barbarous Nations the Rules of Justice which he ought to follow The Light of Truth which enlightens the World enlightned him also and the Voice of Nature which speaks neither in Greek nor Scythian nor Barbarian Dialect spoke to him as to the rest of the World in a most clear and most intelligible Language In vain did the Scythians upbraid him with his Conduct their Words struck no deeper than his Ears And GOD not speaking home to his Heart or rather GOD speaking to his Heart whilst he heard only the Scythians who but provok'd his Passions and so led him out of himself he heard not the Voice of Truth though loud as Thunder nor saw its Light though it pierc'd him through and through 'T is true our Union with GOD diminishes and weakens proportionably as our other with things sensible strengthens and increases but 't is impossible the former Union should be absolutely lost without the destruction of our Being For however those who are immers'd in Vice and drench'd in Pleasures are insensible to Truth they are notwithstanding united to it It never deserts them 't is they that desert it Its Light shines in Darkness but does not always dispell it as the Light of the Sun surrounds the Blind and those that wink though it enlightens neither The case is the same with the Union of our Mind with the Body That Union decreases as fast as the other we have with God increases but it is never quite dissolv'd but by our Death For though we were as enlightned and as disingag'd from all things sensible as the Apostles themselves yet Adam's Fall would necessitate us to a Dependence on the Body and we should feel a Law of our Flesh constantly opposing and warring against the Law of our Mind Proportionably as the Mind increases its Union with GOD it grows purer and more luminous stronger and more capacious since 't is from this Union it derives all its Perfection On the other side it becomes corrupt blind weak and contracted by the same degrees as its Union with its Body corroborates and increases because this is the Source of all its Imperfection Thus a Man who judges of all things by his Senses who on all accounts pursues the Motions of his Passions who has no other than Sensible Perceptions and loves only Flattering Gratifications is in the most wretched State of Mind imaginable as being infinitely remote from Truth and from his Good But when a Man judges of things but by the pure Ideas of the Mind carefully avoids the confus'd Noise of the Creatures and retiring into himself hears his Sovereign Teacher in the calm Silence of the Senses and Passions he cannot possibly fall into Errour GOD never deceives those who interrogate Him by a serious Application and an entire Conversion of Mind towards Him though He does not always make them hear His Answers But when the Mind by its Aversion from GOD diffuses it self abroad when it consults only its Body to be instructed in the Truth and only listens to its Senses Imaginations and Passions which talk to it everlastingly it must inevitably be engag'd in Errour Wisdom Truth Perfection and Happiness are not Goods to be hop'd for from the Body There is none except ONE that is above us and from whom we receive our Being who can make it perfect This is what we are taught by these admirable Words of St. Austin Eternal Wisdom says he is the Principle of all Intellectual Creatures which persisting immutably the same never ceases to speak to the most secret and inward Reason of his Creatures to convert them
as that Good ought to be lov'd and Evil avoided that Righteousness ought to be lov'd more than Riches that 't is better to obey GOD than to command Men and infinite other Natural Laws For the knowledge of all these Laws is not different from the knowledge of that impression which they constantly feel within themselves though they do not always follow it by the free choice of their Will and which they know to be common to all Minds though it be not equally strong and powerful in them all 'T is by this Dependance of our Mind and its Relation and Union to the WORD of GOD and of our Will to his Love that we are made after the Image and Similitude of GOD. And though this Image be very much blurr'd and defac'd by Sin yet it is necessary for it to subsist as long as we our selves But if we bear the Image of the WORD humbled upon Earth and obey the Motions of the Holy Spirit that Primitive Image of our first Creation that Union of our Mind to the WORD of the FATHER and to the Love of the FATHER and of the SON will be repair'd and be made indelible We shall become like GOD if we be like the Man-God Lastly GOD will be wholly in us and we shall be wholly in GOD in a far perfecter manner than that whereby it is necessary to our Subsistence that we should be in Him and He in us These then are some of the Reasons that induce us to believe that our Minds perceive all things through the intimate presence of Him who comprehends all things in the Simplicity of his Essence Let every one judge of them according to the internal conviction he shall receive after he has seriously consider'd them But for my own part I can see no probability in any other way of explaining it and I presume this last will appear more than probable Thus our Souls depend on GOD all manner of ways For as it is He who makes them feel Pleasure and Pain and all the other Sensations by the Natural Union He has instituted between them and their Bodies which is no other than His Decree and general Will So it is He who by means of the Natural Union He has plac'd between the Will of Man and the Representation of Idea's included in the immensity of the Divine Essence gives them to know all that they know Nor is this Natural Union any thing but his general Will. So that 't is He only who can enlighten us by representing all things to us as 't is He alone that can make us happy by giving us to taste all sorts of Pleasures Let us persist then in our perswasion that GOD is the intelligible World or the place of Spirits as the material World is the place of Bodies That 't is from His Power they receive all their Modifications that 't is in His Wisdom they discover all their Idea's and 't is by His Love they are influenc'd with all their regulated Motions And because His Power and His Love are nothing but Himself let us believe with St. Paul that He is not far from every one of us and that in Him we live and move and have our Being Non longè est ab unoquoque nostrûm in ipso enim vivimus movemur sumus CHAP. VII I. Four different manners of Perception II. How it is that we know GOD. III. How we know Bodies IV. How we know our own Souls V. How we know the Souls of other Men and Pure Spirits IN order to give an extract and illustration of the Notion I have just establish'd concerning the manner of our Minds perceiving all the different Objects of its knowledge it is necessary I should distinguish in it Four manners or ways of Knowing things The First is that whereby we know things by themselves The Second is that of knowing them by their Idea's that is as I understand it in this place by something that is different from themselves The Third is that of Conscience or by internal Sensation The Fourth is their knowing them by Conjecture We know things by themselves immediately and without Idea's when being of a most intelligible Nature they can penetrate the Mind or discover themselves to it We know things by their Idea's when they are not intelligible by themselves whether because they are Corporeal or that they cannot penetrate the Mind or discover themselves to it We know by Conscience whatever is not distinguish'd from our selves Lastly we know by Conjecture the things which are different from our selves and from those we know in themselves and by Idea's when we think that some things are like some others that we already know Of all the things that come under our Knowledge we know none but GOD by Himself For though there be other Spiritual Beings besides Him and such as seem intelligible by their own Nature yet in our present State there is none but He that penetrates the Mind and discovers Himself to it 'T is GOD alone that we see with an immediate and direct View and possibly He alone is able to enlighten the Mind by his own Substance Finally in this Life it is from nothing but the Union that we have with Him that we are capable of knowing what we know as has been explain'd in the foregoing Chapter For he only is our Master who presides over our Mind according to St. Austin without the Deputation or Interposition of any Creature It cannot be conceiv'd that any thing Created can represent infinite that Being without restriction the immense Being the universal Being can be perceiv'd by an Idea that is by a particular Being and a Being different from the universal and infinite Being But as to particular Beings there is no difficulty to conceive how they can be represented by the infinite Being that includes them and includes them in a most Spiritual and consequently most intelligible manner Thus it is necessary to say that GOD is intelligible by Himself though the knowledge we have of Him in this Life be very imperfect and confus'd and that Corporeal things are intelligible by their Idea's that is to say in GOD since GOD alone contains the intelligible World wherein are found the Idea's of all things But though things are possible to be seen in GOD it does not follow that we do see all things in Him We see only those things in Him whereof we have Idea's and there are things We see without Idea's All things in the World whereof we have any knowledge are either Bodies or Spirits properties of Bodies and properties of Spirits As to Bodies 't is not to be doubted but we see them together with their Properties by their Idea's forasmuch as being unintelligible of themselves there is no possibility of seeing them except in that Being which contains them in an intelligible manner Bodies then and their Properties are seen in GOD and by their Idea's and for this reason
a convenient Staâ—e but the Soul relishes it with great Satisfaction whereas it is never in a State conâ—rary to its Good and Preservation but that she endures it with pain And therefore when we follow the Motions of our Passions and stop not the Course of the Spirits which the View of the Object of the Passion produces in the Body to put in it the most convenient State with relation to that Object the Soul by Nature's Law is affected with a Sensation of Satisfaction and Delight because her Body is in the Disposition it requires whereas when according to the Laws of Reason the Soul stops the Current of the Spirits and withstands those Passions she suffers a Pain proportionable to the Evil that may from thence arise to the Body For as the Reflection that the Soul makes upon her self is necessarily accompanied with the Joy or Sorrow of the Mind and afterwards with the Joy or Sorrow of the Senses when doing her Duty and submitting to the Orders of God she is conscious that she is in a due and convenient state or when having given her self up to her Passions she is afterwards affected with Remorse which teaches her that she is in a corrupt Disposition So the Course of the Spirits raised for the good of the Body is first attended with sensible and afterwards with Spiritual Joy or Sorrow according as the Course of the Animal Spirits is retarded or promoted by the Will There is however this notable difference betwixt the Intellectual Joy that attends the clear Knowledge of the good Estate of the Soul and the sensible Pleasure that accompanies the confused Sensation of the good disposition of the Body that the intellectual Joy is solid and substantial without Remorse and as immutable as its Original Cause the Truth whereas sensible Joy is almost ever followed with the Sorrow of the Mind or the Remorse of the Conscience and is as restless and fickle as the Passion or Agitation of the Blood from whence it proceeds To conclude the first is for the most part attended with an exceeding Joy of the Senses when it is derived from the Knowledge of the great good that the Soul possesses whereas the other is very rarely accompanied with any great Joy of the Mind though it proceeds from a Good considerable for the Body but contrary to the Good or Perfection of the Soul 'T is nevertheless true That without the Grace of our Lord the satisfaction the Soul relishes when she gives her self up to her Passions is more grateful than that which she enjoys when she follows the Rules of Reason which satisfaction is the Source of all the Disorders that have attended the Original Sin and would have made us all Slaves to our Passions had not the Son of God rid us from their Tyranny by the Delectation of his Grace For what I have said on behalf of the Joy of the Mind in opposition to the Joy of the Senses is only true amongst the Christians and was altogether false in the Mouths of Seneca Epicurus and all the most rational of the Heathen Philosophers because the Yoke of Christ is only sweet to those that belong to him and his Burthen only light when his Grace helps us to support the Weight of it CHAP. IV. That the Pleasure and Motion of the Passions engage us in Errours and false Judgments about Good That we ought continually to resist them How to impugn Libertinism ALL those general Qualities and Effects of the Passions that we have hitherto treated of are not free they are in us without our Leave and nothing but the Consent of our Will is wholly in our Power The View or Apprehension of Good is naturally followed with a Motion of Love a Sensation of Love a Concussion of the Brain a Motion of the Spirits a new Commotion of the Soul that encreases the first Motion of Love a new Sensation of the Soul that likewise augments the first Sensation of Love and lastly a Sensation of Satisfaction which recompenses the Soul for the Bodies being in a convenient State All this happens to the Soul and Body naturally and mechanally that is without her having any part in it nothing but her Consent being her own real Work This Consent we must regulate preserve and keep free in spite of all the Struggle and Attempts of the Passions We ought to submit our Liberty to none but God and to yield to nothing but to the Voice of the Author of Nature to inward Evidence and Conviction and to the secret Reproaches of our Reason We ought never to consent but when we plainly see we should make an ill Use of our Liberty in with-holding our Consent This is the principal Rule to be observ'd for the avoiding of Errour God only makes us evidently perceive That we ought to yield to what he requires of us to him alone therefore we ought to devote our Services There is no Evidence in the Allurements and Caresses in the Threats and Frightnings caused in us of the Passions they are only confused and obscure Sensations to which we must never yield up our selves We must wait till all those false Glimpses of the Passions vanish till a purer Light illuminates us till God speaks inwardly to us We must enter within our selves and there seek him that never leaves us that always enlightens us He speaks low but his Voice is distinct his Light is weak but pure But no his Voice is as strong as 't is distinct and his Light is as bright and active as 't is pure But our Passions continually keep us from home and by their Noise and Darkness hinder us from being instructed by his Voice and illuminated by his Light He speaks even to those that ask him no Questions and those whom Passions have carried farthest from him fail not yet many times to hear some of his Words but loud threatning astonishing Words sharper than a two-edged Sword piercing into the inmost Recesses of the Soul and discerning the Thoughts and Designs of the Heart For all things are open to his Eyes and he cannot see the unruly Actions of Sinners without lashing them inwardly with smarting Reproofs We must then re-enter into our selves and approach near him we must interrogate him listen to him and obey him for by always listning to him we shall never be deceived and always obeying him we shall never be subjected to the Inconstancy of the Passions and the Miserie 's due to Sin We must not like some pretenders to Wit whom the Violence of Passion has reduced to the Condition of Beasts who having a long time despised the Law of God seem at last to have retained no Knowledge of any other than that of their infamous Passions We must not I say imagine as do those Men of Flesh and Blood that it is following God and obeying the Voice of the Author of Nature to give up our selves to the Motions of Passions and to comply with the secret Desires
