Life so the most Happy but that it may become Happier unless somthing more be comprehended in the Word Vertue then the Stoics Peripatetics and the generality of other Moralists understand by it For with them it signifies no more but only such a firm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or habitude of the Will to good whereby we are constantly disposed notwithstanding the contrary tendency of our Passions to perform the necessary Offices of Life This they call Moral or Civil Vertue and although this brings always Happiness enough with it to make ample amends for all the difficulties which attend the practise of it Yet I am not of Opinion that the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life consists in it But there is another and a higher Sense of the Word which frequently occurs in the Pythagorean and Platonic Writings viz. Contemplation and the Vnitive way of Religion And this they call Divine Vertue I allow of the distinction but I would not be thought to derive it from the Principle as if Moral Vertue were acquired and this infused for to speak ingeniously infused Vertue seem'd ever to me as great a Paradox in Divinity as Occult qualities in Philosophy but from the nobleness of the Object the Object of the former being Moral good and the Object of the latter God himself The former is a State of Proficiency the latter of Perfection The former is a State of difficulty and contention the latter of ease and ferenity The former is employ'd in mastering the Passions and regulating the actions of common Life the latter in Divine Meditation and the extasies of Seraphic Love. He that has only the former is like Moses with much difficulty climbing up to the Holy Mount but he that has the latter is like the same Person conversing with God on the serene top of it and shining with the Rays of anticipated Glory So that this latter supposes the acquisition of the former and consequently has all the Happiness retaining to the other besides what it adds of its own This is the last Stage of Human Perfection the utmost round of the Ladder whereby we ascend to Heaven one Step higher is Glory Here then will I build my Tabernacle for it is good to be here Here will I set up my Pillar of Rest here will I fix for why should I travel on farther in pursuit of any greater Happiness since Man in this Station is but a little lower than the Angels one remove from Heaven Here certainly is the greatest happiness as well as Perfection attainable by Man in this State of imperfection For since that Happiness which is absolutely perfect and compleat consists in the clear and intimate Vision and most ardent Love of God hence we ought to take our Measures and conclude that to be the greatest Happiness attainable in this State which is the greatest participation of the other And that can be nothing else but the Vnitive way of Religion which consists of the Contemplation and Love of God. I shall say somthing of each of these severally and somthing of the Vnitive way of Religion which is the result of both and so shut up this Discourse 27. By Contemplation in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we understand an application of the Understanding to some truth But here in this place we take the word in a more peculiar sense as it signifies an habitual attentive steddy application or conversion of the Spirit to God and his Divine Perfections Of this the Masters of Mystic Theology commonly make fifteen Degrees The first is Intuition of Truth the second is a Retirement of all the Vigour and Strength of the Faculties into the innermost parts of the Soul the third is Spiritual Silence the fourth is Rest the fifth is Union the sixth is the Hearing of the still Voice of God the seventh is Spiritual Slumber the eighth is Ecstacy the ninth is Rapture the tenth is the Corporeal Appearance of Christ and the Saints the eleventh is the Imaginary Appearance of the Same the twelfth is the Intellectual Vision of God the thirteenth is the Vision of God in Obscurity the fourteenth is an admirable Manifestation of God the fifteenth is a clear and intuitive Vision of him such as St. Austin and Tho. Aquinas attribute to St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven Others of them reckon seven degrees only viz. Taste Desire Satiety Ebriety Security Tranquility but the name of the seventh they say is known only to God. 28. I shall not stand to examine the Scale of this Division perhaps there may be a kind of a Pythagoric Superstition in the number But this I think I may affirm in general that the Soul may be wound up to a most strange degree of Abstraction by a silent and steddy Contemplation of God. Plato defines Contemplation to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Solution and a Separation of the Soul from the Body And some of the severer Platonists have been of Opinion that 't is possible for a Man by mere intention of thought not only to withdraw the Soul from all commerce with the Senses but even really to separate it from the Body to untwist the Ligaments of his Frame and by degrees to resolve himself into the State of the Dead And thus the Jews express the manner of the Death of Moses calling it Osculum Oris Dei the Kiss of God's Mouth That is that he breath'd out his Soul by the mere Strength and Energy of Contemplation and expired in the Embraces of his Maker A Happy way of Dying How ambitious should I be of such a conveyance were it practicable How passionately should I joyn with the Church in the Canticles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him Kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth Cant. 1. 2. 