But it is needless to prove here that to procure our own Death is a Crime which will be so far from reuniting us to God that it will for ever separate us from him It is lawful to despise Life and even to wish for Death that we may be with Christ as St. Paul does Having a desire to be dissolv'd Phil. 1.23 and to be with Christ But we are oblig'd to preserve our Health and Life and it is the Grace of Christ that must deliver us from Concupiscence or that Body of Death which joyns us to the Creatures The same Apostle cries our O wretched Man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of God through Jesus Christ II. It is certain Exod 33.20 that we must die before we can see God and be united to him for no Man can see him and live saith the Scripture But we truly die so far as we quit the Body as we separate our selves from the World and silence our Senses Imagination and Passions by which we are united to our Body and by that to all those that surround us We die to the Body and to the World when we retire into our selves when we consult the inward Truth when we unite our selves and are obedient to Order Job 28.21 The eternal Wisdom is hid from the Eyes of all Living But those who are Dead to the World and to Themselves who have crucified the Flesh with its disorder'd Lusts who are crucified with Christ and to whom the World is crucified Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 1 Cor. 13.12 in a word those who have a clean Heart a pure Mind and an unspotted Imagination are capable of beholding Truth Now they see God but confusedly and imperfectly in Part through a Glass in a Riddle but they see him truly they are closely and immediately united to him and shall one day see him Face to Face for we must know and love God in this Life to enjoy him in the next III. But those who live not only the Life of the Body but also the Life of the World who live in the enjoyment of Pleasures and spread themselves as it were over all the Objects that are about them can never find out Truth Job 28.13 For as the Scripture saith Wisdom doth not dwell with those that live Voluptuously Non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium We must then procure our selves not that Death which kills the Body and puts an end to Life but that which brings the Body under and weakens Life I mean the Union of the Soul with the Body or its dependence on it We must begin and continue our Sacrifice and expect from God the Consummation and Reward of it For the Life of a Christian here on-Earth is a constant Sacrifice by which he continually offers up his Body his Concupiscence and Self-love to the Love of Order and his Death which is precious in the Sight of God is the day of his Victories and Triumphs in Jesus Christ raised from the dead the forerunner of our Glory and the model of our eternal Reformation IV. Rom. 6.6 St. Paul tells us That our old Man is already crucified with Christ for by the Sacrifice which Christ hath offer'd on the Cross he hath merited for us for us I say particularly who have been washed in his Blood by Baptism all the Graces necessary to balance and even to diminish by degrees the weight of Concupiscence so that Sin no longer reigns in us but by our own Fault Let us not therefore think to excuse our Slothfulness by imagining that we are not able to resist the Law of the Flesh which continually rebels against the Law of the Mind The Law of Sin would have an absolute Dominion over the Motions of our Heart if Christ had not destroy'd it by his Cross But we who are dead and buried to Sin by Baptism Rom. 6.4 v. 11. who are justified and rais'd to life again in Jesus Christ glorified who are animated by the influence of our Head by the Spirit of Christ and by a Power wholly Divine we I say ought not to believe that Heaven forsakes us in our Combats and that if we are overcome it is for want of Succours Christ never neglects those that call upon him 't is impious to believe it for all the Scriptures say Act. 2. â—1 Rom 10.13 Joel 2.34 That whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be sav'd V. It is certain that we could never be glorified and seated in Heaven with Jesus Christ we could not have eternal Life abiding in us we could not be Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ Citizens of the holy City and adopted Children of God himself all which things the Apostles say of Christians if God were not faithful in his Promises if he suffer'd us to be tempted above our Strength 1 Cor. 10.13 which St. Paul also forbids us to believe But we may truly say That we are already glorified in Christ c. because in effect it depends only on our selves to preserve by Grace the Right which the same Grace gives us to future Blessings and it is a kind of brutish stupidity in a Man which one would think should astonish a rational and spiritual Being to lose infinite Happiness by his own Fault and incurr eternal Damnation through his own Negligence VI. This Truth being suppos'd as undeniable let us awaken our Faith and Hope let us search after the Means to secure our Salvation and let us Act in such sort that the Grace which God cannot infuse into us with any other design but to sanctify and save us may effectually sanctify us and make us worthy to enjoy the true Good Ye are dead saith St. Paul 〈…〉 and your life is hid with Christ in God Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth We are dead to Sin because living in Christ our Head we should and by his influence may kill the old Man it lies in our own power to do it But to put this Design in execution according to the Advice which St. Paul here gives we must labour all our life in the Mortification of our Senses we must endeavour with the utmost Diligence to keep our Imagination pure and undefil'd we must regulate all the Motions of our Passions by Order in a word we must diminish the weight of Sin which by the actual Efforts of Concupiscence provok'd and stir'd up is able to balance the strongest Graces and to separate us from God Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth If we do what depends on us Grace will work in our Heart with its full Efficacy we shall die in the sense of St. Paul and our life being hid with Christ in God shall appear with Glory when Christ himself shall appear cloth'd with Majesty and Honour Col. 3.4 When Christ
A TREATISE OF Morality In Two Parts Written in French by F. MALBRANCH AUTHOR of The Search after Truth And Translated into English By JAMES SHIPTON M. A. LONDON Printed for Iames Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. THE Author's LETTER TO MONSIEUR **** SIR I Have sent you the Treatise of Morality which you desire of me with so much importunity It is divided into two Parts In the First I have examin'd wherein Vertue doth precisely consist and laid down the means of acquiring and preserving it The Second contains the Duties of it I know not what Censure you will pass on this Book you Sir who are so nice a Judge for I confess to you that there are many things in it which I have not explain'd with that exactness which you require of Authors But I desire you to consider two Things The First is that having no clear Idea of the Soul you understand what I mean the greatest part of the Terms of Morality can express only its Sensations The Second is that Books ought to be proportion'd as far as it is possible to the Capacity of the generality of Mankind and that if I had been too nice and scrupulous in explaining the signification of the Terms which I make use of I should have extremely tir'd the Attentions of my Readers for People are soon weary of reading a Book that doth not raise agreable Sensations in their Mind Perhaps I may think it necessary hereafter to add some Illustrations which may clear those Difficulties which the common Phrase of Speech cannot remove The success that this Treatise meets with will determine my Resolution in that Point I am c. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART CHAP. I. VNiversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Sin and Error God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct Page 1. CHAP. II. There is no other Vertue but the Love of Order and Reason Without this Love all Vertues are false We must not confound Duties with Vertue We may discharge our Duties without Vertue 'T is for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs Faith serves or conducts to Reason For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Beings p. 12. CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power or to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to persoâ—â—â— Merit as our Duties to relative Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God So that Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order p. 21. CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The method us'd in the explication of these means p. 23. CHAP. V. Of the Strength of the Mind Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquir'd Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses Imagination and Passions to Regulate our Studies and to Meditate only on clear Ideas p. 40. CHAP. VI. Of the Liberty of the Mind We should suspend our Assent as much as we can which is the great Rule By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin as by the Strength of the Mind we free our selves from Ignorance The Liberty of the Mind as well as the Strength of it is a Habit which is confirm'd by use Some instances of its Vsefulness in Physicks Morality and Civil Life p. 51. CHAP. VII Of Obedience to Order The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it It cannot be done without Grace How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it by the Light it produces in us by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination p. 61. CHAP. VIII The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace we must call upon him with confidence When we come to the Sacraments the actual Love of Order is chang'd into habitual in consequence of the permanent desires of Christ The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners The fear of Hell is as good a Motive as the desire of eternal Happiness We must not confound the Motive with the End The desire of being Happy or Self-love should make us conformable to Order or obedient to the Law of God p. 71. 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 p. 83. CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise p. 91. 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
by the motion of his Body The Love which we bear to Persons of Worth and Merit is a love of Benevolence for we love them even when they are not in a condition to do us any good We Love them because they have more Perfection and Vertue than other Men. So that the power to do us Good or that kind of perfection which relates to our Happiness in one Word Goodness excites in us a love of Vnion and all other perfections a love of Benevolence Now God only is Good He alone hath the Power of acting on us He doth not really communicate that Perfection to his Creatures but only makes them occasional Causes for the producing of some Effects For true and real Power is Incommunicable Therefore all our love of Union ought to tend toward God IX We may for Instance bring our Body to the Fire because Fire is the occasional cause of Heat which is necessary for it But we cannot love it with a love of Vnion without offending against Order because the Fire is so far from having any power over that part of us which is capable of Loving that it hath no Power at all The same may be said of all other Creatures even Angels and Devils we ought to love none of them with a Love of Union with that Love which is an Honour given to Power for all of them being absolutely impotent we should by no means love them When I speak of loving I mean also fearing and hating them I mean that the Soul should remain unmov'd in their Presence The Body by a local Motion may come near the Fire or avoid the Fall of a House but the Soul must fear and love nothing but God at least it must love none but him with a love of Freedom Choice and Reason For since the Union of the Soul and Body is chang'd into a dependance it is hardly in our power to hinder sensible Goods from exciting in us some love for them The motions of the Soul naturally answer those of the Body and the Object which makes us fly from it or attracts us to it almost always begets in us Aversion or Love X. But the Case is not the same with the Love of Benevolence as with the Love of Union God is infinitely more amiable with this sort of Love than all his Creatures together But as he hath really communicated to them some Perfection as they are capable of Happiness they really deserve our Love and Esteem Order it self requires that we should esteem and love them according to the measure of Perfection which they enjoy or rather according to that which we know to be in them For to esteem and love them exactly in proportion to their being amiable is utterly impossible because many times their Perfections are unknown to us and we can never know exactly the proportions that are between Perfections for we cannot express them either by Numbers or incommensurable Lines Nevertheless Faith takes away a great many difficulties in this matter For since a finite Being by the relation it hath to infinity acquires an infinite Value it is evident that we ought to love those Creatures which have or may have a great relation to God infinitely more than those which do not bear his Image or which have no immediate union with or relation to him It is plain that all other things being equal one righteous Man one member of Jesus Christ deserves more of this kind of Love than a thousand wicked Men and that God who judges truly and exactly of the Value of his Creatures prefers one of his adopted Children before all the Nations of the Earth XI It is certain that our Duties ought to be regulated by the Love of Esteem or Benevolence but yet we must not imagine that we always owe more Duties to righteous Men than to Sinners to the Faithful than to Hereticks or even Heathens themselves For we must observe that there are Perfections of several sorts some Personal or Absolute and others Relative Personal Perfections ought to be the immediate Object of the Love of Esteem and Benevolence but relative Perfections do not deserve either this or any other kind of Love but only the Object to which these Perfections have a relation We should love and honour Merit where-ever we find it for Merit is a personal Perfection which ought to regulate our Love of Esteem and Benevolence but it ought not always to regulate the greatness and quality of our Duties On the contrary we owe a great many Duties to our Prince to our Parents and to all those that are in Authority for Authority is necessary for the preservation of Order in States which is the most valuable thing in the World But the Honour which we pay to them the Love which we bear them ought to terminate in God alone Colos 3.23 As to the Lord and not unto Men saith St. Paul The Honour which we give to Power must be refer'd to God and not to Men for the power of Acting is in God alone In like manner if a Man have such natural endowments as may be serviceable for the Conversion of others tho' he have no personal Merit or Vertue we ought to love him with a love of Esteem which hath a relation to something else and we are oblig'd to many more Duties towards him than towards another Man who hath a great deal of personal Merit but is not capable of being useful to any but himself But I shall explain this matter-more at large in another place what I have said of it here is only to prevent the Reader from running insensibly whither I have no design to lead him XII Self-Love the irreconcileable Enemy of Vertue or a ruling Love of the immutable Order may agree with the Love of Union which is refer'd to and honours a Power capable of acting on us for it is sufficient for that purpose that this Self-love be enlightned Man invincibly desires to be happy and he sees clearly that God alone is able to make him so This being suppos'd and all the rest excluded of which I do not speak it is evident that he may desire to be united to God For to take away every thing that may be equivocal I do not speak of a Man who knows that God rewards only Merit and who finds none in himself but I speak of one who considers only the Power and Goodness of God or one to whom the Testimony of his Conscience and his Faith give a free access as I may so say to draw near to God and join himself to him XIII But the case is different with the Love of Esteem or Benevolence which a Man ought to bear to himself Self-love makes it always irregular Order requires that the Reward should be proportionable to the Merit and the Happiness to the Perfection of the Soul which it hath gain'd by a good use of its Liberty but Self-love can endure no bounds to its Happiness