Ideas for we must only reason upon our Ideas and if there be any thing of which we have no clear distinct and particular Idea we shall never know it nor argue from it with any Certainty Whereas perhaps by reasoning upon our Ideas we may follow Nature and perhaps discover that she is not so hidden as is commonly imagin'd As those who have not study'd the Properties of Numbers often imagine that it is not possible to resolve some Problemes which are however simple and easie so those that have not meditated upon the Properties of Extension Figures and Motions are very apt to believe and even to assert that most part of the Physical Questions are inexplicable But we must not be deterr'd by the Opinion of those who have examin'd nothing or nothing at least with due Application For though few Truths concerning Natural Things have been fully demonstrated yet 't is certain that there are some that are general which cannot be doubted of though it be very possible not to think upon them to know nothing of them and to deny them If we meditate orderly and with due Time and all necessary Application we shall discover several of those certain Truths I speak of But for more Conveniency it will be requisite carefully to read des Cartes's Principles of Philosophy without approving of any thing he says till the Strength and Plainness of his Reasons shall suffer us to doubt no longer As Moral Philosophy is the most necessary of all Sciences so it must be study'd with the greatest Application it being very dangerous to follow in this the Opinions of Men. But to the avoiding Errour and keeping to Evidence in our Perceptions we must only meditate upon such Principles as are confess'd by all those whose Hearts are not corrupted by Debauchery and their Minds blinded with Pride For there is no Moral Principle undeniable to Minds of Flesh and Blood who aspire to the Quality of Bold Wits Such People conceive not the most simple Truths or if they do they constantly deny them through a Spirit of Contradiction and to keep up the Reputation of great Wits Some of the most general Principles of Morality are That God having made all things for himself has made our Understanding to know and our Will to love him That being so just and powerful as he is we cannot be happy but by obeying his Commands nor be unhappy in following them That our Nature is corrupted our Mind depending on our Body our Reason on our Senses and our Will on our Passions That we are uncapable of performing what we plainly see to be our Duty and that we have need of a Redeemer There are yet many other Moral Principles as That Retirement and Penitency are necessary to diminish our Union with sensible Objects and to increase that which we have with intelligible Goods true Goods and the Goods of the Mind That we cannot enjoy vehement Pleasures without becoming Slaves to them That nothing must be undertaken by Passion That we must not long for Settlements in this Life c. But because these last Principles depend on the former and on the Knowledge of Man it behoves us not to take them at first for granted If we orderly meditate upon those Principles with as much Care and Application as so great a Subject deserves and admit no Conclusion for true but such as follows from those Principles we shall compose a very certain System of Morals and perfectly agreeable with that of the Gospel though not so large and compleat I grant that in Moral Reasonings it is not so easie to preserve Evidence and Exactness as in some other Sciences and that the Knowledge of Man being absolutely necessary to those that will proceed far many Learners make no considerable Progresses therein They will not consult themselves to be sensible of the Weakness of their Nature They are soon weary of interrogating the Master who inwardly teaches them his Will that is the Immutable and Eternal Laws and the true Principles of Morality They cannot listen with Pleasure to him that speaks not to their Senses who answers not according to their Desires and flatters not their secret Pride They have no Veneration for such Words the Lustre of which dazles not their Imagination which are lowly pronounc'd and never distinctly heard but when the Creatures are silent But they consult with Pleasure and Reverence Aristotle Seneca or some new Philosophers who seduce them by the Obscurity of their Words by the Elegancy of their Expressions or the Probability of their Reasons Since the Fall of our first Parents we esteem nothing but what refers to the Preservation of the Body and the Conveniencies of Life and as we discover that sort of Good by means of the Senses so we endeavour to use them on all Occasions The Eternal Wisdom which is our true Life and the only Light that can illuminate us often shines but upon the Blind and speaks but to the Deaf when it speaks within the Recesses of our Soul because we are for the most part exercis'd abroad And as we are continually putting Questions to the Creatures to learn any News from them of the Good we are in search of it was requisite as I have said elsewhere that this Wisdom should offer it self to our Senses yet without going out of our selves that we might learn by sensible Words and convincing Examples the way to eternal Happiness God perpetually imprints on us a natural Love for him that we may always love him yet by that same Motion of Love we incessantly recede from him running with all the strength he gives us to the sinsible Good which he forbids us to love and therefore as he desires we should love him so he must make himself sensible and offer himself before us to stop by the delectation of his Grace all our restless Agitations and begin our Cure by Sensations or Satisfactions like to the preventing Pleasures that had been the Original of our Disease For these reasons I pretend not that Men may easily discover by the strength of their Mind all the Rules of Morality necessary to Salvation and much less that they should be able to act according to their Light for their Heart is still more corrupted than their Mind I only say that if they admit nothing but evident Principles and argue consequently from them they shall discover the same Truths that are taught us in the Gospel because it is the same Wisdom which speaks immediately and by it self to those that discover the Truth in evident Reasonings and which speaks in the Holy Scriptures to those that understand them in their right sense We must therefore study Morality in the Gospel to spare our selves the trouble of Meditation and to learn with certainty the Laws and Rules of our Life and Manners As to those who are not satisfied with a bare Certainty because it only convinces the Mind without enlightening it they must meditate upon those Laws and
act upon our Mind In a word we are neither our own Light nor our own Felicity as I have proved at large in the Third Book and elsewhere Lastly God inclines us to this particular Good For God inducing us to all that 's Good by a necessary Consequence inclines us to particular Goods by producing the Idea or Sensation of them in our Mind This therefore is all that God effects in us when we sin But whereas a particular Good includes not in it all Good and the Mind considering it with a clear and distinct View cannot imagine it concludes all God does not necessarily and invinsibly incline us to the love of it We are conscious of the Liberty we have to stay this Love and of our Tendency to proceed farther In a word we feel the Impression we have for Good Universal or to speak as others do we are sensible that our Will is not under any constraint or necessity to fix upon this particular Good So then this is what the Sinner does He stops he rests he follows not the Impression of God he does nothing For Sin is Nothing He knows that the grand Rule he is to observe is to employ his Liberty so far as it will go and that he is not to fasten upon any Good unless he be inwardly convinc'd it would be offending against ORDER to refuse to stay upon it If he discovers not this Rule by the light of his Reason he learns it at least from the secret Reproaches of his Conscience He is obliged then to follow the Impression he receives for the Universal Good and to think of other Goods besides what he enjoys and what he is only to make use of For 't is by thinking on other Goods besides what he enjoys that he can produce in himself new Determinations of his Love and make use of his Liberty Now I prove that by the Impression God gives him for Good in general he may think of other Goods besides that of his present Enjoyment it being precisely in this that the Difficulty consists 'T is a Law of Nature that the Ideas of Objects should offer themselves to our Mind when we desire to think of them provided our Capacity of Thought be not fill'd up by the lively and confus'd Sensations we receive occasionally from the Motions in our Body Now we can Will the thinking on all things because the natural Impression which carries us towards Good reaches to all possible Objects of our Thought And we can at all times think on all things because we are united to Him who comprehends the Ideas of all things as I have formerly proved If it be true then that we can Will the considering nearly what we already see as afar off since we are united with the Universal Being and if it be certain that by virtue of the Laws of Nature Ideas approach us when we desire it we ought thence to infer First That we have a Principle of our Determinations For 't is the actual Presence of particular Ideas that positively determines towards particular Goods the Motion we have towards Good in general and so changes our Natural Love into Free and deliberate Loves Our Consent or Acquiescence in the preception of a Particular Good has nothing real or positive in it on our Part as I shall explain by and by Secondly That the Principle of our Determinations is always free in regard to particular Goods For we are not invincibly inclin'd to love them since we can examine them in themselves and compare them with the Idea which we have of the Sovereign Good or with other particular Goods Thus the Principle of our Liberty consists in this that being made for God and united to him we can always think on the true Good or on other Goods besides those which our Thoughts are actually engag'd on But this on supposition that our Sensations do not take up the Capacity of our Mind For to the end we may be free with the Liberty foremention'd it is necessary not only that God should not push us invincibly to particular Goods but also that we should be able to employ our Impression for Good in general to the loving other Objects than those we love at present But as those only can be the actual Objects of our Love which can be of our Thoughts and that we cannot actually think except on those which occasion very lively Sensations whilst they occasion them it is plain that the dependance we have upon our Body weakens our Liberty and in many Junctures quite destroys the use of it So that our Sensations obliterating our Ideas and the Union we have with our Body whereby we discern only our selves enfeebling that we have with God whereby all things are present to us the Mind ought not to give way to be shar'd by confus'd Sensations if it would preserve entire the free Principle of its Determinations From all which it is evident that God is not the Author of Sin and that Man endues not himself with any new Modifications God is not the Author of Sin because he continually impresses on the Sinner who stops at a particular Good a Motion to go farther gives him a Power of thinking on other things and tending to other Goods than those which actually engage his Thoughts and Affections and commands him not to love whatever he can refuse to love without inward Disquiet and Remorse withal continually recalling him to his God by the secret Reproaches of his Reason 'T is true that in one sense God inclines the Sinner to Love the Object of his Sin if this Object appears Good to a Sinner for as most Divines say whatever there is of a positive nature of Act or Motion in the Sin proceeds from God But 't is only by a false Judgment of our Mind that the Creatures seem good to us I mean capable of acting in us and making us happy But the Sin of a Man consists not in his loving a particular Good for every Good as such is amiable but in his loving only this Good or loving it as much or more than another that is greater or in his loving a Good which God forbids him to enjoy for that the Mind being subject to the Body pursuant to the Fall the Love or rather the Enjoyment of this Good would encrease his Concupiscence and alienate him from the love of the supreme Good In a word the Sin of Man consists in his not referring all particular Goods to the supreme or rather in his not considering and loving the supreme Good in all the particular and so not regulating his Love by the WILL of GOD or according to essential and necessary ORDER of which all Men have a more or less perfect Knowledge as they are stricter or looser united to God or are more or less Sensible to the Impressions of their Senses and Passions For our Senses import our Soul into our whole Body and our Passions as it were export
our Freedom on its respect But whereas this inward Sensation is sometimes absent from our Mind and we consult only what confus'd remains it has left in our Memory we may by the consideration of abstracted reasons which keep us from an inward feeling persuade our selves that 't is impossible for Man to be free Just as a Stoick who in want of nothing and Philosophizing at his Case may imagine that Pain is no Evil because the Internal Sense he has of himself does not actually convince him of the contrary and so he may prove like Seneca by reasons in one sense most true that 't is a contradiction for the wise man to be miserable But though our Self-consciousness were insufficient to convince us of our Freedom yet Reason might evince as much For since the light of Reason assures us that God acts only for himself and that he can give no Motion to us but what must tend towards him the Impression towards Good in general may be irresistible but 't is plain that that which we have for particular Goods must be necessarily free For if it were invincible we should have no Motion to carry us to God though he gives it only for himself and we should be constrain'd to settle on particular Goods though GOD ORDER and REASON forbid us So that Sin could not be laid at our door and God would be the real Cause of our Corruptions forasmuch as we should not be Free but purely Natural and altogether necessary Agents Thus though inward Sensation did not teach us we were free Reason would discover it was necessary for Man to be created so if we suppose him capable of desiring particular Goods and only capable of desiring them through the Impression or Motion which God perpetually gives us for himself Which likewise may be prov'd by Reason But our capacity to suffer Pain cannot be prov'd this way but can only be discover'd by Conscience or inward Sensation and yet no Man can doubt but a Man is liable to suffer Pain As we know not our Soul by any clear Idea we have of it as I have before explain'd so 't is in vain to try to discover what it is in us that terminates the Action which God impresses or that yields to be conquer'd by a resistible Determination and which we may change by our Will or by our Impression towards all Good and our Union with him who includes the Ideas of all Beings For in short we have no clear Idea of any Modification of our Soul Nothing but our Internal Sense can teach us that we are and what we are and this only must be consulted to convince us we are free And its Answers are clear and satisfactory enough upon the Point when we actually propose to our selves any particular Good for no Man whatever can doubt whether he be invinsibly inclin'd to eat of a Fruit or avoid some slight inconsiderable Pain But if instead of hearkning to our Inward Sensation we attend to abstracted Reasons which throw us off the Contemplation of our selves possibly losing sight of them we may forget that we are in Being and trying to reconcile the prescience of God and his absolute power over us with our Liberty we shall plunge into an Errour that will overturn all the Principles of Religion and Morality I produce here an Objection which is usually made against what I have been saying which though but very weak and defective is strong enough to give a great many trouble to evade The Hating of God say they is an Action which does not partake of Good and therefore is all the Sinner's God having no part in it And consequently Man acts and gives himself new Modifications by an action which does not come from God I Answer That Sinners hate not God but because they freely and falsly judge that he is Evil for Good consider'd as such cannot be the Object of Hatred Therefore they hate God with that very Motion of Love he influences them with towards Good Now the Reason why they conclude he is not Good is their making an undue use of their Liberty for being not convinc'd with irresistible Evidence that he is not Good they ought not to believe him Evil nor consequently to hate him In Hatred two things may be distinguish'd viz. the Sensation of the Soul and Motion of the Will This Sensation cannot be Evil for it is a Modification of the Soul and has neither Moral Good nor Ill in it Nor is the Motion more corrupt since it is not distinguishable from that of Love For External Evil being only the privation of Good 't is manifest that to fly Evil is to fly the privation of Good that is to pursue Good Wherefore all that is real and positive even in our Hatred of God himself has nothing Evil in it and the Sinner cannot hate God without an abominable abuse of the action which God incessantly gives to incline him to the Love of Him God works whatever is real in the Sensations of Concupiscence and yet is not the Author of Concupiscence AS the Difficulties that are rais'd about Concupiscence are near akin to those before explain'd I think it convenient to shew that God is not the Author of Concupiscence though it be he that works all in us even in the production of sensible Pleasure It ought I think to be granted for the Reasons produc'd in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book of the preceding Treatise and elsewhere that by the natural Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body Man even before the Fall was inclin'd by preventing Pleasures to the use of sensible Goods and that as often as such and such Traces were delineated in the principal part of his Brain such and such Thoughts arose in his Mind Now those Laws were most Proper and Equitable for the Reasons I there have given Which being suppos'd as before the Trangressions all things were perfectly well order'd so Man had necessarily that Power over his Body as that he could prevent the production of these Traces when he would Order requiring that his Mind should have the Dominion over his Body Which Power of his Mind precisely consisted in this that according to its different Desires and Applications it stopt the Communication of Motions which were produc'd in his own Body by circumambient Objects over which his Will had not an immediate and direct Authority as over his proper Body And it cannot I think be conceiv'd how he could hinder the Formation of the Traces in his Brain any other way Therefore the Will of God or the general Law of Nature which is the true Cause of the Communication of Motions depended on some occasions upon the Will of Adam For God had that consideration for him that he produc'd not without his consent new Motions in his Body or at least in the principal part to which his Soul was immediately uniâ—ed Such was the Institution of Nature before the Sin ORDER would
