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
which seems most probable that the eternal Word to justify to them the Wisdom of God's proceeding acquainted them that he had a Design to make Man and to joyn himself to the two Substances of which Man is compos'd Soul and Body thereby to Sanctify the whole Work to God which is also compos'd of none but these two sorts of Beings The wicked Angels oppos'd this Design and would not Worship Jesus Christ nor submit to one whom they thought their equal or even inferiour to them in his own Nature how much soever that might be exalted by the hypostatick Union Upon this two opposite Parties were form'd in the Workmanship of God S. Michael and his Angels and Satan and his Ministers the Foundation of the two eternal Cities Jerusalem and Babylon IX The Angels then having a Power over Bodies either by the Right of their own Nature for Order seems to require that superior Beings should act on those that are below them Or rather by the Decree which God had establish'd to execute his own Designs by them as occasional Causes of certain Effects to build the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem his great Work in which the Angels are employ'd under the Wise and only Architect our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures And by this means to manifest the Power of his well-beloved Son who wanted Enemies to Fight with and overcome which Power of his never appear'd more illustrious than when he dethron'd the rebel Prince who had brought all the World under subjection to his Laws For the Power of a Deliverer is never more Conspicuous than when our Enemy hath gain'd an absolute Dominion over us when we have no Power to resist him and have groan'd a long time under his Tyranny The Angels I say having an immediate Power over Corporeal Substances and by them an indirect Power over spiritual Substances as soon as our first Parents were Created the wicked Angels tempted the Woman in that manner which we all know probably grounding their Temptations on the known Design of God that the World should unite it self to the Soul of Man to Sanctify him as may be gather'd from these Words Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good from Evil. Gen. 3.5 For I do not see that illuminated Minds could have any other Motive formally to disobey God but that of being translated from a profane State to one Divine and worthy of God by a particular union with the universal Reason the Eternal Word for whom and by whom they knew that they were first form'd and by whom they were to be form'd anew they who were all of their kind upon the Earth and the Heads of that Posterity which might spring from them Thus the Devils conquer'd them and became Masters of them and all their Posterity And thereby tho' indeed they promoted the Design of the Incarnation of the Word for the Sin of the first Man made it necessary upon several Accounts yet they thought they had overthrown it imagining belike that the Union with God was to be merited by an exact Obedience to his Orders X. We must know that not only for Reasons which I have given in my Search of Truth 2d Part of the 1st Remark when the first Man had Sin'd there was a necessity in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and the immutability of Order that his Flesh should rebel against his Mind and also that Concupiscence should be transmitted to all his Posterity but for other Reasons which I have examin'd in another Place of the same Book See the Remark on original Sin Now Concupiscence is the universal Instrument of that Iniquity which over-ran the whole Earth And being in the Hands of the Devil who hath a Thousand ways to stir it up by the Power which he hath over Bodies he reign'd by the help of that till the coming of Christ who by his Sacrifice merited the quality of High Priest of the true Goods and of the occasional cause of inward Delight which alone can counterpoise the force of Concupiscence and render that Instrument of the Devils Conquests useless to him For since Man invincibly desires to be happy there is nothing can cure his Heart corrupted with sensible Pleasures but the Unction of Grace the Earnest or Fore-tast of true Joys For the good Angels having no Power to infuse into the Heart of Man the Grace of Sense and the bad ones having a Power to stir up Concupiscence in it Sin must necessarily have reign'd not only among the idolatrous Nations but even among the Jews also And therefore we find that that People was very Gross and Carnal always prone to Idolatry and frequently relapsing into it notwithstanding the extraordinary Miracles which S. Michael and his Angels wrought in favour of them and in spight of the Promises and Threats of temporal Good and Evil which were the Objects of their Concupiscence For the Angels themselves preserv'd the Worship of the true God among those that follow'd their Conduct and kept them in their Duty only by motives of Self-love and by promising them such Enjoyments as true Christians think altogether unworthy of their Love XI There are several Reasons why the Law did not promise the true Blessings but one of the chiefest is that since this sort of Enjoyments cannot be the Object of Concupiscence the knowledge and worship of the true God would have been soon lost among the Jews and that chosen People reduc'd to a Handful of Men belonging to Christ and Sanctified in every Age by inward Grace But it was necessary that the knowledge of the true God should be preserv'd with some lustre among the Jews a prophetical People and an unexceptionable Witness of the Truths of Religion in spight of all the Power and Artifices of the Prince of this World till at length the only begotten Son of God for and by whom all things were made should come down from Heaven to change the Face of Things over all the Earth and to open the surprising and wonderful Scene of God's Conduct A Scene which will end with the indissoluble Marriage of the Bride and Bridegroom who shall enjoy together in Heaven an eternal Felicity in the midst of the divine Brightness singing Songs of Praise without ceasing to the Glory of him who shall have put all their Enemies under their Feet by the invincible Power of his Arm and by ways perfectly suitable to his Wisdom and other Attributes XII These great Truths do without doubt deserve to be prov'd and explain'd more at large but this is not a place for it My Design here is chiefly to shew Heb. 1.14 that the Angels are Ministers of Jesus Christ sent forth as S. Paul saith to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And that as occasional Causes for God communicates his Power no other way to the Creatures they have a Power not of giving inward Grace but of producing in the
