some of the Nerves which hinders the motion from being continued in the Part affected of the Body as far as the Brain which is the Seat and Organ of the Senses because the impression have some palpable let or hindereance and cannot be carried or arrive through the exterior Senses of the Brain which are called Internal But our Souls Naturally like other-Created Spirits ought not to have any dependance upon our Bodies for to have the Ideas of things they ought only to have immediately dependance upon God and by Consequence ought only to have Union with him but this Supreame Spirit having been pleased for the reasons we have said and for many others which we conceive and for more yet apparently perhaps which we do not conceive that our Souls should have their Thoughts and their Sentiments their Desires and Affections upon the occasion of the Body to the end that they should be a continual Subject of Victory and Meritorious Exercise by the assistance of Divine Grace which is of it self Victorious over the Impure delectation of Concupiscence whereof it invincibly suspends the Charm by the Heavenly and inward Taste which it gives us of God of our Duty and of Eternal Happiness for Divine Grace causes 〈◊〉 to love Order and Duty in spight of our selves making us sensible that we owe to God an infinite â—â—ve of Complacency wholly disinteressed and wholly pure for which we ought to love his Eternal and Sovereign Beauty with all the strength and motions 〈◊〉 our Hearts for this alone will convey to us true â—â—â—asure for this will furnish us with Order Truth and Justice which will undoubtedly prevent all Irregularity Which Order is to be beloved by all Spiâ—its and all upright Hearts in all the Parts of the World for this have some affinity to the Sovereign Beauty of Nature and of the Supreame Essence who â—s the Lively and Eternal Source of Order Equity and Duty the Eternal and Substantial Truth which do not discover it self but by Rays by degrees escaping â—ut from God clearing the obscure Clouds of our disorderly Desires that we may Love and Adore our Sovereign Creator who gives us the weak glimmering of his Ineffable Beauty in that Virtue and Duty which he causes us to Love which is as it were the Charm of the Supreame Being For all that we love in the abstracted Idea of our Duties or in the real Charms of the Creatures is nothing but the Splendor and the Rays or the Shadow of that Charm of Sovereign Beauty and Perfection which Gloriously shines â—n the Supreame Nature from whose Beams it is that Nature Commences equally in us the love of Complacency and the love of Union that we may be filled with Contentment with Pleasure and Love Truth Justice and Equity and all other Graces and Virtues whom we love invincibly under the Ideas and under the Names of Truth of Justice of Beauty of Virtue of Duty or of Equity which shine in all Places of the World and makes it self seen loved and adored invincibly by all Hearts in all Ages for these all preceed from the glimmering and glances of Gods Original Beauty which is so amicable by it self that as Corrupt as we are we cannot hinder our selves from loving it because it flows from the Sovereign Nature of God. 2. The Soul of Man have no Power of giving iâ— self neither the Idea nor Knowledge nor Sentiment of any particular thing but it is God who hath alâ— Perfections dwelling in him that Instructs and Inlightens the Souls of Men for his Majesty alone is the Life of every thing that Lives and the Light of every thing that is Enlightned who gives us all the Sentiments and all the Ideas which we receive or have from the occasion of our particular Bodies and from others which environ us Tho to clear this point 〈◊〉 be obscure and difficult and yet is very Important and Necessary in Order to make us comprehend our dependance upon God who is alone the All-knowing Being by himself as he is an existent Being by himself For it 's God alone who hath Essentially of himself and by himself his Eternal and Subsistent Idea by which he can distinctly see all things possible present and to come The Created Spirits who are not Thinking Beings of themselves much less Spirits knowing by themselves or in themselves the things which are exterior to them and therefore they have need to receive the Ideas of particular things from God that they may have a knowledge of them For if they had the Idea of one sole particular thing out of themselves there would not be any Idea which they might not have neither would the Soul of Man have been Ignorant of any thing if she had had a Power by her self to Form and Idea of the least thing but by Consequence would have had the Idea of all things But since of her self 〈◊〉 cannot form any one Idea by Consequence she cannâ—â— form many For to imagine she could would be no sensical and trivial Our poor Soul goes gropâ—â—â— through all the Bodies who environs it searching 〈◊〉 a Pleasure and Contentment which should satisfie iâ—â— but no Pleasure nor Treasure can give the Soul trâ—â— satisfaction but God who is the alone Sovereiâ— Pleasure which makes the Soul thus search after hiâ—â— and him allone it is we ought to regard with all oâ—â— Strength Might and Motion seeing his Majesty râ—gards our Soul by all the Rays of his Infinite Essenâ—â— For his Wisdom it is who is our Satisfaction our 〈◊〉 and Contentment