must avoid every thing that takes up any room in the Mind unprofitably And as there is nothing that possesses it more than that which touches strikes and agitates it it is evident that we must carefully avoid all Objects that please our Senses and excite our Passions The Senses and Passions being certain Modifications of the proper substance of the Soul all intellectual Ideas which do not modify it must of necessity disappear in the presence of sensible Objects tho' we strive never so much to retain them and to discover their Relations Besides we are perswaded that it is in our own power to recal these intellectual Ideas but Experience assures us that our Wills are not the occasional causes of our Senses And therefore we readily lay hold of those Sensations by which we enjoy those Delights that pass away and cannot be recall'd and neglect the pure Ideas whereby we discover the Truth which remains fix'd and which we can contemplate whenever we please For we must resolve speedily as to those Goods which fly away from us but we may defer the examination of those that are stable and always present In short we would always be actually happy We would never be actually Miserable Actual Pleasure makes us actually Happy and actual Pain actually Miserable Therefore every Sensation which participates of Pleasure or Pain possesses the Mind Every motion of the Soul which hath actual good or evil for its Object governs the Will So that we must use very strong endeavours to contemplate Truth when our Senses are affected and our Passions stir'd And since we find by Experience that these endeavours are at that time very insignificant it is impossible but that the Soul being spent and tir'd must be discontented and discourag'd And therefore those who treat of Prayer give us this weighty Admonition to labour incessantly in mortifying our Senses and not to meddle with those things which do not concern us and which may in the sequel by our indiscreet engaging in them excite in us a Thousand troublesom Motions IX The next thing we have to do is to avoid as much as we can all those Sciences and Occupations which have nothing but shew and outward splendor those Sciences in which the Memory only is employ'd those Studies and Occupations in which the Imagination is too much exercis'd When a Man's Head is full he is content with his imaginary Riches and being swell'd with Pride he scorns the labour of Attention or if he owns the necessity of it it will cost him too much Pains to remove all those false Ideas which his Memory furnishes him with And when the Imagination is too much exercis'd the evidence of Truth doth not make a lively impression on us For it is certain that there is nothing more opposite to Reason than an Imagination too well furnish'd too nice too active or rather a malignant and corrupted Imagination For the Imagination ought always to be silent when Reason Speaks but when we have us'd our selves to employ it much it continually interrupts and opposes it And therefore we see that those Men of Sense I speak of and your great Wits as they fancy themselves have not much Piety or Religion for indeed there are no Men more blind than they All the Light in them is extinguish'd by Pride for being always highly conceited of themselves and satiated or rather having no Appetite to Truth they cannot bring themselves to think of earning by the Sweat of their Brow the Bread of the Soul a Nourishment of which they have no manner of Relish X. A Man must labour with the Soul to maintain the life of the Soul this is absolutely necessary But nothing is more servile than to employ the labour of the Soul in getting Mony or Honour That a Mechanick should labour with the Body to maintain the life of the Body to get Bread this is conformable to Order at least while his Body is at Work he may feed his Mind and employ it in good Thoughts But for a Magistrate a States-man a Merchant to lavish away the strength of his Mind in getting those Goods that are many times of no use for the life of the Body and always dangerous to that of the Soul is a very great Folly And therefore we should in the third Place avoid all such Employments as deprive us of the liberty of the Mind except God engages us in them by an extraordinary Vocation For if Charity or the Laws of the Community in which we live oblige us to them and we take upon us no more than we are able to bear God will make up in us an equivalent to that which we might have obtain'd by the labour of Meditation And even then we shall find time enough to examine our selves in relation to our Duties if we are not govern'd by Ambition or Interest in the exercise of our Calling XI Every Man knows well enough what things are apt to agitate and distract his Mind at least he may be inform'd by consulting Experience or that inward Sense which he hath of himself And therefore I shall not dwell any longer in setting down particularly what we must do to make Meditation easy to us It is only the Body which makes the Soul dull and heavy This is the ground of our Stupidity Now all sensible Objects work upon us only by means of the Body Therefore it is evident that to hearken without Pain to the Answers which Truth pronounces within us we have nothing to do but to silence our Senses Imagination and Passions or in a Word to still that confus'd Noise which the Body makes in us Now every Man knows by his own Experience that the Body is quiet enough when nothing stirs it from without or hath not too much stir'd it before For since it retains a long time those impressions and motions which it hath receiv'd from sensible Objects I confess that the Imagination remains polluted and hurt when we have been so indiscreet as to be too familiar with Pleasure Notwithstanding the Wound will close up of it self and the Brain will return to its former state if we carefully avoid the action of all Objects that strike our Senses which we are always able to do at least in some measure with those necessary Helps which I all along suppose Let us do what we can on our part and we shall be so far from being out of love with Meditation that we shall find our selves so well rewarded that we shall not repent of our Pains provided nevertheless that we observe the following Rule without which notwithstanding all our Meditation we shall never be rewarded with a clear view of Truth My Design here is not to teach the Art of Thinking nor to deliver all the Rules by which the Mind ought to regulate every step in takes in the search of Truth The Subject of this Discourse is Morality a Science necessary for all Mankind and not Logick which only they who
Bodies and by their means in the Souls wihch are united to them certain effects which may promote the efficacy of Grace and keep Men from those Stumbling-blocks which the Devils continually lay in their way For as the Psalmist saith Psal 91.11 12. He hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways They shall bear thee up in their Hands lest thou dash thy Foot against a Stone XIII So then we may pray to the Angels and desire their protection against that roaring Lion who as St. Peter saith walketh about seeking whom he may devour Eph. 6.12 Or to use St. Paul's words Against those Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World those Princes of the World full of Darkness and Error against spiritual Wickedness in high places those evil Spirits which are scatter'd through the Air For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood only But we must not look upon the Angels as distributive Causes of Grace nor give them that Worship which is due to Christ alone Col. 2.18 19. Be not deceiv'd saith St. Paul by those who in a voluntary Humility pay a superstitious Worship to Angels who meddle with those things which they do not understand being dazled by the vain Imaginations of their fleshly Mind and not keeping themselves united to the Head from which the whole body of the Church receives the Spirit which gives it Growth and Life v. 15. even to Jesus Christ who having spoil'd Principalities and Powers which he had vanquish'd by his Cross made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace either of Light or Sense The Vnion of the Soul with God is immediate not that of the Soul with the Body An Explication of some general Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise I. IN the Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters I have spoken at large of the occasional Cause of Light and in the two last I have endeavoured to shew what is the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense and what we must do to obtain it And therefore seeing there is nothing beside Light and Sense which determines the Will or the tendency which the Soul hath toward Good in general all that now remains in relation to the Means of acquiring or preserving the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order is to explain the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body or the occasional Causes of all those lively and confus'd Sensations and those indeliberate Motions which unite us to our Body and by that to all the Objects which are about us For to make us love Order and to acquire Vertue it is not sufficient to obtain the Grace of Sense which alone can stir the Soul and put it in Motion toward the true Good but we must also manage our selves so that this Grace may work in our Hearts with its full Efficacy For this end we must carefully avoid the occasional Causes of those Sensations and Motions which resist the Operation of Grace and sometimes render it altogether ineffectual This is the most general Principle of all that I shall say in the First Part of this Discourse II. The Soul of Man hath two essential and natural Relations one to God the true Cause of all that passes within him the other to his Body the occasional Cause of all those Thoughts which relate to sensible Objects When God speaks to the Soul it is to unite it to himself when the Body speaks to it it is only for the Body to unite the Soul to sensible Good God speaks to the Soul to enlighten and render it perfect the Body only to darken and corrupt it in favour of it self God by the Light conducts the Soul to its Happiness the Body by Pleasure involves the whole Man in its ruin and throws him headlong into Misery In a word tho' it is God that doth every thing and tho' the Body cannot act upon the Soul no more than the Soul can upon the Body but as an occasional Cause in consequence of the Laws of their Union and for the Punishment of Sin which without medling with those Laws hath chang'd the Union into a Dependence yet we may say that it is the Body which darkens the Mind and corrupts the Heart for the Relation which the Soul hath to the Body is the Cause of all our Errors and Disorders III. Notwithstanding we should be throughly convinc'd of this and never forget it that the Soul can have no immediate Relation but to God alone and that it cannot be united directly to any thing but to him for the Soul cannot be united to the Body but as it is united to God himself It is certain for very many Reasons that if I feel for instance the pain of a Scratch it is God that acts in me tho' in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body for those Laws derive their force from the Operation of the Divine Will which alone is capable of acting in me But the Body by it self cannot be united to the Soul nor the Soul to the Body They have no Relation to one another nor any one Creature to another I speak of Relations of Causality such are those which depend on the Union of the Soul and Body It is God that doth every thing his Will is the Union of all Unions the Modifications of Substances depend on him alone who gives and preserves their Being This is an essential Truth which I think I have sufficiently prov'd in another place IV. But tho' the Soul cannot be united immediately to any Thing but God yet it may be united to the Creatures by the Will of God who communicates his Power to them in making them occasional Causes for the production of certain Effects My Soul is united to my Body because on one side my Will is made the occasional Cause of some changes which God alone produces on it and in the other because the changes which happen in my Body are made occasional Causes of some of those which happen in my Soul V. Now God hath establish'd these Laws for many Reasons which are unknown to us But of those which we do know one is that God in following them acts in a uniform and constant manner by general Laws by the most simple and wisest ways in a word he Acts in such a manner as admirably bears the Character of his Attributes Another Reason is because the Body of Man is his proper Sacrifice for it seems to Sacrifice it self by Pain and to be Annihilated by Death The Soul is in a State of Probation in the Body and God who desires in some measure to be merited and to proportion Rewards to Merits doth by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and
Body a simple general uniform and constant Method furnish us with various ways of Sanctifying our selves and Meriting the true Goods I have explain'd these Truths elsewhere but it is necessary to remember them here VI. This kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to the Creatures is look'd upon by many People as a groundless Imagination For the Operation of God not being sensible we think we answer and reprove our selves when it is the universal Reason which answers and reproves us in the most secret part of our selves It is certain that he who knows not what Truth and Order is knows not this Union tho' perhaps it may act in him as he who doth not love Truth nor obey Order breaks the Union tho' perhaps he knows it VII But as for that kind of Union of the Soul with God which relates to the Creatures we believe it real but we have a wrong Notion of it For we imagine that we receive from the Objects that which comes from God alone The Cause of this Mistake is the same with that of the former The Divine Operation not being visible we attribute to the Objects which strike our Senses all that we feel in their Presence tho' they are no otherwise present to the Soul than as God who is more present to us than we are to our selves represents them to us in his own Substance which is the only intellectual Substance the only Substance capable of acting on us and of producing in us all those Sensations which render intellectual Ideas sensible and make us judge confusedly not only that there are Bodies but also that they are those Bodies which operate on us and make us happy which is the most general Cause of all our Miscarriages VIII We would always be happy and never miserable Actual Pleasure causes actual Happiness and Pain Misery Now we feel Pleasure and Pain in the presence of corporeal Objects and believe those Objects to be the true Causes of them So that there is a necessity almost that we should fear and love them Nay tho' we are convinc'd by Metaphysical and certain Demonstrations that God alone is the true Cause yet this doth not give us Strength enough to slight and disregard them when we actually enjoy them For the judgments of the Senses work more powerfully on us than the most solid Reasons because it is not Light so much as Pleasure which stirs the Soul and puts it in Motion IX So then it is evident that to preserve a ruling Love of the immutable Order we must on the one hand use all our endeavours to strengthen this kind of Union of the Soul with God which hath no Relation to sensible Objects and on the other we must slacken as much as we can that kind of Union which relates to Bodies Substances inferiour to ours which are so far from being able to make us perfect that they have no power to act on us nor corrupt us but only because the Sin of our first Parent hath brought in Concupiscence which consists wholly in the Loss we have sustain'd of the power to stop or suspend the Laws of the Communication of those Motions by which the Bodies that are about us act on that Body which we animate and by that on our Mind in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body X. Christian Meditat 13 14 c. I think I have sufficiently prov'd already at least as to some Persons that since all the Motions of the Soul depend on Light and Sense to excite in us that Motion which carries us toward God and keeps us united to him it is necessary that we should continually exercise our selves in the Labour of Attention the occasional Cause of Light and frequently call upon Jesus Christ the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense I shall now examine the Means whereby we may diminish the Union that is between Us and the Creatures and hinder them from having any share with God in our Mind and Heart For we are so plac'd between God and corporeal Objects that we cannot move toward them without departing from God and the breaking off our Correspondence with them is sufficient to unite us to God through the continual influence which Christ sheds on his Members XI That which I shall say of this matter is not so necessary for those that have read and consider'd the Principles which I have laid down in the Search of Truth And if all Men were capable of so much Reason as to think methodically or at least had so much Justice as to believe that an Author hath thought of the Subject he treats of more than they I should not be oblig'd to repeat in general what I have already said or prov'd in other places and in various manners No body reads Apollonius or Archimedes that hath not learnt Euclid because he can understand nothing of Conical Sections without knowing the common Elements of Geometry and in Geometrical matters when a Man doth not understand a thing he knows he doth not understand it But in matters of Morality or Religion every one I know not why thinks himself sufficiently capable of comprehending whatever he reads So that everyone takes upon him to judge without considering that Morality for instance I mean Morality demonstrated or explain'd by Principles is to the Knowledge of Man what the Science of curve Lines is to that of strait Lines XII Wherefore I think it requisite in this place to suppose certain Principles which I have prov'd elsewhere and which are necessary for the sequel of this Discourse This will perhaps illustrate many Things which I have said and which I very much fear have not well been understood but these suppositions are not design'd for those who have consider'd the Principles which I have elsewhere explain'd or fully comprehend what I have said hitherto They may go on to the next Chapter and save themselves a needless Labour XIII First then I take it for granted that to have a right Notion of the Union of the Soul and Body we must not confound the Ideas of these two Substances as most do who join them together by extending the Soul to all the parts of the Body and attribute to the Body all the Sensations which belong to the Soul The Union of the Soul and Body consists in the mutual and reciprocal Action of these two Beings in consequence of the Operations of the Divine Will which alone can change the modifications of Substances The Soul thinks and is not exended The Body is extended and doth not think Therefore the Soul cannot be united to the Body by Extension but only by Thinking nor the Body to the Soul by Sensation but only by Situation and local Motion The Body is wounded but the Soul feels it The Soul fears an Evil and the Body flies from it The Soul would move the Arm the Arm immediately moves it self and the Soul sees and feels
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
who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory VII Of all the Exercises proper to promote the Efficacy of Grace there is no one more necessary than that of the Mortification of the Senses for it is our own Body alone that unites us to all other Bodies It is chiefly by the Senses that the Soul stretches it self as I may say to all the parts of the Body and by the Imagination and Passions it is carried abroad and extends it self to all the Creatures But as Objects are presented to the Mind by the Senses the Imagination and Passions suppose and depend on them For it is certain that the corporeal Image of a sensible Object I do not here speak of Mathematical Figures is nothing but the Impression and Motion which that Object hath made in the Brain by means of the Senses which Impression is renewed by the Action of the Imagination or the Course of the Spirits And as for the Passions they cannot be excited but by the Motion of the animal Spirits which always supposes that the Brain the Magazene of these Spirits is shaken either by the Senses or the Imagination So that he who mortifies his Senses attacks the very Foundation of the Union of the Soul with the Body or rather of its dependence on it he weakens the animal Life and diminishes the weight of Sin Concupiscence he promotes the Efficacy of Grace which alone can reunite us to our first Principle Finally he procures himself that kind of Death without which as the Scripture speaks it is not possible to see God VIII The most capacious of all the Senses that which ministers to all the rest and without which the Imagination and Passions would be but faint and languishing is the Sight We need but reflect a little on our selves and on the use we may make of our Eyes to be convinc'd that they expose us daily to a thousand Dangers One indiscreet look is certainly sufficient to throw us into Hell It made David fall into an Adultery which afterwards engag'd him in a Murder Eve suffer'd her self to be seduc'd by the Devil because she ventur'd to look fixedly on the forbidden Fruit and found it pleasant to the Eyes Gen. 3.6 If they had distrusted their Senses as fallacious and rejected their Testimony they had both of them preserv'd their Innocence I think it not much to my present purpose to enlarge on the mischievous effects of the Sight and from thence to prove the necessity of shutting our Eyes in many Cases I rather choose to examine Things in their first Principles and to shew the use we may lawfully make of all our Senses in general which I shall confine within the straitest Bounds that can possibly be set to it IX One of the Principles which I think I have demonstrated several ways in the First Book of the Search of Truth is this That our Senses are given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being In relation to this end they are perfectly well regulated but with respect to the use which the World makes of them there is nothing more false deceitful and irregular To prove this we must consider that we are compos'd of a Soul and a Body and that we have two sorts of Good to look after that of the Soul and that of the Body The Good of the Soul is found out by the Light for it is the true Good That of the Body is discover'd by Sense for it is a false Good or rather no Good at all