addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
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
of them I do not say that we must Sacrifice it with all those Ornaments which disguise it On the contrary seeing we would not be deceiv'd seeing we would be solidly happy I say we must endeavour to know it for what it really is to discover the Ridiculousness of it which may make us despise it or the Deformity of it which may create in us an aversion for it This I say that we should and may by the Strength of our Hope and Faith bring our Mind to such a Temper that with the help of Grace it may perform this Sacrifice which appears so terrible with Pleasure or at least with Joy and Satisfaction After all there is a necessity for it We must either unavoidably perish together with our imaginary Riches or throw them over-board to arrive happily at the Port where we shall find solid and substantial Wealth not subject to Storms and Tempests VIII For this end we must study the Nature of Man we must know our Selves our Greatness our Weakness our Perfections and Inclinations we must be fully satisfied of the Immortality of our Being we must carefully examine the difference between the two Parts of which Man is compos'd and the admirable Laws of their Union from thence we must raise our Minds to the Author of these Laws and the true Cause of all that passes within our selves and in the Objects that are about us We must contemplate God in those Attributes which are contain'd in the vast and boundless Idea of an infinitely perfect Being and never judge of him with relation to our selves but support the View of our Mind if there be occasion in so abstracted and profound a Subject by the visible Effects of the universal Cause Above all we must examine the Relations which the Conduct of God hath to the Divine Attributes and find out how his Conduct ought necessarily to be the Rule of ours Finally we must penetrate into his eternal Designs and know at least that he is himself the end of his working and that the immutable Order is his Law Then we must go back again to our selves compare our selves with Order and discover that we are wholly corrupted we must be sensible and asham'd of our low and unworthy Inclinations and condemn our selves as guilty as Enemies of our God as not engaging in his Designs as not obeying his Law but the filthy Law of Flesh and Blood we must humble our selves and tremble before a God jealous of his Glory and a punisher of Crimes we must dread his just and terrible Vengeance Death and Hell seek for a Mediator with the greatest concern and find him at length in the Person of Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was once offer'd as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Sins of the World and is now seated at the right hand of the living God made Lord of all things and consecrated a High Priest of the true Goods once put to death as a Malefactor without Jerusalem and now within the Temple in the Holy of Holies before his Face of the Father always living to make intercession for Sinners and to shower down Blessings and Graces upon them but after all their inexorable Judge in the day of the Vengeance of the Lord that eternal Day which shall put an end to all Time and fix the measures of Good and Evil to all Eternity IX Can we think of these great Truths and be convinc'd of them by frequent Meditations and yet find our Passions still the same Can that sensible Pomp and those Charms which surround them can they I say bear that strong and penetrating Light which diffuses it self in the Mind when we think of Death and Hell and the World to come that heavenly Jerusalem enlightned with the Splendor of God himself and environ'd with the River of his Pleasures Certainly the thought of Death alone must change the whole Face of things in those who have any Sense left or retain any Strength and Liberty of Mind But that unavoidable Alternative of two Eternities so opposite to each other which succeed our latest Moments must needs break all the Designs and blot out all the Ideas which our Passions represent to us at least they cannot possibly justify their Extravagancies and Irregularities in these times of Reflection X. If to those Truths which Reason discovers when it is guided by Faith we add that which Reason by it self informs us of the difference between the Soul and the Body and of the Laws of the Union of these two Substances it will not be so difficult to discover the Malignity of the Passions and to despise their flattering Caresses which irresistibly seduce weak Minds For when we reflect seriously on the movement and working of our Machine we sometimes choose rather to govern the Springs of it our selves than to be carried along with its Motions and when we are fully convinc'd that all the Splendor and all the Charms of sensible Objects depend only on the manner in which the Fermentation of the Blood and other Humours represent them to us the desire which we have of being solidly happy carries our Thoughts another way and sometimes makes us loath and abhor those vain Objects vain and contemptible without doubt as well because the Splendor of them vanishes when the Fermentation abates or when the Circulation of the Blood supplies the Brain with Spirits of a different Quality as for a