since mental and bodily Pain are not so far evil but that in some Circumstances they may become eligible which yet they could not be without assuming the Nature of good and therefore they are not pure and absolute Evils And further though 't is easie in our Contemplations and Retirements to distinguish between greater and lesser Evils to compare and weigh them together and to allot to each its due Proportion of Choice or Aversion yet since good and evil do frequently present themselves to our Minds in common Conversation and Business when we have neither Time nor Appetite to abstract and consider but are determin'd by this short and obvious Sillogism Evil is not eligible but such a thing is Evil therefore it is not to be chosen Whereas perhaps that which we refuse as evil suppose bodily or mental Pain though formally and in the greatest Latitude of the Word it be an Evil yet comparatively and pro hic nunc it may be a Good and so the proper Object of our Choice To avoid which common Occasion of Mistake and because the Nature of Man has so strong an Aversion to every thing that bears the Name of Evil I wou'd rather call Grief and Pain Uneasinesses than Evils and wholly appropriate the Name of Evil to Sin which is essentially and absolutely Evil and the only entire Object of a rational Creatures Hatred and Aversion But not to contend about Words admitting that Pain and Grief are Evils it is but in a comparative and lower Sense if they were essentially Evil they could not in some Circumstances become good which you your self allow them to be occasionally and consequentially and as they may be a Means to avoid a greater Evil. Whereas the very Essence of Sin is evil it can never in any Circumstance be eligible which is a Sign it is never good We may not commit a lesser Sin under Pretence to avoid a greater but we may nay we ought to endure the greatest Pain and Grief rather than commit the least sin For not to dispute what Good GOD may bring out of the Sins of Men or how he does it which are Questions I will not now meddle with I have always thought that the least moral Evil is not to be chosen no not in order to the greatest Good as I think may be inferred from the Apostles arguing Rom. 3. 8. there is a certain Peculiarity of Evil in Sin which though you will not allow it the only Evil yet at least renders it an Evil paramont to all other Evils and excludes it from the least degree of Eligibility For though Pain and Grief put the Soul into uneasie Circumstances yet they don't withdraw her from her true Good they rather excite her more strongly to cleave to him and that Trouble which sensible things occasion and which she feels through the Disorder of her own Thoughts stirs her up to fix more firmly on him whose Comforts in this Case are her only Refreshment whereas Sin quite alienates the Soul from her only true Good and thereby deprives her of the sole Prop she has to rest on and consequently puts her in the most wretched helpless and evil Condition Every thing but Sin has something of good in it because every thing else proceeds from GOD but Sin is all over perfect Deformity an uncompounded Evil and a direct Contradiction to Order and Perfection and consequently to Pleasure and therefore is or ought to be set at the greatest Opposition to the Nature of Man and to be the proper Object of his intire Hatred and Aversion This is the Point I drive at and if it may be gained am very indifferent whether it be by mine or some other Way of arguing But before I proceed to the next Particular I have two Requests one is That you would please to oblige me with a Definition of Pleasure and the other That you would a little explain the Idea of Pain for I don 't well understand your Meaning when you say That Pain anticipates all Thought or Reflection I did suppose it to be an uneasie Thought and how then can it anticipate all Thought The Bodily Impression indeed prevents Thought but that is not properly the Pain but the Occasion of it Now in the next place to gratifie your Desire which falls in so much with my own Inclinations That I should further communicate my Thoughts concerning divine Love a Subject on which 't is easie to be endless and yet impossible to say too much I take it to be the Sum and Substance of all Religion to which all other Duties are reducible which are but so many different Modifications of this Soul that animates the Christian Life And therefore such Discourses as serve to lay its Foundation deep and raise its superstructure high such as bring it Fuel by rational Motives and fan its Flame by devout and relishing Expressions do the Work of Religion all at once for were this Divine Principle but once firmly rooted in our Hearts and suffered to display it self in all its necessary Effects and Consequences 't would supercede all other Instructions and be instead of a Thousand Monitors The Love of GOD is both the best Preservative against Evil in its greatest Latitude and the strongest Impellent to good 'T is the best Antidote against Sin in that it disarms Temptations of all their Force they cannot fasten upon the Soul that entirely loves its Maker He who believes GOD to be his only Good if he attend at all to that Conviction can never wilfully sin against him For Sin being a Disconformity to GOD a willing something contrary to his Nature and Will 't is not possible for a Man to chuse that which he believes to be contrary to his only Good and which will therefore consequently deprive him of it And it being nothing else but the false Appearance of some seeming Good that