yea our Sovereign Felicity Oâ— Bodies then are but as it were our Souls burden at best but a House upon the Road of Eternity Wheâ—â— fore we ought to seek for a lively Idea of our dâ—peâ—â—dance upon this Supreame Being and upon all Divine Attributes that we may the better appreheâ—â— his Sovereign Perfection whose Nature is Supream and yet is graciously pleased to operate continual in us and rules over us in all our ways and in divers operations Our Souls do not make the digsâ—ion in us the Circulation of the Blood the Natuâ—â— and pureâ—y Animal Respiration in us the Soul beiâ—â— altogether Spiritual have no Power to act this waâ— but there is nothing which we certainly know bâ—â— the Soul is the active cause and principle of it which she have gain'd the Empire either to do not do as she pleases we may therefore reflect up her Faculty which she have of thinking of willinâ—â— and determining her self which are the two oâ— active Faculties that we know in her for the othâ—â— passive and receptive Faculties of which she haâ— essentially the Empire as well as the certainty of thâ— double Faculty and of all the Acts that preceeâ— there from and we may see that she suspends 〈…〉 Thoughts and her Reasonings puts them by determâ—â—â— and applies them as she pleases to new Matters which always present themselves and thus she is Mistress of â—â—er Will without the motion
that carries her towards God in general If she be not preoccupy'd â—nd transported with some Passions or other but the â—oul can by no means be the formal or physical Cause of the heat which is in our Bodies for it is impossible to conceive that a Spirit should produce heat yet â—y their Virtue and Operation they make the Body move by Empire and by Will and yet this the Soul is â—aid to do out of it self but whatsoever is done in us Physically is done by the act of our Body and its Life for there is in us a material principle of vegetaâ—ion or a vegetative Life which the Soul doth not â—ause so there is likewise a certain kind of acts of â—eeing of Hearing of Tasting of Smelling of â—ouching of Self-moving or of Sensibility in the â—ody in which the Soul hath not any part to which â—â—e doth not Influence any thing and to which she â—ath not so much as a Sentiment 3. To think and know is the Life of Spirits who â—eceives Being from the first of Beings or the prinâ—â—ple of Beings the Great Almighty from whom â—â—ery thing that is receiveth without ceasing its â—eing by a perpetual and never interrupted Communiâ—n of the Supreame Essence by reason that he is the â—rinciple of Life or the Essential and Original of â—ife It must needs be that every thing that Lives â—eceives continually a Life from him by a like Inâ—â—uence and by a like Communication of Life and by â—onsequence every thing that thinks and knows â—hinks and knows by him since to think and know the Life of Spirits This is the solid Metaphysick â—f St. Augustin and the Theology of others who â—ith agreeeble to the Scriptures that an Angel and Man differ without doubt for an Angel is a Spirit â—hich God makes tryal off out of the Body and â—hose Thoughts and Affections he hath not subjected to the dispositions of a Body and a Man is a Spiritâ— which God makes tryal off in the Body to which he subjects it before he Crowns it with Eternity But the Soul of Man if God had not disposed of it after that manner would have had no need of a Body wherefore the Union of Souls with Bodies is a hard and difficult Empire which God doth exercise over them and which if his Majesty would not sweeten the rigoâ—â— and difficulty of it by the Pleasures of agreeable Sentiments which he hath annexed to the Acts and Operations of Souls in Bodies It could not be a tryal but a Misery nay the Fathers maintain that if God should not Spiritualize Bodies that is to say take away from Souls the dependance which their present State gives them upon Bodies they could not have so firm a hope of being raised again as now they have because he would not put the Just Souls whose approved Fidelity deserves to be Crowned into Bodies that should constrain them and which enslaved their Thoughts which is what Spiritualized Bodies cannot bear because Spiritualization of Bodies will consist in this precisely that they should no longer exercise an Empire over the Souls and that they should be no longer a Charge an Obstacle and an Incumbrance to them for the Body cannot in any manner act upon the Soul so as to Illuminate it or Affect it Physically or Immediately by it self for the Body cannot subject the Soul to be United to it nor can the Soul be willing to submit to the Body which humbleth and constraineth it It is therefore God the Author of universal Nature that is the Immediate and Efficient Principle and Cause of the Union of Souls and Bodies for his Wisdom acteth as universal Cause in the whole frame of Nature 't is evident then that none but God alone can give the Soul the Sentiments and Ideas which she hath from the occasion of the Impressions which are made upon the Body for 't is the Author of Nature which enlightens us by the Ideas which we receive upon the occasion of the Impression of exterior Objects and who affectionates to the Conversation of the Body by the agreeable or disagreeable Sentiments which he gives us to make us know by way of instinct that which is