the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
contemplating this Divine Substance I am able to see some part of what God thinks for God sees all Truths and there are some which I can see I can also discover something of the Will of God for God wills nothing but according to a certain Order and this Order is not altogether unknown to me It is certain that God loves Things according as they are worthy of Love and I can discover that there are some Things more Perfect more Valuable and consequently more worthy of Love than others V. It is true indeed that I cannot by contemplating the Word or consulting Reason be assur'd whether God doth actually produce any thing out of his own Being or no. For none of the Creatures proceed naturally from the Word nor is the World a necessary emanation of the Deity God is fully sufficient for himself and the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect may be conceiv'd to subsist alone The Creatures then suppose in God free and arbitrary Decrees which give them their Being So that the Word as such not containing in it the Existence of the Creatures we cannot by the Contemplation of it be assur'd of the Action of God But supposing that God doth act I am able to know something of the manner in which he acts and may be certain that he doth not act in such or such a manner for that which regulates his manner of Acting the Law which he inviolably observes is the Word the Eternal Wisdom the Universal Reason which makes me Rational and which I can in part contemplate according to my own desires VI. If we suppose Man to be a Rational Creature we cannot certainly deny him the Knowledge of something that God thinks and of the manner in which he acts For by contemplating the substance of the Word which alone makes me and all other intelligent Beings Rational I can clearly discover the Relations or Proportions of Greatness that are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in it and these Relations are the same eternal Truths which God himself sees For God sees as well as I that twice two is four and that Triangles which have the same Base and are between the same Parallels are equal I can also discover at least confusedly the Relations of Perfection which are between the same Ideas and these Relations are that immutable Order which God consults when he acts and which ought also to regulate the Esteem and Love of all intelligent Beings VII From hence it is evident that there are such things as True and False Right and Wrong and that too in respect of all intelligent Beings that whatsoever is true in respect of Man is true also in respect of Angels and of God himself that what is Injustice or Disorder with relation to Man is so also with relation to God For all Spiritual Beings contemplating the same intellectual Substance necessarily discover in it the same Relations of Greatness or the same speculative Truths They discover also the same practical Truths the same Laws and the same Order when they see the Relations of Perfection that are between those intellectual Beings comprehended in the Substance of the Word which alone is the immediate Object of all our Knowledge VIII I say when they see these Relations of Perfection or Greatness and not when they judge of them for only Truth or the real Relations of Things are visible and we ought to judge of nothing but what we see When we judge before we see or of more things than we see we are deceiv'd in our Judgment or at least we judge ill tho' we may happen by chance not to be deceiv'd For when we judge of things by chance as well as when we judge by Passion or Interest we judge ill because we do not judge by Evidence and Light This is Judging by our selves and not by Reason or according to the Laws of Universal Reason That Reason I say which alone is superiour to Spirits and hath a Right to judge of those Judgments which are pronounc'd by them IX The Mind of Man being finite cannot see all the Relations that the Objects of its Knowledge bear to one another so that it may be deceiv'd when it judges of Relations which it doth not see But if it judg'd of nothing but just what it saw which without doubt it may do certainly tho' it be a finite Spirit tho' it be Ignorant and in its own Nature subject to Error it would never be deceiv'd for then the Judgments fram'd by it would not proceed so much from it self as from the Universal Reason pronouncing the same Judgments in it X. But God is infallible in his own Nature he cannot be subject to Error or Sin for he is his own Light and his own Law Reason is consubstantial with him he understands it perfectly and loves it invincibly Being infinite he discovers all the Relations that are comprehended in the intellectual Substance of the Word and therefore cannot judge of what he doth not see And as he loves himself invincibly so he cannot but esteem and love other things according as they are valuable and according as they are amiable XI It is probable that Angels and Saints tho' in their own Nature subject to Error are never deceiv'd because the least attention of Mind represents to them clearly the Ideas of things and their several Relations they judge of nothing but what they see they follow the Light and do not go before it they obey the Law and do not set themselves above it In them Reason alone judges definitively and without appeal But Man such as I find my self to be is often deceiv'd because the labour of Attention is extremely tiresom to him and tho' his Application be strong and painful he hath commonly but a confus'd fight of Objects Thus being weary and not much enlightned he reposes himself on probability and contents himself for some time with the enjoyment