have it so and consequently HE whose essential and necessary Will is always conformable to ORDER Which Will remaining immutably the same the Establish'd Order was subverted by the first Man's Disobedience because for the demerits of his Sin it was consonant to Order that he should be Lord of nothing It is not reasonable that the Sinner should suspend the Communication of Motions that the Will of God should conform to his or that any exceptions should be made to the Law of Nature on his Behalf In so much that Man is subject to Concupiscence his Mind depends on his Body he feels in himself indeliberate Pleasures and involuntary and rebellious Motions pursuant to that most just and exact Law which unites the two Parts of which he is compos'd Thus the formal Reason of Concupiscence no less than that of Sin is nothing real and positive being no more in Man than the loss of the Power he had to wave and suspend to the Communication of Motions on some occasions Nor are we to admit any positive Will in God to produce it For this loss which Man has sustain'd was not a consequence of Order or of the immutable Will of God which never swerves from it and is constantly the same but only a consequence of Sin which has rendred Man unworthy of an Advantage due only to his Innocence and Uprightness Wherefore we may say that not God but Sin only has been the Cause of Concupiscence Nevertheless God Works all that is Real and Positive in the Sensations and Motions of Concupiscence for God does every thing but all that has nothing of Evil. 'T is by the general Law of Nature that is by the Will of God that sensible Objects produce in Man's Body certain Motions and that these Motions raise in the Soul certain Sensations useful to the preservation of the Body or the Porpagation of the Species Who then dare presume to say these things are not good in themselves I know it is said that Sin is the Cause of certain Pleasures But do they that say it conceive it Can it be thought that Sin which is nothing should actually produce something Can nothing be suppos'd to be a real Cause However 't is so said but possibly for want of taking due pains of seriously considering what they say or because they are unwilling to enter on an Explication that is contrary to the Discourses they have heard from Men who it may be talk with more Gravity and Assurance than Reflexion and Knowledge Sin is the Cause of Concupiscence but not of Pleasure as Free Will is the Cause of Sin though not of the natural Motion of the Soul The Pleasure of the Soul is good as well as its Motion or Love and there is nothing good but what God does The Rebellion of the Body and the guilt of Pleasure proceed from Sin As the Adherency of the Soul to a particular Good or its Rest proceeds from the Sinner But these are only Privations and Nothings whereof the Creature is capable Every Pleasure is Good and likewise in some measure makes happy the Possessour at least for the time of the Enjoyment But it may be said to be evil because instead of elevating the Mind to Him that is the true Cause of it through the Errour of our Intellectual and corruption of our Moral Part it prostrates it before sensible Objects that only seem to produce it Again it is evil in as much as it is Injustice in us who are Sinners and consequently meriting rather to be punish'd than rewarded to oblige God pursuant to his Primitive Will to recompense us with pleasant Sensations In a word not to repeat here what I have said in other places it is evil because God at present forbids it by Reason of its alienating the Mind from himself for whom he hath made and preserves it For that which was ordain'd by God to preserve Righteous Man in his Innocence now fixes sinful Man in his Sin and the Sensations of Pleasure which he wisely establish'd as the easiest and most obvious Expedients to teach Man without calling off his Reason from his true Good whether he ought to unite himself with the invironing Bodies at present fill the Capacity of his Mind and fasten him on Objects incapable of acting in him and infinitely below him because he looks upon these Objects to be the true Causes of the Happiness he enjoys occasionally from them THE SECOND ILLUSTRATION UPON THE First CHAPTER of the First BOOK Where I say That the Will cannot diversly determine its Propensity to Good but by commanding the Vnderstanding to represent to it some particular Object IT must not be imagin'd that the Will commands the Understanding any other Way than by its Desires and Motions there being no other Action of the Will nor must it be believ'd that the Understanding obeys the Will by producing in it self the Ideas of Things which the Soul desires for the Understanding acts not at all but only receives Light or the Ideas of Things through its necessary Union with Him who comprehends all Beings in an intelligible manner as is explain'd in the Third Book Here then is all the Mystery Man participates of the Sovereign Reason and Truth displays it self to him proportionably to his Application and his praying to it Now the Desire of the Soul is a Natural Prayer that is always heard it being a natural Law that Ideas should be so much readier and more present to the Mind as the Will is more earnest in desiring them Thus provided our Thinking Capacity or Understanding be not clogg'd and fill'd up by the confus'd Sensations we receive occasionally from the Motions occurring in our Body we should no sooner desire to think on any Object but its Idea would be always present to our Mind which Idea Experience witnessing is so much more present and clear as our Desire is more importunate and our confus'd Sensations furnish'd to us by the Body less forcible and applicative as I have said in the foregoing Illustration Therefore in saying that the Will commands the Understanding to represent to it some particular Object I meant no more than that the Soul willing to consider that Object with Attention draws near it by her Desire because this Desire consequently to the efficacious Wills of God which are the inviolable Laws of Nature is the Cause of the Presence and Clearness of the Idea that represents the Object I could not at that time speak otherwise than I did nor explain my self as I do at present as having not yet prov'd God the sole Author of our Ideas and our particular Volitions only the occasional Causes of them I spoke according to the common Opinion as I have been frequently oblig'd to do because all cannot be said at once The Reader ought to be equitable and give Credit for some time if he would have Satisfaction for none but Geometricians pay always down in hand THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE
by these Sensations what he ought to do for the preservation of his Life But he was never willing to be perturbated by them in spight of his VVill. For that 's a Contradiction Moreover when he desir'd to apply himself to the contemplation of Truth without any distraction of Thought his Senses and his Passions kept an intire Silence Order would it should be so for that 's a necessary sequel of that absolute power he had over his Body I answer secondly that it is not true that the Pleasure of the Soul is the same thing with its Motion and its Love Pleasure and Love are modes of the Souls Existence But Pleasure has no necessary relation to the object that seems to cause it and Love is necessarily related unto Good Pleasure is to the Soul what Figure is to Body and Motion is to Body what Love is to the Soul But the Motion of a Body is very different from its Figure I grant that the Soul which has a constant Propeâ—sity to Good advances as I may say more readily towards it when instigated by a sense of Pleasure that when discourag'd by her suffering Pain as a Body when driven runs easier along if it have a Spherical than if it have a Cubical Figure But the figure of a Body differs from its Motion and it may be Spherical and yet remain at rest 'T is true in this case it goes not with Spirits as with Bodies those cannot feel a Pleasure but they must be in motion because God who only makes and preserves them for himself drives them perpetually on towards good But that does not prove that the pleasure of the Soul is the same thing as its Motion For two things though differing from each other may yet be always found inseparably together I answer lastly that although pleasure were not different from the Love or Motion of the Soul yet that which the first Man felt in the use of the goods of the Body did not incline him to the Loving Bodies 'T is true Pleasure carries the Soul towards the object that causes it in her But it is not the Fruit that we eat with Pleasure which causes the Pleasure in us Not Bodies but God only can act upon the Soul and in any manner make it happy And we are in an Error to think that Bodies have in them what we feel occasionally from their presence Adam before his Sin being not so stupid as to imagine that Bodies were the causes of his Pleasures was not carry'd to the love of them by the motions that accompany'd his Pleasures If pleasure contributed to the fall of the first Man it was not by working in him what at present it does in us But only by filling up or dividing his capacity of Thought it effac'd or diminish'd in his Mind the presence of his true good and of his Duty OBJECTION against the sixth Article What likelyhood is there that the immutable Will of God had a dependance on the will of Man and that on Adam's behalf there were exceptions made to the general Law of the Communication of Motions ANSWER At least it is not evident but such exception might be made now it is evident that immutable order requires the subjection of the Body to the Mind and 't is a contradiction for God not to love and will order for God necessarily loves his Son Therefore it was necessary before the Sin of the first Man that exceptions should be made in his favour to the general Law of the Communication of Motions This seems it may be of a too abstracted nature Here then is somewhat of a more sensible kind Man though a Sinner has the power of moving and stopping his Arm when he pleases Therefore according to the different Volitions of Man the Animal Spirits are determin'd to the raising or stopping some Motions in his Body which certainly cannot be perform'd by the general Law of the Communication of Motions If then the will of God be still submitted to our own why might it not be submitted to the will of Adam If for the good of the Body and of civil Society God stops the communication of motions in Sinners why would he not do the like in favour of a Righteous Man for the good of his Soul and for the preservation of the Union and Society with his God for whom only he was made As God will have no Society with Sinners so after the Sin he depriv'd them of the power they had to sequester themselves as it were from the Body to unite themselves with him But he has left them the Power of stopping or changing the communication of Motions with reference to the preservation of Life and of Civil Society Because he was not willing to destroy his Work having before the construction of it decreed according to St. Paul to re-establish and renew it in Jesus Christ. OBJECTION against the Seventh Article Man in his present state conveys his Body all manner of ways he moves at pleasure all the parts of it which are necessary to be mov'd for the prosecution and shunning of sensible good and evil and consequently he stops or changes every moment the natural communication of motions not only for trifles and things of little importance but also for things useless to Life and civil Society and even for Crimes which violate Society shorten Life and dishonour God all manner of ways God wills order it is true But will order have the laws of motions violated for the sake of Evil and kept inviolable on the account of Good Why must Man lose the power of stopping the motions which sensible objects produce in his Body since these Motions keep him from doing good from repairing to God and returning to his duty and yet retain the power of doing so much evil by his Tongue and his Arm and other parts of his Body whose motions depend upon his will ANSWER To the answering this Objection it must be consider'd that Man having sin'd ought to have return'd to his Original nothing For being no longer in Order nor able to retrieve it he ought to cease to Exist God loves only order the Sinner is not in order and therefore not in the Love of God The Sinner therefore cannot subsist since the subsistence of Creatures depends on the will of the Creator but he wills not that they should exist if he does not love them The Sinner cannot by himself regain lost order because he cannot justifie himself and all that he can suffer cannot atone for his offence He must then be reduc'd to nothing But as it is unreasonable to think that God makes a Work to annihilate it or to let it fall into a state worse than annihilation 't is evident that God would not have made Man nor permitted his Sin which he foresaw unless he had had in view the Incarnation of his Son in whom all things subsist and by whom the Universe receives a Beauty a Perfection
her Infant the Mother is the cause of the Sin and the Father has no part in it Yet St. Paul teaches us that by Man came sin into the World He does not so much as speak of the Woman Therefore c. ANSWER David assures us that his Mother conceiv'd him in iniquity and the Son of Syrach says Of the Woman came the beginning of Sin and by her we all dy Neither of them speak of Man St. Paul on the contrary says that by Man Sin entred into the World and speaks not of the Woman How will these Testimonies accord and which of the two is to be justify'd if it be necessary to vindicate either In discourse we never attribute to the Woman any thing peculiar to the Man wherein she has no part But that is often ascrib'd to the Man which is proper to the VVoman because her Husband is her Master and Head We see that the Evangelists and also the Holy Virgin call Joseph the Father of Jesus when she says to her Son Behold thy Father and I have sought thee sorrowing Therefore seeing we are assur'd by Holy Writ that Woman has subjected us to Sin and Death it is absolutely necessary to believe it nor can it be thrown upon the Man But though it testifies in several places that 't is by Man that Sin enters into the World yet there is not an equal necessity to believe it since what is of the Woman is commonly attributed to the Man And if we were oblig'd by Faith to excuse either the Man or the Woman it would be more reasonable to excuse the former than the latter However I believe these forecited passages are to be litterally explain'd and that we are to say both the Man and Woman are the true causes of Sin each in their own way The Woman in that by her Sin is communicated it being by her that the Man begets the Children and the Man in that his Sin is the cause of Concupiscence as his action is the cause of the fecundity of the Woman or of the communication that is between her and her Infant It is certain that 't is the Man that impregnates the Woman and consequently is the cause of that communication between her Body and the Child's since that communication is the Principle of its Life Now that Communication not only gives the Child's Body the dispositions of its Mother's but also gives its Mind the dispositions of her Mind Therefore we may say with St. Paul that by one Man sin entred into the world and nevertheless by reason of that communication we may say that Sin came from a Woman and by her we all dye and that our Mother has conceiv'd us in Iniquity as is said in other places of Scripture It may be said perhaps that though Man had not sinn'd yet Woman had produc'd sinful Children for having her self sinn'd she had lost the Power God gave her over her Body and thus though Man had remain'd Innocent she had corrupted the Brain and consequently the Mind of her Child by reason of that communication between them But this surely looks not very probable For Man whilst righteous knowing what he does cannot give the Woman that wretched fecundity of conceiving sinful Children If he remains Righteous he wills not any Children but for God to whom Infant Sinners cannot be well pleasing for I suppose not here a Mediator I grant however that in that case the Marriage had not been dissolv'd and that the Man had known his Wife But it is certain that the Body of the Woman belong'd to her Husband since it was taken out of his and was the same Flesh. Duo in carne una It is moreover certain that Children are as much the Fathers as the Mothers Which being so we can't be persuaded that the Woman would have lost the Power over her Body if her Husband had not sinn'd as well as she For if the Woman had been depriv'd of that Power whilst the Man remain'd Innocent there had been this