29. But however this be determin'd certain it is that there are exceeding great Measures of Abstraction in Contemplation so great that somtimes whether a Man be in the Body or out of the Body he himsel can hardly tell And consequently the Soul in these Praeludiums of Death these Neighbourhoods of Separation must needs have brighter glimpses and more Beatific Ideas of God than in a state void of these Elevations and consequently must love him with greater Ardency Which is the next thing I am to consider 30. The love of God in general may be considered either as it is purely intellectual or as it is a Passion The first is when the Soul upon an apprehension of God as a good delectable and agreeable Object joyns her self to him by the Will. The latter is when the motion of the Will is accompany'd with a sensible Commotion of the Spirits and an estuation of the Blood. Some I know are of Opinion that 't is not possible for a man to be affected with this sensitive Love of God which is a Passion because there is nothing in God which falls under our imagination and consequently the imagination being the only Medium
Folly past complain But joy to see these blest abodes again VI. A good retrieve But lo while thus I speak With piercing rays th' eternal day does break The Beautys of the face divine Strike strongly on my feeble sight With what bright glorys does it shine 'T is one immense and everflowing Light. Stop here my Soul thou canst not bear more Bliss Nor can thy now rais'd palate ever relish less Annotations THe general Design of the precedent Poem is to represent the gradual Ascent of the Soul by Contemplation to the Supreme Good together with its firm adherency to it and its full acquiescence in it All which is done figuratively under the Allegory of a Local Elevation from the feculent Regions of this lower World. Pure uncorrupted Element I breathe And pitty their gross Atmosphere beneath By pure uncorrupted Element is meant the refined intellectual entertainments of the Divine life which are abstracted from all Corporeal allays 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the divine Plato calls them those Pleasures which are proper to man as such By gross Atmosphere is meant the more drossy gratifications of the Animal life which comes as short in purity of the Divine as the thick Atmosphere does of the pure Aether No steams of Earth can here retard thy flight c. The thing intended in this whole Stanza is to insinuate the great facility and pleasure of the Divine life to one that is arrived to an habit of it For as the Magnetic influence of the earth can have no force upon him that is placed in the upper Regions beyond the Sphere of its Activity so which is the Counterpart of the Allegory the inclinations of the Animal nature have little or no power over him who has advanc'd to the Heights of habitual Contemplation He looks down upon and observes the tumults of his sensitive appetite but no way sympathizes with it He views the troubled Sea but with the unconcernedness of a stander by not as one that sails in it His Soul tho in Conjunction with his body is yet above the reach of its gusts and relishes and from her serene station at once sees and smiles at its little complacencies As Lucan says of the Soul of Pompey when advanced to the Ethereal Regions Illic postquam se lumine vero Implevit stellasque vagas miratur astr◠Fixa polis vidit quanta sub nocte jaceret Nostra dies risitque sui ludibria trunci And here I cannot chuse but take notice of a Difficulty which is very incident to the business in hand and wherewith I my self was once very much perplex'd when I first applyed my thoughts to Moral Contemplations 'T is in short this we have a receiv'd Axiom that the Difficulty of the performance Commends the merit of a good Action Now if so it seems to follow that he who by a long habitual course of Piety and Vertue has made his duty easy and natural to himself will be less perfect than another who does hardly abstain from vice or than himself before the acquisition of that habit And then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle in the 7th of his Ethics makes only a Semi-vertue because of the difficulty of its performance will for that very reason become Virtus Heroica and if so to make a progress in vertue will involve a contradiction This I confess appear'd to me no inconsiderable intricacy when it first occurr'd to my thoughts and I could not presently unwind my self from it But in answer to it I consider I. That when the Difficulty of the performance is sayd to commend the Action 't is not so to be understood as if Difficulty did in it self as an ingredient add any moment to the excellency of a mans vertue but only that 't is a sign of it a Posteriori Because were not a man endow'd with such a degree of vertue he would not be able to conquer the suppos'd Difficulty So that if a man has a stock of Resolution sufficient to conquer such a difficulty his vertue is the same tho he never be ingaged in it For all the vertue is absolv'd in the degree of resolution the difficulty is only a sign or indication of it And upon this consideration 't is that those whom nature has befriended with such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or happy constitution as carries with it little or no temptation to vice may yet be accounted vertuous because their Resolution to vertue may be so firm and peremptory that they would adhere to it notwithstanding any Opposition 2ly I consider that we are to distinguish of a twofold difficulty I. There is a difficulty which arises from the nature of the work it self And 2ly there is a Difficulty which arises from the Disposition of the Agent Now 't is not this latter Difficulty that commends the excellency of vertue but only the former which is no way diminish'd by the habit For after the induction of the habit the work remains the same in its own nature which it was before the