of a false Good but being soon out of relish with it he begins his search anew till being tir'd or seduc'd again he takes some rest till he be in a condition to begin afresh tho' weakly his difficult enquiries XII Since speculative and practical Truths are nothing else but relations of Greatness or Perfection it is evident that Falshood is not any thing real That twice two is four or that twice two is not five is true because there is a Relation of Equality between twice two and four and a relation of Inequality between twice two and five And he that sees these relations sees Truths because the relations are real That twice two is five or that twice two is not four is false because there is no relation of equality between twice two and five nor of inequality between twice two and four And he that sees or rather believes he sees these relations sees Falsities He sees relations that are not He thinks he sees but indeed he doth not see for Truth is intelligible but Falshood in
would be capable of discovering Truth in all manner of Subjects are oblig'd to study throughly XII The only Rule which I would have carefully observ'd is to meditate only on clear Ideas and undeniable Experiments To meditate on confus'd Sensations and doubtful Experiments is lost labour this is to contemplate nothing but Chimeras and to follow Error The immutable and necessary Order the divine Law is also our Law This ought to be the principal Subject of our Meditations Now there is nothing more abstracted and less Subject to Sense than this Order I grant that we may also be guided by Order made sensible and visible by the actions and precepts of Jesus Christ Yet that is because that sensible Order raises the Mind to the knowledge of the intellectual Order for the Word made Flesh is our Model only to conform us to Reason the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings the Model by which the first Man was form'd and according to which we are to be reform'd by the foolishness of Faith which leads us by our Senses to our Reason and to the contemplation of our intellectual Model XIII A Man that is thrown down on the Ground supports himself with the Ground but 't is in order to rise again Jesus Christ accommodates himself to our Weakness but 't is to draw us out of it Faith speaks to the Soul only by the Body it is true but it is to the end that a Man should not hearken to the Body that he should retire into himself that he should contemplate the true Ideas of things and silence his Senses Imagination and Passions That he should begin upon Earth to make the same use of his Mind that he shall do in Heaven where Understanding shall succeed Faith where the Body shall be subject to the Soul and Reason shall have the sole Government For the Body of it self speaks to the Soul only for it self this is an essential Truth of which we cannot be too fully convinc'd XIV Truth and Order consist in nothing else but in the relations of Greatness and Perfection which Things have to one another But how shall we discover these Relations evidently when we want clear Ideas How shall we give to every thing the Rank which belongs to it if we measure nothing but with relation to our selves Certainly if we look upon our selves as the Center of the Universe a Notion which the Body is continually putting into us all Order is destroy'd all Truths change their nature a Torch becomes bigger than a Star a Fruit more valuable than the safety of our Country The Earth which Astronomers consider but as a Point in respect of the Universe is the Universe it self And this Universe is yet but a Point in respect of our particular Being At some certain times when the Body speaks to us and the Passions are excited we are ready if it were possible to sacrifice it to our Glory and Pleasures XV. By clear Ideas which I make the principal Object of those who would know and love Order I mean not only those between which the Mind can discover the precise and exact Relations such as are all those which are the Object of Mathematical Knowledge and may be express'd by Numbers or represented by Lines But I understand in general by clear Ideas all such as produce any Light in the Mind of those who contemplate them and from which one may draw certain Consequences So that I reckon amongst clear Ideas not only simple Ideas but also those Truths which contain the Relations that are between Ideas I comprehend also in this Number common Notions and Principles of Morality and in a word all clear Truths which are evident either of themselves or by Demonstration or by an infallible Authority tho' to speak nicely these last are rather certain than clear and evident XVI By undeniable Experiments I mean chiefly those matters of Fact which Faith informs us of and those of which we are convinc'd by the inward Sense we have of what passes within our selves If we will be govern'd by Examples and judge of Things by Opinion we shall be deceiv'd every Moment for there is nothing more equivocal and more confus'd than the Actions of Men and many times nothing more false than that which passes for certain with whole Nations Further it is a very fruitless thing to meditate upon that which passes within our selves if we do it with a Design of discovering the nature of it For we have no clear Ideas of our own Being nor of any of its Modifications and we can never discover the nature of any Beings but by contemplating the clear Ideas by which they are represented to us But we cannot meditate too much upon our inward Sensations and Motions to discover their Connexions and Relations and the natural or occasional causes which excite them for this is a thing of infinite consequence in relation to Morality