Disorder in the Universe that an upright Man should have a corrupt Body and sinful Children Whereas it is against Order or rather a contradiction that a just God should punish a perfectly Innocent Man And for this reason Eve feels no involuntary and rebellious Motions immediately after her sin as yet she is not asham'd of her Nakedness nor goes to hide her self On the contrary she comes to her Husband though naked as her self her Eyes are not yet open'd but she is still as before the absolute Comptroller of her own Body Order requir'd that immediately after her Sin her Soul should be disturb'd by the rebellion of her Body and by the shame of her own and her Husband's nakedness for there was no reason that God should any longer suspend on her behalf the Laws of the Communication of Motions as I have said in the seventh Article But because her Body is her Husband 's who is as yet Innocent she is not punish'd in this Body but this punishment is deferr'd till the time that he should eat himself of the Fruit which she presented him Then it was they both began to feel the rebellion of their Body that they saw they were naked and that shame oblig'd them to cover themselves with Fig-leaves Thus we must say that Adam was truly the cause of Original Sin and Concupiscence since it was his Sin that depriv'd both himself and his Wife of their power over their Body by which defectiveness of power the Woman produces in the Brain of her Child such tracks as corrupt its Soul at the very instant of its Creation OBJECTION against the Twelfth Article 'T is but random divining to say the communication between the Mother's and the Infant 's Brain is necessary or useful to the conformation of the foetus For there is no such Communication between the Brain of an Hen and that of her Chickens which notwithstanding are perfectly and compleatly form'd ANSWER I answer that in the seventh Chapter of the Second Book I have sufficiently demonstrated that Communication by the use I make of it in explaining the Generation of Monsters as also certain natural Marks and Fears deriv'd from the Mother For 't is evident that a Man who swoons away at the sight of a Snake because his Mother was frighted with one when she bore him in her Womb could not be subject to that Infirmity but because formerly such Traces had been imprinted on his Brain as these which open upon seeing a Snake and that they were accompany'd with a like Accident And herein I am no Diviner for I do not venture to determine wherein that Communication precisely consists I might say it was perform'd by those Fibres which the Foetus shoots into the Matrix of the Mother and by the Nerves wherewith that part is very probably fill'd and in saying so I should no more divine than would a Man who had never seen the Engines call'd La Samaritaine in affirming
which answers the Chinese 't is evident I could not be assur'd as I am that the Chinese see the same Truths as I see Therefore the Reason we consult when we retire into our selves is an universal Reason I say when we retire into our selves for I speak not here of the Reason which is follow'd by a Man in a Passion When a Man prefers the Life of his Coach-Horse before that of his Coach-Man he has his Reasons for it but they are particular Reasons which every rational Man abhors They are reasons which at Bottom are not reasonable because not conformable to Soveraign or universal Reason which all Mankind consults I am certain that the Ideas of things are immutable and that Eternal Truths and Laws are necessary 'T is impossible they should not be what they are But in my self I find nothing either immutable or necessary 'T is possible for me not to exist or exist otherwise than I do There may be Minds that are not like me and yet I am certain there can be no mind that sees other Truths and Laws than what I see For every mind necessarily sees that two times two are four and that a Friend is to be prefer'd before a Dog We must then conclude That the Reason which is consulted by all minds is an immutable and necessary Reason Moreover it is evident that this same reason is Infinite The mind of Man clearly conceives that there either are or may be an infinite number of intelligible Triangles Tetragones Pentagones and other such like Figures Nor does it only conceive that the Ideas of figures are inexhaustible and that it might still discover new ones though it should study only these Figures to all Eternity but it perceives an Infinity in Extension The mind clearly perceives that the number which multiplied by it self produces 5 or any of the numbers between 4 and 9 between 9 and 16 between 16 and 25 c. is a Quantity a Relation a Fraction whose terms contain more figures than will reach from one Pole of the World to the other It clearly sees it is such a Relation as none but God can comprehend and that 't is impossible to express it exactly because to express it we need a Fraction whose two terms are Infinite I might bring a great many such Examples from which we might conclude not only that the Mind of Man is finite but that the Reason he consults is infinite For in brief his Mind clearly sees infinite in this Reason though he does not comprehend it since he can compare incommensurable numbers together and know their Relations though he cannot compare them with the unite Or that we may stick only to what is sensible The Reason which Man consults is infinite since it cannot be exhausted and it has always something to answer to whatever we demand But if it be true that the Reason whereof all Men participate be universal and infinite if it be true that it is immutable and necessary it is certain that it differs not from that of God himself For none but the universal and infinite Being contains in himself universal and infinite Reason All Creatures are particular Beings wherefore Vniversal Reason is not created No Creatures are infinite Universal Reason therefore is no Creature But the Reason we consult is not only Universal and Infinite but also necessary and independant and we conceive it in one sence more independant than God himself For God cannot but act by this Reason on which he in one sence depends and which he must needs consult and follow But God consults only himself He depends on nothing This Reason therefore is not distinct from him but is coeternal and consubstantial with him We see clearly that God cannot punish an innocent Creature that he cannot subject minds to Bodies and that he 's oblig'd to follow Order We see therefore the Rule Order and Reason of God for what other Wisdom than that of God can we see when we fear not to affirm that God is oblig'd to follow it But after all can we conceive any Wisdom which is not the Wisdom of God Does Solomon who speaks so well of Wisdom distinguish it into two sorts Does not he teach us that which is Coeternal with God that by which he has establish'd the Order we see in his Works is the same which presides over all Minds and which Legislators consult to make Just and Reasonable Laws We need only read the Eighth Chapter of Proverbs to be perswaded of this Truth I know that the Holy Scripture speaks of a certain Wisdom which it names the Wisdom of the Age the Wisdom of Men but then it speaks only according to appearance or ordinary Opinion For we learn in other places that that Wisdom is Folly and Abomination not only before God but before all Men that consult Reason Certainly if Eternal Laws and Truths depended on God and were establish'd by a free will of the Creator in a word if the Reason we consult were not necessary and independant it seems evident to me that we must bid farewel to all true Science and that we might err in affirming that the Arithmetick and Geometrie of the Chinese is the same as ours For indeed if it were not absolutely necessary that 2 times 4 should be 8 or the three Angles of a Triangle equal to two right ones what proof could we have that these sorts of Truth were not like those which are receiv'd but in some Universities and which continue but a certain Season Do we clearly conceive that God cannot desist to will what he will'd with a will absolutely free and indifferent or rather do we clearly conceive it impossible for God to have will'd certain things for a determinate time or place for some particular Persons or certain kinds of Beings supposing him as some will have him intirely free and indifferent in that Will For my own part I cannot conceive any Necessity in Indifferency nor reconcile two so opposite things together But let it be suppos'd that it can be clearly perceiv'd that God by a Will intirely indifferent has establish'd for all times and for all places Laws and Truths Eternal and that at present they are immutable because of that Decree But where do they see this Decree Has God created any Being representative of it Will they say it is a Modification of their Soul They see clearly that Decree for they have learn'd that Immutability is ascertain'd to Eternal Truths and Laws But where is it that they see it Certainly if they see it not in God they see it not at all For that Decree can be no where but in God nor can it be seen but where he is The Philosophers cannot then be certain of any thing unless they consult God and are answer'd by him 'T is in vain for them to exclaim and they must either yield or hold their Peace But after all that Decree is an ungrounded Imagination When we think
on Order and Eternal Laws and Truths we do not naturally enquire the Cause for they have none We do not clearly see the necessity of this Decree nor do we think immediately upon it On the contrary we perceive evidently by a simple view that the nature of numbers and intelligible Ideas is immutable necessary and independent We see clearly that it is absolutely necessary for 2 times 4 to be 8 and that the square of the Diagonal of a square is double to that square If we doubt of the absolute necessity of these Truths 't is because we turn our back upon their Light reason upon a false Principle and search for their nature their Immutability and independance out of themselves Thus the Decree for the Immutability of these Truths is a fiction of the mind which supposing it sees not what it sees in the Wisdom of God and knowing him to be the cause of all things thinks it self oblig'd to imagine a Decree to ascertain immutability to these Truths which it cannot choose but acknowledge to be immutable But this Supposition is false and we ought to beware of it 'T is only in the Wisdom of God that we see Eternal immutable and necessary Truths nor can we see any where else the Order which God himself is oblig'd to follow as I have said before The mind is made for that Wisdom and in one sence it can see nothing else For if it can see the Creatures 't is because He whom it sees though in a very imperfect manner during this life comprehends them all in the immensity of his Being in an intelligible manner and proportionate to the mind as I have shown in another place If we had not in our selves the Idea of Infinite and if we saw not all things by the natural union of our mind with universal and infinite Reason it seems evident that we could not have liberty to think on all things For the mind cannot desire to consider things except it has some Idea of them and it is not in its Power to think actually on any thing but what it may desire to think on And so we shall cashier Man of his Liberty of thinking on All if we separate his mind from him who comprehends all Again since we can love nothing but what we see if God should only give us particular Ideas it is manifest he would so determine all the Motions of our Will that it would be necessary for us to Love only particular Beings For in brief if we had not the Idea of infinite we could not love it and if those who positively affirm they have no Idea of God speak as they think I scruple not to affirm they have never lov'd God for nothing seems certainer to me than that nothing can be the Object of our Love which is not of our conception Lastly If Order and Eternal Laws were not immutable by the necessity of their nature the clearest and strongest proofs of Religion would I question not be destroy'd in their Principle as well as Liberty and the most certain Sciences For it is evident that the Christian Religion which proposes JESUS CHRIST as a Mediator and Restorer supposes the Corruption of nature by original Sin But what proof can we have of this Corruption The flesh wars you will say against the Spirit has brought it into subjection and tyrannizes over it This I grant But this says a Libertine is no Disorder This is as it pleas'd God who ordain'd it so who is the Master of his own decrees and who constitutes what Order he thinks fit amongst his Creatures How shall it be prov'd that 't is a Disorder for Minds to be subjected to Bodies unless we have a clear Idea of Order and necessity and know that God himself is oblig'd to follow it by a necessary Love which he bears to himself But farther supposing that Order depends on a free Decree of God we must still have recourse to him to be inform'd of it God must nevertheless be consulted notwithstanding the aversion which some of the Learned have to apply to him and this truth must still be granted that we have need of God to be instructed But that suppos'd free Decree which is the cause of Order is a meer fiction of mind for the Reasons I have given If it be not a necessary Order that Man should be made for his Author and that his will should be conformable to Order or to the essential and necessary will of God If it be not true that Actions are good or ill because agreeable or repugnant to an immutable and necessary Order and that this same order requires that the Good should be rewarded and the Evil punish'd Last of all if all Men have not naturally a clear Idea of Order even of such an one as God himself cannot will the contrary to what it prescribes since God cannot will Disorder certainly I can see nothing but Universal Confusion For what is there to be blam'd in the most infamous and unjust actions of the Heathens to whom God has given no Laws What will be the reason that will dare to judge them if there be no supream reason that condemns them There is a Poet who says 't is impossible to distinguish Justice from Injustice and a Philosopher that will have it an infirmity to blush or be asham'd for infamous actions These and the like Paradoxes are often asserted in the heat of Imagination and in the transport of the Passions But how can we condemn these Opinions if there be not an Universal and Necessary Order Rule or Reason which is also present to those who can retire into themselves We fear not on several occasions to judge others and also our selves but by what Authority should we do it if the inward Reason that judges when we seem to pronounce Sentence against others and our selves be not supream and common to all men But if this Reason were not present to those who retreat into their own Breast and if the Heathens too had not naturally some union with the order we speak of upon the score of what Sin or Disobedience could they be reckon'd culpable and by what Justice could God punish them This I say upon a Prophet's teaching me that God is willing to make Men the Arbiters betwixt him and his People provided they determine by the immutable and necessary order of Justice Nero kill'd his Mother it is true But in what has he done amiss He follow'd the natural Motion of his Hatred God gave him no Precept to the contrary the Laws of the Jews were not made for him You 'll say perhaps that such actions are restrain'd by the Natural Law and that was known to him But what proof can you have of it For my own part I agree to it because indeed this is an irresistible Proof for an Immutable and Necessary Order and for the Knowledge which every Mind has of it and that so much more clear