If Men knew sensible Objects only as they are in themselves and without a sensible perception of that which is not really in them they could not possibly seek after them and fill themselves with them without regret and a kind of detestation and if they had a sense of the true Good different from what it really is and without knowing the true Nature of it they would love it sensually and not meritoriously For the Soul neither can nor ought to live but by the intellectual Substance of Reason and the Body cannot receive Nourishment and Growth but from Bodies Intellectual Goods do not suit with the mechanical Frame of the Body and sensible Goods disorder the Soul Thus Light and Evidence are to the Goods of the Soul what Sense and Instinct are to those of the Body This I think cannot be denied X. The reason of all this is that God created the Soul only for himself He did not make it that it should employ it self about sensible Objects nor that it should preserve and govern by Reason the Body which it Informs If we would know distinctly and rationally the infinite Relations that are between the Bodies which surround us and that which we animate if we would know for instance when we ought to eat how much and what kind of Food is precisely necessary to preserve our Health and Life we must do nothing else but study Physicks and certainly we should not live very long at least Children would not because they want Experience But Hunger informs us of the necessity of Food and thereby regulates the quantity of it pretty near the matter Once it did it truly and exactly and would do so still if we would eat the Fruits of the Earth just as God provides them for us The Taste is a short and unquestionable Tryal whether such and such Bodies are proper for Nourishment or not Without knowing the Texture of a Stone or a strange Fruit we need only present it to the Tongue the faithful Door-keeper at least before Sin of all that ought to enter into the House to be assur'd whether it will make any disturbance within The same may be said of all the other Organs of our Senses Nothing is quicker than the Touch to inform us that we are burnt when we touch a hot Iron without our Knowledge Thus the Soul leaving the Government of the Body to the Senses may apply it self to the search of the true Good contemplate the Perfections and works of its Maker study the Law of God and govern all its motions by that The Senses should only inform it with respect and cease to interrupt it when it imposes Silence on them Thus it was once but the Sin of our first Parent hath chang'd that admirable Order and the union of the Soul and Body remaining still the same the Soul is reduc'd to a dependence on the Senses and is check'd and controul'd by them because as I have often said it hath lost the power to command them XI The Senses then were ordain'd to furnish us with short and certain ways to distinguish Bodies with respect to the preservation of our Health and Life Therefore we may make use of them to unite our selves by the Body to sensible Objects or to separate our selves from them this is agreable to Order I say to unite or separate our selves Not to love or fear them For Love and Hatred are Motions of
proportion to the consistence of the Fibres of the Brain By a large and spacious Imagination I understand such an abundance of Spirits as is able to keep wide open a great many Tracks or Impressions of the Brain at once By a regular and well order'd Imagination I mean a Brain whose principal part which should obey the attention of the Mind hath none of its Fibres broken by the Passions or any other accident By an Enthusiast or visionary I mean one whose attention doth indeed determine the course of the Spirits but cannot moderate their force nor stop their motion He thinks on what he pleases but he sees nothing as it is For the Impressions being too large or too deep nothing appears to him in its natural shape Whatever he saith must always be taken with some allowance or deduction In this sense every Man is an Enthusiast in respect of some Things Those that know them best are the Wisest By a senseless and stupid Man I mean one whose Attention can neither stop nor determine the course of the Spirits By a contagious and headstrong Imagination I understand such an abundance of animal Spirits and those so agitated that they diffuse over all the Body especially the Face an Air of Confidence which persuades others All Men when they are mov'd with any Passion and Enthusiasts at all times have this kind of Imagination VIII The substance and disposition of the Fibres of the Brain being different in different Persons and in the same Persons at different Ages and the animal Spirits being more or less subtle in greater or less quantity more or less agitated it may easily be judg'd that there are a great many more sorts of Imaginations than those I have here mention'd and that we have not Terms enough to denote exactly the differences of them For this word Imagination is a comprehensive Term expressing not only many Ideas but also an infinite number of Relations arising from the comparison of these Ideas which relations make the particular character of the several sorts of Imaginations The Brain of it self in such or such a disposition consider'd without the relation it hath to the motion abundance or solidity of the Spirits doth not make such or such a particular sort of Imagination but the relation which arises from the quality of the Spirits compar'd with the substance of the Fibres of the Brain For a Man that hath a great abundance of Spirits very much agitated and very solid hath not therefore a lively and spacious Imagination if the Fibres of his Brain are too solid too moist too much interwoven one within another c. IX These things being granted I say that the Imagination produces as dangerous effects as the Senses and consequently that it is necessary to keep it silent if we desire that Grace should operate in us with all its efficacy X. For First the Imagination as well as the Senses speaks only for the good of the Body for naturally whatsoever comes to the Soul by the Body is only for the Body This is a great and Fundamental Principle XI Secondly the Imagination when it is heated continually interrupts the Soul It often forces the Mind to answer and discourse with it to the prejudice of Reason Besides we may easily avoid the action of sensible Objects and by that means make our Senses silent For it is in our own Power to shut our Eyes or betake our selves to Flight But we cannot easily dispel the Phantoms rais'd by the Imagination the Mind cannot avoid contemplating whatever passes in the Brain XII Thirdly the Senses represent sensible Objects near enough to the Life But the Imagination extends and enlarges them in such a manner that the Mind is sometimes charm'd and sometimes terrified with them A Man whose Heart is corrupted by the irregular desires which the Imagination of its self hath stir'd up in him sometimes finds him self cur'd by the accomplishment of those Desires The actual enjoyment of the Object of his disorders delivers him at least for some time from a Passion which ow'd all its force and vehemence to the Imagination XIII Fourthly the Senses joyn us only to certain Objects that lie round about us and are within their Sphere But the Imagination makes the Mind a Slave to every thing It unites it to the past present and future to Realities and Chimeras to possible Beings and to those which neither God himself can create nor the Mind comprehend It forms dreadful Phantoms and then is scar'd at them It raises delightful Apparitions and is pleased with them It alters and destroys the nature of all Beings and forms a Thousand extravagant Designs in a World of its own making compos'd of Realities and Fictions XIV Lastly the Imagination without going so far as downright Madness disturbs and dissipates all the true Ideas and corrupts the Heart by innumerable ways It would be too long to set down the different effects of the several kinds of Imagination But that which is most opposite to the efficacy of the Grace of Christ is that which in the Language of the World is call'd Wit for the better the Imagination is furnish'd the more dangerous it is subtilty delicacy vivacity and spaciousness of Imagination great qualities in the Eyes of Men are the most prolifick and the most general causes of the blindness of the Mind and the corruption of the Heart What I here assert being a Paradox I must not expect to be believ'd without Proof XV. The Soul is rational only by Reason It is regular only by Order It derives its perfection wholly from the immediate and direct union it hath with God On the contrary its union with the Body fills it with Darkness and puts it in disorder Because in our present Condition we cannot strengthen this union without weaking that which is opposite to it Now it is by the Imagination that the Soul dilates and spreads it self over the Creatures for it is united to Truth only by pure Ideas free from all imaginary and fantastical Appearances So that the more strength vivacity and extent the Imagination hath the more the Mind employs it self about sensible Objects all this I have said before Now when the Imagination is beautiful easy clear and sprightly the Images which it forms are lively animated and delightful always drawn to the Life and even beyond it Thus he who by the strength of his Imagination raises a great variety of different Objects in his Mind who makes his Phantoms always appear in a fashionable Dress and puts them into certain regular and harmonious Motions which give an agreeable agitation to the whole Brain He I say is charm'd with his own productions and instead of contemplating things as they are in themselves and as their Ideas represent them delights continually in seeing his own Farces acted and applauds the Fictions of his own Brain XVI It is natural for all Men to seek Admirers and the Man of Wit never fails of them
union of the Soul with Reason discovers to Man all the Ideas which enlighten him and leads him as I may say into the Country of Truth the Habitation of the Soul to shew him the Beauties and Wonders of it But the occasional cause of the presence or absence of Ideas being only the different desires of our Will we inconsiderately attribute to our selves the Power of doing that which proceeds from the sole operation of God in us And even the endeavour which accompanies our Attention that painful endeavour the certain Mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless an endeavour which God excites in us to punish our Pride and make us deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades us like that which we make to move the parts of our Bodies that we our selves are the Authors of that Knowledge which accompanies our Desires For having no perception at all of the operation of God and having an inward Sense of our own Attention we look upon this Attention to be the true cause of those effects which constantly and faithfully attend or follow it for the same reason as we attribute to our own Wills the power of moving Bodies and the sensible Qualities wherewith we are affected to the Objects which occasion them V. He that by the motion of his Body approaches toward sensible Objects or withdraws himself from them feeling the Bodies which he meets with in that Motion strike upon him easily believes that he himself is the cause of the removal of his own Body but certainly he never thinks that he gives Being to those Bodies that surround him But he that by the application of his Mind leaves the Body as it were and unites himself wholly to Reason imagines that the Truths he contemplates are of his own production He fancies that he gives a Being to the Ideas he discovers and that he forms as I may say out of his own Substance that intellectual World in which he loses himself Because the things which he then beholds do not affect his Senses he imagines they have no real Existence but in himself For People judge of the reality of Beings as they do of the solidity of Bodies by the impression they make on their Senses VI. It is certain that Man is not his own Wisdom and his own Light There is an universal Reason which enlightens all spiritual Beings an intellectual Substance common to all intelligent Natures an immutable necessary and eternal Substance All spiritual Beings contemplate it without disturbing one another They all possess it without prejudicing one another They all feed of it without diminishing any thing of its abundance It communicates it self whole and entire to them all and entire to every one of them For all of them may as it were grasp the same Idea at the same time in different places they may all possess it equally they may all penetrate or be penetrated by it VII But two Men cannot eat the same Fruit nor embrace the same Body they cannot at a distance from one another hear the same Voice nor many times see the same Objects The Creatures are all particular Beings and therefore cannot be one general and common Good He that possesses these particular Goods deprives others of them and thereby provokes their hatred or envy against him But Reason is a common Good which unites those that possess it in a perfect and durable Friendship It is a Good that is not divided by possession it is not confin'd to space nor becomes the worse for using Truth is indivisible wisd 6.12.7.10 infinite eternal immutable and incorruptible Wisdom never fadeth away The Light that cometh from her never goeth out VIII Now this general and immutable Wisdom Prov. 8. this universal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself by which and for which we are made For God created us by his Power that he might unite us to his Wisdom and thereby give us the Honour of entring into an eternal Society with him of conforming our Thoughts and desires to his and by that means of becoming like him as far as a created Being is capable of it Wisd 7.27 28. Wisdom remaining in her self maketh all things new saith the wise Man and in all Ages entring into holy Souls she maketh them Friends of God and Prophets For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom We have no way of access to God no Society with him but by his Son his Word the universal and intellectual Reason which was incarnate in the fulness of time and made visible to enlighten gross and carnal Minds and to lead them by the Senses by Faith and by a sensible Authority to Knowledge and Understanding But still it is Reason still Wisdom Light and Truth For he that rejects the universal Reason rejects the Author of Faith who is that very Reason made sensible and proportion'd to the weakness of Men who now hear only by their Senses Without doubt nothing is more agreeable to Reason than that which Faith teaches us The more we think on it the more we are convinc'd provided that Faith conduct all the steps of the Mind and the Imagination do not cross it in its way and by vain Chimeras or humane Thoughts dispel the Light which Faith diffuses in us IX Now to find out our Duties toward God as he is Wisdom or the universal Reason of intelligent Beings it is not sufficient to be throughly convinc'd of the union of the Soul with God but we must also carefully examine the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body For we are so situated between God and Bodies that as the union between the Soul and Body is augmented and strengthned so the union of the Soul with God is weakened and diminish'd and on the contrary the less the Body acts on the Soul the more the Soul is at liberty to consult the inward Truth I shall not here set down the particular Laws of the union of the Soul and Body they may be learnt elsewhere But we must remember in general that our Senses cause our Soul to extend it self to our own Body and make it attentive to the necessities thereof and that our Imagination and Passions stretch to all those that are about us That the Body never speaks to the Soul but for the Body and that it insolently draws us away from the Presence of our inward Master who never speaks to us but for the good or perfection of our Being In a Word that our union with Reason is now so weak and tender that the least Sensation which strikes us breaks it intirely tho' we endeavour never so much to retire into our selves and to retain our Ideas which scatter and disappear X. The Judgments which we ought to form in honour of the universal Reason are these 1. There are not more Wisdoms or more Reasons than one 2. No Man is Wisdom and Light to himself or any other nor one
we are capable of VIII For we must observe that in the condition we are now in our Happiness and our Perfection often clash and we cannot avoid engaging on one side or the other either we must Sacrifice our Perfection to our Happiness or our Happiness to our Perfection the Love of Order to our Pleasure or our Pleasure to the Love of Order Now when we Sacrifice our Happiness to our Perfection or our Pleasure to the Love of Order we Merit for then we obey the Divine Law though we suffer by it and thereby we give Honour to the Wisdom of God or the universal Reason we leave that to God which depends wholly on him our Happiness and by that Submission we give Honour to his Power For Obedience to the Divine Law is partly in our own Power but the enjoyment of Happiness no way depends on us Therefore we should give up our Happiness to the disposal of God and to apply our selves wholly to our Perfection giving this honour also to God to believe him on his Word to rely on his Justice and Goodness and to live contented by Faith in the Strength of our Hope according to those words of the Scripture Heb. 10.38 Justus 〈…〉 Virg Lat. The just shall live by Faith God is certainly just and faithfull he will give us all the Happiness we deserve our Patience shall not be Fruitless But how great soever our Desire be and our Application in the Search of our Happiness yet this will not move God to give us the Enjoyment of it without we deserve it This excessive Desire will perhaps one day render us unworthy of it according to those admirable Words of our Saviour himself Mat. 16 24. If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whoever will save his †Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then shall he reward every Man according to his Works IX Now this contrariety which we find at present between our Happiness and our Perfection proceeds from the Union of the Soul and Body which is chang'd into a Dependance as a Punishment of Sin For the involuntary Motions of the Fibres of the principal part of the Brain are the occasional Causes of our pleasant or painful Sensations and consequently of our Happiness or Misery The Body to which we are join'd hath not the same Interests with Reason It hath its particular Wants to be supplied it makes its Demands with boldness and insolence and treats the Soul roughly if it refuses to grant them Whereas Reason uses only Threatnings and Reproaches which are not so lively and pressing as actual Pleasure and Pain We must therefore bravely resolve to be miserable in this Life that we may retain our Perfection and Integrity we must Sacrifice our Body or rather our actual Happiness that we may remain inseparably united to Reason and obedient to the Divine Law being contented with a foretaste of the true Enjoyments and having a firm hope that that Divine Law that Reason which was made Flesh sacrificed and glorified in our Nature or our Nature in that will certainly restore to us all that we have lost for our Obedience to it X. This clear perception that our Will or the natural and necessary Motion of our Love is only a continual Impression of the Love of God who unites us to his Power to make us conformable to his Wisdom or obedient to his Law obliges us to form these Judgments 1. That every Motion of Love which doth not tend toward God is prejudicial and leads to Evil or makes the Cause of our Good to be the Cause of our Evil. 2. That every Motion of Love not conformable to the immutable Order which is the inviolable Law both of the Creatures and of the Creatour himself is irregular and since God is Just that Motion obliges him to become our Evil or the Cause of our Misery 3. That we cannot unite our selves to God as our Good if we do not conform our selves to him as our Law The Converse of this is also true we cannot conform our selves to the Law of God and by that conformity become Perfect but we must also unite our selves to his Power and by that Union be made Happy XI This Truth may be also express'd thus according to the Analogy of Faith We have no way of access to God no society with him no share in his Happiness but by the universal Reason the eternal Wisdom the divine Word who was made Flesh because Man was become Carnal by his Flesh was made a Sacrifice because Man was become a Sinner and by the offering up of his Sacrifice was made a Mediatour because Man being corrupted and no longer able to consult or obey Reason purely intellectual it could not be the Bond of the Society between God and Him But yet we must take particular notice That Reason by becoming incarnate did not at all change its Nature nor lose any thing of its Power It is immutable and necessarily exists it is the only inviolable Law of spiritual Beings and hath the sole Right to command them Faith is not contrary to Truth it leads us to Truth and by it establishes ur Society with God for ever We must conform our selves to the Word made Flesh because the intellectual Word the Word without Flesh is a Form too abstracted too sublime and too pure to fashion or new-mould gross Spirits and corrupt Hearts Spirits that can take hold of nothing but what hath a Body and are disgusted at every thing that doth not touch and sensibly affect them Every High Priest is ordain'd to offer Gifts and Sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that the Man have somewhat also to offer Heb. 8.3 The Word was made a Sacrifice because without a Sacrifice he had nothing to offer he could not be a Priest nor give Sinners any Communion with God without an Atonement and an Oblation We must be conformable to him in this Circumstance also for besides that it is we who are the Criminals we are also a part of the Sacrifice which must be purified consecrated and offer'd up before it can be glorified and consummated in God to all Eternity But the life of Christ is our Pattern only because it was conformable to Order our indispensable Pattern and our inviolable Law We must follow Christ even to the Cross because Order requires that this Body of Sin should be destroy'd for the Honour of Reason and the Glory of him from whom it separates us Order requires that by voluntary Pain of which the Body is the occasion we should deserve