inclines a Man to chuse amiss he who considers GOD as his only Good and loves him with an Entireness of Affection has shut up all the Avenues of his Soul from that Syren apparent Good and is not capable of being bewitch'd by it Indeed if we allow the Creature to be in any degree our good 't is hard to keep our selves from desiring it and if we permit Desire we can never be secure from irregular Love that Shame and Misery of Mankind it being easier not to desire at all than to desire with Moderation For Love is an insinuating Passion and where-ever 't is admitted will spread and make its Way And though the Charms of the Creature be infinitely unworthy to rival those of the Creator yet they have this Advantage that they perpetually press upon the outward Man and constantly present themselves to our Senses so that if we allow them the least Share in our Hearts 't is odds but that at last they wholly withdraw it from him who only has a Right to it And as the Love of GOD secures our
purely and intirely from our selves The former Part of this I absolutely allow and contend for concerning the latter I distinguish when you say that all our Evil is purely and intirely from our selves if you mean of moral Evil I grant it but if you mean of natural Evils then I must distinguish again upon the Words from our selves which may signifie either a physical or moral or if you will an efficient or a meritorious Causality We are certainly the meritorious Causes of all our natural Evils as bringing them upon us by our Sins but that we are the efficient Causes of any of them I deny As all our good is wholly from GOD so in this Sense is also our evil We have not the Power to modifie our own Souls and can no more raise the Sensation of Pain in them than that of Pleasure GOD is the true Author of both as I have elsewhere shewn You say again that Afflictions are not evil but good to which I return that they are both in different Respects They are certainly evil in their own formal Nature and simply in themselves considered and can be good only occasionally or consequentially as they may serve as Means to some greater Good And this I think may serve to reconcile the Goodness of Pain to that Assertion of mine that nothing does us good but what causes Pleasure that is either formally and directly or occasionally and consequentially some Way or other whatever does us good must be supposed to cause Pleasure to us Now though Pain cannot cause Pleasure formally as being a Sensation formally distinct from it yet it may occasionally and consequentially and so may come within the Inclosure of those things that do us good You think fit to confine my Sense of the Word Pleasure to such only as are truly agreeable to the Nature of Man by which I suppose you mean those Pleasures which are called rational and Intellectual To this I reply that it seems to me very evident and I think I have elsewhere made it so that GOD is the true Cause of all the Pleasure that is resented by Man But you say you know not how it can consist with the Purity of the most holy GOD that he should be the Author of those pleasing Sensations which wicked Men feel in what we call sinful Pleasures But 't is your Mistake to suppose that sensual Pleasures as such are evil or that there is any such thing as a sinful Pleasure properly speaking As Sin cannot be formally pleasant so neither can Pleasure be formally sinful All Pleasure in it self is simply good as being a real Modification of the Soul 't is the circumstantiating of it that is the Evil. And of this GOD is not the Cause but the Sinner who rather than forego such an agreeable Sensation will enjoy it in such a Manner and in such Circumstances as are not for his own or for the common Good and therefore unlawful But concerning this matter you may further satisfie your self out of the Letters between Dr. More and Me and by reading the first and second Illustration M. Malebranch makes upon his De la Recharche de la Verite Where he shews you that GOD does all that is real in the Motions of the Mind and in the Determinations of those Motions without being the Author of Sin There are two other Passages in your Letter which I know not how to assent to till I better comprehend them One is that mental Pain is the same with Sin the other is that Sin is the only true Evil of Man I cannot stay long upon these but as to the first besides that Sin is an Act and Pain a Passion of the Soul and that Pain is a real Modification of our Spirit whereas Sin in its Formality is not any thing positive but a mere Privation I say besides this if mental Pain be the same with Sin how shall we distinguish Sin from the Punishment of it And how shall a Man repent for his Sin For if mental Pain be the same with Sin then to be sorry for one Sin will be to commit another Then as to the other Part that Sin is the only evil of Man I grant it is the greatest but I cannot think it the only one for besides that mental Pain is as I have shewn an Evil distinct from it there is also a thing call'd Bodily Pain which I have also shewn to be an Evil. Now Madam as to what you request of me in the Conclusion of your Letter if you think that distinction of mine of seeking Creatures for our good but not loving them as our good too nice I further illustrate it thus you are to distinguish between the Movements of the Soul and those of the Body the Movements of the Soul ought not to tend but towards him who only is above her and only able to act in her But the Movements of the Body may be determined by those Objects which environ it and so by