as it is more united to Universal Reason and less sensible to the impression of the Senses and Passions In a word as it is more reasonable But 't is requisite that I explain as clearly as possibly I can the sense I have about Natural or Divine Order and Law For the difficulty that is found to embrace my Opinion proceeds it may be from the want of a distinct conception of my meaning 'T is certain that God comprehends in himself after an intelligible manner the Perfections of all the Beings he has created or can create and that by these intelligible Perfections he knows the Essence of all things as by his own Wills he knows their Existence Which perfections are likewise the immediate Object of the Mind of Man for the Reasons I have given Therefore the intelligible Ideas or the Perfections which are in God which represent to us what is external to him are absolutely necessary and immutable But Truths are nothing but relations of Equality or Inequality that are found between these Intelligible Beings since it is only true that 2 times 2 are 4 or that 2 times 2 are not 5 because there is a Relation of Equality between 2 times 2 and 4 and of Inequality between 2 times 2 and 5. Therefore Truths are as immutable and necessary as Ideas It has ever been a truth that 2 times 2 are 4 and 't is impossible it should ever be false which is visible without any Necessity that God as supream Legislator should have establish'd these Truths so as is said by M. des Cartes in his Answer to the six Objections We easily comprehend then what is Truth but Men find some difficulty to conceive what is this immutable and necessary Order what is this Natural and Divine Law which God necessarily wills and which the Righteous likewise will For a Man's Righteousness consists in his Loving Order and in his conforming his Will in all things to it as that which makes a Sinner in his disliking Order in some things and willing that it should conform to his Desires Yet methinks these things are not so mysterious as is imagin'd and I am perswaded all the difficulty that is found in them proceeds from the trouble the mind is at to aspire to abstract and Metaphysical Thoughts Here then is in part what are my Thoughts of Order 'T is evident that the perfections which are in God representative of created or possible Beings are not all Equal That those for Example which represent Bodies are less noble than others that represent Spirits and that even in those which represent only Bodies or Spirits there are degrees of perfection greater and lesser ad infinitum This is clearly and easily conceiv'd though it be hard to reconcile the simplicity of the Divine Essence with that variety of Intelligible Ideas included in his Wisdom For 't is evident that if all the Ideas of God were equal he could see no difference between his Works since he cannot see his Creatures save in that which is in himself representing them And if the Idea of a Watch which shows the Hour with all the different Motions of the Planets were no perfecter than that of another which only points to the hour or than that of a Circle and a Square a Watch would be no perfecter than a Circle For we can judge of the Perfection of Works only by the Perfection of the Ideas we have of them and if there was no more understanding or sign of Wisdom in a Watch than a Circle it would be as easie to conceive the most complicated Machines as a Square or a Circle If then it be true that God is the Vniversal Being who includes in Himself all Beings in an intelligible manner and that all these intelligible Beings which have in God a necessary Existence are not equally perfect 't is evident there will be between them an Immutable and Necessary Order and that as there are Eternal and necessary Truths because there are Relations of Magnitude between intelligible Beings there must likewise be an immutable and necessary Order by reason of the Relations of Perfection that are between these Beings 'T is therefore an Immutable Order that Spirits should be nobler than Bodies as it is a necessary Truth that 2 times 2 should be 4 or that 2 times 2 should not be 5. But hitherto immutable Order seems rather a Speculative Truth than a necessary Law For if Order be consider'd but as we have just now done we see for Example that it is True that Minds are more noble than Bodies but we do not see that this Truth is at the same time an Order which has the force of a Law and that there is an Obligation of preferring Minds before Bodies It must then be consider'd that God loves himself by a necessary Love and therefore has a greater degree of love for that which in him represents or includes a greater degree of perfection than for that which includes a less So that if we will suppose an Intelligible Mind to be a thousand times perfecter than an Intelligible Body the love wherewith God loves Himself must necessarily be a thousand times greater for the former than for the latter For the Love of God is necessarily proportion'd to the Order which is between the intelligible Beings that he includes Insomuch that the Order which is purely Speculative has the force of a Law in respect of God himself supposing as is certain that God loves himself Necessarily And God cannot love Intelligible Bodies more than Intelligible Minds though he may love created Bodies better than created Minds as I shall show by and by Now that immutable Order which has the force of a Law in regard of God himself has visibly the force of a Law in reference to us For this Order we know and our natural love comports with it when we retire into our selves and our Senses and Passions leave us to our Liberty In a word when our Self-love does not corrupt our Natural Being we are made for God and that 't is impossible for us to be quite separate from him we discern in him this Order and we are naturally invited to love it For 't is His Light which enlightens us and his Love which animates us though our Senses and Passions obscure this Light and determine against Order the Impression we receive to love according to it But in spite of Concupiscence which conceals this Order and hinders us from following it it is still an essential and indispensable Law to us and not only to us but to all created Intilligences and even to the Damn'd For I do not believe they are so utterly estrang'd from God as not to have a faint Idea of Order as not to find still some beauty in it and even to be ready to conform to it in some particular Instances which are not prejudicial to Self-Love Corruption of Heart consists in Opposition to Order Therefore Malice or Corruption of
Will being not equal even among the Damn'd it is plain they are not all equally opposite to Order and that they do not hate it in all cases unless in consequence of their Hatred to God For as no one can hate Good consider'd barely as such so no one can hate Order but when it seems to thwart his Inclinations But though it seem contrary to our Inclinations it nevertheless retains the force of a Law which Condemns and also punishes us by a Worm that never dies Now then we see what Order is and how it has the strength of a Law by that necessary Love which God has for himself We conceive how this Law comes to be general for all Minds God not excepted and why it is necessary and absolutely indispensible Lastly we conceive or we may easily conceive in general that it is the Principle of all Divine and Humane Laws and that 't is according to this Law that all Intelligences are judg'd and all Creatures dispos'd in the respective rank that belongs to them I acknowledge it is not easie to explain all this in particular and I venture not to undertake it For should I go to show the Connexion particular Laws have with the general and account for the agreement which certain manners of acting have to Order I should be forc'd to engage in Difficulties that it may be I could not resolve and which would lead me out of sight of my subject Nevertheless if it be consider'd that God neither has nor can have any other Law than his own Wisdom and the necessary Love he has for it we shall easily judge that all Divine Laws must depend on it And if it be observ'd that he has made the World with reference only to that Wisdom and Love since he acts only for Himself we shall not doubt but all natural Laws must tend to the Preservation and Perfection of this World according to indispensable Order and by their dependance on necessary Love For the Wisdom and Will of God regulates all things There is no need I should explain at present this Principle more at large what I have already said being sufficient to infer this Consequence That in the first institution of Nature it was Impossible for Minds to be subjected to Bodies For since God cannot act without Knowledge and against his Will he has made the World by his Wisdom and by the motion of his Love He has made all things by his Son and in his Holy Spirit as we are taught in Scripture Now in the Wisdom of God Minds are perfecter than Bodies and by the necessary Love God has for himself he prefers what is more perfect to what is less so Therefore it is not possible that Minds should be subject to Bodies in the first institution of Nature Otherwise it must be said that God in creating the World has not follow'd the Rules of his Eternal Wisdom nor the Motions of his natural and necessary Love which not only is inconceivable but involves a manifest contradiction True it is that at present the created Mind is debas'd below a material and sensible Body but that 's because Order considered as a necessary Law will have it so 'T is because God loving himself by a necessary Love which is always his Inviolable Law cannot love Spirits that are repugnant to him nor consequently prefer them to Bodies in which there is nothing evil nor in the hatred of God For God loves not Sinners in themselves Nor would they subsist in the Universe but through JESUS CHRIST God neither preserves them nor loves them but that they may cease to be Sinners through the Grace of CHRIST JESUS or that if they remain eternally Sinners they may be eternally condemned by immutable and necessary Order and by the Judgment of our LORD by vertue of whom they subsist for the Glory of the Divine Justice for without Him they would be annihilated This I say by the way to clear some difficulties that might remain touching what I said elsewhere about Original Sin or the general Corruption of Nature 'T is if I mistake not a very useful reflection to consider that the Mind has but two ways of knowing Objects By Light and by Sensation It sees them by Light when it has a clear Idea of them and when by consulting that Idea it can discover all the properties whereof they are capable It sees things by Sensation when it finds not in it self their clear Idea to consult it and so cannot clearly discover their properties but only know them by a confus'd Sensation without Light and Evidence 'T is by Light and a clear Idea the mind sees the Essences of things Numbers and Extension 'T is by a confus'd Idea or Sensation that it judges of the Existence of Creatures and knows its own What the Mind perceives by Light or by a clear Idea it perceives in a most perfect manner moreover it sees clearly that all the Obscurity or Imperfection of its Knowledge proceeds from its own Weakness and Limitation or from want of Application and not from the Imperfection of the Idea it perceives But what the mind perceives by Sensation is never clearly known not for want of any Application on part of the Mind for we always are very applicative to what we feel but by the defectiveness of the Idea which is extreamly obscure and confus'd Hence we may conclude that it is in God or in an immutable nature that we see all that we know by Light or a clear Idea not only because we discover by Light only numbers Extension and the Essences of Beings which depend not on a free Act of God as I have already said but also because we know these things in a very perfect manner and we should even know them in an infinitely perfect manner if our thinking Capacity were infinite since nothing is wanting to the Idea that represents them We ought likewise to conclude that we see in our selves whatever we know by Sensation However this is not as if we could produce in our selves any new modification or that the sensations or modifications of our Soul could represent the Objects on occasion whereof God excites them in us But only that our Sensations which are not distinguished from our selves and consequently cannot represent any thing distinct from us may nevertheless represent the existence of Beings or cause us to judge that they exist For God raising Sensations in us upon the presence of Objects by an action that has nothing sensible we fancy we receive from the Object not only the Idea which represents its essence but also the Sensation which makes us judge of its existence For there is always a pure Idea and a confused Sensation in the Knowledge we have of things as actually existing if we except that of God and of our own Soul I except the Existence of God For this we know by a pure Idea and without Sensation since it depends not on any cause and
giving him relief For on these occasions he sometimes does a great deal who does no mischief I conclude then that we must have recourse to Physicians and refuse not to obey them if we would preserve our Life For though they cannot be assur'd of restoring our Health yet sometimes they may contribute much for it by reason of the continual Experiments they make upon different Diseases They know indeed very little with any exactness yet still they know much more than our selves and provided they will give themselves the trouble of studying our constitution of carefully observing all the Symptoms of the Disease and diligently attending to our own inward Feeling we may hope from them all the Assistances that we may reasonably expect from Men. What we have said of Physicians may in a manner be apply'd to Casuists whom 'tis absolutely necessary to consult on some occasions and commonly useful But it sometimes happens not only to be most useless but highly dangerous to advise with them which I explain and prove 'T is commonly said that humane Reason is subject to Error but herein there is an equivocal sence which we are not sufficiently aware of For it must not be imagin'd that the Reason which Man consults is corrupted or that it ever misleads when faithfully consulted I have said it and I say it again that none but the Soveraign Reason makes us Rational None but the Supream Truth enlightens us nor any but God that speaks clearly and knows how to instruct us We have but one True Master even JESUS CHRIST Our LORD Eternal WISDOM the WORD of the Father in whom are all the Treasures of Wisdom and the Knowledge of God And 't is Blasphemy to say this Vniversal Reason whereof all Men participate and by which alone they are reasonable is subject to Error and capable of deceiving us 'T is not Man's Reason but his Heart that betrays him 'T is not his Light but his Darkness that hinders him from seeing 'T is not the Union he has with God which seduces him noâ— in one sence his Union with the Body But 't is the dependance he has on his Body or rather 't is because he will deceive himself and enjoy the Pleasure of Judging before he has been at the Pains of Examining 't is because he will rest before he arrives to the place of the Rest of Truth I have more exactly explain'd the cause of our Errors in many places of the preceding Book and I here suppose what I there have said Which being laid down I affirm it is needless to consult Casuists when it is certain that Truth speaks to us which we are sure it does when Evidence displays it self in the Answers that are made to our Enquiries that is to the attention of our Mind Therefore when we retire into our own Breast and in the silence of our Senses and Passions hear a Voice so clear and intelligible that we cannot be doubtful of the Truth of it we must submit to it let the World think of us what they please We must have no regard to custom nor listen to our secret Inclinations nor defer too much to the resolves of those who go for the Learned part of Men. We must not give way to be misguided by the false shew of a pretended Piety nor be humbled by the oppositions of those who know not the Soul which animates them But we must bear patiently their proud Insults without condemning their Intentions or despising their Persons We must with simplicity of heart rejoice in the Light of Truth which illuminates us and though its Answers condemn us yet ought we to prefer them before all the subtil Distinctions the Imagination invents for the justification of the Passions Every Man for Example that can enter into himself and still the confus'd noise of the Senses and Passions clearly discovers that every motion of Love which is given us by God must Center upon him and that God himself cannot dispense with the Obligation we have to Love him in all things 'T is evident that God cannot supersede acting for Himself cannot create or preserve our Will to will any thing besides him or to will any thing but what he Wills Himself For I cannot see how it is conceivable that God can Will a Creature should have more Love for what is less lovely or should Love Soveraignly as its end what is not Supreamly amiable I know well that Men who interrogate their Passions instead of consulting Order may easily imagine that God has no other Rule of his Will than his will it self and that if God observes Order 't is meerly â—ecause he will'd it and has made this same Order by a Will absolutely Free and Indifferent There are those who think there is no Order immutable and necessary by its Nature And and that the Order or Wisdom of God whereby he has made all things though the first of Creatures is yet it self a Creature made by a Free-Will of God and not begotten of his Substance by the necessity of his Essence But this Opinion which shakes all the Foundations of Morality by robbing Order and the Eternal Laws depending on it of their Immutability and overturns the entire Edifice of the Christian Religion by divesting JESUS CHRIST or the WORD of God of his Divinity does not yet so perfectly benight the Mind as to hide from it this Truth That God Wills Order Thus whether the Will of God Makes Order or Supposes it we clearly see when we retire into our selves that the God we Worship cannot do what plainly appears to us to be contrary to Order So that Order Willing that our Time or the Duration of our Being should be for him that preserves us that the Motion of our Heart should continually tend towards him who continually impresses it in us that all the Powers of our Souls should labour only for him by vertue of whom they act God cannot dispense with the Commandment he gave by Moses in the Law and repeated by his Son in the Gospel Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength But because Order requires that every Righteous Person should be happy and every Sinner miserable and that every Action conformable to Order and every Motion of Love to God should be rewarded and every other contrary to Order or that tends not to him punish'd It is evident that whoever will be happy must constantly tend towards God and reject with abhorrence whatever stops or retards him in his course or Weakens his propension to the true good And for this he need not consult any Casuists For when God speaks 't is fit that Men should be silent And when we are absolutely certain that our Senses and Passions have no Voice in those resolves we hear in our most Secret and inward Reason we ought always respectfully to attend and submit to them Would we be