XVII The knowledge of Man is of all the Sciences the most necessary for our purpose But it is only an experimental Science resulting from the reflection we make on that which passes within us This Reflection doth not discover to us the nature of those two Substances of which we are compos'd but it teaches us the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and is serviceable to us in establishing those great Principles of Morality by which we ought to govern our Actions XVIII On the contrary the knowledge of God is not at all Experimental We discover the Divine Nature and Attributes when we can contemplate with Attention the vast and immense Idea of an infinitely perfect Being for we must not judge of God but according to the clear Idea we have of him This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of For most Men judge of God with a relation to themselves they make him like themselves a great many ways they consult themselves instead of consulting only the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being Thus they take away from him those divine Attributes which they cannot easily conceive and attribute to him a Wisdom a Power a Conduct in a word Sentiments resembling at least in some measure those which are most familiar to them And yet the knowledge of our Duties supposes that of the Divine Attributes and our Conduct can never be sure and well grounded if it be not built upon and govern'd by that which God observes in the execution of his Designs XIX The Knowledge of Order which is our indispensable Law is compounded of both these clear Ideas and inward Sensations Every Man knows that it is better to be Good than Rich a Prince or a Conqueror but every Man doth not see it by a clear Idea Children and ignorant People know well enough when they do ill but 't is because the secret Check of Reason reproves them for it and not always because the Light discovers it to them For Order consider'd speculatively and precisely only as it contains the Relations
naturally Habits are got and maintain'd by Acts But we cannot frame a resolution of Sacrificing our predominant Passion without a lively Faith and a firm Hope especially when this Passion appears with all its Charms and Allurements And therefore since it is Light and Understanding which illuminates Faith strengthens Hope and discovers to the Mind the ridiculousness and deformity of the Passions we should continually meditate on the true Goods and seek and carefully lay up in our Memory the Motives which may induce us to love them and to despise transient Enjoyments and that with so much the greater diligence because the Light is subject to our Wills and if we live in Darkness it is most commonly our own fault I think I have sufficiently prov'd these Truths II. But when our Faith is not lively nor our Hope strong enough to make us resolve to Sacrifice a Passion which hath got such a Dominion over our Heart that it corrupts our Mind every Moment and draws it to its Party the only thing we ought to do and perhaps the only thing we can do in this Case is to seek for that in the fear of Hell and the just Indignation of an avenging God which we cannot find in the hope of an eternal Happiness and in the Motion which that Fear excites in us to pray to the Saviour of Sinners that he would encrease our Faith and Confidence in him not ceasing in the mean time to meditate on the Truths of Religion and Morality and on the Vanity of transitory Enjoyments for without this we cannot be sensible of our Miseries nor call upon our Deliverer Now when we find in our selves stâ—â—ngth enough to form an actual resolution of Sacrificing our Passions to the Love of Order then tho' according to the Principles which I have laid down in the foregoing Chapters we may through the assistance of Grace by repeating the like Acts absolutely acquire Charity or the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order yet it is better without delay to come to the Sacraments and in that actual Motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in us to wash away our Sins by Penance This is undoubtedly the most compendious and certain way to change the Act into a Habit the Act I say which is transient and doth not work Conversion into a Habit which remains and which justifies For God doth not Judge us according to that which is actual and transitory but according to habitual and permanent Dispositions and by the Sacraments of the New Testament we receive justifying Charity which gives us a Right to the true Goods and the assistances necessary for the obtaining of them These Truths I shall here explain either by certain Principles or by Evidence or by Faith III. I think I have shewn in several places and by several ways That God always executes his Designs by general Laws the Efficacy of which is determin'd by the action of occasional Causes I have prov'd this Truth by the Effects of those second Causes which are known to us and I think I have demonstrated it from the Idea of God himself because his Action ought to bear the Character of his Attributes And therefore I refer the Reader for this Matter to my other Writings But if Reason could not lead us to this Truth yet the Holy Scripture would not suffer us to doubt of it in relation to the Subject which I now treat of For the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ as Man is not only the meritorious but also the distributive or occasional Cause of all Graces that by his Sacrifice of himself he hath gain'd a Right over all the Nations of the World to make use of them as Materials in building the Spiritual Temple of the Church of which the stately Temple of Solomon was but a Shadow and a Figure and