those Movements we may unite our selves to those things which are the natural or occasional Causes of our Pleasure Thus because we find Pleasure from the Fire this is Warrant enough to approach it by a Bodily Movement but we must not therefore love it For Love is a Movement of the Soul and that we are to reserve for him who is the true Cause of that Pleasure which we resent by Occasion of the Fire who as I have proved is no other than GOD. By which you may plainly perceive what 't is I mean by saying that Creatures may be sought for our good but not loved as our Good But after all I must needs acknowledge that this as all our other Duties is more intelligible than practicable though to render it so I know no other Way than by long and constant Meditation to free our Minds of that early Prejudice that sensible Objects do act upon our Spirits and are the Causes of our Sensations carefully to distinguish between an efficient Cause strictly so called and an Occasion to attribute to GOD and the Creature their proper Parts in the Production of our Pleasures to bring our selves to a clear Perception and habitual Remembrance of this grand Truth the Foundation of all Morality that GOD only is the true Cause of all our Good which when fully convinced of we shall no longer question whether he ought to be the only Object of our Love I am Madam With great Respect Your humble Servant J. NORRIS Bemerton Nov. 13. 1693. If you are satisfied thus far I would desire you to go on to communicate what other Thoughts you have concerning the Love of GOD for 't is a Subject I like and would willingly pursue to the utmost LETTER V. To Mr. Norris SIR SO candid and condiscending a Treatment of a Stranger a Woman and so inconsiderable an one as my self shews you to be as much above the Generality of the World in your Practice as you are in your Theory and
Speculation Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist them in the Attainment of it Not considering that the meliorating of one single Soul is an Employment more worthy of a wife Man than most of those things to which Custom appropriates the Name of Business and Affairs But now since you have so generously put into my Hand an Opportunity of obtaining what I so greedily long after that I may make the best Improvement of so great an Advantage I give up my self entirely to your Conduct so far as is consistent with a rational not blind Obedience bring a free and unprejudiced Mind to receive from your Hand such Gravings and Impressions as shall seem most convenient and though I can't engage for a prompt and comprehensive Genius yet I will for a docible Temper The Esteem I have for those necessary and useful Rules you have already prescribed shall appear by my strict Observation of them For indeed the Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters and that Soul who has any Sense of a better Life can't chuse but desire that every Minute of her Time may be employed in the regulating of her Will with the most critical Exactness and the extending her Understanding to its utmost Stretch that so she may obtain the most enlarg'd Knowledge and ample Fruition of GOD her only Good that her Nature is capable of I will therefore pass on to explain a little what I asserted in my last next add a few Thoughts concerning Divine Love and in the last place a Proposal or two for the better Prosecution of those you have already made Now in order to the first I am very well satisfied that GOD is the Cause of Mental as well as Bodily Pain if by mental Pain you understand Grief my Mistake lying in this that I confounded Sin and mental Pain 'T is indeed evident that Sin and Grief are two distinct things yet I cannot form to my self any Idea of Sin which does not include in it the greatest Pain and Misery For as Sin is the meritorious Cause of all Misery so it seems to me that the Punishment of Sin is concomitant to the Act Misery is inseparable from Sin and the Sinner is ipso facto punished When therefore I said that mental Pain is the same with Sin I meant no more than this that as a musical Instrument if it were capable of Sense and Thought wou'd be uneasie and in pain when harsh discordant Notes are plaid upon it so Man when he breaks the Law of his Nature and runs counter to those Motions his Maker has assign'd him when he contradicts the Order and End of his Being must needs be in Pain and Misery And as the Health and Perfection Ease and Pleasure Good and Happiness or whatever you will call it of a Creature consists in its Conformity to the End of its Creation and the being in such Circumstances as are agreeable to its Nature from which when in the least it deviates it loses both its Beauty and its Pleasure so the Soul of Man being made on purpose for the Contemplation and Love of GOD whensoever it ceases to pursue that End must needs be put out of the Order of its Nature and consequently depriv'd of all Pleasure and Perfection whilst it stands rightly affected towards GOD it cannot be destitute of Pleasure but whatsoever sets it in Opposition to him does by that Act deprive it of all Delight So that my Hypothesis will lie thus That although GOD only has Power to modifie the Soul of Man and to affect it with Pain and Grief yet since these are rather Uneasinesses than Evils strictly so call'd nothing according to my Notion being the proper Evil of Man but Sin of which more anon since they are design'd by GOD as Mediums to good and are if not formally yet at least consequentially Occasions of Pleasure since the wilful and affected Ignorance of the Understanding