only change is in the Agent who by his habit is render'd more expedite and ready for the performance of what is good But as for the latter difficulty which proceeds from the Agent himself that is so far from commending the worth of any good action that it derogates much from its commendation 'T is easiness of performance that here gives the value He that abstains from sensual pleasures with great abhorrency and has set himself at a wide distance from it discovers more and has more of a vertuous resolution than he whose mind stands almost in an equipoise and does but just abstain For since we become vertuous by a right application of our wills the excellency of our vertues must be measured by the greater or less strength of our resolutions And consequently he who by a strong habit has made his vertue most natural and easy to him is arrived to the greatest Perfection Drawn by the bent of the Aethereal Tide This is in Allusion to the Cartesian Hypothesis of Vortices or whirl-pools of subtile matter The Mystic sense is this that the higher a Seraphic Soul advances in the Contemplation of the supreme good the stronger he will find its Attractions I know it well it is my native home This Verse with the whole Stanza proceeds upon the Platonic Hypothesis of Prae-existence I shall not here dispute the Problem Those that desire to be satisfied concerning it I refer to the works of that Oracle of profound Wisedom and Learning the excellent Dr. More to an ingenious Treatise call'd Lux Orientalis and to the Account of Origen In the mean while I hope the most rigid maintainer of Orthodoxy will allow me the liberty of alluding to it as an Hypothesis if not I 'm sure the laws of Poetry will. My Business here was to imitate nature and to represent how a Soul would be affected in such a case supposing it true which I think I
great and substantial is To think is but to see good cause to grieve 'T is well I 'm mortal 't is well I shortly must Lose all the thoughts of Eden in the dust Senseless and thoughtless now I 'd be I 'd lose even my self since I 've lost thee To Sleep I. BReak off thy slumber gentle god And hither bring thy charming rod The rod that weeping eyes does close And gives to melancholy hearts repose With that my temples stroke and let me be Held by thy soft Captivity But do not all my senses bind Nor fetter up too close my mind Let mimic Fancy wake and freely rove And bring th' Idea of the Saint I love II. Her lovely image has been brought So often to my waking thought That 't is at length worn out and dead And with its fair Original is fled Or else my working overthoughtful mind With much intention is made blind Like those who look on Objects bright So long till they quite lose their sight Ah Cruel Fates is 't not enough for you To take my Saint but I must lose her Image too III. Thee gentle Charmer I implore This my lost Treasure to restore Thy magic vertues all apply Set up again my Bank-rupt memory Search every Cell and corner of my brain And bring my Fugitive again To thy dark cave thy self betake And 'mong thy Dreams enquiry make Summon thy best Ideas to appear And bring that Form which most resembles her IV. But if in all thy store there be None as I fear so fair as she Then let thy Painter Fancy limn Her Form anew and send it by a Dream Thou can'st him all her lively Features tell For sure I think thou knew'st her well But if description wont suffice For him to draw a Piece so nice Then let him to my Breast and Heart repair For sure her Image is not worn out there The Grant. I. 'T Was when the Tide of the returning day Began to chase ill forms away When pious dreams the sense imploy And all within is Innocence and Joy My melancholy thoughtful mind O'recome at length to sleep resign'd Not common sleep for I was blest With something more divine more sweet than rest II. She who her fine-wrought clay had lately left Of whose sweet form I was bereft Was by kind Fancy to me brought And made the Object of my happy thought Clad she was all in virgin white And shone with Empyreal light A radiant glory crown'd her head She stream'd with Light and Love and thus she said III. And why this grief and Passion for the Blest Let all your sorrows with me rest My state is Bliss but I should live Yet much more happy would you cease to grieve Dry up your tears Dear Friend and be Happy in my Felicity By this your wisdom you 'l approve Nay what you 'd most of all commend your Love. IV. She spake dissolv'd I lay and overcome And was with extasy struck dumb But ah the fierce tumultuous joy It s own weak being hastned to destroy To see that lovely Form appear My spirits in such commotion were Sleep could no more their force controul They shook their fetters off free'd my unwilling Soul. V. What Bliss do we oft to Deluston owe Who would not still be cheated so Opinion's an Ingredient That goes so far to make up true content That even a Dream of Happiness With real joy the Soul does bless Let me but always dream of this And I will envy none their waking Bliss The Aspiration I. HOw long great God how long must I Immured in this dark Prison lye Where at the Grates and Avenues of sense My Soul must watch to have intelligence Where but faint gleams of thee salute my sight Like doubtful Moonshine in a Cloudy night When shall I leave this magic Sphere And be all mind all eye all ear II. How Cold this Clime I and yet my sense Perceives even here thy influence Even here thy strong Magnetic charms I feel And pant and tremble like the Amorous steel To lower good and Beautys less Divine Sometimes my erroneous Needle does decline But yet so strong the sympathy It turns and points again to thee III. I long to see this Excellence Which at such distance strikes my sense My impatient Soul struggles to disengage Her wings from the