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
the search of Truth what the Liberty of the Mind is to the Possession of the same Truth or at least to Infallibility or exemption from Error For by the use we make of the Strength of our Mind we discover Truth and by using the Liberty of our Mind we avoid Error The Strength and Capacity of the Mind being deficient Liberty was necessary for it that by suspending its Assent it might avoid Error and that the Author of its Being might not also be the Author of its Disorders For the Liberty of the Mind makes amends for its Weakness and Limitation and he that hath so much Liberty as to be always able to suspend his Assent tho' he cannot deliver himself from Ignorance a necessary Imperfection of all finite Spirits may yet avoid Error and Sin which render a Man contemptible and make him liable to Punishment IV. It is certain that if we always made use of our Liberty as far as we are able we should never assent but to Evidence which alone doth never deceive as I have prov'd elsewhere and which also obliges the Will to give its Assent For when the Mind sees clearly it cannot doubt that it sees when it hath examin'd every thing that there is to examine in order to the discovery of those Relations or Truths which it searches after it is necessary that it should rest there and give over its Enquiries In the same manner as to Sin he that loves nothing but what he evidently knows to be the true Good nothing but what he cannot help loving is not irregular in his Love He loves nothing but God for there is nothing else which we cannot without Remorse hinder our selves from loving There is nothing but God which we clearly and evidently know to be really Good to be the true Cause of Happiness a Being infinitely Perfect an Object capable of contenting the Soul which being made for the enjoyment of all Good may suspend its Assent of loving that which doth not contain every thing that is Good V. Strength and Liberty of Mind then are two Vertues which we may call General or to use the common Term Cardinal Vertues For since we ought never to Love any thing not do any Action without good Consideration we must make use of the Strength and Liberty of our Mind every moment These Vertues according to my Notion of them are not natural Faculties common to all Men There is nothing more rare nor is there any Man who possesses them perfectly I know well enough that Man is naturally capable of some Labour of Mind but that doth not make him have a strong Mind He can also suspend his Assent but his Mind is not therefore naturally free in such a manner as I mean The Strength and Liberty of Mind of which I speak are Vertues which are gotten by use But because these Vertues add Perfection to the Soul and restore it in some measure to its original State for before Sin the Mind was every way strong and free Men do not generally look upon them as Vertues For they imagine that Vertue instead of correcting and repairing Nature ought to change or destroy it Nay there are some People who think that Strength and Liberty of Mind are Faculties of the Soul subsisting in a kind of individual and judging of others by themselves they imagine that it is impossible to be attentive to those Subjects which frighten and discourage them and that it is Obstinacy not to Assent to Probabilities by which they are deceiv'd VI. But the Strength and Liberty of the Mind are unequal in all Men. There are no two Persons equally fit to retire into themselves nor equally capable of suspending their Assent Nay the same Person doth not long preserve the Strength and Liberty of his Mind in the same Condition If they do not encrease by Use and Exercise they must necessarily decrease for there are no Vertues more oppos'd by and more contrary to the continual Motions of Concupiscence Most Vertues agree well enough with Self-love for we may often perform a great many Duties with Pleasure and by a motive of Self-love But we cannot meditate long without Pain and much less suspend our Assent or the Judgment which determines the Motions of the Soul and Body When any Good discovers it self to the Soul and attracts it by its Charms it is not at ease if it remains unmov'd for there is no harder Labour than to keep our selves firm and steady in a Current when-ever we cease to act we are carried away with the Stream VII Thus we see there is scarce any Man that applies himself to Meditation and that those who undertake the search of Truth often want Strength and Courage to bring them to the place of its Habitation tir'd and dishearten'd they strive to content themselves with what they already possess or perhaps comfort themselves with a ridiculous contempt of what they cannot attain to or a cowardly and mean spirited Despair If they are deceiv'd they turn Deceivers if they are tir'd themselves they infect others with Sloth and Idleness and but to see them is enough to make one like themselves discourag'd with Labour and out of relish with Truth For such is the Nature of Men that they had much rather deceive one another than consult their common Master they are so credulous in respect of their Friends and so unbelieving or so little attentive to the Answers of the Truth within them that Opinion and Party are the general Rule of their Thoughts and Actions VIII In order to gain some Liberty of Mind and to accustom our selves to suspend our Assent we must continually reflect on the prejudices or pre-occupations of our Minds and the cause of them We fancy we comprehend things very well when we cease to admire them and their familiarity ridding us of all apprehension our Mind readily gives its assent because it hath no interest to with-hold it It signifies nothing to suspend our Assent if we have no design to examine for what matter is it if we do fall into Error But it is great and agreeable to judge of every Thing Now we cannot examine without Pain at least we must spend some time in Examination which the Soul created to be happy thinks lost when it is not kept in motion by Pleasure Vanity or Interest Hence it is that the ordinary Language is nothing but perpetual Jargon For every Man thinks he understands very well what he says himself or hears another say when he hath said it or heard it said a great many times over They are only new Terms which cause uneasiness and awaken the Attention and these new Terms tho' never so clear and free from equivocal Significations are always suspected because every one is capable of Suspicion and Apprehension but there are few People capable of Attention sufficient to discover Truth and free themselves from Apprehension I could fill whole Volumes with Examples of expressions which are
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
said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye do remit they are remitted unto them c. From whence it is manifest first that the Apostles and consequently Priests have power to forgive Sins this I think cannot be denied Secondly that this Sacrament as also all those of the New Testament tho' for other Reasons than these which I here make use of do confer justifying Charity or an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order For God doth not judge of a Man by that which he knows to be transient and actual in him but by fix'd and permanent Dispositions Therefore an actual love of Order doth not justify but only an habitual Love For God who inviolably loves Order cannot love a Heart that is irregular and more dispos'd toward evil than toward good Now the Priest hath power to forgive Sins Therefore he hath power to render a Sinner acceptable to God His Absolution then changes the Act into a Habit and a permanent Disposition For the Priest cannot judge of the state of the Penitent but only of his actual Resolution He cannot judge of the Penitent but only by the declaration which the Penitent himself makes to him and the Penitent himself cannot tell whether the love which he hath for Order be habitual or not For a Man cannot judge of himself but by the inward sense he hath of himself and this sense represents to him only the acts which he actually perceives and not the Habits if they be not form'd in him XI From hence it is evident that it is a pernicious Error to believe that the Absolution of the Priest delivers the Penitent only from the eternal Punishment due to Sin For the Priest having no way to be morally assur'd that a Penitent is justified in the sight of God could never give Absolution but at a venture if the Sacrament did not change the Act or the actual resolution of which we have an inward sense into an habitual Disposition which is not perceiv'd And besides how could this be a power of forgiving Sins to leave the Sinner in the Death of Sin and to do good only to the Righteous It is certain then that there is in Jesus Christ a permanent and efficacious desire in consequence of the power which God hath given him by making him the occasional cause of Grace that the state of the Penitent is chang'd by the absolution of the Priest and that he is deliver'd from the guilt of Sin as well as from the eternal Punishment which is due to it XII Certainly if we compare God's two Covenants with Men together to discover their several relations the Blessings promis'd by the Law with those which Christ hath merited for us and of which he is the dispenser we shall see plainly that as the Author of the Law gave a Right by his promises to temporal Goods so Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant must also give a Right to real and eternal Goods And therefore our Sacraments must operate in those who receive them Grace or justifying Charity which alone gives a Right to these true Goods For it is certain that God who loves Order cannot give Heaven to those who are more dispos'd to Evil than to Good and are actually in Disorder After all the Council of Trent hath determin'd the same thing which I here assert Sess 7. Can. 8 Sess 14. Chap 4. Cap. 5. It is an Article of our Faith that the Sacraments of the New Testament operate Grace or justifying Charity and that the Sinner who comes to the Sacrament of Penance by the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in him a motion which doth not justify for the Holy Ghost doth not yet dwell in him as the Council declares and for those reasons which I have set down that the Sinner I say truly receives the habitual Charity of Justification by the efficacy of the Sacrament which the Saviour of Sinners hath instituted to deliver them from the captivity of Sin XIII So then it is evident that the Sinner who is made contrite by any motive whatsoever for it matters not what it is when he feels himself touch'd with Repentance and hath obtain'd by his Prayers or otherwise sufficient strength to form the generous resolution of sinning no more or of renouncing his predominant Passion ought speedily to have recourse to Penance that so he may receive by this Sacrament that which in all probability he could never obtain by the ordinary way of Prayer XIV I know very well that many People condemn the fear of Hell as a motive of Self-love which can never produce any Good Notwithstanding I have made use of it as being the most lively and the most common Motive to excite us to do those things which may contribute to our Justification I know that they reject this motive as useless and on the contrary approve only of the hope of an eternal Reward as a holy and reasonable Motive by which most good Men are animated to Vertue according to those Words of David who was always so full of Fervour and Charity I have enclin'd my Heart to perform thy Statutes alway †Psal 119.112 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. propter retribuionem Vulg. Lat. because of the Reward Notwithstanding to desire to be Happy or to desire not to be Miserable is the same thing there is nothing more easy to be conceiv'd than this The fear of Pain and the desire of Pleasure are both of them but motions of Self-love Now Self-love in it self is not Evil. God continually produces it in us He irresistibly enclines us to Good and by the same Motion irresistibly diverts us from Evil. We cannot hinder our selves from desiring to be Happy and consequently from desiring not to be Miserable So then the fear of Hell and the hope of Heaven are two Motives equally Good Only that of Fear hath this advantage over the other that it is more lively strong and efficacious because generally supposing all other things equal we fear Pain more than we desire Pleasure Of this every Man may consult himself Nor let any one say that the eternal Reward comprehends in it the vision of God and therefore the hope of Reward is a good Motive For the same Reason will serve for Fear Hell excludes the Vision of God and the fear of not enjoying God is the same thing with the desire or hope of enjoying him So that if we compare Pleasure with Pain the loss of God with the enjoyment of him fear is as good a Motive as desire or hope But besides it hath this advantage that it is proper to awaken the most drowsy and stupid and for this reason it is that the Scripture and the Fathers make use of this * By Motive I understand that which excites in the Soul any actual motion of that kind of Love which I call'd befor love of Union Motive upon all occasions For after all it is not properly the
the Soul which should never be determin'd by confus'd Sensations they ought to be guided by Reason and not by Instinct It is indifferent to the Body whether the Soul loves Bread or not If we Eat it without loving it the Body will nevertheless be nourish'd by it and if we love it without eating it the Body will be never the stronger but the Soul will thereby be corrupted and disorder'd For every motion of the Soul which instead of tending towards him who continually imprints this Motion on it that it may love him alone tends toward Bodies dead inferiour and impotent Substances is blind irregular and sensual These are not abstracted Chimeras but necessary Truths immutable Laws and indispensable Obligations XII But what Can we unite our selves to Bodies without loving them Can we fly from our Enemy without fearing him Yes without doubt we may For I speak principally of free and voluntary Motions which certainly we may hinder from following the natural Motions But supposing we could not What then must we conclude from thence but that the Heart of Man is so Corrupted that his Disease is incurable and that he cannot make use of his Senses without inflaming and renewing his Wounds and consequently that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary thing in the World in that condition to which Man is reduc'd For after all can it be doubted that God acts only for himself that he imprints no motion on the Soul but for himself alone that all love of corporeal Objects is Vitious and Irregular in a Word that we are indispensably oblig'd to love God with all our Heart with all our Soul and with all our Strength XIII When the Soul is penetrated with the presence of God and beholds him Working continually in the Objects which strike the Senses when the Mind is actually convinc'd of the impotence of the Creatures in general and applies it self to govern the Heart according to the Light it hath receiv'd without doubt it may at that instant unite it self to Bodies or separate it self from them without loving or fearing them Indeed this time of Reflection cannot last long The Mind is soon tir'd with attention to its Duty and when the Senses come to be touc'h with any Object that pleases them the Soul being struck with the first appearance of Good and contented with it constantly follows by its own Motion that of the Humours and Blood All Pleasure excites and determines the natural motion of the Soul and because Man would always be happy the free motion of the Will readily conforms it self to the natural Motion which is excited by the Senses We must resist if we would not follow that Motion But we are soon tir'd with resisting we lose our beloved ease and become Miserable when we cease to follow the attraction of Pleasure which makes us happy XIV It is better to get out of a Stream which carries us away with it if we cease but one Moment to strive against it than to remain there in continual action at least this is the surest way It is better to break off as far as we can the correspondence which we maintain by the Senses with sensible Objects than to expose our selves to innumerable Dangers by relying on our own Strength which is vain and deceitful The Imagination may magnify it the Pride of Man may defend it but Experience overthrows it Faith condemns it and makes it weak and despicable At least let us take the safest course The thing in question is Eternity the dreadful alternative of the Felicity of the Saints or the punishments of the Devils for infinite Ages We may successfully stop the Passages by which this dangerous Correspondence between the Senses and false Goods is maintain'd The motion of our Hands and Feet is subject to our Will It is in our own Power to bend our Eyes downward to turn our Head and Fly Thus we may avoid the Blow level'd at us by a murtherous Object But if we stand to receive it it wounds the Brain it defiles the Imagination it penetrates and corrupts the Heart Whatever effects the force of that Blow produces in the Brain and in the Nerves which excite the Passions they are in no wise subject to our Will So that we may without much difficulty prevent the Mischief by the mortification of our Senses but we cannot cure it without infinite Conflicts How happy should we be if we would learn so much Wisdom by costly Experience as to hinder it from spreading and throwing us headlong into Hell XV. Let us endeavour then to convince our selves throughly that our Senses are false Witnesses which constantly give their Testimony against us in favour of our Passions That if we are permitted to hearken to them for the good of the Body nothing is more dangerous than to consult them for the good of the Soul That if it be very ridiculous to go to prove by Reason that Gold for instance or precious Stones are not proper for Nourishment it is also contrary to Order and good Sense to examine by the Tast whether Wine be an Object worthy of our Love and Application That the motions of the Soul should be govern'd by Light and the motions and position of the Body by Pleasure and Instinct That Light never deceives and that it leaves the Mind at liberty without driving it forcibly toward the Good which it presents that so the Mind may love it with Freedom and Reason that Pleasure on the contrary is always deceitful that it takes away or abridges the liberty of the Mind and carries it naturally not toward God the true Author of that Pleasure but toward the sensible Object which seems to be the cause of it Let us remember these Principles and draw this consequence from them that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary exercise for him that designs to live by Reason to follow Order to labour for Perfection and to secure to himself a solid Happiness and an eternal Felicity XVI Having prov'd at large in the first Book of the Search of Truth that our Senses generally speaking deceive us in every thing I think I need not insist any longer on demonstrating what I have here laid down I rather fear that those who have read and consider'd my other Writings will find Fault with me for repeating the same things over and over But this Treatise being design'd for all sorts of People it could not be avoided For all these Truths have a connexion and relation to one another We must know the Nature of Man and his Diseases at least in some measure before we can comprehend the Remedies of them and understand Morality by Principles If I should lay down as known all those Truths which I have elsewhere prov'd every Reader would not understand what I meant by them many perhaps would be afraid of them as dangerous and this Book would in all probability have the same Fate with the