and Pravity of the Will or in other Words Sin is the true and proper Evil of a Man because Sin only is absolutely and directly opposite to the Essence of Goodness and seeing GOD can no way be said to be the Author of Sin consequently his being the Cause of our uneasie Sensations can be no just Bar to our Love much less any Motive to our Aversion As for the Distinction of the Soul into inferiour and superiour Part I am as little satisfied with it as you can be and do confess to you ingeniously that I have no clear Idea of that which is properly my self nor do I well know how to distinguish its Powers and Operations For the usual Accounts that are given of the Soul are very unsatisfactory that in your Letter being the best I have met with and therefore for want of better Expressions I made use of this Distinction which I did the more readily because I learned it from your Christian Blessedness P. 158. All the remaining Difference therefore lies in this Question whether Sin be the only Evil And in order to the removing it I shall first shew you my Design in affirming that it is and then the Reasons that incline me to it and when I have done so I will refer all to your better Judgment First for what I aim at I have observ'd that most of the Folly and Mischief that is in the World proceeds from false Notions of Pain and Pleasure and Mistakes concerning the Nature of good and evil For would Men be perswaded that GOD is their only good so they might enjoy him they would not much regret the Absence of other things neither would they so greedily pursue the Shell of Pleasure nor fix their Hearts on sensible Objects which can never satisfie And were they but convinced that nothing is so evil as Sin they would not choose Iniquity rather than Affliction As therefore your Account of Pleasure does rectifie the Errors of our Love so I could wish that our Aversions were better regulated than they usually are and that Sin which though it be not the efficient is yet the moral Cause of all our Evils and Displeasures were so represented as that it might appear the only proper and adequate Object of our intire Hatred and Aversion This is my Design Now for the Reasons besides what are already intimated which incline me to think that Sin is the only Evil. I grant that whatever is contrary to the Pleasure and Good of Man in any of his Capacities may in some Sense be call'd an Evil and in this Latitude no doubt but that both mental and sensible Pain are Evils But because when we speak of Evil we usually understand something that in its own Nature is the proper Object of our Aversion evil as evil being no way eligible and
Innocence so it makes the best Provision for our Pleasure The Soul of Man may as well cease to be as cease to love something or other it must desire but so long as it moves towards the Creature it may amuse its Cravings but can never satisfie them How often will the Objects of our Love be wanting How often will the Objects of our Love be wanting How often will they be unkind And suppose them as present and as kind as we can wish them shall we not be as sick of our Fruitions as we were of our Desires For what is there in the Creature but Emptiness Vanity and Vexation But the Object of Divine Love is always essentially present nothing can hide him from us but our own Neglect if we do but fix the Eyes of our Understanding on and direct the Motions of our Will towards him we may always contemplate and enjoy his Beauty may always asswage our Thirst at this Fountain and feast our hungry Souls upon his never-failing Charms which though they will still draw us on to pursue a further Enjoyment because of their infinite Amability and Perfection yet all along they will satisfie and fill our Souls with unspeakable Delight though they don't extinguish all Desire yet they will remove all Emptiness and at once replenish our Faculties and enlarge them But these ravishing Delights which the enamoured Soul feels in every Approach to her Divine Lover are better felt than expressed and when we have once tasted of these most sapid Pleasures we shall for ever disdain the muddy Streams of sensual Delights Thus the Love of GOD defends us from the Uneasiness of Pain and Grief as well as from the Evil of Sin and makes us happy in all our Capacities It is so Divine a Cordial that the least Drop of it is able to sweeten and outweigh all the Troubles of this present State and render the most Calamitous Condition not only easie but joyous For it gives an Anticipation of those Joys in which it will at last invest us brings down Heaven into our Bosoms e're it carries us up thither and were it but largely shed abroad in our Hearts we should be out of the Reach of Fortune might slight and trample on all Afflictions Though the Arrows of Pain and Grief should ruffle our Skin they could not touch our Hearts or they might touch but could not hurt us Finally to what Heights of Piety will not this Divine Principle elevate the amorous Soul For what can be too difficult to do to acquire a more perfect Enjoyment of what we love What can be too hard to suffer for the sake of that Object that hath won our Heart 'T is nothing else that cramps our Endeavours and slackens our Industry after one of the brightest Crowns of Glory but the dividing our Love between GOD and Mammon If a foolish ill-grounded Passion can many times excite the Soul in which it dwells to do things beyond it self If the Love of dirty Clay or popular Breath can reconcile us to Fatigues and Distresses and many things very uneasie to our Animal Nature shall