confinement of her cage Wouldst thou great Love this Prisoner once set free How would she hasten to be linkt to thee She 'd for no Angels conduct stay But fly and love on all the way The Defence I. THat I am colder in my Friendship grown My Faith and Constancy you blame But sure th' inconstancy is all your own I am but you are not the same The flame of love must needs expire If you substract what should maintain the fire II. While to the Laws of Vertue you were true You had and might retain my heart Now give me leave to turn Apostate too Since you do from your self depart Thus the Reform'd are counted free From Schism tho they desert the Roman See. III. The strictest union to be found below Is that which Soul and Body tyes They all the Mysterys of Friendship know And with each other sympathize And yet the Soul will bid adieu T' her much distemper'd mate as I leave you The Retractation I. I 'Ve often charg'd all sublunary bliss With vanity and emptiness You woods and streams have heard me oft complain How all things how even your delights were vain Methought I could with one short simple view Glance o're all human joys and see them through But now great Preacher pardon me I cannot wholly to thy charge agree For Music sure and Friendship have no vanity II. No each of these is a firm massy joy Which tho eternal will not cloy Here may the Venturous Soul love on and find Grasp what she can that more remains behind Such Depths of joy these living springs contain As man t' eternity can never drain These Sweets the truth of Heaven prove Only there 's greater Bliss with Saints above Because they 've better Music there and firmer love The Prospect I. WHat a strange moment will that be My Soul how full of Curiosity When winged and ready for thy eternal flight To th' utmost edges of thy tottering Clay Hovering and wishing longer stay Thou shalt advance and have Eternity in sight When just about to try that unknown Sea What a strange moment will that be II. But yet how much more strange that state When loosen'd from th' embrace of this close mate Thou shalt at once be plunged in liberty And move as swift and active as a Ray Shot from the lucid spring of day Thou who just now wast clogg'd with dull mortality How wilt thou bear the mighty change how know Whether thou' rt then the same or no! III. Then to strange Mansions of the air And stranger Company must thou repair What a new Scene of things will then appear This world
Mighty Hero our whole Isle survey Advance thy Standard conquer all the way Let nothing but the Sea controul The progress of thy active Soul. Act like a pious Courteous ghost And to mankind retrieve what 's lost With thy victorious charitable hand Point out the hidden Treasures of our Land. Envy or Ignorance do what they will Thou hast a Blessing from the Muses Hill. Great be thy Spirit as thy Work 's divine Shew thou thy Maker's Praise we Poets will sing thine The Exchange I. WHen Corydon had lost his Liberty And felt the Tyrant's heavy chain He swore could he but once get free He 'd never no he 'd never love again II. But stay dull shepherd if you quench your fire Too dear you 'l buy your Liberty Let not such vigorous heats expire I 'l teach thee how to love and yet be free III. Take bright Vrania to thy Amorous breast To her thy flaming heart resign Void not the room but change the guest And let thy sensual love commence Divine IV. The Swain obey'd and when he once had known This fore-tast of the joys above He vow'd tho he might be his own Yet he would ever yes he 'd ever love The Refinement I. WEll 't was a hard Decree of Fate My Soul to Clip thy pinions so To make thee leave thy pure Ethereal state And breathe the Vapours of this Sphere below Where he that can pretend to have Most Freedom 's still his body's slave II. Was e're a Substance so divine With such an unlike Consort joyn'd Did ever things so wide so close combine As massy Clods and Sun-beams Earth and mind When yet two Souls can ne'r agree In Friendship but by parity III. Unequal match what wilt thou do My Soul to raise thy Plumes again How wilt thou this gross vehicle subdue And thy first Bliss first Purity obtain Thy Consort how wilt thou refine And be again all o're divine IV. Fix on the Soveraign Fair thy eye And kindle in thy breast a flame Wind up thy Passions to a pitch so high Till they melt down and rarify thy frame Like the great Prophet then aspire Thy Chariot will like his be Fire To Melancholy I. Mysterious Passion dearest Pain Tell me what wondrous Charms are these With which thou dost torment and please I grieve to be thy slave yet would not Freedom gain No Tyranny like thine we know That half so cruel e're appeard And yet thou' rt Loved as well as Fear'd Perhaps the only Tyrant that is so II. Long have I been thy Votary Thou 'st led me out to woods and groves Made'st me despise all other Loves And give up all my Passions all my Soul to thee Thee for my first Companion did I chuse First even before my darling Muse And yet I know of thee no more Than those who never did thy shrine adore III. Thou' rt Mystery and Riddle all Like those thou inspirest thou lov'st to be In darkness and obscurity Even learned Athens thee an unknown God might call Strange contrarys in thee combine Both Hell and Heaven in thee meet Thou greatest bitter greetest sweet No Pain is like thy Pain no Pleasure too like thine IV. 