that now and ever since the day of his Ascension he makes use of that Right and raises that eternal Temple to the glory of his Father by the Power which he receiv'd from him in the day of his Victories when he was made High Priest of the true Goods after the irrevocable Order of Melchisedech Eph. 4.15 16. Christ is the Head of the Church he continually infuses into the Members of which it is compos'd 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Tâ—m 2.5 Eph. 5.23 Heb. 7.25 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Joh. 13.5 the Spirit which gives it Life and Holiness He is the Advocate the Mediator the Saviour of Sinners He is in the Holy of Holies always Living to make intercession for us and all his Prayers and Desires are heard In a word he himself tells us That all Power was given to him in Heaven and in Earth Now he did not receive this Power as God equal to the Father but as Man like unto us and God communicates his Power to the Creatures no farther than as he executes their Wills and by them his own Designs for God alone is the true Cause of every thing that is done both in Nature and Grace Thus it is certain from the Scripture that Jesus Christ as Man is the occasional cavse which determines the efficacy of that general Law whereby God would Save all Men in and by his Son IV. It is necessary that we should be well convinc'd of this Truth which is essential to Religion by reading the New Testament and particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews And having as I think sufficiently prov'd it in my Treatise of Nature and Grace and in my Christian Meditations I shall not insist any longer upon it I write for Philosophers but they are Christian Philosophers such as receive the Scripture and the infallible Tradition of the Universal Church and I endeavour to explain the Truths of Faith by clear and unequivocal Terms This makes me say that Jesus Christ as Man and High Priest of the true Goods is the occasional cause of Grace I might have call'd him the natural instrumental second distributive Cause or have made use of some other more common Term But the commonest Terms are not always the clearest Tho' People fancy they understand them perfectly yet commonly they scarce know what they say when they use them and if they would take the pains to examine these which I have mention'd they would find that the Term of natural Cause raises a false Idea that that of instrumental is obscure that of second so general that it gives no distinct Idea to the Mind and that of distributive at least equivocal and confus'd Whereas this which I have made use of the occasional cause of Grace hath I think none of these defects at least as to those Persons for whom alone I writ the Treatise of Nature and Grace tho' many others have taken upon them to judge of it who scarce understand the Principles which I have there laid down For this Term denotes precisely that God who doth every thing as the true cause which I think I have prov'd in several places imparts his
who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory VII Of all the Exercises proper to promote the Efficacy of Grace there is no one more necessary than that of the Mortification of the Senses for it is our own Body alone that unites us to all other Bodies It is chiefly by the Senses that the Soul stretches it self as I may say to all the parts of the Body and by the Imagination and Passions it is carried abroad and extends it self to all the Creatures But as Objects are presented to the Mind by the Senses the Imagination and Passions suppose and depend on them For it is certain that the corporeal Image of a sensible Object I do not here speak of Mathematical Figures is nothing but the Impression and Motion which that Object hath made in the Brain by means of the Senses which Impression is renewed by the Action of the Imagination or the Course of the Spirits And as for the Passions they cannot be excited but by the Motion of the animal Spirits which always supposes that the Brain the Magazene of these Spirits is shaken either by the Senses or the Imagination So that he who mortifies his Senses attacks the very Foundation of the Union of the Soul with the Body or rather of its dependence on it he weakens the animal Life and diminishes the weight of Sin Concupiscence he promotes the Efficacy of Grace which alone can reunite us to our first Principle Finally he procures himself that kind of Death without which as the Scripture speaks it is not possible to see God VIII The most capacious of all the Senses that which ministers to all the rest and without which the Imagination and Passions would be but faint and languishing is the Sight We need but reflect a little on our selves and on the use we may make of our Eyes to be convinc'd that they expose us daily to a thousand Dangers One indiscreet look is certainly sufficient to throw us into Hell It made David fall into an Adultery which afterwards engag'd him in a Murder Eve suffer'd her self to be seduc'd by the Devil because she ventur'd to look fixedly on the forbidden Fruit and found it pleasant to the Eyes Gen. 3.6 If they had distrusted their Senses as fallacious and rejected their Testimony they had both of them preserv'd their Innocence I think it not much to my present purpose to enlarge on the mischievous effects of the Sight and from thence to prove the necessity of shutting our Eyes in many Cases I rather choose to examine Things in their first Principles and to shew the use we may lawfully make of all our Senses in general which I shall confine within the straitest Bounds that can possibly be set to it IX One of the Principles which I think I have demonstrated several