great many other Reasons which need not here be alledg'd they pass away and that is sufficient But they pass away in such a manner that they draw along with them those that fasten themselves to them and destroy them for ever XI Let every one then examine his predominant Passion by the Principles of the true Philosophy and those Truths which Faith teaches him of which he ought to satisfy himself by a good use of Grace and Liberty for nothing is more reasonable than Religion tho' we stand in need os some help to make us throughly comprehend it and submit our selves to it let every one I say examine by the Light of Reason and of Faith the Passion which holds him in Captivity and he will find in himself some desire at least to be deliver'd from its Tyranny The Enchantmens which bewitch'd him will vanish by degrees he will be asham'd of himself for being so easily seduc'd and if the Fermentation of the Blood and Humours ceases for a little while and the animal Spirits change their Course he will find himself so displeas'd with the Object of his Inclinations that he will not be able so much as to endure the Presence of it XII But notwithstanding this we must not cease to watch over our selves to distrust our own Strength and to meditate on those Subjects which render out Passions ridiculous and contemptible for we must not imagine our selves at liberty because we are not actually ill us'd by them Our Imagination remains a long time polluted by the impression of
Motive which regulates the Heart but the love of Order Every Motive is grounded on Self-love on that invincible desire of being happy which God continually inspires into us in a Word on our own Will for we cannot Love but by our Will And a Man that burn'd with a desire of enjoying the presence of God to contemplate his Perfections and have a share in the felicity of the Saints would still deserve the punishment of Hell if he had a disorder'd Heart and refus'd to sacrifice his predominant Passion to Order As on the contrary one that was indifferent as to eternal Happiness if that were possible but in all other things was full of Charity or the love of Order in which Charity is comprehended or of the love of God above all other things he I say would be a just Man and solidly Vertuous for as I have already prov'd at large true Vertue or a conformity to the Will of God consists wholly in an habitual and ruling Love of the eternal and divine Law the immutable Order XV. A Man ought to love God not only more than this present Life but also more than his own Being Order requires it But he cannot be excited to this love any other way than by the natural and invincible love which he hath for Happiness He cannot love but by the love of Good or his own Will Now he cannot find his Happiness in himself He can find it only in God because there is nothing but God alone capable of acting on him and making him happy Again it is better not to be than to be Miserable It is better then not to be than to be out of favour with God Therefore we ought to love God more than our selves and pay him an exact Obedience There is a difference between the Motives and the End We are excited by the Motives to act for the End It is the greatest Crime imaginable to place our End in our selves We should do every thing for God All our Actions should be refer'd to him from whom alone we have the power to do them Otherwise we violate Order we offend God and are guilty of Injustice This is undeniable But we should seek for the motives which may make us love Order in that invincible Love which God hath given us for Happiness For since God is Just we cannot be happy if we are not obedient to Order It matters not whether those Motives be of Fear or of Hope if they do but animate and support us The most lively the most strong solid and durable are the best XVI There are some People that make a Thousand extravagant Suppositions who for want of a true Idea of God suppose for instance that he hath design'd to make them eternally Miserable And in this Supposition they think themselves oblig'd to love this Chimera of their own Imagination above all Things This perplexes them extremely For indeed how is it possible to love God when they deprive themselves of all the rational Motives of loving him or rather when instead of him they represent to themselves a terrible Idol with nothing in it capable of being Lov'd God would have us Love him such as he is and not such as it is impossible for him to be We must love an infinitely perfect Being and not a dreadful Phantom an unjust God a God powerful indeed absolute and supreme such as Men wish to be but without Wisdom or Goodness Qualities which they do not much esteem For the ground of these extravagant Fancies which frighten those that form them is that they judge of God by the inward sense which they have of themselves and without considering imagine that God may form such Designs as they find themselves capable of forming But they have no Reason to fear if there were such a God as they Fancy the true God who is jealous of his Honour would forbid us to adore and love him They should endeavour to satisfy themselves that perhaps there is more danger of offending God in giving him so horrible a form than in despising that Phantom of their own We should continually seek for those