'T is the grave doctrine of the Schools That Contrarys can never be Consistent in the high'st degree But thou must stand exempt from their dull narrow Rules And yet 't is said the brightest mind Is that which is by thee refined See here a greater Mystery Thou makest us wise yet ruin'st our Philosophy The Discontent I. NOt that it is not made my Fate To stand upon the dangerous heights of state Nor that I cannot be possest Of th' hidden treasures of the East Nor that I cannot bathe in Pleasures Spring And rifle all the sweets which Natures gardens bring Do I repine my Destiny I can all these despise as well as you deny II. It shall not discompose my mind Though not one star above to me prove kind Their influence may sway the Sea But make not the least change in me They neither can afflict my state nor bless Their greatest gifts are small and my desires are less My Vessel bears but little sail What need I then a full and swelling gale III. And yet I 'm discontented too Perhaps ye aspiring Souls as much as you We both in equal trouble live But for much different Causes grieve You that these gilded joys you can't obtain And I because I know they 're empty all and vain You still pursue in hopes to find I stand and dare not flatter on my mind IV. This Tree of Knowledg is I see Still fatal to poor man's felicity That which yields others great repast Can't please my now enlightn'd tast Before tho I could nothing solid find Yet still with specious Prospects I could please my mind Now all at farthest I can see Is one perpetual Round of Vanity Beauty I. BEst Object of the Passion most divine What excellence can Nature shew In all her various store below Whose Charms may be compar'd to thine Even Light it self is therefore fair Only because it makes thy Sweets appear II. Thou streaming Splendour of the face diviue What in the Regions above Do Saints like thee adore or love What excellence is there like thine I except not the Divinity That great and Soveraign good for thou art He. III. He 's Beauty's vast Abyss and boundless Sea The Primitive and greatest Fair All his Perfections Beauty's are Beauty is all the Deity Some streams from this vast Ocean flow And that is all that pleases all that 's Fair below IV. Divine Perfection who alone art all That various Scene of Excellence Which pleases either mind or sense Tho thee by different names we call Search Nature through thou still wilt be The Sum of all that 's good in her Variety V. Love that most active Passion of the mind Whose roving Flame does traverse o're All Nature's good and reach for more Still to thy magic Sphere's confined 'T is Beauty all we can desire Beauty 's the native Mansion of Love's Fire VI. Those Finer Spirits who from the Croud retire To study Nature's artful Scheme Or speculate a Theorem What is 't but Beauty they admire And they too who enamour'd are Of Vertues face love her because she 's Fair. VII No empire Soveraign Beauty is like thine Thou reign'st unrivall'd and alone And universal is thy throne Stoics themselves to thee resign From Passions be they ne're so free Something they needs must love and that is Thee VIII He whom we all adore that mighty He Owns thy supream dominion And happy lives in thee alone We 're blest in him and He in thee In thee he 's infinitely blest Thou art the inmost Center of his Rest IX Pleas'd with thy Form which in his essence shin'd Th' Almighty chose to multiply This Flower of his Divinity And lesser Beautys soon design'd The unform'd Chaos he remov'd Tinctured the Masse with thee and then it lov'd X. But
theirs Anger and Contention Malice and Revenge For the Proud man is not content to be his own private Admirer but quarrels with all others that are not of his perswasion and with the Tyrant of Babylon kindles a fire for those who will not fall down and worship the Image which he has set up 35. Neither does the Leprosy stop here But as it betrays us into many sins so in the Third and last place which is the most dismal Consequence of all It frustrates all Methods of Reformation Gods judgments will but exasperate and inrage him because he thinks he does not deserve them and his Mercies will not indear him because he thinks he does Advice he thinks he does not need and Reproof he cannot bear Besides he thinks so well of himself already that he wonders what you mean by advising him to become better and therefore as he does not endeavour after any of those excellencies which he thinks he has so neither can he dream of mending those faults which he thinks he is not guilty of Thus is the man Seal'd up to iniquity and deeply lodg'd in the strong holds of sin where nothing that has a Salutary Influence can come nigh him And in this he resembles the first Presidents of his Folly who from Angels transform'd themselves into Devils and fell beyond the possibilities of recovery 36. These are some of the fruits of this Root of Bitterness and tho more might be named yet these I think sufficient to justify this Admonition of the Apostle to every man not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith Let us then all endeavour to conform our opinions concerning our selves to this Standard Let us not stretch our selves beyond our natural dimensions but learn to entertain modest and sober thoughts of our own excellencies and endowments and mortify our understandings as well as our sensitive affections And thus shall we compleat our Lent Exercise by joyning the mortification of the Spirit to that of the flesh without which the greatest Austerities wherewith we can afflict the latter will not be such a Fast as God has chosen For what will it avail to macerate the Body while the principal part the Soul remains unmortify'd The Humility of Moses must conspire with his Forty days Fasting to qualify a man for Divine Intercourses to make him the Joy of Angels the Friend of God. Thus then let us accomplish the Refinings of our Souls and fill up the Measure of our Mortifications To which end let us add this one further Consideration to what has been already said that Humility in the Judgment even of the High and Lofty one that inhabits Eternity is a Vertue of such great Excellency and singular advantage to the happiness of