their Operation So likewise in point of free Causes I believe that God incessantly gives the Mind an Impression towards Good in General and that he moreover determines this Impression towards particular Goods by the Idea's or Sensations that he gives us as I have explain'd in the first Illustration which is the same with what the Divines intend by affirming That God moves and prevents our Wills Thus the Force which puts our Minds in Motion is the Will of God which Animates us and inclines us towards Good For God Creates not Beings to constitute the moving force of Minds for the same Reason that he Creates none to be the moving force of Bodies The Wills of God being of themselves Efficacious He need but Will to do And we ought not to multiply Beings without necessity Besides whatever is real in the determinations of our Motions proceeds likewise from the Action of God in us as appears from the first Illustration But all we Act or produce is by our Wills that is by the Impression of the Will of God which is our moving force For our Wills are Efficacious no farther than they are of God as mov'd Bodies impel not others but in as much as they have a moving force that translates them which is no other than the Will of God which Creates or preserves them successively in different places Therefore we Act no otherwise than by the Concourse of God and our Action consider'd as Efficacious and capable of producing any Effect differs not from his but is as say most Divines the self same Action eadem numero actio Now all the Changes which arrive in the World have no other Natural Cause than the Motions of Bodies and Volitions of Minds For First by the General Laws of the Communications of Motions the invisible Bodies which surround the visible produce by their various Motions all these divers Changes whose Cause is not apparent And Secondly by the Laws of Union of our Soul and Body when circumambient Bodies Act upon our own they produce in our Soul a multiplicity of Sensations Idea's and Passions Thirdly Our Mind by its Volitions produces in it self infinite different Idea's for they are our Volitions which as Natural Causes intend and Modifie our Mind Their Efficacy nevertheless proceeds from the Laws which God has establish'd And Lastly when our Soul acts upon our Body she produces several Changes in it by vertue of the Laws of her Union with it and by means of our Body she effects in those about it abundance of Changes by vertue of the Laws of Communication of Motions So that the Motions of Bodies and the Volitions of Minds are the only Natural or Occasional Causes of Natural Effects which no Man will deny who uses any Attention supposing only he be not prepossest by those who understand not what they say who fancy perpetually to themselves such Beings as they have no clear Idea's of and who offer to explain things which they do not understand by others absolutely incomprehensible Thus having shown that God by his Concourse or rather by his Efficacious Will performs whatever is done by the Motions of Bodies and the Wills of Minds as Natural or Occasional Causes it appears that God does every thing by the same Action of the Creature Not that the Creatures have of themselves any Efficacious Action but that the Power of God is in a manner Communicated to them by the Natural Laws which God has establish'd on their account This then is all that I can do to reconcile my Thoughts to the Opinion of those Divines who defend the necessity of immediate Concourse and hold that God does All in all things by an Action no ways differing from the Creatures For as to the rest of the Divines I think their Opinions utterly indefensible and especially that of Durandus together with the Sentiments of some of the Ancients refuted by St. Austin who absolutely deniâ—d the necessity of God's Concurrence pretending that Second Causes did all things by the Power which God in their Creation gave them For though this Opinion be less intricate and perplex'd than that of other Divines yet to me it seems so repugnant to Scripture and so suitable to Prejudices to say no worse of it that I think it altogether unwarrantable I confess that the School-Men who make God's immediate concourse to be the same Action with that of the Creatures do not perfectly agree with my Explication and all those that I have read except Biel and Cardinal d' Ailly are of Opinion That the Efficacy which produces Effects proceeds from the Second Cause as well as the First But as I make it indispensable for me to speak nothing but what I clearly conceive and always to take the side that best comports with Religion I think I am not liable to blame for deserting an Opinion which to many Men seems still more inconceiveable as they strive more to comprehend it and for establishing another which agrees perfectly not only with Reason but also with the Sacredness of our Religion and Christian Morality which is a Truth already prov'd in the Chapter that 's the Subject of these Reflexions However 't is not inconvenient to say something to it that I may fully verifie what I have said upon the present Question Both Reason and Religion evince That God will be Lov'd and rever'd by his Creatures Lov'd as Good and Rever'd as Power Which is such a Truth as it would be Impiety and Madness to doubt of To love God as he requires and deserves we must according to the First Commandment both of the Law and Gospel and by Reason it self as I have somewhere shown Love Him with all our Strength or with the whole extent of our Loving Capacity 'T is not sufficient to prefer Him before all things unless we moreover Love Him in all things For otherwise our Love is not so perfect as it ought to be and we return not to God all the Love that he gives us and gives us only for Himself in whom every one of His Actions Center So to render to God all the Reverence that is due to Him 't is not enough to adore Him as the Supreme Power and fear Him more than His Creatures we must likewise fear and adore Him in all His Creatures all our respects must perpetually tend towards Him to whom alone Honour and Glory are to be ascrib'd Which is what God Commands us in these Words Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength And in these Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve Thus the Philosophy that convinces us that the Efficacy of Second Causes is a Fiction of the Mind that the Nature of Aristotle and some other Philosophers is a Chimera that none but God is Strong and Powerful enough not only to Act on our Soul but even to give the
Abilities 't is more to the purpose to say nothing than to say such things as are unnecessary to be known and which it may be would be easier agreed to some time hereafter than at present Only this I would have well understood That the simplest ways to our Sanctification are Self-denial and Repentance or at least that it be well consider'd that since JESUS CHRIST distinctly knows the Laws of the Order of Grace we run continual dangers in not following the ways he has mark'd us out not only by his Words but all the Actions of his Life Yet since we meet with such particular Occurrences in the course of Life as make us dubious which way to determine because of the contrary Reasons that may be brought for and against certain Opinions it will perhaps be time well spent to show here by some particular Example that much use may be made of the fore-going Principle viz. That God Acts always by the simplest ways Let us suppose for instance that I desir'd to be resolv'd whether I ought every day to set apart some Constant Times for Retiring into my self for setting my own Weakness and Miseries before me and for considering my Obligations in the presence of God and praying for his Assistance in Conquering my Passions or on the other hand whether I ought to wait for the Spirit of God which blows where and when it pleases to call me from my self and my Ordinary Employments to apply me unto Him For probable Reasons may be given both for and against each of these Opinions and Men frequently take up with probability on such Occasions which is the Reason that Religious Persons follow sometimes a quite different Conduct and not always that which is the safest I consider then That if I stay for the particular Motions of the Spirit of God I shall never pray unless I receive particular Illuminations or preventing Delights for that intent Now these Illuminations or Delectations being produc'd of God by Wills more particular than are those General Wills which constitute the Order of Nature are sorts of Miracles Therefore to rely upon God's Graces which are not always necessary is to suppose that He induces me to pray by means that are not the most simple and in some measure to tempt God But if I use my self to a Custom of appearing or endeavouring to appear in the presence of God at particular Hours the sound of the Clock will suffice to remind me of my Duty and there is no need that God should by a particular will inspire me with the Thoughts of Prayer The General Laws of Union of my Body and Soul will make me think of my Duty when the time I have appointed for it by some sensible Notice makes it self remarkable But as Self-Examination and Prayer are necessary and as we cannot pray without having at least the Thoughts of it and as we cannot have the Thoughts of it unless God gives them it is some advance to Salvation to have these Thoughts without obliging God to give them us by particular Wills or kinds of Miracles It is possibly the want of this first Thought of praying and considering their Obligation before God which is the Origine of the Blindness and Delusion of many Men and consequently of their Eternal Damnation For God Acting always by the simplest means ought not by particular Wills to give them those Thoughts which they might have obtain'd by vertue of his general Wills if they had once accustom'd themselves to pray regularly at particular Hours Therefore as God Wills the Saving all Men by the simplest ways it is evident we ought as much as possible to make the Order of Nature subservient to that of Grace and to reconcile as I may say God's Wills together by regulating a time which may supply us at least with the Thoughts of Prayer For these Reasons probably God Commanded heretofore the Jews to write His Commandments upon the Doors of their Houses and constantly to carry some sensible Marks that might put them in Mind of them which remitted God his particular Will if I may so speak of inspiring them with these Thoughts For Miracles of Grace were extremely rare among the Jews the time being not yet fullfill'd when God was to engrave his Law and infuse his Spirit and his Charity in the heart of Men. I acknowledge that all things we can do by meer Natural strength are insufficient to fit us meritoriously for Grace without which all the exteriour show of Religion can but feed and cherish our Pride and Self-Love The Pharisees were Vain-Glorious upon their carrying the sensible signs and memoratives of the Law of God as our Saviour reproves them and Christians often make use of Crosses and Images out of Curiosity of Hypocrisie or some other Motive of Self-Love Yet since these things may put us in Mind of God they may be to good purpose imploy'd because we ought to make Nature as far as possible instrumental to Grace that God may serve us by the simplest ways For though we cannot naturally fit and dispose our selves for Grace yet we may often contribute to make it effectual in as much as we can curb the eagerness of a Passion by removing from the Objects that cause it or by urging contrary Reasons to those of its Suggestion Those who Watch more carefully than others over the purity of their Imagination or give not so much way to be corrupted by the continual enjoyment of sensible Pleasures and Wordly Commerce make Grace efficacious by taking away that impediment and resistance which it finds in others In which sense a Disease a shower of Rain or any other accident that keeps us at home may render Grace Efficacious For such a degree of Grace as would have been too weak and ineffectual for our resisting the sensible impression of a present and agreeable Object is strong enough to make us reject and detest the impure Thought or Imagination of the same Object This is all we need to say to make it manifest That the Counsels of the Gospel are necessary in Order to God's Saving us by the simplest means For 't is advantageous to follow them not only because when we follow them by the Motion of God's Spirit they determine it by vertue of immutable Order or of the General Laws of the Order of Grace to increase in us our Love of Him but also because the practising these Counsels may frequently render Grace Efficacious though Self-Love be the Motive as it may be on many Occasions FINIS THE DEFENCE OF THE AUTHOR OF THE TREATISE Concerning the Search after Truth Against the Accusation of Monsieur de la VILLE In which is shewn That if Particular Persons be allow'd to call in Question the FAITH of others upon Consequences well or ill drawn from their Principles no Man could be secure from the Imputation of Heresie SOME time ago came forth a Treatise whose very Title scar'd a great many and raised much
always abounds with Wisdom and Goodness Wo to the Wicked who condemn it without understanding it and who would have the immutable Order of Divine Wisdom to stoop and accommodate it self to their Passions and Interests XLVIII The wise and industrious Husbandmen plow dung and sow their Lands with great Labour and Cost They carefully observe the fittest Seasons for the different Agriculture and tax not God with the Success of their Labours They leave their Work to the Order of Nature well knowing it 's in vain to tempt God and to fancy that on our behalf he will change the Order which his Wisdom prescribes XLIX Jesus Christ came to teach us to imitate their Conduct who having for us an immense Charity and desiring to save us as much as the Simplicity of the General Laws of Nature and Grace will permit has forgotten nothing that might bring us into the ways that lead to Heaven That which most withstands the Efficacy of Grace are sensible Pleasures and Sensations of Pride there being nothing which so much corrupts the Mind and hardens the Heart more than these But has not Jesus Christ sacrificed and annihilated in his Person all Grandeurs and Pleasures sensible Was not his Life to us a continual Example of Humility and Repentance How was he born how did he die what was his Conversation in the World every Body knows To what likewise is his Doctrine reducible and whither tend all his Counsels Is it not to Humility and Repentance to a General Self-denial of all that gratifies the Senses of all that corrupts the Purity of the Imagination of all that cherishes and strengthens the Concupiscence of Pride Therefore whatever he has said whatever he has done whatever he has suffer'd was to prepare us by his Doctrine his Example and Merits to receive the Celestial Rain of Grace and to render it efficacious Since he could not or ought not to alter the Laws of Nature tempt God or trouble the Order and Simplicity of his Ways He has done all for Men that could inspire them with the most Extensive Industrious and Ardent Charity L. I fear not after what the Scripture has said of it to affirm that the Charity of Jesus Christ is Immense and Incomprehensible and though all Men receive not the Effects of it it would be presumptuous Rashness to go to set Bounds to it He died for all Men even for those who perish everlastingly Why do not Sinners enter into the Order of Grace Why do they not follow the Counsels of Jesus Christ and prepare themselves for the Reception of the Rain of Heaven They cannot merit it but they may encrease its Efficacy on their Account Cannot they from a Principle of Self-love through the Fear of Hell or if you will by General Graces avoid many Occasions of sinning deny themselves Pleasures at least those they have not yet tasted and consequently are not enslaved to Thus they may take away some Leâ—ts and Impediments to the Efficacy of Grace and prepare the Earth of their Heart so as to make it fruitful when God shall pour his Rain upon them by the General Laws he has prescrib'd himself But they would have God to save them without any trouble on their part like those lazy and senseless Labourers who without giving their Fields the ordinary Improvements pretend that God ought to shower-down so impregnating and abundant Rains as may save them their Trouble False and vain Confidence God causes it to rain as well on Fallow as Cultivated Lands But let the Proud and Voluptuous know that the Rain of Grace shall fall much less on them than on other Men whilst yet they put themselves in such a Condition as requires much more to convert them LI. Since God ordinarily diffuses his Graces by General Laws we clearly see the Necessity of the Counsels of Jesus Christ. We see that they ought to be follow'd that God may save us by the simplest ways whilst giving us but little Grace he operates a great deal in us We see clearly that it lies on us to labour and to cultivate our Field before the Heats of Concupiscence have dried and hardned it or at least when the Rain has diluted and softned it that we must diligently observe the moments in which our Passions leave us some Liberty that we may seize the Advantage that is offer'd That we must extirpate as much as possible whatever may suffocate the Seed of the Word and not foolishly imagine we shall repent when we have made our Fortune in the World or are ready to leave it For besides that it depends not on the Husbandmen to make it rain when their Occasions call for it when a Field has lain long fallow the Brambles and Thorns strike their Roots so deep that those who are most us'd to labour have neither strength nor desire to cultivate it LII But if God acted in the Order of Grace by particular Wills and efficaciously caus'd in all Men all their good Motions and Operations with a particular Design I see not how it might be justify'd that he acts by the most simple Laws when I consider all those indirect ways by which Men arrive to the Place where God conducts them For I doubt not but God sometimes gives a Man no more than an hundred good Thoughts in a whole Day Nor can I any more conceive how 't is possible to reconcile his Wisdom and Goodness with all the ineffectual Graces the Malice of Men resists For God being Good and Wise ought he not to proportion his Supplies to our Needs if he afforded them with a particular Design of comforting us LIII God makes the Weeds to grow with the Corn till the time of Harvest he causes it to rain on the Just and Unjust because Grace falling on Men by General Laws is often given to such as make no use of it whereas if others had receiv'd it they would have been converted If Jesus Christ had preach'd to the Syrians and Sydonians as well as to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida and Chorazin they would have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes If the Rain which falls on the Sands had been shower'd upon prepar'd Fields it would have made them fruitful But what is regulated by General Laws is not suited to particular Designs and it suffices to justifie the wise Establishment of these Laws that being extremely simple they carry to its Perfection the Grand Work for which they were enacted But though I do not believe that God has innumerable particular Designs for every of his Elect or that he daily gives them multiplicity of good Thoughts and Motions by particular Wills yet I deny not but they are predestined by a bounteous Will of God had to them for which they ought to pay their Eternal Gratitude and Acknowledgments Which things I explain as follows LIV. God discovers in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom an Infinity of possible Works and at once the perfectest way of producing each of