Motives which may preserve and encrease in us the love of God such as are the Threatnings and Promises which relate to the immutable Order Motives proper for Creatures who invincibly desire to be happy and of which the Scripture also is full and not destroy those reasonable Motives and render the Fountain of all Good odious For the reason why the Devils cannot love God is because they have now through their own fault no motive to Love-him It is decreed and they know it that God will never be good in respect of them For since it is impossible to love any thing but Good or that which is capable of giving Happiness they have no motive to love God but they have to hate him with all their power as the true but most just cause of the Miseries which they suffer They cannot love God and yet they are oblig'd to love him because Order requires it Order I say which is the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings in what state soever they be Happy or Miserable Therefore since they deserve that which they suffer they are in a state of disorder and will be incorrigible in their Wickedness to all eternity What I have said of this matter is only to shew that nothing can be Evil nor ought to be rejected which may make us love God have recourse to Jesus Christ and live according to Order If I am deceiv'd I desire to be better inform'd for this is a matter of great consequence CHAP. IX The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son and why We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints but not as occasional causes of inward Grace The Angels and even the Devils have power over Bodies as occasional causes By this means the Devils may tempt us and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace I. JESUS CHRIST consider'd in his humane Nature being alone the true Propitiatory or the occasional cause of Grace as I have shewn in the former Chapter it is evident that we must apply our selves to him alone for the obtaining of it Nevertheless we may call upon God nay we must Worship or call upon none but him as the true cause of our Good We may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints not as true causes nor as occasional or distributive causes of Grace but as Friends of God or intercessors with Jesus Christ We may also Pray to the Angels as our protectors against the Devil or as occasional causes of certain effects which may dispose us to receive inward Grace profitably But I must explain those Truths more at large for they are of the greatest Importance for regulating our Prayers our Worship and all our Duties II. The Church being guided by the Spirit of Truth generally addresses her Prayers to the Father by the Son and when she
which seems most probable that the eternal Word to justify to them the Wisdom of God's proceeding acquainted them that he had a Design to make Man and to joyn himself to the two Substances of which Man is compos'd Soul and Body thereby to Sanctify the whole Work to God which is also compos'd of none but these two sorts of Beings The wicked Angels oppos'd this Design and would not Worship Jesus Christ nor submit to one whom they thought their equal or even inferiour to them in his own Nature how much soever that might be exalted by the hypostatick Union Upon this two opposite Parties were form'd in the Workmanship of God S. Michael and his Angels and Satan and his Ministers the Foundation of the two eternal Cities Jerusalem and Babylon IX The Angels then having a Power over Bodies either by the Right of their own Nature for Order seems to require that superior Beings should act on those that are below them Or rather by the Decree which God had establish'd to execute his own Designs by them as occasional Causes of certain Effects to build the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem his great Work in which the Angels are employ'd under the Wise and only Architect our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures And by this means to manifest the Power of his well-beloved Son who wanted Enemies to Fight with and overcome which Power of his never appear'd more illustrious than when he dethron'd the rebel Prince who had brought all the World under subjection to his Laws For the Power of a Deliverer is never more Conspicuous than when our Enemy hath gain'd an absolute Dominion over us when we have no Power to resist him and have groan'd a long time under his Tyranny The Angels I say having an immediate Power over Corporeal Substances and by them an indirect Power over spiritual Substances as soon as our first Parents were Created the wicked Angels tempted the Woman in that manner which we all know probably grounding their Temptations on the known Design of God that the World should unite it self to the Soul of Man to Sanctify him as may be gather'd from these Words Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good from Evil. Gen. 3.5 For I do not see that illuminated Minds could have any other Motive formally to disobey God but that of being translated from a profane State to one Divine and worthy of God by a particular union with the universal Reason the Eternal Word for whom and by whom they knew that they were first form'd and by whom they were to be form'd anew they who were all of their kind upon the Earth and the Heads of that