Mankind that our Blessed Saviour came down from Heaven to teach it that his whole life was one continu'd Exercise of it and that he has dignify'd it with the first place among his Beatitudes Let us then as many as profess the Religion of the Humble and Crucify'd JESUS make it our strict Care that we neglect not this his great Commandment nor omit to Copy out this Principal Line this main stroke of the Pattern he has set us Especially let us of this place who are set among the greater Lights of the Firmament and whose profession and business is to contemplate Truth and to think of things as God made them in Number Weight and Measure labour in the first place to take just and true Measures of our Selves that our Knowledg puff us not up nor our Height become our Ruin. CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATURE OF SIN Accommodated to the ends both of Speculation and Practise Considerations upon the Nature of Sin c. SECT I. Of the division of Sin into Material and Formal and of the reality and necessity of that Distinction 1. TO make this our Discourse about Sin more clear and distinct before we enter upon its Nature 't will be requisite to premise somthing concerning the double acceptation of the word For nothing can be defined before it be distinguish'd 2. I observe therefore that Sin may be consider'd either abstractedly for the bare act of Obliquity or concretely with such a special dependence of it upon the will as renders the Agent guilty or obnoxious to punishment I say with such a special dependence of it upon the will for not every dependence of an action upon the will is sufficient to make it imputable as shall be shewn hereafter The former of these by those that distinguish more nicely is call'd transgressio voluntatis the latter transgressio voluntaria or according to the more ordinary distinction the former is the material the latter the formal part of Sin. 3. This distinction is both real and necessary 1. it is real because the Idea or conception of material sin is not only distinct from the Idea of formal sin as it may be in things really the same but when consider'd as alone does positively exclude the other For this notion a bare act of Obliquity does not only prescind from but also positively deny such a special dependence of it upon the will as makes it imputable for punishment 4. Now as it is a certain sign of Identity when the Idea of one thing necessarily includes the Idea of another so is it of real distinction when the Idea of one thing in any case positively excludes the Idea of the other There may indeed be distinct conceptions of one and the same thing whereof there are different Propertys or Degrees but then one does only abstract from and not in any case positively exclude the other Which when it does it is an evident sign of real distinction 5. But the greatest Argument of real distinction is separability and actual separation For nothing can be separated from it self And this also has place here For the material part of sin may actually exist without the formal That is there may be an act of obliquity or an irregular act without any guilt deriv'd upon the Agent or to speak more strictly without that special dependence of the act upon the will which is the foundation of that guilt This is evident in the case of fools and mad men 6. And as this Distinction is real so also is it very useful and necessary 1st in the notion to prevent ambiguitys and fallacys that might arise from the use of the word sin As when St. John says he that commits sin is of the Devil certainly 't would be a fallacy to argue hence that every mere act of obliquity is Diabolical because a sin since not material but formal sin was the thing intended in Saint John's Proposition 7. 2ly in the thing for the honour and vindication of the Divine Attributes Particularly from the damning of Infants merely for the corruption of nature commonly call'd Original sin It being repugnant to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Counterpart whereof in English is Conceptive and Exhibitive By the Mind of God Exhibitive is meant the Essence of God as thus or thus imitable or participable by any Creature and this is the same with an Idea By the Mind of God Conceptive is meant a reflex act of God's Understanding upon his own Essence as Exhibitive or as thus and thus imitable Now if you consider the Divine Understanding as Conceptive or Speculative it does not make its Object but suppose it as all Speculative Understanding does neither is the Truth of the Object to be measured from its Conformity with that but the Truth of that from its Conformity with its Object But if you consider the Divine Understanding as Exhibitive then its Truth does not depend upon its Conformity with the Nature of things but on the contrary the Truth of the Nature of things depends upon its Conformity with it For the Divine Essence is not thus or thus imitable because such and such things are in being but such and such things are in being because the Divine Essence is thus and thus imitable for had not the Divine Essence been thus imitable such and such Beings would not have been possible And thus is Plato to be understood when he founds the Truth of things upon their Conformity with the Divine Ideas and thus must the Schools mean too by that foremention'd Axiom concerning Transcendental Truth if they will speak Sense as I noted above 6. And now Sir from Plato's Ideas thus amiably set forth the Transition methinks is very natural to Love. And concerning this I shall account in the same Method first by pointing out the popular Misapprehensions about it and then by exhibiting a true Notion of it Platonic Love is a thing in every bodies Mouth but I find scarce any that think or speak accurately of it The mistakes