not the most rational and becoming Love that Love which is the End and Perfection of our Beings which is secured from Disappointment Jealousie and all that long Train of Pain and Grief which attends Desire when it moves towards the Creature set us above all Difficulties render our Obedience regular constant and vigorous refine and sublimate our Natures and make us become Angels even whilst we dwell on Earth In the last Place for the Proposals I am to make When you think we have sufficiently examined the Subject we are upon I desire the Favour of you to furnish me with such a System of Principles as I may relie on and to give me such Rules as you judge most convenient to initiate a raw Disciple in the Study of Philosophy least for want of laying a good Foundation I give you too much Trouble by drawing Conclusions from false Premises and making use of improper Terms I have no more to add but my repeated Thanks for that great Condescention you continue to shew to Worthy Sir Your most obliged and humble Servant December 12. 1693. LETTER VI. Mr. Norris's Answer Madam IT deserves neither your Thanks nor your Admiration that I should endeavour to be particularly civil to a Person of your extraordinary Worth and Accomplishments which indeed appear so great and so beyond what I ever yet found or could imagine as at the same time to command and lessen the highest Respect and Deference that can be shewn to you Your Hypothesis as you now explain and rectifie it runs clear and unperplext and has nothing in it but what equitably understood challenges my full Consent and Approbation The Defect of it before lay partly in your supposing GOD not to be the Author of mental Pain and that because you made mental Pain to be all one with Sin and partly in your supposing sensible Pain of which you allow'd GOD to be the Author not to be in it self a real Evil. But now both these Faults are mended and all is right and as it should be For whereas before when you confounded mental Pain with Sin you pleaded thus against our hating and for our loving GOD notwithstanding the Pain which he is acknowledged to inflict upon us mental Pain is truly an Evil but such as GOD does not cause sensible Pain GOD does cause but then that is not truly an Evil. Now distinguishing mental Pain from Sin and substituting Sin in the room of mental Pain you make your Apology for the Love of GOD run thus Sin which is truly an Evil GOD does not cause and as for mental and sensible Pains whereof GOD is the true Cause they are not truly and properly Evils By which latter Clause I presume you mean not as you seem'd to do at first that they are not truly and properly Evils in their own formal Natures and as simply in themselves considered for so 't is evident that they are Evils as being as such against the Happiness and Well-being of a thinking and self-conscious Nature but only as in that particular Supposition Juncture or Circumstance wherein they are inflicted by GOD who having a thorough comprehensive View of our whole Condition and so knowing what upon all Considerations is best for us thinks it adviseable sometimes to molest and trouble our Repose with mental or sensible Pain not for their own sakes or that he is delighted in them as such any more than we our selves are but in order to our Good and as they are necessary Means to avoid some greater Evil. In which respect both Pain and Grief though evil in their inward formal Natures do relatively considered so far put on the Nature of Good as to be truly eligible and would not fail to be actually willed and chosen by us for our selves as by GOD for us if we had the same Views and Prospects of things
of a Physical Efficiency towards the Production of them No not so much as by way of Instruments For even Instruments belong to the Order of efficient Causes though they are less principal ones and 't is most certain that GOD has no need of any since his Will is efficacious of it self If therefore this be meant by sensible Congruity that the Objects of our senses have any real Part or Share in the Production of our sensations though it be only in an instrumental Way I utterly disclaim it as an absurd and unphilosophical Prejudice and that without any Danger of rendring the Workmanship of GOD vain or unnecessary that Inconvenience being sufficiently salved by the first kind of sensible Congruity as you may easily perceive This Madam I think gives full Satisfaction to your first Instance As to your second That it seems more agreeable to the Majesty of GOD to say that he produces our sensations mediately by his servant Nature than to affirm that he does it immediately by his own Almighty Power I reply briefly First That Arguments from the Majesty of GOD signifie no more here against GOD's being the immediate Author of our sensations than in the old Epicurean Objection against Providence And indeed they seem both to be built upon the same popular Prejudice and wrong Apprehension concerning the Nature of the Deity as if it were a Trouble to him to concern himself with his Creation If it were not beneath the Grandeur and Majesty of GOD to create the World immediately neither is it so to govern it and if his greatness will permit him to order and direct the Motions of Matter much more will it to act upon and give sentiments to our Spirits though with his own immediate Hand which is necessary to hold and govern the World which it has made For after all secondly we have no reason to think it beneath the Majesty of GOD to do that himself which can be done by none but himself Which as I have