Posterity which might spring from them Thus the Devils conquer'd them and became Masters of them and all their Posterity And thereby tho' indeed they promoted the Design of the Incarnation of the Word for the Sin of the first Man made it necessary upon several Accounts yet they thought they had overthrown it imagining belike that the Union with God was to be merited by an exact Obedience to his Orders X. We must know that not only for Reasons which I have given in my Search of Truth 2d Part of the 1st Remark when the first Man had Sin'd there was a necessity in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and the immutability of Order that his Flesh should rebel against his Mind and also that Concupiscence should be transmitted to all his Posterity but for other Reasons which I have examin'd in another Place of the same Book See the Remark on original Sin Now Concupiscence is the universal Instrument of that Iniquity which over-ran the whole Earth And being in the Hands of the Devil who hath a Thousand ways to stir it up by the Power which he hath over Bodies he reign'd by the help of that till the coming of Christ who by his Sacrifice merited the quality of High Priest of the true Goods and of the occasional cause of inward Delight which alone can counterpoise the force of Concupiscence and render that Instrument of the Devils Conquests useless to him For since Man invincibly desires to be happy there is nothing can cure his Heart corrupted with sensible Pleasures but the Unction of Grace the Earnest or Fore-tast of true Joys For the good Angels having no Power to infuse into the Heart of Man the Grace of Sense and the bad ones having a Power to stir up Concupiscence in it Sin must necessarily have reign'd not only among the idolatrous Nations but even among the Jews also And therefore we find that that People was very Gross and Carnal always prone to Idolatry and frequently relapsing into it notwithstanding the extraordinary Miracles which S. Michael and his Angels wrought in favour of them and in spight of the Promises and Threats of temporal Good and Evil which were the Objects of their Concupiscence For the Angels themselves preserv'd the Worship of the true God among those that follow'd their Conduct and kept them in their Duty only by motives of Self-love and by promising them such Enjoyments as true Christians think altogether unworthy of their Love XI There are several Reasons why the Law did not promise the true Blessings but one of the chiefest is that since this sort of Enjoyments cannot be the Object of Concupiscence the knowledge and worship of the true God would have been soon lost among the Jews and that chosen People reduc'd to a Handful of Men belonging to Christ and Sanctified in every Age by inward Grace But it was necessary that the knowledge of the true God should be preserv'd with some lustre among the Jews a prophetical People and an unexceptionable Witness of the Truths of Religion in spight of all the Power and Artifices of the Prince of this World till at length the only begotten Son of God for and by whom all things were made should come down from Heaven to change the Face of Things over all the Earth and to open the surprising and wonderful Scene of God's Conduct A Scene which will end with the indissoluble Marriage of the Bride and Bridegroom who shall enjoy together in Heaven an eternal Felicity in the midst of the divine Brightness singing Songs of Praise without ceasing to the Glory of him who shall have put all their Enemies under their Feet by the invincible Power of his Arm and by ways perfectly suitable to his Wisdom and other Attributes XII These great Truths do without doubt deserve to be prov'd and explain'd more at large but this is not a place for it My Design here is chiefly to shew Heb. 1.14 that the Angels are Ministers of Jesus Christ sent forth as S. Paul saith to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And that as occasional Causes for God communicates his Power no other way to the Creatures they have a Power not of giving inward Grace but of producing in the
it Thus there is a mutual Correspondence between certain Thoughts of the Soul and certain Modifications of the Body in consequence of those natural Laws which God hath establish'd and which he condantly observes Herein consists the Union of the Soul and Body The Imagination may raise other Ideas of all this But this Correspondence is undeniable and is sufficient for my purpose So that I neither do nor ought to build on uncertain Foundations XIV Secondly I suppose it to be known that the Soul is not join'd immediately to all the parts of the Body but only to one part which answers to all the rest and which I call without knowing what it is the Principal Part so that notwithstanding the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body a Man may have his Arm cut off and yet have no thought arise in his Soul Correspondent to it but it is not possible that the least change should happen in the Principal Part of the Brain without causing also some alteration in the Soul This is verified by Experience for sometimes parts of the Body are cut off without being felt because then the Motion of the Amputation doth not communicate it self to the Principal Part. As on the contrary those that have lost an Arm often