which I observe are chiefly these Some of the grosser Understanders suppose that Plato by his Love meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Love of Males but the Occasion of this Conceit was from a passage in his Convivium where he brings in Aristophanes speaking favourably that way But he that shall from hence conclude Plato a prostitute to that vile Passion may as well conclude a Dramatic Poet to be an Atheist or a Whore-master because he represents those of that Character But that Divine Plato intended nothing less than to countenance any such thing is evident from the whole scope and purport of that Dialogue and from other places where he expresly condemns it and rejects it with great abhorrence particularly in the first of his de legibus where he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unnatural attempt Others by Platonic Love understand the Love of Souls and this indeed has somthing of truth in it only it is much too narrow and particular 7. Others take Platonic Love to be a desire of imprinting any excellency whether moral or intellectual in the Minds of beautiful young men by Instruction and so likewise of enjoying your own Perfections reflected from the Mind of another mix'd with and recommended by the Beauty of the Body According to the usual saying Gratior è Pulchro c. And thus Socrates was said to love his beautiful Pupils Phaedrus and Alcibiades Others measure the Nature of Platonic Love not from the Object to which they suppose it indifferent but from the manner of the Act. And according to these that man is said to love Platonically that does Casso delectamine amare love at a distance that never designs a close fruition of the Object what ever it be whether Sensual or Intellectual but chooses to dwell in the Suburbs pleasing himself with remote Prospects and makes a Mistress of his own Desire And this is the receiv'd Notion and that which People generally mean when they talk of Platonic Love. But this too is far enough from the right for tho Platonic Love does not aim at the fruition of sensual Objects yet it designs the fruition of its own Object as much as any other Love does That therefore which distinguishes Platonic Love is not the manner of the act above-mention'd but the peculiarity of the Object And what that is must be collected from the Design of Plato in that Dialogue where he treats purposely of it his Convivium Which is briefly to shew the manner of the Souls ascent to God by love For Plato makes the Happiness of Man to consist in the Contemplation and Love of God whom he calls the Idea of Beauty But now because this Idea of Beauty God is of too sublime and refined excellency to be immediatly fastned upon by our Love he recommends to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Method of Ascent which is from loving the Beauty we see in Bodies to pass on to the Love of the Beauty of the Soul from the Beauty of the Soul to the Beauty of Vertue and lastly from the Beauty of Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the immense Ocean of Beauty c. For so have I observ'd a tender Infants Eye not enduring to gaze directly upon the too powerful Excellence of the Meridian Sun chuse to entertain it self with the abatements of corrected and reflected Light and take up with the feebler refreshments of lesser Beauties for a while till at length the faculty grows more confirm'd and dares encounter the Sun in his Strength And these are the Steps of the Sanctuary So that Platonic Love is the Love of Beauty abstracted from all sensual Applications and desire of corporal contract as it leads us on to the Love of the first original Beauty God or more plainly thus The Ascent of the Soul to the Love of the Divine Beauty by the Love of abstracted Beauty in Bodies This Love of abstracted Beauty in Bodies he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celestial Love in opposition to that which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with that Passion commonly signify'd by the name of Love viz. a desire of corporal contact arising from the sight of Beauty This last indeed is a very vile brutish unmanly affection and such as considering the vileness of our Bodies one would think a man could never be charm'd into without the Magic of a Love-potion But the former is an Angelical Affection for certainly Beauty is a Divine thing It is as the Platonic Author says of Wisdom the pure Influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty and the Brightness of the Everlasting Light or in Plato's own Words A Ray of God. And therefore the Love of abstract Beauty must needs be a very generous and divine Affection Sir I could be more large in my account but I consider what 't is I write and to whom and therefore I think it high time to remit you to your own Thoughts some of which I hope will be that I am in a very eminent degree of Friendship Yours J. Norris
A Letter concerning Love and Music SIR TO the first of your Enquiries concerning the true Idea of Love and particularly that between Man and Woman and wherein it stands distinguish'd from Lust my Answer in short is this That Love may be consider'd either barely as a Tendency toward good or as a willing this good to somthing capable of it If Love be taken in the first Sense 'tis what we call Desire if in the second 't is what we call Charity or Benevolence 2. Then as to Desire there is either an Intellectual or a sensual desire which denomination is not here taken from the Faculty but from the Quality of the Object That I call here an Intellectual Desire whose object is an Intellectual good and that a sensual desire whose object is a sensual good And this is that which Plato meant by his two Cupids The latter of these is what we call Lust 3. But then this again signifies either