ways in the First Book of the Search of Truth is this That our Senses are given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being In relation to this end they are perfectly well regulated but with respect to the use which the World makes of them there is nothing more false deceitful and irregular To prove this we must consider that we are compos'd of a Soul and a Body and that we have two sorts of Good to look after that of the Soul and that of the Body The Good of the Soul is found out by the Light for it is the true Good That of the Body is discover'd by Sense for it is a false Good or rather no Good at all If Men knew sensible Objects only as they are in themselves and without a sensible perception of that which is not really in them they could not possibly seek after them and fill themselves with them without regret and a kind of detestation and if they had a sense of the true Good different from what it really is and without knowing the true Nature of it they would love it sensually and not meritoriously For the Soul neither can nor ought to live but by the intellectual Substance of Reason and the Body cannot receive Nourishment and Growth but from Bodies Intellectual Goods do not suit with the mechanical Frame of the Body and sensible Goods disorder the Soul Thus Light and Evidence are to the Goods of the Soul what Sense and Instinct are to those of the Body This I think cannot be denied X. The reason of all this is that God created the Soul only for himself He did not make it that it should employ it self about sensible Objects nor that it should preserve and govern by Reason the Body which it Informs If we would know distinctly and rationally the infinite Relations that are between the Bodies which surround us and that which we animate if we would know for instance when we ought to eat how much and what kind of Food is precisely necessary to preserve our Health and Life we must do nothing else but study Physicks and certainly we should not live very long at least Children would not because they want Experience But Hunger informs us of the necessity of Food and thereby regulates the quantity of it pretty near the matter Once it did it truly and exactly and would do so still if we would eat the Fruits of the Earth just as God provides them for us The Taste is a short and unquestionable Tryal whether such and such Bodies are proper for Nourishment or not Without knowing the Texture of a Stone or a strange Fruit we need only present it to the Tongue the faithful Door-keeper at least before Sin of all that ought to enter into the House to be assur'd whether it will make any disturbance within The same may be said of all the other Organs of our Senses Nothing is quicker than the Touch to inform us that we are burnt when we touch a hot Iron without our Knowledge Thus the Soul leaving the Government of the Body to the Senses may apply it self to the search of the true Good contemplate the Perfections and works of its Maker study the Law of God and govern all its motions by that The Senses should only inform it with respect and cease to interrupt it when it imposes Silence on them Thus it was once but the Sin of our first Parent hath chang'd that admirable Order and the union of the Soul and Body remaining still the same the Soul is reduc'd to a dependence on the Senses and is check'd and controul'd by them because as I have often said it hath lost the power to command them XI The Senses then were ordain'd to furnish us with short and certain ways to distinguish Bodies with respect to the preservation of our Health and Life Therefore we may make use of them to unite our selves by the Body to sensible Objects or to separate our selves from them this is agreable to Order I say to unite or separate our selves Not to love or fear them For Love and Hatred are Motions of
union of the Soul with Reason discovers to Man all the Ideas which enlighten him and leads him as I may say into the Country of Truth the Habitation of the Soul to shew him the Beauties and Wonders of it But the occasional cause of the presence or absence of Ideas being only the different desires of our Will we inconsiderately attribute to our selves the Power of doing that which proceeds from the sole operation of God in us And even the endeavour which accompanies our Attention that painful endeavour the certain Mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless an endeavour which God excites in us to punish our Pride and make us deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades us like that which we make to move the parts of our Bodies that we our selves are the Authors of that Knowledge which accompanies our Desires For having no perception at all of the operation of God and having an inward Sense of our own Attention we look upon this Attention to be the true cause of those effects which constantly and faithfully attend or follow it for the same reason as we attribute to our own Wills the power of moving Bodies and the sensible Qualities wherewith we are affected to the Objects which occasion them V. He that by the motion of his Body approaches toward sensible Objects or withdraws himself from them feeling the Bodies which he meets with in that Motion strike upon him easily believes that he himself is the cause of the removal of his own Body but certainly he never thinks that he gives Being to those Bodies that surround him But he that by the application of his Mind leaves the Body as it were and unites himself wholly to Reason imagines that the Truths he contemplates are of his own production He fancies that he gives a Being to the Ideas he discovers and that he forms as I may say out of his own Substance that