unfortunate Treatise of Nature and Grace which tho' it were written only for those who had a distinct conception of the Truths which I had before sufficiently explain'd as I then declar'd underwent so furious a Censure that those very Heresies were charg'd upon me which I had there overthrown in their first Principles CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves I. THo' the Senses are the first original of our Disorders or the foundation of that union of the Soul and Body which now separates the Soul from God yet it is not sufficient to regulate the use of them that Grace may operate in us with its full Strength but we must also silence our Imagination and Passions The Imagination doth depend indeed on the Senses as well as the Passions but it hath its particular Malignity When it is stir'd up by the Senses it produces of it self extraordinary effects And many times tho' the Senses do not actually move it it acts by its own Strength Nay sometimes it disturbs all the Ideas of the Soul by the Phantoms which it produces and enrages the Passions by the violence of the Motions which it excites But for fear lest some Persons may not clearly comprehend these Truths I must give a more distinct explication of them II. This Term Imagination is very much us'd in the World But yet I can hardly believe that all those who pronounce the Word distinctly joyn a distinct Idea to it I have said already and say again for there is no harm in reflecting on it more than once that the commonest Words are the most confus'd and that Men's ordinary Discourse is many times nothing but an empty sound of Words without Sense which they hear and repeat like Echo's If a Conversation doth but entertain them agreably and serves them to communicate their Affections and to create a mutual esteem of one another they are satisfied with it They make the same use of Words as they do of a Man's Air and outward Behaviour They unite themselves to one another by the Senses and Passions and many times Reason hath no other share in the Society than to promote their unjust Designs For Truth is of no use in this World Those that employ themselves in the search of it are Enthusiasts singular and dangerous Persons who must be shun'd like an infectious Air. Thus Words whose chief use should be to represent the pure Ideas of the Mind generally serve only to express Ideas of Sense and those motions of the Soul which are but too apt to communicate themselves by the outward demeanour the Air of the Face the Tone of the Voice and the Posture and Motion of the Body III. Imagination is one of those Terms which Use hath made current without clearing the signification of it For common Use explains only those Words that excite sensible Ideas Those by which it expresses pure and intellectual Ideas are all of them either equivocal or confus'd Thus the Imagination not being sensible but only by its Effects and the nature of it being hard to understand every one makes use of the same Word without having the same Idea nay perhaps many People have no Idea of it at all IV. The Imagination may be consider'd in a twofold respect either as to the Body or as to the Soul In relation to the Body it consists of a Brain capable of Impressions and of animal Spirits fit to make these Impressions We may conceive the animal Spirits to be whatever we will Fancy them provided we understand them to be Bodies which by their motion are capable of acting in the substance of the principal part of the Brain In relation to the Soul the Imagination consists of Images that answer to the Impressions and of Attention capable of forming these Images or sensible Ideas For it is our Attention which as the occasional cause determines the course of the Spirits whereby the Impressions are form'd to which Impressions the Ideas are annex'd And all this in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body V. These Images or Impressions which are form'd as well by the strength of the Imagination as by the action of Objects dispose the Brain the Store-house of the Spirits in such a manner that the course of these Spirits is determin'd toward certain Nerves some of which run to the Heart and other Viscera and cause there Fermentation or Refrigeration or in short produce different Motions according to the quality of the Object which is present to the Senses or the Imagination The rest of the Nerves answer to the external Parts and by them the Body is plac'd in such a Position and dispos'd to such a motion as the present Object requires VI. The course of the animal Spirits toward those Nerves which answer to the internal parts of the Body is accompanied with Passions on the part of the Soul Which Passions arising originally from the action of the Imagination do by the great abundance of Spirits which they send up to the Head fortify the Impression and Image of the Object which produc'd them For the Passions excite support and strengthen the Attention the occasional cause of that course of the Spirits whereby the Impression of the Brain is form'd which Impression determines another course of the Spirits toward the Heart and other parts of the Body to keep up the same Passions all this proceeds also from the admirable constitution of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body This is sufficient to give a slight Idea of the Imagination and of the relation it hath to the Passions I have handled this matter more at large in another place But this I think is sufficient to make attentive Readers understand in some measure what I mean by Imagination in general VII In particular by a defil'd and corrupt Imagination I understand a Brain which hath receiv'd some Impressions so deep as to carry the Soul and thereby the Body to Objects unworthy of and unbecoming the dignity of Man's Nature and by purity of Imagination I mean a sound and entire Brain without any of those vitious Impressions which corrupt the Mind and Heart By a weak and tender Imagination I mean a Brain whose principal part on which the course of the Spirits depends is easy to be penetrated and shaken By a nice and curious Imagination I understand a Brain whose Fibres are of so fine and curious a Texture that they receive and preserve the least Impressions made between them by the course of the Spirits By a strong and lively Imagination I mean that the animal Spirits which form the Impressions are too much agitated in
For the fuller the Brain is of Spirits the more rebellious the Imagination is the Passions are the more violent the Body speaks in a higher Tone which never speaks but in favour of the Body to unite and subject the Soul to the Body and to separate it from him who alone is able to give it that perfection it is capable of We should therefore endeavour to silence our own Imagination and be upon our guard against those that please and excite it We should as much as is possible avoid the Conversation of the World For when the Lust either of Pride or Pleasure is actually provok'd Grace cannot operate in us with its full efficacy XXII Man is subject to Two sorts of Concupiscence one of Pleasure and the other of Grandeur This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of When a Man enjoys sensual Pleasures his Imagination is polluted and carnal Concupiscence exerts and fortifies it self In like manner when he goes abroad into the World and seeks to advance himself in it when he procures Friends and gains Reputation the Idea which he hath of himself stretches and grows larger in his Imagination and the concupiscence of Pride gains new and greater Strength There are some impressions in the Brain naturally form'd for maintaining civil Society and advancing a Man 's private Fortune as there are others relating to the preservation of his Life and the propagation of his Species We are united to other Men by a thousand Relations as really as we are to our own Body and every union with the Creatures disunites us from God in the State we are now in because the impressions of the Brain are not subject to our Wills XXIII All Men are well enough convinc'd of the pravity of carnal Concupiscence they have some fear and abhorrence of it and in some measure avoid every thing that may provoke it But there are very few that seriously reflect on the concupiscence of Pride or apprehend the danger of raising and augmenting it Every one rashly throws himself into the Conversation of the World and embarks without fear on that tempestuous Sea as S. Augustine calls it We suffer our selves to be govern'd by the Spirit that reigns in the World we aspire to Greatness and pursue Honour For indeed how is it possible to remain unmov'd in the mid'st of that Torrent of People that surrounds us who insult and domineer over us if they leave us behind them In fine we get a Name but it is such a Name as makes a Man the more a Slave the more Pains he hath taken to deserve it a Name which straitly unites us to the Creatures and separates us from the Creator a Name illustrious in the esteem of Men but a Name of Pride which God will destroy CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. I. THE Senses Imagination and Passions go always in company together We cannot examine and condemn them apart That which I have said of the Senses and Imagination naturally reaches the Passions also So that the Reader may easily judge what I am going to say by what I have already said For I shall only explain a little more at large what I have been already oblig'd to say in part by reason of the close union that is between all the parts of our Being II. By the Passions I do not mean the Senses which produce them nor the Imagination which excites and keeps them up But I mean those notions of the Soul and animal Spirits which are caus'd by the Senses and Imagination and act reciprocally on the cause which produc'd them For all this is nothing but a continual circulation of Sensations and Motions which mutually produce and fortify one another If the Senses produce the Passions the Passions in return by the Motion which they excite in the Body unite the Senses to sensible Objects If the Imagination stirs up the Passions the Passions by a Counter-motion of the Spirits raise the Imagination and each of them is reciprocally supported or produc'd anew by the effect of which it is the Cause so admirable is the oeconomy of Man's Body and the mutual Relation of all the parts which compose it But this matter deserves a fuller Explication in respect of the Consequences which we should draw from it III. The Passions are Motions of the Soul which accompany that of the Spirits and the Blood and produce in the Body by the mechanical Frame and Constitution of it all the dispositions necessary to support and keep up the Cause from whence they arise At the sight of any Object which moves the Soul we will suppose that Object to be some Good the animal Spirits which come from the Brain to the other parts of the Body divide themselves into two Branches or Courses One of these Courses runs or hath a tendency to run to the external parts the Legs and Arms or if they are unserviceable then to the Lungs and Organs of the Voice in order to dispose us and those that are with us to unite us to the Object The other part of the Spirits goes into the Nerves belonging to the Heart Lungs Liver and other Viscera to proportion the Fermentation and Course of the Blood and Humours to the quality of the present Good By this means the Impression which the presence of any Good or the Imagination forms in the Brain and which determines the two Courses of the Spirits is preserv'd and maintain'd by new Spirits with which the latter Course endeavours to supply the Brain by the repeated and violent Shocks wherewith it shakes the Nerves that encompass the Vessels containing the Humours and Blood the Matter of which the Spirits are continually made IV. The Nerves which are distributed into the Limbs being full of Spirits from their origine in the Brain even to their extremities and the Impression of the Object forcibly driving the Spirits into all the parts of the Body to give them a violent and extraordinary Motion or put them into a forc'd Position the Blood must of necessity ascend up to the Head speedily and in great abundance by the Action of the Nerves which surround and compress or dilate the Vessels wherein it is contain'd For if the Brain did not send a sufficient quantity of Spirits into the Members of the Body we could not long preserve the Air Posture and Motion necessary for the acquisition of Good and the avoidance of Evil. Nay we should fall into Swounings and Faintings for this constantly happens when the Brain wants Spirits and when the Communication which it hath by their means with the other parts of the Body is interrupted V. Thus the Body is an admirable Machine compos'd of an infinite number of Pipes and Cisterns which have all innumerable communications with one another The wonderful operation of this Machine depends wholly on the Course of the Spirits which is differently determin'd by the
elastick force of the several Springs and the opening and shutting of the Passages by the Action of Objects on the Senses and the Motion of the principal part of the Brain which Motion depends partly on the Will and partly on the Course of the Spirits excited by the Impressions of the Imagination and Memory VI. But that which I would have chiefly observ'd here is That the Course of the Spirits in the Nerves belonging to the Viscera which drives the Blood up into the Head for the production of Spirits necessary to dispose the outward parts of the Body with relation to the present Object acts with choice and furnishes the Brain only with such Humours as are proper for the preservation of that Impression by which the Passion is excited or which comes all to one the Blood and Humours which ascend up to the Head divide themselves in such a manner that so much of them as is fit for the production of Spirits agreable to the prevailing Passion remains there and the rest returns by the circulation to the places from whence it came These Spirits being made are presently determin'd toward the Impression which is the original Cause of all these Motions to preserve it and also to revive all the accessory Impressions which may any way fortify and confirm it From those Impressions both the Principal one and the Accessories the new Spirits do also receive their direction and are divided as the first were into two Branches one for the outward and the other for the inward parts of the Body For as long as the Passion lasts this admirable Circulation of the Spirits and Blood is continually made which sets the Machine a going according as the present Object requires with a wonderful Regularity and Order VII From hence it appears that the Passions which are most wisely ordain'd with relation to their proper end namely the preservation of Health and Life the conjunction of Man and Woman Society Commerce and the acquisition of sensible Goods are extremely opposite to the acquisition of the true and spiritual Goods the Goods due to Vertue and Merit VIII For 1. The Passions are not subject to our Wills Nothing is more difficult than to govern them because we have lost that Power by Sin which otherwise we should have had over our Bodies 2. They are so contrary to Vertue and Merit that a Man must sacrifice and destroy them if he would deserve the Name and Reward of a truly vertuous Man or a perfect Christian 3. Every Motion which they naturally excite in the Soul is only for the good of the Body according to this Maxim That whatever happens to the Soul by the Body is only for the Body 4. When they are rais'd they take up the whole content of the Mind and Heart The impressions and agitation of the Brain which they fortify by the Contributions they draw from the Intestines and send up speedily and abundantly into the Head disturb all our Ideas and the Shock and Motion they give the Will by that lively and agreeable Sensation which accompanies them corrupts our Hearts and throws us into innumerable disorders But 5. when their Agitation is ceas'd yet the Imagination remains polluted by the Impressions which they have made on the Brain whose Fibres have been bent or broken by the violence of the Spirits which they have put in Motion These Impressions often dissipate the attention of the Mind and generally revive the same Passions which produc'd them when the Blood is impregnated again with Particles fit to raise such a Fermentation as may produce abundance of Spirits agreeable to the nature of those Passions 6. The Passions by their rapid Course make a smooth and easy way for themselves into the Nerves which go to the Heart and other inward parts of the Body and there excite such Motions as are proper to revive them again so that the least thing that shakes the Brain is capable of renewing them 7. Lastly all the Passions justify themselves in such a manner that it is not possible at the time that they agitate the Mind to make a solid and impartial Judgment of the Objects which excite them for such is their malignant quality that they are not satisfied if Reason too doth not give Judgment in favour of them IX For I. They confirm the Judgment of the Senses tho' they are so far from being competent Judges in the Eye of Reason that they are false Witnesses II. They shew only the wrong side of Objects and always represent them in that deceitful Shape which suits best with their Interest III. They revive all those Impressions and accessory Ideas which side with them and suppress all the rest IV. They cover their irregular Proceedings and vitious Designs with the specious appearances of Reason Justice and Vertue The covetous Man for instance conceals from himself the Shamefulness Injustice and Cruelty of his Avarice He disguises his Passion with notions of Temperance Moderation Prudence Penance or it may be of Charity Liberality and Magnificence by forming imaginary Designs which he will never put in execution for the Passions are cunning enough to make even the Vertues opposite to them serve for their Justification V. Lastly the Passions are always accompanied with a certain pleasant Sensation which bribes their Judge and if he favours them pays him to his content whereas if he condemns them they handle him very cruelly For what Present can be offer'd more grateful and charming to one that irresistibly desires to be happy than Pleasure when it is actual Pleasure that gives actual Happiness And what Treatment can be more rough than that which the Soul receives from the Passions when it would Sacrifice them to the Love of Order We cannot strike them without wounding our selves for when they are upon their Guard the blow which we aim at them if it takes away their Life only for a little while recoils back upon our selves and mortally Wounds us or rather reduces us to such a condition as often seems worse than Death it self X. So then it is evident that those who are so far from moderating their Passions that they do all they can to gratify them who live by Humour and act by Inclination and judge of every thing by Fancy in a word those who follow all the motions of the Machine and suffer themselves to be led without knowing who it is that leads them or whither they go are continually departing from their true good and by degrees lose sight of it quite they blot out the very Remembrance of it and blindly run head-long into the Abyss where all Evils dwell and the eternal Privation of all Good XI It is true indeed that sometimes Grace is strong enough to stop in his full career one that abandons himself to the motions of his Passions and that God in goodness speaks to the Soul in Thunder and Lightning and with a terrible Voice which overthrows the Man and the Passion that