were true that God acted by particular Wills since Miracles are such only from their not happening by General Laws Therefore Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the Opinion I have establish'd But as to ordinary Effects they clearly and directly demonstrate General Laws or Wills If for Instance a Stone be dropp'd upon the Head of Passengers it will continually fall with equal speed not distinguishing the Piety or Quality or Good or Ill Disposition of those that pass If we examine any other Effect we shall see the same Constancy in the Action of the Cause of it But no Effect proves that God acts by particular Wills though Men commonly fancy God is constantly working Miracles in their Favour That way they would have God to act in being consonant to their own and indulgent to Self-love which centers all things on themselves and very proportionate to their Ignorance of the Complication of Occasional Causes which produce extraordinary Effects naturally falls into Mens Thoughts when but greenly studied in Nature and consult not with sufficient Attention the abstract Idea of an Infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being Infinitely Perfect CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE II. Of the Laws of GRACE in particular and of the Occasional Causes which regulate and determine their Efficacy PART I. Of the Grace of JESVS CHRIST I. SINCE none but GOD can act immediately and by himself on Minds and produce in them all the various Motions they are capable of 'T is he alone who sheds his Light within us and inspires us with certain Sensations which determine our diverse Volitions And therefore none but he can as a True Cause produce Grace in our Souls For Grace or that which is the Principle or Motive of all the Regular Motions of our Love is necessarily either a Light which instructs us or a confus'd Sensation that convinces us that God is our Good since we never begin to love an Object unless we see clearly by the Light of Reason or feel confusedly by the tast of Pleasure that this Object is good I mean capable of making us happier than we are II. But since all Men are involv'd in Original Sin and even by their Nature infinitely beneath the Majesty of God 'T is Jesus Christ alone that can by the Dignity of his Person and the Holiness of his Sacrifice have access to his Father reconcile him to us and merit his Favours for us and consequently be the meritorious Cause of Grace These Truths are certain But we are not seeking the Cause which produces Grace by its own Efficacy nor that which merits it by its Sacrifice and Good Works We enquire for that which regulates and determines the Efficacy of the General Cause and which we may term the Second Particular and Occasional III. For to the end the General Cause may act by General Laws or Wills and that his Action may be regular constant and uniform 't is absolutely necessary there should be some Occasional Cause to determine the Efficacy of these Laws and to help to fix them If the Collision of Bodies or something of like Nature did not determine the Efficacy of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions it would be necessary for God to move Bodies by particular Wills The Laws of Union of the Soul and Body become efficacious only from the Changes befalling one or other of these two Substances For if God made the Soul feel the Pain of pricking tho' the Body were not prick'd or though the same thing did not happen in the Brain as if it were he would not act by the General Laws of Union of the Soul and Body but by a particular Will If Rain fell on the Earth otherwise than by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws of Communication of Motions the Rain and the Fall of every Drop that composes it would be the Effect of a particular Will So that unless Order requir'd it should rain that Will would be absolutely unworthy of God 'T is necessary therefore that in the Order of Grace there should be some Occasional Cause which serves to fix these Laws and to determine their Efficacy And this is the Cause we must endeavour to discover IV. Provided we consult the Idea of intelligible Order or consider the sensible Order which appears in the Works of God we shall easily discover that Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of General Laws and are of use in fixing them must necessarily be related to the Design for which God has establish'd them For Example Experience evidences that God has not made and Reason certifies that he ought not to make the Courses of the Planets the Occasional Causes of the Union of our Soul and Body He ought not to will that our Arm should be mov'd in such or such a manner or that our Soul should feel the Tooth-ake when the Moon shall be in conjunction with the Sun if so be this Conjunction acts not on the Body God's Design being to unite our Soul to our Body he cannot in prosecuting that Design give the Soul Sensations of Pain save when there happen some Changes in the Body repugnant to it Wherefore we are not to seek out of our Soul or Body the Occasional Causes of their Union V. Hence it follows that God designing to form his Church by Jesus Christ could not according to that Design seek the Occasional Causes which serve to settle the General Laws of Grace by which the Spirit of Jesus diffus'd through his Members communicates Life and Holiness to them except in Jesus Christ and in the Creatures united to him by Reason Thus the Rain of Grace is not deriv'd to our Hearts by the diverse situations of the Stars nor by the Collision of certain Bodies nor even according to the different Courses of the animal Spirits which give us Motion and Life All that Bodies can do is to excite in us Motions and Sensations purely Natural For whatever arrives to the Soul through the Body is only for the Body VI. Yet as Grace is not given to all that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and is granted to those who do not ask it it thence follows that even our Desires are not the Occasional Causes of Grace For this sort of Causes have constantly and most readily their Effect and without them the Effect is not produc'd For Instance the Collision of Bodies being the Occasional Cause of the Change which happens in their Motion if two Bodies did not meet their Motions would not alter and if they alter'd we may be assur'd they met The general Laws which shed Grace upon our Hearts find nothing therefore in our Wills to determine their Efficacy as the general Laws which regulate the Rains are not founded on the Dispositions of the Places rain'd upon For it indifferently rains upon all Places on hollow and manur'd Grounds even on the Sands and the Sea it self VII We are therefore reduc'd to confess that
hears the Prayers of the Humble he will comfort them justfie them and save them he will fill them with Blessings and will debase the high Mind of the Proud Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven but woe to the Rich â—or they have their Consolation in this World How hard is it says our Saviour for those that have much Wealth to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is harder for a Camel to pass through the Eye of a Needle which cannot be done without a Miracle As for those who like David humble their Souls with Fasting change their Garments for Sack-cloth in a word afflict themselves upon sight of their Sins and the Holiness of God they are the worthy Objects of the Compassion of Jesus For God despises not a broken and contrite Heart We constantly disarm the Anger of God when we take his Part against our selves and revenge his Quarrel The Will of Jesus Christ being entirely conformable to Order whereof all Men have naturally some Idea we might still discover by Reason that he has more Thoughts and Desires in regard to some Persons than others For Order requires that more Graces should be shed on those for Example who are call'd to Holy Orders than on others whose Employment necessarily engages them in Worldly Commerce in a word On those who constitute the Principal Parts of the Church Militant than on such as have no regard to any body or that meddle in the Ecclesiastical State or raise themselves above others out of Ambition or Interest For though it be requisite that Jesus Christ should give them Graces in relation to their Charge they merit not the Gift of that Grace which may sanctifie them in the Station they have chosen out of Self-love They may have the Gift of Prophecy whilst they may want Charity as we are taught by Scripture XXVI But though we may discover by the Light of Reason and the Authority of Holy Writ something of the diverse Wills of the Soul of Jesus yet that Order and Process of Desires which accomplish the Predestination of the Saints and which tend only to the honouring God in the Establishment of his Church is an unfathomable Abyss to the Mind of Man For if St. Paul had not taught us that God would that all Men should be included in Unbelief that he might exercise his Mercy towards them should we ever have thought that the Jews were to fall into a wilful Blindness not only that the multitude of the Nations might enter into the Church but that they themselves might receive Mercy at the Accomplishment of Ages The future World being to be a Work of pure Mercy and to have infinite Ornaments whereof we have no Idea since the Substance of Spirits is unknown to us it is plain we can discover very little in the different Desires of the Soul of Jesus these Desires being related to Designs we are ignorant of Thus in the Distribution God makes of his Graces we ought to cry out with St. Paul O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out XXVII We have prov'd that the diverse Designs of the Soul of Jesus are the Occasional Causes of Grace and we have endeavour'd to discover something of these Desires Let us now see of what sort of Grace they are the Occasional Causes For though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces it is not necessary he should be the Occasional Cause of the Graces of Light and of certain external Graces which are Preparatory to the Conversion of the Heart and which do not opperate For Jesus Christ is always the Occasional or Necessary Cause according to the Establish'd Order of God in point of all those Graces which opperate Salvation XXVIII In order to our distinct understanding what this Grace is which Jesus Christ as Head of the Church diffuses in his Members we ought to know what is that Concupiscence which the First Man has communicated to all his Posterity For the Second Adam came to remedy the Disorders which the First Adam was the Cause of And there is such an Affinity between the Sinful and Earthly and the Innocent and Heavenly Adam that St. Paul looks upon the former communicating Sin to his Children by his Disobedience as the Type and Figure of the latter infusing Justice and Holiness into Christians by his Obedience XXIX Order requires that the Mind should have the Supremacy over the Body and not be divided against its Will by all those Sensations and Motions which apply it to sensible Objects Therefore the First Man before his Sin was so absolute over his Senses and Passions that they were mute and silent as soon as he desir'd it nothing could give him an involuntary Diversion from his Duty and all the Pleasures which at present precede Reason did only respectfully caution him in a ready and easie manner of what ought to be done for the Preservation of his Life But after his Sin he lost on a sudden that Power over his Body So that not being able to stop the Motions nor obliterate the Traces which sensible Objects produc'd in the principal Part of his Braiâ— his Soul by the Order of Nature and in Punishment of his Disobedience found her self miserably enslav'd to the Law of Concupiscence to that Carnal Law which constantly wars against the Mind inspiring it with the Love of sensible Goods and so ruling it by strong and lively and at once soft and agreeable Passions that it cannot and indeed will not make the necessary Struggles for its breaking the captivating Bonds For the Contagion of Sin is spread through the Children of Adam by an unavoidable Consequence of the Order of Nature as I have explain'd in another place XXX The Heart of Man is the constant Slave of Pleasure and when Reason teaches us that 't is not convenient to enjoy it we put it off but with Design of finding it more delicate and solid We willingly sacrifice little Pleasures to the greater but the invincible Impression we are under for Happiness will not permit us to deny our selves all our Life the Satisfaction we enjoy when we give our selves up to follow our Passions XXXI 'T is certain that Pleasure makes happy the Possessour at least whilst he enjoys it Therefore Men being made to be Happy Pleasure always gives the Will the first shock and puts it constantly in Motion towards the Good that causes or seems to cause it The contrary is to be said of Pain Now Concupiscence consisting only in a continual train of Sensations and Motions antecedent to Reason and not subject to it of Pleasures which seeming to flow from surrounding Objects inspire into us the Love of them and of Pains which rendring the Exercise of Vertue rough and painful make us hate it The Second Adam to remedy the Disorders of the First ought to