intellectual World in which he loses himself Because the things which he then beholds do not affect his Senses he imagines they have no real Existence but in himself For People judge of the reality of Beings as they do of the solidity of Bodies by the impression they make on their Senses VI. It is certain that Man is not his own Wisdom and his own Light There is an universal Reason which enlightens all spiritual Beings an intellectual Substance common to all intelligent Natures an immutable necessary and eternal Substance All spiritual Beings contemplate it without disturbing one another They all possess it without prejudicing one another They all feed of it without diminishing any thing of its abundance It communicates it self whole and entire to them all and entire to every one of them For all of them may as it were grasp the same Idea at the same time in different places they may all possess it equally they may all penetrate or be penetrated by it VII But two Men cannot eat the same Fruit nor embrace the same Body they cannot at a distance from one another hear the same Voice nor many times see the same Objects The Creatures are all particular Beings and therefore cannot be one general and common Good He that possesses these particular Goods deprives others of them and thereby provokes their hatred or envy against him But Reason is a common Good which unites those that possess it in a perfect and durable Friendship It is a Good that is not divided by possession it is not confin'd to space nor becomes the worse for using Truth is indivisible wisd 6.12.7.10 infinite eternal immutable and incorruptible Wisdom never fadeth away The Light that cometh from her never goeth out VIII Now this general and immutable Wisdom Prov. 8. this universal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself by which and for which we are made For God created us by his Power that he might unite us to his Wisdom and thereby give us the Honour of entring into an eternal Society with him of conforming our Thoughts and desires to his and by that means of becoming like him as far as a created Being is capable of it Wisd 7.27 28. Wisdom remaining in her self maketh all things new saith the wise Man and in all Ages entring into holy Souls she maketh them Friends of God and Prophets For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom We have no way of access to God no Society with him but by his Son his Word the universal and intellectual Reason which was incarnate in the fulness of time and made visible to enlighten gross and carnal Minds and to lead them by the Senses by Faith and by a sensible Authority to Knowledge and Understanding But still it is Reason still Wisdom Light and Truth For he that rejects the universal Reason rejects the Author of Faith who is that very Reason made sensible and proportion'd to the weakness of Men who now hear only by their Senses Without doubt nothing is more agreeable to Reason than that which Faith teaches us The more we think on it the more we are convinc'd provided that Faith conduct all the steps of the Mind and the Imagination do not cross it in its way and by vain Chimeras or humane Thoughts dispel the Light which Faith diffuses in us IX Now to find out our Duties toward God as he is Wisdom or the universal Reason of intelligent Beings it is not sufficient to be throughly convinc'd of the union of the Soul with God but we must also carefully examine the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body For we are so situated between God and Bodies that as the union between the Soul and Body is augmented and strengthned so the union of the Soul with God is weakened and diminish'd and on the contrary the less the Body acts on the Soul the more the Soul is at liberty to consult the inward Truth I shall not here set down the particular Laws of the union of the Soul and Body they may be learnt elsewhere But we must remember in general that our Senses cause our Soul to extend it self to our own Body and make it attentive to the necessities thereof and that our Imagination and Passions stretch to all those that are about us That the Body never speaks to the Soul but for the Body and that it insolently draws us away from the Presence of our inward Master who never speaks to us but for the good or perfection of our Being In a Word that our union with Reason is now so weak and tender that the least Sensation which strikes us breaks it intirely tho' we endeavour never so much to retire into our selves and to retain our Ideas which scatter and disappear X. The Judgments which we ought to form in honour of the universal Reason are these 1. There are not more Wisdoms or more Reasons than one 2. No Man is Wisdom and Light to himself or any other nor one
form'd anew Christ crucified is our holy Sacrifice and the perfect Model of the Sacrifice which we must offer up of our Self-love to the Love of Order but being rais'd from the dead consummated in God and made an High-Priest after the eternal Order of which Melchisedech was the Figure he is the inexhaustible source of those Celestial influences which alone can teach us how to Sacrifice as he did our corrupt Nature and thereby to merit a divine Being a glorious and incorruptible Transformation to be perfectly reunited to our Original and to live wholly on the intellectual Substance of Reason by divine Chatity in perpetual Peace and in an everlasting Society XI If we are true Christians here on Earth we shall be faithful Friends and we shall find faithful Friends no where but amongst those that have solid Piety For there can be no true and constant Friendship but in the immutability of Reason and we cannot in our present condition constantly