sufficiently shewn to be the Case in reference to our Sensations so I doubt not but that if you carefully read over Mr. Malebranch Touchant l' efficace attribuèe aux Causes Seconds you will find to hold as true as to all things else I mean that GOD is the only true efficient Cause and that his Servant Nature is but a mere Chimera As to what you say lastly That the Supposition of Bodies having an immediate Causality in the Production of our Sensations will be no Prejudice to the Drift of my Discourse the intire Love of GOD because of the mechanical and involuntary Way of their Operation I do not know whether this Supposition will be so harmless or no. But this I am sure of that the safest Way to bar the Creatures from all Pretensions to my Love is to deny that I have any of my Sensations from them or that I am beholden to them for the lest Melioration or Perfection of my Being And besides if we should once allow them in a true and Physical Sense to cause our Sensations I am inclined to think that this may justly be used as an Argument a Posteriori to prove that they do not do it so mechanically and involuntarily as you represent it but rather knowingly and designedly since it is impossible that any thing but a thinking Principle should be productive of any Thought as all Sensation certainly is And thus Madam I have endeavoured to give you the best Satisfaction I can upon this great and noble but much neglected Argument and shall think my self very happy and sufficiently rewarded if by the Pains I have bestowed I may deserve the Title of Madam Your sincere Friend and humble Servant J. NORRIS Bemerton Sept. 21. FINIS Books printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MR. Norris's Collection of Miscellanies in large 8 o. His Reason and Religion The 2d Edition in 8 o. His Theory and Regulation of Love The 2d Edit in 8 o. His Reflections upon the Conduct of Humane Life The 2d Edition in 8 o. His Practical Discourses upon the Beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Vol. I. The 3d. Edit in 8 o. His Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects Vol. II. The 2. Edit in 8 o. His Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects Vol. III. in 8 o. His Charge of Schism continued In 12 o. His Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light in 8 o. His Spiritual Conusel or Father's Advice to his Children in 12 o. Books sold by R. VVilkin at the King's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard A Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest By a Lover of her Sex in 12 o. Dr. Abbadie's Vindication of the Christian Religion 8 o. Mr. Edwards's farther Enquiry into several remarkable Texts of Scripture the 2d Edit 8 o. His Discourse concerning the Authority Stile and Perfection of the Books of the Old and New Testament 8 o. Bishop Patrick's glorious Epiphany 8 o. His Search the Scriptures 12 o. His Discourse concerning Prayer 12 o. Dr Goodman's Old Religion 12 o. * The Reader is desired to take Notice that no more is meant by these Phrases than that Sin in its own Nature or Formality is entirely evil it has neither Form nor Beauty that we should desire it can never be ordinable to a good End is none of GOD's Creatures and therefore has not any the least Degree of Goodness in it is neither eligible for its own sake nor upon any other Account whatsoever * The Reader is desired to take Notice that no more is meant by these Phrases than that Sin in its own Nature or Formality is entirely evil it has neither Form nor Beauty that we should desire it can never be ordinable to a good End is none of GOD's Creatures and therefore has not any the least Degree of Goodness in it is neither eligible for its own sake nor upon any other Account whatsoever
of this present State And certainly to be fortified against the Venom and secured from the Shame of Sin is no inconsiderable Blessing Repentance is indeed an excellent Atidote to expel the Poyson but 't is much better not to take it For though I were sure to be delivered from the evil Consequences of Sin I would not commit it merely on account of its natural Turpitude and concomitant Evil. 'T is so exceeding ugly in its own Nature and such a Reproach to ours that though I know GOD so great is his Goodness will pardon me upon my true Repentance yet I know not how to forgive my self Even that very Goodness which frees us from the punishment encreases the Shame of Sin and makes it so much the more abominable in that it is an Offence against so great a Goodness Ioseph's Expostulation in my Mind is very emphatick How can I do this great Evil and sin against GOD He does not say how can I expose my self to the Hazzard of Discovery the Pain of Repentance and all the evil Effects and Punishments of Sin No that which was most grievous to him and is so to all ingenious Tempers was the Opposition that is in Sin to the Nature of GOD the Affront that it offers to his Majesty and Goodness In his Opinion Sin in its self was the only considerable Evil the only thing to be avoided and fled from for certainly of all Punishments this is most deplorable to be given up to our own Hearts Lust and suffered to follow our own Imaginations But to return from this Digression What was observed above is by the way a sufficient Apology for the Strictness of the Divine Law For since 't is GOD only that does us good and he only that is our Good since all our Happiness consists in a Union with and Enjoyment of him and since without Holiness there can be no Union with GOD and that without Obedience to his Commands we