do not first rid them of a great many false Maxims such as these for instance That if God concern'd himself with our Affairs the World would not go as it doth that Injustice would never be advanc'd to the Throne and that Bodies would not be rang'd so irregularly as they are that so deform'd and mishapen a World as this is can be nothing but the work of a blind and unintelligent Nature and that God doth not require of us vile Creatures Honours unbecoming his Nature that that which appears right and just to us is not so in it self or in the sight of God who if it were would often Punish those that he ought to Reward for many times we meet with the greatest Misfortunes when we are doing the best Actions I have elsewhere confuted these Principles and if the Reader doth not clearly comprehend what I am going to say he may read the first Eight of my Christian Meditations V. Wherefore that we may discover the Foundation and Original of our Duties it is not sufficient to consider the infinitely perfect Being without the relation it bears to us On the contrary we must above all things take notice that we depend on the Power of God that we are united to his Wisdom and that we have no Motion but from his Spirit from the Love which he bears to himself We depend on the Power of God for we have our Existence from that alone we act by that alone and can do nothing but by that We are united to the Wisdom of God for by that alone we are enlightned in that alone we discover Truth we are rational only by that for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Beings Lastly we have no Motion but from the Spirit of God for as God acts only by his own Will or by the Love which he bears to himself so all the Love which we have for Good is only an Effusion or Impression of that Love with which God loves himself We love nothing invincibly and naturally but God because we love and can love nothing but Good and Good I mean the cause of Happiness is no where but in God for no Creature can of it self Act on spiritual Substances I must explain these things more at large in order to deduce from them the Rules of our Conduct I begin with Power and the Duties we owe to it VI. Glory and Honour belong only to God 1 Tim. 1.17 All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him alone for in him alone Power resides All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual He alone who gives them their Beings can give them the Modes of their Beings for the different Modes of Beings are nothing but the same Beings in such and such particular Fashions or Dispositions nothing is more evident to one that can sedately and silently consult the inward Truth For what can be plainer than that if God for instance will keep any Body always in one place no Creature can remove it into another and that Man cannot so much as move his Arm but only because God is pleass'd to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth himself It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Beings If God creates or continues a Soul in the Modification of Pain no other Spirit can deliver it from that Pain nor make it feel Pleasure except God gives his Assent I am the Lord that is my Name 〈◊〉 Glory will not give to another Isa 42.8 and co-operates with it in the accomplishment of its desires By this extraordinary Concession and Liberality it is that God without losing any thing of his Power without diminishing his Greatness or lessening his Glory imparts to the Creatures his Glory Greatness and Power VII God hath subjected this present World to the Angels it is they that act and God that doth every thing He hath given to Jesus Christ as Head of the Church a Sovereign Power over all the Nations of the Earth Christ distributes the true Goods but it is God alone who sends them it is he alone that acts in our Souls and penetrates the hardness of our Hearts Christ as he is Man prays intercedes desires and performs the Office of Advocate Mediator and High-Priest But it is God alone that operates he only hath power he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things and ought to be the sole end All the Motions of our Souls should tend towards him and to him alone belong Glory and Honour This is that eternal necessary and inviolable Law which God hath establish'd by the necessity of his own Being by the love which he necessarily bears to himself a Love which is always conformable to Order and makes Order to be the inviolable Law of all spiritual Beings When God ceases to know himself to be what he is and to love himself as much as he deserves to act according to his own Light and by the Motion of his own Love when he ceases to observe this Law then it will be lawful for us to desire Glory our selves or give it to any other beside God then we may without fear delight in and make much of the Friendship of the Creatures we may love and be belov'd give and receive Worship and Adoration we may then shew our selves to the World to attract the Esteem and Love of the World we may exalt and expose our selves to View as Objects fit to employ those Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself we may then employ our selves either about our selves or the imaginary Power of the Creatures VIII There is nothing certainly more agreeable both to Christianity and Reason than this Principle That it is God alone who doth every thing and that he communicates his Power to the Creatures no otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by in such a manner as bears the Character of an infinite Wisdom an immutable Nature and an universal Cause in such a manner that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves is refer'd to the Creator alone when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them execute such Designs as were form'd before their Creation What is more holy than this Principle which clearly shews to such as are capable of rightly understanding it that in many Cases it is lawful for us to approach the Objects of our Senses by the Motion of our Body but that we must reserve all the Motions of our Soul for God alone For we may nay and many times ought to move toward the occasional Cause of our Sensations but we must never leave it We may join our selves to other Men but we must never adore them with the Motion of our Love either as our Good or as capable of procuring us any Good We must love and fear only the true Cause of Good and Evil We must love and fear
none but God in the Creatures Jer. 17.7 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his Arm. IX This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy than that which the Heathens have left us In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was that she makes this Prayer to God and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart Deliver us O Lord with thine hand Esther 14.14 c. and help me that am desolate and which have no other helper but thee Thou knowest all things O Lord thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised and of all the Heathen Thou knowest my necessity for I abhor the sign of my high Estate which is upon mine Head in the days whereon I shew my self and that I wear it not when I am private by my self And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present but in thee O Lord God of Abraham This great Queen takes God to witness That she had no joy but in him alone Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures yet she despises her Greatness and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul Thine Hand-maid never had any joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham What constancy of Mind what greatness of Soul This is it which the Law of God teaches us and this also is demonstrated by that Principle that God alone doth every thing and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendor which seems to environ them and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them But the Duties we owe to Power which is in none but God require a more particular Explication X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgments and Motions of the Soul as I said before For God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind This clear Perception That God alone hath Power obliges us to form the following Judgments 1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being 2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being or of our Time 3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge 4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will 5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations Pleasure Pain Hunger Thirst c. 6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body 7. That neither Men nor Angels nor Devils nor any other Creature can of themselves do us either good or harm That they may nevertheless as Occasional Causes determine God in consequence of certain general Laws to do us good or harm by means of the Body to which we are united 8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength but only oblige God by our practical Desires in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body to do good or harm to other Men For we indeed have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them XI These Judgments require of us the following Motions 1. To love none but God with a Love of Vnion or Conjunction because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness either small or great transitory or durable I say with a Love of Vnion for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good or the Cause of our Happiness but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us The word Love is equivocal and therefore we must take care of it 2. To have no joy but in God alone for he that rejoyces in any other thing judges that that other thing can make him happy which is a false Judgment and can cause only an irregular Motion 3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws to promote Iniquity 4. Not to unite our selves to them without a particular necessity for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve besides the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body fortify Concupiscence disturb the Mind and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance 5. To fear none but God because he alone can Punish us We must fear God in this life to keep us from offending him The happy day will come which excluding Sin shall also banish Fear 6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable He that grieves at the loss of a false Good gives Honour to it and considers it as a true Good And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy afflicts himself in vain Self-love enlightned is griev'd only for its own Disorders and Charity for those of others 7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable yet we must not hate him tho' we may fear him Only he that is harden'd in Sin hates God out of Self-love for being sensible that he will not obey God or knowing as the damn'd do that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with he hath no means of access or return to God the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery 8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery We may separate our selves from them But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God 9. We should will nothing but what God wills because we can do nothing but what God doth If we have not the Power to act it is plain that we should not have the Will to act Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power not only in God but
also in the Creatures Order or the Law of God is common to all spiritual Beings The Power of God is common to all Causes Therefore we cannot dispense with our Obedience to that Law because we cannot act but by the efficacy of that Power 10. We may nevertheless desire to be happy nay we cannot desire to be miserable But we must neither desire nor do any thing to make us happy but what Order allows of We shall never find Happiness if we seek it by the Power of God contrary to his Law It is an abuse of Power to use it against the Will of him that communicates it The voluptuous Man who desires to be happy in this World shall be so perhaps in part in consequence of the Laws of Nature But he shall be eternally miserable in the other in consequence of the immutable Order of Justice or by the necessity of the divine Law which requires that every abuse of divine Things should be eternally punish'd by the divine Power For we should take good notice that nothing is more holy more sacred and more divine than Power And he that attributes it to himself he that makes it subservient to his Pleasures his Pride or his own particular Desires commits a Crime the enormity of which God alone knows and can punish 11. It is an abominable piece of Injustice in any Man to be proud of his Nobility Dignity Quality Learning Riches or any other thing He that glorieth 2 Cor. 10.17 let him glory in the Lord and refer all things to him for there is no Greatness nor Power but in God A Man may set some value on himself and prefer himself before his Horse He may and ought to esteem other Men and all the Creatures God hath really imparted to them his Being But to speak properly and exactly he hath not imparted to them his Power and Glory God doth every thing that we think we do our selves He alone deserves all the Honour which is given to his Creatures He alone deserves all the motions of our Souls So that he who would be belov'd honour'd and fear'd by other Men would put himself in the place of the Almighty and share with him the Duties which belong to Power 12. In like manner he that fears loves and honours the Creatures as real Powers commits a kind of Idolatry and his Crime becomes very hainous when his fear or love runs to that excess that they rule in his Heart above the fear and love of God When he is less dispos'd to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures by a disposition acquir'd by his own choice or by free and voluntary Acts he is an abomination in the sight of God 13. All the time that we lose or do not employ for God who is the sole cause of the duration of our Being is a Robbery or rather a kind of Sacrilege For since God acts for his own Glory and not for our Pleasure we do then as much as in us lies render his Action unserviceable to his Designs 14. In general every Gift that God bestows on us which we render useless in relation to his Glory is a Robbery and God by the necessity of his Law will call us to an account for it 15. Lastly the Power by which God Creates us and all our Faculties every Moment gives him an unquestionable Right over all that we are and over all that belongs to us which certainly belongs to us no otherwise than that we may return it to God with all possible fidelity and thankfulness and by the Gifts of God merit the possession of God himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and Head who takes us out of our prophane state to sanctify us and make us fit to honour God worthy to enter as his adopted Children into the communion of good Things with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit to all eternity CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason I. HAving discover'd the principal Duties which we owe to the Power of God we must next examine those which we owe to his Wisdom which tho' less known are no less due Every Creature depends essentially on the Creator Every spiritual Being is also essentially united to Reason No Creature can act by its own Strength And no spiritual Being can be illuminated by its own Light For all our clear Ideas come from the universal Reason in which they are contain'd as all our Strength proceeds wholly from the efficacy of the general cause which alone hath Power He that fancies himself to be his own Light and his own Reason is no less deceiv'd than he that thinks he really possesses Power And he that gives thanks to his Benefactor for the Fruits of the Earth which serve only to Feed the Body is very ungrateful very proud or at least very stupid if he refuse to acknowledge himself indebted to God for the true and solid Goods the knowledge of Truth which is the Food of the Soul II. The Soul of Man hath two essential Relations It is united to the universal Reason and by that it hath or may have a correspondence with all intelligent Beings even with God himself It is united to a Body and by that it hath or may have a communication with all sensible Objects The Power of God is the sole efficacious Principle or the bond of these two Unions But impotent and stupid Man imagines that it is by the efficacy of his own Will that he is Wise and Powerful that he unites himself to the intellectual World whose Relations he contemplates and to the visible World whose Beauties he admires III. It is God alone who in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body causes in Man all those bodily Motions which carry him to or remove him from sensible Objects But the occasional cause of these Motions being only the different desires of his Will he attributes to himself the Power of doing that which God alone operates in him nay the very endeavour which accompanies his Desires that painful endeavour which is a certain mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless and ineffectual an endeavour which God puts into him to beat down his Pride and make him deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades him that he hath Strength and Efficacy He feels within himself a Will to move his Arm but doth not see nor feel the divine Operation in him and therefore the more exact and punctual God is in answering his Desires the more disingenuous Man is in not acknowledging the favour and goodness of God IV. In like manner it is God alone who in consequence of the natural Laws of the