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
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
Merits consist in eminent Qualities of Mind and Body Civil and Religious Merits arise from the Offices Men bear either in Church or State and from such Qualifications as are proper for the discharge of those Offices All Perfection is valuable in it self but many times it is much more comparatively or relatively A Diamond is not so perfect as a Fly but it is a great deal more valuable because of the Use Men make of it Also those Beings which have no other Perfection but that of their own Nature are preferable to those which have acquir'd Perfections A rough Diamond hath not so much Beauty as Glass well cut and polish'd but it hath much more Value as Things go So that a Man might justly be counted a Fool who would play the Philosopher so much as to prefer a Fly before an Emerald and to look upon a rough Diamond of very great Value as no better than a Pebble XII For to judge rightly of the Esteem we ought to make of Things and Persons it is not sufficient to consider them in themselves but we must also examine the several Relations which they may have to others of far greater Value The favour of the Prince gives a lustre to the vilest Persons and the Esteem Men have for Things should regulate their Price and consequently our outward and relative Esteem unless we resolve to despise Men too and make our selves ridiculous and contemptible Only we must take care not to let our Mind to be corrupted by the Judgments that are commonly made of Things Our Esteem must be only relative if the worth of the Thing be but relative for tho' Men esteem Gold and Silver more than Copper and Iron or the organis'd Bodies of Flies yet we must not pay the Duty of Esteem to Gold and Silver but to Men who make a wrong Judgment of them We must not judge of Persons or Things as Men do who attribute to the Objects of their Passions imaginary Perfections But whether they are deceiv'd in their Judgments or not we should have a relative Esteem for that which they esteem perhaps without Reason because in human Society the Worth of Things is generally measur'd by the Esteem Men have of them XIII The relative Merit of Men is many times much greater than their personal Merit and since our Duties are to be govern'd as well by the former as the latter I say again That nothing is more difficult than to judge rightly of what we ought to do in the infinite combinations of these different Merits Things may fall out so sometimes that we must unavoidably come short in the Payment of what we owe either to a Relation in such a degree or to a Man that hath done us such a Service or who bears such an Office in the Society and is serviceable to the State in such a capacity What must we do in this Case What is the common Measure whereby we may precisely discover the Proportion of our Duties For tho' it be certainly contain'd in the immutable Order yet it is not exactly known to us and if it were yet many times there are so many Relations to compare that we should never know what to resolve on if we staid till Evidence precisely noted to us every thing that we ought to do XIV We know well enough that all other things being equal we should prefer some Relations before others our Relations before our Friends and our Prince before them both But must we prefer one Relation before six or eight Friends A Relation who is our Enemy before a particular Friend Herein lies the difficulty For we must at the same time have regard to the Rights of Kindred of Friendship and of Society So that it often happens that we are oblig'd to prefer an Enemy before a Friend an Enemy who is a Friend of our Relations esteem'd by the Prince and serviceable to the State before a Friend who is a Person useless to the Publick or hath little or no affection for those who ought to be most dear to us Therefore there is no general Rule for the Government of our selves in the Duties of Esteem Respect and Benevolence which we owe to other Men but what is liable to a great many exceptions And that which extremely perplexes all that can be said in this Matter is That the Duties of Esteem Respect and Benevolence are of different kinds and many times in the same kind we ought to prefer one Man as to the Duties of Benevolence before another to whom we absolutely owe the Duties of Esteem and Respect XV. Seeing then the Order of our Duties is chang'd and govern'd by the different Circumstances of Things which it is not possible to foresee every Man should carefully examine them and retire into himself to consult the immutable Law without regarding those false Interests which the Passions continually represent and when he finds himself at a loss he should have recourse to such as are better skill'd than I in these matters he should consult Persons of the greatest Charity Prudence and Capacity rather than those who have their Memory only fill'd with general Rules which are insufficient to give a decision in particular circumstances and many times have neither Sense nor Charity The only general Rule that I shall venture to give at present a Rule which is not much follow'd but which seems to me to be the most certain one that can be given is this That we should prefer the Laws of Friendship in Jesus Christ and of the eternal Society before the common Rights of a Friendship and a Society which must end with our Life I shall explain my self more particularly XVI That which is finite how great soever it be hath of it self no proportion to infinity Ten thousand Ages in respect of eternity is nothing The proportion of the Universe to immense and boundless Spaces can be express'd only by a Cypher An Unite divided by a thousand Millions of Cyphers by a progression from one to a thousand Millions instead of from One to Ten would be a Fraction infinitely too great to express this proportion for indeed there is none this is my Position Now we shall enjoy God in the other life and enjoy him for ever Therefore the possession of the Empire of the Universe in respect of the possession of the true Good and the time of the enjoyment of this Empire compar'd with the eternity of the life to come are Cyphers there is no proportion between them They are totally eclips'd and annihilated by the presence of Eternity Human Greatness and Pleasures which pass away with our life nay let us join whatever we can think of for our Satisfaction all this disappears when we reflect a little and consider that we are immortal It is nothing and ought to be counted for nothing This I think every one will allow XVII Now let us observe this Principle and we shall see that he who is an occasion of falling