profitable or hurtful for the Converâ—ation of our Bodies and of Humane Species This action he joyns to that by which he moves our Bodies when our Thoughts and Wills require it and is properly the action by the which he Unites our Bodies to our Souls and our Souls to our Bodies This is the active or actual Union which the Schools call the Unitive action of God which is joyned to the Immutable Decree and Will by the which he hath determined to continue it so long as the structure of the Body shall subsist and makes in the Soul and in the Body that Estate of Union which is called Passive and Formal Union and this the Almighty doth by the Essential act of his Supreame Nature for his Essence and Nature is infinitly pleased to act thus continually esteeming it his Pleasure and his Glory by which also he is the occasional Cause of all the Eneffable Pleâ—sure of Holy Souls and so much the rather because the Analogy of the Divine conduct Inspires us to acknowledges an occasional Cause of all our Joy and Fâ—â—icity As there is an occasional Cause of the Torments of the Reprobates for each of these he is pleased to make tryal off in the Body by their Obedience or Disobedience annext to each of which is Felicity or Misery for these shall go into Life Eternal but the Wicked into endless burnings 4 Our Body is a Structure full of Harmony whereby all the Parts are United to one common Center which is the Brain wrapt up in Membranes and distributed and divided into divers Compartments proper to receive and retain the Traces and Impressions which the Divine Image shall inâ—amp upon it We say also that the Soul is â—â—n the Body but we take care not to conceive it For all that as truly and properly contain'd in the Body it is United to the Body but we may not conceive her as poured into and mingled with the Body or as adjusted to its extent by a co-extention and immediation of Greatness of Figure or of Substance but they have the greatest part of their Thoughts and of their Ideas and of all their Sentiments of Pleasure and of Pain by the occasion of their Body because they act upon the Body by the action of the Will which removes them and moves them in the manner as have been already said The Learned say that they are no otherways in the Body therefore every thing we conceive beyond this will be false contradictory and extreamly dubious That which we call good Sense and Judgment is nothing but the Power and Faculty which the Soul hath to Order and Regulate our Thoughts to suspend and stay them that she may consider and maintain their Connexion and Dependence But she is said sometimes to loose this Faculty
carries a desire of being united to him and which makes one Man pleased with another that is called sympathy And when on the contrary this sensation is made with confused sentiments oâ— disagreement and straingeness that is called antipathy And this is the general Idea of sensation which are the Knowledges that we have by the determination of present Objects by which we are able to chuse to do Acts free and voluntary tho there is 〈◊〉 distinction to be made betwixt free Acts and voluâ—â—tary Acts for every thing that is free is voluntary but every thing that is voluntary is not free but no thing is voluntary in us but what is made by the determination of the Will for this is a necessary and iâ—â—vincible motion of our Souls towards God causing 〈◊〉 invincibly to love Good in general with a full deteâ—mination of our Mind and Will by the which also wâ—â— shun Evil and every thing that hurts and afflicts 〈◊〉 and we persue some times one particular Good thaâ— an other as they more or less immediately concerâ— us for Liberty is always accompanied with the Wilâ— Now Liberty is precisely that Empire which we haâ— of being able to determine our selves which to chuâ—â— and which to refuse when the Objects are presentâ— to the perceptive faculty of the Soul. We mâ— easily shut our Eyes and not let that reflective Lig â— to enter in from the superficies of the Object whiâ—â— Ingraves it in our Retina But yet we cannot hind â— the Impression of Light if once it be entred into 〈◊〉 Eyes nor that ordor of savor if they have affected those Nerves which are proper to carry the Impression of them to the Brain But our Soul cannot see the Objects in those passages of the Brain nor the species as in Pictures as we have endeavoured to â—llustrate in our former presuppositions This is a thing which we know by an indubitable sentiment We may then presuppose that it is not all these Taâ—les whereon the Soul sees the Object she being formally knowing having in her self a lively representation or an inward sentiment of the Objects which â—â—ders themselves present by the material Impression â—hich is received in the Body by the assistance of the â—ctive faculty of Thinking which is sometimes calâ—â—d the faculty of Reasoning for by these the Obâ—cts which strike the Senses are lively represented tobe passive or the active faculty of the Thinking Soul â—hich come from the diversity of the temperament â—nd from the material Structure and Harmony of the â—ody by which the Understanding the Judgement â—d the Memory with all the other Natural Qualiâ—â— receives advantage to act every one its part â—hen occasion shall present in its proper season for â—e Soul is inclined to all great and transcendant