the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
Mind to the true Power a respect or outward submission to an occasional Cause and a simple esteem of any thing in respect of the excellency of its Nature or the perfection which it doth or may possess IX That kind of Honour which consists in a submission of the Miâ—â— to the true Power is due to God alone 〈…〉 none but God directly and absolutely in the Powers which he hath ordain'd And tho' we are oblig'd exactly to pay to our lawful Superiors those outward honours and submissions which humane Laws and Customs have establish'd yet all the submission of the Soul must be refer'd to God alone It is mean and abject to fear the most excellent of created Beings It is God alone whom we must fear in it Nevertheless we should esteem every thing proporticnably to the excellence of its Nature or the perfection which it possesses or is capable of possessing So that the love of Benevolence respect or relative and outward Submission and simple Esteem are as I take it the Three general Heads to which all the Duties that we owe to Men may be reduc'd X. There is this difference between the Duties which Religion obliges us to pay to God and those which Society requires us to pay to Men that the principal Duties of Religion are inward and spiritual because God searches the Hearts and absolutely speaking hath no need of his Creatures whereas the Duties of Society are almost all external For besides that Men have no other way to know our inward Sentiments of them but by outward and sensible marks they all stand in need of one another either for the preservation of their Life or their particular instruction or innumerable other things which absolutely require a mutual assistance XI Therefore to expect from other Men inward and spiritual Duties which are due to God alone a pure and uncompounded Spirit the searcher of Hearts the only independent and self-sufficient Being is a diabolical Pride this is to affect Dominion over spiritual Substances to attribute to our selves the quality of searcher of Hearts and in a Word to exact that which is no way our due and which is wholly useless to us For what signifies our inward adoration to other Men or what good can theirs do us If they faithfully perform what we desire of them what can we complain of If they respect God himself if they love and fear him in our Person certainly we attribute to our selves power and independence if we are not satisfied with this Servants Col. 3.22 saith S. Paul obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but in singleness of Heart fearing God It is God that they must fear v. 23. And whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto Men to God who hath the power of rewarding and not unto Men whose Wills are of themselves altegether ineffectual v. 24. Knowing as the Apostle goes on that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the Inheritance For ye serve the Lord Christ Ye are bought with a Price 〈…〉 7.23 be not ye the Servants of Men. XII There is so strict an union between the Soul and the Body and such a mutual relation betwixt the Motions of these two Substances that it is very difficult to draw near by the motion of our Body to any Object which is the occasional cause of Pleasure without uniting our selves to it by the motion of our Love as if it were the true cause of that Pleasure So likewise when the Imagination being dazled with the splendour which envirous the Great falls down and prostrates it self before them it is difficult for the Soul not to follow that Motion or at least not to bow and lower it self It should indeed prostrate it self but then it must be before the power of the invisible God which it must honour in the Person of the Prince where that Power visibly resides XIII When the Body feeds on a delicious Fruit the Soul which finds it self in some measure happy by the Pleasure it enjoys should then be affected with Love but that Love should be address'd only to God who alone doth and can act on it But our Senses being grown rebellious by Sin dislurb our Mind they insolently withdraw us from the presence of God and fix all our Thoughts on that impotent matter which we hold in our Hands and crush between our Teeth They make us believe that the Fruit it self contains and communicates that grateful Tast which delights us and because the power of God doth not appear visible to our Eyes we see nothing but the Fruit to which we can attribute the cause of our present Happiness Our Senses were given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being What matter is it then to them from whence the Fruit comes so they have it or from whence the Pleasure proceeds so they enjoy it XIV So likewise when we are in the presence of our Sovereign our Imagination soon dissipates all those abstract Ideas of an invisible Power The divine Law the immutable Order Reason is a Fantom which vanishes and disappears when the Prince Commands or when he speaks with Authority The Majesty of the Prince the sensible splendor of Greatness that Air of respect and awe which every one doth and ought to put on so shake the Brain of an ambitious Man and indeed of most Men whose Passions are then excited that there are but few People who have so much constancy and resolution as to consult the divine Law to think on the power of the invisible God to retire into themselves and to hearken to the Judgments pronounc'd within them by him who presides immediately over all spiritual Beings XV. This strict union of the Soul and Body which Sin hath chang'd into a dependnece is the cause that there is nothing more dangerous than the Conversation and Business of Courts and that a Man ought to have a particular call and strong and extraordinary reasons to make him engage in it The Societies which are generally form'd there are such whose beginning and end is Ambition and Pleasure and being govern'd not by Reason or Faith but by inconsistent and irregular Passions they break every Day and plunge Men in the greatest Miseries Therefore such as have not Courage and Constancy enough to perform their Duties to God in the presence of their Prince in the hurry and perplexity of Business or when they have too many People looking on them in a Word such as suffer themselves to be dazled stunn'd and born down by the Conversation of the World whatever it may be ought to avoid it and to place themselves in a Station where they may without constraint honour and love the true Power conform themselves to the divine Law and render to God the inward and spiritual Duties These are indispensable Duties and certainly we owe nothing to our Neighbour which may hinder us
day happy for him and it may be fatal to you by your irrecoverable fall for a punishment of your Pride VI. Lastly the contempt of Mens Persons is not only injurious and wrongful but it also puts him who is so unwise as to shew it by outward signs out of a condition of having a charitable correspondence with the Person despis'd or of ever being serviceable to him For Men will have no communication with those that despise them they do not naturally enter into Society with others nor do them any good but with hope of a return they will not follow a Trade when they expect always to lose and never to get any thing by it and they never expect any good from those that are so unjust as to despise them For contempt is a certain sign not only that they actually want Charity and Benevolence but also that they are very far from ever having any VII As to our Enemies and Persecutors it is certain that Esteem is a Duty more general than Benevolence There are some Goods which we are not bound to wish our Enemies for the Love which we owe to our selves obliges or permits us at least not to desire that they may have the Power to hurt us So that we may in some measure want Benevolence for our Persecutors without failing of our Duties toward them But the Persecution of our Enemies ought not of it self to diminish the Esteem that is due to them but rather encrease it in this respect that we should give them more sensible and more frequent Testimonies of it A Man may pass by his Friend or even his Father without saluting him this is no affront to them But it is an injury to his Enemy not to pay him this Duty because his Enemy hath not the same Thoughts of him that other Men have He hath reason to believe it done out of contempt whereas a Friend will look upon it as meer Inadvertency VIII But besides there is nothing that disunites Men so much as Contempt for no Man would be counted a Cypher in the Society of which he is a Member no Man would be the lowest part of that Body which he composes with others So that when Mens Minds are already irritated when they are once separated by any Enmity they can never be join'd again if the contempt be open and visible Whereas on the contrary deadly Enmities may be reconcil'd where Men reciprocally pay the Duties of Esteem to one another and thereby shew that they are so far from pretending to a higher Rank in the Society which they would form that they willingly give it to others and do Justice both to them and themselves according to the Judgment which they make of their own and others Merit Self love and a secret Pride do not suffer us long to consider him as our Enemy who willingly gives us Proofs that he is persuaded of our Worth and Excellence IX But if we come short in the Duties of Esteem in respect of our Enemies or those that make no Figure in the World we exceed in them as to our Friends or such as are conspicuous for their Birth Riches or any other extraordinary Qualification The Brain is so fram'd for the good of each particular Person and for that of Society in general as it relates to this Life that the Body mechanically puts on an Air of Esteem and Respect for every thing that comes from our Friends and from those who are in a condition to do us any Kindness The esteem which we have for Persons extends it self to every thing that belongs to them Eccles 13.23 When a rich Man speaketh saith the Son of Sirach every Man holdeth his Tongue and look what he saith they extol it to the Clouds But if the poor Man speak they say What fellow is this Our Machine is set to this pitch Two Lutes tun'd together give the same sound and when they are near one another if one be touch'd the other will move of it self So our Friends are tun'd to us he that touches one shakes the other Those whose favour we have an interest to maintain are always in the right They mutually impel and are impell'd by us They deceive us and we again deceive them by a rebound which neither they nor we are sensible of The Wheels of the Machine will go on in their Motion Now the Body speaks only for the Body this is a thing we cannot too carefully observe For Opinion or the contagion of the Imagination is the most prolifick Root of those Errors and Disorders which lay wast the Christian World We should therefore retire into our selves every moment and compare that which Men say with the answers of the inward Truth We should consult Reason which puts every thing in its proper place and doth not confound the Esteem which we owe to Mens Persons with the Contempt which is due to their Follies The approbation we give to the impertinences of our Friends confirms them in their Errors and the Respect that is shewn to every thing which comes from Persons of Quality swells them so with Pride that they attribute to themselves a kind of Infallibility and think they have a right to say and do whatever comes in their Head not that we should reprehend them openly neither They are extremely tender and we can scarce touch them without hurting and offending them Our Duties in relation to them must be guided by the Rules of Prudence and Charity but we must not abuse them by sordid Flattery after we have been deceiv'd our selves by that admirable Relation which God hath put between our own Bodies and those that are about us for the good of Society Which Relation on the Soul's part is indeed chang'd into a dependence by Sin but ought still to be govern'd by Reason and when there is occasion check'd and reprimanded by it X. That all the Judgments and Motions of our Esteem as well as those outward Actions which are the Marks and Effects of it may be conformable to the divine Law the immutable Order we must observe that not only Mens Persons but also their Merits require our Esteem As to Persons nothing is more easie than to acquit our selves of this Duty for equality of Esteem is due to equality of Natures But it is very difficult to proportion our Esteem according to the Merits of Men. For besides that their true and real Worth is known only to God their natural Merits have so many different Relations which should encrease or diminish our Esteem as well as our Respect and Benevolence toward them that it is impossible for finite Minds as ours are to know exactly the Duties we owe them so that we are many times at a loss which way to determine our selves in this Matter XI Merits in general may be divided into free and natural civil and religious Merits Free Merits are those which proceed from a good use of the Liberty of the Mind Natural
beget Pride For the Soul doth as it were enlarge and extend it self through the multitude of things with which the Head is fill'd And tho' the content of the Mind be then taken up as I may say with nothing but Emptiness or with things of little or no use as the position of Bodies the the series of Times the actions and opinions of Men yet it imagines it self to have as great an extent duration and reality as the objects of its Knowledge It stretches it self to all the parts of the World It goes back to past Ages and instead of considering the nature of its own Being what it is at present and what it shall be in eternity it forgets its self and its own Country and wanders in an imaginary World in Histories made up of Realities which are now no more and Chimera's which never were XIV Not that we should slight History for example and never study any but the solid Sciences such as of themselves make the Mind perfect and regulate the Heart But we should study them all in their proper order A Man may apply himself to History when he knows himself his Religion and his Duties when his Mind is form'd and he is thereby capable of distinguishing at least in some measure between the Truth of the History and the Imaginations of the Historian He may study Languages But it should be when he is Philosopher enough to know what a Language is When he throughly understands that of his own Country And when the desire of knowing the Thoughts of the Ancients begets in him a desire of knowing the Language For then he will learn more in one Year than he can in Ten without this desire He must be a Man a Christian an Englishman before he is a Grammarian a Poet an Historian or a Foreigner He should not study even the Mathematicks only to fill his Head with the properties of Lines but in order to procure to his Mind that strength extent and perfection of which it is capable In a word he should begin his studies with those Sciences that are most necessary or such as may most contribute to the perfection of his Mind and Heart He that only knows how to distinguish the Soul from the Body and doth not confound his Thoughts and Desires with the different motions of his Machine is more solidly learned and more capable of being so by the knowledge of this one real Science than he that understands the Histories Laws and Languages of all Nations but withal is so deeply Buried as I may say in the Ignorance of his own Being that he takes himself for the more subtil part of his Body and imagines that the immortality of the Soul is a Question not to be resolv'd XV. I am satisfied that I speak nothing but Paradoxes and that it would need a great many Words to persuade others to be of my Opinion But I would have them only open their Eyes Do we find that those who understand Virgil and Horace very well are wiser Men than those that understand S. Paul but indifferently It is experience that must convince such as will not consult Reason Now where is the experience which proves that the reading of Tully is more useful than that of the all-divine Words of the eternal Wisdom O say they we make Boys read Tully for the Latin But why do not they make them read the Gospel for Religion and Morality Poor Children they breed you up like Citizens of old Rome and you will get its Language and its Morals They ne-never think to make you reasonable Men true Christians and Inhabitants of the holy City You are mistaken say they we do think of it we do make it our business But I am sure it 's not the fashion to mind it throughly St. Augustin lamented this in vain Confess l. 1. and it is to no purpose that I trouble my self about it We shall still see young Lads when they come from School and ought to know something for none of them scarce mind any thing afterwards we shall still see them I say ignorant in the knowledge of Man of Religion and Morality For can they be said to know Man who cannot so much as distinguish the Soul from the Body Have they learnt the first elements of Religion and Morality who are not fully convinc'd of original Sin and the necessity of a Mediator They are well stockt with the precepts of Grammar They can say Lilly by Heart and repeat all the cramp Words in Faruaby and Butler This is sufficient They can declaim pro and con on any Subject A rare Qualification indeed to be able equally to maintain Truth and Falshood without knowing how to distinguish one from the other But what It is not reasonable that Boys should know more than their Fathers Nor is it fit that they should have more Learning than some of their Masters XVI But I leave it to Tutors and School-masters to examine the order of their Duties and to take care of the performance of them For I would not have Parents oblig'd to instruct their Children themselves because a great many are not capable of doing it or have other business which you shall never persuade them to be of less Importance than the education of their Children But then they should endeavour at least to choose a good Master Let them not imagine that a Young Man who only understands Greek and Latin and doth not know much less can govern himself is a fit Person to inform the Mind and regulate the Heart of a Child But when they have happily met with one that is let them not by their Example and Behaviour pull down that which a Tutor by his Pains and Diligence hath been building up Children by reason of their weakness and dependence are extremely affected with the Language of the Imagination and Senses with the outward Air and Behaviour especially of their Parents This is a natural Language which persuades insensibly it penetrates the Soul and in a delightful manner begets conviction and assurance in the Mind XVII If a Master teaches his Scholars to judge of things by Principles of Religion and Reason to silence their Senses Imagination and Passions to despise sensible Objects humane Greatness and transitory Pleasures an indiscreet Father shall talk of these false Goods before his Children with such an Air Voice and Gestures as are able to shake a setled Mind and move even those that are least prone to Imitation Perhaps he may speak to them of the true Goods But then his Discourse shall be so Cold and Faint that it shall only beget in them contempt and aversion But you shall hear him Twenty times a Day and that with concern bid them hold up their Head keep their Body steady and carry themselves handsomly He shall applaud and commend them for repeating a few passionate Lines with a Grace He shall sensibly discover his Joy by the Air of his Face if he finds