feel a real pain in that very Arm which they have not because there is the same Motion in the Principal Part of the Brain as if the Arm was hurt XV. The first Man before his Sin had an absolute power over his Body at least he could when he pleas'd hinder the Motion or Action of Objects from communicating it self to the principal part of the Brain from the Organs of the Senses which might be touch'd by those Objects and this he did probably by a kind of revulsion somewhat like that which we make in our selves when we would fix our Attention on those Thoughts which disappear in the presence of sensible Objects XVI But I suppose in the Third place that we have not now that power and therefore to obtain some Liberty of Mind to think on what we will and love what we ought it is necessary that the principal part should be calm and without agitation or at least that we should still be able to stop and turn it which way we please Our Attention depends on our Will but it depends much more on our Senses and Passions It is a very difficult thing not to look upon that which touches not to love that which pleases that which touches I say and pleases the Heart The Soul is never sooner tir'd than when it fights against Pleasure and makes it self actually Miserable XVII Fourthly I suppose it to be known that the principal part is never touch'd or shaken in an agreeable or disagreeable manner but it excites in the animal Spirits some Motion proper to carry the Body toward the Object which acts upon it or to separate it from it by flight so that those Motions of the Fibres of the Brain which relate to Good or Evil are always follow'd by such a course of the Spirits as disposes the Body rightly with relation to the present Object and at the same time those sensations of the Soul which are correspondent to those agitations of the Brain are follow'd by such motions of the Soul as answer to this course of the Spirits For the impressions or motions of the Brain are in respect of the course of the Spirits what the sensations of the Soul are in respect of the Passions and these Impressions are to the Sensations what the motion of the Spirits is to the motion of the Passions XVIII Fifthly I suppose that Objects never strike the Brain without leaving some marks of their Action nor the animal Spirits without leaving some Tracks of their Course that these Tracks or Wounds are not easily clos'd up or effac'd when the Brain hath been often or forcibly struck and when the Course of the Spirits hath been violent or hath often begun again in the same manner That Memory and corporeal Habits consist in nothing else but those Tracks or Impressions which cause in the Brain and other parts of the Body a particular facility of obeying the Course of the Spirits and that by this means the Brain is hurt and the Imagination polluted when we have had the enjoyment of Pleasures without apprehending the danger of Familiarity with sensible Objects XIX Lastly I suppose that we conceive distinctly that when many of these Tracks have been made at the same time we cannot open any one of them without opening all the rest in some Measure whence it comes to pass that there are always many accessory Ideas which present themselves confusedly to the Mind having a Relation to the principal Ideas to which the Mind particularly applies it self There are also many confus'd Sensations and indirect Motions that accompany the principal Passion which moves the Soul and carries it toward some particular Object There is nothing more certain than this connection of Impressions with one another and with the Senses and Passions Any one that hath but the least Knowledge of the Nature of Man and will make but the least reflection on the inward Sense he hath of what passes within himself may discover more of these Truths in an Hour than I can tell him in a Month provided he doth not confound the Soul with the Body in making the Union betwixt them and carefully distinguishes the Properties of which the thinking Substance is capable from those which belong to the extended Substance And I think it necessary to Advertise the Reader That this kind of Truths is of very great importance not only for the distinct Conception of what I have hitherto said and shall hereafter say but generally for all the Sciences that have any Relation to Man Having handled this Subject at large in the Search of Truth particularly in the Second Book I thought not to have said any thing of it here and if these Suppositions seem obscure to the Reader and do not give him light enough to comprehend clearly what I shall say in the remaining part of this Treatise I must refer him to that Book for I cannot persuade my self to give a long Explication of the same thing over and over CHAP. XI What kind of death we must die to see God to be united to Reason and to deliver our selves from Concupiscence It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism and alive in Christ by his Resurrection Of the Mortification of the Senses and the use we should make of it We should unite our selves to corporeal Objects or separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible I. DEath is a compendious way to be deliver'd from Concupiscence and to break off at once that unhappy Union which hinders us from being reunited to our Head