follow Reason but by the strength which Reason incarnate gives us We cannot sacrifice our own interests to the Laws of Friendship but by a Charity unknown to Nature and which derives its original and efficacy from the true Tabernacle where Christ exercises the Office of High-Priest Your worldly and licentious Friend hath been always faithful to you It may be so For he always found his advantage in it or hopes one time or other to repay his Self-love But would he serve you do you think to his own prejudice or without the hope of a return when even the Righteous themselves are most commonly excited to serve God or other Men only by the hope of a reward which is so much the more grateful to their enlightned Self-love as it infinitely exceeds the greatness of their Services XII There are really no such things as disinterested Friends They alone may be reckon'd as such who do not expect their reward from us They alone can truly be our Friends who desire nothing in this tottering and unstable World They alone are our good Friends our sincere faithful and serviceable Friends who do us Service because Reason and Charity command them to do it and expect from God alone those good Things which are capable of contenting their Self-love the only enlightned generous and lawful Self-love Let us therefore make choice of such Friends and for those Friendships which we have already contracted let us endeavour to fix and settle them on the immutability of Reason and to purify them by the Sanctity of Religion Let us make our selves amiable only to make the Law of God belov'd and let us look upon the Salvation of our Brethren as the reward of the Services we do them This reward will soon be follow'd by another And the Glory which we shall receive for having wrought under Christ in the finishing of his Building shall endure for ever The Society of the World should tend only to establish an eternal Society in Christ We should converse with Men only that we may labour for their Sanctification and they for ours Certainly God hath sent us into the World with no other design Happy then infinitely more happy than we can imagine shall we be if by engaging in this just Design of our common Master we make our selves worthy through Christ our forerunner to enter into his rest and to enjoy his Glory and Pleasure to all Eternity CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness I. THE Duties which we owe to our selves as well as those which we owe to our Neighbour may be reduc'd to this general Head of labouring for our Happiness and Perfection Our Perfection which consists chiefly in a perfect conformity of our Will with the immutable Order And our Happiness which consists wholly in the enjoyment of Pleasure I mean solid and substantial Pleasure capable of contenting a spiritual Substance made for the possession of the supreme Good II. The perfection of the Mind consists chiefly in the conformity of the Will to Order For he that loves Order above all things hath Vertue He that obeys Order in all things fulfils his Duty And he that sacrifices his present Pleasure to Order that suffers Pain and despises himself out of respect to the divine Law merits a solid Happiness the genuine and suitable Reward of a tried and approv'd Vertue That almighty and all righteous Law shall judge his Cause and shall reward him to all Eternity III. To seek after Happiness is not Vertue but Necessity For Vertue is free and voluntary but the desire of Happiness is not in our own Choice Self-love properly speaking is not a quality which may be encreas'd or diminish'd We cannot cease to Love our selves tho' we may cease to Love ourselves amiss We cannot stop the motion of Self-love but we may regulate it according to the divine Law We may by the motion of Self-love enlightned supported by Faith and Hope and govern'd by Charity we may I say sacrifice present to future Pleasure and make our selves Miserable for a time to escape the eternal Vengeance of the righteous Judge For Grace doth not destroy Nature The motion which God continually imprints on us toward Good in general never stops The Wicked and the Righteous equally desire to be happy They equally tend toward the source of their Felicity Only the Righteous doth not suffer himself to be deceiv'd and corrupted by pleasing appearances The foretast of the true Goods supports him in his course But the Sinner being blinded by his Passions forgets God his Rewards and Punishments and employs all the motion which God gives him for the true Good in the pursuit of Fantoms and Illusions IV. Self-love therefore or the desire of being happy is neither Vertue nor Vice But it is the natural motive to Vertue and in wicked Men becomes the motive to Vice God alone is our end He alone is our Good Reason alone is our Law And Self-love or the invincible desire of being happy is the motive which should make us love God unite our selves to him and submit to his Law For we are not our own Good nor our own Law God alone possesses Power therefore he alone is to be lov'd and fear'd We invincibly desire to be happy Therefore we should inviolably obey his Law For we cannot imprint this too deeply on our Minds that the Almighty is also Just that every Disobedience shall be punish'd and every act of Obedience rewarded In the present state of things wickedness and disorder is attended with Happiness The exercise of Vertue is hard and painful And it is necessary it should be so to try our Faith and to give us means of acquiring true and genuine Merit But it must not nor cannot continue so always If the Soul be not immortal if the Face of things shall not one Day be chang'd then there is no God For an unjust God is a mere Chimera