be not continually quicken'd and spur'd on But we should never correct them without enlightning them and letting them know what it is that is requir'd of them and not then neither except they can perform their Duty with more ease than bear the Punishment which is inflicted on them And as no one can determine his choice without some Motive we should put them in a condition to be able to choose with Pleasure and to do that willingly which is worth nothing if it be not voluntary The Springs of their Mind should be set in order as well as those of their Machine and the fear of Evil should only serve to carry them toward Good to bring them near to the Light and make them behold and love the beauty of Order It is this kind of correction which Men are made to suffer in the presence and for the honour of that Reason which they have cast off that enlightens the Mind and gives understanding and not inhumane and brutish Punishments which are sit only to manage Brutes to train up Horses and Dogs and to teach Men to make their own Will the inviolable rule of their Actions XI Inferiors are oblig'd to pay a ready and exact Obedience not only to the Commands of their Superiors which are express'd and signified to them but also to their Will when it is clearly known tho' it be not signified And tho' he that stays for an express Order from his Superior before he obeys him and performs his Will doth not hereby shew any disrespect to his Person or any opposition to his Authority yet he doth not sufficiently respect in him the divine Power and Majesty But a Minister who by the asendent he hath over his Prince by his alliances and creatures draws all the Authority to himself and reduces his Master to such a condition that he is afraid to command him deserves to be treated like a Rebel An insolent Servant who by the knowledge he hath of his Master's concerns or of the weakness of his Mind deprives him of the liberty of signifying his Pleasure to him is many times more guilty of Disobedience than a lazy and negligent Servant who doth not perform the Orders that are given him A Son who by the rigorous constitution of his Mind and Body or by the Reputation and Fortune he hath gain'd in the World is got into such a Post that his Father who is in a low Condition weak and impotent dares not impose any Command on him violates the Duties of filial Obedience if he knows his Father's Will and doth not perform it A Wife who by her untoward and ungovernable Temper is grown so formidable to an easy good-natur'd Husband that he dares not discover his Mind to her is more Disobedient tho' she exactly performs every thing that he bids her Eph. 5.33 than one that fears and reverences her Husband according to the Apostles Precept tho' she do not always obey his Commands An inferior Clergy-man who by the Credit he hath gotten in the World or by his Personal Qualifications stops the Mouth of his Superiors and doth not do that which he certainly knows they require of him is guilty of Disobedience In a word he that withdraws himself in any manner whatsoever from the Obedience which he ows to others leaves his Post and rebels against Authority And tho' he may secure himself from the Censures of Men and the Laws of those that do not penetrate and search the Hearts yet he shall not escape the Judgment of the righteous Judge who unfolds all the turnings and windings of Self-love He that obeys Men as Men and not as God himself according to the Precepts of Religion and Reason cannot possibly fulfil all the Duties of Obedience as on the contrary he that desires to please God in obeying the Commands of Men is so happily guided and influenc'd by that desire that he performs easily and naturally every thing that the most enlightned Mind can impose on him CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep I. THE greatest part of the Duties which we pay to other Men consist only in certain sensible Marks whereby we give them to understand that they hold an honourable place in our Mind and Heart Those who are satisfied that we have a particular esteem for their Worth and Qualifications cannot but feel some Emotion and Pleasure which must unite them to us And there is no Man but must be touch'd with a sensible Displeasure which will separate himself from us if he finds that we do not give him that place in our Mind which he desires how great respect soever we outwardly shew him For the place of spiritual Beings doth not lye among Bodies their Habitation their Seat their place of Rest hath no relation to that magnificence which strikes the Senses and is only the work of Men's Hands The Soul dwels with Honour in the very Souls of those that Honour it and rests with Pleasure in the Heart of an affectionate Friend What Glory what Honour is it then to possess the esteem of the universal Reason What rest and satisfaction will theirs be whom God shall take into his Heart and treat them as his Friends The vaniry of Men should raise in us these Thoughts and the Seeds of Pride which we all have in us should make us aspire to the Happiness of getting an honorable Place a fix'd and immoveable Seat in all intelligent Beings united to Reason and in Reason it self and of being our selves a sacred Temple where God himself may reside for ever For God who is a pure Spirit deth not dwell with Pleasure in material Temples tho' never so Costly and Magnificent II. It is the eternal Wisdom the immutable Order of Justice that should regulate these spiritual Places which are to be fill'd by substances of the same kind But as long as we are upon Earth subject to Error and Sin we deserve none of them at least we do not know which of them we deserve Therefore we ought always to take the lowest and expect to be remov'd higher according to the degree of our Vertue and Merit But Men never trouble themselves about the place which they hold in the divine Reason the indispensable Rule of that which they ought to possess in created Minds and labour only to advance themselves to a place which they do not deserve They hide their Imperfections they shew only their best side they endeavour by seducing others to get an empty Name to themselves and when they have or fancy they have deceiv'd them they entertain with extreme delight the
doubtful and equivocal marks of an Esteem which cannot make a Man truly and substantially happy or contented but only when it is govern'd and supported by Reason which alone is the supreme Judge of Merit and alone able to give it an eternal reward III. Tho' Honour and Glory absolutely speaking be due only to God yet created Spirits may also challenge it in regard of the relation they bear to the divine Perfections and the resemblance they have of the Model by which they were form'd We have reason to believe that they do in some measure at least correspond with their original We are certain that the Image of the invisible God stamp'd on the very Foundation of their Being is indelible Therefore we may nay and ought as long as we live with them to give them marks of Esteem and respect and so much the more because we cannot acquit our selves of the obligation we are under to preserve Charity for them without the performance of these Duties IV. For since Men invincibly desire to be happy they cannot without an extraordinary degree of Vertue unite themselves with those that despise them because in consequence of the Laws ordain'd for the good of Society they feel an extreme Pain when they find themselves not well entertain'd in the Minds of others In Winter we get away from such places as are expos'd to Winds and Frost because in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body the Soul is unhappy in those places How is it possible when we are govern'd by our Passions and Pleasures to unite our selves to those whose Coldness chils and freezes us to those who sensibly afflict us by the incommodious and disagreeable place they give us in their Mind and Heart Therefore we must not think to maintain Charity amongst Men to bring them near and unite them to us and to be serviceable to them if we do not pay them such Duties as may persuade them that they shall live easily and contentedly with us V. Since it is not in our Power to infuse inward Grace into the Hearts of Men which alone can dispose them to sacrifice their present Happiness to the Love of Order we are many times oblig'd to make use of their Concupiscence or Self-love to moderate their Passions and favour the efficacy of the Grace of Christ For if in the Old Testament the Angels to preserve the Worship of the true God among the Jews govern'd them only by Motives of Self-love as not being themselves the dispensers of the true Goods nor of the Grace necessary to deserve them certainly we ought also to labour for the Conversion of Men by those natural means which the general Laws supply us with We must Plant and Water and expect from Heaven the increase and maturity We must endeavour to employ to a good purpose the universal Instrument of Iniquity the Concupiscence of Pride and Pleasure or rather Self-love the abundant source of all our Miseries The Grace of Christ coming to our assistance will change Men's Hearts and enable the Weak to go on in the ways of Righteousness which we shall have taught them by a prudent and charitable management of those things that are in our Power VI. It is certain then that tho' our Duties for the most part consist only in certain outward and sensible Marks by which we signify to other Men that they have such a place in our Mind and Heart as may content their Self-love yet we are oblig'd to perform them exactly not with a design to advance our own private Interest nor to fortify and keep up Concupiscence in others which we do in some measure please and gratify by these Duties but to destroy and sacrifice it by the assistance of the Grace of Christ VII Now tho' our equals do not sensibly represent the Power and Majesty of God to which the submission of the Mind is due yet we ought to treat them as our Superiors and to give them sensible Marks of our inward Respect upon this consideration that their Merit their Vertue and the invisible Relation which they have to God renders them worthy of these Duties or if they are not worthy of them that we cannot contribute to make them so if we do not first gain their Friendship and Affection VIII As for those that are below us we should not treat them as our Superiors tho' we may look upon them as such according to those general Words of S. Paul Let each esteem other better than themselves Phil. 2.3 But we should in many cases treat them as our Equals and Friends For the main end of our Duties is to preserve Charity among Men and to joyn our selves with them in an affectionate and durable Friendship that we may be useful to them and they to us For this end it is necessary that our Duties should be sincere or at least it should be probable that we give other Men the same place within us which we express by our outward Signs Thus a Superior may descend so far as to treat his Inferiors like equals and they will be pleas'd and satisfied with it for there is some likelyhood of Sincerity in this But if he stoops below them they will have reason to believe if they look upon him as a Man of Wit but not much Vertue that he mocks and abuses them They will be apt to imagine that this excessive Humility is only a Blind to cover some extraordinary design Or else they will despise him as a Man of a low and mean Soul in which it is no advancement to possess the highest Place They will look upon themselves to be without a Head and will live every one according to his own Fancy when he that should guide and govern them so imprudently debases himself For when the Head stoops too low the Members despise him and he cannot raise himself up again without angring and discontenting them But when he treats them only as his Equals they are sensible that they still have a Master and are not surpriz'd to see him resume the Command and Authority IX When our Equals out of a Principle of Vertue humble themselves below us and give us the precedence yet they do not fully acquit themselves of their Duties toward us unless they yield us the pre-eminence too and give us real or at least probable Testimonies of a particular Esteem and Affection For if we do not believe that their Humiliation is a mark of the esteem they have for us our Self-love cannot be satisfied with it Vertue may make a Man lower himself to one whom he despises Now it is more disagreable and displeasing to be obey'd by one that despises us than to be commanded by one that gives us real marks of his Esteem and Friendship It is Nature many times that gives us Masters We may obey without debasing without sacrificing and destroying our selves But we cannot naturally and without Vertue love Contempt This is a thing
The Mind clearly sees all this And what then must our Self-love enlightned our invincible and insatiable desire of Happiness conclude from hence but that if we would be solidly happy we must submit our selves entirely to the divine Law This is evident in the highest degree V. Our Self-love then is the motive which being assisted by Grace unites us to God as our Good or the cause of our Happiness and subjects us to Reason as our Law or the model of our Perfection But we must not make the motive our End or our Law We must truly and sincerely love Order and unite our selves to God by Reason We must prefer the divine Law before all things Because we cannot slight it and cease to conform our selves to it without losing the liberty of access to God which we enjoy by it We must not desire that Order should accommodate it self to our Will It is impossible to be done for Order is immutable and necessary We must not wish that God would not punish our Iniquities God is a Judge that cannot be corrupted These desires corrupt us These foolish and insignificant Wishes are injurious to the Purity the Justice and Immutability of God they strike at the essential Attributes of the divine Nature We should abhor our own Corruptions and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order We should revenge on our selves the injuries done to the honour of Order or at least we should humbly submit to the divine Vengeance For he who wishes that God would not punish Theft or Drunkenness doth not love God and tho' the strength of his Self-love enlightned may keep him from Stealing or Drinking yet he is not Righteous He makes that the end which should be only the motive of his desires He must call upon the Saviour of Sinners who alone can change his Heart But he that had rather there should be no God than such an one as delights to make eternally miserable even those that truly love Order and Reason is a just Man For that chimerical Deity that unjust and cruel God is not amiable Grace it self doth not destroy Self-love but only regulates it and makes it subject to the divine Law It makes us love the true God and despise that Irregularity and Injustice which a disturb'd Imagination may attribute to the divine Nature VI. From what hath been said it is evident First that we must enlighten our Self-love to the end it may excite us to Vertue Secondly that we must never follow the motion of Self-love only Thirdly that in obeying Order inviolably we labour effectually for the contentment of our Self-love In a word since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure we ought to submit our selves to his Law and labour for our Perfection leaving it to his Justice and Goodness to proportion our Happiness to our Merits and to those of Christ in whom ours deserve an infinite Reward VII I have explain'd in the first Part of this Treatise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection or to acquire and preserve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order in which our Duties toward our selves consist They are these in general VIII We should accustom our selves to the labour of Attention and thereby procure some strength of Mind We should never assent but to evidence and so preserve the liberty of our Mind We should continually study Mankind in general and our selves in particular that we may gain a perfect knowledge of our selves We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law that we may obey it exactly We should compare our selves with Order to humble and despise our selves We should reflect on the divine Justice to fear it and awaken our selves We should think upon our Mediator to call upon him and comfort our selves We should look upon Christ as our Model love him as our Saviour and follow him as our Strength our Wisdom and the Fountain of our eternal Happiness The World seduces us by our Senses It troubles our Mind by our Imagination it carries us away and plunges us in the depth of Misery by our Passions We should break off the dangerous correspondence which we hold with it by our Body if we would strengthen the union which we have with God by Reason For these two unions of the Soul with God and with the Body are incompatible We cannot unite our selves perfectly to God without abandoning the interests of the Body without despising sacrificing and destroying it IX Notwithstanding we are not allow'd to procure our own Death nor to ruin our Health For our Body is not our own It belongs to God to our Country our Family and our Friends We must keep up its strength and vigour according to the use we are oblig'd to make of it But we must not preserve it contrary to the command of God and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the publick good and not fear to weaken ruin and destroy it in executing the commands of God And so likewise for our Honour and our Fortunes Every thing we have belongs to God and our Neighbour and must be preserv'd employ'd and sacrific'd to the honour of the divine Law the immutable and necessary Order and with a dependence on it I shall not enter into the particulars of this matter for my design was only to lay down those general Principles by which every Man is oblig'd to govern his Life and Actions if he would arive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure FINIS BOOKS sold by James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-yard A New Voyage round the World Describing particularly the Isthmus of America several Coasts and Islands in the West-Indies the Isles of Cape Verd the Passage by Terra del Fuego the South-Sea Coasts of Chili Peru and Mexico the Isle of Guam one of the Ladrones Mindanao and other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia China Formosa Luconia Celebes c. New-Holland Sumatra Nicobar Isles the Câ—pe of Good Hope and Santa Hellena Their Soil Rivers Harbours Plants Fruits Animals and Inhabitants Their Customs Religion Government Trade c. By William Dampier Illustrated with particular Maps and Draughts The Third Edition Corrected Capt. Dampier's Voyages Vol. II. in Three Parts First the Supplement of his Voyage round the World being that part that relates to Tonquin Acâ—in Malacca and other Places in the East-Indies Second his Voyage to the Bay of Campeacâ—y in the West-Indies Third his Observations about the Winds and Weather in all parts of the Ocean between the Tropicks with a General Index to both Volumes Octavo Illustrated with particular Maps A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America giving an Account of the Author's abode there the Form and Make of the Country the Coasts Hills Rivers c. Woods Soil Weather c. Trees Fruit Beasts Birds Fish c. The Indian Inhabitants their Features