can never partake of his Nature therefore Holiness is of absolute Necessity because it is impossible to be happy without being holy To suppose it is to suppose the greatest Absurdity and to imagine either that GOD is not our Happiness or that 't is possible to enjoy him without being like him We have therefore no reason to complain of the strictest Precepts of our Religion For when we are commanded to cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit to perfect Holiness to deny and mortifie that Part of us which is the Scene of Temptation the corruptible Body which presses down the Soul to be holy in all manner of Conversation and in a word to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect we are but in other Words commanded to be as happy as ever we can no difficult Task one would think we may rather wonder why it should be enjoyned us since Nature and the Reason of things dictate and press it on us But though we all naturally pursue after Happiness though we all constantly desire it yet we are too apt to mistake the means of attaining it And therefore GOD has thought fit out of his unspeakable Goodness to send his Son into the World to shew us by Precept and Example the true way to Felicity and explicitly discover that which we all blindly pursue He does not exact of us any Duty but what if we had a just View of things we would chuse our selves and only engages us by all that Deference that is due to his Wisdom by all that Obedience we owe to his Authority to seek for Happiness there only where we are sure to find it to make use of such Methods as will infallibly secure us from Delusion and Disappointment and therefore we can never answer it either to Reason or good Nature if we be refractory to such exuberant Kindness and Condiscention But secondly the intire Love of GOD is necessary because unless we love GOD only we do in effect not love him at all the Desire of GOD and Desire of the Creature being in their own Nature incompatible and by allowing our selves to love the one we do by consequence forsake the other For besides what you have already very excellently observed to this purpose in the Discourse it self it may further be considered that Love being the same to the Soul that Motion is to Bodies as Bodies cannot have two Centers or different Terms of Motion so neither can the Soul have a twofold Desire We may as reasonably expect that a Stone should go up Hill and down Hill at the same time as that the Soul should 〈…〉 GOD and any 〈…〉 To love is in 〈…〉 to make the thing 〈◊〉 our End We move towards good in order to make that good our own and to embrace and acquiesce in it Now he that loves the Creature does it because he expects some Degrees of Happiness at least from it and so far makes it his End and consequently does not center upon GOD as his compleat and only Felicity for if he did it were impossible to with-hold any Degree of his Love from him Again if as you said in your last he that enjoys GOD cannot Desire any thing out of him because of the infinite Fulness of GOD then certainly he that desires any thing besides GOD whatever he pretend or however he deceive himself does not truly love GOD for if he did that would quench all Desire of the Creature He that has discovered the Fountain will not seek for troubled and failing Streams to quench his Thirst He can never be content to step aside to catch at the Shadow who is in Pursuit and View of the Substance The Soul that loves GOD has no occasion to love other things because it neither needs nor expects Felicity from them whenever it moves towards the Creature it must necessarily forsake the Creator and it can never truly turn to him without a Dereliction of all besides him Perhaps this may be thought a skrewing up things to too great a Heigth a winding up our Nature to a Pitch it is not able to reach and though it may be fit and desirable yet it is not at present practicable to love GOD with such an intense and abstracted Affection But I consider that since we are so apt to tumble down the Hill so inclinable to take up with the least and lowest Measures since 't is impossible we should love too much and very great Danger of our loving too little and that our Practice does constantly come short of our Theory our Copy seldom reach the Original it cannot be amiss to represent our Duty in the strictest Measures to excite our Endeavours to do as well as we can since we cannot expect to compass what we ought or pay to the Divine Majesty what is due to his transcendent Excellencies and infinite Love to us And since our just Debt cannot be discharged is it not fit to raise our Composition as high as our Stock will bear Besides the
Design of all this is only to secure and improve our Happiness and is it not an odd thing for a Man to complain of enjoying too much and of being over happy His Desire of Happiness is ever flaming he may indeed be and often is mistaken in his Applications to particular Objects can it then be thought a Discourtesie to direct him to that never-failing Spring that stable Center which cannot disappoint him And though perhaps he may think it at first an uneasie thing to restrain his Desires from their usual Haunts and to put them in a new and quite contrary Motion yet if the Reasonableness of the thing cannot at least let his Kindness to himself perswade him to make the Experiment and I doubt not but that in a very little time he will be fully convinced that the intire Love of GOD is as practicable and pleasurable as 't is rational and perfective And indeed nothing does so much greaten