the Grace of the Creator XXXVI In the establish'd Order of Nature I can see but two Occasional Causes which shed Light on Minds and so determine the General Laws of the Grace of the Creator one which is in us and depends in some measure on us the other which is found in the Relation we have with surrounding Objects The former is nothing but the diverse Motions of our Will the second is the Occurrence of sensible Objects which act on our Mind in consequence of the Laws of Union of our Soul with our Body XXXVII We are taught by our own inward Consciousness That the Love of Light produces it and that Attention of Mind is a Natural Prayer by which we obtain Instruction of God for all the Enquirers of Truth who apply themselves to Truth discover it in proportion to their Application And if our Prayer were not interrupted nor our Attention disturb'd if we had any Idea of what we ask and should ask it with a competent Perseverance we should not fail to obtain whilst we were capable of receiving it But our Prayers are continually interrupted unless Self-interess'd our Senses and Imagination muddy and confound all our Ideas And â—hough the Truth we consult answers our Enquiries the confus'd Noise of our Passions deafens us to its Answers or makes us speedily forget them XXXVIII If it be consider'd that Man before the Fall was animated with Charity and possess'd with all that was requisite to his Perseverance in Innocence and that by his Perseverance and Application he ought to merit his Reward 't will easily be conceiv'd that the several Desires of his Will were establish'd the Occasional Causes of the Light receiv'd in his Understanding otherwise his Distraction had not been voluntary nor his Attention meritorious But Nature however corrupted is not destroy'd God has not desisted to will what he once will'd And the same Laws still subsist Therefore our manifold Volitions are still the Occasional or Natural Causes of the Presence of Ideas to our Mind But because the Union of the Soul with the Body is chang'd into a Dependence on it by a Natural Consequence of Sin and the immutable Will of God as I have explain'd elsewhere our Body at present disturbs our Ideas and speaks so loud in favour of its respective Goods that the Mind but seldom consults and distractedly listens to Internal Truth XXXIX Moreover Experience daily teaches us that our Conversation with Understanding Persons is capable of instructing us by raising our Attention that Preaching Reading Converse a thousand Occurrences of all sorts may raise some Ideas in us and likewise inspire us with good Thoughts The Death of a Friend is doubtless capable of putting us in Mind of Death unless some great Passion takes us up And when a Preacher of great Natural Endowments undertakes to demonstrate a most simple Truth and convince others of it it must be own'd that he may persuade his Hearers and even move their Conscience give them Fear and Hope and raise in them such other Passions as put them in a less State of Opposition to the Influence of the Grace of Jesus Christ. Men being made for a sociable Life 't was requisite they should mutually communicate their Thoughts and Motions 'T was fit they should be united in Mind as well as Body and that speaking by the Voice to their Ears and by Writing to their Eyes they should infuse Light and Understanding into one anothers Minds XL. But Light whatever way produc'd in us whether by particular Desires or fortuitous Instances as the Occasional Causes of it may be call'd Grace especially when it nearly relates to Salvation though it be but a Consequence of the Order of Nature because since Sin God owes us nothing and all the Good we have is merited for us by Jesus Christ in whom our very Being subsists But this kind of Grace though merited for us by Jesus Christ is not the Grace of our Lord but that of the Creator since Jesus Christ is not usually the Occasional Cause of it but the Cause of it is discoverable in the Order of Nature XLI There are still several other Natural Effects which we might reasonably look upon as Graces For Example Two Persons have at the same time two Desires of Curiosity The one to go see an Opera the other to hear a celebrated Preacher If they satisfie their Curiosity he that goes to the Opera shall find such Objects as according to his present Disposition of Mind shall raise in him Passions that will damn him whilst the other shall find in the Preacher so great Force and Light that the Grace of Conversion working in him at that moment shall be able to save him Which suppos'd Let but a shower of Rain or any other Accident happen that may stay them at home Though the Rain be a Natural Effect as depending on the Natural Laws of the Communication of Motions yet it may be said to be a Grace in respect of him whose Damnation it prevents and a Punishment to him whose Conversion it hinders XLII Grace being conjoin'd to Nature all the Motions of our Soul and Body have some relation to Salvation This Man is sav'd by having in a State of Grace made a false Step which happily broke his Neck and another is damn'd by having on some Occasion misfortunately avoided the Ruines of a falling House We know not what is for our Advantage but we well know there is nothing of it self so indifferent but has some reference to our Salvation because of the Mixture and Combination of Effects depending on the General Laws of Nature with others that depend on the General Laws of Grace XLIII As therefore Light points out to us the True Good the Means to obtain it our Duties to God in a word the Ways we are to follow it is sufficient to cause those who are animated with Charity to do good to merit new Graces and to conquer some Temptations as I shall explain in another Place so I think we may lawfully give it the Name of Grace though Jesus Christ be only the Meritorious Cause of it And whereas External Graces which have no immediate Influence on the Mind come nevertheless into the Order of Predestination of Saints I consider them also as True Graces In a word I see not why we may not give the Name of Grace to all Natural Effects when relating to Salvation subservient to the Grace of Jesus Christ and delivering us from some Hindrances to his Efficacy Yet if others will not agree with me I shall not contend with them about Words XLIV All these Graces if we may be allow'd to call them so being those of the Creator the General Laws of these Graces are the General Laws of Nature For we must still observe that Sin has not destroy'd Nature though it has corrupted it The General Laws of the Communications of Motions are always the same and those of the Union of the Soul
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
ought to act wisely God cannot deny himself His Ways of acting ought to bear the Character of his Attributes Now God knows all and foresees all his Understanding has no Bounds Therefore his manner of acting ought to bear the Character of an Infinite Intelligence But to make Choice of Occasional and to establish General Laws for the executing any work manifests a Knowledge infinitely more comprehensive than to change Volitions every moment or to act by Particular Wills Therefore God executes his Designs by General Laws whose Efficacy is determin'd by Occasional Causes Certainly there is a greater Extent of Thought requir'd to make a Watch which according to the Rules of Mechanicks goes regularly of it self whether it be carried about with us or hung up or shaken as we please than to make one which can go well no longer than he that made it is continually changing something in it according to the Situations it is put in For when there is a greater Number of Relations to be compared and combined together there is required a greater Understanding An infinite Prescience is requisite to foresee all the Effects which will happen in consequence of a General Law and there is nothing of all this to be foreseen when the Wills are chang'd every moment Therefore to establish General Laws and to choose the most simple and at the same time the most exuberant is a manner of acting worthy of him whose Wisdom has no Bounds And on the contrary to act by Particular Wills shews a straitned Understanding and which cannot compare the Consequences or Effects of the least fruitful Causes The same Truth might farther be demonstrated a priori by some other Attributes of God as by his Immutability by which M. Des Cartes proves That every Body tends to move in a right Line that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World and other Truths But these Truths a priori are too abstract to convince the Generality of Men of the Truth advanc'd It is more to the Purpose to prove it by the Marks I have given before to distinguish Effects produced by Particular Wills from those which are the necessary Consequences of some General Law God being infinitely Wise neither wills nor does any thing without Design or End But Grace falls often on Hearts so dispos'd as to frustrate his Operation and therefore falls not on them by a Particular Will but only by a necessary Consequence of General Laws for the same Reason that Rain falls on the Sands and in the Sea no less than on Seed-Grounds XVI Though God may punish Sinners or make them more miserable than they are he can have no Design of making them more culpable and criminal which yet is an Effect of Grace and God knows certainly that according to their actual Dispositions the Graces he bestows will have that calamitous Event Therefore Graces are not shed on corrupt Hearts by a Particular Will of God but by a necessary Consequence of General Laws establish'd for the Production of the best Effects by the same Reason that on some Occasions too abundant Rains corrupt and putrifie the Fruits of the Earth though God by his General Will causes it to rain to make them thrive XVII If God was minded that some Lands should continue barren he need but have ceas'd to will that the Rain should water them So if God purpos'd that the Hearts of some Sinners should remain hardned as it would be sufficient for the Rain of Grace not to water them he need but leave them to themselves and they would corrupt fast enough Why must we attribute a Particular Will to God to make so cruel and unhappy use of the Price of his Son's Blood But many others will say God in giving Grace to Sinners has never that Design and this doubtless seems more reasonable But if God gives his Grace by a Particular Will he has some Particular Design and whereas Grace has that sad Effect God is frustrated in his Expectation since he gave it with a Design and that a particular one of doing good to a Sinner For I speak not here of the Graces or rather Gifts explain'd by St. Paul in the 12th Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians I speak of the Grace which God gives for the Conversion of him it is given to and not of those Gifts God bestows on some for the Profit of others such as are the Gifts of Prophecy of Discernment of Spirits of Speaking diverse Tongues of Healing the Sick and the like XVIII When the Rain falls in such excess that the Floods extirpate the Fruits of the Earth we ought to conclude this Rain comes by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws God has establish'd for better Effects Yet it is certain God may have appointed it by a Particular Will For God for the Punishment of Men may will that the Rains ordain'd to fecundate the Earth may make it barren on some Occasions But it is not so with the Rain of Grace since God cannot dispense it with Design of punishing Men much less of making them more culpable and criminal Thus 't is much more certain that the Rain of Grace falls by General Wills than that the common Rains do so yet most Men can easily believe that Rains are the necessary Consequences of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions whilst there are few but find some Reluctancy in believing God gives us by General Wills all these Motions of Graces whose Effects we our selves prevent There 's great likelihood this Disposition of Mind naturally grows from our thinking God acts almost like our selves and that he has on all Occasions Particular Wills for all Men in something resembling those Desires we have for our Friends For though we outwardly confess that there is an infinite Difference between God's way of acting and our own yet since we ordinarily judge of others with relation to our selves without considering few Persons seriously consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being when they would speak of God And because there is some Air of Novelty in what I say it creates a sort of Pain in the Mind which is reasonably mistrustful of what is not common and ordinary I have a particular Honour and Esteem for all those who in Matter of Religion have a secret Aversion for all Novelties When this is the Motive which induces them to oppose my Opinions they give me no Offence and whilst their Prejudices are legitimate though they should give me hainous Provocations I should preserve a Respect for them For their Disposition of Mind is infinitely more reasonable than that of others who fall foul upon all that bears the Character of Novelty Nevertheless as I believe that we are bound to love and search out Truth with all our Strength and communicate it to others when we believe we have found it I think that supposing the Doctrines of Faith undeniable we may and even ought endeavour to confirm
so it is just that Infants should be born Sinners and in Disorder And the Order of Nature which is just and equitable was not the Cause of their Sin but the Sin of their Progenitors In which sence it is not just and reasonable that a sinful Father should procreate Children perfecter than himself or that they should have a Dominion over their Bodies which their Mother has not over her own XIV 'T is true That after the Sin of Adam which ruin'd and corrupted all things God might by changing something in the Order of Nature have remedied the Disorder which that Sin had caus'd But God changes not his Will in that manner He wills nothing but what is just and what He once wills He ever wills He never corrects himself nor repents of what he does but his Will is constant and immutable His Eternal Decrees depends not on the inconstant Will of Man nor is it just they should be submitted to it XV. But if it may be permitted to dive into the Councels of the Almighty and to speak our Thoughts upon the Motives which might determine him to establish the Order now explain'd and permit the Sin of Adam I can't see how we can conceive a Notion more worthy the Greatness of God and more consonant to Reason and Religion than to believe his principal Design in his External Operations was the Incarnation of his SON That God establish'd the Order of Nature and permitted the Disorder which befel it to help forward his Great Work that He permitted all Men to be subject to Sin that none might glory in himself and suffer'd Concupiscence in the Perfectest and Holiest of Men lest they should take a vain Complacency in their own Persons For upon considering the Perfection of one's Being 't is difficult to despise it unless at the same time we contemplate and love the Supreme Good before whom all our Perfection and Greatness dissolves and falls to nothing I own That Concupiscence may be the occasion of our Merit and that 't is most just the Mind should for a Season follow Order with Pain and Difficulty that it may merit to be eternally subject to it with Ease and Pleasure I grant That upon that Prospect God might have permitted Concupiscence when he foresaw the Sin But Concupiscence not being absolutely necessary to our Meriting if God permitted it it was That Man might be able to do no good without the Aids which JESUS CHRIST has merited for him and that he might not glory in his own strength For 't is visible That a Man cannot encounter and conquer himself unless animated by the Spirit of Christ who as Head of the Faithful inspires them with quite opposite Sentiments to those of Concupiscence deriv'd to them from the Original Man XVI Supposing then That Infants are born with Concupiscence 't is plain they are effectively Sinners since their Heart is set upon Bodies as much as it is capable there is as yet in their Will but one Love and that disorder'd and corrupt and so they have nothing in them that can be the Object of the Love of God because he cannot love Disorder XVII But when they have been regenerated in JESUS CHRIST that is when their Heart has been converted to God either by an actual Motion of Love or by an internal Disposition like that which remains after an Act of Loving God then Concupiscence is no more a Sin in them because it does not solely possess the Heart nor domineer any longer in it Habitual Love which remainâ— in them through the Grace of Baptism in our LORD is more free or more strong than that which is in them through the Contagion of Concupiscence deriv'd from Adam They are like the Just who in their Sleep obey the Motions of Concupiscence yet lose not the Grace of their Baptism because their Consent to these Motions is involuntary XVIII It should not be thought strange That I believe it possible for Children to love God with a Love of Choice at the time of their Baptism For since the Second Adam is contrary to the First why should he not at the time of Regeneration deliver Children from the Servitude of their Body whereunto they are subjected by the First That being enlightned and quickned by a lively and efficacious Grace to the loving of God they may love him with a free and rational Love without being obstructed by the first Adam You say it is not observable that their Body for a moment leaves acting on the Mind But is that such a Wonder that we can't see what is not visible One single Instant is sufficient for the Exercise of that Act of Love And as it may be perform'd in the Soul without imprinting any Footsteps in the Brain 't is no more to be admir'd that the Adult in their Baptism do not always mind it for we have no Memory of things which are not registred in the Traces of the Brain XIX St. Paul teaches us That the Old Man or Concupiscence is crucify'd with JESUS CHRIST and that we are dead and buried with him by Baptism What means this but that then we are deliver'd from the Warring of the Body against the Mind and that Concupiscence is as it were Mortify'd in that moment 'T is true it revives but having been destroy'd and thereby left Children in a State of loving God it can do them no harm by its reviving For when there are two Loves in the Heart a Natural and a Free Order will that the Free be only respected But if Infants in Baptism lov'd God by an Act in no wise free and afterwards lov'd Bodies by many Acts of the same Species God could not perhaps according to Order have more respect to one single Act than to many which were all natural and without Liberty Or rather if their contrary Loveâ— were equal in force he must have respect to that which was last by the same Reason that when there has been successively in an Heart Two Free-Loves contrary to each other God has always respect to the Last since Grace is destroy'd by any one Mortal Sin XX. Nevertheless it cannot be deny'd but God may justifie the Infant without interrupting the Dominion of his Body over his Mind or convert his Will towards him by depositing in his Soul a Disposition like that which remains after an Actual Motion of our Loving God But that way of acting I doubt seems less Natural than the Other for it cannot clearly be conceiv'd what these remaining Dispositions can be 'T is true that ought not to be much admir'd since having no clear Idea of our Soul as I have elsewhere prov'd we need not wonder if we know not all the Modifications it is capable of But the Mind cannot be fully satisfied upon things which it does not clearly conceive and without recourse to an extraordinary Miracle we cannot see what can give the Soul these Dispositions without a preceding Act surely it cannot be