â—â—ings The Mind is sometimes said to be the Soul â—â—erting its Power into Heroick Actions wherefore great Soul is Magnanimous in effect i. e. when our â—nd is applied to mighty Objects and such a one said to be the Son of Eternal Power and the Friend infinite Goodness a Man whose inward State is raculous and his Complexion Divine because he lights in the Celestial way of true Bliss he turns his â—mporeal Riches into Obligations by wining Souls God and thus gaining the Affections of the â—se For to be rich in the Hearts and Affections Good People can be no deformity and every such â—n is as it were his own end while he considers it 〈◊〉 for nothing is more conducive to the 〈…〉 Honour of the Holy Man than to be bountiful and munificient for this proves true Riches to his own Soul and puts a double lustre upon that noble Jewel for this beautifies it and makes it truly aimable and Praise worthy all these being shut up in Goodness For these Men make themselves truly great by Enriching others for the Eccho of their Works are sweet and pleasing in the Ears of all that are surrounded with them and may be said to be like the Sun in the Rays of his Glory and Reigns like a King by the sole Power of Virtue and thus beautifies their Religion for these delight in the felicity of all that accost them and thus puts Embroiderie on Religion by the chearfulness of their Spirits and the Heroick Actions of their Souls and thus carries a Light wherâ—ever they go and attracts the esteemâ— of every Good Person so that these Men move in a Sphere of Wonders their Lives are a continuaâ— strem of Miracles for they are always sacrificing their Persons and Possessions to the benefit of thâ— World. Benifits and Blessings are their Life-guard foâ— that they live Holy and Temperate and strive to iâ—â—mediate the Wisdom of Angels whose guardian Shâ— is never wanting to their assistance so that their iâ—ward House is a Habitation of Joy and Felicity anâ— so brightens their outward behaviour that almost aâ— their Actions yields a spectacle of Contentment 〈◊〉 every beholder There is a generous confidence dcoursed in all their Actions and some glimps of Heâ—ven in all their Behaviour Therefore a Life beautifie with Virtues is the greatest Gift that can be give to Man. For the return of it in Holy Actions is aâ—ceptable to God For when all things shall be râ—vealed the Life of these secret Persons shall perfect appear in all their perfections May we therefore careful to adorn our Persons and Palaces with thâ— kind of Riches seeing they are so Delectable aâ— Pleasant For these Men have a Love within the Souls that is willing to impart all these incomprehensible Treasures and Glories to every Soul for such a Mind and such Affections must Perfume and Eâ—rich our Sacrifices For the Greatness and Goodness of our Souls consists in such inlargements for a Will inlarged with an infinite Fancy is a prodigious depth of Goodness for infinite Desires and Intentions of pleasing God are real Objects to his Eye for such a Soul being all Love would do Millons of things for â—ts Object For infinite Love puts an infinite value on the Gift wherefore it must needs be Magnificence to give a Gift of infinite value and infinite valuable every Good and Pious Action in the Eyes of him who have told us that no Thought or Action shall â—emain uncovered but every Thought Word and Action shall be seen clearly by all for ever And all â—hall be admired for their inward Piety and Holiness â—nd every discovery of Virtue in one shall be an occasion of Joy in each other so that every secret Virâ—e that have been long concealed but only to those â—ho have enjoyed the benefit of it shall be a new â—ause of Eternal Joy to all when in Heaven it shall clearly discovered For our Actions in passing pass ot away but in the Sphere of our Life abideth for 〈◊〉 so that a Good Man's Life all at once is a Myerious Object interwoven with many Thoughts â—ccurrences and Transactions and ought to be preâ—â—ted to God like a Ring a
so weighty a conclusion 〈◊〉 may return to this most certain and most compendious way to her own Happiness which is to be acquired by bearing Afflâ—ction patiently and endeavouring to overcome whatever tempts her during the time of this her Pilgrimage â—ith a careful preparing of her self for her future Condition by such Noble Actions and Heroick Qualifications of Mind as shall render her most welcome to her own Country which belief and â—uâ—pose 〈…〉 in an utter in câ—pacity of eâ—ther 〈…〉 at nothing but what is not in the Power of Mâ—n to confirm upon her with Câ—urage she â—ets upon the main Work and being still more â—aithful to her self and to that light that asiâ—â—s her at lasts she tasts the Fruites of her Future Harveâ—â— and does more then presage that great Happiness that is accrewing to her and quits her from the troubles and anxieties of this preâ—â—nt World stays with it in Tranquility and Content 〈◊〉 at last leaves it with Joy. Therefore let us furâ—â—er consider that the Soul has Four Qualities beâ—â—use her Faculties are Fourfold The First is Unâ—erstanding The Second is the Will The Third 〈◊〉 the Memory The Fourth is the Affections 〈◊〉 Heart which is the principle Seat of the Rational 〈◊〉 The Mind is the inward Act. The Thoughts 〈◊〉 the Mind the Fountain of Counsel the soul of Life 〈◊〉 understand by the Mind and live by the Soul. 