abstractly and indifferently viz. a bare desire of Corporeal pleasure or else concretely and immorally viz. a desire or longing after corporeal pleasure in forbidden and unlawful instances 4. These things being thus briefly premised my next Resolution is this That the Ordinary Passion of Love that which we mean when we say such a man or such a woman is in Love is no other than plain Lust if Lust be taken according to the first signification namely for a sensual Desire or a Tendency toward a sensual good But if Lust be taken in the latter sense as a Tendency to corporeal pleasure in unlawful instances that which our Saviour meant when he said He that looks upon a woman to lust after her c. then 't is not necessary that the Passion we here speak of should be Lust because then 't would be a sin to be in Love and consequently there would be a necessity of sinning in order to Marriage because no man is supposed to marry but whom he thus Loves 5. And now to your 2d Enquiry whether Music be a Sensual or Intellectual pleasure before this can be determin'd the Idea of a Sensual and Intellectual pleasure must be stated 6. And 1st I observe that the precise difference of a sensual pleasure cannot consist in this that the Body be pleased or gratefully affected nor of an Intellectual that the Mind be pleased For by reason of the strict union of Soul and Body one so sympathizes with the other that these pleasures are always Mutual and complicated So that there is no pleasure of mind that does not also recreate the Body and no pleasure of Body but whereof the Mind has its share And thus far there is agreement and reciprocation That then which is peculiar and discriminative must be taken from the Primaryness or Secondaryness of the Perception That Pleasure therefore is an Intellectual Pleasure when the Soul is primarily and immediatly affected and the Body only secondarily and by participation And that is a sensual pleasure when the Body is primarily and immediatly affected and the Soul only secondarily and by participation 7. Now according to this Measure we must of necessity define the pleasure of hearing Music to be properly Intellectual Because the Soul is the part that is then primarily and immediatly affected and the Body only by result And that for this evident Reason because Music consisting formally in Proportion and Proportion pleasing only as understood that part must be primarily and directly pleased which is capable of understandiug But this is not the Body but the Soul. 'T is true indeed the ear may be directly pleased by a single sound as the eye is recreated by a single Colour suppose green and this I grant to be a pleasure of sense as much as smelling or tasting tho not so gross But the Ear may no more properly be said to be pleased with the Proportion of sounds or with sounds as proportionate than the eye is with a Picture 8. If it be here objected that Music is a pleasure of Sense because 't is convey'd by the Ear I reply that if this be sufficient to make a Pleasure Sensual the most Intellectual pleasures we are here capable of may be call'd Sensual as reading fine discourses contemplating the Beauty of the Creation attending to Mathematical Diagrams and the like because all these as well as Music are enjoy'd by the Mediation of the Senses 9. But it matters not tho the Senses be the Instruments of conveyance so the Soul be the part directly and primarily affected which is the case here For tho the Ear may be pleased with those single sounds which with relation to each other are really Harmonical yet it is not it cannot be pleased with them as such or in that Formality This is the sole Priviledge of the Mind which as it can only judge of so is it only capable of being pleas'd with Harmony 10. And thus Sir you have my sentiments with as much Brevity and Clearness as I could use and it may be as the Matters would bear I have now nothing further to add but to renew the assurances of my being Your Friend and Servant J. N. A Letter concerning Friendship SIR 1. TO your Question whether in propriety of speaking there may be strict Friendship between a man and his wife I answer first that the solution of this Question depends upon another viz. what are the Requisites essentially necessary to the Exercise of Friendship and this Question likewise depends upon another viz. what is the true Notion or Idea of Friendship This being rightly stated 't will be easy to discern what are the essential Requisites and consequently whether Man and Wife are capable Terms in this Relation or no. 2. Now as to the Idea of Friendship I answer first in general that Friendship is nothing else but Benevolence or Charity under some certain Modifications or accidental circumstances Accidental I mean as to Charity tho necessary and essential to Friendship And thus far I think all Moralists are agreed But now what these certain Modifications are here they begin to be divided 'T would be too tedious a work to insist here upon the variety of other mens Opinions and therefore I shall only briefly deliver my own which is that all the Modifications of Charity necessary to the constitution of Friendship may be well enough reduced to these three 1. That it be in a special manner intense 2ly that it be mutual and 3ly that it be manifest or mutually known Charity when clothed with these three Modifications immediatly commences Friendship More than these it need not have but of these not one may be spared as will easily appear if you examine them severally 3. Now from this Idea of Friendship 't is very obvious to deduce what are the Requisites necessary to Friendship not in reference to its Idea for that 's already stated but in reference to its Existence or actual Exercise that is in one word what are those Dispositions or Aptnesses