and inlarge the Mind as the Love of GOD for when it has so vast a good before it it must needs stretch it self to receive the Fullest Draught that ever it can and to be covetous and ambitious of the supreme Good are very laudable Qualities Farther yet the Love of GOD will inspire the Soul with the most generous Sentiments A noble Mind though it love never so heartily will not desire Love again unless it can pretend to some Merit to recommend it And though Merit is a thing that Creatures can have no Title to in respect of their Creator yet some faint Resemblance of it they may aspire to Though they cannot strictly deserve yet they may do that which through his gracious Acceptance will entitle them to his Favour which though it be not Merit yet through his Condiscention is equivalent to it And therefore an ardent Lover of GOD will consider how incongruous it is to present him with a mean and narrow Soul a Heart grovling on the Earth cleaving to little dirty Creatures He will discern that nothing but what is great and best is fit for GOD's Service and will strive even to out-do himself that he may procure an Oblation tolerably fit for such a Majesty To conclude when we can say with David our Hearts are fixed when they are intirely fixed on GOD we have very great reason to sing and give Praise for then we are truly and very happy but never till then And now Sir you have all that at present occurs to my Mind on this noble Argument and when you have added what you promise I think there will not remain much more to be said upon this Subject unless you will please to assign the Cause why we are so backward to a Love that is both so reasonable in it self and so pleasant and profitable to us It may indeed seem exceeding strange to a considerate Person why any one who has the Use of Reason should not love GOD or why he should love any thing besides him For does not the Will as naturally and necessarily seek after good and cleave to it as the hungry Appetite does to its Food or the thirsty Hart to the refreshing Streams And does not GOD comprehend all possible Good is he not the very Fountain and sole Author of it Is he not Goodness it self that communicative Goodness which gave Being to all things in whom all things are and consequently whatsoever is good in them must in a more eminent Manner subsist in him as you have fully made out in a just Discourse upon the Subject And admitting that he were not the efficient Cause of all our good of all our pleasing Sensations yet according to the Principles of all Mankind for they who deny GOD and his Goodness do not deserve to be ranked in that Number all the good that we do or can enjoy is if not that way yet some way or other derived from him Whither then can the Will possibly move but towards him Where can it quench its insatiable Thirst but in this inexhaustible Ocean of Delight And having once tasted of this true and only satisfying good is it possible that it should desire or relish any thing besides him It is indeed strange very strange that it should And no body could imagine it if Experience did not daily declare it From whence then does this Absurdity arise What 's the reason that we do not all seek for good there and there only where we all acknowledge it does in the most eminent manner reside Why the Mischief is that though we habitually know this yet we do not actually consider it or at least not so thoroughly as to determine us to this Choice 'T is our Misfortune that we live an animal before we live a rational Life the good we enjoy is mostly transmitted to us through Bodily Mediums and contracts such a Tincture of the Conveyance through which it passes that forgetting the true Cause and Sourse of all our good we take up with those occasional goods that are more visible and present to our animal Nature Besides the Mistakes of our Education do too much confirm us in this Error We suck in false Principles and Tendencies betimes and are taught not to thirst after GOD as our only good but to close with those visible Objects that surround us to rest and stay in them These we learn to covet and call our goods to value our selves upon and be pleased in the Enjoyment of them And as we grow up we see the generality of the World pursuing the same Method and think it our Wisdom to strike in with the vulgar Herd Probably we may have been taught to call on GOD to acknowledge him the giver of all good things in a formal Address and when we have done so we fancy we have paid our Tribute discharged our Duty and therefore enquire no further into the meaning of it but put on our Religion as we do our Cloaths in Conformity to the Fashion nay perhaps do not so much study or make so many Inquiries about that as we do about the other Thus are we insensibly betrayed into a wrong Motion and blindly follow on in it till at length we become so glew'd to the Creature that 't is almost as difficult to wean us from it as it is to change the I eopard's Spots or whiten the Negro's Skin And finding the Propension so early and so strong we imagine that Nature not Custom is the Author of it which certainly is a very gross Mistake 'T is voluntary Error superinduced Habits and evil Customs that sets us in Opposition to GOD it is not through any Natural Aversion that we turn from him For what can Nature desire but a Supply of all her Wants and a Union with the Fonntain of all Felicity And she is not so blind in other things as to mistake a Stone for Bread and Poyson for Food Nor would she go retrograde in this her great and primary Motion if we did not clap a false