〈…〉 A Deceision or a Demonstration of the Mutual and Reciprocal Relation betwixt the Soul and the Body 1. THE true Love of God raises the Soul to the highest Perfection the purest and fullest Love shall wear always the weightiest Crown of Gloâ—y Where this Love is if it meet with hard Precepts it desolves it into sweet promises and fills the Heart with the shining Beauty of Soul ravishing delights by Divine Respiration giving it true Repose causing the Delights and Pleasures to be as Capacious as the Soul that lovely Creature of God whom his Majesty is always pleased to fill with an Ineffable Pleasure in perpetually extending their Knowledge of Intellection by Consequences and Lights always New which they draw from their Light and their Knowledge always acquired they always find something to be discovered in the Immense Spaces of Truth they always find some-Shing to be enlightned with of the Perfection of the aupream Essence which they always see all entire and ill exposed to their Eyes and which they never knew so perfectly but that there always remains something further to be known and discovered they always Drink of this Lively and Eternal Spring and are always a Thirst they drein from thence every moment by a full and entire Knowledge of the intuitive Vision but they always find it full and inexhaustable to Reason and Intellection which they always make a further Progress into and further still find something to be known in the Fountain of its infinite Incomprehensibility The Reprobate Souls do also find by the exercise of their reasonings a Thousand and a Thousand New dispairs in their State of Reprobation and Misery The Prophets say they always remain awake to the End they may always see their Misery and Woe which does express the exercise of the active Faculty in Unhappy Souls which proves that all Souls have out of the Body the exercise of the Faculties of Perceiving of Imagining and of Recollecting which they do not exercise here but dependent upon the Body For thus we say without difficulty that they may compare one thing with another that they Conceive the Nature of Bodies by pure Intellection by which they form Universal Notions from whence they draw Consequences and frame Ideas but these Ideas do not cause us to Believe that the Body and the Soul can be united like two Liquors or like two Metalls which are melted one with the other which are made either by an Unctuous or Viscous Humor which binds the Parts of them together nor by Nails Pegs and Joynts We may not imagine here any thing material for we are to cut off every thing that presents it self Corporeal to our Spirits for we are to conceive precisely only a mutual and necessary Dependance in such a manner as God has directed and disposed which is the way to conceive the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies as well as we are capable to comprehend They are not in us by a Local and Corporeal Circumscription they are not there as Liquor is in a Vessel or as a Bird is in the Nest or Cage or as the Body is in the Air which environs it but they are in us as God is in the World in which we must conceive him as saith St. Augustin Much more containing than contained for we may remember that tho the Nature of the Soul is a Spiritual Nature which doth as Essentially exclude Local extention and by Consequence all sorts of Ideas of Local Presence such as we commonly conceive under Corporeal Images of Immediation of Preportions and of Coextention of Substances as it doth Essentially include the Grounds and the Acts of the knowing Faculty Bodies have their proper Fashion of being within Places and Spirits have theirs likewise there is nothing of likeness betwixt one and the other for to think otherways were to subvert and destroy both Corporeal and Spiritual Nature for it is with the manner how the Soul is in the Body as it is with the Soul it self We cannot comprehend it as oft as we conceive it by Imagination what Corporeal Image so ever we make of it or under what material Form soever we may conceive of it for the manner how the Soul is in the Body is altogether as Spiritual as is the Substance of the Soul if it be demanded after this in what Part of the Body the Soul is or whether she is in all the Body the Question will be difficult to resolve However the Learned say that all the Soul is in all the Body and all of it in the Essential and Integral Parts of it as God is in all the World and in all the Parts of the World not by that Co-extension and Local Chimerical Presence which gross Spirits do imagine but by the intimate Presence of his Essence Essentially operating in all the World. We must say the same of the Soul that it is in all the Body by relation of its dependance and activity but this does not hinder but that we may say she is more properly and more particularly in the Brain since it is by that Part that the action of the Soul upon the Body immediately Commences and that all the actions of the Body upon the Soul terminâ—tes wholly in that Part as it sensibly appears by that which interrupts and suspends the action of the Soul upon the Body and the action of the Body upon the Soul for as often as it happens that the action of the Body upon the Soul is interrupted it is because there is some relaxation or some obstruction in